I stood on the landing in the stairwell and debated pushing on to the next floor, but decided not to search out a battle today after my long hibernation. I powered down the floor and then started my daily training. Strength had become a priority, so I started with some pushups, crunches, and planks before running laps around the floor. For once, I was glad to be alone as my first attempts at a workout were rather pathetic. The running went well, and Chez ran alongside me this time. Once I had run as much as I could without pushing to an extreme as I had before, I felt a burning need to do more.

I was grinding stats, but my skills were idle. The most effortless skill to hone right now would be cleaning, but it was a waste of time right now. Before, I had been worried about having a clean place to live that wouldn’t make me sick. Now, I had my clean, safe home waiting for me if I ever got back to my own floor. Spending a few days cleaning here would only delay my return. Unless I wanted to hurt myself, both pain tolerance and first aid were out. I might be able to teach Chez to spar or practice sneaking up on him, but I wanted to start with something I could do by myself. I would bring Chez into my training later.

Right now, I was heavily relying on my spears, as I could throw them to take out enemies early, I could use them to keep enemies at a distance as I had a longer reach than the goblins, and I had a pant-quiver that was perfect for carrying about ten of them. I had to ponder how to practice, as I didn’t want to wreck the drywall and insulation and throw spears straight through the apartments. Eventually, I decided to stack up some mattresses in the hallway and use them as a target.

I stacked up four mattresses against a wall and used some markers I had found to draw a large target on the stack. I backed off about twenty feet and made sure Chez stayed behind me before throwing. My aim was terrible. I was able to hit the mattress most of the time, but if the center of my target had been a goblin, only a few of my throws would have hit. I collected my spears and kept stepping closer and closer to the target until I could reliably hit something goblin sized, and that was when I was only ten feet away. I remembered my last battle, and how a goblin had been able to charge six feet before I could draw another spear, so a mere ten feet was unacceptable. If I made the first move, and started the fight with a throw, I might be able to get a second throw in before they reached me, but that was it.

Of the few players in Bellum Aeternam that had used throwing spears, they had all used an atlatl to increase their throwing power and distance, but even if I knew how to make one, it wouldn’t help my accuracy. Switching to one of the bows would be ideal, but I had to string the damn things first. All I could do right now is keep exercising to get stronger and practice with the spears to do the best I could until I could switch weapons.

After about thirty minutes, I finally got the result I had been looking for.

Skill Improved: Thrown Weapons Thrown Weapons has reached level 3

It had taken much longer than I expected, but I finally ranked up my throwing skill. I believed I had the answer to why my endurance had leveled when I was running up the stairwell, but not when I pushed myself past my limits while running laps. I only threw my spears a few times between unlocking the thrown weapons skill and reaching level two, but I had thrown my spears well over a hundred times just now to get to level three. I had been in battle with goblins every time I threw it to reach level two, but safety training took far longer.

After a long break, I began searching the apartments on this floor. This floor wasn’t much different from any of the others. There was boxed and frozen food, though I wasn’t brave enough to check anything except the non-frozen section of a fridge at this point. It had been a couple of weeks since the apocalypse began, and the perishable foods were starting to get nasty. Some of the rooms with fruit or vegetables on the counter stank horribly.

I found a few closets full of clothes that fit me, so I was able to swap out my shorts and baggy shirt for a pair of jeans and a better shirt, although I couldn’t wait to get back to the room that had cargo pants to help me carry things. There was another pair of work boots that mostly fit, and a leather jacket. At this point, it was almost all superfluous. The only items I found that made the search worthwhile were in a closet in what appeared to be a high school student’s room. There were two sets of shin guards and three sport cups.

The cups solved a problem I hadn’t even considered. I knew I could heal from severe wounds, but I didn’t want to test what would happen if a spear or knife stabbed me down there. The hard plastic likely wouldn't survive a strong blow, but it was better than nothing, even if I had to trade out my boxers for tighter underwear to hold it in place. I shuddered a bit after remembering that first stab that had torn into my thigh. That could have been so much worse.

The shin guards protected an area I hadn’t been hurt in yet, but at this point, I would take all the armor I could get. I immediately strapped them to my shins and used the other pair for my forearms. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but by stretching the straps and wrapping them around my arm twice, it would work well enough to keep it in place. If anyone had been around to see, I was sure they would have thought I looked ridiculous walking around with shin guards over jeans and another pair strapped to my arm, but I was happy. It was by no means full body armor, but I had to start somewhere.

I awakened feeling refreshed, with the last vestiges of weakness from my long slumber banished. My left side still hurt when I moved, but not so much as to be intolerable.

There was only one floor left between myself and my temporary base on floor 54, and it had been sealed when I first started on my quest to turn off the lights. If I were lucky, they would still be empty.

