NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 25: Someone Has Been Here
Chapter 25: Someone Has Been Here
After having dinner at a tavern along the way, he returned directly to his residence.
After resting for a while, he began practicing spear fighting with Basen.
Since acquiring Basen as a skeleton, he hadn't used a wooden dummy for practice anymore.
Real combat practice was far more effective than training against a wooden target.
As the practice continued,
A system notification suddenly popped up in his ear.
【Skill Unlocked: Spear Proficiency (Beginner)】
Hmm?
The unexpected notification momentarily distracted him.
His movements slowed, and Basen’s dagger slashed toward his neck.
Startled, he quickly dodged to the side in a panic.
"Pause!"
After evading, he immediately called out.
Basen halted instantly, sheathing his blade, and stood still.
Wu Heng touched his neck, confirming he wasn’t injured, and then opened his attributes to take a look.
【Name: Wu Heng】
【Class: Necromancer】
【Level: 3 (1109/2700)】
【Attributes: Strength 10, Agility 13, Constitution 15, Intelligence 16, Perception 10, Charisma 13.】
【Skills: Bone Rite, Acid Splash, Grease Spell.】
【Specialization: Spear Proficiency (Beginner)】
【Spear Proficiency (Beginner): You have reached beginner-level proficiency with spear weapons.】
Indeed, his attribute panel now included a new specialization.
It didn’t provide any fixed attribute bonuses, just indicated that he had reached beginner proficiency.
This meant he could unlock other weapon proficiencies through training as well.
Or rather, this was just a data-based indication on the panel, and the proficiency was something he had developed through practice.
From real combat to daily training, it had taken quite some time.
“Should I practice swordsmanship next?”
Compared to spears, swords were the most commonly used weapon among the populace.
This also proved the practicality of swords among groups.
Since training could unlock weapon proficiencies, he figured he could train in swordsmanship.
After checking his attributes, he stood up again, “Come on, let’s practice a bit more.”
The two of them stood in the middle of the living room, resuming their practice.
It wasn’t until late at night that Wu Heng went to bed.
……
The next day.
In the zombie world.
Wu Heng continued the previous day’s work with his skeleton troops.
Arriving at an uncleared building, he opened each stairwell door and led the skeleton warriors inside to clear out the zombies.
Then he continued to open each apartment door, clearing out the zombies inside.
Repeating the monotonous battles.
These isolated zombies posed no threat to his current skeleton troops.
Soon, the first building was cleared, and then they moved on to the next one.
With the advantage of numbers, they completed the battles.
When they finished clearing the zombies in the third building and were about to round the corner,
The scout, Skeleton Rogue Basen, came running back from a distance.
He signaled for them to stop advancing.
Wu Heng immediately ordered, “Stand by.”
Clatter!
The advancing skeleton army instantly halted, standing stiffly in standby mode.
Basen squeezed through the ranks and pointed toward the other side of the building that blocked their view.
"Danger?"
Basen nodded slightly.
"Take me to see."
Basen nodded again and led Wu Heng out of the skeleton ranks to the corner, where they peeked ahead.
Ahead was a small square within the residential area, with a concrete surface and a few exercise machines.
A blue bus had crashed through the complex's fence and lay overturned on one side of the square.
There were about twenty zombies wandering around the square, many of them wearing identical blue uniforms.
They were probably all from the bus, factory workers from some plant.
“The numbers are still within a manageable range.”
Twenty zombies, while not a small number,
Weren’t too difficult for his current number of skeletons, plus a few soul-bearing skeletons.
With proper preparation, he could minimize losses even further.
Just as he was about to call the skeleton army over,
Whoosh, whoosh!
Suddenly, three dark figures darted out from a distant stairwell.
They clamped onto the wandering zombies, tearing off arms and legs.
Before the other zombies could surround them, they quickly dashed away, leading the zombie horde in circles.
"Mutated zombie dogs!" Wu Heng's eyes widened slightly.
Like Skeleton Teddy, these three were large mutated dogs.
They toyed with the zombies, leading them in circles.
Using their speed advantage, they darted around chaotically, occasionally looking back to taunt their prey.
With this commotion, the number of zombies began to increase, gathering more and more in the square.
The zombie dogs’ strength lay in their speed.
When he killed Teddy, it had been trapped in a stairwell, which severely restricted its movement.
Out in the open, it would be difficult to catch them.
Even if they could win, the dogs could just turn and run, and it would be hard to catch up.
He patted Basen on the shoulder, “Let’s head back.”
They retreated to the rear, leading the skeleton army away.
These three zombie dogs needed a well-thought-out strategy to defeat, preferably by trapping them in the middle. Otherwise, they would be difficult to handle.
They retreated all the way back to their own building.
He began directing the skeletons to transport corpses while he started the conversion process.
One by one, skeletons stood up, and nearby, Sword One and Sword Two handed prepared machetes to the newly risen skeletons.
……
Dusk.
Wu Heng returned to Blackstone Town, holding a one-handed iron sword.
After unlocking spear proficiency, he planned to start practicing swordsmanship tonight.
Hopefully, he could unlock another proficiency.
Plus, when practicing with the spear, he had been winging it. But with swordsmanship, he could ask the Fourth Squad for pointers.
If that didn’t work, there was always Sword One and Sword Two.
With basic souls, they were almost like regular people, except they couldn’t speak.
Simple demonstrations or correcting his movements shouldn’t be a problem.
Placing the iron sword aside, he grabbed his backpack from the table and prepared to leave.
He hesitated for a moment.
His backpack had been tampered with.
Although nothing was missing, the placement of the items had been altered.
Wu Heng immediately checked the room, finding similar signs of tampering in other areas, though everything had been returned to its place.
If he didn’t have the habit of placing items in fixed positions, he might not have noticed.
“Not a thief.”
The silver coins in the drawer were still there.
Besides, a thief wouldn’t bother putting things back after searching.
With that level of care, who would become a thief?
Finding no clues in the room, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out the door.
Just as he reached the alley’s exit, he saw the landlord chatting with a neighbor.
“Heading out?” the landlord asked.
“Yeah. Did anyone come looking for me today?” Wu Heng asked directly.
“No one came. Why, were you expecting someone? If you’re not home, they can come to me, and I’ll pass on any messages.” The landlord offered generously.
“Oh, no big deal, just asking.”
Just as he was about to turn and leave, the landlord suddenly said, “Oh, right, there was a fur seller who came looking for you during the day. I saw him when I was heading out.”
“Fur seller?”
“Yeah, he said you talked at the market yesterday. When he saw you weren’t home, he left.”