Zombies, zombies, zombies…

Not matter where Aleen looked, he could only see zombies.

But despite it, his heart was beating excitedly.

With every step he took, a zombie fell to his sword, and with every second, three zombies were felled by his attacks.

Despite being surrounded by zombies, none of them could do as much as touching the corner of his clothes.

They were too slow.

Even when a slightly faster zombie or an animal zombie attacked, they were still too slow.

And they were too fragile.

… Or maybe, his sword was too sharp.

Aleen felt that he didn’t have to put much strength on his blows to kill the enemies.

Instead, just by slightly waving his hand, the zombies would fall dead.

He didn’t have to coat his sword with mana, or use ‘Sharp Blade’. It was enough using his strength and the sword’s sharpness to kill them.

Not even his skill, or the variant of the skill he had created not long ago, were necessary. The zombies were just too weak.

Aleen wondered if it was what D’vina felt when killing the hordes of brooders.

The feeling of excitement, of knowing that anything your enemy does will be unable to hurt you.

It was like his sword could cut anything.

If it wasn’t because Aleen had experienced the terror of high-level monsters before, he would drown in this sensation.

But fortunately, he knew that it was nothing more than an illusion caused due to fighting weak enemies.

So instead of losing himself to this addictive feeling of omnipotence, he kept his guard up in case of finding a strong enemy.

And his carefulness ended saving his life.

When Aleen first saw the zombie, it seemed like the others; mindless, slow and weak. It had the same blank eyes found on any other zombie.

But when it was one meter away from Aleen, its presence changed drastically.

From a mindless monster, it transformed into a terrifying predator.

The change was so fast that if Aleen's aspect wouldn’t have been speed-related, he would have been unable to react.

In an instant, it jumped towards Aleen, using the bodies of the others zombies as shields, and extended its bloody claws towards Aleen’s chest.

Aleen immediately knew that something was wrong. Without hesitation, he retreated and extended his right arm, using the armguard to defend against the claw attack.

The claw hit the armguard and Aleen immediately felt the terrible strength of the zombie. It was on a completely different level from the mindless zombies; Aleen’s right arm feel a bit of pain despite the protection of the armguard, and his body was thrown back due to the strength of the attack.

The zombie tried to attack again, but Aleen was already recovered from his astonishment. Quickly, he used his right foot to push his body aside and evade the blow, at the same time, he tried to attack with the sword.

But this zombie was faster and agiler than other zombies. It used its claws to stop the blade, then, it jumped back to make some distance from Aleen.

Aleen put a surprised expression seeing it.

This zombie, despite using his flesh to block the sword, only received a slight wound. Aleen felt as if he was cutting through a very tough bone when the sword cut his claws.

His expression turned serious immediately.

He could already guess the identity of this enemy.

‘A level two zombie.’

Faster, stronger, smarter, and more resilient than the other zombies. Aleen was sure that only a level two zombie could be like that.

Taking a deep breath, he put all his concentration on this fight.

From the confrontation just now, Aleen realized that this zombie’s strength was the same as his; not, perhaps it was a bit stronger.

But Aleen was faster and better equipped.

Aleen thought about using his skill, but he opted against it. He wanted to know if his training until now was enough to face a level two monster without using his skill.

At the next instant, mana surged through his body.

Taking a step forward, he cut the head of a zombie attacking him from the right and raised the sword over his head. It was the stance of the most basic sword move, vertical slash.

At the same time, he activated ‘Sharp Blade’. Though currently, he was unable to master the lowest level of this technique, his thirty vibrations per second were enough to increase the sharpness of his blade by fifteen percent.

Then, he charged forward.

The zombie could feel the power behind the attack, but its speed wasn’t fast enough to evade it completely. Instead, it raised its claws trying to stop the slash.

Aleen’s expression didn’t change despite the zombie movement. He slashed with all his strength trying to cut the zombie into two with one attack.

But as a level two monster, the zombie was stronger than Aleen expected.

The sword clashed against the claw but only cut midway before stopping. Aleen was surprised, but he didn’t lose his calm. Instead, he pulled the sword and prepared to attack again.

But the zombie was not going to allow it.

When Aleen tried to pull the sword back, it used its hurt claw to grab the sword and pull it towards itself.

That took Aleen by surprise. Aleen didn’t think that it would ignore the wound and try to pull Aleen regardless.

Aleen had forgotten that most zombies could not feel pain.

When Aleen hesitated about releasing the sword or not, the zombie made its next move.

With its other claw, it pounced fiercely towards Aleen's chest, ignoring completely its wound.

Aleen noticed that things were going wrong and tried to retreat, but he could not pull the sword from the zombie’s grasp; so, without more options, he used its armguard once more to defend against the claw.

The impact was very strong, and Aleen grunted in pain, but he used the strength behind the attack to pull the sword free and finally release it from the zombie's grasp.

But the zombie was already attacking again. It used its claws to attack Aleen fiercely, not giving him an opportunity to counterattack.

Aleen tried to retaliate, but though the zombie was a bit slower than him, it ignored his attacks completely and only concentrated on attacking. Aleen, however, could not ignore his injuries like the zombie, so he was forced to defend against the zombie’s fierce attacks.

At that moment, Aleen noticed that more zombies were coming from behind.

Aleen knew that if he was surrounded in this situation, he very well could end dead.

So, he reluctantly activated his skill. “I ended using it, huh…”

But instead of charging against the zombie, only his thoughts were accelerated.

It was the variant skill of 'Lightning Movement', ‘Dynamic Sight’.

Aleen felt the movements in the surroundings slow down, and his thoughts were accelerated to an incredible degree.

Even the attacks of the level two zombie, that until now seemed frightening, became slow and full of flaws.

When the zombie attacked again, Aleen decided to parry the attack instead of defending.

D’vina never taught him how to parry, but Aleen managed to do it forcefully using his slowed perception. With a small movement, he used the sword's edge to push a claw away, then, he lowered his head to evade the other claw.

The zombie made a surprised expression when Aleen blocked its attack, but Aleen didn’t allow it the opportunity to react. Passing by the zombie's side, he spun swiftly and slashed with his sword from below.

One of the most basic sword moves, upwards slash.

The dark sword flashed briefly and cut through the zombie body.

Aleen didn’t look behind after slashing, and instead, he continued advancing. He turned off ‘Dynamic Sight’ and moved to the next zombie, killing it with one move.

Behind him the level two zombie was already dead.

The upper half of his body had fallen down.

It had been cut into two cleanly.