Chapter 27: [Chapter:27][Art is an explosion. Kaboom.(I)]
'Adept Skeleton Magician.'
Looking at the changes in Bones' stats, Echo nodded in satisfaction.
'As expected, the stat rise per level increased.'
Previously, Bones' stats increased as +2 Strength, +2 Endurance, +2 Vitality, +3 Agility, +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom, +3 Senses, and +1 Charm.
Now, however…
. . . . . .
Name : Bones
Race : Skeleton
Level : 101 (00.00%)
Job : [Adept Skeleton Magician(Lv-1/100]
HP : 2,000/2,000 (200 per min)
MP : 5,000/5,000 (500 per min)
Strength : 200 + 3
Endurance : 200 + 3
Vitality : 200 + 3
Agility : 300 + 5
Intelligence : 500 + 7
Wisdom : 500 + 7
Senses : 300 + 5
Charm : 100 + 1
[[Skills]]
[Magic Meditation(Lv-Max)]
[Magic Shield(Lv-Max)]
[Magic Sphere(Lv-Max)]
[Mana Manipulation(Lv-Max)]
[Magic Barrier(Lv-1)]
[Magic Bolt(Lv-1)]
[Elemental Magic Conversion(Lv-1)]
[Magic Studies(Lv-1)]
. . . . . .
'Magic wise alone, it'll skip past mid-class and go straight to slightly weaker high-class. Of course, it's physique is still too bad.'
Looking at the new skills, Echo felt like he should really take some time to learn from his bony summon.
. . . . . .
[Magic Bolt(Lv-1)]
Type : Skill / Active
Description : Condense magical power into a bolt of mana and release it towards a target, dealing blunt and penetrating physical as well as magical damage equal to [Skill Level]*[Intelligence].
Variation : [Arrow — Multiple projectiles / Lower damage] | [Missile — Higher cost / Blast damage] | [Lance — Higher penetration / Higher damage]
Cost : 300 MP
Variation Cost : [Arrow — 100 MP per arrow] | [Missile — 1,000 MP] | [Lance — 500 MP]
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
[Elemental Magic Conversion(Lv-1)]
Type : Skill / Active
Description : When casting a spell, convert the pure magical power used into element attributed magical energy. Current available elements are — Fire | Water | Earth | Wind
Cost : 100% of Spell Cost
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
[Magic Studies(Lv-1)]
Type : Skill / Passive
Description : Gain insight into the ways of magic. Skill automatically levels the more magic you use. Increase effectiveness of any magical phenomenon cast by user by 0.5%. Decrease negative effects of any magical phenomenon cast on user by 0.5%.
. . . . . .
'Seriously…'
Echo shook his head with a sigh, attracting the attention of those in the room. After all, although he didn't talk with them, he was still the man with the guns in the room.
Eh, the fatty who's still holding onto his modified nail-gun like it's his life doesn't count.
Echo looked at Bones' skill list and decided to learn 'Magic Studies', 'Elemental Magic Conversion', and 'Mana Manipulation' in the future.
As for why not right then, for starters, he was already lacking thoughts to multitask properly. And he actually tried to learn 'Mana Manipulation' the moment he summoned Bones.
The result? He was reminded of the very simple common sense that skeletons can't talk. Or write.
Bones could accurately follow his commands, and even take some decisions on its own according to the situation. But when Echo asked it to teach him 'Mana Manipulation', the only answer he got was a blank stare.
'I kind of understand how people feel when I look at them now…'
The kind of gaze which seems to constantly remind you that the other party was either already dead, or had simply given up on life…
"E-excuse me…"
Echo blinked, mentally closing the windows as he looked up to see who was talking to him.
"Yes?"
His voice, as cold and indifferent as ever, sent a child down Misuzu's spine, but since she and Toshimi were technically among the first people to have met Echo, she steeled her will as she asked him,
"C-can you tell me w-who you a-are? Y-you clearly a-aren't a t-teacher here…"
Well, just because she steeled her will didn't mean she was utterly terrified of the man before her who blew up her 'former classmates turned zombies' and magically made their corpses disappear like he was on a field trip.
Funny thing, she had no idea Echo genuinely thought of his travel to this world as a field trip with added benefits being the mountains of corpses he and his summons had already amassed in his Inventory and the delicious skills EXP.
"…you don't need to know."
"E-eh?"
Echo got up, making the students flinch as they tensed up.
"All you need to know is, your world is gone to hell. And I'm here to save some people and kill most others."
Looking at them blankly, he continued,
"Follow me if you want to stay alive. If you don't, you're not my responsibility."
Then, not even bothering to listen, he grabbed the set of keys that was strangely placed in an openly visible place, as if asking for attention, and walked out of the room.
"W-wai-!?"
*bang!*
Rei's words stuck in her throat as Echo raised his Jackal and shot right through the wooden door. Then, he opened it, and moved back as a headless corpse fell right in front of him.
"…"
Shoving it into his inventory, he continued moving.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
"…what do you think?"
"…about what?"
Rei and Saya looked at each other, then at the splintered door.
"Sensei, what do you think we should do?"
Toshimi asked one of the two teachers that had been in the room before they had arrived. The brown haired Kyoko looked at where the headless corpse had fallen and said in a daze,
"He saved me."
"Yes?"
"When all this started…I was outside, and the other teachers…"
Kyoko revealed how the infection spread through the campus, making the students silent.
"I…I think I'll follow him. No, I think we all should."
"Are you crazy!?", Saya roared at her teacher with eyes wide open.
"He's a maniac! You saw how he…he…"
But as she continued, she found herself unable to comment.
Should she demean him for killing her former classmates and friends like they were chickens? The very ones who seemed to want nothing more than rip them apart and devour them piece by piece?
