Chapter 5 - Skill Up

As the array of magic runes on the ground emanated a strange light, X was seemingly imbued by dense magic energy that came from the array.

After a few short moments, the array gradually shrunk as it was absorbed by X. 'Alright!' Rynold thought while looking at X's new appearance. Instead of the original bronze color to X's metal shell, the upgrade added a silver sheen, making X appear more luster and full of grandeur. But this was not the only thing that Rynold was excited about.

A new window appeared and the content within it is something that Rynold didn't expect at all.

[Skill Level Up!]

[Summon: Mech Knight]

Active Magic Skill Lvl. 2

Summons a Mech Knight using magic. Consumes 5 Mana per minute while the creature is summoned. The Mech Knight follows your command without question. It is possible to let the Mech Knight grow stronger and evolve. (1/1)

'What?!' Rynold was stunned. 'What a scam!'

Is it possible for the system to cheat him like that? Not only has he risked his life several times, but now the system manages to cheat him?

Denying the possibility of the system cheating him, Rynold nervously checked the interface of X instead, hoping for something better to pop up.

[X]

Mech Knight Lvl. 10

Health: 300/300

Attributes:

Strength: 50 Endurance: 30

Agility: 15

'Sweet!' Rynold thought.

X can now be classified as a full metal tank and this wasn't the type of tank that dealt no damage. He can steamroll anything in his way and tanking is a lot easier now!

Rynold knew what this meant for him. An immense increase in X's attributes can lead to an insane amount of grinding for Rynold! All he needed to do was supply the mana.

After checking X's interface, Rynold stood up and left for the cafeteria which was kind of hard to do seeing as someone is shackled to you. Rynold glanced at Elle which was finding her gaze, lost in the fear of the moment. It was weird to see her feel something like this or, at least, that was what Rynold thought.

"Right, moving on..," Rynold was halfway through the courtyard on his way to the cafeteria with X as the vanguard. Rynold held his sword forward as there could be enemies that would jump them.

It was weird there was nobody and, well, nothing around. It was quiet, eerily quiet. Why would five different ghouls within a vocal range from a lady's — nope — a bitch's scream? Is it because these monsters that act on instinct have much more in store than what it was initially thought? Moving through the quiet field, Rynold was a bit lost in thought. If these creatures have a lot more in store than what he initially theorized, it would be a crapfest when he leaves campus — much more when they're gonna survive outside.

'Not the time to spiral into an insane about of over-analysis, Rynold'

When they reached the cafeteria, the doors were boarded up with ghouls slamming the doors to the cafeteria. Two options came to Rynold's mind. Luring the enemies to them and fending them off, making it a sure way to go into the cafeteria. Or...

Rynold dispelled X and sighed heavily. He didn't think it would ever come to this but seeing as this was the way to go. "Elle," Rynold said solemnly.

"What?!"

"Geez, quiet the fuck down, would you? I need you to go back to the dorm or stay here. I'm going to sneak into the cafeteria and try to see what's going on in there. This isn't going to work when you're going to follow me like some stalker," Rynold explained.

"Hell no, this isn't one of those times where I follow everything that you say. We broke up for a reason and I'm not gonna go back to the way we used to be!"

"This isn't about that and you know it," Rynold whispered loudly. "Look, now is not the time to actually fight over what happened so long ago. Just listen to what I have to say or else we're gonna get screwed."

"Tsk. Fine," Elle said.

"Either stay here or go back to the girls' dorm just don't try to attract attention to yourself, alright? This isn't a joke you can play off. This is life and death right here and, as much as I want to see you dead in the gutter, I really don't want to deal with that now," Rynold explained.

While Elle left to go back to the dorm, Rynold was scoping out any good entrance to sneak into the building. Considering the current stats that he had, he doubted if he can jump to the open windows on the second floor. That was when he saw the fire escape on the side of the building.

Moving forward while being wary of the ghouls that can attack him at any moment, Rynold was making sure that he didn't leave any trace behind him. Sword back in his inventory, he jumped to reach the fire escape.

To his surprise, the jump wasn't that high — that is, until he realized that the piece holding the stairs in place was knocked loose and slid down to reach the ground. A smirk appeared on Rynold's face and when he realized that the ghouls would be coming because of the noise.

Rynold madly dashed up the stairs and drew the Dull Shortsword. He spotted the first ghoul coming from around the corner when he reached the first platform. He brandished the weapon to strike the metal holding the stairs. Which didn't really work because the weapon was dull in every sense.

'Crap,' Rynold thought. He quickly summoned the attribute screen and put every last point into his Strength attribute. He kicked the hinges with every ounce of strength he could muster that hold the stairs to the platform.

*Clank* The hinges broke with a loud crash and fell to the ground, crashing on top of the ghouls that are assembling to where Rynold originally was. 'Damn, that was close'

'Well, time to get going,' Rynold said to himself, calming himself down.

Opening the window that's next to the platform, Rynold went into the cafeteria, only to find corpses lying around the hallway. 'That's pretty bad.' Drawing the Dull Shortsword, Rynold moved forward slowly.

The second floor was where the staff kept non-frozen goods and supplies. It meant that this was where the food that doesn't need to be kept fresh. This would've been a jackpot — if it weren't for the corpses on the floor. Upon closer inspection, it kind of looked like the uniform of the staff apart from the bites and glaring holes in the neck and torso of the bodies.

'Hmm... four bodies,' Rynold counted. Four different people were mauled and gorged to death and the trail of deaths lead to one of the bigger storage units. Stopping at the closed door of the storage unit Rynold slowly read the situation.

'Door closed means some form of intelligence. Heavy blood trails mean the limbs are closed to the ground, also means there's a victim inside.' Rynold breathed, only to let out a cold, heavy breath.

"Summon Mech Knight," Rynold said solemnly.

Magic array spurred out of thin air and shone in the semi-lit hallway with its flickering lights. With the time spent from having X out of the field, Rynold's mana was able to fill back up.

'It's nice to have you back old buddy,' Rynold thought to himself. There was a weird connection between the both of them that made Rynold feel closer to X, even if it hasn't been that long since Rynold had him.

With another cold breath, Rynold readied himself to open the door that's in front of him. With X by his side, the chances of him surviving increased by an uncertain amount. Since X's last upgrade, Rynold hasn't met any monsters that he had direct contact and combat with so there wasn't really a good chance to gauge X's growth.

'Enough stalling, here we go,' with a strong grip on the door's handle, Rynold pushed the door open only to find something disturbing in front of them.

The storage unit was heavily bloodied with a corpse hanging from a creature he doesn't recognize — or what was left of the corpse. Heavy, fresh blood was dripping from the gouged corpse that's riddled with holes and large bites. Half of the head was clearly bitten off and the brain matter was spilling out. The corpse's mouth was open — like screaming for help until his very last breath.

Rynold couldn't help but feel the need to puke his guts out, slowly shifting his eyes to the creature that was chewing. The creature was staring off into the void like its sole existence was focused on eating. The room was only filled with the light noise of chewing and all that was in Rynold's mind was dread.

Not until the eyes of the creature slowly shifted to the door.

One thing came into his mind at that specific moment — RUN.