I stepped through the door into the trash stairwell and silently cursed. Three goblins were sleeping on the landing, and one sentry was leaning against the wall just to the left of the door. I would have seen the sleeping goblins if I had bothered to check the window. I had gotten careless. The sentry screeched and reached for a knife on the ground beside it while Chez charged at the goblin with snarling fury. Chez carried his spear in his hands, always at the ready, but I had gotten spoiled by having a sheath for my knife and a quiver for my spears.

Chez finished off the sentry with a few good stabs before it could ready its own weapon, but the sleepers roused themselves while I drew one of my spears. I lunged at one, trying to pick one off before they could find their footing, but the beast scrambled away. Its two comrades stepped forward to cover its retreat, and Chez joined me at my side. It was two against three, but my fears evaporated once I had a moment to examine our enemies. The sentry had been the only one with a knife.

The three goblins in front of me only held short chunks of wood. All three brandished wooden chair legs while growling and snarling, trying to scare us off. I gave a morbid chuckle at their pathetic attempts at resistance. The worst they could give me was a bruise with those clubs. They would have been better off using their claws and teeth.

“Left!” I ordered Chez, glancing to see if he understood.

He quickly stuck his chin forward, and scooted to the left of the other goblins as I circled to the right, penning them in against the railing of the stairs. He glanced at me for approval, and I mimicked his chin-jutting nod, causing the scarred goblin to smile. We had worked on directions last night, but I hadn’t thought to teach him “attack” yet. I figured he would figure it out shortly.

The three goblins’ false bravado had wilted once they were surrounded. They stopped their growls and instead clenched their teeth in a silent snarl. It was most likely going to be one of my dumbest ideas yet, but I pulled out my knife and dropped my spear. I needed practice fighting with the blade, as I had only used it to attack enemies from behind or stab them when they were surprised. This was likely the closest I would get to a training fight. If they had been armed with blades or spears, I wouldn’t have considered it. If I hadn’t had the shinguards on my arms, I might have been less confident, as I could now block their little clubs.

“Attack!” I roared as I charged the goblin furthest to the right. It gave a startled yelp and swung its club, but I easily caught it with the guard on my arm and drove my blade into its chest. The beast crumpled, and I turned to the next goblin just in time to feel a club slam into my knee. The blow was too weak to do any real damage, but it did hurt. Chez had engaged the third goblin, mercilessly poking and stabbing with the tip of his spear.

The goblin I was fighting had gone berserk, wildly flailing its little club, and I blocked about six strikes before I found an opening for a stab and drove my blade in just under its collar bone. Chez had his opponent on the ground and bleeding out from over a dozen wounds.

“Good boy!” I praised, and the little guy smiled before suddenly having a horrified look on his face and uttering a furious shout in his native tongue.

Chez’s panic was the only warning I had before something bit my leg. I kicked out my leg reflexively and heard a pitiful squeal. The first goblin I had stabbed had crawled over and bitten my leg, but the shin guard blocked most of its teeth. I kicked it again in the head, and the beast was dazed.

The two goblins I had stabbed were still alive, but Chez’s victims were dead. I shattered the survivors’ limbs and started to drag them through the door into the safety of the hallway.

Skill Improved: Short Blades Short Blades has reached level 3 Skill Unlocked: Block (Endurance Skill) Intercept your foe’s attacks and meet them on your own terms. Increases your resistance to damage from blocked attacks by %1 per level. Current Level: (1)

I smiled as I swiped the windows away. New skills and skill advancements made it all worth it. Each ding was proof that I was stronger than the day before.

I finished dragging all four corpses back into the hallway, frowning at the growing bloodstains. The mess was regrettable, but I hadn’t wanted to spend any more time out in the stairwell than I had to, knowing how much noise we had made. A horde of goblins like I had seen the day I had run up here might come to investigate, and they were likely armed with far better than chair legs.

I treated my leg first. The shin guard had protected the front and some of the sides, but a few teeth had caught my unprotected flesh on either side. Luckily, the rigid shin guard prevented the beast from clamping its jaw closed, and the wounds were shallow. Next, I moved onto my living patients, and they cried and roared as I stitched the stab wounds I had left in them before I stabbed them again and silenced their screams. I then stitched those wounds closed too.

I hadn’t treated the dead before, as I didn’t believe it would count for first aid experience, but now I hoped that it would give me a small amount just like throwing spears at a mattress. Even if I didn’t gain a level in the skill off of it, the practice would help me when I had to treat myself or Chez.

Then I moved on to the hole-riddle corpses of Chez’s victims. My best friend was absolutely vicious in a fight, and kept stabbing them even when they went down, ensuring they would never get up again. I sewed up the spear wounds on the first and was halfway through the second when a series of blue windows assaulted me.

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 12 Level up! You have reached level 1! Level up bonus! You have received one Soul Shard, spend it in the NPC Shop!