"He's suspicious! You just saw how he made the corpses disappear! Who can make things disappear like that!?"
"Umm…"
Kohta raised his hand, attracting the attention of those in the group as well as the pink head's scowl.
"What is it fatty?"
"Uh…I don't think I saw him reload his guns…and those, they are refitted and modified a lot, but I recognise them. The black one should use 13mm cartridges…it should weigh at least 16 kg and the recoil would relocate a normal human's arm. The the silver one is a modified Casull semi-auto weighing 6 kg and using .454 Casull cartridges…or at least it's supposed to be, but the silver plating on the gun with him makes the gun much heavier. And the black gun too."
"So what you're saying is…a normal human wouldn't be able to even hold those guns properly, let alone shoot them?"
Saeko, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, asked, making him nod.
"Yes. To blow up 'their' heads like that, the recoil would make any normal person break his or her arm and the gun itself would fly out of their hands too."
"See? Just another reason not to trust him!"
But her words made no difference as Kyoko began to walk to the door.
"Sens-!? Senpai!? You too!?"
Just as Saya was about to call Kyoko again, her words got stuck in her throat as the purple haired beauty followed her.
"Ano~"
The blonde bimbo, Shizuka, attracted their attention as she pointed at the door,
"The man took the bus keys. And if we want to escape on our own, the bus is the only way. All the other buses aren't here as they were taken away for refitting."
"This…"
"…"
For a moment, none of them could say anything. At the end, however, their choices were obvious enough.
Follow the man, or…
"Damn it!"
Rei shook her head as she patted her rival's back.
"Come on. You don't want to sit here and wait for death."
With that, the group of sixteen, including two teachers Kyoko Hayashi and Shizuka Marikawa, and fourteen students, Kohta, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, Saeko Busujima, Misuzu Ichijou, Toshimi Niki, Taniuchi, Kawamoto, Takuzo, Naomi, Yamada, and three others who haven't yet been named, walked out of the room, weapons in hand and bodies tensed, searching for the black haired man with guns who could be heard everywhere with the sound of his shots echoing through out the campus.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
'They are following me. I guess they made their decision.'
Since they were coming for him, Echo expanded his senses to cover them, moving Jackal towards a certain pink head the moment she stepped across the corridor.
*boom!*
"Kyaaa!"
Said pink head jumped as she fell on her butt, her hands shaking as she touched her cheeks where she literally felt the 13mm bullet made of light zip past her skin, the remanent heat making her eyes widen.
"Takagi! Are you okay!?"
Rei quickly took her hand as she lifted her up, the scared group looking at Echo and the reason for his shot.
"Th-that's!"
"Ta-Takashi!"
Rei and Saya shuddered as they saw their crush's body, or what was left of it.
'Huh, so corpses that haven't been infected attract their hunger.'
Echo looked at the former protagonist's body, which could barely be recognised with the majority of it above the chest, and it's four limbs, missing.
The 'zombie' he had just shot, the one which a certain purple haired beauty was rather sad about not being able to kill-steal from him if her blaming stare said anything, had just been feasting on that body.
'I wonder…'
Looking at the two corpses, Echo moved forward and stored the two in his Inventory.
"Wh-what did you do with him…it…"
Rei didn't know how to call her former boy friend, whether to still call 'him' as a person, or as just another dead body…
Looking at her for a moment, Echo walked towards the exit as his voice echoed,
"I have three missions. Save some people. Kill some. And collect corpses. And if you come in the way of any of those three, you'll be adding to my collection."
It was a not very subtle way of saying, 'Get in my way and I'll kill you'.
And it worked, as the less brave students, that it, everyone other than Saeko whose eyes widened before she smiled, and Shizuka who hid her emotions and looked like a typical airhead even as her hands around the knife she hid in the bag of medicines she was carrying tightened, froze in fear and shock.
"…"
But then they looked at Echo walking away like he genuinely didn't care, and grit their teeth before following him.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
"Wa-wait!"
As Echo was about to walk out of the campus, Saya's words made him pause.
"What is it, Takagi-san?"
Saeko, who had been feeling quite unhappy at not being able to even touch a single 'zombie', looked at the pink haired self-proclaimed genius curiously.
"In case you haven't noticed, these creatures…they appear blind."
"…"
"Oh?"
Information, especially weaknesses, concerning their common enemy, made the attention of the whole group, except Echo's, focus on her.
Saya cleared her throat as she let her confidence that had shaken badly return a little.
"They only react to sound. Or perhaps, their hearing might even be quite advanced. Either way, it's obvious the best choice is to move to the bus silently."
Echo turned his gaze in her direction.
"You…call yourself a genius, yes?"
"Wh-what? I don't 'call' myself a genius, I am one!"
She whispered strongly as she glared at him, Echo questioning her intelligence making her somehow overcome her fear of the two deadly instruments in the former's hand.
"For a genius, you have a bad memory."
Then, without waiting for her to reply, he started shooting.
*boom!*
*bang!* *bang!* *bang!* *bang!*
"Bastard! Run!"
She cursed at him, and watched as practically every one of 'them' in the grounds rushed towards their direction.
The group, panicking, started running towards the exit.
"The bus! Over there!"
"Go go go! Those without weapons in the centre!"
"Damn fatty! Keep up!"
"Wa-wait for me!"
"…"
In the hurry that ensued, the students and two teachers rushing to flee from the hundreds, and slowly increasing to thousands, of 'zombies' that rushed towards them, Saeko was the only one who happened to catch a glimpse of Echo's face.
One that sported a grin which made a shiver run up her spine and strangely made her legs feel weak.
'Finally, out in the open.'
Echo took his glasses off, revealing his crimson eyes with three Tomoe swirling around the jet black pupil.
"Time to slaughter."
And his grin widened.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone