Taking out from the freezer of the supermarket a big box with medium sized meat chunks that was hidden on the lower shelves, everyone looked at Ethan with weird looks on their faces.
The fridge was not working due to the electricity dying down, but being a fully functioning freezer the size of the room three days ago, residues of cold temperatures were present keeping the now room sized compartment as sufficient for last ditch effort in buying some a bit of time.
By the advice of some people and with their skills, lots of beef was preserved by getting thinly sliced and smoked, vegetables thrown to salty water and some meat were basked in alcohol and spices to delay its expiration date. room temperature alone was enough for such methods, much less a cold temperature room.
Continuing in starting a little bonfire outside the entrance, Ethan cooks a piece.
Fresh marinated steak is yet to become rare to be cooked, many pieces of meat were not suitable for the preservation methods therefore was made like that, so the whole council looking expectantly at the new leader cooking a steak was very odd for the two guards in the entrance.
Frozen meats are still doable, but not for long, with camping boxes filled with ice that is yet to melt, more mini temporary refrigerators were improvised. But diets of canned food are in sight if new meat sources won’t be discovered.
Twenty minutes after leaving the council room, Ethan is surrounded with a plate in his hand, a steak in it. Consuming this meat could have varied results from no negative effects to fatal outcomes.
Nonetheless, someone has to take the reins, ‘using this opportunity I might solidify my role and publicly show the risk I take for the group’.
Taking a moment, he bites and chews on the piece of meat. slowly and courageously he slides it down the pipe, ‘and now they wait’.
A few minutes later, he stands up, with a calm smile, “If I won’t have the nastiest potty time by the morning, I think we found a new meat source”.
The realization of the council is starting to become glaring, they are back to the days of hunters and gatherers - hunting edible beasts and trying out various new types of meat and herbs just became new tasks they must conduct daily and the deadline for a decent alternative is before the inevitable obsolescence of modern cooling capabilities.
“Let’s call it a day”, taking the box back to its place, they all disperse to where they want or need to be.
Back at the compartment store, now the living room of his and Dana’s, she falls flat on what was once a customers waiting area’s couch - now, their sofa, “today was insane, and it was just speaking for the most of it, I can’t even imagine how more chaotic this whole thing is about to get in the future”
“That’s why everything else besides increasing our survivability doesn’t matter, even if we are 80 or 200, if one monster…or human we can’t win against will come here and end us all it was all for nothing ” Ethan states with a voice full of determination, getting colder by the second, he stands up to leave to his room.
“Good night, I shall join you tomorrow with the training of the gu…warriors” Ethan tries to leave in a cool manner but slips over his own words leaving Dana laughing at his attempt in the background.
‘As long as she smiles I guess’, He sits down and starts meditating, telling the knowledge he discovered to the council was very beneficial, his heart and mind are lighter, his conscious clear and his spirit burning with resolution.
Deciding to work on the process he get to his peak mental state and break out of it to start over, two hours of this, he somewhat grasp the process and manage to enters a state in which is mind is sharp, a clear mental image of white room appear in his mind, the walls are with blue-ish tint, and swaying like a heavy clothed curtains in full sync with the weak air currents of the closed room, the room’s size increase and contract in size with the rhythm of his heart beats.
Failing a few times he learns to not speak out loud, or at all as he just focuses on his surroundings and feels the heartbeat and the inner sensations of his body, with this element already imbued in his metal image he moves on.
Ethan decided to take things to the next stage, he wants to use the enhanced inner awareness he has when meditating and tries to map whatever blood vessels and main blood flow areas of his body, from main artery to the less noticeable ones.
Starting with the main arteries and heart, details are added as bulging patterns on the walls in his mental image of a white room, decreasing the swaying of the walls he imprints them with bulging lines like texture. His crude knowledge he gained from anatomy studies he had in the past as a intermediate painter, it was hard but he knew the general direction.
Having lost the sense of time, he eventually fell asleep in the process failing multiple times, but by the end of today’s session, he was about third way there.
He didn’t even know how long he was at it, when he fell asleep, or how long he slept, but a loud knock on the door woke him up.
“Ethan, wake up!” Surprisingly it was Zoe, not Dana.
Groggily opening the door, he went past her, and went to wash up, “Such a delightful wake up call, thank you, Ms. voice of a songbird”
Pouting she gave him harmless back slaps, “You bully, how can you even sleep? After what you told us and acted yesterday, we all barely slept” she yells at him.
“This is very easy to miss, you haven’t slept at all and yet so full of energy”, he moves onto the sink to brush his teeth as his sister retaliates with some slaps on his back.
