Chapter Ten

Emboldened by the familiar surroundings, Elysia strode forward, only to pause when she realized something important. She delved inward to find she only had a few lightning strands left, most of which were used on her zombie slaughter.

Her eyes ran over the dreary environment no zombies were near before grabbed a hold of the divine spark and grasped another several dozen lightning strands. As before, a headache manifested, forcing her to move quick if she wanted to gather enough strands for the dungeon. She didn’t want to risk grabbing for more if the dungeon proved more difficult, so she reached for another dozen strands and pulled them out of her core.

Temptation to grab even more presented itself, but the headache moving into migraine territory and the almost tenuous control she had over her horde of lightning strands stopped her.

She let out a relieved sigh when she released her hold on her divine spark, though she snapped back to attention as the momentary lapse in concentration nearly made her lose control of her horde. With her full focus on her horde, she easily wrangled them under control, but a slight problem presented itself. Unlike before, she needed to keep an active focus on her horde, otherwise she would lose control.

Still, it was absurd she could control so many at once. A quick count put her horde at almost forty strands. Though she was under no illusion she could release them all in a devastating attack. Holding them at idle wasn’t difficult, but if she mobilized them all, she would most likely lose control.

If she wanted to do damage at that scale, she was better off using her divine lightning, anyway.

Before she made her advance, she scanned her belt to ensure she had her full arsenal of throwing knives. Her eyes landed on the whip she ordered but never used, causing a bitter feeling to well up. Why did she waste the money and materials on the whip? The further she ventured down her path, the less likely such a weapon would have a use. She didn’t even use her throwing knives as a weapon. They were simply anchors for her lightning.

To make it worse, it would take her a long time to master the whip enough to feel confident in using it in battle. Maybe one day she would have the time to master it, but for the foreseeable future, she needed to focus on improving her lightning. Should she even bring it along anymore? Nothing she could do about that for now.

Satisfied with her relatively meager preparation, Elysia strode forward, confident in knowing she had a large horde of lightning at her disposal. Far more than what she had last time she ventured into the dungeon.

Wanting to attract test subjects, Elysia walked down the center of the street not bothering to be stealthy. If she didn’t run into a zombie soon, she could just venture into the cemetery. Her eyes landed on the ruined bicycle shop she stole her bike from an eternity ago.

Whatever happened to the bike? It used to be in the living room, but she couldn’t remember seeing it since she left Mezo. They probably put it in the storage room. At least she hoped they did. Not that she needed it any longer.

Ione was far better transportation than the bike any day. Plus, she was much more comfortable. Thinking back, she barely used the bike. Back then, a single attribute point seemed like a lot, but now it was nothing.

That reminded her, she had 100 attribute points to spend. Maybe she should have done that instead of impulsively running a dungeon. Oh well, she couldn’t change anything now. No way would she spend the attribute points in a dungeon. She learned her lesson on that. Besides, she doubted the attribute points would make a difference.

Movement to her right drew her attention. She raised her hand, already calling for her lightning to strike down her foe, only to freeze when she sensed movement from several directions. Soon the sound of hundreds of feet shuffling toward her filled the once silent street.

Her right hand shifted between the hordes, but she lowered it after a moment, realizing it would be a waste of lightning. The zombies were too spread out. She needed to group them up, then smite them down.

The electrical substation she used last time came to mind, but she instantly discarded it, knowing she would trap herself. She was lucky she escaped last time. No, she needed somewhere better.

For the first time in a long time, she ran from her enemies, but her core continued to pulse calmly. She wasn’t even running at her full speed in case she outran the zombies, though that soon turned out to be a mistake. Far faster than she expected, she felt a hand reach out to grab her.

Lightning pumped through her body as she shot off at inhuman speeds, easily pulling away from the zombies, but only for a moment as they shambled after her with a just as inhuman motion. It was like someone fast forwarded their slow stumbling walk.

The time gap was all she needed, though, as she reached her target. An alleyway next to the familiar hardware store where she created her first weapon.

Instead of trying to attack in smaller numbers, every zombie blindly rushed forward, piling up on each other.

A smile formed as her plan worked better than she expected. She hopped to force them to attack her in more manageable numbers, but having them bunched up like this was golden. Lightning sparked off her right arm as she raised it, a payload of a dozen strands running through her veins to her hand.

Not taking any chances, she prepped another dozen as she released the lightning bolt with a blinding flash and a deafening crack. So close to a large pile of zombies, the lightning bolt struck true, frying several as it cut through the rotting zombies.

