Melchior leapt into a crowd of zombies punching and kicking aiming for the small yellow circles of target. Each landed blow resulted in a shower of gore. He was racing against his best time. The zombies didn't give much xp, but they still dropped cash. It wasn't the cash he was after; he wanted the feeling. Breaking bones and exploding heads with his fists had become his new hobby. No matter how many zombies he obliterated, he was always ready for the next one.
Class level up
Brawler lv50
New skill: Shotgun
Shotgun lv1 (Novice) PHYS DMG x lv/ft = Force DMG; 5PP x lv
New Quest
This is my power
Slay 5 Giant zombies
Reward: Key to Floor 2
To cause a convergence large enough to summon 5 giant zombies he needed to kill a lot. It took 250 to summon the original giant zombie. So, he needed to kill 1250 zombies. He had just the technique to pull it off. "Shotgun," Melchior yelled as he leapt into the mob. Each blow from his fist unleashed a powerful force. The first row of zombies was hit with a high-powered pressure wave. They exploded into gore as those behind them died up to the third row.
This wasn't magic it was pure power. He punched again watching as the further the blow reached the wider the spread. After five blows, he was tired again. He was getting carried away. The destruction was too fun. It was amazing.
Shotgun lv2
Shotgun lv3
Shotgun lv5
Melchior didn't spend any more time marveling at his power like an idiot. He wanted stronger enemies. That scythe idiot wasn't enough, he wanted a real fight. He ran behind a sky scraper and smashed the foundation. Steel girders bent and concrete shattered. This was the first time he's ever used his power to change the terrain. Once the building started to move, he ran out of the way. The zombies weren't so lucky. Hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, steel, and scaffolding fell upon the zombies crushing hundreds of them into paste.
He punched their bodies into pulp as they ganged up on him. More had to die before they would converge.
He leapt up on the building punching down into the crowd. The harder he fought the more came from the woodworks. They clambered out of buildings. Glowing zombies climbed out of manholes. As they died more arrived and he continued to survive.
Shotgun lv15
How could such a useful skill not level with so many targets. The streets were red with gore making the zombies trip and fall only for more to climb on top of them.
Kill Count 2000
He ran up to the highest part of the fallen building, just as 8 giant zombies rose from the ground. Melchior howled and shouted doing his best to draw their attention. This floor had reached the end of what it could do for him. He was set to achieve greater heights. He ran towards the edge and jumped with all his might.
His body felt light as a feather before his powerful legs. Melchior touched landed on his right foot and went into a sprint. The fall for 8 stories was nothing to him. His health dipped only a little.
The nearest one leapt at him fist raised to shatter his body and the ground. He wasn't the same as before, he was stronger. His fist met the giant's before turning into a flurry blows each a shotgun. In a second, he hit every yellow dot on the zombie's fist. The force shot through the arm and the zombie's torso exploded. 12 hits, with shotgun, and all critical turned casual punches into over 198k damage with each critical hit. This was the true power of the brawler class. Every skill was preparing him to become a monster.
His body was shaking from his last attack. A single blow would have sufficed. If it's critical it's a guarantee kill. Four sets of hands smashed down on him. He barely put his hands up in time. His left arm broke under the force as his right found a weak spot.
HP 4000/7320
The only way to survive was to use one of the giants as a shield. The others joined in to finish him off just as he slipped behind the next one's legs. Six giant zombies ripped through the first one as they tried to get to him. His arm would take a long time to heal. Healing was something he needed to, he still had health potions. Melchior snatched one from his inventory and drank it down. It tasted like blood, but he didn't care. His arm cracked as it healed back into place. After a sharp pain, he was back to full strength.
HP 6000/7320
All their legs had to go. He ran at his full speed hauling ass just as his giant shield began to fall. He turned and struck its ankle. Once he struck the leg exploded, Melchior smashed his fist through the achilleas heel of the next one, dodged and incoming hand, and smashed the next leg. The giants were falling into their fellows making a mess of things.
Speed was his greatest ally in this. The zombies couldn't move fast enough to catch him. They couldn't concentrate on him and not tripping over their fellows. A giant zombie fell in front of him its head like a giant melon. He struck flying through a house worth of useless brain matter.
They all began to die until only one remained. Melchior was spent, he had one shotgun left. He needed to find a spot to rest to recover more. Bending his knees, he leapt up, just as he unleashed the shotgun a hand smashed him out of the air.
Warning below 25% health
Just so you know. When a class reaches lv50 you can choose another one from a different category.
Melchior downed three health potions. His body quickly returned to peak form.
"Thanks for telling me you're so helpful." The game remained silent. "How about the quest."
Reward: 2nd floor Key
"Thank you. Now I'd like to swap to a class of the healer category." Melchior was waiting in the remains of an old house's second floor. He was safe from the zombie hordes for now.
