The World Cataclysm - Chapter 50: Skill Against Ability

Pacing his breath, Dave meditated silently in front of the wall. He kept absorbing tiny mana clusters floating around him, and bit by bit, no matter how slowly it was, he felt that his mana reserves were expanded a bit. However, other onlookers didn’t understand as much as he did.

“What is he doing? Is he meditating now?”

“Yeah, it looks like that. What a freak?”

“What the point of doing it now?”

“Did you see how he dragged Kyle? He seems dangerous.”

“Look at the scars on his face! I’m sure he had fought a lot before, even perhaps, had killed a person.”

Some survivors gathered into a small group and started whispering with each other as they discussed Dave. They couldn’t help but do it since he was an outsider to them, plus the dangerous one, so they were already fearing Dave.

On the other side of the underground basement, Mary seemed to be successful in breaking the awkward silence between her two friends since they were already talking with each other as casually as before. Evelyn shared with them the news about becoming an Evolver of agility and explained its perks, getting an amazed look from Arthur.

On any other day, especially after she had found out that she could absorb mana with the help of her elemental spirit, Rebecca would have sat cross-legged alongside Dave, but she was still shaken after the previous conversation between them. Starting with a thought of the value of human life, she ended up worrying about her little brother even further.

As for Rachel, she was the only one who had nothing to do and no one to talk to, so she just sat on the floor, leaning on the wall. She glanced at other survivors several times but quickly getting disinterested in it, she buried herself deep in her thoughts.

…

‘Zombies should have already calmed down after Kyle disturbed them.’ Leaving a meditative state, Dave quickly stood up from his place as he had waited for others till they finished eating. Sitting cross-legged for several hours, he already felt sore over all of his body.

Rebecca, Rachel, and Evelyn’s group sat close to each other as they were telling stories to each other, sharing what happened to them during this week. Perhaps, Rebecca and Rachel had joined them afterwards as Dave clearly remembered that they were sitting separately when he had gone meditating.

“Hey, Dave, have you finished whatever you were doing?” Spotting Dave walking towards them, Arthur called him over as he looked at him with a sliver of reverence in his eyes. Arthur was quite honest in his body language as his facial expression betrayed everything someone else needs to know.

“Yeah, just finished one session. What are you talking about?” Dave asked as he gazed at them curiously.

“Just about what happened during this week with everyone. We also asked about you and how Rebecca and Rachel have met you.” Evelyn answered instead Arthur. She seemed to be more cautious with Dave than with anyone else.

“En…” Dave nodded his head in understanding but quickly recalled how Adam had spilt his secrets from high school and glanced at Rebecca. Meeting his gaze, Rebecca avoided him in a fluster.

“Whatever, we can’t remain trapped in the underground basement forever. Let’s go up for a bit and take our time in killing zombies.” Dave suggested as he noticed how everyone anyway had nothing to do. “We’ve already wasted too much time here. It’s time to return.”

“En…”

“Right!”

Both Rebecca and Rachel exclaimed in agreement. They can’t spend more time here and let Adam worry about them, so they needed to return while they can. Even though Mary confronted the idea, Arthur and Evelyn still agreed to his suggestion. They understood that it couldn’t continue like this even further.

“Don’t worry, Mary! I promise they’ll return safe and sound.” Dave said as he noticed that Mary was still didn’t want to let her friends go.

“Hmmph…I’m going with you! I’m not gonna leave them.” Mary said as she harrumphed. Then, it was the turn of Arthur and Evelyn to worry about her. Mary was never an athletic person nor she stood up among others for her courage, on the contrary, she was quite cowardy.

“Okay then! Prepare yourself! After 15 minutes, we are going upstairs.” Dave said as he trudged towards his backpack which he had left on the place he had meditated.

15 minutes later, their group stood in front of the doors to the first floor. Including Rebecca, Rachel and him, Arthur’s group were also with them as they protectively stood in front of Mary. Noticing it, Dave only smiled lightly as he slightly opened the door.

Due to his Mana Sensing, Dave already knew about the general location of zombies inside the supermarket. Knowing that 2 zombies were standing in front of them, he signalled Evelyn and Arthur to kill them. Anyway, zombies didn’t give him and Rebecca any benefits as before.

Even though Evelyn was only level 1, her speed could already rival Arthur, and even could exceed him in it since Arthur had put most of his free points into strength. Both of them had quickly appeared next to the zombies and killed them.

Mary who was trembling behind Dave had looked at them in amazement till the point that she even forgot about all the zombies surrounding her. Rebecca hadn’t also stood idly as she sought a single zombie and stealthily killed it.

Slowly yet steadily, their group progressed further from the door to the underground basement as they ambushed wandering zombies. After her third kill, Evelyn got a system notification that she had levelled up and gained another point in agility. She had also put one free point into agility, enhancing her strong forte, and allocating another point into strength. As a result, she became much faster than Arthur.

‘Nice to be an Awakener! She is only on level 2, yet her speed could already rival me without any buffs.’ Progressing further, Dave couldn’t help but notice how helpful were the perks of Evolvers.

“Whoa! It’s never was so enjoyable to kill zombies. It’s like you know the routes of every zombie. Previously, we were always fearing to be noticed by a zombie, but now we’re the ones ambushing them.” Arthur said with shining eyes. Though it was still scary, it was enjoyable to hunt instead of being hunted.

“Right! It’s like you can feel every one of them.” Evelyn said in amazement. Instead of Arthur who was acting carefree, she thought that they will finish killing all zombies in the supermarket much faster than she had expected, especially when Dave perfectly led them to the backs of zombies.

Rebecca and Rachel had also killed several zombies. Rachel was still feeling somewhat uncomfortable killing them, but Dave believed she will get accustomed to it.

‘Hmm…Drop rates of Treasure Chests are getting lower and lower with every passing day. Whatever, what they even doing?’ Dave thought as he glanced at Evelyn and Arthur who were competing with each other.

After increasing her level, Evelyn became much faster than Arthur. She had a slight smirk on her face as she was teasing Arthur by killing another zombie. As an Evolver, her agility will only increase further, but Arthur had a skill to greatly boost it for a short time, so one on one, he had higher chances of winning over Evelyn.

“Don’t be too happy.” Arthur chuckled as he mumbled something under his breath. A short moment later, he swiftly followed after Evelyn, killing zombies he met. His speed was nearly two times from before, so he quickly overtook Evelyn in killing zombies.

“Hey, it’s cheating,” Evelyn said with a smile on her face as she tried to pretend to be saddened over it. However, she didn’t hurry after him, patiently observing his actions. She decided to wait a minute till the cooldown of the skill.

Thankfully, zombies didn’t have sharp hearing senses, otherwise, they would have been in a quite peculiar situation. Watching them over, Dave only facepalmed as he counted the remaining zombies inside the supermarket.

They had already dealt with most of the zombies on their side of the supermarket, but Dave counted more of them packed into one group. It should a place where Kyle ran to and also the front doors of the supermarket.

‘Time to see how Arthur and Evelyn can fight against evolved zombies.’ Dave thought as he concentrated his senses on two zombies in a group.