Chapter 3: Sudden Danger
"How do you dare to kick my awesome butt?"
Dave was rendered speechless by the fatty. When he saw how fatty put a face as someone had disgraced his family, Dave wanted to beat him up into a pulp.
"Sorry for disturbing you. I going to leave you."
Dave just wanted to quickly leave him and get going.
"Wait a bit. Do you know anything about that voice? What about that cataclysm stuff or evolution?"
Still massaging his butt muscles, fatty looked funny. Sighing lightly, Dave tried to warn him at least.
"Have you ever read any novels about apocalypse stuff?"
"Of course, I am a grandmaster in it."
It seemed that fatty was proud of reading web novels. His room told to Dave much more than any other words. Pictures and figures of 2D characters were taking up every nick of ce. It seemed that he was a type of people calling themselves otaku.
"Then you should know about some basic stuff such as zombies, mutated monsters, and system. Even if I don''t want to acknowledge such a fact, it seems that apocalypse descended on our world. Zombies are crawling everywhere and eating humans. "
"Apocalypse? Zombies? Then a person you killed...?"
"Yep, it is a zombie."
Dave tried to tell it most cheerfully, but fatty seemed to be paler than before.
"Then, wh... where are you going? Can you take me with you?"
"Why should I?"
Dave was reluctant to take him because, to be honest, in his eyes he was more a burden than apanion. He was not a hero and he knew that having a pig as apanion was worse than a strong foe.
"Did you not know that with big poweres big responsibility?"
Dave looked at fatty as he was an idiot since his strength was barely enough to keep his life. Nobody knows when they will lose their lives so it was important to be cautious no matter what. Deciding to just leave him, Dave turned towards a door.
"Wait a bit. I can help you. I have something called innate ability."
Hearing him Dave suddenly stopped because he never thought that he will meet Awakener here. ording to the knowledge from the past, people can be either Ability Holders, Evolvers or both. Ability Holders are people who awakened an innate ability, while Evolvers are people with higher stats.
Both of them have their own perks, yet in his previous life, Dave rted to neither of them. He had no special ability or no boost in stats, so he strongly envied such a group of people.
It was even rarer to meet people who awakened right in the beginning. People usually awaken after the period of adaptation to the new environment.
"What does your innate ability do?"
Noticing that Dave stopped in his tracks, fatty put a proud face.
"My innate ability is called the Life Pulse. It says that I can send a pulse to the surroundings and detect life. It can only detect alive creatures ignoring other obstacles such as walls, roads, and other objects."
''What an awesome ability.''
It could detect enemies and save a great deal of time ensuring minimal danger. Even though it didn''t have any offensive capabilities, it is quite a convenient ability. Knowing beforehand that there are alive creatures can save a life.
"How many times you can use it?"
Dave expected a lot from his innate ability. He never had thought that he will encounter awakener right after waking up.
"Well, you know... it requires 1 mana point to send a pulse, and the thing is I have no mana points at all."
Fatty smiled slightly putting on an idiotic face. From all the excitement, Dave forgot that initially, no one had mana to use because mana can be gained only by increasing your spirit stat.
"Did you already opened your beginner survival pack?"
Fatty pointed at the top of his bed showing the same Wooden Club as his.
"Then take it and follow me."
"Where are we going?"
Dave smirked lightly and left the room of fatty.
"We are going to level you up, of course."
Dave left the room and headed downstairs. Currently, they were on the fifth floor, so they still should go down. Along the way, they can hunt and gain levels.
On the fourth floor, a trail of blood followed into one of the rooms. Dave shushed fatty and looked into the room where another student fell as prey to a zombie.
Dave moved into the room and with four hits crashed the limbs of the monster.
"Smash its head if you want to follow me."
At his words, fatty looked at a lying zombie and looked at Dave as he was a monster instead of a zombie.
Fearing that his fate will be worse than a zombie, fatty hesitated slightly and hit the head of a zombie. Zombie roared madly trying to move his body.
"Hit harder, fatty. Such hit won''t kill it even after an hour."
Fatty clenched his teeth and started banging the club on the head of a monster. After several hits, it turned into a bloody mess leaving blood and white substance.
The blue orb of light entered the body of the fatty as he leveled up.
"Put 1 point in strength and 1 point in spirit."
Fatty listened to Dave and put his free points as said.
"From now on put your points the same way as now till your spirit reaches 3 points. It will increase your mana, so you can use your innate ability more often. Then now try your innate ability, we should know more about it."
Giving pointers to fatty, Dave urged him to activate his ability. Every innate ability gave magical powers to its users such as controlling wind or fire, enhancing body or mind. Dave thought that taking fatty as apanion will give a huge boost to his survival.
"Ehm...Dave, how do I activate it?"
Dumbfounded by the question, Dave didn''t know what to answer. He never had an innate ability in his previous life, so he tried to recall what other hunters said about it.
"Damn, I don''t know since I never had one. Try to say the name of the ability as in games."
Surprised by his ignorance, fatty called out the name of the ability.
"Life Pulse"
Dave didn''t notice any changes in the fatty, except for a change in his facial expressions. It seemed that fatty was surprised and terrified at the same time.
"Dave, watch out."
As fatty shouted, Dave heard rushed steps outside the room. Along with heavy steps, two roars sounded allowing to recognize at least two zombies.
He quickly decided to leave the room because space was too limited to fight with two monsters at the same time. If they allow it, they won''t be able to handle the threat.
It seemed that zombies were rushing there from the upstairs. Perhaps, themotion that fatty had caused was too big, so zombies came after them.
Being students before the voice in the mind, Dave recognized senior students as the blood had covered all their bodies.
Dave couldn''t afford to be surrounded by zombies neither he could waste his stamina for escaping. In a fight-or-flight situation, Dave decided to fight back.
Dodging the attack of one zombie and killing it with one move on the head, Dave failed to evade the second monster. It mmed him on the floor and tried to bite off his face.
''I forgot how slow was my body!''
Dave still couldn''t get ustomed to how weak his body was. His strength, agility and even stamina were lower than in his previous life, so he had slight errors in his body movements. It was like he wanted to move, but his body won''t move. He thought it should be the first thing people needed to deal with when they regressed.
A bloody smell from the breath of the zombie washed over Dave. He tried to struggle from it, yet zombies were much stronger than people can imagine.
Instead of saying that they are strong, it is more correct to say that they apply 100% of their strength, while people can pull out only 75-80% of it. It ispromised with their dull and easy-to-read movements. Perhaps, it is right to assume that zombies are savage and only slightly stronger than humans.
Dave had a chance to fight with two of them at the same time, yet, failing to dodge, he had a hard time dealing with it on the floor.