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Defeated level 3 zombie.

Essence gained 19.

The notification startled Steven and he nearly yelped in surprise. He had been staring at the first zombie he attacked. Its health was at fifty-five percent and he had completely forgotten the other zombie. He also noticed that it no longer told him how much essence he needed for his next level. A quick look at his stat page showed he had nineteen of the two hundred essence he needed to level. Looking back at the remaining zombie, the green tint was now gone from the health bar. At least he now had an answer to that question. From what he could tell, the poison went from eighty-three percent to fifty-five percent. Which was twenty-eight percent. Steven frowned. He didn’t know how much the poison actually did. It completely finished the second zombie, but that could be because the two daggers delivered more poison, or maybe it was a lower level or both. Either way, he now knew the poison wore off and that sneak attacks was the best.

Not wasting any more time, he tried his luck at sneaking up behind the zombie that still had fifty-five percent. He was able to stab it with both daggers in the back of its neck. Seeing it only had three percent left, he kicked it, causing it to fall face first on the floor. Before jumping on its back, stabbing it until he received the notification.

Defeated level 5 zombie.

Essence gained 27.

Closing the prompt he looked around wide eyed for more threats, seeing none he smiled. He was a badass! He would clear this entire cavern of essence. Then maybe Sirus would show him a little respect. Though it was a bit concerning that the zombie didn’t die immediately it only had fifty-five percent after all. Maybe he needed to stab closer to the head when stabbing at their necks.

Steven crouched around, searching for more lone zombies, but he only found clusters of them. There were a few lone zombies, but there was no way he could get to them without being spotted. There was even a cluster of about twenty that he carefully backed away from and went back towards the tunnel. It seemed the only ones he could attack without alerting more were a couple of pairs. He didn’t feel comfortable taking out over two at a time, even as slow as they were. He didn’t want to chance it. If this was a video game, he would have just run out there and started attacking and leading them on a zombie train, poisoning them as he could till they were all killed. But he didn’t have unlimited stamina and trying something like that without respawns was suicidal. Deciding to not waste any more time, he snuck towards a pair of zombies.

His plan was to take out as many zombies as he could in the next few hours before he started searching for a safe place to rest and figure out what to do about the darkness. Surely he could find something in his inventory to make a torch out of. Maybe he could place a zombie in storage before it dissolved and make a torch out of its clothes.

Or maybe… Steven had an idea, one that was dumb and he had no idea if it would work or what would happen exactly if it did work, but he had to try.

It was difficult sneaking up behind the pair of zombies as they stumbled around in every direction. He had to wait much longer than he would have liked before they both finally turned in the same direction. Moving quickly, Steven placed his hand on a zombie and willed it into his inventory. To his surprise, the zombie vanished. He snapped out of his surprised state as the second zombie turned to face him, teeth chattering. Touching that zombie, he willed it in his inventory as well. He frowned at not receiving any essence, but that would have been too easy.

He made his way back to the tunnel entrance before he opened his inventory to see what was going on exactly. He was also unsure if this had any negative effects, like becoming a zombie himself or something. Steven couldn’t find anything wrong with having them in his inventory. Though he was lacking a lot of information and it felt wrong somehow to leave them in his storage, but that could just be him being paranoid.

He wondered how many he could place in there. But before figuring that out, he did a bit of experimenting. He tried to will the zombie out of his inventory at a distance, but he immediately knew it wouldn’t work. He would have to be touching the zombie when it came out, just like with his daggers. Holding his hand out as far as he could, he willed the zombie out facing away from him. Immediately, the zombie appeared and he then sent it back to his inventory he needed to get ready.

Dagger in his right hand, he willed the zombie out with his left hand. He then stabbed it in its neck before sending it back into inventory. It was at seventy-nine percent health when he placed it in his inventory. Opening up his inventory and going down to the undead tab that he now had, he waited. He even closed the inventory and reopened it after a bit. But its health was still at seventy-nine percent. It seemed the poison wouldn’t affect them while in inventory. Steven was hoping he could just let the poison kill them while in his inventory, but that wasn’t going to work.

Pulling the zombie back out of inventory, he stabbed it again before sending it back to inventory. The zombie didn’t stand a chance, it almost felt like cheating as he pulled out the zombie and stabbed it before it could react. Repeating this a few times, he received a notification.

Defeated level 4 zombie.

Essence gained 23.

“Did I just break this world?” Steven mumbled, eyes wide and mind racing. Though when he thought of putting Sirus in there to prove a point, he knew it wouldn’t work. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he understood more about his inventory ability than he first realized. It was as if he always knew and was just then remembering. He knew that nothing living could go in there, not even living plants, though he was unsure about plants because the Kishurack plant was in his inventory, although it was no longer connected to its roots. He felt the undead were similar somehow.

Dealing with the next zombie in the same manner, he received another notification.

Defeated level 7 zombie.

