Zombie Rebirth

Status: Chakras

Crown: Locked.

Third Eye: Locked.

Throat: Locked.

Heart: Locked.

Solar Plexus: Locked.

Sacral: Locked.

Root: Unlocked.

“Okay, I just have the Root Chakra unlocked.”

“That’s the most common. That’s at the base of your spine, and is almost always the first unlocked. It is the survival chakra, responsible for defense. To use the sphere, you can either try to align it with your chakra, or place it above your heart. Aligning with the heart chakra is generally the easiest for newly awakened. Even though it isn’t unlocked, or opened, you can still align and feed an ability sphere in. It will travel along your chakra lines and open one of the petals on your chakra. Each chakra can contain three abilities.”

I waved at him. “Slow down. Let me do this first, before you info-dump.”

He nodded. I sat down in the meditation position, took the sphere in hand, and moved it just left of the center of my chest. I felt a warm tingle as it sank through my skin. Nothing happened for a long moment, then I saw and felt my skin change. It took on a darker, earthier tone, and grew tight. It felt like a sunburn, without the pain. I tapped the back of my right hand with my left and the sound was more like rocks clicking together than skin-on-skin contact.

Congratulations! You are the first on your planet to unlock an ability! Title gained: Capable.

New title: Capable.

As the first to unlock an ability on your planet, you are among the strongest.

+10% to abilities.

New ability unlocked!

Earthen Bulwark I:

Your skin becomes as stone, rebuffing attacks.

Damage resistance +10%, pugilist attacks +10%

Cost: 10% stamina reserve.

“Alright, this system thing is really starting to grow on me.”

Basil groaned. “Don’t tell me you got another title.”

I nodded and smirked. “This one is called ‘Capable.’ Looks like it buffs my abilities with a flat ten percent increase.”

Basil face-palmed. “How are you this ridiculously lucky?”

I shrugged. “Always have been pretty lucky. Good genetics, good brain, good looking.” I shot him a double finger gun and clicked them at him. He stared back.

“Clearly no charm.”

“I think that’s new. I didn’t have any problems with women before.”

“Could be. Undead are not gifted with charm. That’s a constant- we are capped at a very low amount. To be honest, I don’t even remember what life was like before being turned.”

I stood and stretched, ready to continue fighting through the mansion. Another check of the quest showed how it had changed.

Feral Annihilation

The feral zombies are a threat to your region. As a Count, it is your responsibility to keep it safe. Find and kill all feral zombies.

Rewards: 200xp, 10 silver

Progress: 15/83

“Well, these zombies aren’t going to kill themselves. Wait, are they?”

Basil shook his head. “No, even Ferals have some rudimentary sense of self-preservation.”

“Then we have our work cut out for us. Eighty-three total. Sixty-eight to go.”

He cracked his stolen knuckles. “Let’s get to it.”

I checked to make sure Earthen Bulwark was active, and led the way. The hallway was clear, but as we started checking the rooms, we found grotesque scenes right out of a slasher flick. Bodies lay in pieces. Some were clearly the remains of zombies, but there was an equal number of limbs scattered around that appeared otherwise healthy.

That first room held two level 0 ferals that were easily dispatched. The two xp felt right, since they went down in a single hit each. Still, it almost felt like a waste of time. Two rooms later, we had defeated another five. The fifth had been a bit of a surprise. She had got up after the first two in the room were defeated. I was puzzled until I realized they had been feeding on her when we walked in.

The lower level hallway was fully cleared in another ten minutes. I checked the quest for progress.

The feral zombies are a threat to your region. As a Count, it is your responsibility to keep it safe. Find and kill all feral zombies.

Rewards: 200xp, 10 silver

Progress: 23/83

“Wait, it says 23 defeated. We should only be at 22.”

“Perhaps a survivor?”

I shrugged, then followed Basil back to the foyer. That wing was clear, at least on the ground floor. The upper half was accessed from a stairwell. I supposed there were hidden stairs and passageways, but hadn’t noticed any during our sweep.

“Should we split up? You’re strong enough to handle a few level 0s, right?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes, I should be able to put them down. I thought I was powerful just this morning… but you showed up.” He shook his head. “For you, I’ll watch this room. I will make sure none leave.”

I nodded, then took off for the second story of the west wing. They even had ‘West Wing’ carved over the arch. People with more money than good sense. The second floor was much the same as the first. I found one room that was crammed with zombies… dancing. It seemed the Ferals still had a taste for the music they had died listening to.

The rhythmic thumping of bass was audible from down the hall. With that cover, I cleared the first three rooms of the wing with little trouble. One empty room, and six zombies in the other two. They were weak, but I was learning that level 0s were supposed to be. Most had low stats, even sometimes only 60 or 80 health. I almost felt bad crushing them under foot. Almost. They were a threat to humanity. There was no way I would let a bunch of feral zombies take over my region, much less the United States.

When I finally made it to the party room, I was not prepared. It was shoulder-to-gnawed-shoulder, standing room only for the zombies. It was so bad, it almost made it easier for me. I made sure Earthen Bulwark was on, then started swinging. I had to be more careful about my stamina, because running out would disable the ability. I tackled the problem like a puzzle. Thirty plus low-level zombies, with me on the other side of the scales. I was going to make sure my side won.

