"I just got one skill, and it is named 'Medication Substitute'"
Alexias's eyes were shining with great curiosity.
"What can it do?"
"How should I know? It doesn't come with a manual after all."
"Oh sorry. I totally forgot about that." Alexia was blushing a bit due to her embarrassment. "Anyways, judging from the name of the skill I doubt that it will allow you to heal your leg in a short time. After all I doubt that there is a medication that can instantly cure a broken leg. Well, you might be able to produce some painkillers for yourself, that's something that will help you move when it's necessary.
Sadly, that also means that our problem is still the same as before, I have to go and search for other survivors, but I can't leave you two alone in your current states."
When Alexia noticed the mutation earlier, she had been so excited about the possibility of Sarah acquiring a useful class that she totally forgot how unlikely it was that Sarah would get a class that magically healed her broken leg. Alexia didn't even know if it was possible at all to get a class like that at level 1.
'But what else can we… I do? There must be a solution to this problem.'
Alexia let her gaze wander around while trying her best to come up with a good plan. Then her gaze landed on the open window of the train cart not even ten meters away from her.
'I am so stupid! How did I not think of this earlier?'
The solution to their problem was so obvious that Alexia wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
'Ezren and Sarah can simply enter this train cart and close the windows and doors. It's not like these mutations have any chance whatsoever to break into a train cart from the time before recorded history.'
After that Alexia told her plan to both Ezren and Sarah. While Ezren still looked exhausted and only gave her idea a small approving nod Sarah on the other hand hit her forehead with her hand. She too was obviously wondering how she had not thought about this before, granted she had been under a lot of stress these past few hours but missing something so obvious still made her doubt her own intelligence.
Without further hesitation Alexia helped both Ezren and Sarah climb into the train cart through the open window. After Alexia told Sarah to find out more about her new skill, Ezren closed and locked the window.
Now only Alexia was left standing outside, and she could finally go and start searching without having to worry about the safety of her companions.
She started walking in the same direction as Ezren had gone earlier but skipped the first few train carts since Ezren had searched those already.
After a few minutes she noticed a badly mutilated corpse which had a broken lower back and a completely destroyed head. She also noticed pieces of ripped cloth inside the corpses head and a nearly intact shoe lying beside it.
'This must be where Ezren fought against the two mutations. But why did he leave his shoe here and how did parts of his pants get mangled up in the corpses head.'
She could not think of any scenario where Ezren's pants would be ripped apart by the mutation and end up inside its corpse while Ezren's leg was not wounded in the process.
'Did he lie about his skills? But I am certain that this hammer was artificially created by him so does he have multiple skills? Why would he not tell us something like that? Is it because he is suspicious towards us?'
She could not answer those questions right now and decided to confront Ezren later once he had recovered. For now, she had to continue her search for survivors.
During her search of the first two train carts Alexia encountered no survivors, instead she found a mutation which she killed swiftly and without any issues.
Just when her hope of finding survivors started to decrease, she spotted a person inside the third train cart.
Alexia wanted to rejoice but her expression worsened, when she noticed three mutations that were blocking her way toward the train cart.
Alexia let out a long sigh and then started walking towards the mutations with measured and solid steps.
After not even a minute only three lifeless corpses were left of the mutations. Alexia was a bit exhausted but had not received a single injury during the battle.
She could now focus on a new screen that had appeared before her when she killed the second abomination.
[Your class 'Guardian Knight' reached Level 2. Select an upgrade:
1.) +7 Strength
2.) +7 Agility
3.) Level up for innate skill: |Knights Talents (Lv.1 -> Lv.2)|]
After taking a short look at her Status she thought to herself:
'At least now I know what happens after the Level of a class increases. I gained some points in each category, and I can now choose another upgrade.
I will think about my choice while rescuing the person in the train cart.'
Alexia walked up to the train cart and knocked on the window a few times. After a short moment she saw a young girl who could not be older than five Years slowly walk towards the window.
On the way the girl tripped over a corpse lying on the ground and instead of standing back up she crawled towards the window on all fours while using her hand to search for obstacles.
That's when Alexia realized that the young girl was blind. Since the young girl would not be able to see her Alexia continued to knock on the window every few seconds in a rhythmic way, that no brainless mutation could imitate. Guided by the knocking sounds the blind girl arrived under the window and stood up. After a few seconds she managed to unlock the train window, and Alexia was able to enter the train cart.
The first thing Alexia did once she was inside the train cart was to embrace the blind girl and whisper into her ear.
"Everything is going to be fine now. You have done well."
Hearing this the girl relaxed a little bit and started to cry letting out all her suppressed emotions.
They stayed embraced like that for a few minutes with Alexia whispering soothing words into the girl's ears. Once the girl stopped crying Alexi asked her:
"What is your name?"
"I am Lily what's your name?"
"I am Alexia, Lily I have two friends who are waiting at a safe place. Do you want to go there?"
"Yes, but I am scared the… the train crashed right? And everyone here is dead, right? And there were a few times when something loudly hit the windows from the outside. What happened after the train crashed?"
"I know that you have a lot of questions Lily, but it is dangerous here and I don't have enough time to answer your questions right now. We have to go and meet up with my friends first, then we will explain everything to you."
