Eric was surprised. He then recalled the system, mentioning how his abilities evolved alongside him. Hence, he excitedly instructed the system to show the current effects.
{Ability: Pyromancy
Current Effects: Your basic fire manipulation elevates. You can now shape your fire to basic constructs, e.g. flaming sword, wall of fire, as your fire resistance increases. In addition, your fire can cling to surfaces, making it difficult to extinguish.}
Eric grinned. What do you mean? I can indeed manipulate my fire to such intent, that is if I have enough energy. So, obviously, with the current amount of energy I have, I could solidify the fire into a flaming sword or enlarge it to a wall of fire.
Eric shook his head and kept the complaint to himself. He knew the system was only reminding him, so he was not incensed. On the contrary, a smile formed on his face.
He felt that the system showing the current effects were redundant since he could already perceive and understand the current level of his Pyromancy after the evolution. Nevertheless, he was delighted to receive Yeobui's reminder.
Since he had nothing to do, he closed his eyes, enjoyed the warm moonlight and finally decided to sleep…
…
5:30 a.m. February 2, 2028.
It's currently the second day of the apocalypse… not officially. But it's going there. Anyway, Eric had just finished exercising and had changed his clothes. The basket was already filled with his already worn clothes and he badly wanted to wash it.
He planned to wash it later with the contaminated water. After all, from what he heard, the water was still running and the contamination was still not severe.
When the dawn broke into the horizon, Eric's face slightly turned solemn. He could already spot some presence of the zombie outside, seemingly coming from the other blocks. Most of them were in the third mortal stage unfortunately… Nevertheless, his plan won't change.
He left and walked on the stairs below, finally seeing Jasper, sitting on the sofa, meditating. Some of them were in their room, and some were in the living room like Jasper. Thankfully, Eric's footsteps were not enough to wake them up.
Eric left the door and was not surprised to see Andrew yawning. After all, he and Jasper were taking turns to guard the house. Andrew shared his experience to them, where a zombie lurked and tried to kill him, leading to the need to keep watching outside.
Andrew was stunned to see the Emperor and asked, "This early, Emperor?"
Andrew turned around and was quite startled by the amount of mindless zombies walking sluggishly a bit far from them. Some were already outside of the pink gate. Thankfully, he was sitting under the trunk of the tree, where the Thunder Quail nest rested on its branch, concealing his presence.
He turned to the Emperor and was startled by the oppressive aura the Emperor was emitting.
Did he get stronger?! How?!
He was not aware of the difference of potential grade between him and the Emperor. His potential was only B grade, limiting his mutations.
Eric smiled and nodded. He turned to his right and left, and said, "I will enter the first house there first and to its front, until I raid… all of the houses on this block before proceeding to another."
Axel was stunned. He turned to his right and nodded.
He said, "I see. I believe there are still human beings hiding in their home, Emperor. So, you might get quite a number. If we can't accommodate them all, why don't you conquer the other houses and let them rest there?"
Eric nodded. "I already decided that. However, I will choose who will live in the remaining rooms we have while the rest are in the houses on our side and in front."
Axel nodded. Eric left the pink gate and started to raid the houses…
…
In the first house, there were two zombies' corpses rotting and three zombies alive, walking sluggishly outside. He discovered three students, locking them up in a room with an emaciated facial expression. He glanced at the five gallon water that was almost drained.
They were girls. What Eric admired the most was that they did not get into conflict about the biscuits they ate. They shared it together, showing their integrity despite going insane because of their situations.
Eric, forcibly opening the room, startled them. However, they did not have energy left to fight and stared at him in a daze. Eric smiled at them and decided to return to offer them food. After a minute, they ate savagely.
Thankfully, Eric gave them fruits to prevent the consequences of eating heavy food after suffering from famine.
It only took ten minutes for him to convince them to follow him. When they were welcomed by Zoe and others, they felt they were safe…
They felt they were in haven…
In the second house, unfortunately, there were no living beings aside from a third mortal stage zombie. Eric killed it, gathered the food and water in the living room for others to take it soon.
He did the same to the third house. However, in the fourth house, where it has a mini store, he encountered trouble.
It was ruled by a fourth year college student, who even punched him in the face, shouting at the top of his lungs, "You are not welcomed."
Despite being punched in the face, Eric did not flinch. He glanced at five boys and three girls behind the fourth year college student, discerning they were helpless. However, he noticed some of them were against the man's action, so Eric finally decided.
He punched the man indifferently with his fist imbued with pyromancy.
And as though it was not enough, he poured all of his energy to burn the man into ashes. The others were stunned, horrified, and wanted to run but Eric's single word, "stop," halted their actions.
It took Eric an hour to convince them to follow him…