Clearing the Way

Hearing the familiar voice, Mark smiled widely as he backed away temporarily from what looked to be a zombie with white skin and red eyes.

"Perfect timing Clye, how do I use the inspect skill? There is that weird looking zombie ahead and I wanna know more about it before I attack." Mark whispered, looking at his system panel's new bestiary tab.

"Just do what you tried before and think or say 'inspect' and it should work!" Clye said proudly as Mark crept forward and used inspect on the creature.

{Inspect}

{Creature: Ghoul

Core Density: Hollow

Mana Circuit: Beginner (Stage 1)

Info: Ghouls are the earliest evolution of a vampire. Mindless creatures that are very similar to zombies save for the fact that they only drain blood while the latter consumes all of its prey.}

'Fantastic!' Mark thought, pumping his fist as he made his way over to the ghoul that was currently busying itself with a corpse.

'I need to end this quickly so I don't draw unnecessary attention.' Mark thought as he quietly and quickly raised his sword and swung down while activating Slash for the first time!

A thin blue layer appeared on the sword, shaping into an edge that pierced down into the nape of the ghoul.

Before it even got the chance to scream its spinal cord got disconnected and it fell limp onto the corpse it was previously sucking dry.

Seeing this, Mark sighed in relief before smashing down again to finish the job, only stopping when he received the system notification.

{Ghoul killed}

{[Mana Circuit] progress 4%}

...

Over the course of the next hour, Mark carefully and quietly made his way along the hallway, avoiding packs of monsters and picking off individuals; those who had yet to find their own kind.

Noticing his fatigue, he made his way back to the room he left the little girl in to get some rest. When he arrived he opened the door as quietly as possible, closing it behind him as he entered.

He noticed the little girl sleeping in the corner, red tear stains evident on her tiny face. 'I'm surprised she managed to hold out so long without crying before. Such a strong kid...' Mark thought to himself as he found a nice corner to lay down.

The day was about to end and he could see the setting sun from the window pane high above his head. As Mark watched it, his adrenaline waned and his body grew weary. He quickly checked his status, seeing his Mana Circuit progressed to fifteen percent and his physique had increased to twelve, a bright smile spread across his face.

'Seems that every ten percent in the Mana Circuit I'll get another point in physique.' Mark then thought of something; his core is going to lag behind if he keeps up at this pace.

After brainstorming some solutions, Mark quickly queried Clye. "Hey Clye, do you think we could make a program that passively collects mana for my core?"

"I mean we could do that, but it would be the last thing I can do for you at your current spirit. Anymore and it will be like trying to run a program that costs a lot of processing power on an outdated computer." Clye briefly explained about how her client was using Mark's brain as the hardware; only by upgrading spirit and improving the brain could more programs be run on it.

"Well this mana collection program should help solve that issue so it would be better to choose this first anyways. I'm gonna get some rest, so just run the program when you finish it." Mark paused, looking at his sword that was crackling with electricity for a moment.

"And thanks Clye, you've been such a huge help to me. I really appreciate everything that you've done." Mark then closed his eyes and drifted off.

Sitting there quietly for a moment Clye finally responded in a hushed whisper. "That's what partners are for..."

...

The next morning, Mark groggily opened his eyes and noticed the little girl at some point had cuddled up next to him and was clutching his shirt in her sleep. Mark smiled, before lightly tapping her to wake her up.

"Kid it's time to wake up~" Mark said in a soothing voice as he watched the girl open her eyes, still half asleep.

"What time is it?"

*Yawn*

She let out, before looking at Mark's phone which he just pulled out.

"A little past eight in the morning. I'm trying to check if there is any news updates. Probably not though since I'm assuming everyone is in the same mess as us..."

Mark skimmed his timeline, then tried to contact his loved ones. He was so absorbed in the mayhem yesterday that he completely forgot to check on them.

After messaging everyone, he handed his phone to the little girl and asked if she wanted to contact anyone.

"The only family I know the numbers of are my parents and they..." Her eyes began to tear up as the horrors she witnessed yesterday began replaying in her head.

"Hey hey hey, let's not think about all that right now; how about we figure out what to do for breakfast? I cleared the way to one of the restaurants yesterday. What do you say? 'Cuz I'm starving!" Mark stood up and rubbed his stomach with a big smile on his face.

"Mhm! I'm hungry too!" Seeing his plan to cheer her up working swimmingly, Mark grabbed his sword and quietly opened the door, peaking outside.

Seeing the coast was clear, the two made their way to the nearest restaurant. Once they arrived Mark had the little girl hide as he checked the perimeter, making sure no monsters crawled their way in last night.

On close inspection there was one apparition that had yet to notice him. He quietly snuck up behind it and stabbed the sword through its head, killing it instantly.

{Apparition killed}

{[Mana Circuit] progress 16%}

Mark quickly collected the powder left behind and beckoned for the little girl to enter. The two then raided the large pantry and stored as much food and water as they could in Mark's orange backpack.

Afterwards, the two quickly made their way back to their base of operations. Once they felt safe, they inventoried their bounty and ate a belt busting breakfast.