17 Michaela’s Secret

|You have been debuffed. All stats lowered by 10%|

Ten percent doesn't seem like a lot, but it could make a huge difference in the midst of a fight.

Kendall was also affected by the stat change and immediately worried for Hunter. Her skill could cure any status debuff, so she wanted to use her skill to heal Hunter.

Just when she was about to use her skill to help Hunter out, Hunter turned her way and lifted his hand to halt her.

Hunter didn't want her to gain the attention of the Hobgoblin. He still wanted to defeat the last goblin first.

When Hunter turned towards Kendall, the goblin thought he had lost his focus and sent out a strike with his spear. Hunter was waiting for this opportunity and quickly dodged to the right and closed in on the goblin.

The one weakness of wielding a spear was if you got inside the spears range. Hunter knew this from all the video games he played.

Spear welders had to be careful about hastily striking an opponent and if they committed too much to an attack and missed, they would be put at a disadvantage.

Lucky enough for Hunter, the goblin wasn't very intelligent so Hunter quickly got in close range to the goblin, and used his skill "Dagger Strike" on it's noggin.

|You have slain a goblin. ExP will be rewarded|

|You have leveled up. You are now Lv. 8|

Hunter was thrilled to have gained a new level and quickly contributed five basic points to both speed and strength. He also leveled up Dagger Strike to Lv. 8.

The hobgoblin just watched as all of his subordinates were mercilessly slaughtered in front of him. He was quite infuriated.

Hunter noticed that when you level up that all debuffs to stats were reset. Even your mana pool was refilled.

The hobgoblin wanted nothing more than to kill the enemy before him. He couldn't believe that he would lose everything to Hunter. At this moment he took a step out of the dark gas station into the light and let out another loud screeching roar.

|You have been debuffed. All stats lowered by 10%|

Hunter had no time to think about the status debuff and prepared for the next attack.

The hobgoblin started running towards Hunter with a burning fiery passion to murder him. He was about the same speed as Hunter with his debuff.

Hunter then used this time to use his skill 'Ensnare' to capture the hobgoblin by its own shadow. The hobgoblin was surprised by the turn of events and struggled to free it's self.

Hunter used this opportunity to run towards the hobgoblin. Just as Hunter was about to strike the hobgoblin, he was shocked by what happened next.

The hobgoblin broke free from the lingering shadow and its shadow was returned back to normal. Hunter was in dangerous range and the hobgoblin imbued his one-handed axe with a fiery power.

The hobgoblin was using another skill called 'Fire Slash.' Hunter was already in dangerous area of the incoming axe and had no time to dodge. Hunter would probably have to sacrifice one of his limbs in order to survive the incoming attack.

Hunter leaned a little bit to the left to sacrifice his non-dominant left arm. Just as the strike was about to land on him, he saw a whip come out of no where and latch on to the hobgoblins arm that held the one handed axe.

The whip was made from a cool flow of water, and looked to be some sort of water magic. Hunter jumped out of harms way and then looked for where the water whip came from.

He turned towards the car that the others were camping behind and saw who it was.

It was Michaela.

***

"Bleghhh."

Michaela was holding her hair up and on her knees throwing up into the toilet. She was very sick and couldn't go to work that morning.

Michaela called the hospital to tell them she couldn't come to work that morning. After she did so, she went back to her spot at the toilet and continued letting her guts spill out.

As she continued spilling her guts out, she heard a loud bang at the door.

"I'll be there in a second. Please give me a moment to get ready." Michaela yelled towards the door. She thought someone was knocking very loudly and didn't find anything too suspicious.

Another loud bang happened and something busted through her door. Michaela heard this from the bathroom and was immediately alarmed. She thought some creepy pervert had just broke into her apartment.

She went to go lock the bathroom door hastily and grabbed the cover to the toilet seat to protect herself.

"Don't come any closer! I'm calling the police!" Michaela pulled out her phone to try calling the police. When she tried to turn it on, nothing happened.

'It was at full battery when I called in for work a couple hours ago. What happened?' She thought.

The person that broke into her house let out a groan and continued towards the bathroom door. Michaela was frightened as she continued to believe that some pervert has came to **** her.

The person reached the bathroom door and let out another punch towards the door. The punch went all the through the door and Michaela could see it clearly.

The hand was rotting and the color of grey and green. Michaela wanted to just barf looking at the rotting hand. It was obviously a zombie, but Michaela had no idea.

The zombie kept relentlessly unleashing punches on the door until Michaela could see the zombie clearly. Michaela hit the zombie's arm with the cover of the toilet, but it stood strong and tried entering the bathroom.

