Walk to home ended with no surprises aside from a large crowd gathering in front of my block.

"What's going on? Zombies? No, no, I see Monic and Chief in there, let's walk closer and find out what's going on."

As we close in we start to hear a loud discussion of unknown point. I wave to Chief to make him notice me, and as he gazes towards us we see him running here.

"Thomas! You sure took your time back, like in every day walk."

He comes closer.

"Since my place is loitered with corpses and smells rotten, I suggested we moved here, to activate the cube here and make this block our base of operations for now, of course we will not enter your apartment."

"Uhm, okay, but is there a problem? You were somewhat loud with them."

"Yeah, different goals and opinions, just everyday when danger enters life. They wanted the protection activated near their homes since you can't really pinpoint if their house will be included inside the safe zone, I tried to tell them that it was yours and you asked to keep your house safe.

He points at them.

"So here we are, aside from that we discuss about inevitable food shortage that will happen in near future as well as them becoming players by killing monsters, some people find that idea crazy or at least somewhat bad, you know how today humans are with 'peaceful' society."

We both walk closer to the crowd.

"Anyway, ...Ekhm! People, Thomas is here so ask him whatever you wanted to ask, in near future he will go to Oshen city and scout out how it went over there."

The crowd went silent at that but after a few seconds a teenage girl walks a step forward to show her presence and speaks.

"We all want to thank you for unlocking passage to city and are grateful about clearing monsters somewhat, including that Troll I heard about." At the mention of the Troll she shivers a bit.

She takes out a small piece of paper and while looking at it she continues.

"While you were away, we made a small list of things that are questionable about our future and answers you could thankfully provide."

"The first one is how did you get so strong as to fight these scary monsters, and I don't mean these green things called goblins."

I shortly organize my thoughts and respond.

"Well, I guess you can say after two hours after the window appeared, I was quite prepared since only fools don't take these kinds of things seriously, like you couldn't be a bit more careful and all even if it was some super high tech hologram prank."

I move a bit looking at them and continue.
"The point is I took it seriously and when a Boar appeared in front of my house, that is the spot you are standing on, I hand made some spear and killed it luckily, luck being that it wasn't that dangerous if you could dodge, and after you get your first upgrade from system, then you use your skills to progress, it became easier."

I offhand point at my skeletons.

"You see them behind me, it is a result of hard work to provide them equipment, going hunting these monsters and avoiding dangerous situations, of course not everyone would want to be Necromancer like me, but you should get basic idea, be who you want and use that to get stronger and who you want to be, I want to have army of undead."

They stare at me wide eyed. I suppose I prolonged my answer a little, I chucke embarrassed as I motion her to continue.

"I see, that explains a few things, let's move on to next question. We heard from Village Chief how there are levels like in a video game but we would like to ask you your level and how strong you are in regards to normal human, of course you don't have to answer as we are already happy with surviving this disaster." She gazes at me expectantly, figures.

Should I tell them? Why the hell not, it's not like it's a weakness to be revealed. But I should cover and muddle some things special.

"I can answer that, but only basic info, I am level 19 and..." I forgot to upgrade my status.

The crowd watches me in silence as I stopped moving and stare at them blankly.

I quickly upgrade my status to cut short this awkward situation.

Status Window Name: Thomas Level: 19  Class: Necromancer  Race: Human Strength: 4  Agility:4 Vitality: 4  Spirit: 6.1 Bonus Attributes: Troll Body +1 vitality Necromancer +1 spirit +1 agility Money: 20s 3c Accessory: Amulet of Lesser Spirit. This amulet clears one mind adding +1 spirit to user. Amulet of Necromancy Increases mental control of undead, can rise 1 undead more. Ring of the Forest Sage Ring faintly infused with Forest Sage wisdom, slightly increases intelligence and gives +0.5 spirit Ring of Strength. Gifts greater physical strength to the one who wears it. +1 strength

Finally perfectly four times as powerful as human, and increased spirit somewhat to get better magic damage.

I then turn my gaze at the crowd that is still silent and continue like nothing happened.

"...and I am about as four times strong as human, so I could probably fight boar from before bare handed."

"Wow"
"Incredible"
"You think he is saying truth? The monsters aside, I don't believe it! With that strength, your muscle density would be ridiculous and you wouldn't be able to do anything but move awkwardly like some body builder, yes the case of scratching your back and the like."
"Maybe"
"It could be so, but let's make him show it."
The girl seeing the half doubtful and half awed eyes speaks.

"Can you please show us, it could probably help people in acknowledging how humans can change now."

She turns her head around seeking something, and rests her head on a pile of boars and wolves I keep for resource purposes.

"Perhaps you could lift that boar? It should be heavy enough for you."

"No offense, seeing is believing."

I walk to a closest corpse, a boar big enough to be like half a small car.

I lower myself and pick it up, although somewhat slowly, my muscles strain as they are used to almost maximum.

"Hhhh, see? It's really heavy and I would like to not be carrying it for another hour for you to see from all sides." I say as I throw it atop the pile. It lands splendidly casing mild tremor.

"It's true"

Now all of them are watching me with real awe, I guess it was pretty cool.

"Okay guys keep it down." The girl is not flustered and tries to keep it focused on questions.

"Next we wanted to ask is when you will go to Oshen and if you are going to help people in the village on the way.

