Chapter 54 Sorting Through the Harvest!

After eating, warming himself in the morning sun, taking in enough water, and crafting the splint for his fractured arm, most of the ugly status effects on Magnus Vane’s system panel finally disappeared. Exhausted, Hypothermia, and Thirsty were gone, while the fracture had changed into a five-hour healing countdown instead of continuously draining his health. The only significant problem left was Weakened, which temporarily cut his maximum Stamina in half and left his body feeling much heavier than normal. Magnus checked himself over, decided he finally looked somewhat functional again, and nodded with satisfaction while completely ignoring the fact that he was still covered from head to toe in dried walker blood.

“It’s manageable,” Magnus muttered as he flexed the fingers of his splinted right hand as much as the injury allowed. “Once the fracture finishes healing, the weakness should start clearing too.” He wasn’t eager to fight anything in his current condition, but at least he was no longer sitting on the floor waiting for dehydration or blood loss to finish what the walkers had started. That was enough for now. Only after confirming his body was stable did Magnus remember the level notifications he had barely registered before passing out.

He reopened the system.

[Level Increased: Lv15 → Lv22]

[Skill Points Gained]

[Available Skill Points: 7]

Magnus stared at the numbers for several seconds. He had known the Blood Moon battle would give him a massive amount of experience, especially with Berserkers paying 1200 XP each, but seven levels from a single night was still absurd. Since awakening the system in Atlanta, no other battle had pushed his level even remotely that far in one stretch. He almost smiled just hearing the memory of the system’s level-up chime in his head.

Then something bothered him.

“Hold on.”

Magnus opened the skill screen again and checked Fortitude. The attribute tree was definitely unlocked, and Pain Tolerance Lv1 and Healing Factor Lv1 were both active, meaning he had unquestionably spent two skill points during the final moments of the church battle. If seven level increases normally granted seven points, he should only have five remaining.

Instead, he had seven.

“That means I got nine total.”

Magnus frowned and mentally reconstructed what had happened while he was half-conscious. One system message stood out clearly enough to remember.

[Level 20 Requirement Reached]

[New Attribute Unlocked — Fortitude]

Level 20 was obviously a milestone.

Magnus remembered receiving three skill points near the very beginning of his system progression, and a possibility quickly formed in his mind. If reaching every twentieth level awarded a special bundle of points, then reaching Level 20 could have effectively granted three points for that level instead of the usual one. Seven normal level gains plus two additional milestone points would produce exactly the nine points he had received.

“So Level Twenty gave me a bonus.”

Magnus’s mood improved immediately.

If the same thing happened again at Level 40, Level 60, and beyond, those milestone levels would become extremely valuable. The thought alone seemed to make the lingering Weakened status feel a little less irritating. Magnus switched back to the Strength tree and stared at his seven available points with growing enthusiasm.

Strength currently sat at Lv8/10.

The final two ranks each cost three points.

Magnus’s eyes narrowed.

“With seven points, I could finish Strength right now.”

He flipped through the screen several times, looking at Strength Lv9, Strength Lv10, and the still-locked final rank of Skull Crusher. The temptation was almost painful; maxing Strength would unlock Skull Crusher Lv5 and push his already abnormal physical ability into territory he couldn’t properly imagine. After the church battle, however, Magnus looked down at the splint holding his right arm together and forced himself to think instead of immediately pressing the upgrade button.

Every previous Strength increase had caused noticeable changes throughout his entire body. Muscles tightened, power surged through his limbs, and his nervous system needed a short period to adjust to the new output. Doing that twice in succession while his body was dehydrated, weakened, covered in wounds, and actively repairing a fracture seemed like an unnecessary gamble. Magnus exhaled slowly and closed the Strength page.

“Forget it.”

Five hours wasn’t long.

“I’ve waited this long. I can wait until the arm heals before rebuilding half my body again.”

With that decision made, Magnus turned his attention to something else that had been bothering him. The first Blood Moon had given him direct rewards once the event ended—the upgraded Stone Sledgehammer Quality 2, the Stalker Gloves Quality 3, and the Hunter’s Bow magazine. Considering how much worse the second Blood Moon had been, Magnus expected the system to reward him again.

Nothing appeared.

He waited.

Still nothing.

Magnus searched through the notifications, then stood there for nearly half an hour while expecting another chime that never came. “You’re kidding,” he muttered. “I practically died handling that entire nightmare by myself, and there’s no completion reward?”

He was about to close the interface when he noticed several unfamiliar icons in the system backpack.

