Chapter 66: Let’s go hunting
"Everyone already knows about the Spirit Record right?" I asked and they all nodded
"Okay what I want you to do for now is to focus on your records. Familiarize yourself with them and if you need any help then you can ask either me or any of my friends got it?" I said
They nodded.
"Okay first why don't we introduce ourselves?" I said with a small smile.
There was silence for a couple of seconds before the first person spoke.
"My name is Dulton. I'm 39 years old" a thin tall man, who stood a head slightly taller than me, introduced himself. He had a head of brown hair, deep sea green eyes and slight wrinkles just beneath his eyes.
"Hie guys nice to meet you. I'm Clara Piers. 21 years old. I was a college student on leave and most importantly…" Clara said seemed to be the lively one as she had a bright smile on her face. Black hair tied in pigtails to the sides of her face. Her blue eyes locked onto me as she added. "…I'm single"
Black lines seemed to appear on the faces of the other four including Dulton while I couldn't help but smile bitterly. Still Clara's personality seemed to be a breath of fresh air in this tense world.
"Nice to meet you Clara. I hope we get along" I couldn't help but say to which she just smiled brightly
"You got it" she said.
I motioned with my hand for someone else to introduce themselves
"Mordecai. 35" Mordecai had an aloof and detached gaze. He had ash grey hair that arranged in a buzz cut, he was tall and had a little bit of muscle on him.
When it seemed that Mordecai wasn't going to say anything else I nodded in acknowledgement ebfore looking towards the next person.
"It's good to see you again Nale" I said to the familiar 20 year old.
"Good to see you too boss" he said with a broad smile and I could almost see a twinkle in his eyes as he regarded me.
I looked off towards the final member of the group.
"Uhm… my name is Vicky and I'm 31 years old" she said. At a glance I could tell that Vicky was a beauty even with her current bruises on her face and she had a bombshell of a body capable of tempting any man regardless of who they were. She had long blonde hair.
"Well then now that introductions are out of the way. I want you guys to familiarize yourself with the system today and we'll meet here tomorrow at dawn. You got that?" I said and I saw them all nod their heads.
Just then the captain of the armed forces, Rod, came over to us and informed us that lunch was ready.
"Alright lets go eat" I said and walked away hearing Clara's enthusiastic shout behind me.
A smiled played on my lips
…
The survivors formed several lines as waiting to be served their course. The scent of rice and meat permeated the air causing some of them to even salivate in anticipation.
The survivors were all outside waiting in front of the three large pots that were set up at the front with two people per pot assisting each other in serving the plates. It seemed that the girls had come up with a rooster of sorts for the different activities. There would be those that cooked, those that washed the placed, those that threw out the left overs as well as those that saved what could be saved and of course there was the serving team.
The survivors would rotate daily, afterall it wasn't like every single person could actually work right. In terms of food distribution there was a priority list. Those that could get their food first were obviously me and my friends followed by the guards and finally the others who would be waiting in line.
I sat on a broken slab of stone not too far away as I observed all this. The plate of food felt warm in my palm and the aroma it gave off clearly indicated that this was beef meat. A wave nostalgia washed through me as I ate. Continuing to look at the proceedings with a hint of admiration.
"You guys are incredible you know that?" I praised looked to my side at Rina, Lydia and Candice who sat to my right beside me.
"It wasn't much honestly we just implemented the system that Veronica developed back at the school and just made it far larger and inclusive" Lydia said with a shrug as she waved me off with her free hand, the one that wasn't carrying plate of food she was holding.
"Still…" I said. "Its impressive"
There was silence amongst us…and not the uncomfortable kind.
"Oh yeah Candice you still have those skill scrolls I told you to hold on to?" I asked.
"Yeah I was going to remind you later anyway so this works too" she replied.
"Thanks for keeping them while I was asleep" I smiled at her.
"I wasn't a problem and besides now that we know can only learn 5 active skills from skill scrolls we have to be cautious of the skills that we learn" she said putting her now empty plate down.
