Chapter 22: Mice and Shaking?!
[Day 6… Well, that was abrupt…]
Well, Abel wasn't going to wait for no reason; he needed to go and find food for Kylie and Khepri, as they still needed to eat.
Abel then remembered the fat zombie that he had fought on the other side of the fourth floor.
Thinking that there might just be snacks or something in the fatty's office, he decided to make his way there while searching the other offices and clearing out the fourth floor of any zombies to create a safe area. Well as safe as it could get in this Apocalyptic era.
"Kylie, you and Khepri are going to come with me to farm some experience. I also want to see Khepri's abilities in action." Abel said to the two of them.
"Hmph! And what about me, hmmm?" Omi said it with a pout and in an aggrieved voice.
"Well, you always follow me, so I was just assuming that you would do the same. You did come out of a crystal in my chest, so I assume that you can't really go far away from me, right?" With a gentle tone and while rubbing Omi's head, Abel said this to her while also asking an important question.
As she blushed from the head rubs, Omi responded in a meek voice, "Ah… Sorry, I didn't think of it like that, and yes, I can't be too far from you; otherwise, I would just get pulled back by the crystal, but this distance increases as the System levels up."
"Hmmm… Alright, we can work with that for now, I guess. It's not like I want you to be further away from me in any case; I quite like having you around." Abel said it with a smile on his face.
Omi blushed at those words and proceeded to hide behind Kylie's red hair as the woman giggled.
"Stupid master!" Omi whispered to herself so that nobody heard.
Abel went and picked up Khepri from Kylie's shoulder, placing her on his own.
"Let's go. Just remember that you need to keep a lookout for any dangers from the roof." Abel spoke in a serious tone.
Opening the door, the four of them heard some squeaks here and there from the roof and floor.
Looking around, Abel spotted those same mice from before.
Deciding to use Appraise on them to see if he could gain anything from them.
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[Name: None] | [Age: 5 Months]
[Race: Plague Mouse]
[Physique: None]
[Level: 0]
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[Stats]
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Health: 250/250
Mana: 100/100
Strength: 0.5 | Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 0.5 | Intelligence: 0.5
Vitality: 2 | Wisdom: 0.5
Agility: 5 | Spirit: 1
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[Skills]
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{Novice}
[Plague Bearer: 0%]
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[Description]
A lesser form of its cousin the Plague Rat, the Plague Mouse is known as a common pest in this new world. Yet do not be mistaken; these pests carry a deadly Plague that can cause sickness and infectious diseases, some even on a magical scale. As they are not as strong as their cousins, they congregate in groups in the tens or even thousands. No pied piper is going to tame these mice!
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Looking at the new skill, Abel was tempted but also reluctant, as he still had skills that he had not used yet.
Though Omi's next words annihilated those doubts: "You can unlock something even more powerful if you get a group of skills of the same kind."
Yet he wondered if he could get rid of the 50 odd mice without just disintegrating all of them at once.
Luckily, they were grouped up in smaller groups of twos or threes, interspersed within the corridor.
Going to the first two, he was about to use Corrupt when he spotted movement on his shoulder, seeing an angry-looking Khepri staring at the two mice before them while radiating a killing intent that was nearly physical.
"Khepri, I'll take one out first, then you can go for the other one if the other groups of mice aren't drawn over." Abel spoke with an understanding expression on his face.
Knowing that Khepri must feel some sort of anger towards the kin of the bastard that nearly killed her if not for him saving her.
Sending out a small sliver of the dark mist in tentacle form, Abel made it slowly approach the mouse sniffing around on the left-hand side of them.
Creeping up slowly to it, and then, at lightning speed caused by a quick burst of mana to make it faster, the tentacle entered the head of the mouth through its orifices, going for a quick death, even though the mouse let out a scream that alerted the fifty or so other mice and the one closest to them.
Abel quickly went over and placed the mouse into his Inventory.
As he turned around, though, he could see tens of beady red eyes shining in the darkness and staring at him.
"Ah, shit." Abel cursed before the mice ran straight for him and his strangely mixed-up group.
Instead of running away, Abel blasted out his mist in the direction of the mice, making a dome around him and his group, making sure none of them touched him or the mist.
Although Khepri seemed to find the stuff quite enjoyable.
Thinking that using Corrupt on Khepri caused this, Abel wanted to see if he should maybe use it on Kylie and Omi when Omi spoke into his mind.
'I'm immune to this mist, and I wouldn't use it on Kylie as she is still healthy and isn't on the verge of death like Khepri was, which helped Khepri absorb the properties of the mist better.'
Deciding to just leave it to fate to decide whether he could use it on Kylie in the future, which he hoped would never happen.
Coming back to his senses, he heard pained squeaks coming from within the mist. Gathering that the mice were probably in immense pain, making him feel bad, but also understanding that his and his group's survival came first and that this was how things were going to be from now on.
The pained squeaks continued to sound out for a second or two more until he decided to stop using his mist when the last squeak was heard.
When the mist dissipated, all that could be seen was one final skeleton of a mouse turning to ash. In his line of sight, Abel saw a dense cloud of Multiversal energies.
He chose to use the experience from the mice he killed other than the one in his inventory as there were no more bodies to use, receiving a prompt that made him smile from ear to ear.
[Lvl Exp. Gained: 53XP]
Khepri, who was on Abel's shoulder, was now dejected as she had not gotten back at the stinky mice that had harmed her, although she was somewhat grateful towards them, strangely enough, as they had given her a chance to be reborn and become stronger with her new king.
Abel, upon noticing Khepri's drooping antennae, said to her in an attempt to cheer her up, "If we see anymore mice along the way, I'll make sure that you will have a chance to kill them.
When she heard her king say this, she was delighted and instantly responded with a much less childish voice in Abel's mind, 'Okay, Mashta, thank you for being so kind, hehe.'
Although her pronunciation of the word Master was still childish, the other words were not, probably because of the three days of him being in and out of consciousness, which was enough time for her to practice speaking.
The group of four continued from where they had already come, as it was the shortest route for them.
Stopping every now and then at a teacher's office to gather any food and other necessities that they could use until they got to the one door where a zombie was previously heard.
As they got closer, the groaning and scratching of the zombie was heard, as it was acting decidedly more zombie-like than the other three they had encountered within the teachers lounge.
Abel turned to Khepri and said in a reassuring tone, "If you have any trouble facing the zombie, let us know, okay?"
'Okay, Mashta, I will do my best to prove myself to you!' Khepri said while wiggling her antennae in anticipation.
When Abel opened the door, the zombie inside was pushed back, causing him to fall due to his clumsiness.
That was when Khepri did something that was totally unexpected.
Lifting up her carapace that was assumed to be covering her wings, she instead produced dark tentacles that came out from underneath it, which proceeded to go towards the zombie.
When the pitch-black tentacles that seemed to actually be physical, unlike Abels Corrupt tentacles, came into contact with the zombie, a sound similar to meat being chewed was heard.
Looking at the black tentacles more closely, Abel saw that every now and then, mouths would appear, tearing chunks of flesh from the zombie.
Luckily for the zombie, it couldn't feel anything that was happening and just continued to struggle until one tentacle produced a larger mouth at the end of it, going on to bite the zombie's head off in one bite.
When the zombie was finally fully devoured by Khepri's black tentacles, she started to shake, causing Abel to start worrying.
"Khepri, are you okay?!" he said in panic, until he saw something strange…
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone