Chapter 7

  What did you do to my katana!?

  “I can’t stay and fight I’m on a timer I have an ability to boost my strength and speed and I had to use it to save you. I’m going to open a path for you and if you do t follow I have to leave, are we clear?”

  “Yes”

  “Good, use that if they start to close in on you until I can come back and open the path again.”

  Then to Emily’s eyes he just vanished, until she saw the gore start to fly. Klint didn’t actually think about how to clear the path, this was going to be messy and he didn’t want to scare her anymore. “A pass with my blade held to the right then come back with it held to the opposite side which will still be my right.” Then he took off when he first hit the wall of zombies he deviated a little from his plan and took out a twenty foot area then darted off and back.

  Emily started running and Klint kept the path opened for her, she only occasionally had to kill a zombie that was getting too close but if she was being honest she didn’t have too, she needed to. She saw the power and speed of this creature and wanted to be strong like that so if she had the chance she would kill as many as she could. She really wanted to just stay and fight especially after finding out how much and how heavy the essence was she was getting. But this creature saved her life and gave her a sword. It could talk also even though it didn’t have a mouth or eyes. That was weird.

  She still hoped he wasn’t going to kill her and this wasn’t some sick game he was playing for all she knew he could be the creature responsible for all of this. But figured that she would have died already had he not shown up so what else could she lose.

  Emily had learned long ago how to channel her essence while on the move, she had to survive and finally she felt like she could put some into her other attributes. But as she started to channel the creature spoke again.

  “save half of what you get and don’t channel it into your attributes”

  Why would he tell her that? Maybe this creature had answers for her and could explain what was happening. “He might know how to get back home and maybe it takes essence? Or maybe he’s trying to keep me weak.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “You want to get stronger right? I know how to help with that but you need essence.”

  Klint was impressed with her speed, she wasn’t fast but she was faster than the zombies. If he had to guess she had filled her speed attribute to 100% before the point of stretching her cores. Then he noticed she was killing zombies she didn’t need to kill, but she wasn’t going out of her way. They were targets of opportunity and Klint decided to leave her a few more but spaced out enough it wouldn’t slow her down.

  He was impressed, she really could handle the katana, much better than he could wield it. To Klints surprise he could tell she was actually channeling while running and fighting, Klint tried to do that in the beginning but at the time it was impossible for him and he hadn’t tried since.. ”maybe she can teach me a thing or two as well.” Finally they made it through. He must have killed near a thousand zombies since he first came upon her and his spirit had filled with essence a while ago. Now wasn’t the time to try and channel on the fly. He only had one minute left.

  “How far is it? When my boost wears off I might not be able to move, you’re safe now and I know you can out run them but I need to run ahead.”

  “Ten blocks to the north, then three to the east, I’ve boarded of the windows and I’ve searched this whole town, no other house has boards on the windows. hurry and go I’ll meet you there. And thank you for saving me, I thought that I was going to die here just like, well anyway thank you.”

  “You can thank me by continuing to not die, now that your not surrounded don’t go and try to take on anymore zombies, they could surround you again and all this would have been for nothing maybe a few if you can fill your spirit with essence but if a few won’t fill you don’t bother, there is always more monsters to hunt.”

  10

  With that Klint took off as fast as he could, he only had maybe thirty seconds left, houses raced by him as he ran one two three…..nine ten. Now three more blocks two this is going to be close. Klint made it to the house and just like she said it was the only house with boarded up windows. Klint rushed inside and deactivated his boosts. He decided to leave his armor on just incase the zombies found the location and he had to fight. While it would be very painful and hard he could probably manage. That was his last thought as he fell to the floor the backlash of boosting taking it’s effects. Then he let himself go to sleep.

  Emily did infact keep channeling her essence and she stayed out killing zombies for another hour. Then she stopped channeling after she had gotten her cores a little rounded and not so one sided. She then filled her spirit led the zombies away from where she had been staying and then circled back. “Could that creature be a man? What happened to him to make him like that?” Emily wanted to get a little stronger just incase she had to fight that thing.

