Sanctum

by Matthew Powell

  While he may have been trying to be stealthy, Joshua didn’t possess any sneaking-related skills or abilities. The Defaced noticed his presence once he got to close, standing and turning to attack him. Left with no other option but to end it as fast as possible, Joshua lunged forward and stabbed his knife into the Defaced’s chest.

  Defaced has taken 89 damage

  Remaining HP: 236/325

  He pulled the knife out and went for another stab, but not before the Defaced was able to cut him with its claws.

  Defaced has taken 77 damage

  Remaining HP: 159/325

  You have taken 24 damage

  Remaining HP: 302/500

  Joshua jumped backward, away from the Defaced. He had taken it to nearly half in just two attacks, but he still wanted to avoid as much damage as possible. Killing it quickly might not be worth sacrificing most of his HP, especially since he still had no reliable way to replenish it.

  Taking a moment to breathe, Joshua looked over towards where the other Defaced was. He reeled back when he saw it just a few feet away, lashing its claws towards him. He brought the knife around, cutting towards the sprinting monster. The knife slashed the Defaced in the neck, sending it sprawling. In its rush, however, the Defaced still managed to cut one of his legs.

  Critical Hit! Neck Slashed! Defaced has taken 177 damage

  Remaining HP: 148/325

  You have taken 33 damage

  Remaining HP: 269/500

  The Defaced had managed to bring Joshua’s HP down towards half, but he had managed to bring them both to half as well. The first Defaced was keeping its distance, eyeing him and wary of his next move. The second, however, was rolling on the ground clutching its neck. Not taking any chances, Joshua threw himself towards the monster before it could react and stabbed it in the head.

  The Defaced died, but Joshua couldn’t take the time to look at the notifications just yet. The surviving Defaced, seeing him distracted, started an attack of its own. It charged towards him, its claws growing several inches and taking on a red shine. Joshua immediately realized it must have activated some sort of ability, and he needed to avoid those claws at all costs.

  This was surprisingly hard, as the monster clearly knew how to use its claws well. All that Joshua could do was retreat, stepping away from its slashing claws and hope the ability wore off quickly. After a minute of backing away, with his back almost to the wall, Joshua saw the Defaced’s claws shrink and lose their glow. Seeing his chance, he stabbed out.

  His knife went straight into the monster’s neck, taking away the last of its HP and killing it instantly. In his hurry to end the fight, Joshua failed to notice the monster’s claws once again take on the red shine that had ended just seconds before. The cut caught him in the left arm, severing it completely.

  The loss was unexpected but didn’t affect Joshua too much. It was shocking to be sure, but he knew there had to be either a way to reattach it or a way to grow a new one. The lack of pain was the only reason he was able to think clearly in this situation, and he was thankful for it. With the fight finally over, he started looking over the notifications that had popped up. He ignored the damage notifications, except for his own, as they were starting to get annoying.

  Critical Hit! Arm lost! You have taken 112 damage

  Remaining HP: 157/500

  Level 4 Defaced x2 have died!

  Zandrius gains 100 EXP

  Joshua had even managed to get two more points of Pestilence, one from each Defaced. This brought his total to 22 and his regen to 3, a far cry from his starting amount. Notifications finished and enemies dead, Joshua headed towards the door to what was presumably the final room in the building. He didn’t have a lot of HP left, but he didn’t have much choice either. He stumbled a bit at first, the loss of an arm throwing off his balance, but pushed forward anyway.

  Looking around, this room must have been the bosses’ office. It had some overgrown plants in the corners, a bookshelf full of decayed paper, and a large wooden desk that had withstood the test of time. Sitting on the desk was something that made Joshua leap for joy. A treasure chest, an honest-to-god treasure chest sat on the desk. It looked out of place compared to everything else in the post-apocalyptic world, but he couldn’t have been happier to find one.

  The chest wasn’t locked, and Joshua didn’t hesitate to throw it open. Inside wasn’t gold or potions as he had hoped, but a small hardcover book instead. He picked the book up and read the notification that appeared.

  Low-Level Skill Book

  -A common reward from treasure chests in low-level areas. Automatically teaches the user one weak skill of their choosing, or a skill closest matching what is desired. Skills learned this way can be improved by practice and evolutions/class-ups. Better skill books allow users to skip the training process but are not necessary to grow or advance skills.

  Would you like to activate the skill book? Please have a desired skill in mind before activating.

  A desired skill? Well, there was one weakness Joshua had that had been made increasingly apparent as he tore his way through the building’s occupants. They had been slowly but surely wearing him down, with each fight taking away another chunk of health. He needed a way to regenerate.

  Skill Learned: Pestilence Sacrifice

  -Can sacrifice Pestilence to regenerate the HP of the user's host body. Only usable by disease-related classes and races. Any Pestilence generated over the current cap is automatically sacrificed to heal the user if they are injured. Current regen: 5 Pestilence/1 HP

  Joshua thought it was horrible. The ratio seemed all wrong, being way too skewed against him. He only had 22 Pestilence, so his entire pool would only heal four points of HP! Taking a deep breath, Joshua stopped to think through this.

