Chapter 139: You Shithead Zombies
While the others retreated downstairs, intending to gather everyone and bring them for the good night’s rest, Fredrinn and Rose remained on the 3rd floor.
The floor was pretty much empty except for the 5 zombies, Selene, Charlie and the two of them.
The quiet hallway was bathed in the dim light of flickering overhead fixtures, with blood and dismembered body parts scattered across the patterned carpet.
Before proceeding with his plan, Fredrinn hurried towards the brutalized tier 4 zombie’s corpse first.
He winced at the disgusting stench near the corpse, but he steeled his heart and closed his nose shut.
The smell of rot, combined with scorched flesh from the earlier clash, hit him like a physical blow.
He crouched down beside the battered remains, his eyes scanning the pool of dark matter where the creature’s head used to be.
’Lust, where is the zombie core located at?’ Fredrinn asked calmly.
[ <LUST> replies that it’s usually at the heart or within the brain. ]
That was all the information he needed as he began to go through the tiny pieces of gore and flesh... Searching for anything that would qualify as a ’zombie core’.
He used the toe of his boot to sift through the crushed fragments of bone and grey fluid, nudging aside chunks of shattered skull. Alas, after checking the exploded brain properly, he came out empty.
’Let’s hope it’s in the heart...’ Fredrinn sighed inwardly, kicking the corpse from the side and flipping it over, stomach up.
The limp, heavy body rolled onto its back with a wet thud. Then he used the broken part of his sword to cut open the zombie’s chest, revolting at the sight instantly.
The jagged metal edge tore through the tough, leathery skin of the chest. The corpse’s insides appeared to be mangled, the ribs were quite strong and firm, however the same couldn’t be said about the internal organs.
The lungs were blackened to the point that a smoker’s lungs would appear infinitely times better.
They were shriveled and crusty, lined with thick deposits of dried, dark soot. And the heart? It was dark and motionless, connected with the arrays of veins and darkened organs.
There were several punctures in the heart, making it appear deflated, and Fredrinn knew fully well that this wasn’t the result of the fight.
In the battle he mostly targeted the zombie’s brain in order to finish the fight as soon as possible. After all, it was common knowledge that to kill a zombie you must destroy it’s brain.
This creature’s internal decay was simply a natural part of the mutation process, rotting away while channeling ambient power to its extremities. He held his breath, trying to ignore the revolting smell as he grimaced and tore open the zombie’s heart with his blade.
Although he had gotten used to the blood and death in Apolasia, he wasn’t used to meddling with the corpses... Especially rotten ones.
Back during his time in Apolasia, fallen beasts were usually picked apart by professional scrapper teams or incinerated into clean ash with magic spells. Getting his hands dirty inside a rancid chest cavity was thoroughly unpleasant.
However, he wasn’t left to suffer too much, as moments after piercing the heart with his blade, he felt something solid press against the blade.
Clink.
The dull metallic feedback traveled up his arm. He knew that there shouldn’t be a bone there, so it was quite clear that it was something else... Something that he needed.
Fredrinn abandoned his gag reflexes and the disgust as he slid his hand between the zombie’s ribs, fishing for the solid pebble like object amongst the pool of darkened murky blood.
His fingers clamped down on a hard, smooth surface deep inside the cold organ. In just a few seconds, he had fished it out, rolling it over his palm to get rid of the blood all over it.
He wiped the remaining grime against the fabric of his sleeve, revealing a translucent, polished stone that glowed with a faint, pulsing violet light. It was roughly the size of a walnut, perfectly spherical, and cool against his skin.
’Whoa, this looks mystical... Something like Mana shards in Apolasia...’
[ <LUST> casually remarks that host’s observation isn’t wrong. Zombie core can also be dubbed as Mana cores as it’s the coagulated collection of the mana that the zombie had absorbed within their body. ]
Fredrinn nodded in agreement silently.
Without even trying to sense it, he could feel the amount of dense mana that was packed within this core.
The energy inside it was wild and untamed, yet thick and steady. It was compressed under immense pressure, practically begging to be tapped.
