Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 162: Too Many Questions Not Enough Answers

Zane quickly organized his small horde of undead according to their strengths. At the same time, he incorporated his own party members into their ranks. At the front were the five Undead spearmen, forming a small shieldwall. Madison, of course, leading them as their NCO.

Whereas the remaining twenty or so Walkers were used as skirmishers to flank the enemy with what can best be described as a zerg rush. As for Elena, she would be leading these skirmishers. Meanwhile, Olivia and Angelica sat back.

Olivia provided support via her offensive lightning skill. And Angelica would heal any of the party members who were injured. As for Zane, he acted as a scout, probing the enemy, and luring them towards his formation, where he would then strike at the most opportune moment.

Naturally, if he could max out his Horde Size of 300 Undead Servants, and equip them all with basic gear, it would be even better, but that was a long-term goal. The first thing he needed was to actually collect the walkers and force them to submit to his control.

Because of this, Zane led his small horde throughout the ruined streets of Old Reno, quickly collecting Walkers into his ranks. He neglected howlers and leapers simply due to the fact that he did not yet know how to properly incorporate such undead into his ranks.

By the time the sun began to set, Zane had collected his three hundred walkers, and had even engaged in battle with three times as many undead. Curiously enough, his Horde did not individually gain XP. Rather, it was collective for the horde itself. When the Horde gained a certain amount of XP, he could apply it to level up one or more of his Undead Servants.

Zane received enough for three level ups which he applied evenly across his five Undead Spearmen, three of which became level two. It was an interesting system, one which Zane felt was somewhat reminiscent of a certain first person strategy game that he had well over one thousand hours on prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse.

When it came time to flee back to Gravestone, Zane simply gave the command to his Undead Servants to "Rest" which caused them to vanish from sight in a flash of purple flame. Scared that perhaps they had been eliminated, Zane quickly looked at his horde management feature where he found, much to his relief, that his Horde still existed, and was capable of being summoned at a moment's notice.

This made it extremely easy to travel with his horde constantly by his side. And Elena was quick to comment on this when they got inside the HuNovelFireee and drove back to the ruins of what had once been Carson City.

"I have to admit… That new skill of yours is incredibly powerful. Even if we just used those three hundred undead as meat shields, it allows us all to act primarily offensively. Not only that, but we can also focus our energy on the more dangerous undead that we may replace ourselves fighting…."

Zane nodded his head in silence. He had been throughout the day thinking about this new skill and the limitless potential it had. The Horde Kings either did not know what strategy and tactics were, or were simply limited in how efficiently they could command their own Undead.

After all, the existence of Undead Spearmen, and other Tier I undead capable of wielding weapons and armor, already put Zane at a serious advantage when compared to the hordes that belong to the infamous Horde Kings.

But the fact that Zane had gotten this unique skill in addition to his previous one, both of which had a similar theme. Zane could not help but question whether or not this was merely chance, or by intelligent design.

Who created the Undead? Why did the system exist when it was clearly a double-edged sword to the living? And was the system itself intelligent enough to choose complimentary, unique skills for Zane? Or was someone else behind this? And if so, who and why? Why had Zane been singled out among Humanity's survivors?

There were simply too many questions that this new skill posed. Questions Zane would have never thought about before acquiring this unique and rare ability. He supposed he would not replace out the answers to these questions, no matter how hard he thought about them. There were simply too many unknown factors within this cruel new world.

But one thing was certain to Zane. The next time he defeated a Horde King, if he managed to get a third skill that was in a similar theme to the two he already had then there would be no mistake about it. That would prove to Zane that there was an intelligent creator behind the system, one that favored him for whatever reason.

After all, with two skills of a similar theme that could very well be a coincidence, but three was a pattern and there would be no denying such a reality if it came to pass. But at the end of the day, none of this really mattered. At least not as one of Zane's immediate concerns.

Now he needed to become stronger, and the best way to do that was to hunt undead in the ruins of Old Reno, acquire the resources that they dropped, and create equipment to properly outfit his new horde. As well as the residents of Gravestone.

If this could be properly accomplished, then Zane's strength would have jumped by leaps and bounds. Thus, Zane simply nodded his head in response to Elena's statement, after much time elapsed in ponderous thought.

"You're right… It is a very powerful skill indeed. One that needs to be properly nurtured… I say from now on, we should lead regular strike teams into the ruins of Old Reno. Five days a week, for six to eight hours a day… What do you all think?"

The girls' opinion on the matter was unanimous, apart from wanting to grow stronger so they had a better chance at surviving. There was also a certain matter of jealousy towards Madison who had an excellent set of equipment, while the others did not. And thus, all the girls came together and agreed with Zane's proposal.

"Absolutely!"