NOVEL NEXT Chapter 49: First Floor
<Alex, Real - Endure, Apartment Basement Stairs>
Alex watched helplessly as the bone-plated creature slashed at Natasha with wicked looking talons. The edges skittered off of Natasha's Force Shield, even as it drove her backward.
Pilar and John parted, allowing a startled Mr. Southard to try to catch the falling Russian.
John's guns came up, barking loudly in the confined space but punching through hardened bone with each shot.
Pilar's flame followed the bullets in, crisping the creature from the inside.
Alex felt Grant dancing back and forth behind him, seemingly unsure of what to do, and he, himself, felt frustrated that he was in the back, unable to lend a hand.
He was able to Analyze the thing, however.
Bone Lurker
Level 12
The bone lurker landed on the stairs, one foot on either side of Natasha's shielded form, arms thrown back as it howled in pain, heat glowing from between the plates like the world's worst lampshade.
Pilar was clearly locked in concentration, struggling to finish off the monster with a constant stream of something to keep the fire raging.
As such, she wasn't paying attention to the second one that followed close behind the first.
This is really less than ideal, and I wish I was up there with them. The censored curse hit his mind as quickly as a single syllable would have, actually causing him momentary confusion.
Natasha, for her part, had somehow caught a step with her shoulder after Mr. Southard had cushioned her fall and retreated.
With that bracing, she thrust her relatively short spear past her own feet, up into the not-actually-softer underbelly of the second bone lurker.
John repositioned slightly, and after a dual flare of mana, he placed a slug into the skull of each lurker.
They dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
Alex called up. "Take those, please. I want to harvest some materials from them."
Mr. Southard used his Inventory skill to grab the two bodies—tucking them into his Inventory—even as they toppled, before they could cause a cascade down the stairs. So, that was already dealt with.
Pilar and John had already, quickly stepped out into the hall, and the tat-tat-tat of gunfire was accompanied by the whoosh of flame as the two held their foothold at the ground-floor landing.
Natasha deftly flipped around on the stairs and charged after them.
From the back, Grant called, "Come on! Up, up! We need to back them up."
Mr. Weston was taking deep breaths and grimacing, but he nodded.
Ms. Woods was huddled against Mr. Southard, and it took a precious moment before those two were ready to proceed as well.
The five hurried up the stairs, Alex and Grant squeezing past into the hall, joining the melee.
Zombie Ravagers were sprinting at them from both ends of the wrecked hallway.
Bone lurkers were bouncing off the walls and ceiling, digging in their claws to gain brief purchase and speed, heading for the hard-pressed trio that was already engaged, and there might have been other variants among the chaos, but that same chaos made it impossible for Alex to take the time required to Analyze anything else.
To the left, Natasha had taken up a position in front of Pilar. On the right, John was acting as a one-man turret.
Undead were pressing closer from both directions.
The entrance off to the right—from what Alex could see—was still sealed through mundane means.
So all of these spawned in here? Really?
That was insane…
Then, he saw that most were coming from the stairs on either end of the hall. As this was a fifteen story building, this might actually be a reasonable number, assuming their noise had drawn many of the more perceptive undead… or when those started moving, the others had simply come along for the 'fun'.
Several broken doorways called into question the validity of their mission, but with the fact that several others still seemed intact, Alex decided to steel his resolve.
He pointed left. "Help the girls."
Grant charged forward as instructed, immediately blasting his hammer through three ravagers that Natasha had corralled together, likely in anticipation of either Grant or Alex being able to do just that.
Alex continued under his breath, as he moved past John, hugging the wall to stay out of his firing arcs. "I'll be the barb-wire to his bunker." He then spoke louder. "Try not to shoot me again."
John barked a laugh at the incongruous humor. "No promises."
Alex felt himself smile despite the horrors bearing down upon them as his dadao licked out, beheading a bone lurker as it came in, mouth frothing.
