Stark hurriedly turned around, his heart racing as he saw a woman, her clothing tattered and torn, pinned down and attacked by five “decaying corpses”.
‘…’ Stark stared at her as the monsters ate her up, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to save her that he didn’t move, but because he knew it was already over.
Above the girl’s head was the text [Black Sun Curse], meaning that she was already infected.
And as predicted, only a few seconds after she was pinned down and the monsters got up, the woman’s skin turned a dark green color, and her expression became the same as the others.
She immediately got up and joined the group as they all noticed Stark’s presence and dashed at him, although very slowly.
‘Holy shit, isn’t there too many of them…?’ he had only fought groups of three/four monsters, but six was a battle he didn’t expect.
The reality of the situation hadn’t struck him yet, but he had just witnessed one of the other students among the group of new classifiers get killed and transformed into one of these beasts, something anyone would be terrified of if they saw it up close.
Yet Stark just readied his fists, the only thing in his mind was the battle ahead, not even caring about what happened in front of his eyes.
Or maybe it was because he was too dense and that his priorities weren’t set straight.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
[Illay Mondel (Black Sun Curse)]
[Level: 9]
[HP: 950]
[Strength: 22]
[Stamina: 52]
[Speed: 23]
[Defense: 42]
[Skills: Infect; Bite]
Stark once using his [Perception] skill on her noticed that her stats were much different than the other ‘decaying corpses’, possibly because she was an actual human transformed by the black sun instead of an already made monster.
‘Almost feels like i’m about to kill a real girl…’ Stark squinted his eyes, but his determination didn’t falter, after all he didn’t know about the duel’s ‘deathless’ type when he fought Daniel, fully expecting him to die.
Stark’s domination power came from the fact he was confident/determined and that he would dominate his battles, a simple disorienting thought like this meant his power would be reduced.
With a furrowed brow, Stark focused on the task ahead, calculating the timing of his attacks to maximize efficiency.
He dashed at the six decaying corpses, his fists glowing with the same power that had helped him dominate the other fights.
It was extremely reckless to fight literal zombies that could transform you into one of them with a single bite of their mouths with your fists, but he didn’t have any other choice.
He jumped in the air and smashed the transformed girl’s head with both his fists.
“-1249!”
Her head was crushed by the attack, and she immediately fell to the ground.
“Rest in peace,” Stark nodded before using the girl’s body as a jump pad toward a second monster.
“-938!”
“-858!”
“-873!”
After a few hits, Stark was able to eliminate every monster that stood in his way.
By the end, he whipped the sweat off his forehead and smiled as it looked like he was actually capable of taking on this much monsters if he managed his movements well enough.
[You have slain five “decaying corpses lvl6”, gained 3000EXP!]
[You have slain “Illay Mondel (cursed) lvl9”, gained 1282EXP!]
[Experience: 5637/10000]
He surveyed the street once more, picking up on the faint whispers of darkness in the air, but thankfully enough, there wasn’t anyone around here anymore, no monsters, no humans.
It had been around ten minutes since he entered the rift after all, so most people were still probably forming parties.
Stark planned to move on to the next area, but right as he was about to…
He noticed a faint glow beside the ‘decaying corpses’ bodies.
‘…?’ he was cautious, but when he saw something shining, Stark’s brain immediately knew he wanted to check it out.
Approaching the source of the faint glow, he noticed it coming from a staff on the ground.
It was emitting a faint blue light, unlike the dark aura that lingered around the decaying corpses.
Curiosity piqued, he picked up the magic staff, using [Perception] to inspect it.
…
[Item:] Low-Level Magic Staff
[Type:] Staff
[Class:] Magus
[Tier:] Common
[Required Level:] 7
[Quality:] Bad
[Attributes:] None
[Special Perks:] None
…
‘Hmm…’ Stark observed the staff, and after reading about the information, he wanted to try something.
He held the staff with both hands, and then tried to pour his aura at the tip.
But right as he tried to do that…
[You cannot use this weapon with your current class]
Such a panel appeared in front of him.
Stark frowned and looked at the staff in his hands, then sighed, “I guess I can just sell it, I hope…”
“Spatial Inventory,” he whispered these words, and suddenly, a void appeared beside him.
It seemed a bit small to fit the staff, but once he tried to put it inside, the hole grew in size, enough to accomodate for staff’s size.
Instantly, the staff disappeared into his spatial inventory, and Stark let out a breath of relief.
It seemed like monsters were able to occasionally drop items, although it was rare, and the fact the human girl was just transformed increased his odds of getting her staff.
Stark had no idea about the value of any of these items, but it didn’t matter, he would take everything with him, whether it was useful or not to his fights wasn’t important as he could sell all of it.
Money was a big problem for him as he didn’t have any.
And just like, Stark kept moving.
He was more advanced than almost all others participants of the “City Ruins” rift, going solo was risky, but it seemed like he was one of the only ones who went alone that survived, all others were too weak and at a disadvantage against this many monsters.
‘Oh yeah… the skill points,’ he immediately remembered about his idea before being interrupted by the group of ‘decaying corpses’, and so he opened his status window.
[Name:] Stark Heartsouls
[Level:] 3
[Health:] 100/100
[Bloodline:] Human
[Class:] Domination
[Info about class:] The first Domination Trial is coming soon, be ready…
‘What the?’ he raised his eyebrows, this wasn’t here before, but quickly moved on.
[Talent:] Chosen one
[Attributes:] Strength 9; Speed 8; Mind/Soul 21; Stamina 11; Defense 7
[Skills:] Spatial Inventory; Class Wheel; Perception; Domination lv1; Focus lv1
‘I can only upgrade domination and focus it seems…’ he was walking in the empty streets, now used to the eeriness of the ruined city.
[You have slain ‘Black Rat lv7’, gained 620EXP!]
He found a rat as big as a human in his way, and just hit its ugly face once to kill it.
‘Welp, time to actually use the skill points now!’
[Skill Points: 2 Available]
