Chapter 31 Mutation
He took a last glance towards the left, making certain that there were no monsters before he rushed towards the right.
As most doors were closed, Dilan simply ignored them for now.
With fast strides he passed through the hallway and kept his sight focused on a group of five zombies.
Their looks were similar to ordinary zombies, with only a slight difference.
All of them had a bluish color around the area of their feet.
This was something one wouldn’t usually notice, but Dilan had figured it out.
He had an idea about what could be the reason behind this as well.
That was also why he was not astonished when the five zombies shot towards them with a speed twice that of ordinary zombies.
Oliver was baffled for a moment, but instead of moving backward, he pushed ahead while leaning forward.
Dilan used his high speed to pierce the Reinforced Stone spear out.
His prediction of the zombie’s trajectory was accurate as the closest zombie ran straight at his spear.
Piercing through its head, Dilan’s powerful thrust killed the zombie at once.-.
With a quick motion and his enhanced strength he pulled back the Spear just to slash out horizontally, using the small corridor’s restricted width to his advantage.
The attack didn’t kill a single zombie, but it distracted them as they momentarily forgot about Oliver.
However, this was a big mistake as the skinny young man had already appeared next to the zombie that was on the far left.
He had ducked under Dilan’s slash, using every single detail of the surroundings to his advantage as he pushed upward using his ability.
[Violent Strike]!
One unit of mana was used up, and it increased Oliver’s strength which allowed him to pierce the rat horn dagger through the zombie’s chin, driving the tip of the blade deep inside before it pierced into the zombie’s head.
Not having the time to be certain that the zombie was dead, Oliver had to let go of his weapon as the zombie next to him lunged at him.
Fortunately, Dilan was already prepared to attack once again.
He appeared right in between Oliver and the zombie without hesitation and blocked off the zombie’s path.
But the monster wasn’t picky about whose brain it feast on.
Thus, its hands reached out for Dilan, brushing past his clothes in an attempt to kill him.
The attack barely missed Dilan, and when Oliver saw this, his eyes widened in shock as he realized what kind of dangers Dilan had thrown himself in just to protect him.
However, Dilan’s sky blue eyes showed no signs of worry, and his ice-cold gaze hardened as he pierced the Reinforced Stone Spear.
Due to the narrow space between Oliver and the zombie, Dilan had to thrust his spear right into the zombie’s chest pushing the monster back before he kicked it hard.
Afterward, he advanced towards the staggering beast and in a clean cut chopped off its head, before jumping in the fray of the other two agility-enhanced zombies.
Their speed might be twice that of ordinary zombies, but that was still not fast enough to face Dilan.
His combat experience was slowly increasing with time and each subsequent kill, and his movements were much smoother as well.
He made far fewer unnecessary steps and actions in the combat style he was slowly creating and adapting himself to.
Thus, he lashed out towards the zombie on his right.
Due to its high speed, Dilan was not able to pierce its head in time.
However, that was fine because he had aimed for its left shoulder, to begin with.
Pinning the zombie on the right to the wall, Dilan used his strength that was now thrice that of an average human before the Primordial Ascension and lifted his left leg up to the height of his abdomen before hurling the zombie away like dead meat.
His shoe connected with the head of the zombie on the left, and the impact caused its neck to break.
It was only a fraction of a second later that Oliver shot past Dilan, piercing his remaining dagger in the head of the left zombie, before he reached out for the other zombie as well, ending its life.
Dilan would have to retract the Reinforced Stone Spear before piercing out in order to kill the zombie he had just pinned down.
Thus, Oliver had believed that it would be for the best to help out a little bit.
It was not necessary but Dilan nodded his head to thank Oliver before he did a cursory check and signaled to Dilan that the coast was clear for them to proceed further to the hallway.
There were no monsters in their immediate surroundings, and they could only hear the growling of zombies from a few rooms, but that could be easily ignored.
Turning to the corpses, Dilan thought about something which led him to act rather fast as he opened the skull of the two Zombies he killed.
[Essence of a Tierless Level 3 Agile Zombie has been absorbed→ +0.5 Agility]
“As expected.” He could only mumble as the first Essence crystal crumbled in his hand.
The zombies they had just killed were likely to be advanced mutations of ordinary zombies, which told them why their agility had improved to such heights.
This also explained why their speed was so high and made it clear that all the bodies accepted three to four Essence crystals of all types of monsters post which wouldn’t provide any status points further.
As such, he absorbed the last crystal as well, gaining 0.3 points in Agility before Dilan continued his way through the hallway.
“If all corridors are connected, there should only be a few rats on the right side. How about we use this chance to clear the rooms first before killing the stronger zombies.
We should imprison the weaker zombies, one in each room. This would make it easier for us to procure abilities when we have more survivors.”
No sooner had he shared this idea, the numerous closed doors came into his view.
Oliver wasn’t really paying enough attention and his eyes widened when he received a total of 1.1 Agility from the three Essence crystals.
This boosted his Agility above 3 Units, which was higher than Dilan’s Agility of 2.9 Units.
Only when Dilan repeated his idea did Oliver listen to him, just to nod his head.
‘Why am I even asking for your opinion if you just nod to whatever I say?’ Dilan began to question himself, shaking his head lightly.
Having agreed on the decision, they began to clear all the rooms one after another. Luckily, in some rooms they could only find a single zombie.
Thus, Dilan closed such rooms once again, engraving a big ‘I’ on the center of the door.
A total of four hours passed, and they encountered more than a hundred zombies on their way through the hallway that connected the left and front corridor.
They didn’t encounter a single evolved zombie, let alone a special zombie.
All around them, they could only find unleveled and level 1 zombies.
However, this time, they didn’t kill them.
Either they led one zombie in an empty room before Dilan cut off its leg, or they simply avoided larger groups, slowly splitting them up before filling the empty rooms with one zombie each.
This took up most of their time and required their utmost focus as well.
As such, the two didn’t even notice that they hadn’t encountered a single horned rat or Krendel on their way.
Stretching their body after they were done, Oliver felt like falling asleep right on the spot he was standing on.
Meanwhile, Dilan returned to the front where they had yet to clear the rooms after the nurses’ room.
“The nurses should take medics from the nurses’ room to the cafeteria sooner or later,” Dilan suddenly mumbled.
There were quite a few things he had to pay attention to in order to ensure everyone’s survival.
However, it was just as he was about to clear the remaining rooms of the second floor that he halted in his tracks.
‘Am I not being too much of a thinker and a strategist right now? Someone else should think about sorting all this mess. Just let me fight!!’