The World Cataclysm

Chapter 24: Spoils

Gazing intently at the 3 slightly glowing White Chests, Dave decided to open them one by one. They glowed with a dull white light and gave away extremely magical aura as they were ethereal causing him to wonder what he will get from them.

White Chests were the lowest rank of Treasure Chests followed by blue and, as he had heard, violet colour, even though he never saw one. It was possible to strike high with White Chest, yet, mostly, it dropped items of the lowest rank.

Indeed, not every Treasure Chest drops a random item since the first Treasure Chest that is opened by a survivor will always be a weapon. Moreover, a Treasure Chest obtained from stronger monsters would have higher chances to drop rarer items. It may be said that it depends on how System evaluates your efforts.

'I've killed 4 evolved zombies and close to a hundred ordinary zombies, so I should get something better from Treasure Chests.'

It was another reason why he had hunted a large number of zombies. Higher System evaluates your efforts or more your life is put to risk, higher would be drop rates. He didn't know about other hunters, but he had discovered it in his past life while hunting monsters much stronger than him since he obtained more spoils that way.

System likes thrill!

System encourages brave ones!

And System rewards the worthy!

Without any further thought, he started opening his Treasure Chests. As he opened his first chest, it disappeared in a soft and gentle white light.

[Spirit Water

Description: Permanently increases spirit stat by 2 points]

'Yeah...Got lucky on this one'

Dave couldn't help but exclaim in satisfaction since he had gotten exactly what he wanted. It was pretty rare to get items which permanently increased stats, furthermore, he especially wanted to get such an item related to spirit stat. His goal was 5 points in spirit, yet he didn't want to waste his free points on the stat which he can increase by meditation.

Spirit Water was stored in the same vial as other potions, and it was colourless and transparent as water. Dave didn't store it in his bag since it was better to immediately use it on himself, so he drank it directly.

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[Your spirit has increased by 2 points.]

At the same time, he decided to view his status.

'Status'

[David Murckly

Level: 4

Class: None

Survival coins: 201

Mana: 8/8

Strength: 16

Agility: 10

Stamina: 11

Intelligence: 11

Spirit: 4

Free points: 0

Innate ability: Regression

Skills: Elementary Cooking (LVL 2), Gaming (LVL 8), Mathematics (LVL 7), Leadership (LVL 1), Meditation (LVL 3), Flash Step (LVL 1), Mana Application (LVL 3), Mana Threads (LVL 3), Mana Barrier (LVL 2), Mana Enhancement (LVL 2), Reinforced Breathing (LVL 2), Swordsmanship (LVL 5), Battle Focus (LVL 4)]

'Step by step, I'm growing closer to the status of my past life in terms of my skills.'

He was satisfied with what he was seeing on his status window since it was abnormal for a survivor to have such skills on the early stage. Previously, he had always wondered how would have looked status of former killers or assassins after the Cataclysm, yet their status windows might not have half of his current skills.

Truthfully, his Regression ability was still a mystery to him since it didn't fit into a definition of the mutated cells. He can't imagine how mutated body cells may revert time and transfer skills from a past life. Of course, there were lots of magical innate abilities yet his Regression was out of the box.

'Nevermind. Overthinking it won't give me any answers but will make it harder to understand'

Getting high in spirits after obtaining Spirit Water, he already thought that his profits had outweighed risks. Humming a melody, he moved to the next White Chest.

It vanished in the same gentle light, and a weapon resembling an awl stood in his hands. It was a short 7 inches weapon which's blade was so thin that he thought it would break immediately if he stabbed a zombie with it.

[Needle Rapier

Attack: 11-13

Durability: 5

Description: Short needle-like rapier which is good for piercing yet easily broken]

'Another trash weapon. But it may be good to kill stronger monsters with tough bodies. Better save it for future'

Seeing its description, he already categorized it as an item which was limited in usage numbers. It had high piercing capabilities yet had low durability. It may even be broken by an ordinary zombie if he blocked its attack with a Needle Rapier.

His Rusty Sword had 10 points in durability meaning that it can withstand attack from a hunter or an ordinary zombie, but he would never dare to block an attack with it from a giant, so he had always dodged them. Sometimes a weapon might get cracked lowering its durability.

Even the attack stats of a weapon wasn't absolute. Depending on the person, people may apply some parts of their agility and strength to increase attack power just like how Hunters had developed sharp claws to use their speed for attacking.

As every gamer would do, he tried to grasp the meaning behind the stats and tried to turn everything into numbers, so he calculated that 3 points in strength equalled to 1 point in attack power, added on the attack stat of the weapon. Well, he had experimented a lot to understand the principles behind the System.

Finally, he moved towards the last Treasure Chest. Without any further thoughts, he opened it immediately, as it seemed to shine brighter than other chests. After a moment, seemingly a piece of paper, rolled into a scroll, appeared in his hands.

[Basic Elemental Contract Scroll (Light)

Description: Allows to make a contract with a Basic Light Elemental. Only a person with high elemental affinity with light will be able to use it.]

'Elemental Contract Scroll! But, am I fortunate or unfortunate?'

Sighing slightly, he didn't know was he fortunate to get it or unfortunate that he can't use it. Indeed, Elemental Contract Scrolls were rarer than any other item that he could recall to get on early stages from White Chest. Unfortunately, he had a poor affinity with mana or with any elemental magic.

The biggest drawback of the Elemental Contract Scroll was the fact that it was extremely specific to the element, immediately lowering the chances to find someone with an aptitude to it. It might be even said that it was harder to find someone appropriate than an Awakener.

'Perhaps, Brian would be able to use it.'

Lamenting his aptitude to magic, Dave threw the scroll inside his bag. Truthfully, he was pretty envious of people with elementals since it literally was a shortcut for using magic. It didn't waste a lot of spirits to suck you dry and the only demand is to provide elemental with mana.

Perfect magic for fights!

As far as he remembered, there were plenty of ways to use magic. Magic spells may be unleashed through magic circles or chanting spell in Spirit language. He also recalled Ability Holders with same magical effects as magic spells and, finally, elemental contractors who, in his opinion, had the most effective way to cast magic.

'Hmm...Should I continue hunting or return to the base? With the restoration of my mana and stamina, I may kill other evolved zombies, yet I'm pretty sure that Adam is already freaking out there.'

After the death of his parents, he had grown much closer to Adam and even thought of him as a brother he never had. It didn't matter who was an elder brother or little brother since they were basically of the same age, yet what truly mattered was a link between brothers. Due to it, the death of his best friend had truly struck him hard in his past life.

'Gonna kill any evolved zombie I meet on the way back to the base.'

He decided to wrap up his hunt right here since it would be better not to risk a lot on his first time hunting solo. Moreover, he was already feeling how all his muscles became sore due to overexertion of his body after using Reinforced Breathing.

He felt like the same way as he had worked out in a gym for hours without rest!

Even though his stamina was recovering, he still suffered from the consequences of enhancing his body stats. Well, Dave had a year to get accustomed to the feeling of insane pain in his muscles as he felt like muscles in his body were being torn with every movement.

When shit happens in life, you get used to it!

Massaging his muscles, Dave took his bag and intended to move towards his base, yet, suddenly, he felt goosebumps all over his body as he used Flash Step to leap sideways, ignoring sharp pain in his legs. All of his senses were screaming inside his mind, warning him of the danger.

Ambush! He was ambushed!

As he turned his head back, he saw a monster resembling a wolf in size and a dog in appearance, as it growled aggressively towards him. It had a dangerous glint in its eyes and was reaching his chest on his four legs, gnashing its teeth towards him.