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All over the world, new land masses have appeared.
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Zombies appearing out of nowhere take everyone by surprise.
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"We were attacked by an unknown species while out camping, it looked like a Deer, but it was way too big and way too aggressive. It's horn were unnatural. I'm the only one who survived. My family, they're all gone!"
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Evacuation sites have been designated for every city in the Philippines.
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Religious leader claims that he predicted the end of the world would happen! Urges people to ignore the fact that his predictions were wrong the past 23 times.
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Reports of planes getting attacked by giant birds.
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"It's worse than we thought. So it's not just zombies?" Apple held his brother's arm with a worried look on her face.
"From what that God told us, it seems he wants us all to evolve. As for what end, I don't know. What we do know, however, is that if we want to survive, we need get stronger. Anything else is 2nd priority." Luna had solemn look on his face. "The evolved zombie we faced earlier, I have a feeling that wasn't some sort of boss or even a mini-boss. It was a tough fight, but that might have just been because we were low leveled, if more of those appear, we'll die for sure. Apple, Mabini, I know you two are exhausted, so if you want to rest, go ahead. Sura, Boni, we need to value this daylight and go hunt for EXP, we can sleep later tonight."
After leveling up and increasing their stats, especially their VIT, despite being awake even before 3:00AM, staying up to hunt some more zombies wouldn't be a problem. They had no idea what the time table was for the zombie evolution, so they had to get stronger as soon as possible.
"We don't mind!" Mabini replied. "If what you say is true, then we don't have the luxury of sleeping right now. We'd like to kill zombies with you, if you'll allow us to."
"I agree with my brother, also, some of our friend's houses are on the way.. maybe they survived." Apple was hopeful, but they knew the zombies spawning took everyone by surprise.
"Alright. So, the plan is to try and pick up some of our friends I managed to contact, while we clear zombies along the way. I don't want to attract too much attention, so we're gonna have to go by foot, saves us from having to get out of the car every single time." with that said, Luna packed his bag with a couple bottles of water and enough food for the journey. Bacolod City was a relatively small city when compared to places like New York City or Guangzhou, so it wasn't too much of an issue.
Luckily, their friends Maria and Clara were sisters living in the same house. They were both head-turners wherever they went, even back in high school and college, but what made Luna admire them was their proficiency in Filipino Martial Arts, whether it be in hand-to-hand combat or weaponry, these two were fit to be called the Dragon sisters. Back in College, Luna actually tried to save them from a group of men harassing them, but before he could even try to help out, they were already on the floor. The two sisters realized what he was trying to do and had a good impression of him, coupled with the fact that they had a couple classes together, they became friends.
The sisters lived in the Capitolville Subdivision. Luna had to pass by the University of St. La Salle, one of the biggest schools in the City, where they had grade school, high school, and college students alike. The schools in the city were relatively close to each other, and their walls and gates have always been fortified, which made Luna consider taking over these schools in the future, when he had the manpower to clear them out.
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(Author's note: Use this image if you want a clearer idea of how close the schools are: https://imgur.com/a/tBYB1zE)
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Much to his surprise, after seeing through the metal grates there was actually hordes of zombies in the school. Nobody should have been there at all last night, so it must have been the spawned zombies, luckily the metal grates were too sturdy for he zombies to even get anywhere close to taking them down. He wanted to kill them by stabbing through the spaces in between, but he opted not to. Along the way, they had already killed a lot of zombies, including 7 evolved ones on separate encounters, they were easily dispatched by Sura, especially with her new weapons.
She and Luna were now level 9, and were 1 evolved zombie away from hitting level 10. Boni hit level 8, and the two siblings, with help from the trio, were now each level 5.
3 out of the 7 zombies had dropped new equipment, 2 of them dropped skill books, and the last two didn't drop anything. With this they found out that items had a certain drop rate. Two pairs of Itak Tagalogs similar to the one Sura had, was equipped by Luna and Mabini, these drops don't seem to be too rare from the evolved zombies. A one-handed Mace, equipped by Boni.
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Item: Flanged Mace
A bludgeoning weapon used in medieval times.
Attack DMG: 40
Weight: 50
Vitality + 5
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Apple's competence showed, when beforehand, after seeing that there was an Intelligence stat, predicted that spell books would eventually drop. Luna was impressed by this, and allowed her to not distribute her points earlier, which paid off when the evolved zombies dropped 2 skill books with one of them being fit for a caster like her.
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Active Skill: Chain Lightning
Chains to a maximum of 5 targets dealing 15 damage per tick, with damage lowering by 10% after per bounce after the first target hit.
Staggers targets hit.
Automatically bounces to another target if current target dies, if willed by the user.
Damage scales with Intelligence stat.
MP Cost: 10 MP per cast and an additional 2 MP per tick.
Cast time: None.
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The other one was used by Luna, while Apple pumped all her stats into INT.
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Active Skill: Stealth
Render yourself invisible. Deactivates upon attacking or upon detection.
Can be detected by targets significantly higher level than you.
MP Cost: 10
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With that, the team started heading to their destination. Luna was trying to get used to his new weapons. Although he owned a pair of Katanas, they were more for display. He was more accustomed to weapons like a Spear, Guandao, or Naginata. When they got back to his place, he was thinking of retrofitting the two Itak Tagalogs he had, to resemble more like a Naginata on both ends, and if he was still able to equip it, and retain the stat bonuses, that would be good. If not, then he'll have to suck it up until he got a weapon drop of his liking.
A little while later, they finally got to Clara and Maria's house. They didn't meet anymore evolved zombies along the way, so most of the regular zombie kills were given to Mabini and Apple, since even Boni would now need to kill at least over 100 regular zombies to hit level 9. Due to this, Apple and Mabini managed to hit level 6.
Filipino Martial Arts a close quarter fighting system. Hand-to-hand combat, Knife, Machete combat etc. and is still used by the Philippine military to this day.
You can check here for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_martial_arts#History