  She got back to the house and rushed in making sure no zombies were near. She then barricaded the door and sat down quietly on the other side of the room from the creature not sleeping but keeping her eye on it just incase. She wasn’t about to let her guard down around that thing. She kept the katana tight in her hands. Emily didn’t realize it but now that she had a weapon she felt safer than she ever has before and as soon as she was able to relax from the night sleep found her.

  When Klint woke up his body was aching, but not as bad as the last time, like it was getting used to the stress. He sat up and then summoned a water bottle to his hand taking a drink of the magic spring water. It barely did anything for his recovery but barely was better than nothing. Looking around he spotted the woman who he had saved. She was sleeping. He re adjusted and tried to get a better look at her with his spirit sense but the moment he moved again she woke up.

  “Hello”he said to her and cursed in his mind. Hello that’s what he said of all the stupid things to say. Klint hasn’t dated anyone since his last wife and they dated 10 years ago. He’s been divorced for four years now and honestly didn’t know how to talk to woman anymore if he wasn’t in a professional setting. “Hi” she said back then she said “I hope you don’t mind me asking but what are you? You don’t have a mouth to talk or any eyes that I can see, I’ve come across a lot of monsters but none like you.”

  “You think I’m a monster?”

  “Are you not?”

  “No, oh wait sorry. As soon as I made this armor I haven’t taken it off, it takes to long to get back on.”

  “That’s just armor? But it moves and looks like it’s part of your body.”

  “It’s special armor” Klint said as he let the essence armor fade from his body.

  Emily watched as the creatures armor started to fade away, underneath it was a man. He had a handsome face with a strong jaw line and nose that looks like it had been broken once or twice. He had hair that was golden also seeming to glow but not glow like it was shining but not emitting light or reflecting light. The rest of his body was well muscled but not overly. Not like a body builder but like an athlete that had that perfect blend of strength and speed. Her heart pounded in her chest a little bit, he looked like a god where she just looked homely.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  But the oddest thing was that he was wearing a blindfold, how could he see with the blindfold on? Or was he actually blind? “Your eyes, are you okay? And you are human?”

  Klint chuckled “yeah I’m human, and my eyes are just fine this blindfold is for training.” He reached up and took the blindfold off. And was almost blinded by how bright everything was even though it was still night time. He hadn’t used his eyes since before he started using mana and essence in them and wasn’t expecting so much. Immediately he noticed a few things that were odd, above the woman floated words identifying her as *human *awakened *mid phase 1 *name unknown. He then looked at his sword he gave her and it then had text appear above it too, *Katana *normal grade *stressed *unnamed.

  Emily looked as he removed his blindfold and she was taken aback by his eyes. They were gold and glowing. Her heart started pounding even harder now, this really might be a god she thought. After she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding she asked “are you sure you are human and not some god or devil or something?”

  “Why do you say that?” Klint was genuinely curious as she had basically called him a god or a devil. Klint was just Klint slightly balding average shape average looks. Then he decided it must be because he saved her. It was a savior complex. But then he looked down at himself, he hadn’t seen himself in almost a week. He was buff. Before he could keep admiring his new physique Emily spoke again.

  “To start, your *armor* doesn’t look like armor it looks like you’re a demon and it looks like skin. Then your eyes are gold, I’ve never seen gold eyes and not to mention they are glowing.”

  “Wait they’re golden?”

  “Yes, and glowing.”

  “But my eyes are blue”

  “I’m looking right at them and they are gold….and glowing.”

  “Okay let me try something keep looking at them.”

  Keep looking at them? Emily mentally scoffed, how could she not? They were gorgeous. She just nodded to him. Klint for the first time since he activated his essence sight turned it off.

  “ Whoa! What did you do?”

  “Did they change?”

  “Your eyes and your hair.”

  “What do they look like now?”

  “Your hair is kinda a plain dirty blond brown, but your eyes are a glowing electric blue. How are you doing that?”

  “That’s one thing I think I can teach you. Do you ever meditate?”

