Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Zane had spent the majority of his night hunting hundreds if not thousands of Walkers within the general vicinity of Gravestone. The Tier I undead were largely harmless to him now that he was at a level on par with Tier IV undead.

The only way he would find himself in trouble is if he were to do something stupid and get himself surrounded by the monsters. Because of this, he had spent the night spilling countless liters of coagulated blood across the streets of the city that had once been the capital of Nevada.

The amount of gold, materials, miscellaneous loot, and blood crystals that Zane received was actually quite impressive. In fact, Zane found that he could sell Tier I blood crystals for a hefty profit of 10 gold each. And by now, his stockpile of Tier I blood crystals was in the thousands.

Considering that Tier I blood crystals were only worth 10 experience points each, and Zane now needed tens of thousands of xp per level. They had actually become more useful as a means of currency, both in terms of gold and as a form of bartering. After all, the value of ten gold was worth far more than ten xp.

Currently, the primary way for him to level up was to unlock achievements. All of which granted him a significant amount of xp. Because of this, Zane looked at his stockpile, and decided that he would liquidate 500 Blood Crystals, along with his miscellaneous loot, in order to get the 5,000 Gold he needed for his next piece of armor.

After doing this, Zane immediately purchased the Recipe for the Stalker's Vambraces, where he then returned to Gravestone with the intent of entering the Grim Forge. It took some time to craft these so-called vambraces, roughly thirty minutes even with his enhanced dexterity. And when he was finished, he looked at them in the mirror with the intent to inspect their appearance.

To call these gloves, vambraces was an inaccurate description, as far as Zane was concerned. Instead, they appeared to look more like slim line gauntlets. Like the Cuirass, the outer shell of the armor was made from Stalker's Claws, making it both rigid and flexible material which was almost like an oxymoron if Zane did not witness himself.

Functionally, they felt like a pair of fingerless leather gloves. But aesthetically, they almost looked like a pair of plate gauntlets. The protective shell covered everything from the forearm and even included joint protection at the elbow. All of which seamlessly blended together with the pauldrons and the bicep armor of the cuirass.

The gauntlets were even articulated at the joints, going from the forearms all the way down to covering the knuckles of his fingers and thumbs, while still leaving the fingers themselves bare so that his fine motor skills were unaffected.

There was even extra protection at the knuckles, which caused Zane to stare at them with some hint of fondness in his dark eyes. Concluding that the armor was definitely to his aesthetic sensibilities, Zane then looked at the stars, where he observed that they were much to his liking.

---

[Stalker's Vambraces]

[Item Quality: Rare]

[Item Type: Medium Armor]

[Item Slot: Arms]

[Item Effects:

+10 Armor

Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 2%

Improves your chance to dodge an attack by 2%

Increases Stealth by 20%]

[Set: Stalker's Armor 2/5]

[(2 Set): +10 Armor]

[(3 Set): +2% Damage Resistance ]

[(4 Set): +2% Damage]

[(5 Set): +2 Dexterity]

---

With his second piece of the set, Zane automatically gained a +10 armor bonus, in addition to his current armor, which was 10 from the vambraces, 50 from the cuirass, and 25 from the cloak. Bringing his total armor rating to about 95 right now. Which he had no idea if that was good or not if he was being honest.

But judging by the fact that this was level 15 rare armor, Zane suspected for his level it was probably the best armor rating he could get, aside from perhaps heavy armor, or a higher quality armor set. Which did not appear to exist at his current level.

Thus, Zane was ultimately happy with his equipment, as he walked off into the night, back into the governor's bunker, and towards his bedroom where he had left Elena sleeping peacefully, without the slightest clue that her lover had run off.

Of course, the moment Zane entered the bunker, he saw something peculiar. Madison had woken up, and had left her room. Perhaps because it was dark out, but she did not detect him standing across the hallway watching her.

But when Zane thought about this, it didn't really make sense. Sure, the bunker was dark, but it wasn't pitch black. It was an advanced bunker complex, built through a combination of donations from billionaires and via the embezzlement of the state government's funds.

There were dim lights embedded across the hallways, within the ceilings and the floors themselves. No, the real reason Madison did not detect Zane was because he was standing perfectly still, and his armor was starting to have a passive effect.

He now had a +65% Stealth rating because of the equipment he was currently wearing. Which made it difficult for most beings to detect him under such circumstances. Because of this, Zane crouched down and slowly followed Madison, curious about what she was doing up at this time of the night.

However, when she finally reached her destination, which was standing right in front of his door, Zane's eyes turned cold, as he snuck up from the woman from behind, before she could even detect his presence he had his chest pressed firmly against her back, with a knife held to her throat, all while leaning down and whispering to her from behind.

His breath, now cold due to the decrease in his body temperature that resulted from his unique skill transforming his body in ways that he did not understand, breezed past the girl's silky pink hair, carrying with it his voice that was chilling to the bone.

"And what, pray tell, are you up to exactly?"