I reeled back in shock. Only learn 5 active skills?
Opening up my records I immediately focused on my active skills
[Active Skills List:
]
…
"Shit" I couldn't help but curse out loud
"What's wrong?" Lydia asked as the others looked at me in confusion
"I already have 5 active skills" I said
"What!?" they all said in unison
"How is that possible?" Lydia muttered in confusion
"Yeah I only remember you ever picking up one skill scroll" Candice chimed in.
"I don't think I've ever seen you even pick up a scroll" Lydia muttered quietly
"Well I uhm…actually remember using two skill scrolls. One is a passive skill called
…
The girls were shocked especially Rina who had read the [Beginner's guide] with great detail and from what she had read the book had said that although learning active skills through skill scrolls was limited to five in the First Star Order, there was a chance that you could learn a skill on your own through personal understanding and comprehensions and these would be outside the skill cap. In simple words, self-learned skills didn't affect the 5 active skill limit
.
Of course there was also the freebie skill one got if they managed to awaken their special traits as well but other than that there was no other way to learn skills. However there also the difficulty in self learning skills. It was so difficult especially for newly evolving worlds that the ratio of such a thing happening was 1: 10,000.
"So…your saying that the other skills you have came from self-learning?" Rina had to ask even though she knew the answer all along.
"Well yeah although one of the skills seems to be incomplete. It says that I need a Second Star Order soul stone to complete it" Huey said with a shrug and as all three girls gawked at him they only had one thought going through their minds at the moment
'Freak'
…
The rest of the day passed smoothly. Candice handed me the two skill scrolls I had gotten from the two evolvers I had killed and after looking at the skill descriptions I figured it was best to give them to Jordan who was still in bed by the way. Before the day ended Rina used her healing skill on him and it seemed to be working wonders on him. A few more days and he would be able to fight without much trouble.
And like that the survivors got to sleep and so did everyone else. I took the room on the 50th floor that used to belong to Jace and it seemed that the radio equipment was actually stored in the closet there. There were actually ten radios and the police scanner which I presumed had been taken from the police station.
"We'll see what to do tomorrow" I decided before flopping down on the large bed in the center of the room. The mattress was soft and the pillow was welcoming. It didn't take more than ten minutes before my eyelids got heavy and I fell asleep.
…
The next day at dawn I stood with the gates to my back. Black Salamander rested at my hip and covering my hands were my [Aranian Combat gloves].
The morning air was colder than usual and the sun was taking much longer to rise. If I wasn't wrong right now it should have been close to 5 am and usually at this time the sun would be out by now. Which made me wonder.
How much longer would the days be now? What about the time? Would the way we used to tell the time before even be accurate anymore? The answers to all these questions were as clear as day. Nothing would ever be the same again.
I sighed. All of this just felt like it was too much to take in.
Mordecai, Clara, Dulton, Vicky and Nale all stood in front of me and at a glance it looked like a highly mismatched group of people.
"So who would like to go first?" I asked
"Me, me, me oh please pick me" Clara practically jumped as she waved a hand in the air repeatedly
"Okay" I nodded. "One more person please"
A hand rose into the air
This time it was the thin man, Dulton, who raised a hand.
"Alright" I said. "we'll be taking two people at a time that way I can ensure you're safety while we're out there"
There was still the need for caution after all one careless mistake was all it took for someone to take a heavy injury or in the extreme case death. In the distance I heard the scuffle of feet. I turned in that direction and could see Rod rushing towards us. He had an assault rifle slang to his back, in his hands he held two silver bladed swords. These were the same swords that the two evolvers, Lloyd and Brad had used.
"Here are the swords you requested for boss" Rod said as he stopped in front of me he was breathing so heavily that if one didn't know better they would have thought that he had just run a marathon.
"Thank you Rod" I said and he nodded with a slight smile
"Now then" I face Clara and Dulton who had stepped forward and gave them a sword each. "Let's go hunting"