Chapter 15: A Swift Encounter and the First Crystal Core

The bell on the doorframe jingled loudly, announcing my presence.

The loud sound instantly drew the attention of three zombies, their stiff bodies lurching as they rushed towards me.

My initial plan was to dispatch them individually, but now, all three were charging simultaneously.

Yet, with the situation already unfolding, I felt no inclination to retreat.

Instead, I tightened my grip on the knife’s hilt and surged forward, meeting the zombies head-on.

The three zombies were approaching from varying distances. The closest, a middle-aged male, was only a few meters away by the time I accelerated my charge.

I could already discern the gnawed marks on the zombie’s face, black, viscous blood steadily oozing from its wounds.

As it lumbered forward, it flung droplets of blood, splattering them indiscriminately.

I held my knife horizontally across my chest. The moment before impact, I brought it down in a powerful arc, severing the zombie’s neck with a single strike.

The immense force instantly decapitated it.

I deftly dodged the headless corpse and pressed on, sprinting towards the next threat.

The brief encounter with the first zombie had allowed the remaining two to synchronize their pace.

They closed in on me in unison, denying me the chance to isolate and eliminate one before the other.

Hmph. Two it is, then.

I can still dispatch them all.

As the two zombies drew nearer, I executed a swift side-kick, sending one stumbling to the ground.

While cautiously evading the fallen zombie’s flailing attacks, I brought my knife down with brutal force upon the head of the other.

Having cleaved the zombie’s head in two, I swiftly withdrew the sharpened blade. Pointing it downwards, I plunged it directly into the skull of the zombie still writhing on the ground.

It had been attempting to crawl towards me, but the instant my blade pierced its skull, all movement ceased.

Thus, a 1v3 battle concluded with me unscathed and utterly victorious.

I extracted the blade from the zombie’s head, then propped it on the ground, leaning on it for support.

My body, hunched over, began to heave with ragged breaths, and beads of sweat rapidly trickled down my forehead.

My current physical condition remained subpar. Such a minor skirmish had left me utterly exhausted…

There was no other option; with such a weak body, I would have to train harder later.

However, once I absorbed crystal core energy and awakened my ability, my physical attributes might see a significant boost.

For an ability user’s physical prowess naturally escalated in tandem with their awakened powers.

The more potent the awakened ability, the greater the enhancement to their physical body.

With this thought, I cast aside any notion of rest. I reached out, using the tip of my knife to probe inside the zombie’s skull.

Apart from black brain matter, I found nothing.

Though fruitless, I was not disheartened.

Crystal cores were not guaranteed in every zombie’s head, and the chances of finding one were notoriously low.

After examining these two zombies, I glanced towards the first one I had decapitated, then made my way towards it.

Since it had been severed at the neck, the detached head was still animate. As I drew near, its mouth gaped open, clearly attempting to gnaw at my flesh.

Such was the nature of zombies; unless their brains were utterly destroyed, they would remain endlessly ‘alive’.

I simply used my knife to cleave the zombie’s head open, searching for the tell-tale shimmer of a crystal core within.

And surprisingly, this time, I struck gold!

Within the split skull, there was no sign of black brain matter. Instead, a transparent, fingernail-sized crystal lay nestled inside—precisely the crystal core I sought.

The exquisite beauty of the crystal core seemed utterly incongruous with the grotesque appearance of the zombie.