Zarek grinned, squeezing Priya's thigh with a hand.
"You did a good job, babe."
Priya snorted. "Don't patronize me."
Zarek didn't need to look to know she had done a little hair flip, and that only made him laugh harder.
Pushing himself up from his kneeling position, Zarek stood to his feet, then moved to the two corpses to start sorting through their guns.
"You remember how to use it, right?"
"Is this why you took me to the gun range all those times?"
"Speaking of which, I need revenge for that. You made me—."
"It was for your own good!"
"You made me go see a shrink!"
"I thought you were going through a troubled time!"
"I just wanted to shoot some guns with a beauty. Was that too much to ask for?"
"You are not about to make me feel bad for being worried about you," Priya harrumphed.
Zarek grinned. "You didn't dump me though, even if you thought I was a psycho. That's real love."
"… Well, you never really did anything weird to me," she said through a soft pout.
Zarek replied by tossing a gun over his shoulder toward her.
"Be careful!"
"Yes, yes. Now, the principle for adding your Godsfall to the bullets is the same."
"Didn't you say that technology and Godsfall don't mesh well?"
"Yes. For some guns, especially the rare ones that rely on electricity, the gun will need to be modified first. But chemical processes themselves are less vulnerable. Gunpowder falls into that grey zone. Sometimes, your gun might misfire, and you'll have to be ready for that. But once you get the hang of it, you should be able to have reproducible results.
"For now, though, you don't need to worry about it. I'm only telling you that Godsfall can work in the rare chance we come across a target that guns don't work on this early. Otherwise, just fire normally. Reload when you have to. I'll handle most of it."
Now that they had guns, Zarek wasn't even the slightest bit worried about things going wrong.
He shot off into the distance.
Riding on his back, Priya turned toward where the corpses were. But she wasn't looking at them. Instead, she was looking at all the guns and ammunition Zarek had actually chosen to leave behind.
Inwardly, she nodded and then focused herself, scanning the region no less intently than Zarek.
**
"Retreat," Malik said calmly.
"Something went wrong?"
"The receiver didn't work. It might be something related to the Godsfall. Some of the white coats said that this might happen."
"Then do we need a new plan?"
"Let's try one more time. If it doesn't work again, then we'll retreat for the day and—."
BOOM!
The eyes of Malik and the others widened.
The ground shook, and the glass windows of the building up ahead shattered to pieces.
A shockwave continued to travel, and they ducked behind their cover again, blowing out more windows on the way. Sparkling shards fell from the skies above, forcing them to duck their heads to avoid it all.
"Shit," Malik cursed.
There was no choice now; they had to hurry. If they didn't move out now, there would be a flood of zombies all coming from this direction. They had to take advantage of the clearance of the zone as quickly as possible.
However, when Malik and the others got there, to their shock, there was a young man standing with a girl strapped to his back a step ahead of them.
...
Zarek stood before the Hub.
—
[Learn Skill {C Class Scouting}?]
[Yes][No]
[Yes]
—
Zarek accepted the skill, and the Hub pulsed for a moment before the Godsfall around it faded considerably.
This was the thing with Hubs. All of them had cooldown times. It was impossible to learn one Skill continuously unless sacrifices were made or the Hub fell into an upgradeable category where more frequent learns became available.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
…
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: F-] <B->
[Abilities: Mirror]
[The subtleties of a moment are clear to you]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
Skills:
>[C Class Scouting: F-] <C+>
—
For now, nothing about his stat screen had changed much aside from a subtle hint of something only Zarek himself could feel the difference of. But…
—
[Skill {C Class Scouting} has shown great progress]
-
>[C Class Scouting: F+]
-
>[C Class Scouting: E-]
-
>[C Class Scouting: E+]
—
Now, his stat screen showed him something quite different.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: E-] <A->
>[Dexterity: F+] <B>
>[Intelligence: F+] <C->
>[Endurance: F+] <B+>
>[Charisma: F] <C>
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: F-] <B->
[Abilities: Mirror]
[Grasp the subtleties of the moment, reflect them through your mind and into the world]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
Skills:
>[C Class Scouting: E+] <C+>
Notes:
[Shameless bastard. Using three Rebirths just for the right to quickly level up a skill to E+. Whoopdie doo. Can't wait till you keel over for the last time]
—
Now, the description of Temp Duplicate was a lot clearer than it was before. But even now, it was still a bit vague.
That said, this wasn't the real reason Zarek wanted this skill. Now, against those without counter skills or special blocking abilities, he could see through their stats and Talents and react accordingly.
In the early game, this was huge because very rarely would people have such protective abilities just yet.
As for if he was scanned himself… so what? All he had was a useless Temp Duplicate skill. They were free to look as much as they wanted.
By the time they realized they had severely underestimated him, they would already be dead.
—
Name: [Malik Bariger]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: F]
>[Dexterity: F+]
>[Intelligence: F]
>[Endurance: F-]
>[Charisma: F-]
Talents:
>[Hawkeye: F+]
[Abilities: Focused Hand]
[Translate sight to handeye coordination]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
—
A C Class Scouting Skill wouldn't be able to see growth potentials, but that was way more than Zarek would ever need. Especially since he already knew exactly who Malik was.
With these current stats, he didn't stand a chance.
Their eyes met as Zarek looked back across the plumes of smoke and charred pieces of Turned.
Zarek gave him a smile and bolted.
Malik's gaze pulsed with fury. He didn't know it now, but his fury would only get worse.
At this stage, a C Class Skill was too powerful. This Hub wouldn't show any signs of recharging for at least a month, not unless one fed it an obscene amount of Godsfall.
But before Malik could even act on this rage, the Turned started coming from all directions in waves.
Separated by the smoke billowing from the underground tennis court, he could only watch as Zarek rushed out of the gaping hole in the brick, so close and yet so far away.
…
Zarek didn't even unholster the two pistols at his hip. Wielding a military knife, he moved through the unfocused crowds of zombies.
With his new scouting skill, he could feel the exact location of their Godsfall Droplets, and all it took was a single pierce to rip them apart.
If one were to look into his eyes, they would feel his almost… absent-mindedness. His thoughts were almost all focused on Malik and how to get his hands on the Hub that would make him famous in three years' time. No, the Hub that would make his entire legion famous.
The Godsfall Skill…
[Ironbound Compulsion].