Dings sounded in her mind, but a frown formed as she realized a problem. She didn’t have chain lightning and that meant her lightning bolt only tore through the zombies directly in its path. It still shredded through dozens, possibly more, but it was far from the clear she was hoping for. She would have had the same problem in her last zombie slaughter if it wasn’t for the water and the zombie’s low level.

Fortunately, the zombies killed didn’t simply vaporize but instead created a blockage, not that it mattered as the zombies pushing from behind insured none of them would make any progress toward her nor escape.

Did she want to risk emptying her prepared horde of lightning strands? No, she had a captive audience of test subjects. Time to see if she could replicate her chain lightning or at least create something similar.

Just in case she took a couple of steps back, though it did nothing to lessen the stench. With a single strand, she shot a lightning bolt at the zombies. Unlike the previous strike, the lightning didn’t blind her, allowing her to follow its trajectory.

As soon as it struck its first target, Elysia tried to reestablish control to force it to jump to the next target of her choosing but before she could, the lightning bolt already dissipated into the pavement after cutting through two zombies.

Undeterred, she tried again, this time maintaining control when she launched it. Unfortunately, all this accomplished was a flash bang as the lightning bolt lost stability before it hit a zombie.

While frowning, she stared at the zombie blockage in thought. What was she missing? How was she supposed to aim her lightning if she couldn’t take control of it? Unless her level of control wasn’t enough. What if she used an aid? She didn’t want to dig her knives out of a pile of zombies, though.

Her eyes gravitated toward the hardware store. Was it worth the risk? Actually, she was taking a big risk staying where she was. It probably would be a good idea to relocate. What if a horde of zombies snuck around the back and sandwiched her? As amusing as her zombie blockade was, it wasn’t worth it.

She sent one last look at her perfectly placed zombie blockade, then pulled on the door to the hardware store only to find it locked, just like last time.

A single kick shattered the lock, allowing her entrance. As she remembered, the back warehouse was dark, but unlike last time, she didn’t need to light up her veins to see. Not that they weren’t already lit, just at a dim level. Both the door and her increased ability to see in the dark highlighted how far she came in mundane ways.

As if the lights were on, she navigated through the warehouse without trouble, then reached the familiar hardware store. She wandered down the aisles looking for what she wanted while trying her best to ignore the zombie groaning still audible through the walls.

She wasn’t sure how she didn’t attract more, or maybe she already attracted all of them. There were definitely more than last time, but this was a far higher level dungeon, though it felt easier. The dungeon must not scale correctly. Or she was simply that much stronger than those of her level. As much as she would love for that to be true, she couldn’t get too arrogant. That was just asking for a bad end.

Finally, on the third aisle, she found a viable solution. A pail of steel ball bearings. She supposed a bunch of nuts would work too, but ball bearings probably flew better.

Actually, couldn’t she use a gun or a fully auto BB gun to administer metal in her targets? The problem was, she doubted she would find many guns nearby. There weren’t many options before half the city washed away and the other half lost a battle with nature, so while interesting, she couldn’t make use of that idea yet. Wouldn’t it be a bit like cheating if she did, though? She wasn’t really aiming her lightning at that point and it seemed inefficient to target something twice just to do damage once.

Still, the ball bearing idea might have some legs. If nothing else, it was worth a try. Instead of trying to lift the likely really heavy bucket, she grabbed ahold of it and activated her ring. Like her father’s old truck, the bucket disappeared along with the ball bearings. However, a moment later, a problem presented itself. She had no idea how to retrieve a set number of ball bearings from her storage.

Elysia opened the black void that was her storage, finding both her father’s truck and the bucket of ball bearings floating in the void. She focused on the bearings in the bucket and used a mental hand similar to how she grabbed lightning strands to scoop out a handful while giving the mental intent to withdrawal them.

A moment later, a weight settled in her hand, causing her core to jump in excitement. She stared down at the bearings resting in her hand, trying her best to focus on her success and not the absurd system fuckery that made such a feat possible.

No need to lug around a backpack anymore, though the paranoid side of her warned her such a space might not survive forever. What if circumstances forced her to use her divine lightning, causing her to destroy her ring? Until she knew for sure, best to limit what she stored to things she was willing to lose if she expected to fight.

She put the worrying thoughts of a possible spatial storage deletion out of her mind as she played with the couple dozen ball bearings resting in her right hand.

Eager to test her theory out, she jogged through the back storeroom and poked her head into the alley to find her blockade remained intact however, the sound of zombies from the opposite direction caused her to freeze.

Nope, not worth creating a zombie sandwich with an Elysia filling.

She retreated into the hardware store and sprinted toward the front door, only to spot another horde through the windows. This horde far outnumbered the one she trapped in the alley, causing a shiver to run through her.

Why did she think it was a good idea to delve into a high level dungeon?