They browsed through the list of weapons and found something astonishing. They could create high tech weapons like guns and rifles. Not only that, but there was things like automated turrets as well. Unfortunately, they were a long ways away from making those. The workbench needed to be at a higher level. In addition, they didn’t even know where to acquire the materials for them.
After understanding the workbench, they gathered the planks and nails and crafted weapons. 10 spears, 10 bows, and 100 arrows were created.
Wooden Spear
Damage: 2
Durability: 50/50
Wooden Bow
Damage: 2
Durability: 50/50
They also gathered 10 hammers from the wood shop and carried them to the cafeteria. It was time to create an army.
Chapter 19.5
Eric’s grandmother watched day after day as Eric risked his life outside to fight the undead. She wanted to do something, but she was too old to fight the undead. She couldn’t help but sigh heavily and say to Jane, “These old bones of mine are tired of sitting around doing nothing while all the young ones are so productive.”
Jane was reading a book to Emily. The school had plenty of them, and Emily was 4 years old, so she was fascinated by the stories. When Jane’s mother spoke, Jane paused and turned to look at her mother. After a moment, she said, “I know how you feel. I want to go out and fight… but I’m just so scared…”
Eric’s grandmother struggled to her feet. Jane asked with concern, “What are you doing, mom?”
“I’m going to the kitchen,” Eric’s grandmother replied. She walked slowly through the cafeteria and entered the kitchen. She heard from Eric that due to some magical reason, the kitchen respawned food at midnight. Because she sat near the other students, she heard their complaints about how basic and bland the food was.
The food supplied by the kitchen facility were basic things. Cans of soup, beans, and vegetables. Perhaps she could cook to improve the quality of the food? Jane picked up Emily and followed after her mother. They entered the kitchen and browsed through the rations.
Eric’s grandmother smiled, “Ha, ha, look at this Jane.”
“What?” Jane didn’t see anything unusual.
“Can’t we make chili with these ingredients?”
Emily clapped her hands and said excitedly, “I want to cook! I want to cook!”
The three of them spent a few hours to create a massive amount of chili. When they handed it out to the students, they were astonished. Wasn't this a massive improvement compared to what they were eating before?
It was also great for Emily. She had grown bored just sitting around all day. She had too much energy, but she wasn't allowed to play around. It was just too dangerous. Now, though, she was able to do something.
Chapter 20
Michael and Eric stood on the stadium next to the quest board. On the ground behind them were a bunch of weapons. Michael looked around at the students. All he found was despair. None of them thought they would live much longer.
Michael clapped his hands to gather their attention. Their eyes were lifeless as they looked at him. He picked up a spear and spoke with a solemn voice, “You have two options before you.”
Michael pointed the spear at the students as he explained, “Fight the undead, or die doing nothing.”
At this point, Michael shouted, “WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?!”
Eric pointed at the weapons behind him as he said, “We have weapons for you now. We will also watch over as you get accustomed to fighting zombies. Why not take this chance?”
Some of the students eyes lit up with life, but they didn’t move.
Michael waved his hand as a flame appeared on it. He tried taking a different approach. He looked at the flame as he said, “Want to learn magic? Or become superhuman? All you have to do is kill a few zombies, and you’ll become superman. Isn’t that awesome?!”
At this, the students eyes brightened. Who didn’t want to become superman? Who didn’t want to learn magic? They already had experience fighting zombies because of last night, so wouldn’t it be easier if they had weapons? Most of the students stood up as their desire to live was rekindled. There were only a few who didn’t respond. Michael couldn’t reach these people, so he didn’t care about them. They were lost.
“We have 10 spears, 10 hammers, and 10 bows with 100 arrows. Take your pick!” Eric sad as he handed out the weapons.
Soon, all of the weapons were taken. All of the people who survived last night had already killed a zombie or two. Now that they held weapons in their hands, they felt much more confident.
Eric walked over to Elizabeth and knelt down next to her. He saw her tears and felt his chest clench in pain. He liked her, so he felt sad when she cried. He didn’t know how to console her, so he just said, “We need you, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth looked up at him before nodding slightly, “...Okay…”
Eric gathered Mr. Drew, Mr. Lane and Elizabeth. He brought them to Michael. Michael explained his plan on how to train the students, except it was less train, and more watch over. They weren’t exactly qualified on how to teach martial arts. All you had to do was attack with your weapon.
They led the group of students outside. Whenever they encountered a zombie, they let a student handle it on their own. At first they were sloppy, but they quickly gained an understanding on how to attack. The people with spears felt the safest. All they had to do was thrust their weapon.
The people with hammers had to get up close, but after getting over their initial fear, they did well. The worst were the people with bows. Using a bow was awkward for the uninitiated. After Michael suggested they attack from up close, they did better. They fired from a few feet away and accurately hit zombies. After a zombie was killed, they recovered their arrows.
