Kenny and Val stood and stretched after finishing up a quick rest break. According to Val, they still had two days left until the end of the Trial Grounds. While their progress was going well, especially after Kenny had teamed up with Val, they both agreed that they didn’t want to take any chances. There were still two more Mid-Area Boss fights and an Area Boss fight before they reached the final boss of the Trial Grounds.

Even though the timer was ticking closer and closer to the end, they felt their prospects of reaching their goal was still in reach. Especially after receiving so much Free Stat Points, the Titles, and the loot. Val was extremely happy about the loot she received. Kenny on the other hand had…mixed feelings about it.

The item that was dropped for Val was a staff. The Hexed Staff of the Swamp Doctor was what the staff was called. Kenny thought of staffs, he always pictured long tall wooden sticks that were taller than you. While Val’s staff was exactly that next to Kenny, it wasn’t so for Val. It stood up to Kenny’s head, but since Val was taller than he was it only came up to her chin.

That being said, the weapon still looked pretty cool to him. The base was a single strong piece of wood that split and intertwined tightly as it reached the tip were a skull of a goblin rested. Weird rune-like markings covered the skull as slim branches poked out of the eye sockets and hooked the top of the skull to root it in place. Val was excited not just because she now had a new weapon she could use, but the stats that came with it and the bonus effect it wielded.

[Hexed Staff of the Swamp Doctor. This staff carries the head of a Goblin Swamp Witch Doctor that lived deep in the swamp and specialized in Hex Magic. Wielding this staff allows the user to increase the effect of any Hex spells the user casts while also allowing them to wield a wand at the same time. The markings on the Goblin Witch Doctor skull not only increases the effects of the Hex spells, but also increases successful lands on creatures that have a resistance to Hex Magic. + 3 Intelligence, + 2 Wisdom, +2 Perception.]

Kenny agreed with Val that the weapon was a perfect fit for her. The fact that she could wield both the staff and her wand was a great boon as well as the skull giving her a better chance to land her Hex abilities on creatures with a resistance. Having those bonuses was a great help in increasing her confidence on being helpful and useful to the team dynamic, but Kenny didn’t care about that. He was just glad she was happy.

As for Kenny’s loot drop…he wasn’t so sure about it. He believed he received this item because his contribution to the fight was taking the hits for Val and that was it. He really didn’t do much in this fight.

Val’s words of gratitude for blocking the Pain spells had cheered him up some, but the fact he dropped to the ground in pain so easily left him worried. This item he received was something that helped with that.

[Jaw Guard of the Swamp Doctor. This item was made using the bottom jaw of a Goblin Witch Doctor. The rune-like markings helps defend the wearer against Hex, Curse, and Debuff like attacks used against the wearer. When any Hex, Curse, or Debuffs are used on the wearer the runes will light up cause the used spells or abilities to lessen the effects and make the wearer more aware of them. +3 Wisdom, +1 Perception.]

While Kenny was happy to have something that helped defend against Hexes, Curses, and Debuffs the item in question was a bit…much. It was literally the bottom jaw of a Goblin Witch Doctor fashion to fit over his own bottom jaw. It hooked around his ears and had a strap around the back to make sure it didn’t fall off, but the way he looked after putting it on made Val burst out into a huge laughing fit. When she finally calmed down she apologized and told him he looked like a barbarian of sorts with it on. Tough and fierce.

Those last two words made her laugh again, making him believe she only said that to make him feel better about wearing it. He was glad though that the jaw mask was clean and didn’t have any guts or skin bits still left on it. It even looked polished.

After receiving their items and distributing their Free Stat Points, they made camp there to get some food in their bellies, some rest, and clean their equipment before pressing forward. The goblin hut was actually much bigger on the inside and had a bathroom they could use to clean up and do their business. Once they felt they were ready, they walked through the left portal, ready to continue this journey of theirs.

As soon as Kenny and Val made it through the other side of the portal they froze. What their sight picked up took them both off guard. They weren’t sure what this new area was going to be like nor held for them, however what they saw before them was not what they ever expecting. A dark foggy graveyard.

The area they stood in was a grass and dirt patched area, luckily nothing was wet or soggy, and a metal fence they could see through. On the other side of the metal fence a light fog covered most of the ground and small gravestones that stuck out of the ground.

While most of the ground was covered in grass there were several spots that had piles of dirt next to what looked like dug up graves. Broken pieces of wood jutted around those areas. There was an occasional tree here and there, but not like the last area they were in.