Category: Healer
Priest; Monk; Medic; Solar; Heretic; Alchemist
"What is Solar?" Melchior asked the game.
Solar: An offshoot of a powerful Primal Light class. Solar uses the destructive power of light and radiation to heal instead of destroying. Though at high levels some of the skills overlap with primal light the solar class is in the healer category. First Skill: Star Seed lv1 (novice); +1% HP recover x lv & 1% light spells x lv. First spell; Light Heal lv1 (novice); 1 x lv + WIS/2 = recovery 100MP – lv. +5WIS +2INT + 1END per lv.
This class grants the most stat points per level among the basic healer classes.
Melchior needed a healing class and stat points. He didn't think any of the others would give him anything better. Besides passive skills were awesome. "Do I lose any of my skills from my other class?"
No all skills gained are kept until you suffer a game over.
That was good to know. In front of him appeared a glowing seed the color of sunlight. He had only moments to look at it, before it shot into his chest. That wasn't the end of it. The seed began to spin using friction to rip through his skin and burrow into his flesh. He wanted to stop it, but he was frozen. It didn't stop until it reached his heart. He felt his heart stop and the seed sunk into the organ. From there everything started beating again. Melchior could move.
Melchior Nimrod lv54
Brawler lv53+106STR +159END +53DEX
Solar lv1 +5WIS +2INT +1END
HP 7,720(+164/min)
MP 250 (+16/min)
STR 162
END 193
DEX 82
INT 27
WIS 21
CHA 14
LUK 20
"What was that about?"
Its painless, the heat of the seed burns away the nerves before you feel a thing. If you struggle the seed might burn you out.
"Thank you, an explanation makes me feel better." His pride was wounded. He couldn't say what he felt. A damn warning was too much from the AI or was his relationship too weak. He needed to unlock loyalty with the game.
ID escape
He opened his hand holding the key to the 2nd floor of the zombie ID. It was a skull and rib cage with the number 2 carved in it. Within the eye sockets of the skull were two blue gems with tiny twos in them. He tossed it in his inventory.
Hours later he went out to town and grabbed a cellphone and a minute plan. At only 20,000yen he managed to get a decent cellphone. "Hey Ueno, this is Melchior, I finally have a phone." He showered off the gore from his latest battle and put on a new set of clothes. Afterwards, he tossed his ruined cut up clothes in his inventory. There were a few sets of cloths in his inventory.
"Melchior, I was chasing down lunch when you texted. I'm just packing up the leftovers." Even after the zombie bonanza he'd just went through, the thought of her eating someone weirded him out. As far as strength went, he was certain he could damage a ghoul. Taking a hit was different. The ghouls were probably faster than him and their physiology was ridiculous. He was certain he couldn't regen limbs.
"Did you hear about the club massacre in the 11th ward?" He asked. It wasn't that big of a deal in his opinion, but it was expected.
"Are you scared of ghoul's now?" Ueno asked.
"No, but I was wondering if any of the victims had dirt on the Clintons." Melchior responded.
"Like the American president during the 1990s." Ueno asked.
"You're making me want to skype. It feels weird texting you. Your voice plays when I read your texts. Lol." He said. "But yea the American President during the 1990s." Melchior grumbled as he sent the last text.
"It seems every customer is freaking out about the incident." Ueno added.
"Shit happens. People die its tragic and random. Now if we could cut down on the mosquito related deaths that would be great." Melchior texted.
"You don't want to die to an insect?" She asked.
"That would be embarrassing." Melchior rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "I'm going to take a walk around the town."
"Be careful. Don't go down any dark alleys." She replied.
Quest
Explore the 20th ward
Visit 5 locations.
Reward: A special Encounter
+2 affection from conversing with Ueno (34/100)
His first stop was Anteiku, it was late at night. The store was closed. It was closer to morning than midnight at this point. He'd been in the zombie ID for a long time. It had taken a week to bring his class level from 45 to 50. Killing eight giant zombies only increased his level by three.
Increasing a class after 50 was exponentially harder. His skills were even worse. Fisticuffs was still at 50 and only 1% on the way to 51. He needed stronger enemies if he wanted the rest of the brawler skills.
Melchior absent mindedly made his way to Big girls. Ueno wasn't working, and he bought a coke. He thought about his newest class as he passed by the bar. His class was reliant upon his former class's skills to level. He needed to take damage to level up the class skills. That was going to suck.
The purpose of the difficulty jump is to encourage players to select multiple classes.
He passed by the Kami university campus. It was a large place of higher learning. He wanted that special encounter. There was a movie theatre near the end of the ward. That would serve as his last location.
Moments after arriving at the theatre, he saw someone out of the corner of his eye. She was a woman with purple hair, light framed glasses, and a predatory poise. "Hello there what are you doing up so late." Rize Kamishiro said.
