With everything understood, Zayden proceeded to explain to them everything that happens during the evolution. The expressions on their faces were priceless.
"So the first thing we should do is find some food, and at the same time, power level everyone to level ten to have them evolve as quickly as possible", Zayden concluded
"I agree with Zayden", Isara said. "We need all the strength we can get to survive the apocalypse. So once the sun rises tomorrow, we'll look for food and try our best to increase our levels."
Everyone at the table nodded in agreement with the decision.
With nothing to do, Zayden remembered the reward that he got from leaving the male dorm. With an exertion of his will, a green orb appeared in his hands, attracting the attention of almost everyone in the hall. But Zayden, of course, didn't care.
"You still had an orb remaining", Tyrel said
"Yeah, the reward we got from escaping the male dorm", Zayden answered and smashed his orb onto the ground.
A green light enveloped the area they were in, slowly fading away before revealing another orb. But this orb was different.
It was like a core with a deep orange hue of fire in the middle, blending into a yellow colour on the edges.
Seeing this, Zayden couldn't help but smile wryly. Of course, he knew what this was. It was the last tool that he needed to become a blacksmith.
"Seems like the world wants me to become a blacksmith", Zayden said as he picked up the orb, the stats appearing before his eyes.
[Name: Earth Spirit Flame]
[Tier: Rare]
[Rank: 1]
[Description: This is a spirit flame that can be used in blacksmithing, alchemy, and array formation]
"What's that?" Tyrel asked
"It's a special type of fire used for blacksmithing," Zayden said
Hearing that, all the excitement that Tyrel once had faded away.
"Cool", he said as he brought out a tent from his spatial ring. It was one of the rewards that he got from the system during their stay in the male dorm. It was at this point that he finally saw its usefulness.
As the tent appeared, gazes of envy were on Tyrel. He got to lie down in a soft tent, whereas they had to lie down on the hard, cold floor.
"I need to go to sleep, we have work to do tomorrow, because of somebody", Tyrel said, giving Zayden the stink eye
Zayden just chuckled slightly as he brought out the book on blacksmithing that he got as a reward from the system.
The book was thick with a leather cover. He held the book in his hand and read the title of the book.
"Five Hundred Weapons Codex"
It turns out that this wasn't just a blacksmithing book, but a book that told him the process of forging five hundred different weapons.
"Since I can no longer use the system weapons anymore, this will be very useful", Zayden said, smiling as he opened up the book.
It started with the basic introduction to blacksmithing, how to use will to control a spirit flame, and so much more.
Zayden was someone who didn't like reading, but this book had a way of drawing him in, with its interesting illustrations and explanations.
It was already three hours into the night as Zayden read the codex, ignoring the time flow, when a system notification appeared in front of him.
[New Quest]
[Completely Memorise the Five Hundred Weapons Codex]
[Time Limit: 2:59:58]
[Reward: Mobile Forge]
As he saw the notification, Zayden couldn't help but grin slightly.
"The good keeps getting better," he said as he put his all into reading the codex
****
Very early the next morning, every single person was awake. As agreed the night before, Isara proceeded to explain to them everything that was decided in the meeting. Hesitation could be seen on the faces of some of them, while some outright refused.
At this point, Zayden couldn't take it anymore. He walked to the front of the hall to address everyone.
"Look, we aren't forcing anyone to come with us, it's a choice", Zayden said, "but if you choose to come with us, you have to follow all our rules. We are not going to allow anyone to leech off our work."
The decisiveness in his voice made it hard for anyone to refuse him.
'How come an unknown college student managed to take control in this apocalypse? ' Isara thought.
"Since we are all humans, even if you don't choose to follow us, you can still get the rations that remain at the moment, but after that, you have to fend for yourself", Zayden said.
"You should also know that if you choose to join us, you might have to fight for your life on the line for your survival", Zayden added.
He said a lot more things in order to motivate them some more. Even though not much, some of the students had a gradual change of heart, and at the end of his speech, about fifteen students decided to join them to level up.
With everything done, Zayden walked back to stand with his group.
"Didn't know you knew how to give a speech", Tyrel said, chuckling slightly
"Well, we need them riled up and ready to fight or they'll die."
About fifteen minutes later, the group of about twenty-three college students went out of the gym, going towards the canteen.
The canteen was very far away from the gym, and with the whole college crawling with different nulls, it was a very nice chance for them to get all the high-levelled ones to level ten and allow them to evolve, and the low-levelled ones to level five.
Zayden stood in front of the group mainly to gauge the powers of the null, take care of the high-level ones, and leave the low-level ones to the group to kill. Darian was at the back to do the same thing, Tyrel and Dare were with the team to take care of any high-level null before it kills any of the team members, even though it was highly unlikely.
A few minutes later, they had already run into their first group of nulls. The number of nulls in this group amounted to fifteen, and the average level was eight. This was enough for the high-level members of the group to level up a few times.
"Everyone level five and above, come out of the group," Zayden said
As his words reached their ears, about seven people came out from the group behind him.
"Take care of that null group, we won't help you in battle until you are very close to death," Zayden said
A slight wary look appeared on their faces, but Zayden's stern look told them that he was serious. They couldn't refuse, so they could only reluctantly charge at the nulls coming toward them.
Not all the members of the student council of which included Amara, Isara, and Aiden, charged at the nulls with enthusiasm in their eyes. Not just them, but one timid-looking young girl also.
Once his eyes landed on this girl, Zayden's eyes widened slightly. She was timid-looking with brown shoulder-length hair, a petite frame, brown eyes, and looked like she would run at any sight of danger. But with a sword in her hands, she was charging at the nulls.
Zayden, of course, knew this girl, as she was very famous in his previous life. Being one of the pillars of humanity in their fight against the invaders, the hope of many.
She was the Holy Sword Saint, Valeria Orvyn.
'Nice, if I can just help her a little to go on the right path, things will start going smoothly for her,' Zayden thought, many ideas already popping up in his mind.
He put those thoughts out of his mind for now and began watching them to pick out the good seeds.
Aiden, being the highest levelled among them, was already making his presence known. His fighting style was like a tank, just like Darian, but a shield-wielding tank that could help in the protection of a team. And with his silver shield and long sword in hand, he was doing just that.
Amara's fighting style was more assassin-like, using very swift movement to go for a quick kill while targeting the vital points in the bodies of the nulls. Seeing her skills, other plans started forming in Zayden's mind.
Isara was more mage like. Even though she didn't chant spells or use a wand, intricate circles appeared around her, amounting to five appeared around her shooting out different ice-type attacks. Yes, the element that she was using at the moment was the ice element.
Then there was Lucas. He was among the people who reluctantly stepped forward. He was the kind of person who would want someone to do things for them. He wasn't even actively going after any null, only attacking when it was necessary.
As for the remaining two boys, they were trying their best, but there wasn't anything notable about them.
Zayden turned his attention back to Valeria, and his eyes couldn't help but widen.
She was facing two nulls, her sword's blade covered with some kind of golden glow. She crouched down, dodging an attack from the first null while swinging her weapon at the second null.