  “No, but I’ve tried a few times in the past.”

  “I don’t think you need to meditate to do this part but it will make it easier for everything else.”

  25

  “Before we get into that what’s your name? My name is Klint and it’s good to meet you.”

  “Klint? That’s an odd name, sorry that was rude. I’m Emily, and well I can’t say this is good circumstances to meet I am glad you came along when you did. So let me say thank you, you saved my life back there.”

  “Don’t mention it, I was happy to do so. Why don’t you tell me how long you’ve been here and how you came to be here. Then I’ll tell you my story. And in doing so it should give you an idea on how I am doing what I do and how you can hopefully do it too.”

  Klint listened to her story and could only be amazed by how she had survived so long with no weapons at all. It truly was incredible. But Klint knew that the bones he saw the goblins carrying was her brother Nathan’s. Klint was unsure if he should tell her about it or not. But ultimately decided to tell her, the bones were still in the cave since Klint hadn’t given them a proper burial yet. This way she could see them and say her last goodbyes.

  “I came from that direction, and slaughtered a den full of goblins and the goblin boss which was a hob goblin. Anyway I’ll tell that story in a minute. One of the goblins I killed had a full skeletons worth of bones. From what you say I think it’s your brothers. I need to go back there so I can take you to it if you want.”

  Emily started to cry but quickly stopped herself, “I’d like that but it took me 20 days to get here from there.”

  “Well it took me 3 days and that was only really headed here during the days, at night I meandered around to kill monsters. If I really tried I could make that trip in a day. plus you had to sneak and be careful, now you have a weapon and a companion.”

  Emily heard that and shied away thinking about this last month being desperate struggle to survive then she felt relieved when he said companion. She had been alone for what felt like so long and there was something about him that just felt safe.

  “Or if you prefer to take what I have to teach and go your own way. You seem rather fond of that katana and know how to use it far better than I do. So you can have it.”

  “No” Emily said quickly, “I mean if I can have the sword I will take it but I don’t want to be alone even if I can survive I’m tired of being alone.”

  “I must tell you I can vaguely feel the direction we need to go to progress in whatever this shadow realm wants us to do, and I am not strong enough to face it yet. So for a while I am going to increase my strength. I will take the time to get you caught up to me if you want, but I do recommend it because I have a feeling we will need it.”

  “Okay, I want to be stronger. I want to be able to do what you do. Can I hear about your time in here? And what day did you enter in I’ve been here for 30 days today and I arrived August 29.”

  “I left August 30th and I’ve been in here 5 days today.”

  “So you haven’t even been gone a day and I’ve only been gone almost two days. That’s weird. Some strange time dilation going on.”

  “I’d say so considering I feel like I’m in my twenties again.”

  “You’re not?”

  “No ma’am, I am 39”

  “Well you look like you’re 24”

  “Thank you, but I can’t wait to confirm that when we get back. But seriously I don’t have thinning hair? And what is your age?

  “lol no it’s thick and full. I’m 24 Now please no more side tracks, tell me about your time here.”

  “Listen here little miss.” Klint was snickering inside his head at his bad attempts to flirt. “I you went off on the last tangent I only responded.” But here is the story for you.”

  Klint told her about his time and she just listened in silence not speaking until he had finished. As soon as he finished she asked for silence and stillness. Then she started to move her mana inside her body. “Thats really hard”

  “Are you trying to move your mana?”

  “Yes”

  I found it’s easier if you have a goal in mind when moving it, think about enhancing your vision and then move the mana to your eyes.”

  Emily listened to what Klint said and then put it to use. She was pulling and stretching the mana to go to her eyes and when it finally got there her vision sharped dramatically, but not just her regular vision her spirit sight grew by leaps and bounds. “This is what you were training?”

  Klint watched for a long time as Emily opened up the mana route to her eyes, nothing happened for a long time as she just sat there with her eyes shut. Then she opened them and her eyes glowed with an electric blue, “is that what my eyes look like?” Klint thought. Then he heard her ask a question. “Huh, oh yeah that and the next step with essence.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “You need to take your unchanneled essence and picture a pool for it similar to your mana pool. Then….”

