Chapter 8 – Moving on
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The roaring of a thunder comes as the rains starts to settle itself. A young man and a skeleton wearing rags sit on a floor just above street level.

He has a pair of binoculars as he surveys the street, night has settled in, and the rain is still sprinkling every now and then. It was a sudden heavy downpour that ended as quickly as it came to be, he was looking over to a smaller street that didn't get blown up. The buildings didn't catch on fire, but they did lose their windows, there's only two carriers lurking around, hidden.

"I don't see any people, and I'm not sure which evacuation center I should go to..."

He puts away the binoculars and checks his phone, the service is dead, but the GPS still works somehow. There are 15 evacuation centers in this city, the closest one is under the street that was blown up just before so that's a no go. It doesn't inspire confidence at the other ones, so he has to choose from 3, all over 1 kilometer away. Blindly picking he chooses the western one and sets a route.

"Alright let’s go, the boss rewards here are shit."

The rewards were rather pitiful, they acquired only 3 items.

Long distance night vision binoculars, another protective cloth, and a hat.

<Camouflage Hat - Protects the wearer's head while blending into the surroundings. +1 to all stats, +3 to Spirit. 20/20 Durability>

There wasn't a boss on every floor coming down, it took some time, but they managed to clear the bottom layers. It was rather exhausting work, but it was worth it for the stat increase alone.

[Kaleb Jones, Level: 10, Occupation: None, Title: None, Strength: 10+5, Agility: 11+1, Vitality: 10+1, Stamina 11/10+1, Spirit: 15+4, Endurance 13+1]

It has been only a few hours since that loud voice announced the Ascension system and now the world has gone haywire.

He looks at Bones who has started to develop a blue tinge to its previously green bones. Bones has advanced to level 11, leaving him behind. Their stats aren't very different, but the stamina regeneration is completely different, it will need lots of testing to ensure how both their systems work.

The stench of death whiffs from behind them as the wind travels through the building. A carrier moves around on the street. The entire neighborhood seems devoid of activity but, in the distance, there's still the sound of sirens and alarms blaring.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM* *WOOOSH*

A couple of jets launch a strike somewhere in the city. That should have been the residential area, which is the opposite direction of where he's going, which is near the farmlands. Kaleb gets ready as he eats some fruit, he fixes up the backpack after checking the electronics. They all still work but with no signal. He'll have to stop in a store that sells chargers or something.

Bones walks ahead of Kaleb down the stairs, the hisses of carriers and moans of zombies are heard as Bones hacks through them with ease, walking outside, onto the street. There was no issue in leaving Kaleb a moment to ready himself.

Bones scouts around the street as Kaleb drinks a stamina potion and another potion, a swiftness potion. It simply provides +5 agility for 6 hours.

He drinks it and immediately he feels different than simply quicker, he takes a few swings with the sword to adjust to the new sensation before smiling.

He has found a combination of skills and attacks that can be incredibly useful, he dashes forward and back confidently, with more confident strides. The feeling is addictive as he gets faster, almost like his body knows how to perform without him. It feels amazing.

He stops after wasting a point of stamina, he thinks about taking a second potion which increases strength but that's not suited that well to his current fighting style and he only has one of those. It might instead be useful as a trade-in item or use for later use. He picks up the Zombie Slayer and walks down the last set of stairs, this office space was rather disappointing, but he might be coming back to take a better look at it whenever.

There has to be some valuable stuff hidden there somewhere based on the lettering of the company being exhibited so proudly even in the foyer, Bones made a convenient path through all the creatures and the extensive security in place at the foyer, this company is loaded. It's a mess with all the broken glass but as he follows the path towards the undamaged rear section, he's glad that he jumped.

The street is... horrific.

Kaleb thanks his parents for his strong unwavering stomach and nose, the sight of the burnt bodies everywhere inside cars... Survival situations are tough. He walks away from the scene and exits to the relatively peaceful rear exit.