Whenever the group encountered a feral zombie, Eric or Michael took care of it. It was in this manner that the group of students gained experience in killing zombies. In only a single day, most of them reached level 5. It was much easier to level up compared to the 1st day because zombies were higher leveled. They gave more XP.
Michael explained the importance of the scavenging skill, so quite a few people put a point into it. This way they would be able to gather their own food, and eventually be able to craft more weapons. All in all, the 8th day was very productive.
When night arrived, Michael had the newbies patrol the school. Now that they had more people, everything became much easier. On the 9th day, people began to accept quests. As a result of that, Michael upgraded the kitchen to level 3. Now the kitchen provided enough food for 100 people. It was almost enough to sustain them forever. If they shared, they could barely prevent people from starving.
On the 10th day, the students began to hunt in groups of 2 or 3. After 2 days of being watched over by Michael and his group, they were confident in handling zombies on their own. The only reason they still grouped up was because of feral zombies.
On the 11th day, Michael came up with multiple plans. He gathered the students and ordered them to move the cars in the parking lot to create a wall. It took 10 people to lift a car and move it. The zombies could only enter the school from the west and north. The east and south were where the football and baseball fields were, and they were blocked off from the city by a tall fence.
After creating a wall, he ordered a group of students to go to a gas station and gather gasoline. For what reason they didn’t know, but they didn’t care to ask. They understood that without Michael and his group, they wouldn’t have survived this far. They all tacitly agreed he was the leader.
On the 12th day, the newbies gathered enough kill points to purchase the quest that gave a skill point. When they finished that, all of them grew much stronger. The archers purchased projectile mastery, while the spearman purchased blade mastery. The hammer wielders purchased blunt mastery.
On the 13th day, they continued to gain experience and levels. Michael and his group never
stopped hunting on their own during this time. On this day, most of the newbies reached level 10. With the skill points they acquired, most of them upgraded scavenging to level 2. They began to collect all types of useful resources, including planks and nails.
On the 14th day, Michael used all of the planks and nails gathered by the newbies to create more spears. He realized bows were too difficult for newbies to use, so he just stuck with spears. After handing out the spears to more students, Michael and his group began to teach the next group of newbies.
On the night of the 14th day, disaster struck once again. The moon had turned blood red.
Michael ran out of the school and looked at the red fog. He thought to himself, “Don’t tell me the blood moon will appear every 7 days?!”
He didn’t have time to think, so he turned around and gathered the students who had been leveling up. There was Michael, Eric, Elizabeth, Connor, Mr. Drew, Mr. Lane, 30 spear users, 10 hammer users, and 10 bow users.
They gathered on top of the cars that made a wall. All of them were solemn as they peered into the fog. Hoarse screams suddenly rang out from the fog as over a hundred feral zombies sprinted at full speed. Another fierce battle was about to begin!
Chapter 21
The confidence of the students faltered. They’d become used to killing zombies in the past week, but that was if they fought 1 or 2 at a time. Now, a hundred feral zombies sprinted towards them at once. Their hoarse screams were terrifying, and their arms flailed around as they ran. Even worse, they could see hundreds of zombies within the red fog.
Before they had time to think, the feral zombies reached them. Michael saw the hesitation in the students, so he quickly shouted, “Wake up! You’ve all gotten used to killing zombies. Don’t forget we’re fighting as a group! Trust in your teammates!”
Right. They weren’t fighting the horde of zombies alone. The students glanced at each other and tightened the grip on their weapons. As their resolve strengthened, the feral zombies slammed into the side of the cars. They tried to climb up, but a wall of spears pierced their bodies. One spear found its mark in a feral zombie’s eye. Another student dug their spear into the neck of another. They twisted hard as they tried to do as much damage as possible.
When the zombies climbed onto the hood of a car, a hammer shattered their skull. The archers fired their arrows at close range and found their mark in the feral zombie’s chests.
Everything was going smoothly. Everyone was working together to fend off the feral zombies from climbing on top of the cars. Michael was astonished at the power of having a height advantage. Wasn’t this completely perfect?
Blood splattered all over the cars, dying them red. As one student pierced forward with their spear, their foot slipped on the blood. They fell into a pack of feral zombies. Before he had a chance to scream, the zombies bit into him. Eric’s eyes turned red as he jumped down without hesitation. At the same time, he shouted, “Elizabeth, wind!”
“Right!” Elizabeth quickly used her skill to knock the feral zombies back. Eric grabbed the student and carried them over his shoulder. Their life were hanging by a thread, but they still breathed. Before he could jump back onto the car, the feral zombies lunged for him. Eric repeatedly used his sweeping strike skill to damage them. He felt his stamina drain rapidly as he become a reaper of death. Because the feral zombies were grouped up, the skill hit everything around him. The feral zombies dropped to the ground and died, creating a brief gap for him to jump onto a car.
