MarvinKnight
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Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 11
🕑 Added 2022-10-29 15:00:08 +0000 UTCNote: After fixing a stat point error you guys pointed out, I accidentally re-uploaded the wrong chapter to Patreon. That was chapter 15. I've fixed it and this is the proper chapter 11 with the stat error fixed.
Ben was important enough to park his car fairly close to the office building. The thing we called a parking garage had been a tiny underground affair and barely worth of the name before the integration, but with the System pasting four more identical garages so close to it that they blended into one another it was about the size of what you might expect in a real city. Even the cars had been copied, but there was something off about the replicas. The numbers on the license plates were blurred nonsense, like they'd been replicated by someone who didn't know how to read them.
The hood of one of them was open, and a brief glimpse inside showed only a mess of wires and tubes all connected to one another, as though their only purpose was to replicate the appearance of complex mechanisms and not the inner workings of a functional car. When I tried one of the locks, it was frozen shut. And not frozen as in locked, it was frozen as though there was no lock at all, just a groove in the shape of a latch carved out of metal. The actual latch didn't work.
It was more evidence pointing toward the idea that the integration hadn't been made with advanced technology and machinery in mind. If this had been a vast swath of farmland or wilderness the duplicate areas would have been fine. Just not with automobiles and city blocks.
Once we identified the real parking garage, I just needed to find the black porche. I was never a big car buff, but I knew a luxury car when I was staring at one.
"That one is probably it," I pointed at the most expensive car in sight.
"That's my father's spare car. I was borrowing it. It's this one," Sakura led me in the complete opposite direction. "I've run into Benjamin and Margaret in the parking lot."
Once again, I was thankful that I brought Sakura along. Otherwise this would have taken a lot longer than it should have.
Bridget gave me a pat on the back. "That's a Cadillac."
"They all look the same to me..." I grumbled.
The keys worked, battery powered remote and all. I clicked the button and the lights flashed, confirming that this was indeed the car we were looking for. There were no zombies, rats, or cockroaches in our way, and for a while I debated driving the car back to the office and parking it along the side of the road.
But a sports car was of limited utility after the end of the world. If I was going to park something in front of the office, I'd want a truck with four wheel drive. Perhaps I'd ask around the office to get some keys. Or failing that, just check the piles of clothes laying around the office from people who never came back from the integration.
I retrieved the pair of rifles from the trunk and was surprised at just how much ammunition Ben had back there. Just how long did he plan on spending at the shooting range before the Apocalypse began?
Feeling curious, I picked up one of the loaded magazines and stuck it into the rifle. I was by no means a gun nut, but having a good evidence that an apocalypse was on its way and not taking at least a few lessons on how to use a firearm would have been pure stupidity.
So when I had it armed and pointed out the nearby window facing away from the city and pulled the trigger and it didn't budge, I knew I hadn't messed up loading and shooting the thing.
"Busted." I shook my head.
"You check the safety?" Bridget asked. I tossed the gun to her so she could try it for herself, and sure enough nothing happened. "Huh. Feels almost like a jam."
"You want to try, Sakura?" I offered her the rifle, but Sakura clung to her bat.
"I don't really know how to use those things." Sakura shied away.
I chuckled. "Don't worry. I'll teach you later. Assuming we can even get them working, that is."
We returned to the office a few minutes later. I spotted a single cockroach scurrying out of the way, and I sent a Mana Bolt after it. But that was it for our trip. I suspected the monsters around our level were avoiding us at this point, and by now a walk down the street was about as safe as it had been before the integration. Though those grocery store shoppers we rescued would probably disagree.
When Ben said he was spying on Craig, I had underestimated the degree to which he was making that happen. I expected a few people with high perception standing near the door and hoping to catch a word or two, or someone standing by the stairwell peering into his old office. Not that he was there often anymore now that he'd moved into Sakura's office.
No, Ben had created something far more sophisticated. One of the offices above us had been the headquarters of a construction company. Even though they were doing office work, they weren't too far from their roots and had plenty of hand tools. Someone even had a hand-cranked drill, which had saved a lot of time reinforcing the walls with the furniture.
When people finally started overcoming their fear to wander the office freely, and some even started hunting cockroaches in the basement for easy early levels, Ben had gotten it in his head to build a device to keep an eye on Craig.
