"Hey, Willie, I've returned."
Leo led three women to the room where Adam was residing. He was lying on the bed, covered by a blanket, while Willie stood nearby, looking concernedly at him.
"What took you so long? I already started worrying..."
When Willie turned around, he was so stunned to see fellow student girls, and not to say hot chicks, that he forgot what he was saying. He suddenly tensed up as he grew more nervous. Numerous thoughts raced through his mind as he contemplated what to say to them.
'What's his deal? Is he that weak towards girls?'
Leo was slightly amused by his reaction. Willie blushed slightly as he tried to link the words with each other, stuttering in his speech. He looked like a child who was caught doing something inappropriate.
"Willie, I've found some survivors upstairs. How is Adam?"
"...He is still burning like hell. I laid him on the bed and covered him with a blanket, but it was everything I could do. I didn't find any medicine in the room."
He seemed to regain his composure. At the same time he spoke, his eyes were shining as he looked at the girls. Leo didn't know what he was up to, but it didn't look good to him.
"Charlotte, please, do what you can. I'm entrusting Adam to you."
As Leo urged Charlotte, she and 2 other girls inched closer to the sick person in the room. As they gazed at a person lying on the bed, they couldn't help but gasp for breath when they saw him. Even though he was resting on the bed, weak and sick, Adam still looked like a charming prince from the novels.
His white porcelain skin shone under all the sweat he had due to his fever, giving him a more surreal feeling. Combined with his black hair and sharp facial features, Adam still looked handsome as ever, causing a gasp from the girls.
'Cool as ever. Look how he is hitting on chicks even when he is unconscious.'
Leo looked at his best friend with slight amusement. Throughout school, Adam's charisma often drew unwanted attention from classmates, leading to frequent misunderstandings and jealousy. On the other hand, Willie looked at Adam as he found a mortal enemy, or it looked like that since he looked at Adam with burning eyes.
"It's worse than I thought. He is heating too much. Someone, bring a warm tube of water. Ahm... Leo, do you have any food to feed him? He needs to eat something if he wants to get better."
"Is canned food good enough?"
"We can feed him with it now. Later, I can cook something up."
Willie quickly went after the tube of water, while Leo took several cans of food. As two other girls saw the food in Leo's hands, their stomachs growled unintentionally.
"Sorry, can we also eat a bit? We didn't eat for hours already."
They blushed slightly as they spoke. Sarah came from a common family, while Hazel's father was a wealthy businessman, so they never starved before. It felt extremely humiliating to ask for food from someone else. Just like how losing a cherished possession makes its value truly apparent, people often fail to appreciate what they have until it's gone.
'If I had known it before, I would have taken a second bag with me.'
Leo unwillingly passed two cans of food to Hazel and Sarah, then he gave three of them to Charlotte, so she could feed Adam.
Two girls were dissatisfied with a small amount of food but had no face to ask for more. They just grunted in dissatisfaction and ate their own share. However, it didn't escape from Leo's eyes.
He helped Charlotte, who blushed slightly as she was taking off Adam's shirt, to wipe the sweat from Adam's body. After they wiped his body with warm water and fed him two cans of food, Charlotte fed him a temperature lowering pill.
"We should leave him alone. He needs to rest without any disturbance."
Charlotte urged others to leave the room. Standing in the corridor without a clear plan, Leo felt the need to express gratitude to Charlotte for her hard work.
"Charlotte, take another can of food as my gratitude. Please look after Adam until he wakes up."
With heartfelt gratitude, he retrieved another can from his bag and extended it to her as a token of appreciation. He was truly thankful to her since nobody knew how awakening would proceed. If her help could improve the chances of a successful awakening, he was grateful enough.
"Hey, can we also take another can?"
"Yeah, isn't it just a can of food?"
Sarah and Hazel couldn't help but object to him. Apparently, a can of food wasn't enough to fill their stomachs, so they thought that it was appropriate to ask for more. They didn't ask for one before since they thought it would be bad to ask for another one when every one of them was given only one.
