Chapter 7

  Walking into the market, shops are on either side of the cobblestone road. Three buildings in front of him, on his right, there is a down cart in the street close to the building on his right. Theo notices several zombies that are passed the cart. He heads towards the cart. The three chains dropped to the floor and started to slither like snakes across the cracked cobblestones, heading towards the building in front of him on the left, connecting to that side of the building, and then heading towards a downed cart in front of the building on the right. There is a gap between the cart and the building on the right, which can funnel the zombies toward him. Theo went to the gap, starting to clang his sword on the dilapidated building to get the zombies' attention. As he did that, all the zombies stopped moving for a split second, then they started to shamble in his direction. It is a steady stream of zombies. Using the cane sword connected to the chain, he realizes he can also imbue the chain with the Healing Touch, causing damage to the zombies in the process. But unfortunately, he cannot do it with the chains that are not connected to him.

  He experiments with different sword forms while the sword is still sheathed, so to say, and also in concert with the chain, mowing down the zombies. At this point, he has killed 20 of them, identifying them all as being between one and five levels. His chain hit the zombies across their heads, knocking them down with one blow until his mana was half-depleted. The zombies come after him one by one or in groups, and with each strike, they fall. Panting, notifications pop up in his vision. Choosing to ignore them, he feels that he has a level. He would look at it later. Checking his surroundings, he sees that shops on either side of the road are worn down and dilapidated; it seems like all of them are made of wood and have shattered windows. With a mental nudge to the three chains, they disengaged from the wagon and the wall of the building to which the chains were attached, slithering across the ground like snakes. Then, the chains crawled up his body to settle on each of his limbs, heading towards a shop to the right. The road is cobbled as well, but not as well made as the main road. However, that’s not saying much, as both are cracked, worn, and missing chunks in places.

  As he drew closer to the shop from the outside, he couldn't tell what it had once been. Entering, it looked like it had once been a jewelry shop: the glass cases were smashed in, the walls had dilapidated wooden shelves with missing glass doors, and the ground was littered with shattered glass, with no items in sight. It looked like someone did a smash-and-grab a long time ago. Heading towards the back of the shop, Theo saw it was completely bare of items.

  “Now that’s disappointing,” Theo thought, looking at the notifications.

  Ding!

  "You killed a zombie."

  “Who cares?” Theo thought.

  Theo mentally skipped to the last 3 notifications.

  Sword Mastery, Common, Novice 2 to 4

  Healing Touch, Common, Novice 7 to 9

  You've acquired a new class skill: Target Healing. Target healing is a general-purpose healing spell. Mentally selecting a target using your hand or a focus sends a bolt of healing toward your target. It costs 20 MP. To cast.

  “Well, that will be useful,” Theo thought.

  Then he checked his status; he knew he had 10 free stat points to allocate, so he allocated 4 points to Vitality, 5 points to Intelligence, and 1 point to Perception.

  Theodore Thompson

  Race: Human F-Grade Lv. 2

  Class: Battle Healer Lv. 5

  Profession: N/A

  Health: 200/200

  Mana: 40/200

  Stamina: 50/140

  Stats:

  Vitality: 20

  Strength: 12

  Endurance: 14

  Agility: 12

  Intelligence: 20

  Wisdom: 14

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  Willpower: 15

  Perception: 15

  Free Points: 0

  Class Skills:

  Healing Touch, Common, Novice 9

  Cure Wounds, Common, Novice 4

  Target Healing, Common, Novice 0

  Sword Mastery, Common, Novice 4

  General Skills:

  Resistance, Common, Novice 6

  Inspect, Common, Novice 0

  Bonded Skills:

  Respond and Chains of Gehenna

  Titles: Warden of Gehenna

  Bonds:

  Galaxy Trade Store tablet, Chains of Gehenna, the Prison Gehenna, Sword Cane Rare

  Spending some time to rest and letting his resources top off after an hour,

  Considering his status, Theo had forgotten about using Cure Wounds on the undead. He thought they might have different effects than those of Healing Touch, and he also needed to test out Target Healing.

  Theo returned to the street, utilizing his new skill, Target Healing, with the cane sword as his focus. Every time he poured mana into the focus and thought about using Target Healing, the crystal focus glowed with a soft, white light, looking at the zombie he had just downed. Then, wielding the cane as a club again, he moved to the next zombie, imbuing his focus with Cure Wounds. The cane sword emitted a slight pink light; as soon as he struck the zombie, it spasmed as if it had a seizure, and then, out of nowhere, it fell as if the strings had been cut from a doll.

