Seconds of killing steadily turning into minutes. Then even those minutes continued to tick by.

  When he took out the latest group to try climbing the wall, Jaco peered out. Just by this point alone, he must have already slain at least a couple hundred of the undead. Yet even more were continuing to poor in from the hallways leading away from the central chamber. Like a bucket being constantly topped off by a water source of unknown size, it truly made their numbers seem endless in a way.

  Eventually, the moment he’d seen coming from a mile away eventually arrived. After being constantly maintained at its maximum size, the Zone of Blight flickered out of existence along with the last drops of the Devil’s Essence within him. It was already starting to be refilled again, but it’d be a little while until he even had enough for the base cost of the Ability.

  A few more minutes later, a large bear swiped across multiple Zombies at once. A shell protected his back, as his size advantage allowed him to claw through half a dozen undead with each swipe. Aside from its base cost, maintaining Lesser Shapeshift actually didn’t take that much Mana to maintain. So while he could only attack so many at a time, this was the ideal choice for using an Ability whose upkeep was lower than his Mana regeneration.

  How many have I even killed by now? Jaco asked himself as he ripped another set of Zombies into pieces with just one strike. I wanna say that by now, I’ve already matched the number of Spectres I killed before. But honestly? I’ve lost track after the first few hundred, so who even knows at this point.

  Keeping his position in front of the door, a new wall was already being built. One shaped like a semi-circle in the rought line drawn by his claws, constructed from the corpses of the undead. As more Zombies climbed over the wall, their collective weight pressed the bottom to form a tight seal against the stone floor.

  Then as the newcomers were slain, it left little room for their thick blood and ooze to go. Which resulted in an almost slime-like, fluid slowly filling up the space that the bear had slowly enclosed himself in. By now the viscous liquid had reached high enough to be past his back paws, as they largely remained resting on the ground.

  Something’s about to go wrong. But what? What is it that I’m missing about these things?! The Druid questioned as his heart beat was beating faster and harder with built-up nerves. His instincts warning him about the Zombies being dangers were only getting louder as the feeling in gut only became worse. However, while his instincts were now almost screaming at him that a threat was about to happen with these Zombies, that didn’t tell him exactly what to be looking out for.

  And it wasn’t like he could simply stop killing the Zombies and running away. Because when he’d momentarily peeked over the wall earlier, it had confirmed something. The undead climbing up the stairs at that moment hadn’t aimed for him, but had been looking toward the door he guarded instead. Which confirmed their intent to exit out that way. While they still tried to attack him when he was directly close by, it was only due to him being in the way, and not from being their actual target.

  However, at a seemingly random moment, something happened.

  When his front paws came back down after another swipe, they splashed into the dark fluid that had built up to be a pool by now. It was high enough that even with its thickness, a few drops still flung toward the bear’s nostrils. That was the moment that Jaco’s gut feeling screamed at him that danger was coming.

  But when he looked to see just what it could possiblly be, all the action did was move his head to line up with the incoming drops. The moment the fluid entered his nostrils, he immediately tried to blow it back up. But that didn’t matter, because as soon as it touched the inner flesh of his body, it instantly became absorbed. Then a pop-up appeared in front of him. A screen that was different from the kill notifications, and immedaitely made his heart sink with both dread and realization.

  Warning!

  New Condition: Zombification Contagion

  Due to exposure to the contagions found within Zombies, you have contracted a temporary affliction. This effect will cause you to weaken, leading to a stacking debuff to all Stats until the Condition is cleansed by either a sufficient amount of Endurance, or other means. Should you die while this Condition remains in effect, you will be automatically raised as a Zombie.

  The large bear stumbled a wave of vertigo hit him like a truck. His temperature almost immediately skyrocketed into a fever as he felt his Endurance kick into effect in an attempt to hurriedly get rid of the Condition. With how high his Endurace was, Jaco had a gut feeling that the natural cleaning would take less than ten seconds, even with the minor debuff that had already been applied to the Stat.

  Damn it. For the love of… damn it! I should have known better! If my instincts say they’re all dangerous, I should have chose to keep my distance with ranged attacks. Damn it! Jaco cursed himself for not somehow seeing this coming. The screen about the Condition triggered panicked memories of the Condition he’d gotten from fighting the Minotaur. The Infernal Plague that would have killed him, if not for angelic intervention.

  While he didn’t know how being raised as a Zombie would work in terms of translating his current Levels and such, the dark mental image of an undead version of himself tearing through this he cared about had already come to mind. Of himself at his current Level, practically unstoppable as his Zombie-self killed all the remaining survivors with his own two hands.

  It was at this moment of both mental distract and physical weakness that a Zombie managed to slip by him. Just one, coming from the side. But as Jaco quickly realized that it’d passed by and turned to dispatch it, what he saw confirmed something else.