"I couldn't sleep stranger. My name is Melchior Nimrod may I ask your name?" He said. Giving a name made it a little more difficult for her to just attack him. She didn't look particularly hungry. Then again, she'd just stuffed herself at a club. She was still covered in the blood of dozens of victims. "Next you're going to say, 'Melchior could I trouble you for a shower.' Melchior said.
"Melchior could I trouble you for a shower. Oh, that's interesting how did you know?" She asked with a playful smirk. He guessed, it seemed like the appropriate thing to say. If he ran, she'd chase him down and kill him. "You know even if its coerced assisting a ghoul in any way is death."
"Do you want the shower or not?" Melchior said. Rize's mouth opened then closed. A smile stretched across her bloody face.
"What do you do for a living?" She asked.
"I kill zombies." Melchior replied. He heard her cackle from behind him.
"That sounds interesting does it pay well. Is it a video game thing? Could I find you on twitch?" She asked.
"I made 400,000yen today." He felt her place her head against his back. Then she raised her hand and placed two fingers on his pulse.
"Calm you aren't scared of me at all." She paused smelling his hair. "A recent shower isn't enough to cover the scent of decay. You smell like you've been bathing in guts." She said.
"Is there anything strong enough to cover that?" Rize shook her head.
"Don't worry about it. It isn't an unpleasant scent to us. So, zombies, are you sure you aren't insane?" Melchior nodded. "If there really are zombies then why haven't I heard about them. Unlike humans' we ghouls need to know things to survive. A potential drop in our food supply is something we'd like to know." Melchior shrugged.
"We haven't needed to quarantine or firebomb anything. The outbreaks have been minor. I've only killed a few thousand in the last week. We think the outbreak is ended." They made it back to his apartment. She left bloody foot prints on his carpet all the way to his shower.
The second the door was shut he went for the bleach and tried to save his carpet. His ruse was strictly for his own entertainment. He didn't think the zombies were even contagious. Then again, ghouls weren't far off from zombies when he thought about it. They were more like a mix of vampire and zombie.
She got out of the shower and plundered his drawer for an oversized shirt and shorts. The threat a sudden attack was enough to keep him from peaking. The fact remained, he couldn't tank a Kagune. Maybe in a few months.
Rize Kamishiro lv280
Class; ghoul lv100, Kakuja lv10, Temptress lv100, Womb lv70
Titles: Binge Eater, Missing Washu
HP 50k (+100k/sec)
Highest Stat DEX
Relationship:
Affection (20/100) potential meal
Loyalty (0/100)
Obedience (1/100)
As strong and powerful as ghouls could be. It was their shear speed and regeneration that was most remarkable. Melchior could blow her to bits, but she would regenerate. Pulping her chest wasn't guaranteed to kill her. Even destroying her Kakuhou may not be enough.
"You're afraid of me." Melchior shrugged. In a few weeks everything would be different. All he had to do was survive.
"You make me second guess my declining my admission into the super soldier program." She smirked at his statement.
"Why wouldn't you want more power?" Rize asked.
"The price of power is freedom. Super soldiers are watched very closely for signs of degradation. If one of the 26 implanted organs failed it'd throw everything off balance." He was taking information straight from 40k at this point. It was fun.
"26 new organs, are they robotic or flesh." She asked mouth covered in drool.
"A virus is used to rewrite genes to facilitate the growth of these new organs from the flesh of the recipient. Naturally they are flesh." Her smile faded, and she took on a thoughtful look. "I know you're bull shiting me but its been fun. I wanted to wait a bit longer and see if you're lies would fall apart." Her kagune emerged showing off four tentacles.
Melchior tapped his fist against the wall. Gales forces ripped the wall apart exposing the outside. "The truth is often stranger than fiction. Now I'm going to have to find a new place to stay. You really are ungrateful." She leapt forward at impossible speeds dodging his punch by pulling herself up on the ceiling. A rinkaku tendril smashed him I the chest launching him through the hole he made.
His body contacted the concrete then and flipped once and twice. Bulk up activated, and he covered himself in tactical gear.
DEF3000
HP 6000/7720
That love tap had been a killing blow. Things were getting desperate. People were coming out of their homes and he ran. Rize had left already.
+5Affection from Rize (25/100)
ID Ghost
Melchior found himself I a massive mansion covered in old furniture. It reminded him of the movie house on haunted hill. That's when gears started turning and massive iron shutters slammed down on the doors.
I did something new for the Ghost Dimension.
"Hey who are you?" A guy in a two piece suit and a small mustache asked.
"Great I'm glad you invited random people for my birthday." A woman said. If he didn't know better, he'd believe he was in house on haunted hill.
Quest
Slay the Soul Eater
Bonus 3 people live
Bonus if 5 people live
Bonus Everyone lives
Reward Key to 2nd floor
Bonus Class lv up x bonuses
