Chapter 2: Zombie Slaying

After Anya had emerged from the portal, she found herself in a desolate landscape. The air was stale and what little wind that blew around her was wrought with the smell of smoke and death. The ground was blood stained and cracked, the sands around her was dry with dried blood and the grass dead. The buildings looked to be similar to the buildings that she remembered from the Rosario + Vampire anime, except that they were in different states of desolation. Shingles from the roof were dangling and some fell to the ground, some buildings had no roofs or a partial roof. The foundations were cracked or gone, windows smashed and filled with ash and dust. Empty cars filled the streets, there were abandoned bikes both motors and cycles. The traffic lights were swinging ominously in the wind, blinking with sparks dancing around them. The street was totally abandoned.

Anya shivered at the scene before her. For all that she had watched Zombie movies and Dystopian movies, seeing this in person just shook her to her core. It wasn't even seeing the devastation around her; it was the feeling in the air. Being able to almost hear the silence, despite the slow wind and the creaking of the buildings and lights. To smell the iron, smoke, and decay dancing across the wind to her nostrils, this was just…

"Horrible." Anya choked as she could now taste the stench of death and devastation now that she had opened her mouth. The sound of a can being kicked in an alley to her left jolted her from her disquiet. For a moment, the pure destruction of the world she now lived in distracted her from her mission. Anya swallowed in fear as she slowly and shakily made her way to the alleyway, very thankful for Gamers Mind for blunting her fear. There was no doubt that if it were not for Gamers Mind, she would be in a huddle of fear and despair and would be killed before her journey could begin.

As Anya approached where she was sure she would encounter her first zombie if the low groans and grunts that filled the air the closer that she came to the source, she readied her first spell. Anya figured that since she has a ton of MP and the costs of her spells are reduced by 25%, she would be able to rely on her magic for the fights to come. Granted she has no melee weapon at the moment, so she is going to have to rely on her magic anyway. But if she were to pick up any weapons, she should still use her magic and save the weapon for when she had more HP.

With that thought in mind, once she judged herself at a safe enough distance from her target, while still being able to hit them, she fired her first spell of the evening. Before she could chicken out, she cast Fireball into the alley where she heard the zombie. The effect was both immediate and horrifying.

The wailing screams of the zombie wrang through the silence, along with the crackling of her fire. The sound sounded like a dying pig only amplified and echoed like it was two pigs in one voice. The sound cut of rather abruptly after a single horrifying and scarring moment. The quite suddenly seemed even more louder than before. Swallowing down bile at the stench of burning, rotting dead flesh that joined the already rank air and the still hearing the screams echoing in her mind, she stumbled toward her victim. What she found in that alley would stick with her for the rest of her life and made her lose the battle with her stomach.

The zombie was that of a little girl, maybe ten years old at the most. The little zombie girl's hair was a filthy blonde, covered in blood, ash, and brains. The girl's face and torso were burnt to a crisp, from her fire or natural fire she couldn't guess. What skin that wasn't burned was rotted and bloody, it was as pale as the walking corpse that she was. The little girl's eyes and mouth were open in a horrified scream, terror in her very visage; the mouth was engorged beyond what a human's body should be capable of. Her dead eyes were an unnatural pale blue, were widened beyond what a human is capable of. The girls left cheek was nothing but bone and rotted muscle, no skin to be had. The girl's right cheek was nothing but blackened char that she was sure her fire was responsible for. The bloody and burned tattered remains of her filthy yellow sundress, seemed to be the brightest color of the girl. The girl wore no shoes, displaying her rotted and skeleton like feet, so small despite how hideous.

That was a little girl. Anya thought numbly as she stared at the smoking corpse, this little girl was a zombie. Anya giggled a little hysterically at the thought, tears blurring her vision as she continued to stare. This little zombie girl is dead again. That is one thought that she never thought she would ever have. What is dead should stay dead, nothing should be the exception, that is why she didn't like zombies and ghosts. While Anya wasn't afraid of them, she thought them unnatural and wrong. Like this little girl. This little Zombie girl.

Holy. Shit. Anya's eyes widened as it sunk in what she had just done. I just killed someone! Anya thought hysterically as she numbly stares at the girl's yellow sundress. The bright color capturing her attention the most for some reason. I just killed a little girl. The first person that I killed in this world and it was a child. Anya stumbled away from the corpse and didn't even make it a single step before she doubled over in despair and vomited on the charred remains of what seemed like a tire. The smell of burning rubber caused her to get sick again, that combined with the smell wafting from the burning corpse behind her set it off again. But it was her final thought before Chaos had enough and activated Gamer's mind to calm her hysteria that had her vomiting bile and collapsing beside her sick as if a puppet cut off her strings.

Holy shit I am a child killer!

After what seemed like hours, but it was in fact five minutes of staring at the zombie in despair, Anya found her mind calm. As she stumbled to her feet, she wandered over to her victim and calmly gazed at her work, determined to remember her first kill so that she would never forget it and find herself killing as easily as breathing. Anya thought that this picture before her would stop her from crossing a line in the future.