It wasn’t only the scenery but also the sounds that echoed all around them. Moans, groans, and rattling filled their ears from all over making it hard to tell if whatever was making those noises were close or afar. They didn’t need to be the smartest to understand the type of monsters those noises were coming from. Undead creatures.

“Tower Christ,” Val whispered as she looked around. “A graveyard? This is where our triggers led us?”

“Seems that way,” Kenny stated as he tried to see if any monsters were lurking nearby. He then closed his eyes and tried to feel out where the trigger he felt from before entering was trying to lead him, however, like the place area the feeling was too spread out and not focused on any place in particular. With a frown and a click of his tongue, Kenny turned to Val and asked, “Do you have any leads on where your trigger is leading you?”

Val opened her eyes and gave him a light nod. “Yeah, its pointing me in that way.” Val pointed at an angle not too far from the right side. “Not fully right, but not exactly straight ahead either. How about you?”

Kenny shook his head. “No. Not a straight answer for me. It’s just…” Kenny waved his hands around as he finished, “all over the place.”

Val frowned at that. “That’s weird. I wonder what that means.”

Kenny shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe a monster is supposed to drop something for me?”

Val hummed before saying, “Maybe. Do we want to try and fight every monster to see if that’s true?”

Kenny thought about it. While he didn’t want to leave any stone left unturned, he also believed that it would take too much time. They didn’t know how strong these monsters were and how long it would take to defeat them.

After thinking it over Kenny shook his head and said, “No. Let’s press towards where we know a trigger will definitely occur rather than chase around for a maybe. We don’t want to lose time fighting everything only to come up short on the time.”

“But…,” Val tried to argue.

She stopped as Kenny raised a hand. “We need to press on. Before we lose any more time.”

Val stared at him with conflicting emotions. She understood what he was saying, but at the same time she didn’t understand why he was saying it. She didn’t have much time to think more on it since Kenny pushed open the gate doors.

As the gate doors opened the sounds of the hinges protesting echoed loudly through the air. As the doors slowly continued to open the other sounds went silent. Seconds after the doors stopped moving and making noises the moans, groans, and rattling sounds exploded in a frenzied cacophony.

“Kenny. What’s going on?” Val asked as she walked up next to Kenny looking around the area like he was doing.

“Not sure. Maybe the gate attracted the monsters around and signaled them that we have appeared?” Kenny questioned.

Before Val could reply, the sounds of feet shuffling through grass and dirt filled their ears. It came from three different directions. The right, the left, and in front of them. It didn’t take long for the monsters to fully appear before them bringing with them the sounds of moans, groans, and slight growls.

The three monsters that appeared were different in looks, height, and body sizes. The one to the right looked like a young male around their age and around Kenny’s height. His hair was silver and was almost completely gone, one eye was missing while the other was dangling out of the socket.

The one in front of them was a bone thinned female with sunken cheeks and arms. Her messy dirty brown hair was a little more intact than the male on their right, but had still lost a good portion of it.

The last one on the left was a much shorter person. Kenny wasn’t able to tell if it was a male or female due to how much skin had already fallen off the face. This one had just a few strands of hair poking out and up on the top of its skull as well.

All three didn’t have much clothing on except heavily ripped up pants and a shirt that exposed rotted and decayed skin. Some of the wounds were so bad pieces of bones stuck out while other wounds were blackened due to infestation or rotten skin.

[Turned Zombie. Level – 6. Stat Talent – Intelligence.]

[Turned Zombie. Level – 6. Stat Talent – Intelligence.]

[Turned Zombie. Level – 6. Stat Talent – Intelligence.]

The sight of the three zombies made both of the party members’ stomachs flip. The smell that lingered around them wafted in their direction and threatened to make them puke. They had to take a few seconds to breath and get as closed to use to the smell as they could so they wouldn’t be hindered by it.

Luckily for them the zombies weren’t that fast and had given them enough time to acclimate enough to the odors they carried. However, their slow movements didn’t mean they were too slow.

All three were approaching striking distance. Before anything could attack, Kenny thrust kicked the male on their right, away from them causing him to stumble backwards before falling down. He then threw a straight right punch right at the female zombie’s cheek making her fall to her side as well.

Val took note on who Kenny attacked first and used Slow on the zombie to their right before using Pain on it. To her glee both were successful on their landing. The only thing that was different though was the zombie didn’t look like it was in pain at all. Instead the creature’s even slower movements, thanks to the Debuff Slow, looked more constricted. Like it was walking through a thick pool of water.