Lily looked like she was about to start crying again once she heard that it was still dangerous, but she bravely answered:
"OK, then can you help me out of here?"
"Of course, and I will also carry you all the way to where we are going."
Alexia knew that carrying the girl would be quite exhausting, especially after she had just fought and killed three mutations, but she had no other choice since having the girl walk by herself would be way too slow. Then after some hesitation she decided to choose the +7 Strength as her upgrade.
She noticed the difference immediately, her muscles felt stronger and there was another feeling she could not quite explain. After taking a few steps and moving her arms around she understood what that weird feeling was.
Her muscles had grown stronger which should logically enable her to jump higher and move faster, but she was just as fast as before the upgrade. This fact could only be explained if her mass had increased proportionally to her strength. The weird feeling had been caused by her somehow gaining additional mass without changing her Size. She had no idea how she could gain mass without growing larger, but that did not matter right now.
After she adjusted to her increased strength, she carefully picked up Lily which had become surprisingly easy and started running back towards Ezren and Sarah.
A few minutes later she arrived back at their temporary camp and dropped off Lily. After instructing Sarah to explain everything to Lily, Alexia left and continued her search.
She found nothing in the next two train carts she searched until she arrived at the last train cart that could be found in this direction. This train cart had been the one furthest away from the locomotive before the train crashed.
There she found a man who looked to be around 15 years old standing beside the train cart. His fists where bloody and a dead mutation lay before his feet. The man noticed her and started walking towards her with a smile on his face.
"Hello beautiful, may I know your name?"
Alexia involuntarily rolled her eyes but still answered in a rather cold tone:
"Alexia, and you are?"
"Others call me Andy, but you can call me handsome." Alexia stared at the man and was seriously considering killing him right here and now. After all nobody would ever find out what happened here. As sweet as the thought was, she sighed and was just about to answer when the man burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, you should have seen your face! I am just joking, my name is Andy sorry for the bad joke I just wanted to lighten the atmosphere a little."
"Well, you certainly managed to do that. Let's go I know a place with other survivors, we can talk on the way."
"Alright." Andy answered seriously, but Alexia noticed that he was secretly still smiling because of his own joke.
Alexia was quite sure that she would one day strangle the guy to death.
_______________
When they were approaching their temporary camp Alexia asked:
"How good are you at fighting these mutations."
"Fairly good I would say, I killed two already without too much trouble. Why are you asking?"
"I have already searched all the train carts in the direction where we came from, but I still want to search the remaining ones in the other direction. Would you like to stay here, safely with the others, or do you want to come with me and continue searching for survivors?"
"I will come with you." Andy answered after hesitating for a few seconds.
"Great, I have a skill named 'Guardians Mark' and I want to try marking you to see if one of us notices it's effect."
"Alright."
Then Alexia grabbed Andy's hand and commanded her skill to mark him.
Instantly she felt something almost imperceptible leaving her body and entering Andy's body. He too felt that something had entered his body, but after that nothing changed for either of them. After a short discussion they decided to just ignore the mark for now and continue their plan.
There were seven train carts left between them and the locomotive. They found nothing in the first two train carts but then encountered three mutations while walking towards the third train cart.
The first mutation had once been a middle-aged man with an average build and the second one had been a young but well build woman. But what truly worried Alexia and Andy was the third abomination which had once been a mountain of a man who stood over 2,10 meters tall and still retained an impressive physique.
After exchanging a few words Alexia decided to engage the tall man while Andy dealt with the other two.
Now standing in front of the huge mutation Alexia was especially cautions since her previous strategy, which consisted of dodging to the side once a mutation tried to grab her might not work against this one due to its long range.
Instead, she decided to stay at a distance and wait for a chance. She retreated in a way that would put different obstacles between herself and the mutation. She hoped that the mutation would trip over something and give her an opening to attack.
But she soon noticed that this mutation was a bit different from the other mutations she had encountered so far.
While the other mutations had no intelligence at all and acted only on instinct, this one on the other hand seemed to have at least a basic awareness of its surroundings. Thus, it managed to avoid tripping over anything and continued to approach Alexia.
Since her previous strategy had failed Alexia decided to engage the mutation in close combat. Once she entered the mutation's range it acted just like all the other mutations had acted previously. It stretched its arms wide and tried to grab her. Instead of avoiding the side, as she would usually, Alexia decided to let herself drop to the ground instead.
The mutation's arms passed above her head, and she kicked the mutation's left shin using the sole of her boot. She had always been rather strong, but now after gaining an additional seven strength her kick carried an almost inhumane amount of force.
Her kick made the mutation fall forward, but Alexia managed to roll away, before the abomination could land on her. Then she jumped to her feet as fast as she could.
Once she was back on her feet, she noticed that the mutation was still struggling to stand up. She would not miss this opportunity and tried to bring the hammer down on the mutation's head.
However, just when she was about to smash the mutation's head using her hammer a feeling of intense danger suddenly invaded her brain. Her instincts were screaming at her that there was danger on the ground beside her.
But there was nothing there! Then a split second later she understood what was happening and screamed as loud as she could.
"Andy, jump now!"