"Jesus christ this nightmare just won't end...", Danny said, defeat evident in his voice.

"Danny. We can figure this out. There's gotta be something we can do right? There's gotta be.", Jim whispered, scared he might alert the horde nearly a mile away.

"You work there man. You should know. Is there like another way in or something? Like tunnels or something?", Danny asked.

"I mean this isn't a movie man, there's no convenient entrance in. As far as I know the store is connected to the sewer yeah, but by pipes filled with water and, well, shit.", Jim replied, "Honestly, we'll have to go through not around the horde if we want to get in."

"Through... Through that... Well I guess we'll have to call off operation X-Mart then.", Danny replied with a sad shrug.

"Think about it though man. Why are there so many damn zombies around it? It's gotta be full of people. We can't just leave them to die can we?", Jim questioned himself as much as Danny.

"We're not super heroes Jim. It's not as simple as just gallantly smashing through them. The system has given us some boosts, but we're no different than before really. We'd need a pretty big power up to even stand a bit of a chance against that many enemies.", Danny said while waving his arms frantically at the horde in the distance.

"We just got a lot of LP through that announcement earlier though. 100 was it? How about we try to spend that and see where we're at. Worst case we judge it to not be enough and we turn around and find another place to start.", Jim said hopefully.

"The announcement said we shouldn't spend it though man. Whoever it is was gonna show us how to use it properly.", Danny muttered.

"I feel like the situation calls for it. C'mon man. Ash may be in there...", Jim said quietly.

"Fuck you man. You keep using her to push this. It's a dick move! But fuck it, you know what she may be in there, so let's do this.", Danny said, obviously angry about the situation.

"Sorry man. But I can't just walk away, but I can't do it alone either...", Jim replied grimly as he opened his status window.

Jim Reznik Level: 2 Life Points: 115 Level Up: 30 Life Points Class: N/A Perks Skills Stats: (0) Point to allocate Strength: 8 Intelligence: 14 Dexterity: 10 Wisdom: 14 Vitality: 13 Perception: 9 Attributes: Health: 67 Stamina: 33.5 Mana: 37

115 points. Hopefully that's enough. I don't feel like levels will be enough. It'll have to be perks, Jim thought to himself.

Perks Attained:

Touched by Mentality

Perks Available: (50) Power Word Skill Tree: Opens the Power Word skill tree for purchase. (20) The First Word: Doubles the effect of the first Power Word used in combat. (10) Enemy of the Undead: Increases damage against undead creatures marginally.

I'll try opening the skill tree. Hopefully there's something good available..., Jim hoped.

Perk: Power Word Skill Tree Aquired

*Ding*

First Time Tip: Skill tree perks open up low cost perks related to the original tree for purchase. Although a high investment they usually pay off with interest in the long run. Perks Attained:

Touched by Mentality

Power Word Skill Tree

Perks Available: (70) Prepared Speech: Can store Power Word uses ahead of time at 1.5 cost, to be used later at no cost. 3 slots available on taking perk. More available at Perk level 2. (30) Discordant Echo: Double the cost of a Power Word usage, allowing it to echo to enemies within 5 meters of the enemy hit, can chain. Can only inflict each enemy once. Power effectiveness decreases by 5% for each chain. (25) Add Spell 'Power Word': A perk that can be taken repeatedly, allowing the choice between 3 random spells of the subtype. (20) The First Word: Doubles the effect of the first Power Word used in combat. (10) Enemy of the Undead: Increases damage against undead creatures marginally.

65 points left. Prepared Speech is immediatly out. Discordant Echo is essentially a must for the situation. A new word would be helpful but the fact that it's out of a random pull makes it unreliable for now. That leaves me to take The First Word, and Enemy of the Undead.

Perks 'The First Word', 'Enemy of the Undead', and 'Discordant Echo' Aquired Perks Attained:

Touched by Mentality

Power Word Skill Tree

Enemy of the Undead

Discordant Echo

The First Word

Perks Available: (70) Prepared Speech: Can store Power Word uses ahead of time at 1.5 cost, to be used later at no cost. 3 slots available on taking perk. More available at Perk level 2. (25) Add Spell 'Power Word': A perk that can be taken repeatedly, allowing the choice between 3 random spells of the subtype.

This will have to do for now.

Jim looked up to see Danny sitting, staring out at the swarm of zombies, a small smile on his face.

"You good man?", Jim asked quietly.

"Yeah. It's just funny is all. Yesterday all I was thinking about around this time is what I would have for dinner. Now I'm about to take on a mass of zombies. Speaking of I assigned my perks. I had 20 LP left from the last round, so I levelled up, put all the points in Dexterity and Vitality. Then I took a perk called 'Strike and Be Struck' for 70 LP, it increases my Strength by 1% every time I strike, and my 'Defense' by 1% everytime I hit, apparently that's a 'Hidden Stat', whatever that means. Anyways lastly I took a perk called 'With Death, Fury' for 30 LP, every time I kill something in combat my attacks get a tiny bit faster. They both reset when combat is over, but it seemed to mesh well with my 'Relentless Assault' I got earlier, that makes it so as long as I've participated in a kill in the last 15 seconds I can't run out of stamina.", Danny explained slowly his face a bit brighter than it had been before assigning his LP.

He's gonna get addicted to this. Hell... I might get addicted to this. This is a scary new world with a very slippery slope into going full murderhobo, Jim concluded internally.

Jim explained his own new gains and the two came up with a plan together. They were gonna try to kill the whole lot of all of them.