He walks out the exit, looking carefully before crossing the car park. Bones has left a trail of bodies so it's clear where he has gone but Kaleb isn't worried about him. He enters the alleyway; all the stores are boarded up. The food carts that would usually be set up around them are gone, leaving a barren alleyway, but safe.

The street is only a short distance away, and just across it, there's another alleyway that goes right between the buildings. His target is the food store close by. It's out of the way so it shouldn't be crowded with people. He reaches the street and looks up down its length, there's some debris and a handful of abandoned cars in the street, it'd be usually filled with mopeds and pedestrians... but right now it only has a few carriers roaming around.

Bones has gone somewhere unknown, so Kaleb has to focus. He looks around to the other side of the street and back. The carriers haven't noticed him, he darts between the wreckage on the street as he crosses. The carriers don't notice him as he works his way to the next alleyway, this one goes between a few small stores that have all their front windows smashed.

He walks through it slowly, making sure he doesn't step on the glass and makes a sound. The atmosphere is eerie, lacking any of the ordinary city noises. There is only the sound of the wind going through the small stores. The smell of smoldering wreckage and death shortly makes its appearance before vanishing once more as he walks down the alleyway, taking the night vision binoculars out from time to time.

He walks through the alleyway without incident, carrying a new suitcase he just looted. This one is silent as it glides over the ground on oversized off-road wheels. The food store is close by, he calmly walks forward when a carrier notices him from one of the windows.

"RAH"

It pounces at him.

Kaleb pulls his sword out and slashes, the creature's head tumbles away as its blood spurts out from its newly beheaded neck.

Kaleb quickly leaves the area, he turns the corner as several zombies appear from the shadows and shuffle over from the adjacent storefronts, including a golden one.

He walks around the outside before spotting the lettering of the food store he's after, just a small family-owned business instead of a large chain one. Carefully, he crosses the glass covered ground as he enters inside the store tightly gripping the sword, the aisles are pristine as he passes by the counter.

No one is there.

He carefully walks through the dark store checking each aisle for any hidden surprises, but the store has been untouched and there's no creatures in it anywhere, Kaleb relaxes as he lowers his weapons and starts filling the suitcase with common food and other canned and non-perishable stuff for later down the line. He races around the store picking up the high-quality canned goods and other sealed items.

Kaleb walks by the drinks and stops for a moment, he has plenty of water as Bones has a backpack filled with it still and he has his own water ball skill that seems useless so far but as he looks at the pile of drinks sitting there, some alcohol catches his eye.

"Ah fuck it, I need a goddamn drink after all that shit."

He reaches into the drink fridge that is slowly becoming warm and pulls out some alcohol, he drinks 2 cans of beer right away before opening up a final bottle of spirits. The national pastime of his home country is drinking alcohol after all.

*BURP*

He's already drunk 3 cans standing there, before grabbing a handful more cans, throwing them in, then walking over to the display and grabbing even more spirits. It's not only good for drinking but also disinfecting and making fires. His footsteps are unsteady as the booze flows through his body, but he feels far more confident about what he has been doing.

"Ah shit, I need some chips!"

Kaleb walks around the store trying to find the salty snacks to go, he walks around the store once trying to find them when he spots the food by the front of the store. He walks by the counter and stops to look at it when he spots something that will be useful in the future, the whole counter section is locked up, but he drunkenly crawls over the counter.

*BANG*

He falls off the counter as he struggles to squeeze through the open hole, behind the counter is interesting but all that he wants is what's in this case.

Cigarettes.

Kaleb doesn't smoke but cigarettes are always a huge thing in survival situations, they'll be useful for trading with other people together with the alcohol. Kaleb grabs several cartons of cigarettes and cigars filling a third of his suitcase as he attempts to exit out the doorway but finds that it's locked.

He raises his weapon in an attempt to open the door from this side when, outside in the moonlight, he can see some figures moving about.

Kaleb ducks behind the counter and as he surveys the outside, the moonlight shimmering in the puddles that waver with the wind raises his tension.

*CRUNCH*

His eyes turn towards the noise, a large black cloaked figure is standing outside the store near the street.

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