Chapter 4: Survivors

Two streams of white mist rushed towards Aiden's body turning the dead bodies into sand.

"You have advanced to level 2! You received 2 stat points. You can distribute them freely."

Aiden didn't think for too long. "Add one to strength and one to stamina!"

The battle earlier was too hard despite having the advantage. If he didn't blind the target, he would have died after getting munched on for a few minutes.

Despite lasting only a few seconds, the exchange consumed a lot of strength and stamina from him.

Unless he could use Steal to directly kill the enemy, he would have to rely on his body to deal the killing blow.

Aiden stood up and searched for origin runestones on the floor.

There was none.

"I guess they don't always drop? Or is there a condition for them to drop? If it's luck, I don't think I have any of it."

He stood up and wiped the dust off his body, then scratched his nose and smiled cheekily. "I think I actually have a cheat skill. I just need to brush up on some general knowledge and I should be good to go."

"Aiden Richards: Male"

"Level: 2"

"Energy: 6/11"

"Cultivation: None"

"Strength: 9, Agility: 10, Intelligence: 6, Vitality: 9, Stamina:8, Spirit: 10, Endurance: 9"

"Talent(s): Steal (Master)"

"Skill(s): Acrobatics (Senior), Sprint (Junior), Stealth (Novice), Lie (Novice), Throwing (Novice)"

In this battle, Aiden used Steal six times, Throwing once and Acrobatics once.

He only had limited energy and suddenly using half of it in succession exhausted him. If it wasn't for the energizing feeling of leveling up and the point increase in energy, he had a feeling that he would have felt more fatigued.

The upgrade requirements for the skills he used didn't increase much but that's expected. Right now, he shouldn't be focusing on upgrading skills but familiarizing himself with them.

Aiden fetched his bag that was left on the floor and retrieved the notebooks he had thrown earlier. He also looted the room and found nothing of interest except for a lighter and a pack of smoke on Daniel's drawers.

"I didn't know he smoked and the expensive ones too."

Adrian shrugged and packed the things he looted. Looting the drawer reminded him that he still had a friend needing some saving.

The town park shouldn't take more than ten minutes of walking if it was in the past, but considering the current situation, the travel time could take twice or thrice the base amount.

That's if he can get out of the school as soon as possible.

A gentle reminder struck him though. Soul eaters can track their souls through walls. He doesn't know the exact the tracking radius but the minimum should be two or three meters.

Just as he was getting worried over his best friend, the PA System suddenly came alive.

"IF THERE'S ANYONE THAT'S STILL ALIVE. I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE NOT ALONE. WE'LL FIGURE OUT HOW WE CAN RESOLVE THE SITUATION. WE HAVE SOME FACULTY MEMBERS HERE AND THEY'LL HELP US-hey what are you doing?! Someone stop her! Klahdldghop-iiiiiiiiiiii"

After the commotion, the PA System was turned off and the peace and quiet returned. However, nobody knows if there could be an enemy wandering or idling on the hallways.

Aiden wore the backpack and stretched his body. "So there's other people that also survived. But hearing their interaction, it seems that some of the surviving faculty members doesn't want to help everyone. Not like I would."

Aiden remembered Rudy Mercer. Is he still alive? The last time he saw the man was when he limped to the back of the annex building while attracting a group of idling soul eaters.

The man helped reduce the number of hostile enemies and a lot of people would feel grateful. The question was how many people would go out of their way to help him if it meant fighting a group of monsters and risking their lives?

Him? He's thankful but he wouldn't go out of his way to save the man. He might think about it if they encounter each other, but he had other priorities.

Aiden only recovered one energy after resting for five minutes. As much as he wanted to wait until he fully recovered, that meant he almost need to wait for for thirty minutes and he didn't have that much time.

The best thing he could do now was to avoid battles and recover energy along the way. He will only use skills only when he truly needs to.

Aiden stood in front of the broken door while holding a bloodied scissor. He tried to sense if there's anything happening on the hallway.

It was silent. No footsteps. No rushed movements. Nothing.

He slowly opened the door and peeked outside.

What if there's a sneaky soul eater waiting for him to do that? What if there's an idler just around the corner? Will he enter another battle again?

He poke his head out and scouted the surrounding.

All his worries disappeared after seeing the empty hallway.