"It seems that you've misunderstood me. We risked our lives to get the bag full of food, so if you want to eat as much as you want, then go outside, kill zombies, and ransack the grocery shop nearby. It may have been just a can of food before, but today it is a food that is hard to get. If you want a share from us, then don't slack off and prove that you're useful."
Leo gazed at them icily as he directed his killing intent that he had honed over the 5 years to Hazel and Sarah. His scar on his forehead made him look especially frightening, so they quickly grew paler as they remembered how he had killed a zombie before their room.
"If you want, you can rest in one of the dorm rooms. Charlotte, you said that you can cook something, so if you need anything for it, ask it directly from me. Willie, you can resume training your innate ability. Tomorrow, we need to find another source of food."
Giving commands to the people around him, Leo broke several doors of the closed dorm rooms, in case someone wanted to rest and sleep on the bed. As for him, he entered the room where Adam was resting and sat cross-legged on the second bed. Even though Charlotte said to not disturb him, he wanted to be close to Adam if something unexpected happens during the awakening.
'Status'
[Leonard Wright]
[Level: 4]
[Class: None]
[Survival coins: 84]
[Mana: 7/7]
[Strength: 16]
[Agility: 10]
[Stamina: 11]
[Intelligence: 11]
[Spirit: 1]
[Attribute points: 0]
[Innate ability: Regression]
[Skills: Elementary Cooking (LVL 2), Gaming (LVL 8), Mathematics (LVL 7), Leadership (LVL 1), Meditation (LVL 3), Flash Step (LVL 1), Mana Application (LVL 3), Mana Threads (LVL 3), Mana Barrier (LVL 2), Mana Enhancement (LVL 2)]
'My stamina exceeded 10 points. I should try using another skill from my past life.'
A long time ago, when he just started a career as a hunter, Leo thought how he would be able to kill monsters much stronger than him. Most of the hunters from his time were already high-leveled Enhancers and Awakeners, so they weren't able to give him that answer.
At last, he concluded.
'If I don't have an innate ability, then I will compensate it with skills. If I have low stats, I will learn skills that will enhance them. Have high mana? Then use it to enhance your body. Have high stamina? Then burn it to get stronger. Use every stat to its maximum.'
As he thought about his experience, Leo couldn't help but smile. In his past life, his level was low and his stats weren't so high because he started 3 years later than others, but he was famous for his ability to kill monsters several levels higher than him. If he had been given more time, he would have reached the level of top hunters in several years.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Leo entered a special rhythm as he paced his breathing. His heart raced as blood flowed faster through his body. At the same time, his body started heating up as more blood flowed into his muscles and skin.
If strength was more about muscles and agility was more about reaction time and nerve cells, then stamina was more about blood cells, internal organs, and the metabolism of a person. Faster blood flows through his body, more stamina he uses, and stronger he becomes.
To put it simply, people are usually in an energy-conserving state. They use less stamina to last longer. However, the skill he is trying to learn now uses more stamina for more strength.
[You have learned Reinforced Breathing (LVL 1)]
[Regression is reacting towards your new skill]
[Your skill Reinforced Breathing has turned into Reinforced Breathing (LVL 2)]
It was another skill he learned by himself, as in the case with Mana Application and Meditation. He didn't seek help from the system since he saved his skill points for more valuable skills. It was a trick he learned from one of his martial artist friends.
Reinforced Breathing had the same effect as Mana Enhancement. It increased his strength and agility stats by 5% for every level, the same as Mana Enhancement. However, Reinforced Breathing used stamina to enhance the body, while Mana Enhancement used mana for the same effect.
It wasn't only him who learned skills like Reinforced Breathing. It's just that increasing its level was extremely hard since it was straining and draining. Furthermore, hunters strongly depended on the system to learn new skills rather than hard work.
On the other hand, the Mana Enhancement was a skill that he learned accidentally trying to copy the principles behind Reinforced Breathing. Only a handful of individuals possessed such skills.
After he learned the Reinforced Breathing, Leo meditated until someone knocked on the door.
"Leo, I made a stew from the ingredients I found in the kitchen. Come out and eat."
Charlotte stood at the entrance to the room, wearing an apron she had found in the kitchen.