"139," Craig reported after doing a quick and thorough headcount.
Hearing the number, Dorian nodded and moved to the next phase of his plan. He quickly selected thirty students and ordered them to go deep into the cafeteria where the food supplies were stored, instructing them to grab as much as they could and bring it back.
He asked Brandon and Muller to accompany them to ensure they did the job properly and to protect them if a zombie should attack.
As the thirty left to gather food, Dorian fell into deep thought, resurfacing the first trial of 'Ethereal Descent' in his mind. He went through all the strategies the main character used—the ones that failed and the ones that helped him progress.
He selected the best ones and crafted his own roadmap with them.
'It would be nighttime in the next three or so hours, and zombies are usually at their peak strength during the dark hours. We need to leave here and find a place to stay for the night and continue our journey again tomorrow,' thought Dorian.
Starmap Academy is a very big facility with five massive dormitories. Before the apocalypse, the dormitory security of Starmap Academy was considered one of the best in the world.
If they could get to the nearest dormitory, which is thirty minutes away from the cafeteria, they would have a secured place for the night.
Unfortunately, there was no food in the dormitory, which is why he asked the students to gather as much food as they could before leaving.
Thirty minutes later, Brandon and the others returned, but Dorian quickly noticed that something was off.
"I told you to grab as much as possible, but this... this is all you found?" Dorian let out, his voice tight with frustration, his frown deepening as he eyed the meager supplies.
Out of the thirty-two students who returned, only five of them were holding baskets containing a very small amount of canned food. This amount wouldn't even be sufficient to feed forty people if they ate until their full—it was just too small!
"This was all we could find in the storehouse," Muller replied on behalf of the group.
Hearing his reply, Dorian frowned. How could the very large Starmap Academy cafeteria only possess this little amount of food?
Nevertheless, his question was quickly answered by Clarissa, who was among the group that went in search of food.
"Today is the last Friday of the month, the day the academy usually clears the storehouse and restocks with fresh food supply," she answered.
"The restock should have arrived two hours ago, but I guess it got stuck somewhere due to the zombies," she continued.
After her explanation, Dorian finally understood the current situation and couldn't help but curse at the bad luck of poor timing. If only the apocalypse had begun three hours later, there would have been enough food supply.
'What is he thinking about?' Clarissa pondered as she observed his expression.
Dorian let out a loud sigh and cleared his mind of the current situation.
"We do not have much time before midnight, we have to make it to the nearest dormitory as quickly as possible," he said.
He explained to them the dangers of the night and how the numbers and strength of zombies increase during that time.
Brandon and Muller, who had fought the zombies face-to-face, understood how scary they were, and they couldn't help but imagine the increased scariness of the zombies if their strength were to increase at night.
Without wasting time, Dorian led his schoolmates out of the cafeteria, stepping outside for the first time since the apocalypse began.
Stepping outside, the usually busy and beautiful streets of the academy were revealed to them—now filled with corpses of zombies and their fellow schoolmates.
There were a few zombies staggering across the streets, however, when they stepped out, their movements attracted the zombies, who began moving toward them.
"Muller, Craig, Brandon, get in position! Take out the zombies on this side. You three, left flank, and you three, cover the right! I'll handle the ones straight ahead—everyone else, stay close and follow me!" Dorian swung into action instantly.
The mentioned students acted immediately as Dorian had ordered, taking control over the positions handed to them. The others simply walked closely behind Dorian.
A small group of zombies approached from the front, scattered randomly. Dorian grabbed his weapon and stepped forward, putting some distance between himself and the others.
With the points added to his physical stats from leveling up, his movement became really fast, and the strength behind his swings increased. At this point, he had the strength of an average bodybuilder and the agility of an athlete, which was already a great change considering his shabby self of four hours ago.
[ Slayed x2 Zombies, EXP +18 ]
[ Slayed x1 Zombie, EXP +9 ]
[ Slayed x2 Zombies, EXP +18 ]
DING! [ You have unlocked the achievement: Slay 100 Zombies - EXP +200 ]
[ You've leveled up ]
[ Level 4 ----- Level 5 ]
[ Milestone Reached: You've unlocked a character in INDEX OF MYTHS ]