He smoothly shifted around the falling body, allowing it to slide past to where Mr. Southard stowed it. After all, they were still only about five feet from the doorway to the stairs down to the basement.
Mr. Weston was waiting for them on those same stairs, hand held slightly outstretched toward the door, ready to try to grab it and swing it closed at need.
Alex cleared his mind and went to work. It was time to put his improved stats and skills to the test.
What felt like hours later, but was likely just a few minutes, it was done.
Alex hadn't honestly felt like he wasn't doing very much in cleaning up the enemies in the apartment's first floor, but his kill notifications reflected that such was only true in relative terms.
You killed
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 10 x 17
Bone Lurker (Common), level 12 x 11
Kill Assists:
Bone Lurker (Common), level 12 x 41
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 10 x 83
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Zombie Ceiling Crawler (Common), level 9 x 38
Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.
Unlike when fighting in the school, he hadn't been fighting alongside everyone, so he didn't even get 'assists' from what the women and Grant and slain.
As to John? By the body count, Alex had gotten 'credit' for assisting with all those that John took down while he was acting as a physical deterrent and blocker.
Regardless, he, John, Pilar, Grant, and Natasha all stood, poised for more enemies to come screaming and frothing in.
When a minute passed without more incoming, Alex began dusting the undead remains. Natasha collected the resulting ash, and Mr. Southard grabbed the bone lurker bodies along with the mundane items that were left behind.
Alex even thought he saw some odd things like kitchen tools, a baseball bat, and things like that.
They were clearly a type of undead, but Alex wanted to experiment with their bone plates.
It would have been more efficient to cut the plates free, but no one was up for that at the moment, and they had plenty of storage space for the time being.
Grant went to check the front entry, and found it to be a simple person door with a magical lock similar to proximity key-cards on earth.
It was in an 'emergency lockdown' mode, so while they could easily open it in case of emergency, no enemy should be coming in through the door without breaking it down
Some undead were trying that a bit half-heartedly, but they were far from succeeding.
Grant stationed himself by that front entry, which was also by another door that led into the front stairwell. "I'll hold here, while you all clear the apartments on this level."
Pilar went to the door which led to the back stairwell, and John started sweeping through the apartments that had broken–open doors.
When he cleared each, Alex and the teachers went through, taking everything that wasn't nailed down. The plan was to sort it back at the school. Partially because it was hard to tell what truly would be useful, but also because it would give their vast pool of bored labor something to occupy them, additionally making them more efficient as an expeditionary team.
The bloodstains in the first apartment were a rough start, but they were all adults and were able to get through it. It helped that the three teachers literally just had to walk through, pulling everything in. Their mastery of the skill meant they didn't even need to touch anything.
Mr. Weston got through by continuing to 'cube' Alex at regular intervals. It was distracting, but as it helped the man—and John had already cleared the units—Alex didn't really mind.
…No, that wasn't true. He was actively excited by the idea of increasing his Inventory size, even with the odd, nebulous discomfort the process brought about.
They emptied three apartments in that manner, before Mr. Weston proposed a change to the training.
"Try to take out the smallest cube you have at the same time as you put in the new, larger one. That way, you're maintaining the number of layers at the exterior, simply expanding them."
Alex tried. At first, he pulled in the new, then immediately pushed out the old. The act of bringing in a box in the right place wasn't hard to do anymore, and it had always been relatively easy to bring something out. So, it was trivial to try to bring those two actions closer together.
At the same time, he was trying to react on reflex to the appearance of the box he was to pull in, rather than consciously noticing it was there and acting.
It was… odd to say the least.
They had cleared their fifth—and the last one that was already broken into—when Mr. Southard spun toward Alex and asked, "How many boxes do you have in your Inventory?"
Alex was so taken aback that he answered on reflex. "Forty expansion boxes, and three boxes of other kinds."
He blinked a few times, and Mr. Southard grinned in return. "Good, good!"
Alex felt a shift in his skill, and he was suddenly more aware of everything within it. He even got a notification of a change in description.
