They do now

"Let me get this right..." Lagash paused as John and Urga awkwardly fidgeted in place in front of her. John wasn't sure why exactly he was there. Urga had told him that they didn't necessarily need permission to go out raiding, but she had dragged him off to talk to her sister regardless. "You want to go out raiding so you can get more... fighting experience?" It wasn't exactly what he said, but it was close enough.

"Yes... I need to get experience..." he had to suppress the urge to grin as both Urga and Lagash shook their heads as one.

"The pack will not go with you for this, pigskin. We don't hunt with huma-" Lagash started to growl at him, barking words that John didn't even care for. He had stuff to do, this had all just been a waste of his time so far. The conversation was literally pointless.

"That's fine. Just point me in a direction and I'll be back later," he didn't give her a chance to finish talking. Both Urga and Lagash all but choked on their surprise as he brushed off the lack of help like it was nothing. Based on what little he had seen thus far, he wouldn't have doubted it if it was unheard of for people in the tribe to go off fighting on their own.

"Th-there are elves to the north and the Hallowed to the west, but-" Lagash started, but again, John interrupted her as she spoke.

"Hallowed? What are the Hallowed?" he asked, and the two sisters growled again. Fortunately, the growling seemed somewhat different this time. This time, it was as if they weren't even growling at him... he hoped.

"Dead. Made from magic." Lagash paused to spit at his feet and glare at John again before she quickly continued. She didn't give him the chance to defend himself this time, she just kept going. He got the idea that she might have been getting mad at him for interrupting her so much. "It doesn't matter. You will not last the nightfall. Run, and the pack will hunt you. We might even take some fingers as punishment."

That didn't sound good.

"What?!" It was Urga who spoke up this time. The blue haired **** blinked a couple times in rapid succession as Lagash barked at her for speaking out of turn, but she didn't stop. "Who is challenging it?!" That sounded worse... but it was even more worrying when Lagash didn't answer her, and Urga, somehow, immediately figured out what that meant. He watched as the Orc actually paled at Lagash's silence, her skin tone shifting into a gentle lime color for a moment before Lagash turned back to John.

"Even if you somehow manage to cheat your way through this, the chief will mark you. You will not escape this, pigskin," Lagash finished her taunt and stood there for a few long, drawn out seconds. A marking didn't sound that bad. It was the challenge and the finger chopping that seemed ominous. He could certainly imagine ways for the mark to hurt... like if it turned out to be a branding or something, but even that didn't worry him. Gamer's Body would have eventually just healed it.

"Yeah..." John's brow furrowed as Lagash crossed her arms and stood there resolutely, as if daring him to try and argue with what she told him, but he didn't see any point in fighting with her. If there was someone out there determined to 'challenge' him... then there wasn't much he could do. More than that, everything in the area was pretty much the same level as him, so he wasn't all that worried. "My name's John. You should probably learn it." That pulled one more growl out of the other Orc before John simply turned around and left. He didn't wait for permission, advice, or even for Urga to catch back up... he just walked and began the trek back to camp.

He only stopped at the tent for a little while. He dropped in to see how his mom was doing as she sleepily sat around on the fur bed waiting for him, and then he told her where he was going. He spent a few minutes reassuring her and trying to figure out what he was going to do to ensure her safety while he was gone before Urga told him that the Orcs had no reason to mess with her. It was apparently extremely dishonorable to attack or **** someone’s **** while they were gone, and most of the camp would take it as an offense or a challenge if someone tried anything... even for a human. After that, he just left her there to get some sleep while he went to grind.

Thankfully, John didn't have to go very far west to find the 'Hallowed'. Thanks to the camp’s maneuverability, the tribe wasn't ever that far from a possible raiding target. In his eyes, it may have put them at risk for a counter attack, but when he mentioned it to, Urga she didn't even flinch. She just laughed at him and welcomed the opportunity to fight more.

"What the fuck...?" John said. The first thing he noticed was the darkness when they reached the Hallowed. It wasn't dark because of the night sky or the lack of light in the area. It was dark because of a lack of life. In the distance, on the edge of a town filled with wooden homes and shacks, John could make out little signs of movement as beings of rotten flesh and bone stumbled and strolled about. Zombies and skeletons lurched to and fro in every direction while John numbly stared at the ground surrounding the little village. From the moment that anyone stepped within a hundred yards of the village, it was like walking into a world devoid of color and life.

Every last bird, bug, and blade of grass was darkened, stiff, and still in a large blackened ring around the village. It was like like all sources of vitality or life had been drained and sucked dry, even from the very ground itself. The trees, walls, and stones were all ashen and cracked. Some even fell to dust and ash as John's feet or hands brushed against them. There were no noises, save for the occasional groan from the undead, and even the sky above was cloudless and empty in a giant circle around where this had all taken place.

