Chapter 15 - Post-Apocalypse Rule 1: Cardio, Cardio, Cardio!

Ready, both of them searched for the staircase which was the furthest away from the one Asmund noticed the most Death-Hounds moving through at the start of the apocalypse. Since it was pretty far away, it took them 20 minutes to reach it.

“Looks like there’s no movements here…” -Asmund

Looking at the door at the bottom of the stairs, Asmund talked to himself as he was trying to detect any hint that Death-Hounds were nearby.

“Good, then let’s make the final preparations. Put your spear down for a second and stretch your arm in front of you for a moment.” -Asmund

“Oh? A-Alright… Like this?” -Shiori

Doing just as he asked, she stretched her arm after putting down her spear, and looked at Asmund with some anticipation in her eyes, wondering what was going to happen.

“Good, I’m going to give you gauntlets to protect yourself, so even if you’re creeped out by what’s going to happen, don’t move more than necessary until I tell you I'm finished.” -Asmund

“R-Roger!” -Shiori

Creeped out? -Shiori

As she was wondering what he meant by that, she watched in astonishment as Asmund opened his wrist with the use of his black dagger, after removing the blood coating, without any hesitation. Blood soon started to float in her direction to cover both her arms.

“S-S-SO COOL!” -Shiori

That wasn’t exactly the reaction I expected… -Asmund

“I-Is that Master’s magic?!” -Shiori

“Yeah… It’s something unique to my class, ‘Blood Manipulation’, I can use blood to make equipement for myself, among other tricks…” -Asmund

Oh! So that’s why I didn’t see the giant red sword or his claw thingy anywhere. Now that I think of it, it really felt like blood was moving around to form the claw thingy the first time I saw it. -Shiori

“There you go, do you feel any restraint or difficulty to move your hands?” -Asmund

As she looked at the gauntlets covering her arms with stars in her eyes, Shiori tried to move all her fingers and her wrist, and was really surprised with how comfortable they were.

It feels like Master is covering my arms to protect me! Uheheheheh! -Shiori

“They are really comfortable… Actually if I could always have them on me I would really like it!” -Shiori

“Sorry but no, keeping blood in a ‘fixed’ form uses my mana and also slowly exhausts me mentally. Otherwise I would always keep the ‘coating’ on my equipment at all times.” -Asmund

“So that’s how it is, too bad… B-By the way, Master. You lost a lot of blood already… Is that really fine?” -Shiori

“I can produce an infinite amount of blood as long as I have mana, so it’s okay. Anyway, give me a second to coat my weapons and then we will go down.” -Asmund

“U-Understood!” -Shiori

While Asmund turned his black longsword into his giant sword and the black dagger into a blade-whip, Shiori was exercising with her spear on the side to try to get used to using it with the gauntlets.

His weapons remade, Asmund also made his usual clawed gauntlet for his left arm, as he was now able to control more blood at the same time with the huge boost in Mind he received recently.

“Good, it seems like we’re ready at last, if you hear any sounds around us, immediately flash it with your flashlight. They shouldn’t be able to come too close to us without me noticing it, but just in case I didn’t warn you ahead of time, do that.” -Asmund

“Hn!” -Shiori

Shiori nodded nervously, and waited for Asmund to take the lead before following him downstairs.

At the bottom of the stairs was a door left open, which was showing signs of being damaged didn't seem to have been opened in a conventional way. But the fact that only the door, which was barely big enough to let a Death-Hound level 1 to 3 to pass through, was damaged and not the surrounding wall seemed like good news in Asmund’s eyes.

This passage must have been used by level 1 Death-Hounds at the time they were still cleaning the building. At least there shouldn’t be any high level ones around. -Asmund

Stepping inside the dark hallways of the basement, Asmund heard a nervous gulping sound coming from behind him. The light produced by the flashlight was moving around to illuminate every corner of the hallways, never staying in one place for long.

But not minding his new liability, Asmund just focused on listening to his surroundings, proceeding forward while barely using his sight. That said, he could still see quite well when thinking about the lack of any light source down there, apart from the flashlight of course.

“Stop…!” -Asmund

Making a sign for Shiori to stop moving while telling her to do so in a low voice, Asmund focused on a small sound he heard coming from some distance away further in the hallways.

It’s coming closer… Alone… I say it’s a level 2 or 3… -Asmund

“Get ready our first prey is coming. But cut off the light so we don’t startle it and make it run away.” -Asmund

“Yes, Master…” -Shiori

She did as he ordered and cut off the light of her fleshlight, but she was far from being happy at the prospect of staying in the dark with a monster nearby. Which pleased Asmund as he didn’t expect her to obey without at least complaining a little.

It looks like this girl might really be usable after all… -Asmund

(Ultrabenosaurus: no, not that kind of 'usable' you damn pervert, they're in the middle of a dungeon raid! This is not time for such lecherous nonsense! Though the next sentence from Asmund may start in a suggestive manner...)

“Crouch down where you are and don’t move… I will bring the mutt to you and hold it down so you can stab it.” -Asmund

Not giving her the time to answer, Asmund rushed forward, not minding the fact that the monster would hear him approach, as he was confident that he was much faster than it and would catch it up without trouble now that it was this close.