There were plenty of mirrors in the bathroom to disassemble, and some of the old printers had even spit out a couple of prisms after being killed. Humans could be quite creative when making things out of scraps, especially when procrastinating other tasks that they didn't want to do. Tasks like fighting off the giant bugs in the basement.
Still, I saw that more were leveling down there than before. Even better, a few of Craig's new lackeys had come crawling back when they realized we had real food and they fought a bunch of giant rats over a few bags of potato chips, protein powder, and energy drinks. I even noticed a few from my office with Sakura.
I was tempted to turn them away after they turned their backs on me and Sakura, but then I realized I didn't really want to be the one managing the shelter, and making that declaration would force me into a management position. I saw how busy Ben and Margaret were. Keeping this many people in line was a full time job, and if I committed to it I'd hardly have any freedom at all, let alone the time to level. Ben really had picked the best role for me, as High Sword didn't actually need to do anything unless there was a monster attack.
So taking a page out of Sakura's book, I ignored the issue and let them handle it. Instead, I met up with Bridget who was taking apart the two rifles along with a pair of rough-looking older men who were peering through the spyglass apparatus drilled through the wall to peer in on Craig.
"Alright, so the first thing we noticed is that he takes that gun of his apart pretty frequently," one of the men said. "You're pretty good at taking those rifles apart, girly."
Bridget smiled. "I used to help my pops take apart his guns when I was a little girl. He was fond of target shooting, but ammo eventually got too expensive. When his health problems hit, it was either give up hunting or give up on his medical bills."
"Bummer. I know what you mean though. The price of bullets has gone through the roof!" The man chuckled. "Well, I guess there's nobody to charge for bullets these days." He turned to me. "Maybe you and your friends can bust open the gunstore down the road. There's bound to be some good pickings there."
I nodded. "If you can figure out Craig's trick to get these working, then that's just what we'll do."
Bridget and the men fiddled with the rifles, disassembling them completely. Sakura and I weren't going to stand around the whole time, so we went out on another grocery run and killed a few more zombies. I didn't gain any levels, but Sakura did. And even though I didn't gain any levels, I still crossed over 20 Intelligence when the four hour mark ticked past and added one to all my stats.
Choose an Intelligence Skill!
Fireball (Common)
- Generates a ball of fire containing fire mana which can be thrown at targets.
Barrier (Common)
- Generates a flat circular energy barrier that covers one square meter. It deflects incoming attacks at the cost of expending mana.
Deflect (Common)
- Redirects the next incoming projectile when cast. Usable once every ten seconds.
Mana Blast (Uncommon)
- This skill replaces Mana Bolt with a more powerful enhanced neutral mana attack.
I looked through the list. Fireball was tempting, at least until I remembered how easy the Fire Squirrel had been to defeat. Clearly, Fireballs weren't all they were cracked up to be, especially against targets with high vitality.
That left the choice between Deflect, Barrier, and Mana Blast. Upgrading Mana Bolt would make the attack more powerful in a way that leveling my Caster proficiency couldn't, but in the end I decided to go with Deflect.
My reasoning was simple. Craig had a gun, and I was pretty sure he'd been thinking about shooting me in the back of the head the last time we'd met. Maybe next time he'd do just that. When he did, he'd probably expect to take me by surprise. Having this spell would prevent that.
Barrier sounded like it could do the same thing, but only if I knew when the attack was coming. Even though Barrier would be more versatile, the risk of dying to a surprise attack was just too high to take a shield over the power to completely mitigate the disadvantage of being caught off guard. With my life on the line, I had to go with the safest choice.
So I selected Deflect, and the menu closed a moment later.
I thought about using the spell, and just like Mana Bolt it activated with a thought. Having it active consumed a tiny amount of mana, but not enough to keep me from regenerating to my maximum. I would probably keep it active permanently unless I was regenerating mana as quickly as possible.
"I just hit ten strength," Sakura said.
"You get skill choices?"
Sakura nodded. "Three of them. All common grade."
Sakura read her skills aloud and I listened. One was a skill that let the user jump higher. Another let them hit harder. The third reinforced the wielders weapon every time it was used.
"Seems to me like you can already jump pretty damn high," I said. When skipping, Sakura glided through the air like a gazelle, propelling herself forward at speeds worth a medal. Her physical stats were even higher than mine. "And I've seen you with that bat. I've yet to see something you couldn't bash. And if you found something that needed a harder bash than you can give it already, your weapon would probably shatter in your hands."