Oh, right almost forgot we have to cross the next village to get there, since my main focus was the city and how is the situation there.

"I will go after rest, this is tomorrow or day after tomorrow probably, If the people from Drewco are still confined with their boss monsters alive then I will hunt them down and if there aren't any place where they can gather I will instruct them to come here, so gather some food supplies."

"All right, thanks Thomas, that's about it, if we want to ask you something later I will come to you." She pockets the paper and goes with the crowd a bit further to discuss other things, Chief smiles at me and goes with them. Monic follows after him.

I go home to sleep after upgrading First and Second, the upgrades were balanced overall placing him at 2 and half human power while Second became more of a main attacker, he now posses more strength than three humans combined.
I cut the big three from shared experience gain and let them wander the village for now, as the monsters were killed not long time ago, we should maximize the cube potential as it will be activated tomorrow, my mini army should gain some good exp in the meantime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A while later I wake up, looking at a watch I looted from some house and placed here, after that comment from the player from before whatever his name was. It is 9 am now and I am fully rested although very hungry, the fight took much of my energy.

I stand up while stretching myself a bit, with injuries healed and body rested I really feel how strong my body has became, injuries from yesterday healed already and my body is not even aching from muscle strain, like I did some light exercise.

I dress myself up a bit more casually since it's time to relax and stroll into the kitchen.

I look around and notice that my normal food is spoiled now and I'm left with things I bought for survival, canned food, canned fruits, water in large bottles as well as many spices coming with multiple lighters and coal if there ever was a need.

I don't feel like eating a boar today so left with no choice I open a can, take some a bit too hard already bread and start to eat it using a spoon. Nothing great in terms of taste actually but it can fill you up in time of need, I also open some peach can and devour it with a smile, even tough it's canned it still tastes great, very tasty vitamin's will grant me strength to face future.

After cleaning and washing myself a bit with prepared before water gathered before the pressure went out I feel refreshed and relaxed as never before.

Leaping on a comfortable chair I open a map and start marking some points of interest in our journey later, there is a farm by the side of the road as well as few houses alone by the road to Drewco, it could be interesting to check them out for survivors and monsters, just hoping for less spiders and more anything not arachnid looking. Meanwhile I also check my status but not noticing any gained levels I can guess it's harder to hit level 20 while fighting monsters of about tenth level. I also examine my progress toward High Magic Mastery of Death Magic.

Requirements to reach High Death Magic Mastery. Have undead kill 1000 enemies, or Kill 1000 enemies using Death Magic offensive spells. Current progress: 138/1000 47 by Spells 91 by Undead Debuff spells do not increase proficiency.

 

Still some way to go I see, my skeletons sure kill lot's of enemies.

Current progress 139/1000

"Oh." They killed something.

After seeing it update some more I close it, I guess my undead have some pretty big fight somewhere, I hope First will be careful.

I lean on my chair again while thinking what I have left to do.

"Oh, right. That Soul of Mimic, wonder if it's better than Troll one"

I take it from my pocket and examine it carefully, it gives more light than the one before, I hope for great returns now. I inspect it.

Mimic Soul Soul of two star local boss, can be used as offering to gods, as well as used to strengthen user by +4 spirit, if user is necromancer it can be also used to give random trait to undead based on soul strength.

 

"Two times stronger huh? Two stars is 4 spirit, I can only guess its at least to five stars, so 8,16,32, It becomes something crazy toward the end, but I don't know if it just adds 2 or if it multiplies, if it's sum of it's stars then strongest five star should give 10 sprit, a significant number nonetheless. If I ever kill a three star boss the answer will reveal itself."

"My undead are strong and I should be strongest as the leader, shouldn't I?" I absorb it after a second.

It too releases some smoke and then melts strangely in my palm, but the effect is not changed, my spirit increased to 10.1 .

"Feels pleasant to increase it so much in such short time." I am lost in the feeling but as it feels pleasant I suddenly feel it magnifying and expanding, some weird feeling leaving me unable to explain it properly.

As I wonder what's going on, a message appears before me.

Congratulations! You broke trough first barrier of your potential! Number ten signifies more than just sum of your mental power, it is an checkpoint mildly put.As your body evolves you will naturally start to understand certain things, your mental power is now compressed and can be used to greater degree, you can now manipulate it slightly outside of spells bought in the shop. As one of the first to break trough this barrier, an additional knowledge will be provided: Normal humans of average spirit will be put under high pressure due to your subconscious use of spirit, they will pass out if your mood changes to wrath and it can lessen pressure of other similar beings as you.

 

"Well that was certainly a shock, even that additional info."

I look at myself a bit and realize that I can feel my body as if looking trough clothes and flesh.
I visualize myself seeing room not using my eyes as I close them, now I have fuzzy idea of my bed, and other bigger things near me, the range is short and it leaves me with a headache for a moment.

"I can sense space around me? That's strange but interesting in a way, can I use it in battle?"

I try to redo my earlier sense of surrounding and it appears again, I then stand up and try to walk, it fizzles to nothing as my concentration breaks.

"Eh, nothing now, but perhaps something later, we will see what will come out of this ability."

I sit on my bed as my head clears.

"Let's not try it for now, I need good head on my shoulders at this moment."

I take rest again for a quick nap, hoping that strain was not dangerous and my head will feel better later.