Michaela noticed it's extreme effort to try and get into the bathroom and was frightened even more. The zombie tried crawling through the door and tripped on his way in, face planting on the tiled floor.

Michaela thought this was her chance as she relentlessly smashed the zombie with the toilet cover. She kept smashing and smashing until the head looked like some bloodied mess. She then saw the same strange transparent screen that Kendall and Hunter both saw.

|You have slain a zombie. ExP will be rewarded|

|You have leveled up. You are now Lv. 1|

Michaela's mind was completely flooded with questions. Michaela never realized played that many video games and was pretty unfamiliar with a leveling system.

She had heard others talk about games like this, but still had no clue what to think of it. The one strange thing she did notice was that she wasn't sick anymore. She had no need to continue puking.

'This seems just like those games all the kids talk about. I wonder what all this leveling up nonsense is about. I do know that I feel a lot better and it almost feels as if my "status" has been recovered'

As soon as Michaela thought the word 'Status,' she saw another screen pop up in front of her. It listed all of her stats.

Michaela was curious about the new status screen in front of her and seemed to mess around with it for a bit. She was quite a calm person and didn't believe it to be a delusion of some sort.

She added some basic stat points to magic and other stuff too. She found it to be quite amusing.

Michaela also noticed that the zombies body had disappeared. She found it quite strange.

|You now have a Mana Pool. You can pick a path of magic to go down|

|Magic Paths:

Fire

Water

Earth

Wind

Dark

Light

Magic Paths can further be upgraded iin the future|

Michaela was rattled by the new transparent screens popping up in her vision this time. She had no idea on what path she should pick.

After some time of thinking she decided that it didn't matter what she picked as long as she stuck to that path. She then decided to pick water.

|You chose Water Magic|

|You have earned a skill. Water Whip|

Water Whip: Lv. 1

Type: Active

When you use this skill, you create a whip made from water. This move will attack the enemy for 20 HP and has a chance to entangle the enemy, slowing their movements.

Range: 10 meters

Mana Cost: 10 MP per second

Michaela was shocked by the new skill she had just earned. She was even smart enough to level it up with her newly earned skill points.

Michaela realized that the world must of changed for the worst and was curious as to what was going on outside. All of a sudden she felt the same earthquake that Hunter and Kendall had felt and curled up into a ball in her bathroom.

A vine shot through the floor right next to Michaela and barely hit her arm making it bleed profusely. She was scared and didn't know what to do.

The earthquake eventually stopped and Michaela was relieved. She then went to her window to check on what had happened.

Michaela saw the same apocalyptic scene and even saw same scene of the goblin killing the woman running away.

Michaela was scarred by the scene of the goblin dragging the woman into the gas station and went to go hide in her bedroom. She also took some painkillers she had stole from work to help with the pain in her arm.

She spent a couple hours in her bedroom scared by what she had saw. Unable to sleep or call anyone, she just stayed curled up in a ball on her bed relishing in self pity.

All of a sudden, she had a realization.

'I can't stay in bed all day. I have to make an effort to get supplies and rations. I can't stay cooped up in this room forever.'

All though she thought staying in her bedroom wasn't such a bad idea, because she felt safe there. She was smart and knew she had to go outside to gather supplies for herself.

Michaela had a pretty powerful skill she thought and thought she could handle any number of zombies on her own.

She started treading to her door in an attempt to see if there were any monsters around. Michaela counted five zombies loitering around outside.

Her door was still busted from the zombie earlier and could clearly see the outside.

Michaela slapped her cheeks a couple times in an attempt to give her more confidence and stepped outside.

The zombies took notice of Michaela and headed in her direction. She immediately used her Water Whip skill and aimed it at one of the zombies heart. The whip went through the zombies heart, but the zombie kept continuing towards Michaela.

Michaela noticed that whip had no affect on the zombie and was frightened by that fact. She then remembered that when she killed the zombie earlier, she had killed the zombie by bashing its head against the floor.

Michaela then took aim at the zombies head and lobbed it cleanly off. Michaela was happy with the first kill but knew it wasn't over yet. She then took aim at another zombie.

She missed.

The zombies kept pursuing Michaela and were about seven meters away from her. Michaela used her skill again and this time hit the zombie, detaching the zombies head from it's body.

'Only three more to go,' Michaela thought as she prepared to strike another one down. She then tried using her skill again.

|Insufficient mana|

Michaela was met with a disappointing transparent screen. She was trapped. She couldn't run back into her apartment, because the zombies could easily follow her in there. She just kept backing into a corner with tears filling her eyes.

"Someone please help me!" She screamed out. Michaela didn't believe anyone would come to her rescue as she curled up into a ball and awaited her demise.

That was when Hunter had swept in and saved her.