Ted groaned as he looked out the door. It appeared that, during his sleep, more zombies had decided to visit the floor. I really shouldn't be surprised. I made a LOT of noise last night. Probably drew them up here.

Worse, at least two looked to be the beefy, muscular, cokehead type of zombies. How many drug addicts LIVE in this building? And why didn't I ever know about it?

Ted decided to chalk it up to being a recluse who only interacted with one person outside of work.

He glanced at his wounds. The cut was...healing, a bit. At least, it had begun scabbing over. Ted wasn't a physician, but he guessed it would take a good month or so for it to completely go away. The blisters were...Well. About the same, really: having begun the process of healing, but not having FINISHED healing, which would probably take...maybe a week? Two?

Ted didn't know. What he DID know was that the healing process would probably take less time if he increased END. Hopefully. Shutting his door, Ted prepared to begin todays exercise regimen.

+3 END! Manual Labour rank up! Gained the perk Physical Fitness!

Physical Fitness Rank 1: You are an exemplar of physical health and fortitude! At this rank, this perk makes you tire slightly slower!

Ted gasped, chugging down a water bottle. This. Was HELL. Three hours and he felt like every muscle in his body was burning. Taking numerous deep, gasping breaths, Ted quickly decided that he needed to do something LESS strenuous for a bit, because while the attribute increase was nice and the perk was nifty, if he kept up at this pace he was FAIRLY certain he'd die.

He considered raising one of his other attributes, but dismissed the idea. The only other one applicable to his current situation would MAYBE be luck, and he had....no real idea how to go about doing that. Card games? Playing dice?

He paused. What about skills? He knew those could rise from practice.

Right. First, lets check what skills he had available.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Skills

Skill

Rarity

Rank

Description

Hiding

Ubiquitous

1

The skill concerning the ability to go unnoticed while staying still. At this rank, you're marginally better at going unnoticed!

Stealth

Uncommon

5

The ability to move around unnoticed. At this rank, you are minimally harder to notice!

Sneak Attack

Uncommon

4

The ability to strike enemies unaware.

Improvised Weaponry

Rare

2

The ability to utilize as weapons things that aren't intended to be weapons.

Animal Empathy

Rare

1

The ability to communicate with animals and be understood by them.

Bureaucracy

Common

10

The ability to manipulate the bureaucracy to your own ends. At this rank, you’re an expert at cutting through the red tape.

First Aid

Uncommon

1

The ability to treat minor injuries and stabilize patients long enough to recieve proper treatment.

Scavenge

Uncommon

2

The skill that governs ones ability to ransack places for supplies.

Junk Craft

Rare

3

The skill that governs the ability to craft and maintain tools, weapons, and armor from random junk.

Recycle

Rare

2

The ability to break things down into their component parts or find new ways to reuse them.

Manual Labour Ubiquitous 2 The ability governing ones ability to perform simple, albeit tiring, manual labour. Shiv Common 2 The skill that governs stabbing with small blades. Spears Uncommon 1 The skill that governs spearing things. Grapple Uncommon 1 The skill governing the ability to subdue an enemy in hand to hand combat. Small Arms Rare 1 The skill governing the ability to utilize small firearms such as pistols and revolvers. Lockpick Rare 1 The skill governing the ability to pick locks.

Aaaaand almost all of these required going out and engaging with enemies, resources he currently lacked, or wasn't immediately useful.

His eyes slid over Lockpicking and Animal Empathy. Those...COULD be useful. And he had a relatively simple way to practice them. Animal Empathy by working with Tortoise, and Lockpicking by...

Right.

Method was simple: Design an obstacle course, have Tortoise go through it, and raise animal empathy. To that end, Ted dug out as many old cardboard boxes, grabbed a knife, some duct-tape, and began assembling the GREATEST OBSTACLE COURSE!

...Okay, like most things Ted made, it was actually fairly garbage, but the end result was a functional, if shoddy looking, little race track. Perfect for training Tortoise to do tricks!

To that end, he placed the bunny in the track, and began urging it to take a lap. "Go on, take a go around. I'll give you a treat if you finish the course; it doesn't even need to be quick!" Unfortunately, Tortoise just stared at Ted, his nose twitching.

Ted sighed. "Go. Around. The Track." He carefully gestured around the obstacle course. After a few minutes, Tortoise SEEMED to understand, and began hopping around it.

Animal Empathy Rank Up!

Great! Progress! Ted rewarded Tortoise by giving him a small piece of bread, which the rabbit rapidly nibbled up. "Okay. Now, if you finish the track twice as fast, I'll give you ANOTHER treat! Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Ted said, to which Tortoise seemed to agree, as it quickly did a dash around the track itself.

Animal Empathy Rank Up! Gained Skill Animal Training!

Animal Training (Rare) Rank 1- The skill governing ones ability to train animals and teach them useful skills, abilities, and commands.

Huh. That was useful. Maybe he could train Tortoise to act as a scout of some kind? He'd need to think on this.

Regardless, this was, if not a useful track to take, at least one he could easily improve on. Ted cracked his knuckles. Time to pull a Rocky Balboa Montage on this bunny!

Animal Empathy rank up! Animal Training rank up! Animal Empathy rank up!

Another three hours dead and gone, another few skills improved. At this point, Ted was fairly sure that Tortoise was getting tired as well, and so Ted placed him back in his cage, with plenty of food, water, and treats as well to reward him for being such a good sport.

Right. Now, for lockpicking. This one was simultaneously harder...and simultaneously easier. First, Ted removed the doorknob from the wreckage of his bedroom door. Then, utilizing a set of bobby pins, he set to work.

The exercise was simple: he'd lock the doorknob, then, using the pins, he'd try and open it, rinse and repeat. Bending the first pin so it was a single, long piece with a handle, he bent the other into a right angle. Pick and lever.

After that, he spent several good, long, and FRUSTRATING hours attempting to beat the lock. It turns out that knowing, academically, how to pick a lock, and having a skill FOR picking a lock, was a different matter from actually being ABLE to pick a lock.

However, eventually, Ted's persistence paid off, and the knob could be turned again.

Lockpicking rank up! 10% XP to Scrounger Level!

Huh. That was interesting. Last he checked, he had gotten Lockpicking from his SNEAK level. It increasing Scrounger confirmed something very important in Ted's eyes:

Even skills gained from other sources could still help utility class progression. That was...interesting, to say the least. He could at least see the logic: being better at picking locks meant one would be better at breaking into spaces filled with treasure.

Still, Ted noted that raising that skill had taken FAR too long. Definitely something better to be practiced when safe.

He looked at his wall-clock. Seven O'Clock. Still early enough. Maybe...

Well, this floor DID have one other apartment he hadn't visited yet. Time to go scrounging.

Ted carefully crept through the hallway. Right. Avoid engaging the Ragers. Shamblers? Fair enough, those he could fight. Ragers, however, last time he had fought one he had gotten seriously injured.

And while he was stronger now, he still wasn't confident of his odds. Especially against two of them. He snuck along the side of the hall, sticking to its (admittedly scant) shadows as he ventured to the last apartment, quickly opening it and slinking inside, shutting the door behind him, before turning around and looking at his surroundings.

Right. Ceiling light was off, but there WAS a lamp on a nightstand providing a decent amount of light. Things of note just from looking at the place: Billy Big Mouth Bass animatronic on the wall, mantlepiece filled with photos, coffee table with a doily, who ever lived here was probably very old.

And, judging by the three shamblers, very dead.

Old Shambler

Level 1

Undead

A weak undead, animated by weak traces of ambient black mana in the atmosphere. This particular specime is extremely aged, and thus is frailer than a normal shambler.

Ted blinked. That was new. The previous times these screens popped up when spotting an enemy, they gave nothing away except for the enemies name.

Analysis time:

...

...

...

Well, the information on how they were created was interesting, at least? So, mana was apparently something located in the enviroment. Some kind of magic radiation? Supernatural pollution?

Otherwise, this didn't tell him much. A pity. Back to making with the bonk. Ted crept up behind one of the Shamblers, and brought his pan down on its head.

Old Shambler slain! +10 XP!

THUNK-RUNCH! Ted blinked. Oh dear. That was. Rather loud. Judging from the fact the shamblers began making that horrible growling-moan noise, they agreed. Ted got into a defensive stance, holding his shield arm up high and bracing it as one of the zombies weakly impacted it. Pushing it back a bit, Ted was satisfied with his handiwork.

THUNK-RUNCH!

Old Shambler slain! +10 XP! Gained skill Shields!

Shields (Common) Rank 1- The skill that governs the ability to use shields.

A few more moments, and...

THUNK-RUNCH!

Old shambler slain! 15 XP!

Ted briedly mused on why some enemies of the same type seemed to give more XP. Was it a result of killing several in a row?

Something to think on later. Now, to search through the apartment. He went ahead and stuffed the doilies into his bag. One never knew when a situation might call for a doily. He went to check the door to the bedroom...

Locked. Great. Sighing, he dug out his picks. He had INTENDED this to be a short soujourn, but apparently whatever grand diety guided his life had decided otherwise.

He began his work, carefully picking the lock. This...would take awhile.

"You say rolls, I say royce, you say god, give me a choice~"

Teds off-tune singing was interrupted by the tumblers clicking. Twisting his lever, Ted opened the lock, thus granting him access to the room. Putting his picks back in his bag, he opened the door, and immediately, his jaw dropped.

On the desk was a sewing machine. A sewing machine. And cloth! So much cloth! Ted quickly snatched it up, tossing it into his backpack. Thank god for bag of holding! Ted quickly noted, however, that he still FELT the weight. Suboptimal, but he'd live because he had a SEWING machine.

A quick perusal of the room revealed several other treasures of equal value: a shotgun and some ammo. A toolbox. Some golf clubs. A few discs for the stereoplayer, though Ted wasn't one much for country music. At least, not modern country. Too....well, if Ted was going to be polite, he'd say conformist. However, since the original owners weren't around, he'd use the much more accurate term of fascist.

Still, he might find someone who wanted it, and who knows, they might be able to trade Ted for a genre he DID like.

Scavenge level up! Scavenge level up! 30% XP to Scrounger!

With that, Ted began his trek back to his apartment. Time to do some textile work.