"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Zayden was hammering away, unaware that Tyrel and Valeria were watching him from a distance. A few hours earlier, they had finished dealing with the horde, but Zayden hadn't returned yet. Concerned for his safety, they decided to search for him, only to find him here, lost in his work.
"When did he learn to forge?" Tyrel remarked, a look of interest on his face. Valeria watched Zayden, admiring his graceful figure as he hammered at the anvil. For some reason, her heart fluttered slightly.
"Let's not interrupt his concentration," she suggested. "It could cause what he's working on to fail."
They slowly walked into the workshop and saw a pile of weapons—seven in total. There were four rare swords among them, along with several common daggers.
"These are rare weapons!" Tyrel exclaimed, surprised. "When did my friend get so skilled?"
Just then, the clanging stopped.
"Failed again," Zayden muttered in frustration. "I can't seem to get them to the unique tier." He turned around and, noticing Tyrel and Valeria, was taken aback. It was only now that he realized how late it had gotten.
"Bro, I didn't know you were this good," Tyrel said, holding one of the rare swords, a greedy glint in his eyes. He could feel the quality of the blade.
Zayden quickly snatched the sword from Tyrel and stored it in his dimension ring. "Not yours."
"But you already have a lot more! Giving me one won't hurt your stock," Tyrel complained.
"I'm not giving you anything, and you wouldn't be able to use it well anyway since it's made from my cocoon," Zayden replied.
"I can make something for you from your cocoon shells..." Tyrel's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"But not now," Zayden quickly added, causing Tyrel's enthusiasm to dim.
Zayden noticed subtle changes in both of his friends. They weren't very obvious, but there was a slight increase in their strength. At this point in the apocalypse, he was certain there were very few as strong as they were. But things could change.
Zayden packed up the forge, and the trio headed out of the workshop. On their way to the gym, Tyrel and Valeria began to explain.
According to them, after the five strongest nulls had been killed, defeating the remaining nulls had become much easier, even though most of them were over three levels higher than the group. Thanks to their efforts, everyone who fought managed to reach level ten or higher, and most people were now attempting their evolution.
Hearing this, Zayden couldn't help but smile. This unexpected turn of events brought many rewards. However, it also meant that staying at the college any longer would be dangerous. They needed to find shelter, if possible, to establish their stronghold. Zayden was already working on plans to form his shelter.
****
A few minutes later, they were already in the gym.
The gym was lively, after all, everyone had managed to overcome a disaster. But Zayden was still frowning.
He could feel the energy in the air. Everyone had gotten stronger. It was a good thing, but right now it would bring them more harm than good. So, leaving the college was a must.
'We need to work towards leaving the college in the next two days if possible'
In one corner of the room was a pile of orbs, from red to yellow, amounting to about seventy.
At this point, the rest of the team had seen Zayden and walked up to him. He could feel their changes and even see their levels. Every single one of them had reached level fourteen.
"Emergency meeting," Zayden said and walked to the table.
There was skepticism on the faces of some of them, but they had to move. It was like their increase in power was making them a little bit prideful, so seeing Zayden commanding them without knowing his strength was weird, to say the least.
But some people had no problem with it. In their heart, they had already taken Zayden as the de facto leader of the group.
Once they were seated at the table, Amara began.n
"There are fifty-four red orbs, eleven orange orbs, and five yellow orbs. The green orbs, which amounted to about ten, have already been handed out to the rest of the group."
Zayden frowned
"Who authorized that?"
"Well, we just thought that since we fought those nulls, we should be the ones to take the orbs."
Zayden pondered for a while. Even though he knew the future, he had no leadership experience, but at least he understood a few things. And from what he understood, there should be a system of power.
Unfortunately, the trust in the group was minimal. So there was nothing he could do about it now, but he believed that as the trust grew, some changes would be made.
"Of the twenty-three of us that went to the canteen to power level, as you called it, seven of us are already at level fourteen, while the rest are undergoing their evolution."
Amara concluded.
"It's good that we managed to come out of this without any casualties, but things won't remain so, more so if we stay in the gym waiting for help," Zayden was irate.
"So what do you think we should do?" Isara asked, after all, she was still the students' council president.
"We need to leave the college and find a shelter on our own. If we don't find one, we could create one by ourselves."
Everyone was shocked by what Zayden said. It hadn't even been a week since the apocalypse began, and no one was sure they were ready to leave the college.
"I'm not sure we're ready for that," Isara complained
"It doesn't matter if we're ready or not, we have to do it, or we'll die."
Zayden could see some frowns on their faces, but he was unperturbed as he continued.
"What do you think caused the horde to attack the gym?"
Everyone was silent as if nothing came to mind. They had no idea of what caused the horde to attack the gym.
"Nulls are attracted to life force. And with this many people here, the gym is just like a beacon of life force, attracting all the nulls in the environment."
"Now you might think that you just need to get stronger and you'll be able to fight off the nulls, but that also won't work."
"As we get stronger, our life force increase,s so unless we stop growing stronger, which will be detrimental for our survival, or we learn how to control our life force, staying in the gym will be detrimental to not just us, but the rest of the people leaning on us."
Zayden's analysis sunk into their head as they started to think about what he said.
"So, how will leaving the college solve this?"
Aiden asked the question on the mind of everyone.
"Well, outside the college, in random areas of the city, are things known as shelter crystals. With these crystals, shelters can be formed to block lifeforce from leaving a particular area at the same time protecting us from the nulls as we get stronger."
Hearing this, a look of realization appeared on all of their faces. Now they knew what Zayden was working towards. But some things still weren't clear.
"How did you come about this information?"
Amara, ever curious, asked, hints of skepticism on her face.
Not just her, but everybody else wanted to know how Zayden got all his information. Because every time, he always had the solutions to things, like he knew what was going to happen.
Zayden couldn't tell them that he knew the future, so he had to come up with something.
But he was expecting this question, and he already had an answer planned.
"Well, it was due to a special quest I got from the system for being the first person to level up," Zayden said with a straight face.
Everyone nodded their heads, thinking that it was believable.
"So what do you think we should do?" Isara asked.
"Before I say anything, you guys should come with me outside the gym."
Everyone stood up from the table and headed outside the gym with Zayden.
Once they were out, Zayden looked at the night sky, the stars glittering in beauty.
Without a word, he formed the dark spike, his gaze never leaving the sky. He extended his arm far back to its limit and released the spike.
With a deafening boom, the spike broke the sound barrier and flew into the air past the clouds and kept flying.
Everyone was confused. Why would Zayden do something like this?
That was until they saw it, the spike suddenly crashed loudly as if it hit some kind of barrier.
The shock on the faces of everyone was alarming.
With a smile, Zayden turned to look at them. There was no need to explain multiple things now.
"We're stuck in"...