  It made sense that the ratio was horrible if Pestilence could scale infinitely. Eventually, he would have thousands of HP and potentially millions of Pestilence. Powers like this regeneration likely weren’t meant to be used by someone as weak as him, they were meant for players who had already earned a large amount of power.

  Upon realizing his mistake, Joshua simultaneously felt a sense of dread and excitement. Given time he could reach absurd levels of regeneration, but for now, it was practically worthless. He would only heal one point of HP per nearly two minutes, and with 500 HP that was just too slow.

  This brought another problem to light. He still needed a way to kill the high-level Defaced downstairs, and he wasn’t confident he could win with his current HP. There were no more zombies or low-level Defaced to kill, and that left Joshua only one choice. He sat on the ground in the bosses’ office and started pouring Pestilence into his knife

  Chapter 6

  Regeneration is a tricky ability. Some species can regenerate their entire bodies from near-total destruction despite being pathetically weak. Others live their entire lives unable to recover from a simple paper cut, slowly gathering up scars as their lives drag on. Zombies originally had a powerful natural regeneration, and could even regenerate by eating corpses, but we couldn’t allow that in Macrocosm. They would overrun every planet they were introduced to in a matter of days. – On Regeneration, from the Chronicles of The Founder

  ◆◆◆

  It took a little more than an hour to fully upgrade the Pestilence Knife to its next stage. It would normally have taken half an hour with his current regen, less if Joshua started with a full supply, but the process was so boring that he couldn’t help but experiment a little. He needed a way to break the tedium if nothing else.

  Which is what led Joshua to try and reattach his arm. The method he used was almost comically simple: he held the severed arm up to the stump and activated Pestilence Sacrifice. It didn’t take any effort to activate the regeneration, just a quick thought, and his Pestilence bar emptied itself down from 22 to 2 in an instant.

  It was only enough to gain four points of HP, but that was enough for Joshua to feel good about using up his Pestilence on a random idea
. Some of the muscles for the arm had reconnected in that instant, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was enough to prove that this would work. He spent half of the hour reconnecting his arm, healing a total of 20HP in the process, and the other half upgrading his knife.

  The reconnect wasn’t perfect, but Joshua could walk in a straight line again, so it was good enough. He was right-handed anyway, and his left arm would heal with time. The bonuses for the knife were much more exciting.

  Pestilence Knife

  Soul-Bound Weapon

  Damage Potential: 50 Blunt/300 Sharp

  Pestilence Towards Next Upgrade: 0/500

  The damage potential had shot up, and the knife itself had gained some new features. Where it had been little more than a kitchen knife before, now it was starting to look more like a combat knife. It had gained a few inches, and the beginnings of a serrated edge were starting to show. The cost for the next upgrade had increased exponentially, but that would come with time.

  Joshua left the treasure chest room and started heading back down the staircase. He took it slowly, making sure to check every room once over just in case he missed a zombie or Defaced somewhere along the way. He hadn’t, but it did give him time to regenerate a little more HP before the deadly fight he was walking into.

  Joshua managed to reach 185HP before reaching the ground floor. It was significantly less than half of his total, and not nearly enough to feel comfortable walking into this next fight, but he was running out of options. He couldn’t just sit in this building all day trying to heal more, that would give other players several hours of a lead on him. Even the hour he had wasted to upgrade his knife and reconnect his arm was too much time lost, but it was necessary. Starting as a zombie had given him enough of a handicap without also losing several hours.

  When Joshua walked into the hallway on the first floor, the one he had fought his first zombies in, the Defaced was nowhere in sight. Neither were the corpses of the zombies he had left on the ground. All that he could see were bloodstains and tattered clothes where they had fallen. Joshua knew that the Defaced was eating their bodies, but seeing the results caused his stomach to turn.

  He walked down the hallway towards the buildings front lobby, making sure to check every office he passed. If the Defaced was smart enough to attempt an ambush, being caught unaware would be fatal. The caution turned out to be unnecessary in the end. The Defaced was standing out in the middle of the lobby, blocking Joshua’s path towards the door. And it was staring right at him.

  Defaced

  Tier: 2

  Level: 8

  HP: 450/450

  Either this was a different monster, or the one from before had leveled up by eating those corpses. Either way, the situation was not looking good. With more than double his HP and several levels worth of advantage, Joshua knew that a single mistake would cost him this fight. The Defaced was staring at him, but for some reason wasn’t attacking just yet.

  On closer inspection, Joshua realized what it was doing. The monster’s placement in the lobby wasn’t accidental, it was actively blocking his only escape route. He had no choice but to make the first move, and the Defaced was smart enough not to waste its advantage by attacking first. It was also stupid enough to give Joshua time to come up with a plan.

