CH : 22 Second Baby

Ethan carefully looked at Julia as a woman, his heart can't help but move a bit. Prior to that, he saw her as a little sister, and never had a trace of feeling for her.

Julia leaned slightly forward, her pretty face blushing, and aggressively asked Ethan: "Your answer? If you are a man, then seriously answer me."

Ethan leaned slightly backward, his manner somewhat weak, hesitated for a moment and said: "If you become my girlfriend, then am I not committing a crime?"

Julia with a laugh said: "Big brother Ethan, how can it be? I'm 16, I will be 17 years old in a few months. By that time I would have reached adulthood. In Japan, 16 year olds can marry and have children. Besides, the world has become like this, who's going to care about these things. In these times the law is just a piece of paper. Even if I take 10,000 steps back in the previous world, if I voluntarily be your girlfriend then it is not a crime."

Ethan hesitated, suddenly, he was not sure how he felt about Julia. After all, before he did not have any feelings for her.

Julia looked at Ethan, then scooped up a spoonful of food into Ethan's mouth, and quickly said: "If you don't answer, I'll take that as your agreement. Eat quickly! Dinner is getting cold."

Ethan looked at Julia, and thought back to the anxiety and fear she had when she saw that he was hurt, and carefully taking care of him. He felt slightly warm inside, and his emotion has undergone a subtle change.

Ethan, Grace, and Luke were the main force fighting the Hunters. They were seriously injured, and were only able to rest at home the next day.

As Julia recovered her MP, she used Minor Injury Healing on Ethan, Grace, and Luke. Under Julia's skill, the trio's injuries were contained, and began to recover.

With the trio being injured, exploring the world and the searching for supplies of the small team came to a standstill. Even though William was now level 3, without Ethan accompanying him, he did not dare fight those zombies. The rest of the girls were even more afraid of fighting zombies.

"Draugr! Grab my bag." Lying down on the bed, Ethan looked at Draugr, and ordered.

The soul magic flashed in Draugr's eyes, it then picked up the heavy backpack and gave it to Ethan. In the last couple days, Draugr has been guarding Ethan and his backpack.

Inside the backpack were the two skill books and treasures dropped by the two Hunters Types.

Every piece of treasure and skill book was extremely rare in this post apocalyptic world. If they did not have the Minor Injury Healing skill and could not find a doctor; Luke and Grace would have died. While Ethan would be lying in bed for a few months in order to naturally recover.

Sitting beside Ethan, Julia quickly opened the backpack. Ethan took out the two skill books with his left hand.

{Level 3 Skill: Weapon Enhancement. Skill Description: Consuming 2 Spirit and 2 Stamina points to strengthen the weapon, making it sharper. In the weapon's strengthened state, 1 MP and 1 Stamina point are consumed every 10 seconds. The weapon enhancement effect depends on the user's body. When the user has 10 times the physical fitness of ordinary people, with this skill, the user can attack with even a blade of grass}

{Level 3 Skill: Body Enhancement. Skill Description: This skill is a passive skill. After learning this skill, the user will permanently gain 5 Strength points and 3 Vitality points. After transferring to Warrior or warrior related job class, the user will gain 5 Strength points and 3 Vitality points on every job class evolution.}

You are not stuck with a single class and they could be developed and evolved.

Ethan's gaze lingered on the two level 3 skills before him, a glint of desire flickering in his eyes. Both skills were incredibly powerful, each offering immense value to him. Body Enhancement, in particular, stood out—the lines in thr skill Body Enhancement was even a skill that could continually give more stat points on job class upgrade which also meant you can evolve your job classes.. This meant all of us weren't confined to a single class; instead, our abilities could grow and transform, unlocking even greater potential as we progressed.

The higher the Spirit, the greater the magic attacks. While the higher the vitality, the faster the body would recover. Ethan did not increase Spirit and vitality before because even with higher Spirit and vitality, just getting scratched by zombies, he would become infected and die. These two stats are not useless, but Ethan was most in need of Stamina, Agility, and Strength. Those stats allowed him to survive and fight longer.

Ethan hesitated and did not immediately learn these two precious and powerful level 3 skills. Instead, he took out the two blue treasure boxes.

