Chapter 8: First skill obtained

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and turned around.

Alice, who was just given a lesson, flinched when she saw him turn around, thinking that he wanted to scold her some more. She looked at him with a cold look and frostily said, “Don’t bother. I got your point. You don’t have to…”

Luke, however, ignored her completely. He crouched beside the zombie’s corpse and started looking for something.

“There you are.” A moment later, a smile appeared on his face when he saw a fist sized red box lying there. It had many intricate drawings carved upon it and looked quite exquisite.

[Treasure Box: Treasure boxes drop randomly when a creature is killed. Treasure boxes have different grades based on their colours, such as, Red, orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Silver and Gold. Red being the lowest grade and Gold being the highest grade. Each treasure box may or may not contain a treasure.]

Although this treasure box Luke found was of the lowest grade possible, he was happy about it. Why? Because, in his last life, he could only see such things from afar. Now that he owned one, it was natural he felt gratified.

He immediately picked it up and as soon as he touched it, its opening method magically appeared in his mind. To open it, he just needed to inject one unit of his mana into it.

As Luke willed it, he lost one unit of his mana. Immediately after, a light flashed and a silver-coloured vest appeared in his hand.

[Level 3 protection vest: This vest can protect the user from any magic or physical attack at level 3 or below. Durability: 10/10.]

“This is good for protection for now, but I would’ve preferred a sword,” Luke murmured before wearing it.

He then went over to the first zombie he killed to see what it had dropped.

This time, he didn’t find a treasure box but an ordinary looking black book.

However, upon seeing this book, a broader smile appeared on his face.

He closed his eyes and immediately, what kind of skill the book had appeared in his mind.

[Berserk (First order skill) Level 5: When activated, it can increase the user’s strength and agility by 10 points for 10 seconds. Activation cost: 1 stamina point per second.]

Luke didn’t hesitate and immediately learned it. Learning a skill wasn’t at all difficult. You just need to have contact with the skillbook and wish it to be learned.

The book turned into a black light and drilled into his head. Then a stream of information about the skill appeared in his mind, and a strange black rune etched itself into his consciousness. At the same time, he heard the announcement.

[You’ve learned an external active skill, The Berserk. You can learn two more external active skills.]

From what he knew, before people advanced to the second order at level 50, they could only learn 3 external active skills. As for passive skills, there wasn’t an upper limit.

“Hey, what were those things that you took?” Alice asked from the side. She had been watching him when he picked the red box and the black book.

“They were treasure box and the skillbook. When you kill any evolved creature, they will drop these things.” Luke explained. Before walking toward the store.

While walking, he opened his status interface to assign his free attribute points, which he got when he levelled up.

[Luke Greyson

Level 1

Race: Human

Class: None

Title: None

Strength: 8 / Agility: 9 / Health: 10 / Stamina: 6 (7) / Mana: 30 (31) / INT: 100

Attribute points available: 2]

Luke didn’t need to think much and put both points into stamina as it was the best course of action for the current him for two reasons.

First, his stamina was too low and if a situation came where he needed to fight for a long while, he wouldn’t be able to do it. So, to avoid it, he had to increase his stamina. Second, his newly acquired skill, although could be very overpowered if used properly, needed a lot of stamina to operate.

When he entered the store, he found Ben, professor Nina and the store owner staring at him with different expressions. Ben looked excited while professor Nina seemed a little scared.

As for the store owner, she was staring at him in horror. When she saw him come back, she backed up against the wall and cried out, “Murderer! You killed those people! How… how could you do it? I always thought you were a good kid, but…”

“People?” Luke narrowed his eyes at her and asked. “Do you really think those things were still people?”

“They…” The store owner couldn’t speak. She had seen them kill a little boy and eat him. Then, when they were fighting Luke and Alice, they were like puppets without mind.

“What had happened to those people?” she timidly asked.

Luke glanced at Alice. “You tell her. I need to rest for a while.” He then walked off to a corner and sat down to rest.

Although he didn’t show it, but he felt disgusted after killing someone for the first time in his both lives. Especially because they used to be living people like him just a while ago.

Alice raised her brows in displeasure, but she didn’t go against him and did as he asked her to.

…

After a while, Ben came toward Luke with two chocolate bars in his hands.

Sitting down beside him, he offered one bar to him while he opened the other one and started eating it. He finished it in two bites and asked, “Say, Luke, I can also evolve after killing the zombies, right? How about you help me kill one? I don’t think I’ve enough courage to kill one by myself.”

Although they were safe for the time being. Ben knew it wouldn’t stay the same always. When the time came, he couldn’t afford to be weak and drag Luke and others down with him.

Hearing this, Luke smiled. “Since you asked, of course I’ll help.”

After eating the chocolate bar, he stood up. “Let’s go. Let’s kill some zombies now.”

“Hey, right now? How about we rest a little more?” Ben asked, feeling a little uneasy.

“You don’t understand.” Luke sighed and said, “If stayed here doing nothing, they will eventually come knocking on our door. At that time, we won’t be strong enough to fight our way out and will die here. Remember, zombies also evolve just like but, unlike us, they don’t need to rest. So, we if want to live, we can’t afford to waste even a single moment.”

“What did you say? They… they also evolve?” Ben paled at the revelation.

“Of course, they do. Didn’t you hear the announcement? The entire planet is evolving. In just a few days, zombies won’t be our only concern, because the mutated beasts I mentioned earlier will start invading us and unfortunately, they won’t be as easy to kill.” Luke warned.

“Damn it.” Ben cursed. He then stood up and shouted, “Let’s go. I don’t want to become zombie or beast food.”

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