Thanks to that Kenny positioned himself by placing his left foot firmly on the ground before twisting his hips to the right and spinning to the left bringing his right leg up and kicking the shortest zombie on the neck.

Upon impact a loud snap and squishing sound echoed as the head of the monster flew off the body like he had just kicked a soccer ball and slammed against a random gravestone not too far away.

Kenny felt a shiver run down his spine and went pale as he watched the body suddenly drop to the ground lifelessly. The scene caught him off guard enough that he missed the screen appearing telling him the monster was dead and the female zombie that had gotten back up right behind him.

“Kenny watch out!” Val called out as she snapped out of her out shocked and disgusted state of mind.

Kenny turned around with his arm up to try and backhand the monster, but was met with her teeth clamping down on the bare area of his arm right between the edge of his hand wraps and his elbow. The teeth marks didn’t penetrate as deep as he thought they did, but to his shock around the teeth marks faint black lines started to appear and slowly spread.

That spread lasted for a brief moment before they suddenly disappeared. A screen suddenly appeared in front of him giving him the answer to the question he was starting to form.

[A weak type of Poison has been detected.]

[Cannot identify Poison Type nor the name of the poison. Please upgrade Skill Node to receive more data on the type of poison you have been afflicted with.]

[You have been afflicted with an Unknown type of Poison.]

[Poison Constitution has activated and absorbed the poison. Poison Stored: 3%.]

[Unknown type of Poison’s effects have been neutralized.]

Kenny punched the female Zombie’s head and was rewarded with it releasing her bite and staggered away. Val used her Slow Debuff and Pain spell on the monster as it stumbled away.

After both magical abilities landed on the targeted creature Kenny jumped back at the monster and unleashed a volley of punches on it. To his surprise it didn’t take long to finish the monster, but the feeling of the creature’s soft, squishy, and rotten flesh sticking to his fist after each punch sent a wave of disgust he wasn’t liking.

Even though he hated the feeling he had after punching the zombie to death Kenny quickly got back to his feet and turned his focus on the last of the three zombies. It was already caught with Val’s combo spells before Kenny turned to face it which made fighting it much easier and faster.

After they finished the fight Kenny turned to look at Val, raised his hands up and pointed them downward to show he had loose decayed skin attached to the thorns on his hand wraps. Val gave him a disgusted look back and stated, “You need to wash them fast before you get any type of disease from them.”

Kenny gave her a sad look as he stated, “I don’t want to touch my pack with my hands like this. Can you grab the vials we filled with water and help me wash them?”

Val tilted her head and gave him an are you serious right now? What are you a child, kind of look before letting out a chuckle. “Fine I guess I can do that for you.”

Kenny gave her a smile and said while throwing his hands up in the air, “Yay! You’re the best!”

Val let out a small shriek as a piece of the loose flesh stuck on the thorns of his hand wraps flew off of it and landed right in front of her. She then narrowed her eyes and threatened, “If you so happen to get even a centimeter of that disgusting flesh on me I will not do this for you.”

Kenny let out a chuckle before bringing his hands down and nodded before he brought a hand up to show the contents attached to him. “Alright I promise I won’t get any of this on you…”

The smell of the rotted flesh suddenly hit Kenny’s nostrils, stopping him from speaking as he tried not wretch anything up.

Val laughed at that and said with a smile as she made her way over to their packs, “Serves you right you short idiot.”

As Val helped Kenny wash the loose flesh off his hand wraps a questioned formed in her mind. “Why was the Zombies Stat Talent Intelligence? It just doesn’t make sense. They weren’t exactly smart if you think about it.”

Kenny took a moment to think about it as well. She was right that their movements and actions weren’t made like a creature who had plenty of intelligence, but rather like they acted on instinct.

He then thought back to the notification he received after getting bit by that female zombie. His storage was at zero percent since he emptied all the poison he had stored during the Goblin Witch Doctor fight, but after being bitten and injected with whatever poison the zombies had it was suddenly three percent filled.

Kenny’s eyes widened as he thought about that. The zombies carried a poison they could inject into people just by biting them. The amount of poison he absorbed was more than the usual one percent he normally absorbed. Maybe the Intelligence stat is revolved around the effectiveness of their poison?

Val noticed Kenny’s eyes widen suddenly and asked, “What is it? Did you figure something out?”

Kenny looked at her. He wasn’t sure if what he was thinking was right or anywhere close to it, but he had to say what it was he was thinking. Maybe Val could confirm or help work out the missing parts he wasn’t sure on.

