The cry of the zombie echoed through the building, and soon, more zombies became alert. They started rushing down the hallway, straight toward Damien's position.
Without hesitation, Damien commanded his skeletons to form a defense line while he slowly retreated. This time, things felt different. The battles were tough, but he noticed it was easier compared to before—his body had grown stronger after absorbing death energy. Both his physical strength and his death magic had improved.
Still, the number of zombies didn't stop increasing. Even with his skeletons cutting them down, more kept coming. Damien gritted his teeth and activated another one of his skills—Corpse Spear. The spell took time to form, but in the narrow hallway, it was deadly.
One after another, black spears of death shot forward, impaling the zombies. Corpses piled up, blood and bones scattering everywhere. The endless wave finally slowed down, and after what felt like forever, the last zombie collapsed under the attack.
Damien exhaled heavily. "Finally… It's over," he muttered to himself. His body gave out, and he slid down against the wall, completely drained. Both his mind and body felt like they were burning from exhaustion.
But even then, he didn't stop. The bodies around him were radiating death energy, and he couldn't waste it. Closing his eyes, Damien absorbed the energy, letting it flow into his body.
Then, he felt it—a barrier inside him. Something is blocking his growth. But the more he absorbed, the more cracks formed in the barrier until—
Crack!
The barrier shattered, and a flood of information rushed into his mind.
He had broken through and stepped into Tier 0, the very beginning of the power system. Each Tier had ten levels, with Level 1–4 considered normal, Level 5–6 strong, Level 7–8 powerful, and Level 9–10 at the very top in each Tier.
Along with this, new abilities awakened inside him:
Skeleton Beast Summoning – now he could raise animal skeletons to fight for him.
Death Fire – a black flame that could burn either the body or the soul, depending on his intent.
Bone Forging – he could now create bone weapons and armor from corpses.
And finally, his skeleton limit had increased—he could now command 15 skeletons at once.
After the upgrade, Damien felt a lot stronger. He also felt that his skeletons were getting stronger, too. He learned from his inheritance while upgrading those skeletons, though the lowest in the necromancer's army were the most versatile ones. They grew stronger the more they killed. That was why many necromancers still used skeletons even after they were able to make death knights and other higher summons.
Higher-level summons also had their own advantages, but they were not as easy to summon as skeletons, and they had strict requirements.
After that, Damien made his skeletons carry the bodies of zombies into a room and locked it up. He then went downstairs to call for Alice and the girl. Before leaving, he put the skeletons under the control of Captain Skeleton. He ordered it to clean up the place, make sure there were no zombies left, and keep the area safe until he came back.
When he was downstairs, he went to the room that was locked. He tried to open it, but it didn't work, so Damien started to knock on the door.
"Alice, it's me. Open the door," Damien said after knocking a few times.
The door slowly opened, and Alice stood there. Damien went inside, and Alice quickly hugged him.
"What happened upstairs? I thought you had gotten yourself in some trouble," Alice said with worry.
Damien stroked her hair and started to comfort her. "There was a mutated zombie upstairs, so there was some noise. But now it's all good."
Hearing the words "mutated zombie," Alice hugged him even tighter, as if she was imagining what bad could have happened to him.
After calming down Alice, Damien learned that the girl, Jennifer, was awake, but she looked as if she was still in shock.
Damien and Alice went inside the bedroom, where Jennifer was munching on some bread and drinking water that Alice had given her.
When she saw Damien and Alice come in, the girl started eating even faster. Seeing her reaction, Damien felt a bit amused by the way she looked, but then guilt struck him. He remembered the incident and thought about what would have happened if he had been a few minutes late, or if he had ignored the strange noise coming from this room.
He decided not to keep thinking about it and sat across the bed, facing the girl.
After finishing her food, she said "thank you" in a small voice. Damien remembered that she used to be an outgoing type, maybe even an extrovert. But now, after the incident, she seemed so quiet and broken.
"No worries," Damien replied. "So, how did you end up here after the apocalypse began?"
Damien wanted to know what had happened to put her in that state.
It was only the second day of the end of the world, but people's inner demons had already started to come out. The darkness hidden inside human beings was showing itself now that the old world of peace and order had collapsed.
People not only had to be afraid of zombies but also of human hearts—hearts more dangerous and unpredictable than any zombie. But zombies were not going to go down easily as they are also evolving, being stronger more faster.
Jennifer then started her story. Before the apocalypse began, she had come to the dorm building to get her notes from one of the boys in this room. But when she was about to leave, one of the students suddenly lunged toward her. Luckily, she survived. When she tried to get out of the building, more zombies were attacking the living. She had no choice but to run back upstairs. That was when two boys opened their room door, and she rushed inside as fast as she could to save herself.