Dana giggling at the back, spoiling Zoe’s secret, “She was actually very worried about you, you know eating a monster wolf meat”. Zoe's face became a cute display of three ‘o’s as she pointed at Dana “Traitor! Why did you tell him that! I have a character I work very hard to cultivate”
From the couch a fourth voice comes all of a sudden, “You should go and see mom and dad too, they are worried and wondering if you have been through some ‘tough times at the potty’, you were calling it?”
Surprised and embarrassed by his poor attempt at a joke, Ethan turned around to see Lily, “I didn’t get the memo for this place becoming a public waiting room, such a fine and non intrusive neighbors I have”.
Shaking his head he moves closer to her tapping a finger on her forehead, “I will head to your place in a moment. You are now allowed to leave and give me my morning’s peaceful moments” he tells theatrically to his sister with a grand wave of his arm.
Lily leaves with a smile, at tow, Zoe follows departing with a classic eyes roll. Their giggling can soon be heard behind the doors.
“You are lucky to have them” Dana smiles with a stare that reflects her true feelings.
Coming closer to her, noticing the sadness tugging at her eyes, “We are lucky to have you”, he gave her a small warm hug, “By the way, just a quick random question, how old are you? I know it’s impolite but we haven’t spoke of it” he steps back cautiously.
“16” she says casually, Ethan step away full of freight, his mind spinning with thoughts and self blame, before he speaks and let it become a full blown panic attack, Dana burst out laughing to a point where she tears, “that’s a joke, I am 23, calm down, the police won’t come today”.
“My sister is a bad influence on you! You are on the black list right after those two!” Ethan points at the entrance door theatrically still in the goofy morning mood, as he leaves to get dressed and ready in his room. Smiling widely, Dana enters her room to do the same.
In the communal area some time later, Ethan stands in front of about 70 people.
Kids and elderly who couldn’t wake up or guards who was at night shifts got a free pass to start the day later on, “Good morning, everyone, first and foremost, I want to thank you all for your hard work. We are only three and a half days in, yet this place progresses at a crazy fast pace. It must not be easy for you all but we are doing great! With enough power and strength, weapons and numbers, we could expand our searches to look for more survivors, look for your families, expand this shopping center as a livable area, and upgrade the efficiency of existing facilities!” Hearing Ethan's big plans a round of applause erupts, even the council members nodded with expectancy in their eyes.
“Warriors gather to my right side, Me, Rob and Dana wish to speak with you, the rest are free to start the day according to the instructions of Leah, Guy, Jessica, Sarah, John and Jamey. Also, there is research taking place for a possible source of meat that has been found, more conclusive results are required before announcement. any questions?”
“May we ask what meat you are speaking of?” Hesitant voice came from a woman in the crowd.
Considering for a moment Ethan is nodding and replies “a meat of a wolf that came from one of the portals was eaten by me yesterday, I am yet to suffer any ailments, I believe we can look for dungeon or portals that leads to edible beasts and use them as farms”
Deciding to be fully transparent he turns to the council and says out loud, “I will be going off script,” he turns back to the crowd, the councilmen looks in confusion at him, “the man with certificate in architecture? Where are you at?”
A man around his forty moves forward, his hand raised, “This is me”.
“Are you willing to become a councilman that leads the building projects around here?” Ethan asks, surprising even the council itself.
“I would very much be honored” he replies formally, getting in his role immediately and walks past Ethan to stand by Guy and Rob.
Ethan let out a wide grin and nodded his head to show his acceptance of the man's formality and decisiveness.
“Secondly, I wanted to not speak of it, but I might as well put it on the table. Many people want our place, our food, some of them want pure dominion over us. With getting levels by killing, the worst of human kind even aims for our lives. Lately many groups of survivors came to the entrance and refused due to being unclear in their intentions towards us, raised suspicion or even showed clear hostility. This is not the last time we hear of them. Those are dark times, steel your hearts, difficulties still lay ahead, we the council, make our utmost to make the best out of the situation, we are not out of the woods just yet. Listen and carry the requests of the council members for we wish only the best for every who is willing to play fair with us”.
Standing in front of the council Ethan speaks a bit more discreetly, “prepare them for the hard times too, we can't walk on eggshells any more. Guy, take…apologize, your name?”
"Name's Kenny, sir. Appreciate you coming to get us." He gestured towards the two teenagers staring at them from the crowd. "Over there are my son, Mark, and my daughter, Emily." A shadow finds its place on his face. "Lost my wife when our building came down..." He left the sentence unfinished, the pain still raw, “I am not sure if you remember us, but we came with the group from the block surrounded by those weird birds”.
“Indeed unfortunate, you have our sincere condolences, please, I know my words are too early, but please allow the emotions and events you have been through to strengthen your spirit, by accepting this job dozens of people and even more in future, will be in your care, your children included. As I was saying, Guy, give Kenny a place for him and his kids and when you are alone, put him up to speed with everything” Ethan consults and lays his orders.
