Everyone rushed over, asking what happened.

  "It's fine," I said, trying to sound casual, brushing off the tension in my voice. "Just a fast zombie. Nothing special."

  I pointed at the corpse, still twitching slightly.

  "Oh—Zach, this one can jump."

  Zach stared wide-eyed and swallowed hard, visibly shaken.

  While everyone was busy inspecting the body, I was silently cursing myself.

  'What the hell do you mean, "just fast"? You fucking felt death—and it was real. That thing almost got you!'

  It’s not even a skill…? Wait—System? Is it some kind of invisible skill hiding underneath it all?'

  > Ding!

  Host does not possess that kind of skill.

  '…Seriously? Lemme ask you more ter—nah, screw that. You didn’t even say creatures could have skills! I thought that was just me, man!'

  I took a breath, pushing the frustration down.

  "Okay, let's just rest for now and have lunch before we move forward."

  We headed up to the second floor. I found my own temporary room and stepped inside.

  It was quiet. The light from outside spilled through the window—it wasn’t even dark. 9:40 AM.

  I sat down in the corner, letting my back rest against the cold wall.

  Trying to calm myself.

  ‘Inhale… exhale…’

  Alright. System—can I create a skill like "Swift"?'

  > Ding!

  Host: Creating a movement-type skill requires performing tasks reted to that action, simir to how new abilities are created.

  'Here we go again… "tasks." No shortcuts, huh? Fine. But what about skills like [Conversation], [Identification], [Decompose]?'

  > Ding!

  Host: Those are basic system-assigned skills. This was expined previously.

  'Crap… yeah. That’s your default package, not some freakin’ pnetary upgrade. Why didn’t I think of that?'

  Oh right—

  'System, you didn’t even show me a choice st time!'

  > Ding!

  Host: The system does not randomize abilities. Choices only appear after sufficient data has been gathered from the host’s behavior and actions.

  '...I didn’t even consider that.'

  I leaned my head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

  Let’s see what I can really do with all this…

  I shifted my focus to the marble-like object lying on my hand.

  This thing… it didn’t decompose. It was left behind after the body was completely gone.

  I used [Identification] on the red, gem-like core.

  ---

  [Item: Core (Low Level)]

  (Note: Originated from a low-level creature)

  Item Uses:

  1. Can heal wounds for creatures level 20 and below.

  (Note: Cannot regrow missing limbs or fully repair broken ones.)

  2. Can extend the active duration of an ability by 1 minute.

  (Note: Has no effect if the ability already has a 2-hour or longer activation limit.)

  3. Can be used to create a new ability with a base success rate of 10%.

  (Note: Final chance = 10% - (number of current abilities)%. Cannot go below 0%.)

  ---

  Looking at the core, I realized—this thing might be more useful for someone else.

  I ate my lunch quickly, not really tasting it, then made my way over to the group.

  The atmosphere felt light, at least on the surface.

  The two adults weren’t really talking—just sitting nearby, quietly keeping watch.

  Samantha and Lena were chatting with each other, their voices low but animated.

  Ethan was there too, mostly just nodding along to whatever they were saying.

  It was calm… but I could tell everyone was still a little on edge after what happened.

  Though honestly, they didn’t even know what really happened.

  They saw the body. They knew it was fast.

  But they didn’t feel the thing’s killing intent—didn’t see it vanish and reappear like a ghost.

  Didn’t stand face to face with something that could end them in one move.

  Only I knew how close that was.

  Remember something

  'crap system do you mean creature even human have that's

  >Ding!

  Host is correct.

  By the time it hit 12:30 PM, I gnced at the group.

  ‘Man… I really need more people. A pce won’t run properly with just a handful of us.’

  We made our way down to the first floor, then started moving out, following Ethan as he led us south.

  We were slow and cautious, covering around 100 meters every 15 minutes.

  Less than an hour passed, and I figured we were getting close—about 600 meters from the building we had rested in.