Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 26: Level Up!

While the living slept, Zane was walking among the dead. Because he was what the system considered to be a "Living Dead" Zane could walk outside the safety of his temporary sanctuary without needing to fear an attack from these monsters.

Because of this, the young man entered the Main Building which was now a domain of the dead. As Zane walked past the undead monstrosities that now plagued this world, they did not pay him the slightest notice. Instead, he observed his surroundings, replaceing the halls stained with coagulated blood, and the bones of the victims who had been entirely devoured by the Walkers.

The hinges on the classroom doors, and the doorways to other areas had been blown off, and the doorway themselves had been irreparably damaged by some kind of significant force. Zane, of course, could guess exactly what this was. Keith had turned into a higher level of undead. One which Zane did not know yet know the name of.

This Undead abomination had caused massive damage to the barricaded classrooms, which previously housed hundreds of survivors. Out of a high school which hosted three thousand kids in total, Zane estimated less than a hundred were still alive.

That is, if there was another group of survivors holed up somewhere else on campus that was similar in size to his own. After all, Ryan seemed to be fetching supplies for a large group of people when Keith was chasing after him. And because of this, Zane was certain that there were other members of the living still hiding on the school grounds.

But none of that was important to Zane at the moment. He had decided to begin grinding his levels in this new and mysterious system after realizing the massive advantage he had over everyone else. But he had to do it in secret, as he did not want the others to know about blood crystals and their strange powers just yet.

Because of this, Zane stalked through the halls of the Main building early in the morning when everyone else was still asleep. Making use of this time to collect blood crystals and advance himself to Level 2. But This wasn't some video game. If Zane managed to get himself killed during his grinding, that was it. End of the line.

With this in mind, Zane had decided that he would use his newfound abilities in the most efficient means possible. Knowing that outright attacking the undead horde would immediately turn them hostile against him, Zane scouted the vicinity of the high school campus in search of an area where he could funnel the Walkers inside one at a time. And luckily for him, he found one such place.

Zane used an empty classroom in the main building and barricaded its doorway by stacking desks around it so only one Walker could gain access at a time. After ensuring that his grinding spot was perfectly safe for him to begin a slaughter, Zane swung his bat at the nearest undead, smashing its head open and killing it on the spot.

The moment he did this, all other undead in the vicinity immediately locked their sights onto him, and charged after the member of the living who had from their perspective appeared out of thin air. Zane then ran across the hallway to the barricade he had created, standing in the doorway, and attacking the first Walker to make its way inside.

With a vertical strike from his war club, Zane bashed the creature's skull open. But he did not have time to rejoice, because before its body could fall to the ground, another Walker was set upon him. Yet it met a similar fate. At first, Zane did not feel a thing as he mercilessly bashed open the skulls that used to belong to his classmates without mercy or remorse.

But as Zane continued to kill the monsters, something dormant inside him began to rise itself. It was not an emotion of guilt or empathy, but one of excitement. Why would he not be excited? With each Walker he killed, there was a chance it contained a Blood Crystal, and he only needed seven more blood crystals if he wanted to level up.

What would happen after his first level up? Zane did not know. In fact, he didn't even have a guess about what might happen. Other than a basic increase in attributes, like was common among RPGs. But nevertheless he swung the bat with all his power, over and over again as he smashed open the heads of his former classmates with a wicked sneer on his face.

By the time the sun had begun to rise, Zane had killed at least fifty Walkers, After slaying the undead, and searching to see if he had de-aggro'd the rest of the horde, Zane swiftly returned to the pile of corpses that existed outside the barricade he had created.

A large pile of bodies with fractured skulls, laid silently on the floor. There were obvious bite wounds across their flesh, and their skin had long since gone pale with blood loss. Some of them had even begun to putrefy in ways that should normally disgust Zane. Yet he did not feel disgust, only excitement as he dug through their skulls in search of the crystals.

After a thorough search through the skulls and brain matter, Zane managed to replace about ten blood crystals. The sanguine hued spherical crystals were coated in a layer of filth that Zane did not even bother wiping away before tossing them in his mouth.

One by one, the crystals touched Zane's tongue, where they instantly melted into a river of blood, blood that tasted as if it had been rotten for days. Yet despite this putrid taste, Zane not only tolerated it, but enjoyed it. Clearly, it was the fact that he was part dead that allowed him to devour these filthy crystals with such gusto.

With each crystal that he devoured, Zane saw the same message appear itself. One that he had previously seen after consuming blood crystals for the second time.

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[Blood Crystal Consumed!]

[Buff Applied: Living Dead]

[+10 XP]

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This message repeated itself seven times before Zane received another message one that made him incredibly excited as he gazed upon what benefits he gained from it.

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[Level Up! You are now Level 2!]

[+2 Attribute Points!]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 10: +/-]

[Dexterity: 10: +/-]

[Constitution: 10: +/-]

[Intelligence: 10: +/-]

[Wisdom: 10: +/-]

[Charisma: 10: +/-]

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Zane immediately saw that he had 2 attribute points to spend, and stared at his options carefully, thinking about what would be best to invest in early on. If he was being honest, he would be wise to invest in strength and constitution.

The more strength he had, the more he could carry, while the more constitution he had, the more his health increased. With this in mind, Zane added one point to each. Once he had confirmed his choices, his Attributes screen immediately updated to reflect the changes he had made.

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[Attributes:]

[Strength: 11]

[Dexterity: 10]

[Constitution: 11]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Wisdom: 10]

[Charisma: 10]

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Zane immediately felt an increase in his strength. Not only did he feel a sudden surge in power, but he saw that the muscles in his arms had become more defined. Clearly, this system just made a significant change to his body. One that he couldn't help but want to test out.

Unfortunately for him, the sun was rising, and he had yet to gain any sleep. Thus, he decided it would be wise to retire back to the Camp he and the others had set up in the second building. As for the three remaining blood crystals.

Zane intended to use one on both Olivia and Elena, whereas the third he would either consume himself, or perhaps make an attempt to convert another one of the survivors in his group into an "awakened" individual like himself.

But that was a story for another time…