He waited for a few seconds before confirming that the hallways were really empty.

"Alright, it's safe for now. I can continue heading to the dorm kitchen and get a new weapon. This scissor won't last for long. Also, it's too short and requires too much effort to stab and pull. A knife or anything long and sharp would be good."

Aiden carefully trudge through the hallways while clenching the scissor in one hand and ready to cast a skill on the other hand.

He had the faint desire to explore and check every room he passed through but he resisted the urge to do so.

While sneaking through the hallways, he saw the result of several chase and fights that occurred. The hall had all kinds of litter; starting from spilled food, scattered documents and dried blood on the floor and walls. The way the blood was painted showed the struggle of individuals as they fight for their life.

Aiden finally arrived at the stairs. He took a quick glance on the ground floor and hastily pulled his head back. He saw several long shadows moving about on the entrance of the dormitory.

These should be the soul eaters idling outside the dormitory. Though their numbers were low, fighting a small group could quickly drain him of all his energy.

Instead of heading out to battle, Aiden decided that it was finally time to test on his skills.

"Stealth."

"Stealth(Junior): Consume 1 energy to become light-footed and lower your presence to avoid detection for twenty minutes. Automatically cancels if the user was seen for five seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour. Upgrade Requirement: 100,000 minutes of active hiding.

A sense of lightness filled him. He felt that every step he take didn't produce any sound and a part of him got hidden from the world.

With the boost in confidence, he slowly inched down the staircase.

Some of the soul eaters were looking far away while others stared on the second floor of the dormitory as if something interesting was happening.

The ground floor lobby had two wings: the left wing for kitchen and leisure room, the right wing for shower and laundry room.

The shower room was a huge shared bathroom just like a public bathroom.

Soaps normally don't drop here but whatever happens in the shower room stays in the shower room.

The leisure room only had rows and rows of sofas with a huge flat screen TV hanging on the wall.

As for the kitchen and laundry room, they were equipped with simple equipment for students to use.

He reached the ground floor without attracting attention. Sweat formed on his head and he couldn't help but take a few gulps every step of the way.

Aiden was currently in plain view but most of the soul eaters were more interested at staring on somewhere else.

'Whoever is attracting their attention, please keep on doing so.'

Aiden prayed and entered the left wing. The moment he took the turn, he saw the wide torso of a man. He immediately knew that it wasn't human due to the black nerves found everywhere on its visible skin: the arms, neck and ears.

Aiden almost cursed out loud but successfully stopped himself. He stopped on his tracks and wanted to turn around, but realized something strange.

Why didn't it sense him? They're so close to each other and there was no reaction?

Was it because of Stealth? Most probably!

'Aside from making my footsteps lighter, my presence also disappeared! When I'm in Stealth, they can't see me until they have visual confirmation!'

Filled with courage, Aiden gripped the scissor tighter and sneaked closer. Since he had initiative, he decided not to use a skill this time.

The soul eater twitched at random moments like trying to fight a brain freeze with willpower.

The broad back of the man reminded him of someone familiar. He only remembered who it was when he was in at the target's back, the perfect stabbing distance.

It was Johnson! The well-known charming guy in the campus who can get laid to almost any girl he wanted except for the top beauties.

After learning who the target was, he pushed the target down and started to stab him on the back of his head.

As expected of a scissor, it was an inefficient weapon for sneak attacks. The dulled ends failed to penetrate the skull and kept sliding to the side.

"Gruffhg!"

He had to to use two hands to force the scissor in through one of the openings created earlier.

Crack!

The body stopped moving and turned into sand after the white mist entered his body.

Aiden whispered softly. "Now, you'll stay away from Kathlyn."

Just as he noticed a runestone dropping on the floor, he heard an excited shriek coming from the dormitory entrance.

The hairs on his body all stood up and a cold chill seeped through his back.

Without wasting anymore time, he grabbed the unidentified runestone and dashed towards the kitchen.

The leisure room and the kitchen can be considered a big dining hall where no one like to stay.

The place was basically empty at the moment, so he arrived at the kitchen unhindered.

After arriving, he threw away his scissor and grabbed the nearest knife; a stainless meat chopper.

With one open palm and a meat chopper on other hand, he waited in trepidation for the incoming battle.