The hallway of the third floor was filled with chaos. Only a few students hadn’t been turned. The rest were already zombies.

As soon as Leon stepped out, a zombie lunged at him.

He almost panicked, but his body moved on instinct again.

Picking a knife from his belt, he stabbed it through the zombie’s chin, closing its mouth shut.

With his other hand, he took another knife and drove it into its temple.

The blade pierced its skull and killed it immediately.

[You have slain a Level 1 Zombie! +1 Stamina points gained!]

Looking around, Leon immediately headed for the stairs. The other remaining humans in the hallway had either fled, or had been bitten and were transforming.

There was no salvation for them.

Leon began to descend the stairs, holding two knives in his hands. He stealthily killed the zombies on the stairs as he descended, acquiring fewer stat points than he expected.

At some point, he didn’t even get any stat point at all.

’Hm? Could it be because they’re low level, so there are no additional rewards?’

He wondered if it would change when he faced a higher level creature.

As he came down the stairs, he was forced to stop when the putrid smell of raw flesh assaulted his nostrils.

’What... is that?’

Leon gulped, looking at the four-armed zombie blocking his path to the ground floor.

Its body was bigger than the other zombies he had seen, and the additional arms with golden claws looked grotesque and bizarre.

His expression darkened as he realized he would have no choice but to confront this zombie if he wanted to leave.

He could have stayed back and waited till it left there, but he didn’t want to risk getting trapped in the dormitory and attacked without escape routes.

’I have to kill it... somehow.’

He thought grimly, holding his two knives in his hands. After killing almost twenty zombies on the stairs, he had risen to Level 4 and now had strength and speed more than four times that of a normal human.

Although this zombie made him feel pressured, he could at least try his chances.

’I’ll have to attack first, so...’

Reining in the urge to shout a battle cry, Leon jumped from atop the stairs silently, his hands raised in the air.

The distance between him and the zombie was closed, and he swung his knives fiercely.

Puchi!

The two sharp blades pierced into its shoulders, pushing it forward as his weight supported the attack.

Bang!

The zombie slammed into the wall, denting it heavily. Leon immediately removed his weapons, darting back to avoid a retaliatory strike.

As expected, the zombie used its original arms to push itself away from the wall while its other arms struck behind it swiftly.

Thankfully, he had retreated, else he would have been grazed or torn by those golden claws.

’Before it regains bearing, move in...’

Giving himself an instruction, Leon suppressed his fear and forced his body to move.

He dashed at the zombie, putting his left feet forward as he slid under a wild slash, appearing behind it cautiously.

Before it could turn, Leon immediately targeted its neck, trying to sever them with the knives cleanly.

Unfortunately, the flesh was too sturdy. He could only make some deep cuts.

Roar!

The zombie roared in pain as black blood flowed from the wounds, and it whipped around, slamming a fist into Leon’s side.

The boy’s eyes bulged, an involuntary choked noise escaping his throat as he was slammed into the wall.

Pain flared in his ribs as he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. It was so painful he felt like he could die.

’No, I’m not dead yet! I’m not even scratched!’

He was thankful that the zombie had punched him instead of slashing, else, he would already be turning into a zombie by now.

It seemed like even though the student had become a four-armed zombie, having its life threatened made it unconsciously use an instinctive punch.

’Focus!’

Leon snapped back to reality, bearing through the pain and dizziness to dodge the zombie’s next attack.

The wall behind him was cracked as the zombie’s four fists slammed into it.

Leon’s eyes narrowed. Although the zombie was strong, it didn’t seem to be very fast. It was barely faster than him.

Pressing his hand against the wall, he abruptly pushed himself off the wall, slashing his knife precisely at the place where he had cut earlier.

The weapon cut deeper this time, even making the zombie stagger, but it wasn’t enough to cut through.

Leon wasn’t discouraged. Before it could react to his attack, he brought up his right hand, then struck the same wound with the second dagger.

Both blades met inside its flesh, then forced each other out through the other end.

Thud!

The zombie’s head dropped to the ground, followed by its body and a pool of blood forming from its neck.

[You have slain a Level 12 Four-armed Zombie! +5 Stamina points gained!]

[You have leveled up to...]

[You have leveled up to Level 6! +15 Stat points gained!]

Panting, Leon looked at the screens flashing before him, letting himself feel a flicker of joy from his victory.

’Hm?’

Looking at the corpse, he found three items on it. After confirming that no zombie was attracted to this place from the sounds of battle, he crouched beside the corpse and inspected the three items.

One was a scroll tied with red rope, one was a golden card, and the last one was a small blue cube.

’These are definitely rewards. But what rewards?’

Curious, he reached out and took the blue cube. He felt nothing, then decided to tighten his grip. Maybe there was a gem inside?

Crack...!

The cube shattered, and a long red spear suddenly appeared in his hand. Startled, Leon unconsciously dropped it and backed away.

He paused, staring at the weapon in astonishment.

He had never seen a spear in his life, only in movies and anime.

Suddenly seeing it here, he felt a wave of inexplicable emotions.

’I now have a proper weapon?’

Moving closer, he picked up the spear again, and instantly felt a surge of energy. A glowing screen appeared before his eyes.

[Blood Spear - Sharp enough to pierce and slice through the defenses of any creature below level 25. When equipped, Agility +15]

Leon’s eyes widened, and his heart began to beat with excitement.