After almost losing his life, Zain now used the reward cards pretty much as soon as he had earned them as long as he was in a situation where he felt it was safe to do so. In his own territory, where there were zombies all around him, that allowed him to feel safe.
[Platinum card has been used]
[A new part of the system has been unlocked]
[Weapon crafting can now be used from the system]
'Weapon crafting... is this really what I think it is?' The excitement couldn't be contained. Weapon crafting was a vital part of survival games. One would use it to continue to make better weapons, and in doing so, their journey through the apocalypse was easier.
One of the big problems Zain always had was his weapons. They weren't strong enough to fight against the advanced zombies, and at the same time, whenever his weapon would break, it would always take a while before he found new ones.
It was one of the reasons why his sword skills hadn't raised up to the level he wished they were at. That and he realised his skills were stagnating due to the level of opponents he had been facing as the skill got higher.
[Opening weapon crafting]
Immediately, Zain could see a bunch of weapons in front of him. Ones that didn't even look like creations that were from this planet. They were all greyed out, but he could see their information.
Underneath a weapon he would pick, there were items that were needed. It gave the option of either basic things, like iron, copper, leather and other materials, but this seemed incredibly difficult to get.
This was a modern city, it wasn't like they were living in the past where this stuff could easily be obtained, but it did make him think. What about the leather from shoes, or car seats... would that work? And same with Iron from other items.
Either way, there was an easier option. He could use base materials, similar to the machetes he had, instead and craft that weapon into something else or upgrade it even more.
There were still other requirements though, depending on the difficulty to make or the stronger a weapon looked, Zain noticed that the intelligence needed to craft it was quite high. Some of them required him to have at least 50 points in intelligence.
'Volcanic slasher.'
It was a single handed sword with a curved edge. On the sword itself it looked to be having veins running through it, ones that looked like they were glowing lava streaks on the weapon. This was one of the items that Zain felt was out of this world.
[Requirements]
[50 Intelligence is needed to craft this weapon]
[Base material required: One handed sword]
[ 2 stage 3 crystals]
[1 active piece of meteorite]
'This weapon, it requires crystals to be used... but then how will I ever be able to make the weapons? The crystals from the zombies disappear... most likely into the exp I get. I guess it makes sense for a powerful weapon to be able to do the same thing... and what's with the piece of meteorite?'
Zain could only guess it had something to do with the diamond level quest he had received, to find an active meteorite, which meant if he wanted strong weapons he would have to take risks.
[More weapons will be unlocked as the user comes across more materials]
'So this isn't even the extent of weapons I can have. Well for now, I should concentrate and aim for something I can make.'
Looking at his machetes it seemed like there was an easy upgrade for them.
[Super sharp machetes]
[15 intelligence required]
[1 stage 2 crystal]
[Base material: Machete]
'If I want to upgrade both of them I'll need two stage 2 crystals. Hopefully then they are a lot harder to break, but still how do I get crystals, the only way I was able to before, was if other people gathered them. That's an option, but I don't really have other people beside me right now.'
With nothing else to do, Zain decided it was time to leave the subway station. The crafting system was a good reward though, as he imagined in the future that maybe he could even make weapons for his fellow zombies.
Heck, if intelligence was all that was needed to craft them, maybe he could have a factory of intelligent zombies crafting weapons for him. His mind was working well with all the various possibilities.
As Zain began to walk into the sunlight, what he didn't expect was to see a group of people that were there waiting for him.
"Holy crap, he's coming out!" One of the men shouted. "That means he must have beaten that monster... how...?"
When Zain had reached the top of stairs, Dali immediately bowed down.
"Thank you, we are all very thankful... not only did you save my brother's life and my life, but you saved all our group's lives as well."
The thanks didn't mean much for Zain, in the first place it was just a side job to what his real goal was... getting the platinum reward.
"I wanted to apologise as well for everything I said earlier." Bill said, with his head down. "I feel like such an idiot for badmouthing the person who eventually saved us."
They all then kept their bodies straight and looked at Zain with stars in their eyes.
'They don't seem like bad people, but travelling with them is always going to be a risk.' Zain thought. 'But maybe I can get something out of this, in the short term.'
"Zain, we wanted to ask you a question." Nit said. "Are you part of the Zombie Hunters group?"
This name rang a bell, as Zain remembered seeing it on the back of a few shirts. It was the special ability users, the superhumans he had come across that nearly killed Skittle. It was certainly one way to explain how he survived, but he was surprised that their name was known by this lot.
"I mean it would make sense. We were thinking of heading there... and asking if we could join them, but if you're not part of the Zombie Hunters, maybe you're part of that other group, the Reborn group."
It was hard for Zain to hide, as his eyes lit up hearing this.
*****
Thank you for all the support so far on LUZ. LUZ will be continuing on, and I hope I can do more chapters for all my series as time free's up in the future