The Many Faced Man

From what I could tell, although they had managed to shut the door again, it would at best hold them for another minute.

If I had more Meteor Dust Solution I could probably make them all leave easily, but unfortunately my supply was running low.

Even if I kept at pulling out my old arrows from the corpses and shooting, they would probably be wiped out before I could kill them all, unless there was some sort of a miracle.

I put down the bow and pulled out the book of Necromancy.

'Time to take a bet, try to make a miracle, if this doesn't work, it is just their fate.'

------

"Kyle, you better hurry up!!" Tirone yelled over in an anxious tone.

"I know, I'm trying!"

Swinging my katana, I manage to finally hit the Zombie just right so that it collapses. At that instant I hear the alert for a level up from the system.

Tirone yells something at me as I was distracted, he grabs the blunt edge of the katana before kicking the dead zombie in the head, knocking it into the others and clearing the doorway.

Everyone quickly comes together and shoves the door shut again hastily, but the instant we do so they start throwing themselves at it again. It wouldn't be long before it was busted open again, despite the heap of debris and miscellaneous things we had used to block the door.

The zombies were inevitably going to break through soon, and at that moment we would almost certainly be done for. Thus far, I had been the only one to unlock the 'system' despite a number of other people seeming to have killed just as many as I have.

The strength it gave me has only ever exceeded my expectations, but it is still not anywhere near enough to face that terrifying horde.

"I got it, I just gained a level! Just give me a moment!! Maybe, maybe we can turn this around!!"

I quickly call for the status screen to open in my mind.

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STATUS SYSTEM

Name: [Kyle Inazuma]

Gender: [Male]

Species: [Human]

Class: [Apprentice Swordsman]

Initial Tier, Level (4+1/10)

Experience: (0/25)

Skill Points: 1+1

Status:

[HP: 20/20] [SP: 16/20]

[Sword Aura: 3/3]

[Str: 14+1] [Int: 10]

[Vit: 10] [Spd: 14+1]

[End: 10] [Per: 12]

[Aura Capacity: 3]

- Determines maximum overall aura quantity that can be held in the body.

[Sword Mastery: 3]

- Determines capability to utilize and synchronize ones mind and body with swords.

Imprinted Skills (1/1):

[Sword Aura Mentality: lvl 3]

- A skill imprinted in the user, allowing for passive cultivation as well as innate active cultivation knowledge. The user's nervous system will gradually be transformed, enabling the instinctive use of swords and sword energy. (Enables Apprentice Swordsman Class Skills)

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Looking it over, I can confirm I leveled up properly and got the +1 strength and + 1 speed that always came together with leveling as a swordsman.

Now, to open the Store System. I spent my first two skill points to forcefully upgrade my class's base skill [Sword Aura Mentality] to level 2, which should give me enough energy to actually use some of the other skills. Unfortunately all I can afford is some of the lowest grade Sword skills.

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SKILL STORE SYSTEM

We bring your potential to the Max!

Note: All skill purchases ingrain the skill onto your soul, therefore all purchases are FINAL. Please take caution in your purchases, and thanks for shopping with us.

Potential Points: (5/15)

- Current Carrying Capacity for Skills, skills occupy potential points in equivalence to skill points. Your total potential points are 10 + current level.

Purchasable Skills:

(Swordsman Class Skills):

[Energy Slash: lvl 0] - 2 skill points

'Would you like to purchase this skill?'

[YES / NO]

[Sword Circuit: lvl 0] - 2 skill points

[Sword Unification: lvl 0] - 5 skill points

[Sword Body: lvl 0] - 10 skill points

[Flying Sword: lvl 0] - 10 skill points

[Sword Energy Sight: lvl 0] - 20 skill points

[True Sword Techinique: lvl 0] - 25 skill points

(General Human Skills):

[Natural Sense Enhancement: lvl 0]

[Mental Energy Enhancement: lvl 0]

[Body Strengthening: lvl 0]

(System Skills [do not occupy potential]):

[Coin Condensing System] - 1 skill point

-> [Item Exchange] - 2 extra skill points

[Faction Coin Exchange System] - 1 skill point

-> [Faction Item Exchange System] - extra 2 skill points

[Party System] - 1 skill point

[Local Faction System] - 10 skill points

[Small Faction System] - 50 skill points

[Naturalized Faction System Access] - Donation Based

Associated/accessible factions:

[Earth Native Faction]

Unlock Completion: (10,061/195,006,090,408,076,001 skill points)

[Earth Native - Human Faction]

Unlock Completion:(82,026/600,500,008,060 skill points)

[Human - National Faction: United States of America]

Unlock Completion:

(3,008/65,486,342 skill points)

[Human - National Faction: Japan]

Unlock Completion:

(2,047/26,002,038 skill points)

(We are not liable for any purchases which result in crippling of potential or death, shop at your own risk)

------------------------------------------------------------

Looking over the store before me I sighed internally. How am I supposed to get all of the skills once I max out my potential? How can I increase my potential, or can it even increase?

