Seeing the system message pop up, it turned out to be what Zain thought before killing the last zombie. What he was going through right now was indeed similar to the games he had played. And often, these games would have a survival mode, where one would have to face increasingly stronger waves of enemies after each round or a time period.
In this case, it was a type of horde.
'I still don't know if what I learn here will be transferable to outside, but why else would it put me through all the trouble? The last time I had a vision with that faceless man, I learned to shoot a gun and could do so in the real world as well, even though I had never fired one before. So I am betting it's the same thing here.
'Usually, in these games, the higher the round one survives, the better the reward they get as well. And since I didn't struggle too much with the last one, I should at least be able to handle Round 2, right? Especially now that I have some sword mastery.'
The pros outnumbered the cons. Zain also believed that if he continued to use the sword against the new waves, his sword mastery would also increase. In the end, his gamer addict side kicked in, and he could not refuse the challenge.
[Round 2 has been accepted]
[The next round will start in 30 seconds]
[Quest: defeat all the enemies that come your way]
[Reward: All weapon trees unlocked]
[Failure: A penalty will be applied]
'As I thought, the penalty will be applicable in this round as well. But since failure means death anyway, I wonder what the penalty would even be?' Zain thought as he tightly held the sword with both hands.
Round 2 would certainly be harder than the previous one, yet, he couldn't help but anticipate just what would come out of those tunnels. When the thirty-second timer ended, he began to hear several growls just like last time, and then storming out of the holes were the same type of zombies as before.
'8..9..10. So it's double the amount, but they don't seem any faster or stronger, so I can use the same tactic as before.'
Since they had all come out simultaneously, Zain decided to head confidently toward one. At the last moment, he sidestepped and cut the hand that went toward him. Then when he was behind, with a single strike, he cut both of the back of the heel of the zombie in one strike.
Before, it would take him a few times, and he could only do them one at a time, but this time the zombie instantly fell to its knees as it tried to get up, and the rest of the Zombies stumbled over the first one.
[1.4/100 Sword mastery]
'This sword mastery, it goes up the more I use it, and it feels like I know how to use it now.'
Seeing how one of the Zombies had tripped over, Zain usually wouldn't have done this, but he went with the flow and thrust the sword right through the Zombies' head while quickly pulling it out again. It was as if he knew the right amount of force and pull needed to move the sword out of position, and his grip felt stronger around the handle as well.
'I…I can definitely do this!'
Constantly running in circles, Zain used the side of the sword to cut another zombie's arms and then struck at the back of one's leg to make it fall. He quickly kicked another zombie, causing it to fall, and as it fell to the ground, his sword was ready to pierce its head from below.
With fewer zombies, Zain could test and practice his sword skills a bit more. He was getting more confident, and rather than just outright killing them, he would strike certain parts of their body, attacking without facing any counterattack. The only thing that seemed to be affecting him a lot was his stamina, and finally, there were only the last two zombies left.
'This is amazing. If I had my zombie strength and my energy in a Zombie's body, then even if a whole horde came at us like last time, I could take them on all at once.'
As he thought about this, the image of Skittle appeared in his head, and he tightened his grip over the sword handle.
'If I could do this before if I had prepared like this before, or the system had given me these visions, then maybe I could have succeeded in saving Skittle.'
Thinking about this, out of anger, Zain went to slash at the zombie's neck, and the sword got stuck. He pulled out the sword and quickly thrust it forward, killing the first one. Then, after charging in, and jumping off the ground, he stabbed the sword right through the last one's head.
As the zombie fell to the ground, he found himself huffing and panting but soon heard the sound signifying that he had completed the Quest again.
[Congratulations! Quest completed]
[Reward: You have received all weapons' mastery]
[You may now level up and unlock mastery of any weapon]
[Would you like to proceed to Round 3?]
Before deciding whether or not to go to Round three, Zain wanted to clarify what the system was talking about and decided to bring up his own stats. Surprisingly, it worked.
He could see his name and stats as he did outside, stating that he was an Undead. But it was clear he was far weaker in this place than outside. When looking at the skills, he could see that Sword mastery was there, and every weapon he had seen at the table had greyed out, with the stat point being 0 on them.
[Handgun mastery: level 2]
[1/100 EP]
'Oh…so I guess I already had some skills in the gun after what happened last time. So yeah, this makes sense.
[Sword mastery: level 1]
[64.5/100]
'My sword mastery is close to levelling up, although dealing with ten was tough…I should be able to do round three as well.'
[Round 3 will start in 30 seconds]
*****
Thank you, everyone, for supporting LUZ so far, and I Hope you can continue to support LUZ in the WSA journey by voting for the story! Please continue to use your Stones and Tickets!