It was actually dark and somehow left John with the feeling like he might not ever see color again as soon as he stepped into that circle. He knew it was wrong, and Urga was a constant reminder of that with her green skin and blue hair, but he couldn't shake the feeling. Neither could his **** apparently. He turned to stare at the Orc as she audibly shuddered and growled low from the depths her chest at the sight of one of the Hallowed and it too turned to stare back at them before she abruptly cursed magic and all of elven kind.

"Hold up..." John said and watched as that one zombie began to weakly stumble their way. "The elves did this?"

She gave him a nod and a glare like he was a part of it too, but he let it slide. He wasn't about to argue with her in front of all of that.

"The elves are necromancers?" John asked, and she gave him a weird look. He watched as she slowly mouthed the word back to him before he quickly explained it to her. "Necromancy is generally one of the darker kinds of magic. It's the area that uses magic to reanimate the dead and is frowned upon, even among other magic users," John said and turned back to the zombie just as it got close enough for the two of them to hear its nearly silent rasping sounds. They both backpedaled away from the monster, and Urga barked at John for a moment, telling him that the zombies couldn't die anymore, so it was time to leave. "Let's see. Observe."

Bromley Winmar
Level 4 Zombie
<Grr>
34/34 HP
RP: (He's just not feeling very judgmental right now.)
Effects: Risen, Tireless

Curious, just to see if he could get more information, he used it again on one of the effects that the zombie had listed.

Tireless: This effect takes place upon ****. When a creature with this effect falls to zero hit points, they gain a 20% chance for the Risen effect to take place again, reviving the creature back from **** with a full HP bar. This effect can occur an infinite number of times. This effect can be used once per ****, if a creature dies with this effect and does not revive, the creature stays dead.

Well, that was overpowered.

"So... they can die." He paused as Urga slowly looked over at him. "We may just have to try it a few times on some of them. Get your bow and arrows out."

Urga immediately stared at John like he was crazy.

"This is why I let you keep your weapon, get it out!" The zombie lumbered closer to the two of them. "Keep away from it. Whatever you do, don't charge forward like you did with me! AND DO NOT HIT ME!" He really stressed that last part as Urga slowly nocked one arrow and took aim at the zombie. It took a step, and its arms swung up into the air as it got dangerously close to John... and then another step and-

THUNK!

Urga's arrow punched right through one of the zombie's sunken eye sockets. The **** of the blow knocked the zombie off balance and sent it stumbling away from John for a couple seconds before it got itself right back up. A large grin crept across John's face as a pop-up appeared before the both of them detailing her critical hit and the loss of fifteen hit points of the zombie. He heard Urga curse inexplicably about the sudden appearance of his interface and took another step back while she nocked another arrow. The second shot was just as brutal as the first, piercing through the other eye until the zombie couldn't see them anymore and began stumbling around blindly. John stopped her there, before she could finish it off with one last shot and stepped in himself.

"SWING BATTER BATTER!" he shouted with... perhaps a little too much glee as his fist collided into the side of the zombie's face, glowing with the power of his Infused Strike, and watched as the monster's head jerked hard to the side. A sickening snap filled the air as the zombie's neck twisted and broke from the **** of his blow...

... and then it reached up and pulled its own head back into place, cracking all of the bones in his neck one more time, regardless of whether or not that was how they were all originally supposed to fit together.

Bromley used Tireless! Bromley's HP is now back to full!

John immediately backpedaled away from the monster, deftly ducking under the slow swing of its arms as it tried to grab at him. As dangerous as it was to fight in a prolonged battle with a bunch of them, the zombie may have been one of the best starting monsters for John to grind with. It helped him to learn how to kite and work on his ability to navigate the battlefield without getting immediately overpowered.

"Two more arrows!" John shouted and waved a hand at Urga to silence her before she could start to argue with him. Again, she fired at the zombie and hit true with two out of the three shots she had to take. Each shot was another head shot, just like the last two, as if it wasn't already blind. It stumbled around after the two of them, following the sounds of their voice before John abruptly stepped in one more time and used Infused Strike.

His next hit was punctuated by a sharp wet crunching sound as the front of the zombie's face suddenly caved in around John's glowing fist. The monster was sent flying back away from John and the **** of the blow before it skidded and slid a couple feet across the ground and then suddenly...

...it vanished. The zombie's body slowly crumbled inwards into a disgusting pile for a couple seconds, and then it evaporated before their very eyes as its health bar finally dropped to zero again and stayed there. The Tireless effect failed to work a second time, and they both watched as nothing was left but a pile of ash, some rotten teeth, and a small, deep purple shard that he discovered to be a part of something called 'Undead Essence.' John heard Urga muttering and swearing as John slowly walked over and gathered his loot, but she didn't turn away or argue with him again when he went to pull the next zombie.