Do I really have to waste my potential on the lowest grade skills like this one?

The store, as usual, knows exactly what I wanted as though it read my mind. The Energy Slash skill was already highlighted and giving the prompt to purchase it. Looking at the Energy Slash Technique I choose [YES] in my mind.

The same strange yet comfortable feeling as the last few times flows through my mind. I see a symbol flash before my eyes and suddenly I instinctually understand how to do an energy slash.

I have a basic understanding of the energy slash and I am able to move the energy within me to form one.

I sighed, this skill was not as great as I was hoping. I had been trying to monopolize exp, build my energy capacity, and get a good skill, and this end is the result of that.

Still, best to keep up the moral. Maybe we can still get out of here.

"Everyone!! I managed to break through! We can take them! We can't hold the doors any longer anyways, so just back off and let them through! We can fight!"

People nodded, though their expressions showed they were unwilling. They all scattered away from the door and readied themselves for the coming fight.

I level out my sword in preparation, and the zombies don't disappoint. Just a few seconds after everyone scattered, the incessant thudding of zombies against the door gives way to a loud bang as the door gives way.

"Rooooaaaaggggrrrrrr"

Gathering the energy in my katana, I swing it forward and across my body. As I swing towards them the sword energy in the blade flows towards the blade tip, moving together with my own momentum.

The arc of my blade became a blade in itself made of energy, which carried forward into the mass of zombies.

It cut through two of the zombies that had passed through the door but left only a shallow cut on the third.

Certainly, from a normal perspective, it was a formidable attack. It felled two enemies of equal strength in one blow. However, this one blow took an entire unit of sword energy, a third of his total energy.

In other words, he could at best kill about six of these zombies with his energy attacks.

There was no way to know how many of them there still were, but he knew there were a lot more than six. At best, that ability would work as a means to boost morale. He could only use it at key moments, most of the fight would have to head-on.

So, he dived forward towards the breach. As he took each step, more and more zombies came out from the breach. Two..four..six..eight.. the enormous zombies flowed out of the breach like water and spread out, disordered in their movements individually, but moving as one horde.

There would be no easy victory of fighting one at a time, no use trying to isolate them. That much we knew from our previous encounters. They may not be smart, but they stay together once they form a group.

Hitting against the front of the group of zombies, I found three of them launching attacks at me simultaneously. Their large meaty hands stretched towards me like a grappler.

I sliced the wrist of one of the zombies, cutting the muscles to its forearms, and dived towards it. The hulking frame of the zombie and it's outstretched arms served to protect me from the other surrounding zombies, its arms quickly moved inwards as though it were trying to hug me and its mouth opened wide as it attempted to bite down on me.

At the instant it opened it's mouth, I shoved my katana into it full force, breaking through it's palette and into it's brain. I didn't bother trying to pull it directly back out as the lug started falling the moment I killed it.

I kept moving forward, making a snug cut along its body as I moved past it's leg, using leverage on my katana to make it fall faster. Just as I escaped from getting trapped under it my blade was at the right angle where I could simply grip the blade and it came out as I pressed forward to the next enemy.

This one was still in a daze, so I just moved past it as I cut one of it's Achilles tendons. Even if it is a zombie, without the muscle to hold that leg in place it fell down to one side.

I moved past that zombie onto the next one, I jumped onto it's c.h.e.s.t and jabbed through its neck and into the spine. Not a killing move, but enough to disable the zombie's body. It attempted to hopelessly bite at me, but being unable to even move it's neck left it helpless.

Using that zombie's body as a springboard, I jumped back onto the zombie down on a knee and sliced it's spine with a shallow cut before jumping on to the next and impaling it through the eye. Unfortunately, I only have two eyes though, and one of the zombies in a blind spot managed to land a hit on me.

Blood spurted from my mouth as I was sent flying back through the air. As I flew through the air, I suddenly saw a large mouth growing larger before my eyes. On instinct, I slashed out with the energy slash, then I felt a heavy impact of crashing into a large hunk of meat, then another impact as I hit the concrete ground.

I opened my eyes again and my vision was blurred, likely due to the hard crash on the concrete, but also maybe due to the smack from a certain enormous zombie. It was not so bad as to miss the giant zombies still running towards me though.

I hurriedly got up, but found my feet unsteady regardless of my effort. I bit my lip, and sent out another energy slash. Somehow, it felled all three of the zombies that were coming at me, which gave me a bit of time to recuperate and assess the situation again.

My blurred vision came back into focus and my head cleared up in just a moment, my stats in effect likely.

Looking around, I could see the remnants of what was our group, still trying to fight the zombies.

