Chapter 06 - How Not to Handle Your First Job Interview.

Leaving the Old man’s corpse behind, it didn’t take Asmund long before he reached what was likely to be the cafeteria. But as he seemingly reached his objective, an unexpected situation which was out of his calculation occurred…

I can’t believe people really barricaded themselves in there….

The cafeteria was really barricaded, the entrance being blocked by row of tables, chairs and anything large the survivors inside got their hands on. As if the situation wasn’t enough of a problem, the clumsy barricade was currently being assaulted by two Death-Hounds and was surprisingly still resisting under their heavy hits.

[ Death-Hound Level 3 ]

[ Death-Hound Level 2 ]

Damn, although killing those Death-Hounds would help me gain some trust from the survivors and probably help me get access to the cafeteria, I never fought two Death-Hounds at the same time until now. I’m now barely confident that I can fight a Death-Hound under level 5 one on one without any issues, but even though just another low level Death-Hound sounds like it barely raises the difficulty, in truth it more than doubles it. Now what…? Maybe I could succeed in dealing with the both of them if I’m able to kill one of them by surprise in one strike, but that sounds quite difficult in itself.

Hmmm… I could also just let the Death-Hounds do their job, wait for them to break through the barricade, and only attack them while it’s total chaos in the cafeteria. I don’t really have use for followers at the moment anyway, and people who hid themselves from danger out of fear are particularly not worth my time until I have a place to make them work.

The only problem with letting the Death-Hounds take care of the barricade and the people inside, is that those damn mutts seem to be having a really hard time with this… At this rate they won’t be able to barge inside for a long damn while. And that’s on the theory that the survivors inside won’t add even more furniture to the barricade as time goes by.

Goddamit! Nothing is going my way! I don’t have the luxury to keep waiting like this as I would be screwed if another Death-Hound comes from behind my back and warns the two attacking the cafeteria.

I already have doubts about fighting two of them at once while having them in front of me, so fighting while being encircled on both sides by three of them, that’s just plain impossible for me as I am now.

Fuck this! They’re nothing but shitty mutts! I should stop being so overly cautious about everything! I’m strong! Let’s grow some balls and kick some dog butts!

That said, Asmund didn’t directly charge at the monsters, but sliced his wrist open with his sword and spilled a large puddle of blood on the floor, before hardening a thin bracelet of blood around his wound to seal it.

He planned to use his Blood Manipulation skill in a way similar to the time he used it on the first level 4 Death-Hound he killed, by infiltrating the enemy’s body. That said, he couldn’t do it like that time and directly attack the heart, as he needed his enemy to have an open wound to reach its blood and mix his own with it.

His plan this time around was to attack the lungs by moving his blood through the level 3 Death-Hound’s throat. It wouldn’t kill it, but the pain should be unbearable and make it much easier to handle. As for the reason why Asmund didn’t simply use the same strategy on both monsters, is because his Blood Manipulation skill actually has a lot of conditions and restraints.

Although this skill sounded really almighty, it’s in reality tricky and hard to use practically. First, the more distance there is between Asmund and the blood he wants to control the more ‘mana’ he needs to use. Secondly, he can't change the shape of the blood he is controlling unless it’s still in its liquid form. Lastly, moving blood through his will is an extremely slow process which takes quite a toll on his mind, making it hard to use in combat.

That’s why as he is right now, Asmund couldn’t use the same strategy on the two Death-Hounds at the same time, because the mana cost was already exuberant for him to reach one of them and control it inside its body, and also because it is already close to impossible to fight head-on while controlling one trail of blood, so two would completely make him unable to even move and as such vulnerable to any possible attacks, especially in the case that the two Death-Hounds find him out and are somehow able to bear with the pain. There was also the possibility of another Death-Hound showing up while he was focusing…

The puddle of blood moving on the floor like a snake, it made its way to the level 3 Death-Hound, without getting noticed luckily, or so Asmund thought, but as the blood snake was only a meter away from the level 3 monster, both Death-Hounds stopped their assault on the barricade, and smelled the air.

Apparently noticing that the odor of blood somewhat thickened without any logical reason, they turned around while tracking the smell and saw its origin. Although his blood snake was found out, Asmund didn’t panic and stopped it from moving, letting it slowly form a round puddle on the floor.

Both monsters looked confused, but they were still beasts which, although pretty smart, weren’t smart enough to see anything wrong with a puddle of blood which appeared out of nowhere. Actually, even if they were smarter, who could think that it would be a threat in any way?

That’s why, even after they saw through the origin of this weird smell of blood which appeared out of nowhere, they turned around and continued their task at hand.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Asmund made the blood snake move again, which proceeded to get closer to its target by going under the level 3’s belly and finally go up by coiling around one of the Death-Hound’s fore limbs.

Feeling the strange sensation around its paw, the Death-Hound now understood that this blood wasn’t as normal as it first thought. Now panicked as it couldn’t understand what was happening, the beast tried to shake off the blood snake from its paw by shaking it around, but it was a vain effort, so it did the only thing it could do in this situation… It tried to bite the threat, which obviously didn’t miss this chance to gather inside its open jaw and go down his throat.

Looking at the scene, the level 2 Death-Hound just stared at it without knowing what it could possibly do to help its comrade.

Until they apparently guessed that someone was behind this weird act, and the both of them started to look around, searching for the ability user while being enraged by this sneaky attack.

Unable to find him in the room, they did something anyone with some brain would have never done, they separated themselves to search more efficiently… Resulting in the level 2 approaching Asmund’s hiding spot while the level 3 was going the opposite way.

Which was… Actually as much of a good news as a bad one.

Because, sure, he could now fight them one on one as Asmund was quite confident that he had the capability to kill the level 2 before the level 3 could reach them, after being discovered. But because the level 3 moved further away from him, the amount of mana which was being drained from him raised at a really dangerous rate, forcing him to release his control on his blood who had just reached one of the monster’s lungs, resulting in said monster being able to cough the blood out.

The plan yet again didn’t go as he planned, but it gave him an opportunity all the same, so Asmund didn’t miss this chance and readied his stance, thrusting his long sword without any hesitation as soon as the level 2 reached the hallway he was hiding in.

The tip of his sword perforated the monster’s eye socket with deadly precision and reached its brain before the poor mutt could even utter a whimper. It showed just how much improvement Asmund’s fighting style gained in less than a day.

[ Received 4 Credits. ]

After immediately retrieving his sword from the corpse, Asmund ran into the hall where the entrance to the cafeteria was, showing himself openly to the remaining Death-Hound, which was now rushing at him as it noticed that something had happened to its comrade.

Steadying his breath, Asmund took another stance while readying his sword above his head, almost looking like an experienced swordsman.

“Come you mutt! Give me a good fight!”

With a smile, Asmund didn’t hesitate to provoke the monster further as his fighting instincts surfaced and he now wanted to have a head-on bout with the beast, putting aside his fear or to be more exact completely forgetting about it as he did.

Focusing on the approaching Death-Hound, Asmund didn’t move a muscle, waiting for the last moment to slash ahead with all his strength.

Not yet… Not yet… Not… Now!

Only when it was closer than 2 meters away, Asmund swung his sword with impressive strength and speed. Since it already predicted the attack, the Death-Hound obviously didn’t keep coming at Asmund in a straight line and made a side step to the right. But just as the monster predicted his move, Asmund also predicted that it would try to avoid his sword in such a way. Slightly twisting his sword in midair, he changed the trajectory of the slash at the last moment, landing a clear hit at the beast’s left shoulder, almost cutting a whole chunk of his body due to the sword’s length and the amount of power which was behind it, and would have probably really done so if said sword didn’t break midway.

The wound wasn’t enough to kill him before some time, but it was already enough to make the victor of this fight clear.

Unable to control one of his forelimbs while still running, the Death-Hound tripped and pitifully rolled on the floor, before having its brain stabbed through by the long sword, turned into a short one, in Asmund’s hand.

[ Received 9 Credits. ]

As expected those two weaklings weren’t enough to gain a level huh? Still, I’m really happy to see that my blood sword is really getting tougher as I level up, this time really proved it, it even cut through the mutt’s bones.

After waiting to see if the monsters would drop any gacha balls this time, he rejoiced to see that both of them did, grabbing the two treasure capsules, he absorbed the blood essence and then immediately opened the capsules.

The last three gacha balls I obtained were duds, I hope I will get something this time at least…

*Pop*

Dud…

*Pop*

Oh?!

Surprised, Asmund caught the dropping item in midair, an item which wasn’t a miniature unlike the ones he got before. It was plain dagger in shape but it was entirely black in color.

[ Rank.1 - Black Dagger ]

[ Effect: Pow+1, Agi+2, Atk+2 ]

[ Durability: 100% ]

Not bad… Although I would have prefered something that would fit better with my fighting style, this dagger should be good enough to handle most Death-Hounds, and in addition to the bonus stats it shouldn’t break as easily as my blood sword at least.

Alright, let’s try to contact the people from the cafeteria now.

His business with the Death-Hounds’ corpses done, Asmund walked to the barricade with a calm smile on his face, trying to look as unintimidating as possible. Even though in reality his blood soaked clothes, the weapon in each hand and his weird eyes, pretty much didn’t help him in his endeavor…

As he came closer to the cafeteria, Asmund could hear low voices talking among each others, confirming that a lot of people was in there and not just a small group.

“H-Hello?” -Asmund

Now standing close to the messy barricade, Asmund tried to greet the ones inside in an awkward manner.

...