Ethan have only seen L1 zombie, S1 zombie, and evolved zombies dropped blue treasure boxes. Normal zombies only dropped white treasure boxes.

Ethan opened the blue treasure box, a blue light flashing, condensing into a silvery, thick barrel revolver.

{3rd Degree Item: Stinger Pistol. Item Description: This pistol is 20 years ahead of the world's current gun manufacturing technology. 17.5 mm caliber, three rounds payload. It can shoot and kill a large beast. Can automatically generate a special Stinger bullet every day. Drawbacks, high recoil.}

"Great stuff!" Ethan looked at the Stinger Pistol, and thought.

Currently the world's largest pistol caliber is the Smith & Wesson's American M500 Magnum revolver. The pistol has a caliber of 12.7 mm, and can shoot down lions and Tigers. It's named the world's most powerful handgun. This Stinger ammunition of 17.5 mm caliber is close to artillery weapons, its power can be imagined.

[ Note: The smallest artillery caliber is 20mm, so 17.5mm is pretty powerful for a pistol. I doubt normal people can handle the recoil. It would break your arm.]

Ethan could not wait and open another blue treasure box, blue light flashing, condensed into a blue ring engraved with ancient patterns.

{3rd Degree Treasure: Thorn Ring. When equipped, this mystical ring grants +6 to Spirit. *Supplementary Skill: Thorn*—Upon activation, the user can summon a towering, 3-meter-high thorn from the earth to strike at foes within a 50-meter radius. This formidable skill, however, comes with a cooldown of 24 hours. Can be equipped by anyone.}

The two blue treasure boxes that Ethan opened were great items. He then continued to open the remaining six white treasure boxes.

Among the six white treasure boxes, four boxes were empty, the remaining two boxes produced two Imitation Tang Swords.

"Jul, wear this ring and heal me." Ethan took the Thorn Ring and handed it to Julia.

"This is my engagement ring right, hee hee?" Julia smiled and took the Thorn Ring. She then put the ring on the ring finger of her right hand, and carefully eyed the beautiful ring. The Thorn Ring was an exquisite jewellery, engraved with strange and mysterious runes, looking extremely beautiful.

Ethan with a wry smile said: "I will let you wear this temporarily. After I recover, I'm going to wear it out in battles."

The Thorn Ring has a supplementary skill with strong destructive power, and if necessary, even kills a powerful enemy to save our lives . This treasure, as the main fight force Ethan must equip himself.

"Cheapskate." Julia pouted, putting her hands on top of Ethan's right hand, and used her healing skill.

Under the treatment two white lights flashed, Ethan's swollen and fractured right hand began to slowly heal.

Seeing Julia focus intently on healing him, Ethan felt a wave of warmth and gratitude wash over him. The treatments from the Minor Injury Healing spell weren't miracles—they had their limits. The trio's injuries were severe, and even after five days, Ethan was still confined to bed. His arm had fully healed, but there were still fractured ribs that hadn't yet mended. Despite this, what puzzled Julia was the small, excited smile that played on Ethan's lips ever since he woke up.

He kept glancing at the clock on the wall, as if waiting for something.

***

**Tenth Day After the World Ended.**

**2:05 PM**

Suddenly, Ethan's eyes snapped open. He glanced at the clock again, a spark of anticipation in his gaze.

"Time to call in the reinforcements," he murmured, unable to contain the grin spreading across his face. Just moments later, as he touched a peculiar rune, a long-awaited notification resonated in his mind. For days he had been clinging to life by a thread, almost at death's door, and now the moment he had been desperately waiting for had finally arrived

{The cooldown time of skill and 'Necromancer's Pact' has ended. And you have fulfilled the requirements for skill use. You can now summon a Special Skeleton again. Would you like to summon a Special Skeleton?}

{Summoning a Special Skeleton requires 10 Spirit.}

"Yes!" he exclaimed, his grin widening with a mix of relief and excitement. He had been bedridden, eagerly anticipating this moment. Without hesitation, he activated the skill. "Give me one more baby," he commanded with a grin, feeling a surge of energy that seemed to heal his body from within.

