<h4>Chapter 312: An enemy at the doorstep</h4>


    "How in the world did you manage to misunderstood me banning you from practicing with a sword with allowing you to do that to your legs?!"


    Three days after Zombie changed his training regime, he was already in the farm house''s kitchen getting his legs bandaged.


    With just a few practice sessions he managed to basically skin himself alive.


    "It''s training, what can you do about it? I want results."


    Zombie didn''t even flinch while Papaya was putting more healing salve on his knees, shins, and heels of the feet, before bandaging it, while Laura was standing over him and shaking her head in disbelief.


    "The world you need to learn, Zombie, is restraint. You cannot continue doing this to yourself!"


    The woman eximed in agitation and pointed at the wounds that no three-year-old should ever have to suffer through.


    "You will have a lot of time in the future! You have your whole life ahead of you! What you are doing now isn''t giving you a head start, it will only make you regret not doing things properly in the future!"


    Laura continued talking, by that point, it was clear that another sermon was unavoidable...


    "What Pear and Nectarine wanted for you to happen, was to let your body grow naturally, and only after the system would expose your real inclination they would push you in the right direction. While their actions were caused by their faith, they weren''t really mistaken, that is a legitimate strategy for training. Some of the nobles are even following it too, although not all..."


    |I guess I shouldn''t let her in on our little secret about me getting killed and resurrected as an undead in a few years, right?|


    Zombie let the woman talk and instead sighed internally, turning to the being sealed inside of him.


    |I mean, you can tell her everything if you like. Whether or not she will think you''re crazy and decides to lock you up depends on her tolerance level really,|


    Patience responded sounding as if they were shrugging their shoulders.


    |She has a point, training like you would end up putting a lot of strains on your body, not to mention you arepletely ignoring the possible bonus rewards granted bypleting the quests. From her perspective you are actually wasting your energy and making life harder for yourself – so don''t do anything stupid, we don''t need her to get really angry and try to stop you. After turning into an undead it will be harder for you to level up your skills because of how the low-rank undead are, so it''s important you''ll get the optimal skillset as soon as possible.|


    As it turned out, Zombie just traded listening to one sermon into listening to another one.


    "...and besides that...!"


    Laura was taking a breath while continuing to point at the boy''s legs when...


    "Laura. Thest few days had been quite hectic and we''ve run out of the healing salve. We have most of the ingredients but we need the alcohol to put it together – do you mind going for a little shopping?"


    Papaya turned to the woman and lightly waved the mostly empty jar.


    "Wha...? Oh! Yeah, sure I can. We are sure running through them really fasttely, better stock up while we can..."


    Laura flinched and looked at the man in surprise, but then nodded and agreed without making any trouble.


    "We are not done with this conversation."


    She turned to Zombie one more time and dered before walking off to grab the money and left the house.


    "...sorry for causing you trouble, you don''t really need to put all those medicines, I want to train some of the regeneration skills."


    Zombie watched the retired adventurer leave and after a few awkward minutes inplete silence, he bowed his head apologetically towards the man patching him up.


    "Don''t worry about a thing. This salve increases the body''s natural healing abilities so it should actually help you with that training."


    Papaya smiled at him and winked.


    "Huh...? Really?"


    Zombie asked surprised.


    |Really.|


    Patience confirmed.


    "Yes, you can trust an apothecary when ites to the medicine you know."


    Papaya''s smile got bigger and more confident as he finished wrapping up Zombie''s legs.


    "Did you get the skill you wanted?"


    The man asked while standing up.


    "Yes, though it took a lot longer than I thought it would..."


    Zombie nodded and confirmed with an awkward smirk.


    For someone with a leg power affinity, it sure did take a lot of effort to actually receive a proper leg-based attack skill from the system.


    "That''s good. I don''t know why you are pushing yourself so hard at such a young age, but the least I can do is to make sure to patch you up whenever you hurt yourself."


    Papaya smiled and shrugged his shoulder before patting Zombie''s head once and...


    "...NOOOO! LET ME GOOoo..."


    *rumble*


    A sudden scream and the sound of a struggleing from the outsidepletely threw off the peaceful atmosphere.


    "What in the system''s name...?! Was that Mia''s voice?!"


    Papaya gasped and run to the door without a moment of hesitation.


    "You stay here, Zombie!"


    He left a hushed warning before busting through the front door...


    "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU''RE DOING!"


    And roared furiously as soon as he left Zombie''s field of vision.


    "..."


    Zombie furrowed his brows and got down his chair.


    "...tsk...!"


    Even with pain resistance skill, he flinched once he put his weight on his freshly bandaged legs.


    |Might as well check on what''s happening.|


    He thought to himself while going for one of the cupboards and pulling out the longest knife avable.


    |Don''t try to act dumb, you wouldn''t be going for a weapon if you didn''t know what was going on.|


    Patience scoffed mockingly but didn''t try to stop the boy at all.


    |It must be the same people that harassed the kids here before – they went for Mia as soon as they made sure that Laura left, they must have observed the farm for the past few days.|


    Zombie shrugged his shoulders while listening to the noisesing from the outside.


    From what it sounded like to Zombie''s ears, Papaya was furiously arguing with someone.


    |Papaya''s an apothecary with little to no fighting skills, a good person, but sadly, good people have very little to say in a world where any scum can rise to power with enough dedication.|


    Zombie sighed internally tightly gripping the knife''s handle.


    He turned around and started limping on his legs stiff from all theyers of bandages and healing salve.


    |It sound''s like they are taking quite a long time with talking though... they might be weaker than you give them the credit for, or actually have a conscience?|


    Patience noticed, sounding a bit curious.


    "KHAHAHAHAHAHA! Bandits from the Envys territory having a conscience? Are you kidding me?"


    The hesitation in Patience''s voice made Zombie burst out intoughter.


    *TWACK*


    *thump*


    "PAPAYA, NOO-ough...!"


    ...but right after that, a sound of someone getting hit with a blunt weapon came from the outside followed by the sound of the body falling to the ground and Mia shouted once more but her mouth got blocked almost immediately.


    "Patience... Can you determine whether characters will be important to the story by just looking at them?"


    Zombie''s expression turned dark as he put his hand on the door handle.


    |...only one way to find out...|


    Even though their words carried the meaning suggesting as if they were hesitant, Patience''s tone certainly felt like they were absolutely furious that some low-lives tried to mess with the uniquely named character.


    ...and Zombie went outside...