But despite his politeness, an answer took some time to come…

“D-Did you really take care of the monsters?” -Man's voice

Finally, the afraid voice of a man was heard coming from the other side of the barricade. Looking through a gap, Asmund was able to discern a lot of silhouettes, but the lack of light made it impossible to see their traits, at most he could guess their gender and their sizes.

There’s even more people in there than I expected, there’s even some kids.

“Ah, yes I did, with some luck though… At least it's safe outside for now, so c-could you let me in? I haven't eaten since before this mess began, and I'm quite hungry now.” -Asmund

When the people inside heard that the monsters threatening them were dead, some shouts of joy could be heard, and soon the voice of the man who talked a moment before, answered Asmund’s plea while sounding much more merry.

“Yes! Yes of course! Please wait a second, we’ll make a small opening for you to go through.” -Man voice

“Oh, thank you!” -Asmund

Hiding the vicious smile in his heart, Asmund kept showing the attitude of a weak and hungry young man who was now in the presence of his saviors.

Soon, you could hear that some of the cafeteria’s survivors started to take action to dismantle a part of the barricade, letting more light through and showing whoever was inside.

Seeing the opening getting larger by each passing second, Asmund was going to go through it when an angry voice suddenly echoed throughout the cafeteria.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU FOOLS ARE DOING?!” -Another man's voice

Surprised, Asmund stopped in his tracks and the survivors also stopped moving the obstacles away, turning around they faced the origin of the voice. It was an handsome young blond man wearing a lab coat sitting at the back of the cafeteria, a young nurse was also beside him with the eyes of a dead fish and a blank expression on her face, looking like a broken doll…

For some reason, when they noticed that it was this man who shouted out, the survivors all grimaced and even showed fear…

This guy is bad news…

“S-Sir, he killed the monsters for us, shouldn’t we at least let him in?” -Man survivor

I didn’t kill them for ‘you’, goddamn fools.

“Hahhh?! Are you retarded?! This guy is too damn suspicious! And I don’t like him either way! Just hurry and put the barricade back!” -Handsome young man

Fuck!

Grimacing, the survivors still did as he ordered without questioning him further.

Shit! Should I just try to destroy the barricade?!

“W-Wait! I can defend you from monsters! I just want some food in compensation! Please let me inside!” -Asmund

Let me inside so I can fucking behead you!

“Ah! No way! I won’t let you inside! You can protect us from the monsters by staying outside all the same! Well, don’t you worry, I’ll give you food once a day in exchange, aren’t I nice?! AHAHAHAH!” -Handsome young man

This fuckerrr! Forget about killing him, I’m going to torture him for days!

“Is that so?! I wanted to play nice, but if you’re acting like that, don’t mind me for destroying your punny barricade!” -Asmund

The negotiation clearly failing, Asmund whose heart was filled with anger, came closer to the cafeteria while forming a giant hammer made of blood. But as he did, he suddenly noticed that the handsome young man took something out of his shirt.

“Woah there! If I were you I wouldn’t come any closer!” -Handsome young man

Hearing no worry in the man voice, Asmund focused his sight on the item the bastard took out, barely able to make out its form in the dark.

Dammit! This little shit actually has a gun!

“Either scram or accept my offer! But if you come any closer I will give you a third eye! And believe me, even if this baby doesn’t look like much it’ll be more than enough to kill you!” -Handsome young man

Threatened at gunpoint, Asmund quickly made calculations in his mind.

This gun looks like a small revolver, its caliber must be among the lowest. But although I’m now tougher than average, I don't think I can survive a bullet, as small as it is. Would a blood armor be able to defend me from it? That’s hardly believable… It looks like I’m still nowhere near strong enough to face a real gun with my current stats.

What else could I do? This guy is clearly a tyrant and is hated by everyone here, should I try to steer their hearts and let them handle him? No, this guy probably already has a hold of their hearts and did something to win their fear, something more scary than simply showing off his gun…

Grinding his teeth in anger, Asmund was unable to think of anyway to gain entrance to the cafeteria as he is right now.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to Asmund and an evil grin slowly crept onto his face without him realising. Seeing this, the tyrant felt fear far surpassing that of the Death-Hounds that were causing a commotion until recently, and blew up in anger as soon as he realised he was afraid of some brat. Before he could shout his frustrations, however, Asmund spoke in a bone-chilling, emotionless voice.

"Very well, I'll leave as I don't want to try facing off against a gun just yet. But you know those two monsters I killed? They were a level 2 and a level 3, in case you couldn't see through your flimsy wall of tables. I wonder how well your gun would stand up to a level 5? How about 10 of them? Do you have enough bullets…?" -Asmund

Without even waiting for a reply, Asmund sneered and walked away. The only sounds heard in the cafeteria were those of a monster walking away from its prey, as though it was beneath him, and the muffled sobs of a certain doll-like girl.