  “I’m not a big fan of pink, but this is definitely changing my mind, “Theo grinned.

  Then he realized he had been glossing over the zombies, not really looking at them or acknowledging their presence, so he decided to look closer. He looked at the zombies he had killed; they were all rotting corpses. Some wounds were made by him; all had rotten, open gashes on them, some of the corpses had chunks missing from their bodies like some zombie had bitten them, and all looked like they’d been through hell. The blood that dribbled out from their bodies was a black, viscous substance. They all wore tattered pants and shirts that resembled peasant clothing. He could see that there were men, women, and some humans, and others he guessed were elves. He noticed that some had scales and other fantasy creature traits. His mood soured, wondering if they were just constructs for the tutorial or if a city had once been overrun and the town repurposed. He looked around at his surroundings: the dead zombies, the dilapidated, war-torn, destroyed city, and the cracked paving stones. This setting and situation truly hit him hard. With sober clarity, he saw the death surrounding him. This broke him, still suspended in a state of disbelief as if he were dreaming; his head started to reel. He stumbled and headed towards one of the buildings on his left. There was nothing inside. He barred the door with his chains and started to sob. The crushing reality of what was happening hit him like a freight train. He spent an unknown amount of time dealing with his emotions and coming to grips with his new reality. When he was ready, he walked out of the shattered building and looked at it, which seemed almost identical to the first building he had entered, as it had been copied and pasted.

  “Well, I think that answers the question; I’m pretty sure this is a fake city for the tutorial,” Theo thought,

  with an unknown tension leaving his body with a sigh. He gathered his chains, walked into the street, and decided to reidentify the zombies; he had an odd feeling.

  When he used the Identify skill on all of them, it simply stated “Zombie” and their level, which was another oddity. He hadn’t leveled up like he was doing not too long ago. Rechecking his status and going to the notifications, Theo saw that the last zombie he killed was Zombie Level 5. He got a decent amount of experience and then checked his log. He’d been downing 2- to 5-level zombies, and it seemed that after a three-level difference, he only received 1 XP per kill.

  “Well, that sucks. I wonder why that is. Another question to ask the Host when I get back to the inn,” Theo thought.

  Heading down the street, he arrived at the intersection, where he turned left, heading towards the wall that separated the common and noble/ merchant districts. As he walked, he noticed everything was uncanny and uniform, lending more credence to the fact that this was a tutorial scenario, not an actual fallen city. He proceeded to the next street, heading towards the wall. As he walked down the street, he imbued both chains on his arms, one with Healing Touch on the left chain and Cure Wounds on the right chain. He moved efficiently, thrashing the zombies by bashing their heads in and smashing their bodies. Corrupted blood, bones, and viscera went everywhere. The chains were extremely effective, especially the one with Cure Wounds imbued on it, causing the zombies to seize; however, maintaining the skills was taxing on his mana. When his mana dropped to 50%, he resorted to using his cane sword to crack their skulls. He used his left chain to smash the zombie's legs and break them in the process, and also used the cane of the cane sword, hitting their heads, and by the end, he was drenched in blood and gore.

  “Hopefully, there is such a spell called Clean because I need it,” Theo thought.

  As he passed through the shopping district, he glanced into various shops. He discovered several armor and weapon stores. There was nothing in the shops; it looked like all items had been looted a long time ago. However, he did find 2 healing and 2 mana potions, as indicated by his Identify skill. The healing vials were red, and the mana vials were blue. He put the healing potions in his right pocket and the manna potions in his left pocket. Continuing toward the next district, he noticed a stark contrast between the shops and the houses, as if a clear divide separated them. The cracked and broken cobblestone road served as this divider, still, the air pulsating with energy due to the dark haze surrounding the area. Although the sun was visible in the sky, visibility was limited to less than 15 feet in any direction. Upon reaching the residential district, located to the right of the shopping district, he encountered skeletons. He began by using the Inspect skill on the closest one to him.

  Skeleton Level 8.

  “Let’s see what the best method will be to defeat an armored skeleton,” Theo thought with a bloodthirsty smile.