Upgrading?
"Pick up the dagger, and kill it. Now!!"
Dilan's ice-cold eyes stared down at Oliver.
The young skinny man's entire body was trembling, but seeing Dilan's eyes that shone with fierce determination, he began to move instinctively.
Picking up the dagger, the trembling of his hand slowed down.
He screamed out in desperation while thrusting the dagger in the head of the foul zombie in front of him that went limp.
At the same time, Dilan pulled the Reinforced Stone Spear out of the zombie before he swung his entire body around.
Using the momentum he slashed horizontally, blocking the advance of the zombies he had ignored in order to save Oliver.
This had been extremely dangerous.
But even then, Dilan didn't feel like letting the zombies eat someone right in front of him, not when he could save them.
He still felt guilty for not being able to save the young girl outside the hospital door in the front yard.
Dilan also knew that he could not save everyone every single time so giving someone weak the courage to fight was the best alternative.
Hence, he had forced Oliver to make his first kill, and now Dilan had to face the remaining zombies.
There were not many, but all of them had to be killed, without leaving a single one alive.
It was only obvious, which led Dilan to push his feet off the ground, entering the fray of zombies once again.
Kicking the closest zombie away from him, he thrust the spear in the head of another one as blood splattered on him.
Afterward, he leaned his body forward to evade the claws of a zombie on his right side.
Spinning around, he cut through the head of the zombie in a clean vertical cut as its Essence crystal fell to the ground with a tinkling sound.
Dilan continued to move, and it was two minutes later that he stopped moving.
His breathing had grown and he placed his hands on his knees while taking lungfuls of air, but he had succeeded in clearing the floor.
The floor was littered with corpses of all 40 zombies along with broken limbs and blood making the floor slippery.
Turning in the direction of Oliver, he noticed that the young man had already gotten up from the ground.
In his hand, he could see an Essence crystal and a grayish ability crystal.
This made Dilan raise an eyebrow but he averted his attention once again.
'Either he was lucky, or the first kill with one's own strength will always grant an ability crystal.'
If it was the latter, one could make use of this. Helping everyone to gain an ability would increase their survivability.
Meanwhile, exploiting the old people before snatching away their abilities would also work.
They would be too weak to fight, and if their ability increased the combat prowess of the person who bound the ability, it would be even better.
However, instead of minding this, for now, Dilan took a glance towards the stairs that led to the second floor before pulling the Essence crystals out of the head of the Undeads.
Ailee and Jack looked at Dilan as if he was a monster, but seeing his Essence crystals, they couldn't help but ask.
"Can you give us some of your essence crystals? You wouldn't gain any status points from them anymore, either way…"
Hearing Jack ask for his hard-earned treasure made Dilan frown before he looked at Oliver for a moment.
"The essence crystals of the zombies I hunted are trivial for you. Kill monsters yourself, and you will see how great their effect truly is.
Didn't you already level up using MY essence crystals!? Killing level 0 zombies should be quite easy for you!"
Taking a few more deep breaths, Dilan decided to ignore Jack's request.
He was still a little bit pissed that they had robbed him. Unfortunately, being angry didn't really help him in surviving the apocalypse.
As such, he turned to Oliver, who looked at the grayish crystal in his hand before staring at Dilan once again.
"I…got an ability crystal [Basic Dagger mastery(Passive)] Do you want it? It's ungraded and with two black stars…"
When Jack heard this, he was already about to ask it for himself with greed gleaming in his eyes.
But Dilan had already opened his mouth, and replied first before Jack could,
"Just use it for yourself. If we can hunt together, it will be much better for me to have someone by my side, who won't let go of his weapon…"
Smiling lightly, he couldn't help but tease Oliver, only to add,
"And absorb the Essence crystal as well. You should get quite a few Status points from the zombie because you killed it!"
While he continued to listen to Dilan, both the ability and the essence crystal in Oliver's hand crumbled.
A surge of energy entered Oliver's body as he felt vigor seeping through his veins, only for a bright smile to emerge on his face.
"I gained more than 0.3 status points, and I leveled up! This Essence crystal had so much more energy than the other ones!!"
Dilan nodded his head when he heard Oliver's exclamation.
Now that he had gained some confidence, the skinny man's only issue was to move while facing zombies.
But that shouldn't be much of a problem anymore now that he had gained status points, a level, and a passive ability.
Thus, he finished pulling the Essence crystals out of the zombies' heads, and soon Oliver joined him.
He handed Dilan all the Essence crystals without showing any signs of desiring to keep even a single one for himself.
Instead, Oliver was looking at him with a glint of reverence as if he was seeing his idol.
"Are we going to the next floor now?"
It was Jack, who asked this question.
He was still staring at the Essence crystal that lay in front of Dilan, but he had stopped asking about them.
Meanwhile, Ailee would have loved to ask if she could get one or two Essence crystals but she was too frightened to open her mouth.
And even if Dilan would be generous enough to give her some of them, it was not like she had a weapon to fight.
As such, it was better for Dilan and Oliver to use them.
But it was just a moment later that Dilan threw three Essence crystals each towards Ailee, Jack, and even Oliver.
"We can only gain status points from the first three Essence crystals of a race. Their potency is either half or only a third of the usual if you haven't killed the monsters.
So decide whether you want to use them or not. If not, I will gladly absorb the essence within them!"
Dilan knew that greed was a powerful tool.
As such, he didn't think of monopolizing everything for himself and creating unnecessary enemies who would stab him in the back later.
However, by pointing out the disadvantage of the Essence crystals that had been procured by someone else, it was possible for him to create the effect he wanted.
While Oliver quickly returned the Essence crystals, knowing that more Status points were better, he couldn't help but ask.
"But, I already devoured more than three Essence crystals of zombies. Though, this is the first one that gave me status points…"
Dilan had also noticed this, and he presumed that only Essence crystals, which provided status points were counted in the 'system rules' he was slowly coming up with.
No sooner had Oliver asked his question, the Essence crystals in Ailee's and Jack's hands crumbled.
Nodding his head in return, Dilan's hand covered the remaining Essence crystals before a total of 34 notifications popped up in front of him.
[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 Zombie has been absorbed→ Host cannot gain more status points from ordinary zombies!]
While 33 notifications looked exactly the same, there was one notification that looked different.
[Essence of '30' infected monsters has been absorbed. Requirement (1) to upgrade passive ability
'Oh? It's possible to upgrade your abilities? That's great!' The corners of his lips curled upward.
Even if he didn't level up, the notification he received might even be considered something better.
Dilan quickly checked his status before opening the panel about his passive ability [Lesser Immunity]
[-[Lesser Immunity] Ungraded ★★★-
Upgrade requirements
1) Essence of '30' infected monsters has to be absorbed [30/30]
2) Health property of -4- [3.4/4]]
It was a shame that he couldn't upgrade his ability right now, but the fact that it was possible to upgrade his abilities was more than enough for him to smile.
Unfortunately, the requirements to upgrade the Origin ability [Regeneration] were not visible to him, which was a bummer.
However, he didn't let it dampen his spirits, and instead, he was more motivated to level up and to fight other beasts than zombies.
Thus, Dilan couldn't help but suggest.
"How about we secure the entrance hall by clearing a part of the second floor first?"
While the others thought that Dilan wanted to ease the tension of the other survivors by providing them with a bigger, and safe living place, his true intention was different.
He just wanted to fight other monsters, gain more status points, and level up quickly!