A few days had already passed since Zombie stepped inside the little farm ran by the retired adventurer Laura.

The young boy's behavior was completely different than the woman ever imagined.

He wasn't aggressive at all, he tended to be bossy and certainly spoke like an adult, but literally none of the problems that Pear, Zombie's father, listed in the letter he sent her, ever surfaced.

Yet, that didn't mean that the boy suddenly became an ordinary child either.

Another problem was worrying the kindhearted woman.

*slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash*

"Z-Zombie...! You should stop doing that already...! Your hands are bleeding!"

Mia, the dark-skinned teenage girl stopped her own training and called to the boy swinging the wooden sword at the vertical log with a hay sack tied to it.

*slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash*

The problem was – it was impossible to stop him from practicing his skills on the dummies in the training area.

*slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* *slash*

The haystack was already torn apart and all the hay got blown over by the wind and the boy was just repeatedly attacking the log thicker than his own body without any hesitation even though the blood from his wore down palms was getting sprinkled around with each swing as well as making the sword grip dangerously slippery and definitely hard to use.

"Zombie! Please!"

Mia cried out in panic, staring at the ground at the boy's feet getting more and more red with each passing second.

"..."

But Zombie didn't even glance her way – it actually seemed like he didn't actually hear her either, he was so focused on getting faster and faster and stronger and stronger with each consecutive hit that he lost contact with the world besides himself, the wooden sword, and the log.

"...!"

Mia clenched her fists and looked between the terrifying child and Luke who was grabbing onto her hand, staring at Zombie with big scared eyes.

"Luke! Go and bring Laura over here! I'll try to make him stop!"

She finally decided and squeezed Luke's hand to get his attention.

"O-okay...!"

The scrawny boy nodded and instantly started running towards the house where Laura and Papaya were busy preparing the meal.

"Zombie! You need to stop! Can you hear me?"

Mia tried to speak to the silent boy again, but just like before the only answer was more sounds of the dull wooden blade digging into the log.

"..."

Mia gritted her teeth and looked around trying to figure out what she should do.

"...!"

Her eyes ended up on the mace she was practicing with.

She slowly reached for it and picked it back up before stepping towards the ridiculously focused boy unleashing a flurry of attacks on his target.

"Z-Zombie, I am not going to attack you, okay...? Don't get mad, I'm just going to lightly tap your back so you wake up from this weird trance...!"

The girl warned him while making sure that she is in his vision, and reached out the mace held in both hands just so it was as clear as possible to understand that it wasn't something she did with malicious intent and started the approach.

"I-I'm going to poke you...! This doesn't have the spiky end so it will be fine, just wake up already – you're scary...!"

Mia called out loudly and did an awkward stabbing motion while closing her eyes.

*SLASH*

*thunk*

"...eh...?"

Mia gasped when she suddenly felt that her mace became much lighter than it should be...

"EH?!"

And when she opened her eyes and checked for the reason, she let out a scared and confused yelp when she realized that her weapon got cut in half...!

/proficiency level reached

skills level up

Concentration (level 3)

Cleave (level 7)

Sword proficiency (level 8)

Pain resistance (level 6)

HP regeneration (level 2)

/proficiency level reached

you receive a skill

Blade storm (level 1)

|Ah! I got a new skill too!|

Zombie grinned from excitement and shouted internally while wiping off the sweat of his forehead with one arm to not smear blood all over himself.

|You sure did. You've also managed to scare the kids.|

Patience pointed out with a sigh.

|I did what...?|

Zombie raised his brow and looked up.

"Oh."

To find the shaken Mia clenching the broken piece of wood that up until a moment ago was a part of her makeshift mace she continued using as a weapon...

While the rest of the mace was on the ground right by his feet, cleanly cut off as shown by the smooth surface.

|Huh, I thought that since it's a cleave and not slash or strong slash then it wouldn't leave such clean marks. Neat.|

Zombie nodded while lightly kicking the piece of broken chair leg away.

|That's not the point. You have to make a good impression, remember? Not traumatized those two into obedience. That could make a negative impact on future events!|

Patience sounded as if they were shaking their head in disbelief over Zombie's recklessness.

"Sorry for that. We should get Laura to buy you a proper mace, don't you think? What level in blunt weapon affinity did you get already? 3, right? And you've been using it for just a few days – which proves my point that swords didn't suit you, you are just overall talented with weapons."

Zombie dropped the steaming wooden sword he was using and reached out his hand towards the dark-skinned girl to help her get up.

"Your hands! We need to get Papaya or Laura to look at them...!

But instead of doing so, Mia ended on grabbing onto Zombie's bloody hand and grabbing onto it with tearful eyes.

"Should we? Why? I'm leveling up my skills, this much bleeding should be fine, right...?"

He asked innocently while shrugging his shoulders.

"No, it's not!"

Mia shook her head from left to right making her hair flutter around.

"Oh, dear system...! I can't get my eyes off of you for five minutes without you hurting yourself!"

At that moment Luke brought in Laura and the woman shouted angrily while running up to Zombie.

"You are banned from practicing sword fighting for a month – or at least until your hands heal up!"

She declared while pulling up the healing salve in a copious amount.

"Alright. I'm reaching the limits for what sword skills I am still able to use before putting a strain on my current stats anyway, better change my training regime anyway."

The boy smirked and let himself be healed while looking at the log that looked like it barely survived an attack from a vicious beaver.

...or a chainsaw...

...but definitely not a wooden sword.