  These Zombies weren’t quite so mindless as to just claw at the door and destroy. Instead, this one actually gone to grab the handle in an attempt to open the door. Something that would have been doable for a Level 20 Zombie despite the stone door’s heaviness, had it not been quickly torn apart by the Druid.

  Jaco’s thoughts raced, but he tried to calm down. This Condition wasn’t nearly as bad as the Infernal Plague, the main danger was just if it started to stack like the screen said. As long as it didn’t stack, then it wouldn’t get bad enough to debuff his Stats to the point where the Zombies actually became dangerous on their own. So if just prevented it from ever reaching that point, then he’ll be fine.

  For the time being, he activated Lesser Manifestation of the Wild Elemental. The top layer of his flesh became replaced by rock. If he couldn’t let any fluids or such get inside him, then all he needed was the full-body armor of stone to protect him. However, it wasn’t a great solution. Not when the Ability was a costly one to maintain, and would fully drain his Mana pool in mere minutes if constantly active.

  Okay, okay. I know that allowed, the Zombies can open the door. But that doesn’t mean I always have to be right in front of it, not when I can…

  The mighty bear leapt over the wall he had built, and transformed into a human again while mid-air. Before his feet even landed, Jaco was already casting large gusts of wind to fling the wall of undead bodies into the door. The act of using multiple in a row like that did drain a bit more Mana, but it succeeded in his goal. With the door now fully covered in bodies, it’d be a bit harder for any who reached it to actually open it.

  A couple of seconds later, a new screen popped up before him. One that confirmed that the Condition had just been cleansed. With a small sigh of relief, the foggy feeling that had begun to cloud his mind and general wooziness it’d brought was then also cleared up. As soon as it did, Jaco released the Ability, and the stone layer covering him returned to being normal skin.

  With the wall now shoved against the door, the pool of viscous fluid had been pushed with it. But even without that built-up section, there was still plenty of Zombie blood and minced flesh spread across the chamber by now. Yet now that he was aware of the Condition, he just had to be more careful of any of it getting inside of his body. And if he slipped up, then he could reactivated Manifestation of the Wild Elemental until the first stack was cleansed.

  By just turning it off and on as needed, he could at least preserve a bit more Mana, as the activation cost wasn’t that bad. If he only had to do so once every couple of minutes, then his Mana regeneration would at least be enough to outpace it. However, even as he then used a ranged attack of a fiery cone to clear the next few dozen Zombies in one go, a bad feeling still remained deeply embedded in his gut.

  Even as his Devil’s Essence steadily returned and he micromanaged his Mana usage, the odds were still steadily growing against him. While he could use his staff to just easily crush the Zombies with his raw Strength alone, that’d be the easiest way to get a splash of blood directly to the face. Which meant that if his resources ever reached a point where he was forced to fight without relying on Active Abilties…

  With several hundred dead and yet thousands of undead left to go, Jaco truly wasn’t sure if that was a war of attrition that he could really win. Yet with his grip tightened around his staff, he knew that no matter what, he had no choice but to just keep ripping and tearing through the horde.

  His thoughts were on the camp, on the people who relied on him. Even if his resources were drained and the Condition stacked, he couldn’t allow himself to fall. If he eventually had to fight with all his Stats debuffed, then continue to fight he would.

  With his resolve now solidified, he spun his staff for a cyclone of wind. One that then had fire added to it for a flamethrower that burned through the Zombies and set an entire column of them aflame. As smoke quickly rose to fill up the ceiling of the enclosed chamber, the Druid felt ready.

  No matter what, he wouldn’t allow himself to fall here and rise up as Zombie.

  ---

  Sam looked out the camp’s wall with worry. The city itself was too far to see, but she could imagine the Chosen Few leading an army of Demidemons appearing from the horizon at any moment. Or even worse, the singular visage of the Demon as it flew toward them from above.

  Behind her, the group of survivors were nearly ready to go. All of their essentials, or at least that which could be carried, would soon be packed up. Just on an estimate, Sam would say that it wouldn’t take more than another 20 minutes until they would be done and could start moving to a new place to settle.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  However, there was still something missing. Or rather, someone, who’d been sent out to find a good spot that was both far away from the city and didn’t seem to have a dangerous path they’d need to go through to reach it.

  Where’s Jaco? Sam asked herself as he lips pursed with worry. With how fast I know he can fly, he should have been back by now. When the Chosen can show up at any minute, we need to be ready to move as soon as we’re able.

  She’d seen firsthand how quickly he could run with just his high Agility. Between that and his even faster speed as a flying hawk, his top speed should have allowed him to compete with racing cars, or even straightup beat them, for that matter. So at that kind of speed, it wasn’t like he needed that much time in order to fly a large amount of distance.

