41 Defeated (1)

'These guys are more fierce than the ones outside...'

[Total damage dealt: 1345]

[Hunter Ghoul HP: 0/400]

[Hunter Ghoul killed! Exp +55]

[231/500 souls have been collected and stored with the Bloodlust Dagger.]

Zaen was having a bad time handling the horde on his own. Initially, he thought they were ordinary ghouls but they turn out to be more tenacious than any low tier ghoul he had faced before. He had wasted hours trying to face them head-on and now he was on a run throughout the special force facility.

But as if he didn't have enough problems on his hand, he found out something even more troublesome: The Blood moss. From afar it looked like a pool of crimson blood, except the fact that it was anything but blood. In reality, these were deadly moss, especially if a horde of monsters was chasing after you. Sadly the entire place was covered with them, The floor, the wall, the roof... no matter where he looked the moss was everywhere.

Zaen had to learn the lesson the hard way. When the ghouls started overwhelming him, he ran away to try and great some distance between the horde and himself. Thanks to his enhanced agility, he quickly and effectively managed to make some distance between himself and the bloodthirsty horde chasing him. It was then he got a taste of what blood moss can do to him, first hand.

He made the mistake of taking the blood moss as a pool of blood, which wasn't all that uncommon at that place since it technically was a haven for the ghouls. A place for them to sleep and eat all they want.

It would've been more awkward for Zaen if he did not see blood around him every now and then. Sometimes they even ended up feasting on their weaker kin to satisfy their hunger. And by doing so, they grew stronger. This was also the reason why the ghouls inside the facility were so tenacious and altered at the same time.

That was the scenario in the small corridor Zaen had rushed in to protect himself. He thought the by forcing the ghouls into the small corridor, he would be able to slow down their pace instead, something ended up happening to his own agility.

When Zaen, unintentionally stepped onto the seemingly harmless pool of blood, it solidified into a jelly-like substance and soon turned into some kind of moss. The most interesting part? The moss was alive. Within a fraction of a second, it grew hundreds of small tentacles that were no longer than a newborn's fingers. But had enough strength to stop a hunky guy like Zaen within seconds.

However, these tentacles did not grow to harm him directly. They couldn't even penetrate through his sneakers. But the tentacles pose another type of problem, one Zaen could not have foreseen in a hundred years.

[You have stepped on <Blood moss>]

[You have acquired the <Slothy movement> debuff]

[Your Agility has been reduced by 70%. Current Agility: 48]

[Step away from the moss to remove the debuff]

[Your agility will get restored after 5 seconds of stepping off the Blood Moss]

[Armoured boots with metallic soles are immune to slow effects of the <Blood Moss>. It is suggested that the Champion should buy/craft such a pair.]

Before Zaen could do what was asked of him, the horde had caught up to him. Moreover, he no longer had the advantage of his enhanced agility to quickly tackle their attacks.

Moments later, all hell broke loose. He was taking hit after hit and he could not do anything about it. He was so swamped with the ghouls he could not even use a bandage to heal himself up. The ghouls were desperately trying to bite through his flesh but thankfully his armour was able to sustain his attacks... barely but it was the thing saving him from critical damage.

Apart from his Bone Chainmail, his armour was already in somewhat bad condition, and now thanks to the horde of unevolved ghouls, they were on the verge of getting destroyed. He had already used a repair kit on his trousers, it was only thanks to the repair kit that his legs were still in one piece. No matter how fast he tried to kill the ghouls their numbers didn't reduce. It seemed like the endless swarm of the ghouls would inevitably swallow him alive.

Thankfully, before the worse could happen, two of his most useful abilities got off cooldown simultaneously. It was a life-saving moment for Zaen. He quickly used [Stunner] to stun the ghouls around him before using [Shadow Step] to teleport at the far end of the corridor, away from the ghouls.

Once he was free from the effect of blood moss, he went into rage mode. He kept on slashing the ghouls while trying to make his way out of the mob. After killing a couple of dozens of Ghouls, Zaen was finally able to rush out of the small corridor and forced his way into a chamber that provided a lot more open space than the small constricted corridor.

It gave him a precious moment to collect his thoughts and take a breath. He had been on the verge of death a moment ago... at the hands of the weakest of the ghouls according to the monster index. He needed to carefully analyze his next move because if he allowed the things to go as they were now, he would not even be able to get out of the accursed building alive.

While contemplating his next move, he quickly checked the Bloodthirsty dagger and was shocked to see he had only gained a minuscule amount of 30 souls even after hacking through so many ghouls that he couldn't even recall how many.

However, his peace did not last for long. The ghouls followed his scent and were right behind him. However, they stopped at the entrance of the chamber Zaen had fled to. They were seemingly afraid of something... something that Zaen was not aware of, yet.