Zombie Killer

Xiao Yang's food situation had improved somewhat. While clearing out this prison, he'd found a storeroom. In a corner, he'd rummaged out a bag of black bread and a bottle of ale hidden away.

He was lucky to be a bit of a hoarder. After searching through a pile of useless junk for quite a while, he'd finally found the black bread and ale.

They looked like the private stash of a prison guard who'd once worked here. But in this prison full of zombies, there was obviously no one left to enjoy them. So they were his now.

Inside the bag of black bread, Xiao Yang found a note covered in crooked handwriting.

:Little Peter, slow down when you eat!

There seemed to be a story behind it. Xiao Yang shook his head, but didn't throw the note away. He folded it and tucked it into his clothes.

Little Peter's Black Bread

Quality: Inferior

Description: A dark, hard loaf baked with sawdust mixed in. Its shelf life is absurdly long, and it's absurdly hard, too. It seems to have been saved from a mother's rations.

Prison Guard's Murky Ale

Quality: Inferior

Description: A bottle of ale carefully hidden away by a prison guard. It's been left for so long that it's nearly gone bad. Don't be afraid. Have a drink, and you won't be scared!

He put away the black bread and ale. Neither seemed particularly fit to eat, but the basket of bread he'd gotten from the Beginner's Gift Pack was almost gone. If things came to it, these would at least serve in an emergency.

Honestly, finding anything edible in a dungeon crawling with skeletons and zombies was hard enough. He couldn't exactly afford to be picky.

Xiao Yang was about to level up again, thanks to all the Prisoner Zombies he'd been clearing out.

It wasn't easy, especially when he came across cells crowded with several Prisoner Zombies.

For now, he didn't dare provoke zombies in cells like those. He only dared pick on the ones housed alone.

During this time, even though he'd been extremely careful, he'd still been hit by Undead Toxin once. A zombie buried under straw had suddenly crawled out and bitten him.

That mistake cost him another Minor Health Potion. He had only three left. Losing one hurt, but even worse was the Corrosion status inflicted by the Undead Toxin.

This time, though, getting poisoned had confirmed something. While his health was rapidly draining from the poison, the Dark Dispelling Lantern had worked.

The Undead Toxin seemed to count as a curse or abnormal status effect, and the Dark Dispelling Lantern had successfully cleared it.

Thanks again, Senior Robert!

This relieved Xiao Yang of his biggest worry. Still, he wasn't so carried away that he'd go play around in those fun cells stuffed full of Prisoner Zombies.

He still had to be cautious. With his pitiful amount of health, two hits would kill him on the spot. He had no room for error.

Once again, he drove the Wilderness Hatchet hard into the chest of the Prisoner Zombie before him. A large ten popped up, and the half-rotted creature, with its fangs bared, collapsed heavily to the ground.

He pulled out the Wilderness Hatchet, bringing a spray of flesh and blood with it.

After fighting for so long, Xiao Yang couldn't help getting more and more blood on himself. He tried his best to avoid it, but in the middle of battle, some always splattered onto him.

At this point, he looked like he'd walked straight out of a horror movie, covered in filthy, mottled bloodstains. And he didn't have any spare clothes to change into.

His Adventurer's Armguard and long boots were fine. He could put them in his inventory, then take them out again, and the bloodstains and grime on them would disappear, too. But his T-shirt and sweatpants didn't get that treatment. Dirty was dirty, and there was nowhere to wash them.

After all these days, Xiao Yang smelled absolutely rank.

The zombie in front of him had dropped something: a white glimmer. Xiao Yang grabbed it, and a set of zombie viscera appeared in his hand.

These Prisoner Zombies really didn't drop anything good. They were even stingier than the skeletons. They had lots of health, carried poison, were disgusting, and stank, yet their drops were pathetic.

It was always zombie viscera, zombie teeth, zombie fingernails, zombie heads, or zombie arms. They never dropped equipment or skills.

Xiao Yang sighed. He was used to it by now. At least the experience was decent. A level-ten zombie gave a lot more experience than a skeleton.

Even though he couldn't stand these zombie parts, Xiao Yang didn't just throw them away. Instead, he carefully stowed them in his backpack. Maybe they'd come in handy someday.

He leveled up. Xiao Yang was now level four. Without hesitation, he put the available Attribute Point into his health.

The extra point of health made a clear difference. Xiao Yang felt more energetic almost at once. He raised his hand and noticed that, after spending so long in the gloomy dungeon, his skin, which had grown pale and bloodless, was starting to look rosy again.

The effect was obvious. More important than anything, though, was the change in the number beside health on his status panel.

Health: 20/20

Not bad. Having his health bar double all at once felt great. It gave him much more room for error.

Of course, this wouldn't be the only Attribute Point he put into health. He'd need to raise it to at least ten.

He needed enough health to withstand at least two attacks from the Dungeon Guardian blocking the way back to his original world.

Only then would he consider challenging the fearsome creature dragging that huge axe around.

Even though Xiao Yang's Agility was now more than triple the Dungeon Guardian's, the cramped space and the terrifying power of a single hit—which would leave him owing it several lives—made caution the better choice.

Xiao Yang still planned to conquer this dungeon completely. He didn't want to get killed by an axe before he'd even made it out.

After that, Xiao Yang kept hacking away at the Prisoner Zombies in the prison. Now that he had a supply of emergency food, he wasn't planning to leave anytime soon. He'd decided to use this zombie prison to improve himself.

He set a small goal: completely clear out this zombie prison.

The grind was so intense that day and night blurred together. When he got thirsty, he scraped off some sea-sponge moss from the Stone Tablet. When he got hungry, he pulled a piece of bread from his backpack and took a big bite. When he got sleepy, he ran from the Zombie Prison, with its little hole in the wall, back to the Safe House for a nap.

The grind was relentless, and his days were packed.

During this time, Xiao Yang also farmed the Undead Slayer (Zombie) accessory. Thanks to Little Bone's good luck.

Unlike the skeleton version, the zombie version of Undead Slayer was a dried-up zombie finger. Xiao Yang hung it from his waist alongside the bone fragment from the skeleton Undead Slayer.

The extra damage against zombies from the Zombie Killer made Xiao Yang's leveling much more efficient. One heavy strike now dealt two extra damage, going from ten to twelve... Well, it didn't seem like that much of an improvement after all.

Maybe he needed a better weapon.