  It wasn’t like they needed to move across state lines, after all. Just however far a large group of people would be able to walk within a day or so of travelling. Which, to be granted, would quite a bit further than pre-System humans now that the average Level of the camp was around 20. Though even that would be limited by those like the children who couldn’t gain Levels.

  In any case, the plan was just to throw off the Chosen Few by leaving them to only find an empty encampment. For that purpose alone of just buying time until they could think of better ideas for what to do next, they only needed to travel far enough that it’d take quite a bit of searching to waste the Chosen’s time.

  “Sam!” A man called from below, causing her to turn. “Someone just arrived. A young man whose a Level 19 Scout. None of the guards recognize him, but he asked to meet you and Noah. Claims to be from Glendale, and knows something that has to do with Jaco.”

  She frowned at that, and felt rather confused. Sam had never actually been to Glendale herself, but knew that it was a town which was a pretty fair distance away. All they’d known about it was that according to those who saw it, the town had experienced its own large explostion at the start of the Apocalypse.

  Something which would have likely left its population undead, and the town itself risky to explore. Especially considering that from what others said, Glendale was built around lumber mills, and wouldn’t that much in terms of grocery stores and such to scavenge. So going all the way out there wouldn’t have really even been worth the risk, since what little it did have would most likely have been destroyed in the initial blast anyway.

  Can he be a member of the Chosen Few? No, not with a Level that low for how much they focus on getting more. Not when even we have plenty of people with a higher Level than 19 at this point. With how strong the other Chosen are, there’s no way that Levi would consider that acceptable to join as a new recruit either. Not when he’s already made new allies with that Demon… Sam shook her head at the thought of her own brother betraying humanity to join hands with Hell itself.

  Instead she thanked the man, and requested that this stranger be let in and then instructed to go to the central building of the encampment. At the same time, she would go and touch base with Noah, and let him know for what was likely about to become a new meeting.

  Soon, they were all gathered in the usual building. With all the preparations to move nearly done, the top members of the camp didn’t have that much going on, and so had already been available. Standing in one corner was Evelyn, who still looked a bit worse for wear from her prior injuries.

  Though she wasn’t feverishly sweating like before Jaco had left, so it seemed like she was already recovering. Sam could only imagine that after how many Levels the former Chosen had gained from their prior excursion to the city, that she’d put more points into Endurance. With how quickly things seemed to be esculationg, reducing one’s recovery time when heavily injured was probably the smart choice to focus on.

  Standing in a spot that was in the middle while everyone else surrounded him, was the newcomer. He definitely was on the younger side, perhaps just a little older than Levi. But still at an age that would put him at being a few years younger than Jaco or herself.

  “So, Lindon is it?” Noah began with a tactifcully neutral expression. “It sounds like you ran a pretty long way, just to deliver news about Jaco, as you claim. So let’s just keep things simple, and how about you start from the very beginning as to why you’re here.”

  The Scout heavily swallowed, clearly still out of breath. “I… right. I’m from Glendale, and have been surviving there with some other people for a while now. Until just earlier today, when some people apparently called the Chosen showed up and attacked us.”

  Now that last line immedaitely caught the full attention of everyone listening. Enough so that when Linding continued with the rest of his story, nobody decided to interject with a comment. Though when Sam looked across the room, she noticed Alex’s frown and how he’d still kept a hand near his sword. But it was soon enough that Lindon reached the end of the story.

  “It’s my fault for triggering them. Jaco asked me to warn my people, and then to come here and let you guys know what happened.”

  After taking a deep breath, Noah simply nodded. “Alright, but did he say anything else? Such as asking for assistance, or any other specific requests that he would want us to to do?”

  “I…I don’t think so?” Lindon replied, seemingly a bit hesitant. “Things got so hectic that I might have honestly missed it if he did. But he just told me to come here, and then told me to start running while he closed the door behind me. I know it might not be my place to ask… but that horde was way too fucking massive. If any of the Zombies get out and attack us, we might be overwhelmed. But it looks like you guys have a ton of strong people! And before we went to that fort, Jaco even said that you’d be willing to bring all of us in and that we could help each other out!”

  “So, you don’t think Jaco could handle that many then?” Alex then asked with a now deeper frown. “If you saw him fight those Chosen, then you already know how strong he is. And it wouldn’t be the first horde of undead that he’s wiped out, you know?”

  “I’m not doubting him!” Lindon said with raised hands. “It’s just- Glendale only had a population of not that much more than 5000 people to begin with. And while I’ve seen a horde of a few hundred undead pass by us from the outside once, those Zombies were a horde. I wouldn’t be surprised if damn almost the whole town was actually in that room. Even for one person that’s super strong… that’s still a lot to fight all at once, right?”

  Before Alex could say anything else, Noah raised a hand. “To be fair, Alex. While I can’t see Jaco dying after everything he’s done and survived, I do think it’s reasonable that he might run out of Mana. I would trust that he tactically retreats at that point to recover. But when that happens, it would give a chance for this horde to keep moving. You said that as soon as the alarm was triggered, they immediately began to move for the stairs, yes?”