It seemed they had collectively managed to kill off two of them by working together, but most of them ended up either steamrolled or running away.

We had killed, what, twelve of them? Yet, two thirds of our people were dead, my energy was dry, and my head felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer. I could barely stand.

Their numbers were a lot less now though, there were only eight of them. Less than half of them were left.. not so bad, if we look from that perspective.

"Hey! You Zombie Bastards!! Over Here!!" A voice yelled out from behind the door.

"""Groooaahhhh"""

'What? Someone else came to help?'

I looked towards the doorway the zombies had originally come from, then looked back at the large zombie still in front of me. The man who yelled out managed to pull the attention of a lot of the zombies, but not all of them.

I moved forward, but with each step and each move my head fell into a daze again. A giant hand rushed towards me like a hammer, and all I could do was swing at it in an attempt to block it.

But such an effort was pointless, all I did was leave a shallow cut on the hand, and it knocked me tumbling away. This time, I got straight back to my feet. I could hardly see, but that wouldn't stop me from fighting for my life.

I swung my sword whenever I thought I saw something moving at me, but each time it did little to help me.

I saw an indistinct green flash, and in the distance, I heard a huge noise. Like the building was collapsing in on itself.

'Another monster of some kind? What a stupid way to die after going through such a fight for survival.'

I faced the zombie again, I managed to block a blow or two on sheer luck, but I was knocked away again. I spat out more blood.

'Is there no better way to fight back? But how else can I fight when I can't even really see?'

I smiled and readied my sword again for the giant zombie, when suddenly I heard a dull guttural noise from right behind me, cold flesh covered me from as a slight pressure and a sharp pain came from my neck.

A whistle of the wind, a small thud, a groan in close proximity. The zombie that bit me fell to the ground, and I cupped my neck with one hand, then brought it back in front of me to look at the blood on it in shock.

The giant zombie similarly fell to the ground, for what reason I don't even know. But it didn't even matter, everything was already over for me.

Everything is over.

------

With my new abilities, it took only a minute for me to understand the new Symbol from the Book of Necromancy. It was a symbol for corrosion. From what I understood from the book, forming this new symbol would create a resonance with the user in order to make a spell.

At the instance of formation, it would allow the user to channel Death Qi through the symbol to unleash a 'corrosion ray'. As an apprentice Necromancer, I am rather certain one would normally only be able to cast the spell with assistance from the Book Of Necromancy, which can act as a medium for the low level Necromancer to cast spells while they are still unable to channel the energy themselves.

However, because of my unique circ.u.mstance, I had a fair amount of Death Qi stored up already. Normally, such a spell would at best result in a small burn or else it could warp the surface of some materials. However, with my abnormal reserves, I knew it could do a lot more.

So, as soon as I finished forming the spell symbol, I took off my shirt covered in the Meteor solution, exposed my life signal to the zombies, and yelled out to them.

"Hey! You Zombie Bastards!! Over Here!!" Best line I could come up with on the fly.

It worked though, most all of them instantly came over.

I retreated a bit while yelling for them, luring them down one of the corridors.

'I think it was around here'.

The zombies moved as one, and they moved quickly, but I managed to lure them to exactly where I wanted.

'There is no spell casting or yelling out attack name necessary, but in my head it doesn't matter if I do it, right?'

'CORROSION!!'

I pour all of the death qi into the symbol and a green ray shoots out from in front of me into the midst of the zombies. The green light, upon hitting the ground, moved as though it were alive. It spread roots of energy which creeped along the ground, black cracks spread out from them as black dust rose out from them.

It took less than a second for it to rapidly spread, and the ground collapsed under the weight of the large zombies.

I listened for a moment and heard some noises of the impacts from far below. It seemed I had the spot right, the zombies had fallen an entire three floors before crashing into the ground.

Even if they were somehow not killed, none of them would likely find it easy to move again due to broken bones, even if they were zombies.

Circling around the other side of the building, I made my way back to the roof only to see one Zombie cornering an injured guy with a sword and another just decimating the remnants of a group on the other side of the roof.

I quickly get out the bow again, and kill the one attacking the group. Then, looking back, I see the sword guy get knocked away by the large zombie.

'Shit'

I get another arrow from a nearby skull and prepare to shoot the thing down, but just as I'm about to shoot, I noticed a corpse near the sword guy got up and lunged at him from behind.

'Shit shit shit shit'

I shoot the arrow just above the guy's shoulder, hoping that zombie moves as predictably as a zombie should. Sure enough, the zombie goes for his neck and manages to bite into it. Just half a second before the arrow pierces into it's head, honestly it was just a lucky shot.

Then that just left the last big guy, who had turned about and started to run towards me. I didn't even bother trying to fumble about for an arrow this time, and directly formed another corrosion ray and bore through his skull, exhausting the last of my energy.

I heaved a sigh and looked about... how many actually survived?