In the next instant, mysterious incantations poured from his lips, as if summoned by a force beyond his control. A void materialized in the air before him, and from it, a massive Voltrax emerged, bringing with it an aura of death and searing heat. It was as though the very gates of hell had been flung open.

As the ritual progressed, Ethan felt a sharp pain in his head, a familiar sensation that left him momentarily dizzy. He recognized this discomfort from before, but it was a small price to pay.

A skeletal figure stepped through the gates, its form crafted from bones that appeared far stronger than those of any ordinary skeleton. Covered in esoteric runes and emanating a cyan hue instead of the usual white, the creature was enveloped in a shroud of black mist, its eyes ablaze with mystical flames. It was as though this skeletal warrior had crawled directly out of the underworld.

Ethan felt a profound connection with the new Draugr, now multiplied by two. This was no ordinary skeleton; it was a Special Skeleton, born from the realm of death itself.

Special Skeleton

Level: 1

Strength: 15 (10)

Agility: 15 (10)

Vitality: 15 (10)

Spirit: 15 (10)

Endurance: 10 (10)

Skills:

Bone Crafting (LV : 1), Minor Bone Regeneration (LV : 1), Reinforced Bones (LV : 1)

Ethan silently congratulated himself for choosing *Reinforced Bones* as the skill to bestow upon upgrading the *Necromancer's Pact*. While it didn't have the versatility of *Bone Manipulation*, it was the best choice given his current situation—he needed raw strength to survive. The potential for could be explored later.

And it wasn't as if the other options were lost forever. If skill points were awarded every ten levels, he would soon reach Level 20. Considering the slow grind of experience points and the sparse number of zombies around, Ethan was confident he'd have one or two more skeletons by the time he leveled up to 20.

The upgraded *Summon Special Skeleton* skill had indeed paid off. The new skeleton, endowed with *Reinforced Bones* and an additional +5 to all its stats, was now over 1.5 times stronger than the average person. In fact, its stats even surpassed those of the original Draugr.

Ethan revealed this newfound power, fully aware that with these amplified stats of every new skeleton, his chances of survival had soared. What's better than one? Two. And what's better than two? Three!...

The thought ignited a spark of confidence within him. If he had possessed just one more skeleton on Lei Jiang Bridge during the fight against those Hunter Types, they wouldn't have been injured so badly. He was certain of it. With each new summon, the balance of power shifted further in his favour, and the possibilities became tantalisingly endless.

***

After a full 8 days under Julia's treatment, Grace, Ethan, and Luke made a full recovery.

Ethan spread the items out in front of Grace and asked: "These are the items that were dropped from the two Hunters types. This Level 3 Weapon Enhancement skill book, Imitation Tang Sword, and 200 Survival Coins is your. The rest belong to Luke and me, do you have any objection?"

Loot distribution is critical for a team, with unfair distribution, there is the possibility of the entire team collapsing. Even though Ethan contributed the most, he did not want to take all the loot.

"No objection!" Grace carefully looked at the items that were spread out, and nodded in satisfaction. With her extraordinary skill, what is lacking most is power. This Weapon Enhancement skill enables her to have more destructive power and combat effectiveness. Additionally it's a skill that had a lot of potential and could grow with her. She did not have any objection towards Ethan's distribution.

Ethan looked at Luke, and said: "Luke, this Thorn Ring, Imitation Tang Sword, and 200 Survival Coins is for you. While I want the Body Enhancement skill and Stinger Pistol."

The Stinger Pistol is powerful, but recoil is also great. Among the others, only Ethan was the one with enough Power stats in order to use the weapon.

"Okay!" Luke did not have any objection.

Ethan seriously said: "Luke, Grace, William, Luna, and Julia, the six of us will go clear the zombies on Xing Ning Road."

"Ethan, you still want to provoke those monsters?" A worried William said. He did not forget the two terrifying Hunters. The four of them were nearly wiped out by the two Hunters the last time.

Grace frowned and said: "Ethan, I think we need to raise our level first before challenging the two Hunters. Our level is too low. Except for you, the rest of us don't even have the power to fight when facing the two Hunters."