  Lindon quickly nodded in affirmative.

  “That seems a bit much, for what might just be a single intruder. And if Jaco believed that both your commune and ours needed to be warned, then I trust that he believed that his horde would be an imminent threat. If he thinks that such a warning was necessary, then I trust in his judgment.”

  “So what do you think we should do?” Sam then asked while tapping her fingers against her arm. “Jaco’s Mana pool is massive and should last a while. If we leave right now and hurry, we might get there in time before he even needs to retreat. That way we can take out the undead before they even manage to get out of the fort.”

  “That is an idea. However, it would be both faster and easier to simply set up a perimeter against these Zombies. We’ve replenished our supply of traps since the Chosen led that horde here. So defending ourselves against how many slips by Jaco, while admittedly also giving our people a chance to gain Levels, would be an idea. On the other hand… there may still be something worse in that fortress. If Jaco is taking the time to recover after exhausting himself, only to be attacked by a Minotuar or worse…” Noah trailed, hestiatent to fully voice the thought aloud.

  “You can do whatever you think is best, but I’m going to go help Jaco. If it’s Glendale, then I already know the way there,” Evelyn declared. Then before giving anyone else a chance to respond, the redhead was already on her way out, her mind apparently set.

  Alex immediately perked up before quickly following after her. “You’re still hurt, so I’ll come with you as backup.”

  Noah looked after the pair as they exited the meeting room. He then turned to Sam, who just gave him a somewhat helpless shrug.

  “Merging with another big group wasn’t really part of our moving plans. But if they’re going, then I think I’ll go too. It’ll at least give me a chance to talk to the people over there, and see how possible it’d be for us to move the camp to either in or close to the town. We’ll send word soon,” Sam promised as she also moved to leave.

  Still needing to head back to be with his own commune, Lindon also left with her. And so the four of them quickly exited the camp and traveled as a small group to Glendale.

  The way itself was rather direct and had no interruptions. Even while still a bit bothered by her wounds, Evelyn was still by far the fastest of them with her Agility-focused build. Though even Sam, as the slowest of them with a Mage’s halved Agility growth, was still practically superhuman with her own running speed.

  Though that was just from Agility alone, if she channeled her Mana into what was still just practice with her new Ability, Lesser Spell Craft…

  With arcane energy empowering her legs, Sam rushed ahead of the others, now moving at a level of speed that was only second to Evelyn, albeit only for as long as she used the Ability. With Alex as a Warrior now left behind as the one lagging from the back, she only felt a little bad for him.

  But due to the lack of being attacked by anything, it didn’t too long for the quickly moving team to reach Glendale. And when they did, Lindon showed them the fasted way to the fort, just like he had for Jaco.

  Still no Zombies running through the streets, Sam noted as they approached the fortress. When they entered the fort from the side wall, Evelyn was the one who took care of the traps. Or to be more specific, she just used her Ability as a Flashblade Blitzer to trigger them, and then would be safely way ahead on the other side before they even touched her.

  Until finally, they reached it. Taking point, Alex was the one to grab the door and open it. Something which led to a rather horrible noise that made them collectively cringe, as flesh and bone had to be pushed out of the way from the swinging door. A horrible stench then overwhelmed their noises. And while most of them were able to bear it, it did lead to Lindon immediately throwing up.

  When Sam and the others entered the chamber, their eyes widened at the carnage within. Every surface had been painted in the colors of blood and gore as not a single inch of stone was spared. Smoke from bodies that were still burning rose from at least a hundred charred corpses, and Sam had to cover her face with her sleeve to keep from breathing it in.

  Lindon stumbled over to the end of the floor opposite from the door. And when he stared down into the empty space before him, he gasped with disbelief.

  “Holy shit, he actually got them all…”

  Sam was the next to look, and her eyes then immediately widened. A part of her had wondered if the young man next to her had perhaps been a bit hyperbolic about the size of the horde. But now she saw what could be described as what had to be at least a thousand corpses that were still intact, and perhaps thousands more that were too ripped apart to differentiate between them.

  And laying on his back in the center of them all, on top of a large pile of corpses, was a certain Druid. One who wasn’t moving.

  He’s not-! Sam couldn’t even finish the thought as she tried to identify him. If he was still alive, then…

  Thankfully, a screen did appear. One that seemed to prove that if Jaco wasn’t moving even after they entered, then he must have fallen unconscious at some point. Yet when Sam took a slightly closer look at the screen, one part of it did stand out.

  Jaco had been Level 47, something that she had been able to see. But now… now his Level was listed as a question mark. Which could only mean one thing, due to the difference in Levels that would have been approximately required between him and her.

  He must have reached Level 50, if not even higher.