"So? Aren't you guys supposed to run for your lives" Jason looked at the remaining men who were looking at him with wide eyes as they could not comprehend what just happened. A second ago their leader was all looking cool as he was about to teach the girl a lesson and then in the blink of an eye, he dropped dead and he and his jeep exploded in a loud explosion.
All the men sprung into action as they scrambled hurriedly to run away from Jason. It was quite a sight to see tens of grown men run away from a guy who just entered his twenties.
"We'll this was Quite exciting but let's get back to work," Jason said with a smirk as he jolted everyone away from their thoughts.They had to complete the truck modification fast and move out of here to avoid another event like this.
He gazed at Aiden's still scared face, he knew that Aiden still was not aware of all the implications of the apocalypse and it was her first time seeing him kill another person.
He made eye contact with Arya, he silently indicated towards Aiden and Arya immediately understood what he meant as she walked towards Aiden and started talking with her in a sooting tone to calm her down.
He could try to do that himself but he knew that Arya would do a far better job at calming his sister down and explaining her softly.
He, on the other hand, focused on the area of explosion and walked towards it. He looked inside the now wrecked jeep and after looking around for some time he found a red coloured bead which looked as if it was a pure ball of red hot flame. He moved his hand towards it and surprisingly it wasn't hot at all it just looked like a ball of flame.
He put it in his mouth and then gulped it down.
Suddenly he felt something wrong as his body started heating up in an exponential manner. He had expected a normal power upgrade with no difficulties but here it was as his body was heating in blazing fast speed.
"Wtf is happening," Jason asked the system in a panicked tone.
"Your fundamental being is evolving into a higher life form" The system explained.
Seeing that Jason did not understand what it meant the system's conscience explained further.
"You can call it your second evolution as you are being evolved into a higher level being. There are levels in evolution and before you were at the first level and now you are at the second level and it keeps going on as you grow stronger."
"Did I chance upon the one percent chance of obtaining the powers of the previous owner of the bead?" Jason asked as it could be the explanation for the sudden power upgrade.
"No, it's just a normal process of evolution. Youll go through them as you consume more mana beads"
"I wish I got the flame powers, they looked awesome," Jason commented with a sad face before fainting and falling headfirst and causing a loud noise as his had landed on the broken metal part of the jeep.
"Jason!!"
Kim had been watching Jason as picked up the mana bead and ate it and after that his body swayed a little and then he fell headfirst on the wrecked jeep.
She was the one to scream out his name as she rushed towards his fallen body, causing all the others to rush after her.
When they reached him, Jason was unconscious with his face fitted onto a dent on the metal of the car. When they turned him over there was no scratch but his face was red and his body temperature was abnormally high.
Kim put her fingers on his neck to feel his pulse as she tried to make sense of his situation. All the others just stood back with anxious faces as they waited for her to complete her assessment.
While Arya was a medical student Kim was a military student who had more on-field knowledge about such situations and how to act in the time of crisis.
" His temperature is abnormally high and his pulse rate is also quite high but I saw him eat the mana bead left by the fire man so he should be ongoing an evolution again."
She took him in her arms bridal style and walked towards the bus.
Had it not been a serious situation harry would be laughing his ass out on seeing such a scene but right now all of them were worried about him so they just followed her silently.
Aiden's eyes were watery as she followed Kim but she did not cry as she had decided to be strong from now on and be of some help to her brother than be a liability for him.
Kim gently put his body on a bus seat. She looked at the other and said
"Let Aiden take care of him, we should start working on the things Jason assigned to us before" Now that Jason was unconscious she had to assume the position of command temporarily as they had less time and a lot of work to be done.
Arya gazed at Jason with a longing gaze as she walked up and caressed his face and looked at him for some time before she turned away with moist eyes and walked on to help harry in his work
****
Jason woke up groggy and he suddenly felt something different. The amount of mana inside his body had increased by quite a margin but the biggest difference was a invisible membrane covering his skin as if it was a part of his skin. He tried touching it but his hand passed right through it and he could not touch it. He definitely felt the membrane but he could not touch it which felt quite weird."
"What is this thing covering my skin," He asked the system.
"It's a mana barrier it is invisible and it only acts when the user is in danger and stops minor damages from enemies. It forms naturally when an organism evolves to the second level of evolution" The system's explanation echoed in his mind.
"How strong is it"
" It is strong enough to stop normal attacks which have either no mana in them or are not strong enough to break it."
"Fuck me sideways" Jason cursed as he thought of his gun skills becoming obsolete in the near future when zombies completed their second evolution. From what he could deduce, zombies were still ongoing their first evolution and level two zombies were still in a transition phase in between their first evolution.