The students who witnessed him killing 20 feral zombies by himself let out fierce shouts, “WOOO!”
Eric’s ferocious display of power caused their morale to skyrocket. If he could kill 20, they couldn’t slack behind. The combination of morale and adrenaline caused their battle prowess to rise. They no longer felt fear as they rapidly used skills to kill the feral zombies. In only a few minutes, the feral zombies were all killed.
Everyone raised their weapons to the sky and shouted, “Take that!”
“Damn zombies!”
“Hahaha!”
“You’re useless against me!”
Everyone let out cries of victory. That was until one of the students pointed ahead of them and stuttered, “Uhh, isn’t that a lot of zombies?”
Everyone froze and looked ahead of them. They were too preoccupied with fighting the feral zombies that they forgot about the regular zombies. There were around a thousand of them! Everyone just used a bunch of skills to finish off the feral zombies, so they were exhausted. How could they handle fighting a thousand zombies?!
At this moment, Michael shouted to Eric, “Throw the gasoline barrels!”
Eric currently had the highest strength amongst everyone present. A measly gasoline barrel was nothing to him. His strength was on par with the best body builders. Eric picked up the already prepared gasoline barrels and tossed them into the pack of zombies. After he was done, a look of absolute glee appeared on Michael’s face. He snapped his fingers as a wave of fire blasted into the gasoline.
There was a loud boom as the gasoline barrel exploded. The zombies were knocked backwards as their bodies caught on fire. With each snap of his finger, Michael shouted, “Burn, bastards, burn!”
Elizabeth took this chance to use her gust of wind skill. The wind exacerbated the fire. The fire spread quickly, and soon a thousand zombies were on fire. Everyone was stunned into silence. Fighting could be done like this? All of them looked over at Michael as he cackled madly. Their respect for him rose even further. They remembered him asking for gasoline a few days ago, but they couldn’t figure out why. Only now did they realize. Michael was a genius!
After a few seconds passed, a massive wave of light poured into Michael’s body. His level rose from 21 to 24. He also received a title. This only caused him to cackle harder.
Mass Murderer
Effect(s):
All stats +3
*Acquired from killing 500 undead within 5 minutes.
Eric was envious, but he promised himself that he’d catch up in no time. After the battle was over, he looked down at the wounded student he saved and realized they would die any minute. He quickly picked him up and carried him to the hospital. A few minutes later, he woke up and looked around in bewilderment. He muttered to himself, “I-I’m alive?”
Eric leaned against the wall in the hospital as he looked at the male student and chuckled, “You must have had less than 5 life.”
The student looked over at Eric and bowed his head, “Thank you. Though, I don’t know if I should be happy or sad…”
Eric frowned, “Hey.”
The student quickly realized that what he said was inappropriate. He quickly shook his head and apologized, “Sorry.”
Eric walked over and firmly gripped the student’s shoulder. He asked, “What’s your name?”
“Greg.”
“Nice to meet you, Greg. I’m Eric.” Eric’s face was solemn as he said, “Let me tell you something. Right now, the world is shit. I agree. But that doesn’t mean it has to be. We’ve just had a rough start, that’s all. I mean, just look at the recent battle. We won in less than 5 minutes, and nobody died! We were knocked down, but we got back on our feet, right?”
“Yeah, I s’pose,” Greg agreed slightly.
Eric voice was firm as he said, “I promise you that I will make the world safe again. I’ll get stronger and stronger, until I can protect everybody.”
“Heh,” Greg gave an awkward nod. He thought Eric was just trying to cheer him up. He didn’t realize that Eric was completely serious.
Greg glanced at his stat screen and found something strange. He gained a title. After telling Eric, Eric asked in surprise, “What does it say? Does it do anything?”
An inch from death
Effect(s):
+20 Health
*Acquired when dropping to 1 Health and surviving.
Eric gulped, “Bro…”
Greg laughed nervously, “I guess I only had 1 life left.”<
br />
Nervous laughter rang out from the hospital facility.
Chapter 22
Everyone successfully survived the 2nd blood moon. Honestly, it was a miracle compared to the 1st one. Who knows how many would have died if they didn’t have gasoline?
In the morning of the 15th day, Eric stuffed his backpack full of food. He thought deeply last night, and realized he hadn’t been trying his hardest. For some reason, he didn’t need to sleep as much. He figured it must have something to do with his increased endurance. Whatever the case, he could have spent the past week hunting during the night. But he didn’t. Last night, he looked at his sleeping family and made a vow to himself. From this day on, he would butcher every fucking zombie he found without rest.
ZOMBIE SLAYER!!: A LitRPG Apocalypse Page 11