  Joshua spent twelve points of Pestilence to create three Eye’s. They weren’t capable of dealing damage, not yet at least, but the damage wasn’t what he needed right now. No, what Joshua needed was a distraction. 450HP might have seemed like a lot, but two or three good stabs with the newly upgraded knife would cut that down easily. The floating eyes would give him the chance to do just that.

  The eyes scattered, surrounding the Defaced while keeping enough distance that it couldn’t reach them. Controlling three at once was disorienting, but Joshua was able to shift their vision to the back of his mind for the moment. He didn’t need to see through them, just control their movements.

  With the eyes in place, Joshua rushed towards the Defaced with his knife held in front of him. As he had predicted, the Defaced responded with a charge of its own. While neither were very fast, they closed the distance between each other quickly enough. Just when they were about to meet, Joshua had one of the floating eyes dart towards the Defaced’s head. The monster flinched, lashing out with its claw and crushing the eye. In that instant, it lost its momentum. Joshua lunged, stabbing the knife deep into where the Defaced’s heart should have been.

  Critical Hit! Heart Pierced! Defaced has taken 267 damage

  Remaining HP: 183/450

  It wasn’t enough, but it was close. Joshua ripped the knife out, the slightly serrated edge dealing a few minuscule points of damage as it pulled on the monster’s skin. He went in for another stab, wanting to end the fight before it truly began, but the Defaced leaped backward before the attack could land.

  Joshua followed, keeping pace with the fleeing monster. If the Defaced had even a moment to think out a strategy, the battle would turn in its favor. The two remaining eyes flew, smacking into the Defaced’s head. They weren’t fast or strong enough to deal damage, but the impact’s surprised the monster, causing it to lose its footing and fall backward. Its arm lashed out as it fell, and once again Joshua’s left arm went flying. Unfortunately for the Defaced, Joshua was holding the knife in his right hand. As its back hit the floor, the knife struck.

  Critical Hit! Arm lost! You have taken 76 damage

  Remaining HP: 109/500

  Critical Hit! Face Stabbed!

  Defaced has taken 202 damage

  Level 8 Defaced has died!

  Zandrius gains 90 EXP

  The fight had been decided in just two strikes, but the adrenaline had made it feel like an eternity. Joshua was annoyed at losing his arm for the second time, but it wouldn’t be too hard to reattach. Without wasting a second, Joshua immediately used this new EXP to level himself up.

  Name: Zandrius

  Race: Zombie

  Class: Epidemic Warrior

  Tier: 2

  Level: 3 EXP: 57/300

  HP: 209/600

  Pestilence: 22/22 Regen: 3/min

  He wound up with more HP than when the fight had started. Both a testament to how hard healing was and how much he gained with each level. Once again picking up his severed arm, Joshua sat down in the lobby to start reconnecting it. He couldn’t risk starting another fight without both of his arms, even if the connection was a little flimsy.

  As the healing process began, Joshua felt a warning go off in the back of his mind. It was like a little alarm screaming at him that there was danger, but he couldn’t determine what it was. That was when he remembered two remaining the eyes, still floating around. Joshua had been ignoring their vision, and it was going to cost him dearly.

  A pair of claws erupted from his chest, ripping two massive holes in his body. Joshua was able to turn his head just far enough to see another Defaced, the level 7 one, standing behind him. The Defaced he killed was new, wandering in after this one had already eaten the corpses. It knew that Joshua would have to come back down eventually, so it had used the other Defaced as bait. Joshua only had a few seconds to realize what was going on before everything went dark.

  Critical Hits! Chest Punctured x2! You have taken 319 damage!

  You died!

  Joshua was surprised, sad, and most of all angry. Not angry at the Defaced, but angry at himself. He might not have been a pro-league gamer, but he was still a professional. Being caught in such an obvious ambush by something as stupid as the Defaced was a black mark of his record. Even if no one was around to see it, he wouldn’t be forgetting this anytime soon. Not wasting more than a second on self-pity, Joshua took a look at the notifications that appeared in the darkness.

  As this is your first death it is important you know the options available to you. First, there are two respawn options all players are granted on death. You may either respawn instantly at the cost of all unspent EXP towards your next level, or you may wai
t one hour to respawn at no penalty. All gear that is not Soul-Bound will remain with your corpse.

  The choice wasn’t easy, but Joshua made it instantly. Everything up until now had only been a few hours, and he had made massive progress in such a short time. Losing the 57 EXP he had leftover would hurt, but he could earn that back in a single kill. Waiting an hour might be worth it at higher levels when losing an hour of killing monsters wouldn’t set him back much, but for now, it would be too costly.

  Second, you must choose where you will respawn. You may be respawned at any nearby known safe zones, at a random unknown nearby safe zone, or at the nearest inhabited location. The nearest inhabited location to your death is the human settlement of Grace. Resurrection there is not recommended.

  Yeah, coming back as a zombie in the middle of a human town sounded like suicide. While Joshua was eager to contact others, that would probably have to wait until he could find another player. The town guard would probably just kill him on sight. Since that was out of the question and the list of possible safe areas was empty, Joshua had no choice but to take the random option.