Magnus paused.

Then smiled.

“Knew you wouldn’t cheat me.”

The rewards had apparently been deposited directly into his inventory without a dramatic notification this time. There were four magazines, one new piece of equipment, and one weapon or equipment modification waiting among his stored supplies. Magnus immediately opened the equipment entry first.

[Athlete’s Attire — Light Armor Quality 2]

[Improves mobility and physical endurance while moving]

[Maximum Health increased]

[Set Bonus: Reduces Food and Water consumption when additional matching pieces are equipped]

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Light armor. I’ll take it.”

His original Wooden Armor Set Quality 1 had been completely destroyed during the Blood Moon battle, leaving him with only the stronger individual pieces he had collected afterward. He still possessed the Stalker Gloves Quality 3 and Stalker Hood Quality 1, and the new Athlete’s Attire could now replace the ruined wooden chest protection. They didn’t belong to the same equipment set, which meant he couldn’t take advantage of a complete-set bonus, but higher-quality mixed equipment was still far better than wearing a full set of weak wooden armor simply for consistency.

Magnus equipped the new armor.

The system-generated light armor settled around his torso immediately, and its effect was noticeable before he even finished adjusting it. Compared with the bulky Wooden Armor Set, the Athlete’s Attire felt almost weightless, and a subtle sense of freedom spread through his entire body the moment its bonuses activated. Magnus had never invested a single point into the system’s Agility attribute tree, so even a modest mobility-related enhancement felt unusually obvious to him.

“Huh.”

He rolled his shoulders.

“That’s better than I expected.”

Magnus checked his status screen and found that his maximum Health had increased by 5 points. His natural system scaling had only added twenty-two Health from reaching Level 22, so gaining another five from a single Quality 2 armor piece was substantial. During the Blood Moon, five extra points could easily have been the difference between collapsing unconscious and never waking up at all.

That made the armor immediately valuable.

Magnus used some of the remaining wood from the destroyed priest’s bed to craft replacement Wooden Armor Leg Guards Quality 1 and Wooden Armor Boots Quality 1, filling the gaps left by his destroyed set. His equipment was mismatched now, but functional.

[Stalker Hood — Quality 1]

[Stalker Gloves — Quality 3]

[Athlete’s Attire — Light Armor Quality 2]

[Wooden Armor Leg Guards — Quality 1]

[Wooden Armor Boots — Quality 1]

Magnus briefly equipped the hood, then immediately frowned. He still disliked how much of his peripheral vision it covered, especially after spending so long fighting with completely unobstructed sight. Instead of removing the equipment entirely, he used the system’s display option to visually hide the hood while keeping its bonuses active. With that settled, he moved on to the next reward.

[Helmet Light Mod]

[Equipment Modification]

[Can be installed on compatible headgear]

[Projects a forward-facing light source for nighttime visibility]

Magnus’s eyes lit up.

“Now that is useful.”

A hands-free light source was far more valuable than it sounded. Flashlights occupied a hand, weapon-mounted lights revealed exactly where a gun was pointing, and carrying a lantern through walker-infested darkness was practically an invitation to get grabbed. A light attached directly to his headgear would follow his vision and keep both hands free for the Stone Sledgehammer or a firearm.

Magnus opened the Stalker Hood’s modification menu. It had two available slots, and he installed the Helmet Light Mod into one while placing the previously acquired Cigar enhancement into the other, preserving the Strength bonus it provided while equipped. When both slots registered successfully, Magnus focused on the new light.

“Light on.”

A broad cone of warm illumination immediately spread across the second floor of the church.

Magnus blinked.

The beam covered roughly a sixty-degree area in front of him and illuminated most of the room without requiring him to hold anything. Corpses, shattered furniture, dried blood, and the ruined staircase all became clearly visible wherever he turned his head. It wasn’t quite the supernatural red-tinted clarity he had experienced under the Blood Moon, but for normal nighttime movement, it was more than enough.

“Yeah.”

Magnus slowly looked around.

“This is damn good.”

He switched the light off and grinned.

The second Blood Moon had nearly killed him, destroyed his original armor, fractured his arm, drained his supplies, and left him unconscious among more than a hundred corpses. In return, however, he had gained seven levels, unlocked Fortitude, obtained new perks, received stronger armor, acquired a Helmet Light Mod, and still had four system magazines waiting to be opened. The cost had been brutal, but the system had compensated him accordingly.

Magnus looked toward the final four rewards.

His grin widened.

“Let’s see what you gave me next.”

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