Essence gained 33.

Steven was feeling confident enough to take on the groups of zombies now. Although the pack of twenty was a bit much for now, as he was still unsure what the limit was to his inventory.

Suddenly he got the sense he was being watched, but when he looked up and down the tunnel he saw nothing. The feeling left soon after. He was probably just getting paranoid. Glancing at his stat page, he was now one hundred and two out of two hundred essence.

“Alright, let’s get to grinding.”

Steven snuck off towards the other pair of zombies. Another one was with them now, causing Steven to back up and recount. There should have only been eleven zombies in this area, he was positive. But he had clearly missed one. He knew for a fact there were dozens of zombies on the other side of the rock cropping.

Making his way over there, he carefully peeked over rocks to make sure they weren’t migrating this way. Satisfied they were still just stumbling around aimlessly, he made his way back to the zombie trio. Steven watched them from a distance, trying to judge when the best time to move in was. But the zombies had no patterns and just randomly stumbled around, deciding he couldn’t just wait around forever he moved in. Two of the zombies turned towards him immediately. All he had to do was just touch the zombie for a split second and he could send them to his inventory. He could do this!

Steven had all three zombies in storage before they could even react. A smile crept on to his face. This dungeon just turned into easy mode. He didn’t need Sirus after all.

“Might as well see how many it can hold.”

It didn’t take Steven long to clear the entire section of zombies. He even stopped sneaking after a bit. Though he still tried to not make any noise, he was mostly just tired of crouching as his legs were hurting and he wasn’t even sure if it was helping.

Steven still didn’t think he could deal with a group of twenty, so stayed clear of the larger groups. Once back at the tunnel, he looked over his inventory. He now had fifteen zombies, meaning he had miscounted pretty good. Whatever the case, Steven went about killing the zombies one at a time. It was a laborious task, but it had to be done.

On the twelfth zombie, he stopped and looked around, a shiver went down his spine. Again It felt like someone had just been standing behind him, but when he turned around, there was nothing. The feeling left almost as quickly as it came. He just shook his head. Being in this dungeon was making him paranoid.

Steven quickly finished off the remaining zombies in his inventory. He then made his way back to the dungeon entrance. He had gained a good chunk of essence and he wanted to take his time when placing his points. Getting as far away from the zombies as he could seemed like a good idea. He was also tired and hungry. Even so, Steven couldn’t stop grinning at the levels he was fixing to gain.

{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards}

Level -1

Available Attribute~0

Essence- 497

Essence required for next level 200.

HP ~ 70

Stamina ~ 40

Mana ~ 115

Poise ~ 0

Vitality ~ 7

Endurance ~ 4

Strength ~ 3

Dexterity ~ 4

Resistance ~ 7

Spirit ~ 11

Steven frowned. He had expected more essence. He worked so hard for it, making it feel like he had more. If he could get two levels, he would be lucky. He hoped the essence requirement didn’t double each time, or this grinding session would take forever.

He only had sixteen hours left on his dark vision timer, and he was going to have to find somewhere to rest soon. He considered the entrance, but if the zombies started going out again, he would be trapped between the entrance and the zombies.

Not wanting to waste more time, he reopened his stat page. When he was killing the zombies, he had been thinking of adding strength, as it was his lowest stat, and then maybe he could stab into the brain.

After leveling up and receiving his single attribute point Steven placed the point into strength, after selecting yes that he did want to spend it on strength his body began to tingle slightly and he felt like he just got done working out, but without the soreness. He flexed his arms a bit and thought maybe he could feel a difference, but he wouldn’t know for sure till he had something to test it on. He then looked over his new stat page and groaned.

{Stats*} {Equipment} {Shards} {Inventory}

Level -2

Available Attribute~0

Essence- 297

Essence required for next level 339.

HP ~ 70

Stamina ~ 40

Mana ~ 115

Poise ~ 0

Vitality ~ 7

Endurance ~ 4

Strength ~ 4

Dexterity ~ 4

Resistance ~ 7

Spirit ~ 11

He had at least hoped he could've gained two levels, but looked like it wasn’t going to be easy to level up. The essence he gained from the zombies was sporadic, as were their levels. But he couldn’t complain. He had it pretty easy after all.

“Looks like it’s back to the grind.”

Steven reasoned he needed to at least gain one more level before he started looking for a place to set up camp. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t save any of the zombie clothes to make a torch. He wasn’t even sure it would work as their bodies and clothes just dissolved into the dungeon. If you could even consider what they were wearing clothes, it was more of just shredded rags that were barely hanging on, if they even had anything on.

He didn’t even know how to make a torch. He was sure he would need something other than rags and a stick. Pushing that problem to the side for now, he pulled out the water pipe and took another hit before heading back out to the dungeon proper.

Steven stayed next to the dungeon wall as he ventured out. Reasoning it would make it easier to find his way back if need be. He avoided the left side, as it had a cluster of twenty and generally looked more populated. He planned to come back that way as he had a feeling it was the way he was supposed to go. First, he wanted to get the hang of fighting these zombies before he jumped into hoards of them.

Steven also hoped he would find an enchanted wand or something so he could use magic. Dungeons were supposed to have treasure, Right? Now that he thought about it, it was unlikely he would just stumble upon a treasure chest, though he could always hope. Hugging the wall as he made his way into the unknown, he only seen a few small groups of zombies in batches of two or three and wasted no time sending them to inventory.

There were a few things he wanted to accomplish. Find a safe place to set up camp and see how many zombies his inventory could hold, along with gaining as many levels as possible. Also, to find his sadistic Naga teacher would be nice.

Steven continued towards the sound of water while sending zombies to inventory. He had to venture away from the wall, but he wanted to check out what he was assuming was a waterfall. In games there was often treasure behind waterfalls and he couldn’t help but at least check. If there was a cave behind the waterfall he could also rest there for the night. He was getting tired and already getting hungry again. Although that could just be the munchies.

He didn’t want to go to sleep with theses zombies in his inventory. He feared something bad would happen, and was going to trust his gut on the matter. Steven already had another dozen or so in inventory at this point. Killing them was a gruesome task he was not looking forward to at all. Though he really couldn’t complain, as he was basically cheating with this absurd inventory ability. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. He still wished he had fireball or something his Shard ability hasn’t helped him in the slightest in this dungeon.

Steven was curious if the zombies could also be placed in a bag of holding and had tried to place one in his leather chest’s inventory, but nothing happened. He wasn’t sure if it was because it specified small items or was because it was a dungeon monster. Though he felt his inventory ability was unique in its capabilities.

Steven was becoming more and more confident in his ability to deal with the zombies. He had even started stabbing them once before he placed them in his inventory. He knew the poison didn’t work while in there, but it just meant that was one less attack he would have to deal to them when he went about killing them later. By the time Steven made it to where he could see the waterfall, he had thirty-seven zombies in his inventory. Most had at least some damage on them.

He stood on a rock cropping, breathing hard. The eight zombies he had just dealt with, was harder than he thought it would be. He had even gotten bitten once, but his hydra leather armor completely nullified the bite. His health bar didn’t even lose a single point. He needed to be more careful. He was unsure if a single bite would turn him or if that was even a thing.

In front of Steven was a waterfall that was pouring from an opening at the top of the dungeon wall. At its base, it formed into a river that separated the cavern. Steven thought he had seen tree sized mushrooms on the other side, but he was too far away to get a good look. He could swear the mushrooms, or whatever it was, had a dim glow to them.

Looking around for more zombies, Steven found another cluster of them. This time he was going to take things less aggressive, running into the midst of them had been a bad idea as he could only send one at a time to his inventory. It only took a second to send each one, but that was still enough time to nearly get over whelmed by the last group. Steven snuck around and touched one zombie on the ankle as it stumbled by. He touched another on the head by climbing on a boulder and reaching over. His plans to get as many as he could before they even noticed him.

Steven had sent three into his storage before a chill ran down his spine and he whirled around, expecting someone to be there poised to attack him. But there was nothing. Before Steven could calm his nerves, the other three zombies were lunging at him. The first one he sent to inventory, but the second and third caused him to lose his footing and fall. He stabbed the one that climbed on top of him. Regretting it immediately as black blood poured all over his face. He rolled, throwing the zombie off and kicking at the other one, trying to bite his leg. Steven then quickly got back to his feet while trying to spit the blood out of his mouth. The zombie that still had his dagger stuck under its chin lunged towards him. Steven sent in to inventory, then quickly sent the next one to inventory.

What the hell had he been thinking? He should have just sent them to inventory instead of stabbing. Steven took out the water stone with a thought it activated and he rinsed his mouth out the best he could, followed by rinsing his armor. He was no longer hungry after getting mouth full of zombie blood, he really hoped it didn’t make him sick, or worse, turn him. He was sure he swallowed some while dealing with the zombies. He was frustrated with himself. He had an insane ability, but if he didn’t use it properly, then he would end up dead. There was no one to blame but himself for getting a mouth full of blood.

Once he was as clean as he thought he could get given the circumstances, he made his way towards the waterfall while wondering why he kept getting the sense someone was behind him. He only came across a few more zombies as they seemed to avoid getting too close to the running water for some reason. He didn’t even attempt to stab them and just sent them straight to inventory.

Standing at the base of the waterfall, he checked his inventory.

Fifty-seven zombies, that was a lot of essence, he would definitely gain a few levels from this haul. But first he had to kill them all. Steven sighed at the thought.

“Hmmm, maybe, just maybe.” Steven held his hand out right at the edge of the river and pulled out the zombie with his dagger still stuck in it. Ripping his dagger out, he kicked it into the river below before it had a chance to react.