“I think the Intelligence is related to the poison they spread to people,” Kenny said without adding more.

Val looked at him for a long moment. She then looked at the dead zombies not too far away from them before turning to the last bit of flesh that fell off his hand wraps. With a calm and slightly confused tone of voice, Val asked, “How do you know they can spread poison?”

“When I got bit by that zombie black lines started to spread around the area where she latched on to. I shortly got a notification saying that an unknown type of poison had affected me…,” Kenny started to say but was suddenly interrupted.

“Holy shit Kenny! Black lines and a notification appearing saying you were poisoned? Black lines are a sign of necrosis. That was a necrotic poison!” Val shouted as she dropped the empty vial from her hands and grabbed the arm Kenny was bitten at. She moved it around so she could inspect the area, but after seeing no signs of the black lines she looked at Kenny with a concerned and puzzled look.

Understanding the question she was about to ask, Kenny said with a smile, “You won’t be able to see it because my Defensive awakened ability absorbed and neutralized it.”

Val’s mouth slowly dropped after hearing that. Almost like she didn’t believe it the first time she asked, “Are you saying you were bit with a necrotic poison, absorbed, and are completely fine?”

Kenny nodded as he gave her an awkward smile and chuckle. “Yup. Got it in one.”

After a few seconds of processing it, Val dropped Kenny’s arm and said with a teasing pout, “That is just broken. You are the bane to all poison type monsters right now.”

Kenny shrugged. “I’m just not a good match for them. And what are you saying I’m the bane to all poison type monsters. You can just use Slow and Pain and then just blast them all away before they reach you.”

Val shook her head. “I have a limit. Once my mana is depleted and if I don’t have any ways of replenishing fast enough then I’m screwed. You on the other hand can absorb then release once full then absorb again. You’re the broken one here.” She then turned with a faux pout on her face while crossing her arms.

Kenny let out a chuckle as he bent down and grabbed the vial that was dropped on the ground. He then said with a smile, “You can say that I’m broken all you want, but if a horde of them or any other type of poison creatures surround me then I’m screwed. Both of your abilities cover what I lack so in essence I can only be as broken as you claim as long as you’re around. I think our teamwork is somewhat broken.”

Val turned to look at Kenny with a confused look. What he said caught her completely off guard. She wanted to say he was only trying to be nice, but after thinking about it he was being honest.

He was durable, a lot more durable than the ones who were front lining in her last group, and was slightly fast and stronger. He also had an ability that made him immune to the poisons being thrown, injected, or spread on him, but if surround by monsters he would be in for a rough time.

She didn’t think he would die, but he would come a lot closer to death if she wasn’t slowing creatures down. Even her new ability, Pain, was useful in slowly depleting monster’s health. The effect was different on these zombies than on living monsters, but it was still doing its job.

A small smile slowly tugged at the edge of her mouth. The smile that was forming caught her off guard. She wasn’t sure why she was smiling. Not only that, but that feeling that welled up inside her was new as well. New to her over these past few days. Was she…happy?

Happy that someone acknowledged her abilities? She knew Kenny valued her abilities, well her one ability when they first met, but she felt he was being nice because he didn’t want to be alone. However, after the constant words of him saying how much her Slow ability was a boon when they fought and now even this…she was starting to think he wasn’t just saying these things just to make her feel comfortable in the group. She was starting to think he was genuine.

“Teamwork huh…,” Val muttered quietly.

“Hm?” Kenny hummed as he tried to make out what she said.

“So, you think our teamwork is that good?” Val asked sarcastically.

Kenny nodded. “Well, yeah. I think our teamwork is that good because we make a good team.”

Again Val was taken off guard. She was starting to think that her last team did a number on her mental state to be taken aback by such simple compliments. Val turned to look away so Kenny wouldn’t see the color that started to appear on her ears. Kenny was about to ask why she turned away when growls filled the air around them.

Kenny and Val whirled around trying to see where the noises were coming from. When they couldn’t get an accurate read on the sources of the noises Kenny swiftly asked, “Is the direction your trigger was pulling you towards still in that direction?”

Val focused on the pull and verified he was right by nodding her head. With confirmation Kenny then said, “Alright then let’s push forward. These creatures seem to be drawn to us so we’ll probably run into whatever is making their way as we move. Keep an eye on our rears and to the right and I’ll keep an eye on our front and to the left. Sound good?”

Val nodded as she said, “Sounds good. Let’s move.”