Do not despair Anya, for this child was dead long before you freed her from this world. Her pain is over. But for now, you must put aside your emotions, for there is more to slay this night and I fear that before the night is through you will find yourself surprised how easily it is to slay an enemy such as this.

That brought Anya out of her head and despair. Anya frowned, growing angry at her companion's dismissal of her feeling and the thought of being able to kill mercilessly like some kind of machine.

"I will not let myself become a killing machine just to level up. I won't allow myself to find this so easy, if I do what's to stop me from killing someone outside of this dungeon." Anya growled at her companion in anger, she knew that it wasn't right to take her anger out on her friend, but she couldn't allow herself to feel anything at the moment and it seems that Gamers Mind only activates in extreme situations and when Chaos activates it. While she is grateful not to be a drone with Gamers Mind active all of the time and be able to feel her own emotions, she is finding that her emotions are all over the place. It seems that Anya had forgotten how being a teenager was when it came to feelings and hormones, they both made her bipolar; couple that with trauma and you get a cocktail of anger and fear. Luckily for her Chaos didn't take offense to her tone and feelings, likely she read Anya's mind and emotions, not to mention she is a primordial being whom has probably seen and experienced everything there was to see and feel. So, a traumatized teenager with anger issues is nothing to her.

You will have to get used to it if you ever want to escape this place. Put your despair and morals aside until you leave this place, then you may mourn. As it were, I do not expect you to become some remorseless killing machine, but there is a time and place. Should your morals prevent you from killing, you WILL be killed instead. I did not choose you for this opportunity, just for you to die not even an hour into our journey. I chose you because despite your fear, despite what obstacles you face, you keep on going. When you get knocked down, you get back up, wasn't that your motto?

Anya gave a small smile as she listened to her friend and at the motto, she couldn't help but smile wider. That quote was a particular favorite of hers, it was from her favorite TV show that she and her ex-wife watched, The 100©. Anya found that beyond being a quote from her favorite show, it was a great fact of life. No matter what gets you down, the people in your life, the issues you face or life in general, get back up and do not give up. It has been a while since she was reminded of this, so she found herself both comforted and listening her to companion. With that piece of advice, she thanked her friend and resolved herself to listen to her friend and keep going.

Staggering to her feet, the pins and needles in her legs reminding her of her idleness, she stumbled away from the alley in search of more Zombies to slay.

TGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGTGT

3 hours later

Level 5 Zombie Adult Slain! 50 EXP Gained!

Level 5 Zombie Adult Slain! 50 EXP Gained!

Level 4 Zombie Dog Slain! 25 EXP Gained!

Level 2 Zombie Child Slain! 10 EXP Gained!

Level 1 Zombie Rat Slain! 5 EXP Gained!

After 3 grueling and traumatizing hours of Zombie Slaying, Anya was finally done with her quest. During the hours of Zombie Slaying, Anya had gained some loot from her kills, two level ups and a good chunk of experience. Though she was determined to wait until she left the dungeon before she looked at her spoils and saw what her new levels gained her. Anya had found to her dismay that Chaos was right, she did find it incredibly easy for her to kill her foes, even the children. It was disheartening and a part of Anya wailed at her that this wasn't right, even as she knew that the people and animals were already dead long before she set them ablaze.

Finally, after the last of the zombies were felled, the world around her froze as her constant companion spoke to her, while a dozen texts appeared one after another in her vision.

Quest Completed!

Tutorial Quest: Dungeons & Zombies!

Objective: Enter the Dungeons of the Dreaded Zombies, survive and slay 20 Zombies.

Rewards: 100 EXP, 100 Gold, 2 Tokens

Bonus Objective 1: Slay 50 Zombies

Bonus Objective 2: Slay 1 of each type of Normal Tier Zombie

Bonus Objective 3: Reach Level 20 Before Tutorial Ends

Bonus Objective Rewards 1: 250 EXP, 300 Gold, Novice Zombie Slayer Title

Bonus Objective Rewards 2: 300 EXP, 500 Gold, Necronomicon

Bonus Objective Rewards 3: 500 EXP, 1000 Gold, Novice Mage Robes

Level Up!

Exit Dungeon?

Y/N

Letting out a weary breath, she slowly looked around the frozen Hell that she had been subjected to for three hours. The area was littered with burning corpses of the dead animals and people she had laid to rest. The trees and buildings which were caught ablaze from her hungry flames were frozen in time, but she would swear she could still hear the crackle as they burned. Anya had fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it grown used to the stench of death and burning bodies during her massacre. Anya had also grown used to the bodies she killed, both as she was killing them and seeing them once she was done.

At this point, she was too tired and weary to be happy about her rewards and how many levels she gained from this, she just wanted to rest. So, with a whisper of yes, she apathetically watched the world around her blur as she was transitioned from the dungeon back to her new bedroom. The world was still frozen around her as she received a final message from her friend for the night before she plopped onto her bed to sleep.

Due to your condition, I decided to give you the week to get used to your new world before canon instead of starting immediately upon completion of your quest. Rest my child, you've earned it.

With a tired appreciated smile towards her friend's kindness, she fell asleep, determined to see her stats and the spoils of her hard-earned labor tomorrow.