Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Six Months had passed since Zane first met Tabitha and accepted her offer to stay in Seoul, under her protection while reaping the rewards contained within the silent city. It had been a long time, and for whatever reason the fogs that persisted throughout the streets of Seoul prevented any contact with the outside world.

This included both through the system's messaging system, and by the various means which humanity had invented prior to the global collapse of civilization. He had no idea how Elena and the others were doing. But at the moment, Zane's focus was elsewhere.

During the past six months, he had consumed less than a quarter of the blood crystals that existed in the city, waiting to be reaped from the skulls of the petrified horde whom Tabitha had sacrificed for the sake of her own power.

As promised, the blood crystals remained intact. A bounty that only Zane could consume. As any others who dared to attempt to enter the domain of the Mad Queen would find themselves suffering a fate worse than death.

Tabitha's state of mind in this time had proven to be exceptionally volatile. At random she could snap from the state of sanity to that of her crazed and obsessive self which Bruno had first made contact with?

When like this, Tabitha would prevent Zane from going out and harvesting blood crystals. Instead, she would keep him close, having any ever-watchful eye for Gwen whose presence seemingly disappeared whenever she began looking for her.

No doubt send to the void by Zane to avoid angering the possessive "big sister" of him. Naturally, when suffering from these temporary mental breakdowns Tabitha did not remember their deal, nor did she remember the conversations they had when she was in a more lucid state of mind.

In fact, she had no recollection of the other Horde Kings and the war which they fought. There was a single memory she had however, and that was of Zane. Her little brother, whom she for reasons she did not understand cared for deeply.

Surprisingly, memories made during her time in this state transferred over to her next mental breakdown. Almost as if they were two separate sets of memories, and personalities at that. Zane could not even think of leaving the penthouse which Tabitha made her own in this time.

In fact, she would always send him into her own personal dimension. A power beyond Zane's understanding. And one he could not break free from. It would resolve itself whenever she regained her sense of clarity.

It was because of these frequent bouts of absolute insanity that Zane could not reasonably fulfill the quota he had in mind. At least not if he wanted to consume 10 million blood crystals in the span of the year.

But he had indeed consumed enough blood crystals to reach the state of a Tier II Horde King. Or he had just now. Zane could honestly feel the power flowing through his veins as the system displayed itself in front of him.

---

[Level up! You are now level 50!]

[You have evolved to a Tier II Horde King! +10 To each of your attributes!]

[+3 Attribute Points!]

[+1 Skill Point!]

---

Zane looked at his character sheet, which had grown immensely over the past six months. And when he saw the XP bar, he sighed heavily. The rate of multiplication was simply absurd at this point. At least in terms of how much XP was needed per level up.

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[User: Zane Graves]

[Race: Horde King]

[Level: 50]

[HP: 4200/4200]

[XP: 0/35,000,000]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 45]

[Dexterity: 45 (+9)]

[Constitution: 42]

[Intelligence: 40]

[Wisdom: 40]

[Charisma: 45]

Skills:

[Dead Man Walking – Tier V]

[Commander of the Dead – Tier V]

[Heal Undead – Tier V – Sovereign's Blessing]

[Raise Dead]

[Unholy Resurrection]

---

Zane could only frown at the way this XP system appeared to work. Though he knew this for some time now, the XP requirement drastically increased per every five levels an awakened achieved. For example, after hitting level 40, he required an additional one million xp per level up.

Then, when he reached level 45, he required an increase of five million xp per level up. Now, after reaching level 50, he apparently needed to grind out a whopping ten million experience points for every level he wanted to gain.

However, he was able to apply the two skill points gained after all of this, two his skill Heal Undead, which in addition to the Previous Tier of the Prince's Gift, which allowed him to restore half the health of his entire horde, in exchange for a cooldown of 15 minutes. He now gained the final tier of the healing skill. Which was Sovereign's blessing.

It was a powerful healing skill, one that applied not only to his horde, and companions, but to himself as well. It was a full restore, plus a buff to all those affected by the skill. The buff consisted of +5 to all attributes for a span of thirty minutes. Which was the same as the cool down for the skill.

However, because of the massive cooldown, this essentially meant that Zane could really only use the skill as a sort of last resort during critical moments, and would have minded its use carefully. Still, it was an enormous benefit, one which he was more than happy to take advantage of.

Speaking of his horde, Zane's ability to control the undead had extended significantly. Not only did he now have a charisma of 45. But with his reaching of Tier II, this meant that Zane also gained a boost in his horde capacity of 10,000 per point of Charisma he had.

Meaning at the moment, Zane now had the ability to control 450,000 undead. Albeit, his current horde was nowhere near full capacity even if all of his servants had reached a tier of at least IV. Considering his current strength, and the potential he could reach as a Tier II Horde King.

Zane honestly believed if he were to max out his horde's capacity, and raise them all to the status of Tier V. As well as leveled up his companions all to a state similar to his own. Even high Ranking Tier III Horde Kings would have a difficult time dealing with him.

450,000 Tier V Undead, all armored and coordinated together through the command of Tier II Horde Kings and Death Knights could prove to be too much for a single Tier III Horde King to handle. Zane's power had grown significantly, and he had yet to reach the full extent of it. As there was still far more experience for him to grind.

Although with the vast multiplication of experience required per five levels gained. Zane suspected he would probably only break through to Tier III at the very most by the time he finished consuming all the blood crystals in Seoul. If even that.

It was with this in mind that he was about to embark on his quest to harvest more blood crystals when he felt a pair of familiar and cold hands wrap around his back.

"There you are little brother! I was looking everywhere for you! And yet were hiding here? What's wrong? Don't you want to be with your big sister? You wouldn't be thinking about leaving me now would you!?!?"

Seeing how Tabitha had just now snapped back into her crazed state, Zane sighed heavily, and put on his most appealing façade. Having long since learned how to deal with the woman when she was in such a state.

"Not at all, big sister! I would never leave you here all alone! I just needed a moment to myself is all. But that moment is gone now, and I would be more than happy to stay with you!"

Tabitha's crazed and possessive gaze quickly shifted to one of delight as she hugged Zane tightly from behind, and sniffed his clothing, taking a deep inhale, as she made a comment that made the man feel kind of guilty.

"That's good… We will be together forever little brother! As a happy family! If anything were to one day suddenly disappear, I'd be forced to search to the ends of the earth to find you! The idea of being separated from my beloved little brother is so painful!"

Painful!?! Bitch, I'm the one in pain right now! Is exactly what Zane was thinking. After all, Tabitha's mental state rapidly deteriorated as she thought about Zane leaving her one day. Perhaps because she was only subconsciously aware of the deal they had made, which would expire in six months.

Regardless of the reason, her claws sank deeper and deeper into Zane's flesh. Cutting through his clothes and effortlessly piercing his flesh, which by now was immune even to the explosive power of artillery.

Zane could only wince in pain as he grabbed hold of the woman's hands and assured her that he would never leave her. Naturally lying through his teeth as he did so.

"Big sister… You're hurting me! Please don't worry I would never leave you here all by yourself!"

It was only after the lunatic realized she was hurting her beloved little brother, did she finally release her grip? Upon seeing the blood oozing from his flesh, Tabitha's mental state was jolted, causing her to run off crying as she apologized profusely for hurting Zane.

'I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… Please don't hate me!"

After saying that, she scurried out the door, causing Zane to sigh heavily as he shook his head and voiced his thoughts about the matter.

"It's probably going to be another week of this before she regains some sense of normalcy. Shit…"