Chapter 20: Rotten Tar Bulldog, Jacob’s Idiocy

Chapter 20: Rotten Tar Bulldog, Jacob's Idiocy

The group sped up as they focused on clearing the path and killing the necessary zombies to continue moving.

"We are close," Erix said as he could see the mall two hundred meters away from him and the group.

Everyone was killing independently and to the best of their ability while maintaining the formation.

After killing a Blue Fire Frog on the way, Toshin got a skill called Fire Enchantment, which could give a fire attribute to an item for additional fire damage for a certain duration.

Toshin and Lena also collected 100 Mystic Essence shortly after they left the mansion and got options to awaken a job class.

Jacob and Serina also collected 100 Mystic Essence ten minutes ago.

All of them chose to awaken a job but had to complete tasks.

On the other hand, Erix was still ahead of Rin in terms of killing speed, reaching level 27, while Rin was level 26.

Isabella reached level 14, and her shield skill was a blessing to the group, proving very useful to the party.

[Congratulation! Your skill, Sword Beam, can be evolved to 2nd Tier after completing some tasks]

Rin heard the notification and grinned as she continued killing and slashed a zombie into two with her sword.

She improved at the Sword Beam skill and even learned to use it better.

*Growl!... Bark!*

Suddenly, they heard a loud growl before a powerful bark resounded.

As they were moving on the main road and passed by a dark alley over twenty meters away from the other side of the road, a creature in that alley smelled them and came out while growling.

It was a mutated bulldog!

But unlike those small bulldogs, this bulldog was freaking four meters tall!

Everyone in the group looked at it and felt a chill looking at its appearance.

The bulldog had dirty brown-white fur while its face was majority black with white spots and two red eyes.

Its sharp but rotten-looking teeth were the most terrifying, looking even more chilling when the beast growled toward them.

*Bark!*

The dog loudly barked before it jumped by exerting its strength and crossed a vast distance as it landed just five meters away from the group!

"Fuck!" A bodyguard cursed.

[ Rotten Tar Bulldog ]

_Level: 32

_Vitality: 400/400

__Status:

—> [ Strength: 73/ Agility: 71 / Health: 65 / Stamina: 83 ]

Several zombies were squashed below it after it landed.

Afterward, the dog swiped its giant paw with sharp and thick nails to kill the zombies in front of it and used its tail to sweep away incoming zombies behind it.

"Grrrr...."

The mutated dog's eyes were glued on the group.

"W-What do we do?" Jacob said as fear was evident in his eyes. n-.0VεlB1n

Serina was also scared as her hand trembled.

"Focus!" one of the bodyguards shouted towards the siblings as he waved his hand and shot a wind slash to kill three zombies that were staggering toward the siblings.

This bodyguard was lucky to receive a powerful 1st Tier active skill: Sharp Winds. It allowed him to shape sharp winds and shoot them.

"Leave that dog to us," Erix said before turning to Rin. "Let's kill it."

Rin nodded, with excitement already dancing in her eyes.

"We'll hold off the zombies, so quickly kill that monster," Toshin said as his sword was now on blue fire!

"I'll get its eyes," Rin said as she jumped high before waving her sword while activating the skill, Sword Beam! 'I'll try that way of using the skill and see if its works.'

Usually, the sword beam was like a short burst of beam, leaving the sword's point in a straight line.

However, Rin understood the skill more while fighting, became better at it while finding a different way to use it, and decided to try it out.

As she waved her sword while using the Sword Beam, a short burst of beam unleashed from her sword like usual.

But this time, the beam was still connected to the sword as she maintained the connection with her magic control and channeled more mana in her sword aside from the usual skill cost!

The sword beam increased in intensity, and she even managed to change its direction upon moving her hand that was holding the sword.

*Bark!*

That Rotten Tar Bulldog quickly moved to the side to dodge it, but Rin moved her hand as the beam continued towards the beast's right eye!