And sure enough, before the Death-Hound could even react, the poor fella got his legs cut by Asmund’s blade-whip, before having his wound closed by solid blood so he wouldn’t die from blood loss.

[ Death-Hound Level 2 ]

Perfect, it should be enough for her to level up. -Asmund

Grabbing the pitiful whining beast by the skin of his neck, Asmund dragged him to the still waiting Shiori, who couldn’t help but be startled at the whining sounds which were coming closer to her.

“You can use your flashlight again.” -Asmund

As she heard the sound of Asmund's voice coming from the darkness ahead of her, Shiori heaved a sigh of relief and switched on her flashlight again. Making her see the gruesome sight of a big monster being dragged around while being legless, yet still uselessly trying to struggle for his life.

Dropping the monster a meter away from Shiori, Asmund pushed the Death-Hound’s head down with his foot, locking his snout closed so it doesn’t try to bite her if she carelessly approached it.

“Go ahead, aim for his eyes so you can reach the brain, it’s the easiest way to kill them.” -Asmund

Standing up with her spear in one hand and her flashlight with the other, Shiori slowly approached the downed monster so she could reach him with her weapon. And as she did, pointed the tip of the spear close to its eye, afraid of missing it if she was to try to stab it from further away for more momentum.

“Nyah!” -Shiori

Shouting what she felt was something akin to a war cry, but sounded more like the cute meowing of a kitten to Asmund’s ears, she thrusted her spear in direction of the beast…

“A-Ah… Oops…” -Shiori

Only to miss and stab the jaw of the poor Death-Hound, who at this point wanted nothing more but to end its suffering.

“Nyah!” -Shiori

Once again she made her weird war cry, and…

“I-It’s harder than it looks…” -Shiori

Ripped a part of her target’s ear.

“Are you for real… Even I’m starting to pity him here (not really). Just stab his eye already, how hard is that to do?” -Asmund

“Uhhh~... S-Sorry. I’ll get it this time! Nyah!” -Shiori

“OUCH! GODDAMIT! Where the fuck are you aiming?!” -Asmund

This time the Death-Hound was spared, but Asmund’s foot was another story… Luckily she wasn’t able to pierce through his skin with the amount of Power she have in comparison to his Constitution. But he still felt a nasty prickling sensation when she did.

“Eeek~! S-Sorry, Master! A-Are you okay?!” -Shiori

“I’m fine! You won’t be able to wound me even if you were trying your best to do it! But just kill it already!” -Asmund

“Nyah!” -Shiori

“Are you kidding me… You didn’t even hit him this time! Know what?! Just stop with the weird war cry already and just bark or something!” -Asmund

Although he said that because of her weird cry and the current situation was getting on his nerves, she believed that it was an order and actually did it…

“W-Wan!” -Shiori

…

Seriously? When she barked she got him dead-on? I just have… No words… -Asmund

[ Received 2 Credits ]

“I-I did it, Master! And it says that I received 2 Credits!” -Shiori

Huh? That’s weird… Unless… -Asmund

“Did you level up?” -Asmund

“No I didn’t, at least it didn’t tell me anything about that and… Yes, I’m still level 1 on my character sheet. Why? Should I have gained a level?” -Shiori

“So that’s how it is… Yes, you should have gained a level, if you killed him alone that is. Since we both were involved in this monster's death, the experience and Credits were shared.” -Asmund

“I… Ah! I-It’s moving!” -Shiori

“Don’t worry it’s definitely dead, otherwise you wouldn’t receive any Credits. That weird twitching is what happens when a monster is dropping a treasure capsule.” -Asmund

Explaining what was happening to Shiori, Asmund made a backpack out of his blood and put the gacha ball that the monster just dropped in it. Done with that, Asmund was going to move away when Shiori suddenly asked him.

“M-Master! Master isn’t going to ‘absorb’ it?” -Shiori

“Hmm? How do you know about that?” -Asmund

“The other day, early in the morning, after Master fought with the big group of Death-Hounds I saw Master gather blood around him and absorbed it through his skin, I wasn’t really sure of what I was looking at at the time, but now that I know a little more about Master’s magic I kinda understand what Master did. Even if I’m still not sure why Master did that…” -Shiori

“Is that so? Well, like you guessed I can absorb the blood of dead monsters or humans, and use it to strengthen myself. But the more I absorb the blood of one species, the less it gives good results, that’s why I’m starting to avoid to absorb low level monsters. It lessens the effect while not giving much results anyway, since the level of the monster I absorb influences how much I gain through the absorption.” -Asmund

“That’s awesome!” -Shiori

“As you say…” -Asmund

Not wanting to lose more time on explanations, Asmund tried to avoid explaining things which would lead to other questions from the overly curious Shiori. So he said the bare minimum that would explain the situation and why he wasn’t absorbing this monster’s blood essence, before walking away.

Luckily, it seems that a lot of weaklings are in these parts and so it didn’t take long for Asmund to find other preys. But since they were level 3 at most, Shiori’s level and the amount of Credits gained was growing very slowly...