“Everything everything?” Guy asks with squinted eyes stressing out the word as he repeats it, to which Ethan nods confidently and concludes, “Just make sure he knows not to speak of what is not allowed to be known yet”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
This exchange made Kenny look baffled and suspicious but he cooperated with the two without a question.
Taking a step back he motioned his hand to the circle of people, “Dismissed. Stay on your toes in the next few days, not a single situation is to be taken lightly inside or outside the base. Dana and Rob follow along”
Taking the two fellow councilmen with him, they stand in an isolated area of the second floor, Rob and the group of 7 were briefed of going outside, additionally the rest were briefed about the current situation with the close by camps to finer details.
“I will be in the training room for the next two hours, I will show defensive, offensive and movement combo for sword, spear, dagger, unarmed and axe, each”, he concludes and turns to leave in the direction of the training room, leaving an excited chatter.
Moving his arm around he feels that his gun wound significantly healed, it still aches but full movement was quite doable, trying to feel the aching area more specifically a familiar sense to what he felt when meditating was slightly noticed as he could feel his skin and main artery and veins in this area pumping blood faster and stronger. Focusing on those areas and body parts felt as if some sense of control can be enforced upon.
He stopped walking and tried it on another area around the chest by his heart, an area he mastered a bit better, he felt his heart beat resonating as if follows up on it with a stethoscope, and his beat pace increased to his will, blood rushed in and out of the heart faster, throwing a combo of punches he had in his head he felt faster, stronger, his reaction between each strike recovered faster. a smile found his way on his face, but before his next thought ran through his mind, he was struck by a minor dizziness. He almost missed a step saving himself from falling ungracefully.
Making a horribly awkward move he looked around to see if someone was looking - they were. Following excitedly and quietly to the training room per his announcement, he realized he stopped and punched the air with no reason with almost 35 people staring at him, Dana in the lead holding her laughter back.
‘So damn smooth’ he shook his head and picked up his pace to the training room, not daring to meet their gaze.
A few minutes later he stand in front of three tightly sitting rows of people, Dana in front of him, “We begin with unarmed style, this is a must known basic for everyone, weapon might not always be available, I begin i start with offensive, then defensive, and I will finish with movement, I will show a combo of three afterwards”
He begins - with the passive skill ‘spirit of a warrior’ his battle stance is no longer improvised, he stands in a proper stance that can initiate an offence easily and efficiently.
Nodding towards Dana he initiates a slow combo that comes to his mind, he stops in the middle of a swing, pointing and noting points that are crucial for fast and efficient execution
He altered the direction to show some versatile adaptation and move to the next movement.
He does the same with the next movement until a versatile, efficient and fast combo is performed fully to the crowd.
After doing the same with defensive and movement combos, he nods to Dana and a spar begins, sticking to the combos he showed, full performance that will make even the clueless of all fighters not completely clueless, at least theoretically, they still had to train it.
For the spear demonstrations, he picks a spear wielder as partner and does the same.
Offensive combo that combines both thrusts and slashes is being shown. doing it for the first time and while explaining his lack of experience his showing, but nonetheless, the concept, knowledge and results are conveying the lesson successfully.
Taking a wide butchering knife with elongated handle, improvised into an axe by Zevik, another astounding sets of combos is being shown.
Before he moves to the next performance, a man stands up.
Ethan recognized the man as one of the people who volunteered in taking the role of a guide yesterday, “Sir! Those movements, those combos, although visible you haven’t put them to test, they are truly profound, how did you manage to gather so much knowledge?”
His question made the room look funny as three rows of heads nodded as if listening to music in a concert, moving in perfect sync. flabbergasted, he didn’t really want to admit about his skill, “late night doom scrolling”, Ethan answered unconvincingly.
The whole room glaring at him, their stares practically shouting at him, ‘Do we look stupid to you?’.
Annoyingly changing the subject, he coughs and picks a sword sized shaped plank, “next is sword”.
Almost 3 hours later, he finished showing all the weapons, he even stayed to give some notes to people who tried the combos he showed.
Leaving the training room, all the people looked at him with admiration and gratitude, his role solidified further by a proof of competency.
“Dana, I am at my room, let me know only if something urgent shows up” He told her as she closed the door.
Doing a 10 minutes walk around he makes sure things are going fine, the entrance guard and patrols have been increased to three members each. As a group of three people came and demanded to walk in and join the black sun fortress, they were refused due to showing hostility and behaving unsightly, the combined forced of the three teams and offer for a fair trading relations made them left reluctantly, for now at least - they were at least that rational.
Arriving at his room, Ethan dived right into testing his new discovery, moving his focus and awareness to many areas of his body like when he was meditating, each enhanced limb or body part had its own advantages and disadvantages. Ethan soon discovered that the balance of the body is a fickle thing and is not to be played with so blatantly, but super quick burst movements were now very much doable, overall a nice quick last ditch action to make an offensive or defensive movement more impactful.
After this, he sat back down, ‘This is just by feeling my body for a few hours, if I will manage to have a few days in it, and polish this whole process mastering this layer of my body, I co…’, His mind shut it self off, his eyes opened wide open those last words rang in loop, for half a minute, “mastering this layer of my body”....
Taking a deep breath he sits down.
Closing his eyes, Ethan concentrated in a small area he already mastered, he decreased the area he focused on to make it more efficient. He then tried to dive in it, main blood veins transferring blood in them could be felt easily, ‘Deeper!’.
Smaller veins felt more tangible, ‘This is not what I'm looking for!’ He shouted at himself, frustrated by knowing what he was looking for but being unable to approach it. It felt as if he was thrown into a completely dark room and was requested to find a dent with his sense of touch only.
Time was not a resource he had to spare as he felt his mental capacity being drained by this process.
After half an hour, his frustration mounts, threatening to break his concentration. 'Give me a damn opening!' he roars internally, feeling like he's trapped in a suffocating darkness looking for a way out, discarding even the mental image of the white room he used to calmly meditate at.
Just as he's about to give up, a surge of energy pulses through him. Guiding force made his focus sharper than ever, a faint whisper urging him onward. With renewed determination, he pushes deeper, his focus narrowing to a pinpoint. And then, he sees it. Behind a hole he breached, small as pen diameter, space filled with swirling blue dots, like a miniature galaxy within his own being. The sight is breathtaking, overwhelming. He gasps, his body suddenly heavy, his mind reeling. The world fades to black as he collapses onto the cold floor, his breath coming in ragged gasps after an unknown amount of time.
[Ding! Mind increased by 1!]
He stood up after sometime waking up after he collapsed, his thoughts all over the place.
‘What was this? Was this mana? Does mana truly exist? Do we all have it?!’ He tries to speak with himself to create some solid assumptions, to plan his next actions, but his mind racing, theories, ideas, thoughts, hopes, his inner emotions are in turmoil, words cant help but become sentences, he crashes on the floor, lying down, forcing his mind to calm down he tried looking at his status, ‘One step at a time’ he sigh deeply.
[Ding!
Class: None
Level: 7
Race: Human
Stats:
Strength: 16 (+2 + 0.5%)
Constitution: 8 (+2 + 0.5%)
Agility:14 (+2 + 0.5%)
Mind: 17 (+2 + 0.5%)
Charisma: 10 (+2 + 0.5%)
Free point: 2
Skills:
- spirit of a warrior (uncommon)
This is a passive skill that increases the efficiency of any living being wielding a weapon
Buff: Efficiency is increased when wielding , training , or studying a weapon
- danger sense (uncommon) - passive
dangerous moments and ill intentions toward the user triggers the user awareness
Buff: sixth sense that alarms the user from dangerous experiences and ill intentions directed towards by someone or something else.
Bloodlines:
- a spark of unknown origin (rare)
A bloodline originating from ???, with the potential to ???, capable of ??? beyond limits.
Talent 1: guided by ???
Allows the user to use the ??? of the ??? to guide the user to a preferred and optimal outcome, based on duration and amount of guidance it receives, there shall be a weakening period after use.
Talent 2: Devour
Consume external energies, tames them and makes them one with ???.
Talent 3: ???
???
Achievement:
- Bloody start - rare:
Killing an enemy at the first minute of the world awakening.
Buff: +2 to all stats.
- Outer circle I - rare:
Killing an enemy from one circle of power higher than yours.
Buff: 0.5% to all base stats]
Looking at his status increasing length and quality, he calms down.
Taking a deep breath, he sits on his bed and writes down mentally, ‘research this mediation thing father takes first priority. Secondly, I need this place to keep on evolving and manage to work without me ordering things around, I cant waste my time dealing with everything around here on a daily basis’.
A dilemma he was acutely aware of floating up the surface, can't be ignored any longer. He doesn't really care or want to manage this place like it is currently running, he wants to get stronger, evolve and have some independence. In his eyes, there were only, truly his family, and Dana if he gave it a deeper thought. Maybe the rest of the council would also make him make a move for them if they ever need him to, but that is where his grace truly begun to fade.
As if in a cruel joke for his plans, the door opens abruptly giving him a scare, “Ethan, the entrance! people attacking us!”, before she even manages to continue he is by her side, “Let’s go” he says, his stare tuned cold.
