The World Cataclysm

Slashing at the neck of the Hunter, Dave clearly felt that he had failed to score a hit. Understanding that he missed, Dave retreated backwards preparing to dodge a barrage of attacks from Hunter. It didn't force him to wait long as it leapt towards him trying to slash him with its claws and to bite him with its teeth.

However, no matter how fast Hunter was, it was unable to reach Dave as he was dodging and twisting his body at last moments. Obviously, a mid-rank 1 Hunter was faster than him, but Dave was shifting his body at minimum, making minute steps in the right directions as he was playing with it.

Whenever he couldn't dodge Hunter's attack, Dave would put a barrier in front of him, stalling for time and halting Hunter in one place. Immersing himself in the familiar feeling of his life being on the line, Dave reminisced about his past life when he needed to deal with much stronger monsters.

From the sideways, it seemed like Dave was leading Hunter on and playing with it, holding a refreshed smile on his face. Evelyn, who killed the last ordinary zombie in that group, said in amazement, "What the heck is he doing? Why is he smiling during the fight?"

Rebecca, who happened to overhear her, replied while pressing her hand to her cheek, "I don't know. If I recall it right, he has that habit of smiling during hunting. Though I've never asked him about the reason he is smiling. Whatever, isn't it kinda cute?"

"Cute? You call that, cute? Mary's smile is cute. Arthur's innocent mind is cute. But that...it's terrifying!" Evelyn said as she didn't notice how she had raised her voice a tone higher.

"...You're dramatizing it a bit. Isn't it, Rachel? He had the same expression when he had fought with the zombie in a cafeteria." Amused that Evelyn was getting over nothing, Rebecca covered her mouth, trying to hide her smile.

Hearing her name, Rachel stepped closer to them, glanced at Dave and mumbled, "To be honest, I find him quite intimidating. He has that scary aura around him." Her tone wasn't loud nor quiet, just her usual tone. She seemed to be getting more accustomed to everything: to blood, to zombies and to Dave specifically.

...

Whoosh!

Hunter's long claws just passed close to his nose, but Dave wasn't much scared of it. He was perfectly controlling the course of battle and got everything planned. Even in case, its claws had reached him, he would just have an additional scar on his face.

Satisfied with his game, Dave decided to end it here. He had already loosened up his body, getting rid of the soreness in his body accumulated due to several meditation sessions, and he had already tested his body limits while fighting it, so he found no reason to continue sparring with it.

He made a circular single-layer of mana barrier around his left hand and gripped a Steel Sword with his right hand. One advantage of learning skills yourself was that you could freely control it; Dave could control the area and the shape of his Mana Barrier.

Usually, he would surround his body with it or put it right in front of him, so to block a coming attack. However, in some cases, he would use it as a shield; though it could only withstand a single attack from an evolved zombie, forcing him to form it again and again or to just drop that idea.

Not waiting for a Hunter to attack him, Dave rushed towards it, raising a transparent blue shield before him. It didn't seem to be durable enough to leave unscratched after a collision.

Bang!

Slamming into Hunter and protecting himself with a shield, Dave knocked him on the ground. Combined with his strength, he was sure that the force behind that collision was quite strong. However, noticing that Hunter was already trying to stand back on its feet, he said, "No, no, no! Keep lying on the floor!"

Saying it, he grabbed threads in his hand which he had attached to the feet of the Hunter. Smiling, he pulled them and sent Hunter crushing into one of the shelves. Still trying to stand up, it couldn't even resist him as it slammed into the shelf.

Swiftly dashing towards disoriented Hunter, Dave finally killed it as he pierced its head with his sword. As Hunter died, the big blue ball had entered his body.

[You have reached level 7.]

[You have earned 2 free points.]

'Then, handling a single mid-rank 1 evolved zombie won't be a problem for me, though I can't go against several of them at once. Allocate 2 free points to agility.' Analyzing his combat capabilities, satisfaction surged into his heart as he promptly distributed his free points as he had planned.

He chose to go for agility since it was slightly lower than strength and it would have been harder for him in the future since he was already falling behind the Hunters. Even though stamina was as important as strength and agility, considering that higher strength and agility spends more stamina, it was negligible for now. Furthermore, he already had a plan about how to increase it on his own, though he didn't want to do it.

'Now, let's move to the spoils.' As he thought about it, his eyes fell on another Blue Chest. Just in a day, he had gotten two Blue Chests and had also increased his level by one, so he thought that his visit wasn't pointless at least.

As always the Treasure Chest emitted a strong blue light and disappeared into a thin air. When his eyes fell on the item he had obtained, his eyes flashed with a happy light.

[Battle Suit Prototype

Defence: 20

-Increases strength and agility by a point

Description: The prototype of the battle suit from a mass-produced series.]

When he read the information window of the item, Dave thought, 'Nice! With this battle suit, I got my defence covered a bit. 20 points in defence mean that I can withstand a blow from the mid-rank 1 Giant. Well, better not to risk it.'

At the first glance, the battle suit seemed to be made from an elastic material, and it could also magically change its sizes based on the size of a person wearing it. It was dull grey in colour and had metal plates covering the chest area.

Wanting to check his stats, Dave called 'Status' in his mind.

[David Murckly

Level: 7

Survival coins: 254

Class: None

Mana: 7/26

Strength: 17

Agility: 15

Stamina: 11

Intelligence: 11

Spirit: 5 (+1)

Free points: 0

Innate ability: Regression

Skills: Elementary Cooking (LVL 2), Gaming (LVL 8), Mathematics (LVL 7), Leadership (LVL 1), Meditation (LVL 3), Flash Step (LVL 1), Mana Application (LVL 3), Mana Threads (LVL 3), Mana Barrier (LVL 2), Mana Enhancement (LVL 2), Reinforced Breathing (LVL 2), Swordsmanship (LVL 5), Battle Focus (LVL 4), Mana Sensing (LVL 1)]

Observing his status window, Dave was delighted to know that his strength and agility will go a point higher when he will wear a battle suit. Adding bonus points from battle suit, he would have 18 points in strength and 16 points in agility.

However, when his eyes fell on his Mana Application skill, his brows furrowed on their own. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't recall any method of how to increase his mana affinity in a short time.

There were some really expensive potions in the city before, but he needed to wait several years till they were started being manufactured. Thinking it over, Dave thought, 'Should I just continue training like this? If I recall it right, Professor Dylan had also come from our university.'

There were quite a lot of people who had grown popular during the fall of humanity's domination over the world. Perhaps, one of the most remarkable people was Professor Dylan who stood in the lead of mana research and invented a bunch of useful stuff in his past life.

He had met him once in a person but had also heard about him quite a lot, so Dave should admit that his profile was quite admirable. Messy grey hair, white scientist's robe and fatigue eyes; that's how Professor Dylan looked when Dave first met him. However, he had that sharp glint in his eyes no matter how he looked, as nothing had ever mattered to him except for one thing.

He was one of the types of person who was passionate about the natural world and its laws. Dave could also say that Professor Dylan was obsessed with science, and the appearance of mana in the world had only fuelled his obsession even further.