15

I found three emails in my inbox that weren't spam or reminders of shit I really didn't care about. One was a report with video footage of the dungeon break from beginning to end. Apparently I'd done the most damage out of all the awakened earlier today. I'd managed to pull off thirty-five kills. Most of which I'd done while pinned down in my stone circle. 

I didn't just kill a large number of zombies either. I'd maimed quite a few as well. I decided to watch the video while doing crunches. Stopping, and focusing on certain parts of the video. The zombies had all poured out of the dungeon all at once. 

There were well over a hundred of them. Having double the number of zombies come out of the dungeon had been what overwhelmed their countermeasures. I realized then that I'd only been about a hundred feet from the doors of the dungeon when I was pinned down. That explained the large number of zombies that had swarmed me. That many zombies swarming over people had caused them to freeze up or slow down. 

Maybe it had something to do with the group skill Stench of death? If certain class skills got stronger with each level then this Stench of death skill that the zombies had could very easily grow to be even stronger. If the number of zombies needed for the skill to activate decreased then this would quickly become a huge problem. The only advantage we had over the zombies was our speed. If a hoard as big as the last one came out of that dungeon then they'd overwhelm what little advantage we had with sheer numbers. 

This was pure speculation on my part. My thoughts were spiraling to the worst case scenario. I changed into some of my cheap jeans, and a T-shirt. Then I grabbed my backpack, and stuffed my empty garbage bag into my backpack as well. I had the new awakened healing bonus that would kick in around seven, and I'd just spent around ten hours passed out in the makeshift infirmary that had been made in the ballroom. 

Would all the monsters in the dungeon come out at once if we went in the dungeon to stop them? If my experience with fantasy novels, and shows told me anything it was that going in was the best way to stop the dungeon. I probably wasn't the only one that had come to this conclusion. I left my room. Taking only my cellphone, and the room key. 

The payment for my contribution was about half what I made in a month, and I'd put in my bank details so the money could be transferred straight to my bank account. It wasn't nearly as much as I wanted to make for almost dying, but poor payment aside I was level seven now. I needed to get ahold of a bow, and some arrows. I imagined that quite a few people had abandoned their weapons as they fled the zombies. Plus there were other things I hadn't really researched or thought about. 

I scrolled through my social media. There was a lot of panic on the pages as well as some information. One bit of information caught my attention. There was a temporary skill that came with awakening besides the seven o'clock healing. The material breakdown skill. 

It was a temporary skill that allowed us to break down our kills into usable materials, and weapons. What we got was based on what each beast had. Every beast gave a magical core, and at least one or two other usable materials. The most common reward besides the core was monster meat. The skill was super useful.

It did also give some more information, but what that information was differed post to post, and person to person. I guess it was just natural for people to interpret the information differently. Plus I had no way of knowing if the information people were getting was different person to person. I would have to use the skill for myself to figure out what it did exactly. The elevator let me out in the lobby, and I headed towards the exit doors. 

There was a nervous energy in the lobby. There were several people nursing a single drink. Even more that were black out drunk. The line for people to volunteer was virtually gone. Seeing people die on livestream had been enough to dampen the excitement from the day before. 

The part that bothered me was if this was the tutorial then how bad would it be when the game actually began? I needed whatever head start I could get. I needed to be able to protect myself when the real hell began. People hadn't started to move yet. My eyes were on my phone. 

I had the map going in the corner as I tried to figure out what was going on in the rest of the country. I kept on walking. Following the map as I browsed through the mess that made up the plethora of social media posts in the last few hours. Seattle wasn't the only city that had problems with the last wave. Double the number of monsters had poured out of the dungeons, and there were only more waves coming. 

If the number doubled again then how would they handle it? The city was more awake then I though it would be. Over a dozen trucks were in a line with big cargo containers. A crane had been brought in, and they were building a wall of containers around the dungeon. The checkpoint near the hotel hadn't changed yet so there was that. 

I just needed to give my name, and I they looked me up. Handing me a cheap looking ID card within half an hour. The card had my picture on it, and would grant me access to the dungeon. It had a single magnetic strip that probably contained all the information the card needed from me. I was just glad I didn't have to double back to get my license.