"Third choice it is," Sakura said.
And so it was settled. Sakura glanced at her bat and a dull crimson glow ran along its length. The small cracks that had started forming down the shaft vanished in an instant, and the wood grain shone with inner light. It turned denser and tougher before the light within faded and left the bat changed for the better. I wasn't sure how to describe it, but the entire thing just looked a tiny bit more durable now.
"Neat trick."
After my initial push, levels had started coming slower. Maybe it was because I was higher level than most of the things in the city, or maybe it was because I wasn't being pushed as hard as I had been in those early fights against the Rat Matriarch. I wasn't quite sure why, but something inside of me itched. I jumped at the slightest noise and fired a Mana Bolt at rustling leaves or wavering branches. It was like part of me was just waiting for the next foe to rear its head. I suppose that was a good attitude to survive a situation like this, though I worried that prolonged exposure to this kind of environment was the sort of thing that gave people PTSD. We were going to need a lot of psychiatrists once the dust from the apocalypse finally settled.
Sakura spotted the local clinic, which was far closer to us than it used to be. The place was a mess. If the undead had been bad at the grocery store, here it was a full-blown epidemic.
The clinic was a brick and mortar building with a parking lot in both front and back. Like many things in Crownhill, it was bigger than some tiny one room bloodwork testing place, but not big enough to be considered a real hospital.
A pair of ambulances were parked in back, neither of which were operable. There were thick slashes through the tires, one had a smashed windshield and another had burn marks along its entire length. One sagged at an odd angle with the front left tier clearly out of action, and the other was up on blocks with one of the good tiers halfway off.
Whoever had been working here had worked hard through the apocalypse and braved the streets to save people. Maybe they still were. I'd seen a few people on the streets and invited them to join Ben and Margaret. There were even a few people trying to flee by car, not that they were making much progress. Lots of people had crashed their cars when the System plucked them right out of the driver's seat for their integration. There were enough wrecks on the street that the roads weren't all that usable, which made the fact that someone was taking those ambulances around even more remarkable.
Unfortunately, whoever had been doing that had been interrupted in their good work by a few undead. I wasn't sure if they were previous patients, nurses, or just people who didn't care for being brought back to life after the sweet release of death. But there they were, shambling in the parking lot as they plowed face-first into windows and doors.
A few bore heavy wounds, which was a clear sign that somebody had thought to fight back. A couple of the zombies lay dead, but enough were up and walking that nobody was coming out of that clinic without a rescue party.
"These ones can actually walk," Sakura noted as she pointed her bat toward the shambling undead.
"So it seems. I would guess they're a higher level."
"They're slow."
"Wanna take bets?" I asked. "I'm guessing they're level four."
"What's the winner get?" Sakura licked her lips.
I grinned. "If I win, I'm telling everyone we meet you're my sidekick. Not my boss."
"Hmm. Fine. And if I win, you have to give me a prize," Sakura said.
"Deal. Anything I have to give is yours." I didn't have anything on me I wasn't already willing to give to Sakura if she needed. My phone was worthless, as was my wallet and the money in it. Even the clothes on my back weren't worth all that much when there were piles of them lying everywhere.
We snuck up on the zombies as they shambled aimlessly. I was far lighter on my feet than should have been possible, as was Sakura. I crept behind her and admired the graceful way she glided across the pavement without a sound. Those extra stat points in agility just from surviving this long were doing wonders.
My whole body felt like it had undergone a transformation. It was like I'd spent months doing nothing but eating right and working out, and now I was in the best shape of my life. The two of us had practically run to the clinic, and yet my heartbeat was as steady as ever in my chest. The jog that would have winded me before barely got my blood pumping. I could tell Sakura felt the same as I did. She wanted to push her new body to the limits just like me. She could have stayed back at the office with Bridget or the others as they gathered supplies and prepared to survive the apocalypse. But instead she was here, hungry for more levels.
Having the best ranged weapon of the two of us, I was the first to open fire. My target was one of the more impressive zombies. In life, he'd been a tall man in good shape with thick muscles that reminded me of Craig. The jersey he wore belonged to a local college sports team, and I gave him even odds of being a player instead of just a fan.