’So not just for buying stuff, I can also use it as a backup mana battery?’ Fredrinn thought to himself, totally imagining himself keeping some cores as a backup, and using them to absorb their mana the moment he needed to cast a high levelled spell.
Earth’s ambient energy was thin and sluggish, making it a pain to gather mana quickly for complex spells. If he could stockpile these zombie cores, he would never have to worry about running out of fuel during an emergency.
He got up from the corpse, pleased with the result of the battle as he glanced at the 5 zombies who were subdued under the weight and strength of Rose’s two zombified slaves.
Charlie had his giant knee pressed firmly into the spine of a tier 2 zombie, keeping two others pinned under his massive forearms. Selene was standing straight, her slender sneaker crushing the back of the tier 3 zombie’s neck into the floorboards, rendering it completely unable to lift its head.
"Rose, I like this zombie core stuff... Let’s create more tier 4s, shall we?" He said with a low smirk, to which Rose simply smiled with a cheery nod.
She couldn’t care less about the core, but she was glad that she was being useful to him.
Her curved horns shifted slightly as she adjusted her posture, watching him with bright, devoted eyes.
Fredrinn tossed his broken sword towards Charlie, but before he could take it, Selene had already caught the blade, looking down at it emotionlessly.
Or rather... She was unable to express her emotions due to her zombie nature.
Her pale fingers wrapped neatly around the hilt without the slightest hesitation.
"Slice off their hands and legs, but don’t kill them." Fredrinn was surprised about her movement, but he didn’t really care whether the task was achieved by Selene or Charlie.
He simply wanted to give the sword to Charlie because he didn’t want a beauty like Selene to do the dirty work of removing the zombie’s limbs.
Though thinking back, he was being too stereotypical in his thought process.
Rose casually repeated her order as Selene went straight to work, starting with the tier 3.
She raised the broken edge, preparing to sever the creature’s limbs.
"Rose, do you think that the zombies can regrow their limbs if they cannibalize all the zombie corpses over here and hopefully reach tier 4?" Fredrinn turned to his beautiful demon.
Rose nodded, "Yes, hubby. In fact, most of their absorbed mana would go into regenerating their limbs before they try to level up to the next tier. So if you plan to keep cutting their limbs before they could evolve, that will be futile."
"Ah shi, then tell her to stop slicing their limbs!" Fredrinn added hurriedly.
Rose blinked and relayed the order.
Selene froze mid-swing, the blunt blade hovering just inches above the tier 3 zombie’s shoulder.
She pulled the sword back without a word, stepping into a defensive guard beside the thrashing creatures.
By now, Fredrinn’s plan was clear but there was one minor issue.
He wanted to turn the zombies into tier 4s, but he didn’t have a decent way to keep them tied up and unable to harm the others.
Once they evolved, their strength, speed, and durability would spike through the roof.
After all, even he wasn’t that cocky to proclaim that he could save everyone from 5 fucking tier 4s himself.
Handling one had taken deliberate strategy and a barrage of high-frequency sound attacks. If five of them broke loose at the exact same moment on a floor directly above the human survivors, the hotel would turn into their graveyard.
In addition, he needed to have a threesome tonight as the payment to Lust and also finish the deed with Andrea to turn her into his 3rd Voluntary Thrall.
All that needed to be done tonight, so he really didn’t have the time to watch over them and see through the whole process.
He couldn’t spend the entire night acting as an unpaid prison guard on the third floor while Andrea waited for him in a private room below. His schedule was completely packed with system obligations and personal rewards.
"How long do you think it takes for a zombie to become tier 4 and form a core?" He asked Rose with a sigh while also repeating the question in his mind for Lust.
Rose tilted her head, tapping her chin with a sharp black fingernail as she calculated the mana density of the rotting meat nearby.
However, before either of them could answer... A feminine and sonorous, sweet voice trailed down the stairs, sounding lazy and exhausted.
"What’s with the ruckus downstairs, yawn~ I finished a whole bottle of vodka by myself... Don’t make me come down please, you shithead zombies~"
The voice echoed softly through the landing of the upper stairwell, punctuated by a long, drunken yawn and the unsteady scuff of bare heels against the concrete steps.