.

Zed and his group passed through the streets. In the beginning, only Zack and Jin killed the zombies which they came across, but soon enough, Zed and Ara joined in.

Nicholas wasn't able to keep up with them and so he stayed back with the twin sisters. He looked to them and smiled, "So you two aren't able to keep up either huh?"

The girls looked at him and let out a small giggle. This was followed by a small flame flying out of each of their hands towards a zombie. When the flames hit the undead's flesh, it immediately caught fire and the zombie fell to the ground, unable to withstand the magic which had just been released on it.

"Wow, I really shouldn't be this surprised after seeing what Zed is capable of. Was that magic which you used just now?" Nicholas asked in curiosity.

Zed looked back to the three and answered his question, "Yes it is. But their power has only just awoken, so it's very limited."

Zed had only found out about this when he asked them to come with him to kill an undead horde. They told him that they had just awoken it after arriving at his base. They also seemed joyed that they could use it already since most wouldn't be able to this early into the apocalypse.

"So that's what you can use as well, right Zed?" the man asked to confirm his theory. He had been thinking about how that sword of his appeared out of thin air and magic was the only logical answer. Still, he felt a little weird thinking that magic could be even considered as a logic answer.

"Yeah, I guess you could call it that," Zed said before cutting down an approaching zombie.

Nicholas could see that he was the only one not killing zombies so he decided to change that. He rushed an undead an with a single cut, chopped it's head clean off.

Zed smiled seeing that Nicholas was actually trying hard to become stronger now. This was exactly what he wanted from the man

Next Nicholas moved to another zombie and swung his greatsword with speed. This time he split the undead in half from shoulder to crotch. Blood sprayed out like a fountain, and pieces of flesh fell to the ground followed by the two halves of the zombie. It was still alive so Nicholas pierced its head with the end of his blade.

The killing continued for the next few hours. Countless undead fell to the hands of this almost unstoppable group of warriors. Not a single injury was sustained in the process.

...

Eventually, the group began to become tired and so Zed suggested a break. The seven of them went into the closest building to where they were. This building was a simple apartment building with only two floors.

"Good work guys. Have a quick break and then we will go back to base since its beginning to get dark now," Zed said still panting from the past 4 hours of slaughtering undead.

Everyone followed Zeds orders and took a rest. The group, while extremely strong, were all still low level when compared to Zed.

'Hey, system, check all of their levels and give me the average, lowest and highest please,' Zed asked the system in his head. After all of this work, surely they would have levelled up at least once.

Zed could assume that an above-average person should be able to level up to around level 15 by the end of the refining stage. The max would be around level 18. Considering his current level, he guessed by the end of this stage, he would be about level 50. A strong zombie would be around level 24.

The system scanned the humans in the room and gave the data straight to Zed, 'the average level was 6, the highest was 7 and the lowest was 4. If Zed could make all of his people reach at least level 10 he would be happy. Of course, having a select few reach level 18 would make him even more so.

It had been ten minutes and the group was now fully rested and ready to head back to camp. They would need to make it back before it became nighttime since the undead became a lot stronger in the dark.

"Let's get back to base before it gets too dark. I'll lead the way so just follow me," Zed announced before getting up and walking towards the door.

Everyone repeated his actions by getting up and following him to the exit. When the group exited the building they noticed that it was getting dark and that they would need to hurry if they were to make it back in time for the meeting which Zed had spoken about.

So all seven of them began their sprint through the zombie-infested city, killing any undead which got in the way.

Along the way, Zed pulled up his status screen to see his stats. During his fights witch the undead for the past four or so hours, Zed had levelled up once, and so he wished to use that level. Once again he decided it was best to put the level into magic. Aside from putting points into his magic attribute, he also glanced over his skills. Nothing had increased apart from his sword and magic techniques. Diamond Cutting Water Dance Technique was now (10/100) and his Rushing Waterfall Technique had increased to (3/100).

Zed smiled looking at his skills. He would now be able to use his water magic in new ways. He already had 2 out of the 200 possible ways to use it known, around 1%. Now that he 3% of the technique mastered, he would be able to use it in 6 different ways. This may seem like a lot, but all six of the current ways in which he could use the technique were to do with his blade. He would need to unlock 10% of the skill to be able to use any long-ranged attacks.

Zed continued running while cutting down zombies with his katana. He spent a minute pondering how he might be able to use the skill before actually trying it out. Finally, he had an idea.

With a slash of his sword aimed at an undead, the blade did not cut through the zombies skin and instead flung it into a nearby building. With its insides thrown across the streets, Zed could confirm that this move was a blunt force attack. Powerful against armoured undead and the like.