*Chreee!*

*Bark!*

-93!

'Its defense is high.'

But Rin gritted her teeth, and despite feeling a sudden headache along with some notifications and voice in her head regarding Sword Beam, Rin controlled her mana forcefully through her sheer will and broke through her magic affinity limit as she managed to converge the sword beam back a bit before moving her hand to hit the beast's left eye as well!

-105!

"Rin?!"

"I am fine!"

Erix frowned as he saw blood trickling from Rin's mouth, but he had to finish off the dog first since it was enraged.

Both of its eyes were blinded, but its nose was still sharp as it could smell the group's unique scent from the rest of the zombie horde.

'Iron Flower will take time, but since I can use mana and try something like Rin did...' Erix quickly thought while rushing towards the incoming enraged dog.

He gathered mana in his right fist by consuming 40 mana, and with his magic control, he created three layers of mana waves before condensing them into the flesh of his fist!

Right as he finished, the beast also swiped its claws toward him.

In response, Erix punched with his empowered right fist!

'With punch force passive skill and this punch empowered by forty mana, it should do a lot of damage,' Erix thought as his fist connected with the claw!

The claw was shattered while Erix's hand also started heavily bleeding!

*hiss...*

'Damn!' Erix cursed. 'But you are dead!'

But it was not over!

A powerful force unleashed from Erix's punch as it squarely hit the beast's paw and burst it into a bloody mess!

The punch force continued as it traveled through the dog's paw and entered its body before raging inside and destroying its organs!

-302!

[You have killed a level 34 Rotten Tar bulldog. +5 Strength. +6 agility]

Erix felt a sharp sting in his head as some information entered him, and he heard a voice with a notification.

[Your attack met the requirement of creating a skill. Skill adjustment completed]

[Congratulations. You have acquired a 1st Tier active skill, Imposing Fist]

"Hmm? That's a blue patterned treasure chest!" Jacob shouted. 'I've never seen such a treasure chest.'

Seeing Erix's fist bleeding while he stood in a daze and Rin looking in a similar state as Erix, Jacob's eyes trembled.

'I...If I can take that treasure chest and get anything from it, I'll become powerful!' Jacob thought as greed overtook him, and he made a dash!

"Stop!" Lena shouted upon seeing her son's action.

"Idiot!" Toshin angrily spoke as he sliced three zombies in succession with his sword before dashing towards his daughter since she was getting overwhelmed because Jacob suddenly broke away from the formation.

Isabella also shot some bullets, supporting all sides of the formation using her gun.

Having no other choice, she used Frost Shield to protect the party.

'Only 23 mana left now,' Isabella became anxious.

Erix narrowed his eyes as his headache quickly subsided after he got the skill.

Rin recovered a brief earlier as she right out snorted and waved her sword towards Jacob when he was going to touch the treasure chest by stretching his left hand.

*Slash!*

"Arrrghhhh!!... M-My arm!" Jacob shouted in horror and pain as his left arm was cleanly cut off from near his elbow.

"Idiot, your sister could die because of your carelessness and greed!" Rin glared daggers at Jacob, causing him to cower.

Erix quickly dashed and touched the treasure chest before putting it in his inventory.

"Trash," Erix spat as he glanced at Jacob before quickly controlling his hammer to push away zombies surrounding the group as they were starting to get closer and overwhelm them.

His dagger also sliced many zombies and instantly killed them.

"Bastard! Stop crying and get back into the formation," Toshin shouted at Jacob while quickly pushing away incoming zombies.

If they didn't have skilled fighters, a few could have been scratched or bitten because of Jacob's idiocy.

Lena bit her lips looking at her son's sorry state, but there was no time as the group quickly focused back on the formation.

Jacob didn't want to die by getting left behind, so he quickly used all of the status points he had saved in the Health attribute, hoping for quick recovery and regeneration of his arm.

Alas, the pain stopped, the bleeding stopped, and the wound closed, but his arm didn't regrow!