The World Cataclysm

As everyone was busy on their own, it was already an afternoon. Enlightened by Dave, Brian was still trying to decipher an unknown language he memorized to cast a small fireball as he worked on casting multiple of them at once. He already had few ideas of how he could do it, yet he still needed to experiment on them to stop on one.

Adam was busy training his Telekinesis. He tried to follow Dave's advice and move multiple objects at a time yet failed miserably in the end. It required lots of focus and concentration from him than he had imagined. It was quite similar to multitasking yet also required almost perfect focus from him.

On the other hand, other members of the team, precisely four of them, chatted with each other in the kitchen. In a week it became a place where they would gather to plan and discuss serious matters, but at the same time, it was a place where they gathered for social interaction.

"Phew...At least, it's good to know that there are other students on the campus that are alive." Sara breathed out a sigh of relief as she listened to Rebecca and Rachel. They shared information about their trip to the supermarket and students that took shelter in there.

It was already past noon, and Rebecca thought that it was time to have a meal, so she suggested calling Dave, Adam and Brian. Deciding to call Adam and Brian first, she knocked on the doors of their rooms as she called them by their names.

Adam and Brian gladly agreed to her offer since they were already feeling hungry after secluding themselves in their rooms. Getting agreement from them, Rebecca walked towards Daves room that was located near the entrance.

Staring at the "Do not disturb!" note stuck on the door, she hesitated for a moment, yet deciding to try once, she knocked on his room's door as she called him loudly, "David! David! Are you there?"

"..." Rebecca got flustered when she heard no response, yet after some time, his voice sounded from the room. "Yeah, come in. The door is open, so you can enter if you want to."

Opening the door, she said, "David, would you...". But she stopped abruptly at her words as a blush crept on her cheeks. The reason was in Dave since he had only underpants worn on him. If not for his strange stance with his legs up to a ceiling, she may have misunderstood him for a pervert.

After waking up two hours ago, Dave decided to start working on his body to build up stamina. He started by doing physical training, including basic ones like push-ups, squats and sit-ups, and also more complex ones that he learned in a training camp for enrolling soldiers.

Although doing physical training wouldn't increase his stats by much, if he was persistent enough, he could eventually gain one or two points in a month. Of course, such a method won't be effective in the long run as his stats go higher, but it was still an increase in stats, no matter how small it was.

However, his method was somewhat special compared to normal physical training. The catch was in a skill he had, precisely in his Reinforced Breathing skill. Although it was able to enhance his body, it also put lots of strain on his body, damaging his muscles and depleting his stamina in a short time. As a result, he got double results with half the effort.

Moreover, to further increase levels of Reinforced Breathing and Mana Enhancement, he needed sturdier blood vessels and mana veins that won't burst under their pressure. The only way to strengthen them was to use them more frequently. Hence, by doing physical training with the Reinforced Breathing activated, he could kill two birds with one stone: train his body and strengthen his blood vessels.

However, there was one big problem...

And it was excruciating pain he ends up with after the training. It was the same as if he used Reinforced Breathing for too long. The pain was already unbearable after half an hour, but it was already two hours as he started doing his special training. Any normal human would have already fainted from the pain, but Dave had been doing it for a year in his past life and already could keep his consciousness under such pain.

Currently, sweat dripped from his forehead as all his body was burning from inside and all muscles in his body were screaming from pain. He was supporting his body in a vertical position and doing push-ups, at the same time, trying to keep his body in balance.

"98...99...100." Finishing the last one, Dave fell on his back while panting heavily, greedily breathing in air into his lungs. Thankfully, his strength was enough to last that long, which can't be said about his stamina. Dave was completely exhausted after two hours of intensive training. Moreover, such training had the highest effect on stamina since Reinforced Breathing depleted it really quickly.

"Yes, Rebecca, why did you come here?" Catching his breath, Dave asked Rebecca while still lying on the floor. Noticing her strange reaction and trying to hold his laughter, Dave asked her in amusement, "What's up with your reaction? Have you never seen a half-naked man? Aren't you already a university student? How old are you? 19? 20? Haven't you dated anyone at your age? You have quite a funny reaction."

Blushing up to her ears, Rebecca tried not to look at him as she cast her eyes to the side. She said in a low voice, "Stop asking embarrassing questions. Better tell me, why did you put off your clothes?"

"Training in clothes is suffocating. It also got in my way while training, so I decided to put my clothes off. Furthermore, I dislike sensations of clothes sticking to my skin nor I want to accidentally ruin it while training." Dave explained to her nonchalantly. "So, what's up?"

"We are going to eat soon, if you want to, you can join us." Rebecca quickly said it as she hurried to leave the room, only saying at the last moment, "At least, wear your pants on..."

Looking at how Rebecca escaped like a scared rabbit, Dave chuckled to sustain his laughter and stood up from the floor. Dave groaned weakly as he stood up, massaging his aching muscles. Next, he circulated mana through mana veins, activating Mana Enhancement.

Mana Enhancement had its own role in his special training. Since he had limited mana and couldn't keep it up for a long time, it wasn't effective to use it during the training. Dave thought hard about how he could bring its full potential and accidentally found a way to use it in his past life.

Instead of using Mana Enhancement to enhance his body, Dave found out that it was much better to use it for restorative purposes. As he had found out, when a body was tired and flexed to the point of breaking, not only did Mana Enhancement soothe pain and aching in his muscles after the training, but mana also got assimilated into his muscles, nervous system, bones and internal organs. Although mana absorbed by his body was minuscule, such a method of using Mana Enhancement permanently strengthened his body.

The only reason he didn't do such training was...that he didn't want to. Although he could bear the pain from training, it didn't mean that he was still fine with it. Furthermore, the pain would have gotten in his way during fights, so he decided to wait till he got strong enough to have no opponent on the campus.

And considering the rate zombies were evolving, he doubted that they would go much stronger in a following month or two. Their evolution was oddly slow for a person who already witnessed how far they could reach in the process.

Although he knew nothing about the truth, it didn't mean that he was completely clueless. Dave suspected that it was sort of help for beginners by the System, as a newbie pack in games. It should have been giving people a chance to adapt to a new environment and hone their skills since otherwise humanity would have just gone extinct.

The person that adapted faster and formed an appropriate mentality would be the one to survive, while people who hid behind others' backs wouldn't be able to reach till the end. Of course, there were people who had pulled a cheat card and got extremely lucky to awaken. Obviously, backed up by new abilities, such people had much higher chances to survive.

After taking a quick shower to wash off the sweat from his body, he put on his clothes and headed to the kitchen, where he joined others. When he had gotten there, others were already gathered around a dining table and waiting for him. It was still the same as before since they hadn't counted the food they got from the cafeteria.

Finishing with their meal, Adam asked, "Dave, are we gonna hunt today? I'm not sure how many zombies we should kill before we reach the supermarket, so better start now."

Smiling at his friend, Dave shook his head as he said, "Sorry, guys. You might be hunting without me from now. You're already strong enough to deal with zombies on your own, so you would be fine. I still have a business to take care of, so I'll move alone."

He wasn't their mom or guardian, and he didn't want them to grow over-dependent on him as they should learn how to take care of themselves. Furthermore, he still had to deal with some shit before it escalated into big trouble.