I moved in like a snake, smashing the first zombie in the face with a fast rocky jab. He tumbled back, though the movement worked to my advantage. He caught the attention of multiple nearby zombies, all of whom lunged in for a bite. It was weird, to watch them go from dancing in place to eating their comrade in the span of a heartbeat. I took out two more, one with a hammer back-fist and the other with a bladed hand across the throat. With my skin hardened, I was able to get my fingers surprisingly deep. I felt his vertebrae crack when my hand came to a stop. He fell, dead once more, and I kept moving. The party crowd started to push in, and I had to back up. That proved helpful once again, because I had to return to the hallway. Out there, they were forced to move through the doorway one or two at a time. It was a natural choke point, and the ferals were too stupid to realize.

Unfortunately, they were too eager. After five more ferals went down, my stamina ran out. They were jamming the door with bodies, but they were also, very worryingly, getting stronger. The last zombie took three hits to take down. That meant he was either level 2 or 3. I didn’t know how that could be, considering how much it took for me to level up. I spared a second to check progress on the quest.

The feral zombies are a threat to your region. As a Count, it is your responsibility to keep it safe. Find and kill all feral zombies.

Rewards: 200xp, 10 silver

Progress: 47/105

Somehow, another twenty-two people had been turned. There must have been a holdout of survivors that were overrun. Unless Basil was fighting handfuls of ferals in the foyer, someone else was taking them out. And I had a bad feeling I knew who. For the first time, I started to hear the zombies vocalize. It started at the back of the room, sweeping forward. Clicking of the teeth, then growling. At last, one zombie grew louder, developing into a full-throated roar. It barreled forward, all semblance of humanity lost.

The monster crashed into and through the unliving wall of zombies. I watched as the counter continued to change and it charged at me. This was a truly fearsome creature. It stood somewhere north of seven feet tall, with head and shoulders above the masses, and looked like it had taken up a job as a brick wall in its previous life. Broad-chested, over-muscled, he– it had to have been a man before being turned– was a monster before being turned. And he was reaching out with grasping hands to tear my head off. I couldn’t help it; a smile spread across my face. I was growing to enjoy these fights.

Feral Berserker Zombie

Level: 5

HP: 600

HP regen per second: 0.30

Mana: 0

Stamina: 260

Stamina regen per second: 0.08

Faction: Feral

The brute slammed into the doorway. Wood cracked and drywall sprayed out from every side. He roared again, smashed feral zombies away from him, backed up, and slammed into it again. His shoulders were jamming into the frame, with his head mashed against the top. He hit the other zombies, the level zeros, so hard they were turned to rancid paste. I pondered whether I was an honorable fighter. He grunted and strained, veins popping on his neck like snakes slithering under his skin. I wondered why that still happened when we were all undead. No heartbeat means no vascular pressure.

Even while I pondered on the implications on high blood pressure in a moving corpse, I lined up and sent in a rocket of a haymaker. It collided with the monster’s jaw, and I heard a large number of bones breaking, even over the music. I couldn’t really feel it, but I knew my hand was toast. I had just shattered most, if not all the bones. He spat out a tooth. I couldn’t tell if he had bitten his cheek, or if it was gristle from one of his meals, but either way, a large strip of flesh followed the tooth like a rhythmic gymnast’s ribbon.

The craziest part wasn’t his reaction. No, it was the fact that a large health bar appeared at the top of my vision, with ‘Feral Berzerker’ above. Inside, I could see how much health my hit had shaved off. I chuckled.

“I’m in danger.”

Feral Berzerker

HP: 533/600

A hair over eleven percent. If I could get nine more clean, straight hits like that, I could probably kill him. Even as I shook my hand out, he pulled back from the doorway. A gap opened up, and ferals filled it before he had moved back five feet. They were intent on getting to me. I didn’t care about them. They were chaff. Meat for the meat grinder. Bones for the bone god!

Wait, this isn’t Warhammer. This is a zombie hellbent on tearing me limb-from-limb. He charged, this time silently, and I watched in anticipation. I took a few steps to the side, because I had a feeling I knew what was going to happen. Sure enough, he waited for the doorjam to be bursting with ferals, then charged in with a savage grin. Severed limbs sprayed out from the explosion, along with several grim lengths of internal organs. Nothing was whole, save the brute himself. The doorframe broke free and went with like a grisly garland. He slipped on the gory blood-stained tile floor and slammed headfirst into the wall. I chuckled when I saw his health bar take an appreciable hit.

Feral Berzerker

HP: 432/600

His head was buried in the wall. I seized the opportunity. Two fast steps and I launched, feet first into his side. I felt his ribs shatter, but that hardly mattered. He wouldn’t be hampered by that in the slightest. I leaned back to deliver a hammer-fist to the back of his neck when he swung surprisingly fast. I didn’t even have time to dodge. His fist hit me like a sledgehammer. I blacked out, something else I didn’t know was possible. Obviously, there was still some sort of circulation that could be interrupted by significant force.