  Emily was following along with Klint and pictured a pool of essence right as he said it, instinctively she started putting essence in it and then a vacuum opened up in the pool and it started drawing it in. The pain then started in as her spirit stretched and tore to make space for her new essence pool and essence regeneration. Then everything went black as she passed out.

  “I tried to tell her it was going to be painful.” Klint laughed.

  With some time on his hands he decided to channel his essence and was surprised to find out that he had enough to completely fill all of his cores. And have a little left over. He tried to stretch his cores more but it didn’t work. He then tried to force the un channeled essence into his essence pool and that didn’t work either. Klint thought about going to phase 2 but decided to wait for Emily to wake up, that way she could see it. While he waited he started forming his armor again. His pool was big enough now he could get his hips, legs and feet all in one go.

  When Emily finally woke up she felt like a new person. She would have never thought about making a pool for essence and wondered exactly how he came up with that. He was a bit vague on some of the details. She then looked at him he was covered with his armor again except for the mask. But his eyes were golden and he was now looking at his sword.

  “Was I asleep long?”

  “A few hours. The suns almost up. We are going to train at dawn, then we will fight monsters to get you caught up, at dusk we can sleep then during the night we can become zombie slayers. Does that sound good?”

  Emily just nodded, but she was only half listening and she was focusing on the mana in her body. She wanted to open up pathways. It was like growing new veins in your body but once the pathway was there it was easier to move so for now she wanted to get the pathways open to every part of her body.

  “For now channel your essence into your essence pool and essence regeneration, it’s going to take a bit of time to get it caught up to the rest.”

  “I saw you pull this sword out of the place you can store the silver coins the monsters leave behind, how did you do that? I tried to while you were sleeping but no matter what I tried I couldn’t get it.”

  Oh yeah, for that and your backpack just use your essence and wrap it up tight then you will be able to do it.”

  Emily took her essence and poured it into the katana, it took her entire pool but then the sword changed, the blade looked like black obsidian and Emily felt a deep connection with it. “What did you just do?”

  “I think I just bound it to me, I poured my essence into it like you said and then it changed.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Klint just stared at her and then took a breath. “It’s okay but I didn’t say pour your essence into it, I said wrap your essence around it, I didn’t even know you could put your essence into things. So that alone is worth the sword.” Then Klint grabbed his own sword and poured as much essence as he could into it, he felt it start changing as the whole blade turned to black obsidian the blade also grew a little bit bigger, then one of its edges became serrated he also felt a channel open up in him and he immediately knew that he could make it stronger. It felt like there was more but it wasn’t open to him yet.

  Just playing around he sent his mana into the sword to open up the pathways but when the mana touched the hilt it rushed to the blade. “I’ll be right back” Klint said and he went out side.

  Klint grabbed his sword with both hands and as he swung it pictured in his mind letting go of a rope the rope being mana in this case and a crescent of mana came flying out of his sword and cut through a wall of the house next to him. “I’m going to need practice.” Pulling on his mana again he sent more into the blade, then he concentrated on the shape he wanted how fast he wanted it to go and how sharp he wanted it. Klint held his sword with one hand facing behind him, then swung as fast as he could.

  The mana blade shot out at breakneck speeds and this time it cut the whole house in half. And kept going. “How did you just do that?”

  “First things first let’s get your armor. It takes time to form it until your essence pool gets bigger and it regenerates faster.” Klint put his sword to his back and then with a thought it attached itself like a magnet was holding it in place. “Why wouldn’t you just store it?”

  “Storing it won’t have the same effect.”

  “And what effect is that”

  “You said I look like a devil, the sword helps complete that look.”

  “You were one of those angsty emo teens weren’t you?”

  “Oh cosmos no, we didn’t have emos back then, I was an angsty goth kid, but even worse because I wasn’t a goth I just thought it was cool.”

  “Am I going to regret teaming up with you?”

  “No, yes, at times yes you probably will.”