"All right. Let's get started then," I spoke as I saw the basement gate in front of me.
Currently standing in the parking area, connected to the basement, nervously I looked at the entrance down to the place where the Lesser C-Grade Zombie was.
[Side Quest: Clear the basement!]
[Something unholy has taken birth within the basement. If it evolves any further, it may bring doom to the surviving mankind.
Kill the Lesser C-Grade Zombie before it evolves into a C-Grade Zombie
Time Limit: 3 Days 14 Hours 12 minutes
Reward: Golden Key to the Dungeon of Libra!]
It was almost evening and in about an hour the sun would set as well. For me, I particularly don't want to fight that thing during the night because of darkness and stuff.
"Mother told me not to stay out after 8," I reminded myself before nodding a little with a wry smile.
It was scary damn it!
Sigh
'Let's go,' I muttered with determination as I moved into the basement. One step at a time.
'What kind of monster was inside there? Damn… I am getting goosebumps,' I spoke as I activated my ability
[Eyes of the Time Keeper(Foresight)!]
'How long before I get attacked?' I questioned but this time there was no timer.
'Guess, I won't be attacked if I keep going like this,' I thought with my foresight ability still activated.
Sweat poured out of my head as I kept my weapon ready and moved silently one step at a time deep into the basement.
While it was creepy not all was bad. The lights of the basement were still working. Even though they didn't completely illuminate the basement, there was still enough light to make out the basement.
'Scary,' I spoke as I was having difficulty breathing with all this tension. Still, gulping a little, I still kept walking deeper into the basement. With each step silent, I kept asking the system when I would be attacked and still there was no timer visible.
Walking slowly and slowly into the basement, I reached halfway through and honestly; I wanted to go back now. All this tension and fear was not good for my health, really.
Though, just a few steps later, on my left something came visible in front of me. It was a pool of blood, as if it were dragged behind the car by something.
Even though my legs were shaking a little, I kept moving forwards, continuously asking the system when I would get hit or something, however there was still no sign of any timer.
Following the trail of blood, I soon found it turning left behind one of the parked cars and when I reached the turn, someone… or something came into my vision.
'Gulp,' I gulped as silently as possible as I looked at that… thing in front of me. It was on its four feet and was currently dining on something.
Using [Inspect] on it,
[Lesser C-Grade Zombie (Licker)]
[A Developed D-Grade Zombie that has evolved once and has gone beyond its mortal capabilities. The Evolutionary pathway was related to its muscles, and in return he has lost its sight and ability to walk on its two legs.
Highly developed Muscles, Tongue, Auditory sense and Canines. Be careful of its tongue, it's sharper than its teeth
Reward for Killing: +1000 Exp]
Gulp!
I kept myself quiet as I looked at it and wondered how I should proceed now?
'I shouldn't disturb it when it's having a meal… haha,' I chuckled dryly on the inside as I wanted to run away from here, but oh well. Doesn't seem like an option here.
'It doesn't have sight. Maybe because I was walking without making any sound, it didn't sense me yet,' I pondered for the reason he hasn't chomped on me yet.
'How long will he attack me if I move towards him?' I asked and finally a timer appeared.
[7 Seconds]
I nodded before walking extremely slowly, though something strange happened
[14 seconds]
The timer increased when I walked slowly. I moved a bit faster, and the seconds decreased and increased if I slowed down.
After pondering a little,
'How long will he attack me if I walk 2 steps?'
No timer came.
'3 steps?'
No time came
'4 steps?'
[4 seconds]
Looking at that, I understood why the timer was like that. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to figure out either, just that the way I was looking at it was wrong.
'It's the distance,' I thought as I observed that thing. If I move a certain distance closer to him, he will attack immediately. The timer just showed how long it will take me to reach that distance from him.
'How long will it take him to attack me if I make a sound?' I asked and
[0.1 Seconds]
"!!!!" I almost freaked out at that timer.