Someone had tried to behead him already, and there was a deep gouge in his neck all the way to the bone. All the blood and dangling flesh made it hard to make out the weapon, but it seemed to be a kitchen knife. The kitchen knife was still stuck in there pressed against the vertebrae, and dried blood caked his entire side. I planned to finish the job with my attack, and so with a steady hand I shot my Mana Bolt straight for the knife in his neck.
My attack landed perfectly, and the sudden kinetic attack drove the knife right through the undead's spinal chord. He dropped to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut, and the head rolled across the ground and twitched.
You have slain [Zombie - Level 4]!
"Beheading works," I muttered. "Also, it looks like I win our bet." I would have to double check on that head and see if it was still dangerous. A few zombies turned at the sound. Their sight must not have been particularly good, because Sakura and I were barely even taking cover. The two of us crouched behind a car as we watched the small undead horde.
Sakura's tactic was far more direct.
"Hyaaaaa!" She screamed, catching the attention of all the zombies in the parking lot. She swung her baseball bat with reckless abandon, shattering skulls left and right with every swing. Then she used a new ability of her own.
A brilliant red glow flowed down the length of her bat. While her new skill could strengthen her weapons out of battle, it could also be used during battle to give the weapon an extra durability boost for a heavy handed blow. And heavy handed it was. Sakura was truly throwing all of her strength points into her attack. If she hadn't picked up her new skill, she would have shattered her bat against the first zombie skull she swung at.
Her bat struck one undead, and it exploded in a fountain of gore. Its head was simply gone, turned into chips of skull and a fine bloody mist. Another came for her with snarling jaws, but she'd put points into agility as well. Its teeth found nothing but empty air, and a second later her baseball bat struck the undead on the head crushing it just like the first. By now, every zombie in the parking lot knew where she was and was shambling toward her. But that was just what Sakura wanted. It meant she wouldn't have to bother chasing them down.
There was no more point in trying to be subtle with Sakura drawing all the zombies toward her, so I leaped from hiding and started firing Mana Bolts left and right.
You have slain [Zombie - Level 3] x 3!
Congratulations, you have advanced to level 8!
The fight was over as quickly as it started, and our grinding from earlier paid off as we finally got those levels we'd been waiting for. At level 7, Sakura was quickly catching up to me and would probably be the highest level of everyone back at the office shelter.
I put three stat points into Intelligence, bringing the total up to twenty three. But the last point I saved for Perception, since it was so close to ten.
Choose a Perception skill!
Analyze (Common)
- Allows the user to identify items and objects. This provides information about their quality, value, and uses in crafting. This is an ideal skill for scavengers, gatherers, and job-focused individuals.
Examine (Common)
- Allows the user to identify people and enemies. This provides information about the target's currently equipped class title and their combat level. This is an ideal skill for hunters and warriors.
There were only two options available for Perception, one clearly geared for fighters, and the other intended for workers. I was certainly doing a lot more fighting than I was gathering, and I didn't expect it that to change. Still, it would be smart for people with lower combat abilities to pick up the Analyze skill. I could see myself bringing along a weaker person just for that ability.
"So, quite a few of those zombies I killed were level 3, just like I guessed," Sakura said smugly. "I know the one you killed was level 4, but we never specified which zombie we were betting on."
"Let me guess, you're arguing that you won?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I guess we both won, in a sense," Sakura said. "So we both should get our prizes."
"You really want to be my sidekick that bad, huh?" I chuckled and received a playful punch in the arm. I had to hide my wince. Sakura had a lot of points in strength and hadn't quite adjusted yet. Some of those points she'd just received must have gone into strength as well. I'd have to put some points into vitality just to keep up with her.
"No," Sakura pouted. "I just want my prize."
I didn't have much of value on me, and my office clothes were little more than rags. I was wondering what exactly Sakura thought I had to--
She wrapped her arms around my back and pulled me close. Then she reached up her other hand around the back of my head and pulled me in until my lips met hers.
Her skin was soft and warm, and her eyes twinkled with a light and a love of life I'd only caught glimpses of over all the time I'd spent working for her. Her tongue brushed against mine and I felt a tingle run down my spine.
She broke off the kiss as quickly as she'd started, eyes darting to the ground as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"S-sorry, Carter. W-was that too much? I don't want to make things awkward. If it was too much we can just pretend it--" Sakura began, but I cut her off by pulling her back into her kiss.
Our lips locked again, and I breathed in her scent. Despite the carnage around us, she still smelled lovely.
I wasn't sure how long that moment lasted, but the two of us were startled out of our shared moment by a rapping on the clinic door. It was followed by a man's voice.
"Hey! Hey lovebirds! Are you zombies? No? Then get in here!"
We glanced over to the clinic and the glass windows nearby, where more than a dozen faces were staring at the two of us. They must have heard us fighting and decided to watch. And then kept watching when we started kissing.
Sakura's blush once again returned to her cheeks.
<Note>
Carter Smith (Human, Level 8. Rank F)
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Perception: 10
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 23
Willpower: 8
Charisma: 8 (+4)
Luck: 0
Proficiency:
Caster: 5
Neutral Mana: 2
Improvised Weapons: 2
Titles:
Forerunner of Earth, Integration Survivor, Chivalrous Pervert
Temporary Titles:
Blessed of the System, Hero of Sakura Miyamoto,
Comments
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter.
Marvin
It was pretty confusing on its lonesome. Chapter 15 doesn’t make sense without the context of chapter 14, so hopefully people were just scratching their heads instead of getting spoilers.
DiabolicalGenius
Well. I guess some of us got to enjoy a sneak preview of what's to come. Shame I missed it since I was sleeping.
Marvin
It should be fixed now.
Michael Jackson
I thought wtf did i miss shit happening like i was reading a manga in the wrong order
Marvin
Shoot. I copy-pasted the wrong chapter when fixing the error the guys are talking about above. Fixing now!
Spencer Jefferson
Am I only seeing half of the chapter? It just start in the middle of the battle with no explanation, am I missing something the last chapter ended with him accepting the High Sword position right?
Marvin
Huh, guess so. I could have sworn I fixed that. Maybe I uploaded the old version. Let me check. I ended up backtracking and adding a skill later, plus had to correct for a few missing skill points (talked about that 4 chapters ago when I was finishing up this scene).
DiabolicalGenius
Looks like Carter is realising what a pain in the ass running the impromptu community they're assembling in the wake of the apocalypse is gonna be. That's he's better off just focusing on hunting and levelling up with the support of the community in exchange for taking charge of it's defense. Also not going to figure out Craig's trick with the guns at a glance, though I'm sure they'll get it with a little time. I agree with the skills choice for Sakura. It's going to be a while before crafting takes off and melee combat is hard on weapons, especially if they're improvised and not designed for combat. Even with real human strength, let alone superhuman sytem enhanced strength. She'll end up breaking every weapon she tries to use and it'll only get worse the higher her strength value rises, without that skill. So good choice. I kind of regret him no being able to take the upgrade for mana bolt, but priorities and survival come first. Plus Deflect seems to scale unexpectedly well. Redirects ANY projectile once before needing 10 seconds to recast. Any, no matter how powerful? Might still save his life 100 levels later. Otherwise, now seems like a good point to try and get his other stats up to the 10 mark before he reaches level 10 and gets his class. Might improve what he ends up with. Strength and Agility aren't as essential to him now that he's focusing on range, but it'll only take 2 points each of the 4 he gets at level 9 to make Willpower and Charisma both 10. If he's going to be leading people into battle a lot in the future they might be worth investing on. After that we'll see what class he gets and go from there. Start raising his vitality again and keeping his intelligence up. That's what I'd do.
DiabolicalGenius
Yeah, I was gonna comment on that too. "We didn't gain any more levels, but the four hour mark came and went again, giving extra stat points across the board. My Intelligence hit twenty, and I was hoping for another opportunity to pick an skill that would use magic. No luck there. I guess the threshold to ten was the only special one. " and then near the end "I put three stat points into Intelligence, bringing the total up to twenty two. My Intelligence broke 20 stat points, and a new menu presented itself." So yeah, you need to fix that. Based on the stat table at the end of the previous chapter his int would have reached 20 at the 4 hour mark as you said, but when it came to level up you forgot that and added 3 points to the 19 even though with perception you added the 1 point from 4 hours and 1 more at level up to make 10. So you may need to move the skill acquisition to that earlier point and delete the part about not gaining anything. It's not like having Deflect earlier changes anything in this chapter after all.
Jesse
It looks like he hit intelligence 20 twice in this chapter, he talks about hitting 20 and not getting a skill early on, and then dumps 3 points in, hits 22, and gets a skill later? And then ends up with 23 at the end.
