"Man this is a dilemma..." Matt mumbled but then he looked at Ethan and thought, 'It's not like this guy can leave me whenever he wants, he would need to be sure that he could survive on his own or support of someone much stronger then me if he wants to leave me and by helping him gain ability I can easily gain his trust so it's the mostly win-win situation'
When everyone settled and were going to sleep Mike remembered something and called out to Matt, "Matt you asked me to check what was inside those zombies head, and I found green gems which were the size of the nail of my pinky. I have given those to Susan for safekeeping, do you wanna check them out"
"No, let's leave it for tomorrow morning," Matt said shaking his head, he had collected enough Gems for himself, so he could leave the ones Mike collected for the others.
Ethan who was the most tired of all was already laying on the sofa getting ready to sleep when Matt called him out.
"Ethan let's talk, I wanna ask you something!" Matt said as he walked towards the balcony.
Sliding the transparent door open Matt entered the balcony followed by Ethan who was having difficulty keeping his eyes open.
"I know you are tired so I will keep it short, Do you wanna gain ability like me and Mike?" asked Matt.
Hearing Matt's question Ethan's eyes shot wide open in surprise as he asks "What?"
"I know you were trying to prove yourself to me earlier by volunteering for som many tasks and I wanted to tell you that I was impressed by that that's why I am asking if you would like a chance to gain an ability. though let me tell you if you gained an ability then I would like you to stay with us at least until most of the people here are good enough to take care of themselves or have gained some ability of there own as giving you this chance is me taking that chance from someone else. So what do you say?" Matt asked
Ethan was silent for a while then with looked at Matt with an extremely serious expression and said "I was with your enemy who was trying to arrest you and hurt your family but instead of killing me, you not only let me live but even help me survive and now that you want to help me gain an ability there is no way I am gonna leave you just like that and it's not like I have somewhere to go. I was an orphan, to begin with, and your mother treats me well so I think I will stick with you"
"Nice, then here eat this piece of meat and you will be able to gain some ability," Matt said as he took out a piece of meat of the size of his palm for Ethan to eat. Since Ethan was much more exhausted than even Natasha who gained her ability from eating level 2 mutated animal meat then he was sure that the palm-size meat of level 3 black bear would be enough for Ethan.
Matt took the piece of meat from Ethan and started eating it. When he took the first bite, the juiciness of the meat made him even forget about gaining the ability and he gobbled up the rest of it in the next two bites. Only after eating the whole thing did he remembered that it was meant for him to gain some ability.
But before he could panic, he felt warm energy near his navel point and closed his eyes. The next moment when he opened his eyes he felt the changes in his body. Looking around his body he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. The reason was quite simple his body structure had changed. The nails of both his fingers and legs had grown and become like claws, his senses have enhanced to a great level. But the most distinctive part was that he had gained muscle mass along with a large number of hairs on his body.
Matt who was looking at Ethan's change was definitely surprised as the ability that he had gained was the animal transformation which is a part of Sorcerer. It allows someone to gain the features of the mutant animal they have eaten to gain that ability. Since Ethan ate the meat of Black bear he got his claws, strength, durability heightened senses, and hairs.
The current Ethan could easily match Matt in his strength and his defense would most likely be higher then Matt as that is one of the most important features of a bear but he would still lose to him in agility.
"Damn.... quite a transformation you got there!" Matt continued as he poked Ethan's skin "Right now you won't even need to worry about getting bitten by the zombies as I am sure that their teeth won't be able to penetrate your skin"
"What? Are you sure?' Ethan asked in surprise.
"Of course I am" Matt replied while he thought 'Though that's only true for zombie of Level 0'
"Then I can take care of them by myself," Ethan said in delight.
"Wow wow wow! Hold your horses' dude. We don't want you to get besieged by zombies ok, and besides, there is a limit for how much longer this transformation can stay, just like for how many times we can use our ability" Matt stated.
"Oh! And here I thought that I won't have to fear the zombies anymore" Ethan said.
"Well, you won't have to worry about them when you are in this form. Today you will know for how long you can stay in this form and tomorrow you can try how much you have gain from it" Matt explained.
"Yeah, you are right. Thanks, Matt for giving me this power. I promise I won't let you down" Ethan stated.
"Yeah I know" replied Matt.
After a minute Ethan returned back to his normal form and fell to his knees once again getting exhausted this time due to his transformation.
"Well looks like your limit is a minute for now! It can be increased in the future so you shouldn't worry about it" Matt stated.
"Yeah I won't" replied Ethan
"Ok, it's quite late and I know you were already quite exhausted. So you should get back to sleep"