After hours of hunting without moving too far away from the staircase, the result was 8 treasure capsules, 37 Credits each, and 3 levels for Shiori.

“Yay! I’m already level 4, Master! I didn’t expect that I would grow this fast!” -Shiori

“I wouldn’t call it fast… But seeing as we killed nothing but the small fry and shared the experience gain, I guess that it was still a decent growth. But I’m getting really hungry, and it should already be getting close to nightfall outside. We should stop our hunt here for today, I marked the walls with a marker pen and drew a map of the part we visited today, so tomorrow we should be able to search further in and fight stronger ones.” -Asmund

“Yesss~!” -Shiori

Really happy with her gain of levels, Shiori couldn’t stop smiling and skipping around as they were traveling back to the entrance of this floor. Seeing her like that, even Asmund’s mood brightened a little even though he didn’t gain much today.

…!

Suddenly, Asmund stopped moving entirely, as if time stopped for him or he turned to stone.

“Master? What’s wrong?” -Shiori

Even if he didn’t answer her, as she looked at his face paling and large drops of sweat slowly appearing on it, she immediately understood that something really dangerous was going on. As for Asmund, what was stopping him from moving was a ridiculously large amount of pressure that he was sensing on his back, as if a giant the size of a mountain was currently stepping on him.

Fear… He was feeling fear like he never did before… Slowly turning around to see the origin of the pressure, he noticed ‘darkness’... It was really strange, it was like a ball of black fog was standing in the middle of the dark hallway.

Gulping loudly in nervousness, his eyes got used to that new source of darkness and revealed to Asmund what it truly was…

It was a wolf like creature, the size of a level 2 Death-Hound, much smaller than the most threatening Death-Hounds he saw until now. But that wolf, unlike the Death-Hounds, had a thick black fur which gave the impression of floating around the monster’s body. Just as Asmund was staring at the monster, the monster was staring back at him with eyes much alike his own, with a bright blood red color. The last peculiar thing Asmund noticed about this beast, was the small white pattern on its head, looking like a human skull, and right as he was staring at it, ‘it’ appeared…

[ Death-Hound Alpha Level 23 - Boss ]

Reading what was written on the panel above the monster head, Asmund didn’t even think to fight it under the current conditions, and fled, he grabbed Shiori by her waist and put her over his shoulder without any warnings from his part, resulting in her shrieking in surprise but not resisting.

“W-What’s happening, Master?!” -Shiori

“We’re in deep shit, that’s what’s going on! Light up what’s behind us and you’ll see!” -Asmund

Moving the flashlight she was still holding tight in her hand in the direction of the hallway they were currently fleeing from, she gasped in horror as she saw the small yet fearsome monster who was now running after them.

“Is it getting closer?!” -Asmund

“Y-Yes! It’s incredibly fast!” -Shiori

Asmund was certainly far from being slow and could run approximately 4 times faster than an average human. But the beast after him could at least run 6 times faster! So it was no wonder that despite all the effort Asmund was putting into running as fast as he could, he wasn’t able to lose the Alpha which was coming closer with each passing second.

“Shit!” -Asmund

Understanding that simply running wouldn’t be enough, Asmund gathered the blood coating his weapons and Shiori’s gauntlets into a giant ball of blood, and quickly make it expand into a wall behind him. Which he turned solid as soon as it was as thick as possible, and leaving no openings for the Alpha to go through.

The wall of blood was absorbing more and more mana from Asmund as he was moving away from it, but he knew the wall was soon going to disappear anyway. Just hoping that it would at least buy him even a single second.

*CRASH*

But betraying his hope, the monster jumped through the wall like an arrow as if there wasn’t even an obstacle on his path to begin with, not slowing down and keeping its pace.

“You damn son of a…!” -Asmund

Not turning around to see, but understanding what happened just from the loud sound of breaking glass he heard, Asmund cursed as he racked his brain for ideas.

It’s bad! Damn it’s bad! I can’t fight this bastard while having Shiori near me and not having prepared my gear in advance! I never imagined that the damn Alpha would be nothing like the other Death-Hounds and would be an Agility based monster! If I can’t fight, I need to run away, but the bastard is even faster than me! I can’t stop him or at least slow him down by using my ability either! Then what?!

Speed! I need more speed! Would my clawed boots would do the trick? No, it would certainly improve my speed, but it will be nowhere near enough! Then what could I make to gain more speed?! Rollers?! No that’s retarded… Anything with wheels wouldn’t help in this situation, and as soon as I reach the stairs it would just hinder me anyway! Let’s take inspiration from animals, what are the fastest kind of animals?! The four legged kind clearly, but I don’t think that running on all fours or making a centaur body out of blood would improve anything!

Then… Birds… All I can think of are wings, but would wings really help here?! It wouldn’t give me much speed would it, and I’m too heavy to fly with them. At the very least it would give me a small push and that’s it… Not that I really have a choice, it’s worth a try if I combine it with my clawed boots… -Asmund

Wanting to try out his idea, Asmund slashed open his wrist which already healed thanks to his incredible Constitution, and formed a pair of wings glued to his back, small enough to be spread in this hallway, and a pair of clawed boots to have a better grasp of the floor…

Let’s hope it works… -Asmund