Zombies.

After eyeing the three zombies and marking their positions in his mind, Arthur went to the kitchen and brought some things with him back to the door.

He put down the things near the door and started removing the furnitures from the entrance.

After doing that he also pulled the corpse inside and hid near the door glancing at the three zombies in the corridor.

'Okay let's do this.'

Bending down, he picked up two steel pans he brought from the kitchen and started to hit them on each other.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The three zombies abruptly awakened at the noise and started moving slowly toward Arthur's room.

Seeing that the zombies had taken the bait, he dropped the pans and picked up the oild can that he had also taken from the kitchen.

He quickly poured the oil onto the floor near at the entrence of his room and emptied the can before throwing it out of the room making more noise to which the zombies hurried over.

"Yes come come, I'm waiting for you."

Arthur smirked and swiftly pushed a single sofa toward the broken doorway making only a small place from where only one person could walk at a time 

By now, the zombies had already reached outside the entrance of the room and were about to step inside.

Looking at them, Arthur ran to the kitchen and took the largest knife he had stored.

"This cleaver was supposed to slice large fishes but I think using it to kill those zombies wouldn't be a bad idea."

He nodded and went back to the hall where zombies were lurking at the entrance.

When he arrived at the scene, the zombies acted as if they had seemed to have met their lovers.

"Grrrr....grrr..."

One zombie stepped inside with other following behind, and just when it was supposed to cross the sofa at the entrance, it slipped on the oil covered floor 

"Here comes the first...."

Arthur grinned and approached the first zombie which had fallen down and slid through the floor, reaching near his legs.

The zombie's whole body was covered in oil and it was feeling difficult to properly stand up.

Shaking his head, Arthur didn't waste anymore time and helped the zombie by releasing it from its misery.

"Slash!"

The cleaver moved cleanly across the zombie's neck, separating it from the body.

"One down...."

Arthur quickly caught the dead corpse's arms and pulled it deeper into his room as another zombie slid through the entrance covered in oil.

"Now the second."

Just like he did the last time, this zombie's neck too detached from its body. He pulled this corpse and put it above the first.

"And for the last one...."

The third zombie entered the room and stumbled down by slipping on the floor. 

Arthur got near to it deciding to end its life when suddenly the zombie stood up again and started walking toward him.

"Huh?", Arthur raised his brows and looked down on the floor.

"Shit! There's no oil left on the floor!!"

Frowning at his bad luck, he retreated a few steps backwards and took a stance as the zombie approached him.

"It's fine, I can handle it. Just like how I did in my nightmares."

Taking a deep breath, Arthur held the cleaver before his chest and relaxed his body.

"Grrr.....grrr."

The zombie seemed to have reached the peak of its hunger as it growled ferociously and reached out its arms toward him.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, Arthur srpinted forward and kicked at the back of the zombie's leg, making it bend backwards and fall on its knees.

"Now!"

Holding the cleaver tightly with both his hands, he swung it toward it's neck and sliced it completely.

The blood soaked cleaver flew off his hands from the force and hit the walls of his room.

"Thud!"

The already lifeless monster fell down with its body and neck separated.

"Haa...haa..haa"

Arthur held his knees and bent down, taking deep breaths as it felt exhausting to do so much of hard work that was unlike what he had done his whole life.

"That..haa..that was fucking exhausting...yet somehow exciting..."

He sat down on the floor and rested for a minute for getting back up again.

"I should remove the mana stones first."

Approaching the three corpses who had their necks separated, he digged into their chests with the cleaver and took out the mana stones.

Giving a smile at the three shiny white crystal, he cleaned them with a towel and put them inside his mouth one by one before crunching and gulping them hard.

"Boom!"

Arthur hurriedly sat down in a lotus position when the power of the mana stones started to move inside his throat.

The effect of three mana stones was much stronger than the previous time when he had eaten only one as his blood vessels surfaced on his skin and pulsed in purple color througout his body.

"ugghh!!"

Arthur gritted his teeth and held back the shout that was threatening to escape his mouth.

His mind buzzed like a radio and his whole body burned in a high temperature making him let out weird black sweat.

'Focus! Focus!'

He clenched his hands and concentrated his full attention inside his body, taking rhythmic breaths and letting the energy of the mana stones move toward the various parts of his body.

A few minutes of struggling later, Arthur opened his eyes and released a thick breath of mist.

"Haaa...."

Feeling the change in his body, he stood up and hardened his muscles.

"Whistle~"

Arthur let out an impressed whistle while widening his eyes in astonishment.

His previous lanky body now looked like a trained body of an athlete with chiseled and shapely muscles on hard and strong bones.

"Now this is fucking cool!"

He grinned in joy glancing at his new body and did various poses in the hall full of blood.

After a few seconds of appreciating the newfound changes and development in his body, Arthur turned back to glance at the zombies and became serious.

"It's good that I've become stronger but I remember that it's not only humans who can grow stronger by eating mana stone but every other being can also do the same."

His thoughts went to the information that he came across in his many nightmares and he decided to note everything down.

"It'll be a pain in the ass if I ever forgot something important."

Giving the broken door a last glance, he stepped inside his room and locked it properly.

Arthur sat down on his desk and took out a small booklet that he could carry with him in his pocket from the drawer.

He also picked up a pen and removed its cap before moving it toward the first page of the booklet.

"Now let's remember and write everything down...."