+30 EXP
+$600

It took John a few times to successfully learn how to grab attention of just one zombie. The two of them tried for a few hours actually. At first, John was just walking close enough and making noise to try and gather the attention of one of them, but that quickly backfired when about five zombies all heard him talking and both John and Urga had to run around and try to use her arrows to take out one zombie at a time. If they failed to kill that zombie or if it revived itself, Urga was supposed to draw the attention of the others while John dealt with the one parading around like a pin cushion. After that, John tried physically pulling them. It worked a little bit better, and they did manage to draw no more than a couple at a time but quickly found out that it put John in much more danger to be getting that close. He often found himself walking into an area where a zombie could randomly stumble out and ambush him forcing him to retreat and find some way to escape, which in turn pulled even more monsters. Finally, they tried pulling with arrows and rocks.

It was an old method to take them out one at a time that he used in gaming a lot, and it was utterly time consuming, but he knew how to do it well, and by the time they finished attacking and tearing through the horde of undead, they had actually managed to kill over twenty of them! It was a personal achievement that even Urga became proud of and quickly scared John with when she tried to make some of the zombie teeth into a necklace to wear as a trophy.

He stopped that as quickly as he could, especially since he was pretty sure that the teeth were another crafting material, but he understood the idea that she might have wanted something as a trophy. It really was an impressive feat after all, and he already got a few trophies of his own through all the fighting.

Level Up!
+5 Stat Points
+5 Inventory Slots

Infused Strike has leveled up!

On top of that, he had so much loot now that he didn't even know what to do with it all. By the end of their fighting session, he had over fifty teeth, 3 full Undead Essence Crystals, 3 Undead Essence shards, a skull, a couple of bones, over four thousand dollars, and ten units of tattered cloth. To satisfy her, but also because he didn't want anything to do with it himself, he went ahead and gave Urga the skull. She actually smiled when he gave it to her... and then made a horrifying statement about mounting it on a pike back at the camp before John had to walk away.

He didn't hesitate to dump all of his new stat points into strength again and couldn't hold back the grin that split across his features as his muscles surged to be slightly thicker. He flexed experimentally and chuckled as he heard a couple strands of thread stretch and pop with the movement in his biceps before he-

Your strength has reached 25!
You have gained the Crushing Blows feat!

New Skill: Crushing Blows. Level 1, Passive.
Crushing Blows: This change marks a new degree of strength within its user. This ability allows its user to tear away at parts of an opponent's armor with every critical hit they land. (Current Armor Damage Bonus: 10% per critical hit.)

"Woah... what?" John blinked as he read through the pop-up once... and then went through it a second time. That didn't make any sense. John had already reached twenty-five in two other stats. The first one had been intellect, and he pretty much just started at twenty-five. The second was Libido... but he never got a boost for either one. He considered the possibility that he had already had the intellect boost for a while and just never knew what it was, but the problem he had was with his Libido stat.

He knew that that stat had been pushed over twenty-five through the various achievements and bonuses he had earned over the past few days, but he never got anything for it. Did he only get them through personally putting the points through each individual stat, or did Libido not even count among the things he could have obtained a boost from? Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could think of that could have helped to solve it or explained why his stats were acting so differently, and try as he might, there was nothing he could find in his displays that directly related to answering his problem.

There were a few things he found that he could have taken as a clue or used to make a guess for it, but it would have all been just that, guesswork, and he wasn't about to speculate over something he didn't even understand. He didn't even know how he had obtained his powers, yet, just that he had them. The only reason why he knew a little bit about how they had worked was because he had more experience playing video games than most of the people he knew. Of course, that didn't include all of the people he used to play online with.

"What next, Master?" Strangely enough, Urga wasn't as sarcastic when she spoke to him this time. Actually, her entire attitude towards John seemed to take a temporary shift into the positive as the two of them walked closer and closer to the center of town. It didn't take very long for John to decide what they were going to do. There were only a few zombies left, and he wanted to leave at some point. If they took the time to finish up quickly and then make their way back to town, then there was a chance that he could have earned something for clearing out the area. He just had to make sure that they didn't leave anything behi-

The two of them stopped suddenly as they began to near the center of town and the atmosphere seemed to change again. Immediately out in front of them, a wave of sickly purple light came cascading out from what John quickly realized was the heart of this insane circle of ****. The air around them grew thicker and colder as they stepped in to the glow cast by a large floating crystal and, as they looked into the source of light, they found only more ****. The crystal, that they stumbled across, floated in the center of a large, ring-shaped stone altar and felt as if it honed in on them with a strange and living sense of purpose. They stumbled closer, and all of the perfectly smooth surfaces of this enticing purple stone suddenly shifted and became marred as they drew near. The translucence of the item suddenly thickened and moved, pulling image after image up from its invisible depths until John and Urga could both make out a bundle of grotesque, white faces staring back at them from within. A low wailing cry echoed out and pulsated throughout their minds, whining so loudly that it felt like the whole world could have heard it... if only it hadn't been delivered so directly, and John watched as Urga opened her mouth to scream...

...except no sound came out.

Surprise Attack!
Beacon Of Ruin drains you for 9 HP!
Beacon Of Ruin drains Urga for 8 HP!

BOSS ENCOUNTERED!
Defeat the boss to escape!