The next three days bled into one another. A cycle of hunting, killing, and leveling keep happening.
The ten of them moved like a single unit now. Their weapons and instinct became sharper. Their attacks were cleaner, and their will steeled with every fight.
Myles had half-expected that eventually some of the other survivors hiding inside the campus would step forward, desperate enough to fight.
But no one came in three days. Not a single soul. Their silence had already turned into something pitiful. Fear has dug so deep into their bones that they choose to cling to it tighter than to the hope of continuing their life.
Myles no longer bothered asking them to fight. He left food once a day, sometimes twice for those that looks sick, but that was all. Beyond that, they were left to their quiet deaths.
Meanwhile, his group grew stronger.
George—the broad-shouldered man who had awakened the Forgemind skill—had become restless with a new purpose.
He wanted to do more than just swing his blade. His hands, once rough only from wielding his machete, now itched for smithing after he figured out what his skill does.
The problem was, he knew nothing about blacksmithing beyond the word itself.
So, when the group decided to push farther into the city's broken veins, it was George who insisted they search for a bookstore.
Somewhere among the rubble, maybe the knowledge about smithing still waited.
So they walked there because they thought that it was a good idea to help George.
The ruined streets stretched before them, split with cracks and littered with broken cars.
Shattered glass glittered in the sunlight. Buildings leaned against each other in half-collapsed heaps. Their windows were like black holes watching silently as the survivors passed below.
The new recruits moved differently now. The change in them was clear.
Beside George was Daniel, the young adult with short rough-cut hair and a scar down his cheek. His hands no longer shook when he swung his weapon. His eyes carried more focus now.
Then there was Ethan, the teenager barely past sixteen. He had been trembling at the sight of blood, but now he walked with his weapon strapped to his side and a jaw clenched in quiet resolve. After discovering that this life was just like a video game, he became eager to kill.
To their left was Clara, the pale young woman who had once seemed too thin for survival. Days of battle had carved strength into her. Her shoulders squared as if she had found something solid to stand on at last.
And finally, the youngest girl, Sam, a girl who was no older than Ethan, kept her pace steady at the rear.
He had stopped whining days ago and her expression now hardened far beyond her years.
Every step she took carried the weight of someone who had already buried the girl she used to be.
No one complained anymore. No one asked to stop before Myles told them to stop.
Their boots crunched over broken glass and dust, weapons at the ready as they moved between shadows of crumbling towers.
Each ruined street felt like a graveyard filled with broken corpses now but none of them flinched.
The world had changed, and so had they.
Myles felt a quiet satisfaction building inside him as he watched the group fight.
Their every finish against the monsters that stumbled into their path told him that they were no longer helpless and actually reliable.
He nodded to himself each time, a small smile ghosting across his lips when someone landed a clean hit or stood their ground without fear.
"I see a bookstore," Nadine said suddenly, pointing ahead.
Heads turned. The group followed her gaze and sure enough a squat building with a cracked sign stood among the ruins.
Its windows were shattered, but it was unmistakably a bookstore.
George's expression hardened, determination burning in his eyes.
"Come on," Myles said simply, and the others fell in line without question.
The path wasn't clear. They fought through a handful of mutated humans and beasts drawn by the scent of fresh prey but each fight ended swiftly.
Every monster left behind another surge of EXP for their growing strength, and they pressed forward until they finally stood before the sagging doors of the bookstore.
"We know what we're looking for, so don't waste time," Myles ordered.
The group nodded and split into pairs, moving through the wreckage with careful steps.
It was frustrating. Without the internet knowledge wasn't a tap away anymore. They couldn't just search and learn in an instant.
Here, everything had to be dug up, turned over, and pieced together just like old times.
If there was still the internet George might already have been forging weapons by now.
After nearly an hour of searching, their efforts finally bore fruit.
They pulled one book from beneath a collapsed shelf, discovered another boom buried in a box, and got a thinner manual.
"Three books," Daniel said, exhaling. "That's all?"
"Three is enough. I guess," Myles said. "We just need the basics. George's skill will handle the rest."
George accepted the books with both hands as if they were relics. His jaw tightened and he nodded. He believed it too.
They regrouped, weapons drawn once more, and began the trek back toward the campus they had used as shelter.
They picked up whatever food they could salvage along the way and finally arrived back at the campus building.
The doors were locked and barricaded with the same practiced efficiency as before.
"I'll read these first. Give me a few hours," George said, clutching the books.
Without waiting for anyone to reply he moved straight to his corner.
The others settled in, weapons laid nearby as they sank against the walls or onto the cracked floor tiles.
For a moment, silence hung over them, broken only by the faint rustle of George flipping through old paper.
Ethan's voice cut through it.
"Why are the monsters… fewer now?" He frowned, staring at the barricaded windows. "We used to fight every time we went out. But for the past few days almost nothing."
Nadine glanced at him, her brow furrowed. "It's true. Even when we pushed farther, it felt empty."
"They're dwindling," Daniel said grimly. "But this city had thousands of people. If even a fraction mutated we shouldn't be running out this fast in this area."
"The subway vortex," Myles said suddenly.
The group shifted uneasily. They all knew what he meant. The swirling anomaly in the underground station. Myles had told them about it.
"You think… they're going down there?" Victor asked.
"Maybe," Myles said. "I think it's time."
—