Inventory (Common)
Carrying things is annoying for everyone. Now, you can carry things without having to actually carry them.
Aren't you special?
You have been given access to a 2x2x3ft extra-dimensional storage.
You instinctively know what is inside, how to place things within this space, how to draw them out, and how to rearrange that which is within.
→
Inventory (Common)
Carrying things is annoying for everyone. Now, you can carry things without having to actually carry them.
Aren't you special?
You have been given access to a 4x4x4ft extra-dimensional storage.
You instinctively know what is inside, including automatic tallying of the contents at need, how to place things within this space, how to draw them out, and how to rearrange that which is within.
That very shift reminded him that he had already been aware of everything in his Inventory at an instinctual level, but if he'd been asked normally, he'd probably have proceeded to count the boxes. Interestingly, the 'automatic tallying' indicated was only the second most exciting update. The skill description now reflected the cubic nature of his space and the increase they were working to achieve. Though, he was currently stretched beyond that stated maximum.
"Umm… Thank you, I guess?"
The older man chuckled as he pulled a couch into his Inventory. "It's a tricky thing. You have to ask a question with a slightly complicated answer, but if they stop to consider before answering, it's harder the next time."
Mr. Weston nodded. "After you give that instinctive answer once, though, it becomes second nature, and is fully manifested as part of the skill."
Alex nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Thank you. It's almost like seeing everything within my Inventory from every perspective possible at once, but without being overwhelming." He frowned slightly. "It's a bit more than being able to look at them from any perspective. It's just an instinctive, almost intimate understanding of anything in there."
"Exactly." Mr. Weston was clearly grateful for the added distraction as he grabbed a knife block from the kitchen. It was missing a single knife that Alex thought they'd found in the hallway after he had dusted their opponents.
"So… What does that mean for a person that you pull into your Inventory? Can you see all parts of them?"
The teachers gave him an odd look.
"What? Your Inventories are big enough. We've taken bodies in. Are people different?"
"Yes." Ms. Woods was actually the one to answer. "Nothing sapient, and nothing with System access can be placed into your Inventory. Some storage items can bypass that restriction, but ones like that are… expensive, and often even more limited, if in other ways."
Alex grunted. "Good to know."
At least that meant that serial killers couldn't just kidnap someone into stasis in their Inventory.
He hesitated. Should he be concerned that such was one of the first places his mind went?
Well, there are other, even worse things that it could have been used for. He immediately cut off that pointless line of thought.
As the four came out of the last breached unit, they came up on John holding a sobbing older woman, standing in the doorway of an intact apartment.
There was decided damage on the door itself, indicating that it likely wouldn't have been secure for much longer.
Which means that we need to get to other buildings as fast as we can…But they couldn't leave this one to be reclaimed and overrun once more…
John was consoling the woman while checking with her, but he was getting nowhere.
Ms. Woods wove her way forward, taking the woman's hands and addressing her with kindness and compassion. Less than a minute later, they'd been told that they could take the food, but to please leave everything else.
Mr. Weston went to do just that, while the older woman—Gladys—grabbed some clothing to come with them back to the school.
Two of the remaining units on the first floor opened to allow for people to come with them and for some more supplies to be acquired, but the last two refused to open.
Wanting to know if they were empty, or the people were just not responding for some reason, Alex cast Detect Life, then hesitated. Oh, I'm an idiot.
He hadn't cast either of his detect spells in this building, and that was one reason they'd been somewhat surprised, even with his Danger Sense.
He quickly cast Detect Unlife as well, getting a good picture of the entire building. "There are no more undead in the building, unless there are more obscuring magics."
Honestly, he felt really, really silly.
"Oh, and that apartment's empty." He pointed to the one on the right.
John looked between Alex and the door a few times before shrugging and kicking right next to the lock with astonishing force.
The entry blew open with a bang, and then John stepped back and gestured. "After you."
Mr. Southard grimaced, then sighed. "Very well."
They had work to do, and they needed to do it fast.