I, with fear-filled eyes, then subconsciously moved away from him and
-Drip!
I stepped on water? Or blood? Or something liquid… [Return!]
-BOOOM!!!
I returned near the entrance where I was when I entered in the basement and looking at a distance… he attacked at an insane speed where I was.
-Tip!
Something fell down. Like a drop of water… or blood. I turned to look down at where the sound came from. It was my blood… soon my eyes fell on my hand… there was a hole in my palm… and blood was oozing out continuously.
[HP: 4500/6000]
Must have been attacked before I could return to here
'Shit!' I cursed as I saw that Lesser C-Grade walking on its four legs towards where I was previously standing, trying to smell where I was. It used its tongue to lick my blood, that probably fell there.
-Drip!
Another drop poured out of my palm and the Lesser C-Grade turned at me.
'F*ck!' I cursed inwardly before I questioned,
'How long will it take him to attack me?'
[1 second]
[Temporal Deceleration!]
I used that ability and saw that thing walking towards me slowly and slowly… that too when my ability was activated. My eyes widened up as I realized that…
'He isn't using its full speed. Even now, he is playing with me…' I could only stare at him with my eyes full of fear before I gripped on my bat…?
'Huh? Where did my bat go?!!' I thought as I saw my bat fall at a distance from here. To where I was previously, before I used [Return].
All this fear and tension made me ignore the fact that I had already lost my weapon…
Then… that monster… that Lesser C-Grade Zombie ran towards me at its full speed…
'How long will it take to attack me?' I questioned and…
[0.5 Seconds!]
My eyes widened as I used another ability in my arsenal.
[Temporal Deceleration(Copy)!]
Yeah, I had copied this ability because I thought using the [Temporal Deceleration] while another is active would make the time 100 times slower and give me an edge in the battle. Truthfully, I couldn't be more glad that I used the [Copy] skill to Copy [Temporal Declaration].
[2 Seconds]
That monster was flying towards me… jumping at me with all its strength. Without my double [Temporal Deceleration] it was impossible to have a chance against it.
I then slowly dragged my feet towards my weapon one step at a time.
Using Time points wasn't an issue since I [Time Flow] was providing me with 60 TP per second and the combined usage of both [Temporal Deceleration] was just 50.
Though because I called myself almost 50 meters back using [Return!] The amount of time Points I had left was about 40 or 50, regenerating 10 every second.
I went and picked up the bat that I had lost and turned around to see that the monster had already covered half of the distance.
Not wasting any time, I moved towards it and used my bat, I….
-BANG!!!!
Hit it as hard as I could, throwing it as far away as possible.
However…
'There is no message that it got killed,' I gulped as I looked at the body of the lesser C-Grade fallen at a distance after hitting against the wall. Not wasting my time, I kept moving forward as I concentrated on that monster.
I saw it standing on its four feet before proceeding to jump at me again as he rapidly covered the distance between us…
Though, since it was slow…
-BOOOM!! I hit it against the wall again. Yet… it didn't die.
My eyes turned even more serious as I looked at it… however, this time something changed about it… something was different this time…
It was giving off a strange steam out of its muscles. Even when I was 10 meters away from him, I could feel the heat that came out of his body.
'Is it dying?' I questioned as I looked at it. I didn't even know what it was or how it started existing down here in the basement…
Though not caring much about it, I tried my best to fight against the heat and walked towards the zombie. I don't care whether it is dying or not. If I don't kill it myself and get the message that it's dead, I won't be able to sleep peacefully for a while.
Though… something else greeted my eyes when I reached almost 5 meters closer to him…
[C-Grade Zombie(Defective)(Berserk Licker)]
[Forced to evolve before time. The Lesser C-Grade Licker has undergone a degenerative change towards its body. It has lost its muscles and strong defense in exchange for insane reflexes and agility.
Be careful of its Teeth and Tongue. Ordinary metals can be chewed down like paper by this zombie.
Reward for killing: +2000 Exp]
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel