When Adam woke up, it was already the early morning. Both of them joked a bit with each other as they prepared to leave the room. Adam looked much more vigorous than before as he energetically put his clothes on. They took a quick shower in their dorm room.
'A soft bed and a shower are luxuries that are hard to enjoy at the end of the world. Thankfully, a water treatment system is still active for the time being.'
Leo couldn't help but think about such conveniences. The water wasn't strongly contaminated by the virus since it was still the initial stage of the Holocaust. Only concentrated amounts of the virus, such as fluids of a zombie or direct infection of blood with it, were able to turn a person into a zombie. If the immunity of a human system had been so weak, humans would have already gone extinct.
Strangely enough, small amounts of the virus were even beneficial for people's evolution. It would have been strange if people had evolved so suddenly since evolution wasn't a rapid process. It was more gradual and slower, taking ages for people to adapt to a new environment.
As far as Leo knew, microorganisms were first to evolve, adapting to the new environment or precisely to the presence of mana. Then, they started influencing other larger living creatures, such as animals, birds, and humans. It is more correct to say that zombies were failed evolution versions of humans whose bodies were being controlled by the virus.
On the other hand, people who had successfully woke up after the blue mist had descended had fused with a virus; otherwise, people would have never been able to control and sense mana around them. Living cells formed symbiotic relationships with the virus. It gave them the ability to detect a new form of energy around them, boosting their evolutionary potential, while cells took viruses inside of them.
However, since zombies were moving concentrated entities of the virus, they had the highest evolutionary potential among all living creatures. The only flaw of zombies as perfect evolutionary material was the fact that they were already dead. Therefore, they needed to supply their evolution with organic matter.
'It is already time to wake up others. We should have a quick breakfast and go hunting zombies. I bet that Adam is starving like hell.'
As Leo and Adam left their rooms, they saw that Charlotte was already awoken. For some reason, she looked like she had a terrible time sleeping. Charlotte had dark circles under her eyes as exhaustion could be seen on her face.
"Charlotte, what are you doing early in the morning?"
Leo couldn't help but ask her about it. She greatly contrasted the way she looked yesterday. It looked like her soul was sucked from her just in one night.
"I just had problems with sleeping. Don't worry much about it. Leonard, I had already put everything on the table, so you should wake up others."
Apparently, she had much more to say about her state, yet she put a strong front to hide her emotions. Even though he noticed it, he didn't think much about it. Every survivor had their own share of worries and problems, and it wasn't appropriate to peep into somebody's life.
"Hey, Adam, go say hello to other girls. I'll wake up, Willie."
With such words, he entered Willie's room, who was sleeping soundly on the bed. Waking him up and saying him come to eat, Leo returned to the kitchen, where Charlotte still stood there, now, deep in thought about something.
After several minutes, everybody had gathered before the table. It seemed that Sarah and Hazel had already calmed down over the night, while Charlotte looked worse than yesterday. Leo couldn't help but notice that two girls were sending occasional glances towards Adam.
"Since Adam had gotten better, we need to go hunting zombies. Girls, did you already decide what to do? Are you going with us or are you staying in the dorm building? Before you give your answer, you should know that even though the dormitory building is safer than outside, we wouldn't be here to save you if you got in any trouble."
Leo provided them with a long explanation, so they will consider it twice before answering him. It was true that while fighting zombies, you can lose your life, but every fight made them stronger than before.
"I've decided to stay here."
"Me also!"
Hazel and Sarah seemed to already think about it before, as they rejected going outside. Leo didn't force them, nor did he try to convince them since it was understandable why they opted to stay safer in the building.
"If nobody wants to go with us, then..."
"I want to join you."
Suddenly, Charlotte interjected into his words. Since she was silent all along, Leo assumed that she was also unwilling to come with them. He was stunned at her words since it seemed that she wished to join them, even though she was as scared as other girls.
She didn't seem to be brave enough to kill zombies, yet she volunteered to do it.
'Well, it works fine with us'
Leo welcomed the idea of having another hunter in their group, seeing value in Charlotte's participation. No matter what reason she has, it is still better than avoiding them all her life.
"I assume that you lost your wooden bat, right?"
"How do you know?"
Charlotte was badly startled by the fact that he knew it since she never told anyone. Seeing that she was surprised by his response, Leo looked at her amusingly. Items from the system had a tendency to disappear in 20 minutes if the system regards them as having no owner. The same goes for survival coins and other items dropped from monsters.
"Then, get ready. We will leave after 30 minutes."
...
After 30 minutes, 4 people had gathered before the exit doors from the dormitory building. Leo wielded a sword, Adam carried his broken spear, Willie brandished a kitchen knife, and Charlotte gripped the wooden bat previously used by Leo. He didn't throw it away, storing it in his bag since it was small enough to fit in it.
Leaving the dormitory building, the first thing Charlotte had seen was a bloody mess left by Leo when he killed the big group of zombies in front of the entry point. Rotting blood and gore were scattered on the ground as more than 30 corpses lay on the ground. It was truly a sight to behold.
"What's this? How..."
Upon seeing the dead bodies, her face turned pale, and she immediately began vomiting. She stuttered weakly as she fell on her knees and started to empty her stomach. The content of her breakfast rested on the ground.
After several minutes of calming her, Leo followed after Willie to the zombie wandering alone around the residential area. Leo quietly approached the zombie, cut off its limbs, and then presented it to Charlotte. She gazed questioningly at him as she didn't understand what was meant by it.
"Kill it. If you can't kill zombies even in such a state, you will be just dragging us down."
He clearly stated the meaning he wanted to convey to her. In response to his instructions, Charlotte's face paled as she observed a limbless zombie regurgitating, causing her discomfort. However, since she already vomited the contents of her stomach, she threw up stomach fluids.
"I don't know what reason you had to join us in our hunting, maybe you wanted to grow stronger or find someone close to you, but there will be no meaning in it if you can't slay a limbless zombie. Initially, it's tough, but confronting fears early on leads to easier challenges in the future."
With such words, Leo even gave her his Rusty Sword, which he thought was already enough for his goodwill. At his words, Charlotte jolted slightly as she weakly grabbed a sword from his hands. It seemed that his words reminded her of something as she steeled her will and pushed the sword into the head of a zombie.
The zombie emitted growls and thrashed violently in an attempt to resist. The most effective way to kill a zombie was to heavily damage its brain or cut off its head.
"It is not enough. You need to do more damage to its brain."
Leo was constantly reminding her of what she was doing wrong. After multiple attempts, she successfully managed to kill the zombie. She jolted slightly as she got a system notification that she had leveled up.
"Put 2 points in strength."
Leo didn't forget to remind her about the allocation of points. Strength was important to sneak attacks on zombies, so it was a necessary stat to kill them at the initial stage. What was the point in allocating attribute points in other stats if you can't even kill a zombie with them?
'With this done, we can finally move to the grinding part.'