Three Men Talking

As the power flowed into Miles' body, he realized a few more things.

Although he couldn't learn skills dropped by the zombies, the items and skills were effective to him.

First, when Helen casted an AOE buff, he too was affected by it as he felt the increase in his power. He didn't receive any notifications about it or anything but he knew that the skill affected him. Miles also felt the buff begin and end and from what he learned, the skill Priest's Prayer has a duration of about two minutes.

Additionally, he could still receive item effects. It was due to the fact that he felt its effects the moment he wore the rings.

'I have no system so I couldn't identify the items and skill books. I've got to be careful with the items that I wear. I'm slowly trusting these two but I still have to be careful.'

"We should trade the drops we're not going to use next time if possible for more useful items." he said and they began packing the items in one bag and decided Miles should carry them which he accepted.

After that, they returned to the faculty dorm.

There, the group was already preparing for dinner. They've already cleaned the hallway from corpses of zombies and disinfected the place so that's where they set the tables of food.

"You found something good?" William asked Miles as they sat.

"Yes."

"Great."

After everyone sat down, William stood up and called everyone's attention.

"We had a successful raid today and gained so much from it. I hope that we can help each other more in the future. Let's eat."

He made a very short speech and began to dig in the dishes. Obviously, he didn't want the people to wait anymore.

With that, the group started eating, giving praises to the three chefs from time to time. It was a really delicious meal that the newcomers teared up while eating.

Some time after dinner, the group gathered once more.

"We've locked the doors but we still have to be cautious so we will have people do night watch. At least two groups of three people would do it." William said.

"I'll go." Miles raised his hand.

"Me, too." Dante slightly raised his fingers.

William nodded and a few more men completed the three teams.

"Me, Miles and Sir Dante will take the first watch from 7 pm to 3 am. Paul's group will take the second watch at 3 am onwards." William said.

"We will?" Miles suddenly asked.

"Alright." Dante replied.

Paul's group agreed to the arrangement.

They group dismissed and everyone chose the rooms in the third room to sleep on. Men were assigned to the rooms near the exit and the ladies went together in the rooms near the end of the building.

"Good night, Miles." Michelle and Julia said.

"Mm. Good night." he waved his hand to the ladies.

After they were the only ones left, William took some chairs and placed them near the window. The spot gives them a good view of the whole hallway, the outside and the exit door.

The lights in the hallway were turned off and only a small lamp placed near the three was lighting the dark place.

Hearing the silence of the night, Dante smiled.

"A drink at a time like this is perfect."

"Hehe, you're right." William chuckled and took out three cans of beer. "Here, I found some a while ago.'

"Oh! Nice! Thank you!" The middle aged man quickly took the can and opened it. He gave it a good sip. "Hooh. That's good."

William handed over the other can to Miles but then suddenly stopped his action.

"Can you drink?"

"It's my first time." Miles took the can of beer.

"Oh. By the way, how old are you Miles?" William asked as he sipped the beer.

"I'm eighteen years old." he opened the can and it made a clicking sound.

The two were surprised when they heard him.

"You must be a first year student then." Dante said.

"Yes. Mechanical Engineering freshman, section E."

"Haha. Then I'll be one of your instructors in your second year if the apocalypse didn't happen." the middle aged man laughed.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I teach Shops and Practices that you will take during your second year." Dante answered and they began chatting.

Dante was a very likable person in Miles' perspective. He was easy to talk with and he thinks that he would have fun in Dante's class. And that is added to the fact that he enjoys operating machines and being dirty in the foundry.

A short while later, William butted in. "I would also likely be an instructor of yours, Miles in Thermodynamics."

"Woah." Miles was speechless and amazed.

"How old are you guys?" he asked in curiosity.

"55." Dante replied.

"29." William answered then asked. "You?"

"18."

"Oh, that's young." William said with a smile. "So how do you like the beer?" he asked because he noticed that Miles hadn't taken a sip of it yet.

"Well," Miles was immersed in talking that he forgot about the beer in his hands. He took a sip and frowned.

"What? You don't like it?" Dante asked, chuckling.

"Yeah…" Miles tried to place the beer down to the floor but William took it.

"Then I'll drink it."

The three of them chatted in a low voice as much as possible to not disturb the ones sleeping or possibly attract the attention of zombies.

After the laughs, Dante then turned serious and asked. "After we raid dormitory building 4, what is our next plan?"

The other two pondered and William was the first one to talk.

"I'm really thinking of finding the survivors and creating a force to kill the zombies in the campus. Then, we'll make Brightville University into a united settlement that can be a safe place for survivors."

His words surprised the two particularly Dante.

"Brightville University into a settlement without zombies? That is not impossible but achieving that will be very difficult."

William sighed. "I'm aware of that."

Miles had some ideas about what the two were talking about. The oldest one stood up, went to a room and returned with a book in his hands. It was the handbook of Brightville University.

He turned it into a page that showed the map of the whole campus.

"All the entrances were open even before the apocalypse came. Our university is enclosed with a wall unlike other universities so the situation is a bit better but if you really want to use this place as a settlement, we need to close all the ten entrances first to prevent the other zombies from keep coming in. Then we could just slowly clear the inside from the remaining zombies."

"That's fine but closing the gates should be done with a small team. Having a large team move will slow down the mission." William nodded.

"We don't necessarily have to do that. All the gates are electronic and are controlled in the security room." Dante pointed into a building near the center of the map. "It's in the basement of the building next to the administration building. We can access the gates there and close them."

"All of the gates?" Miles asked.

"Yes." Dante nodded.

"The security room. Hmm.. Then if they control the gates there, shouldn't they be closed the moment the personnels saw the zombies coming?" William asked.

"I don't know what happened but Gate 4, the nearest in the dorm area, was open. I saw it when we climbed the rooftop of the dorm building 3 a while ago. I didn't think much of it at that time but now, I realized that something must've happened in the control room." Dante explained.

"The fact that something must've happened there makes me think that raiding that place will be very dangerous." William sighed.

"Aren't we already facing danger all these times? Adding risk is a part of doing something big." Dante smiled awkwardly. Honestly, he was also scared to go to that place. If even a security room was attacked by zombies, well, they must be strong zombies.

"But if we can take control of that room, not only we can take control of the gates but also the cameras around the school, right?" Miles asked.

Dante smiled and nodded. "Correct. Not only that, here, do you remember what this is?" he pointed into a triangle figure beside the building where the security room was.

"The broadcasting tower." William and Miles muttered.

"The university's broadcasting station is in the same building as the security room. Controlling that building will give us access to the cameras and speakers of the whole campus. If we want to make the university into a settlement, taking control of that building will be crucial."

William frowned. "But we also haven't heard from the broadcasting station. They should've announced about the situation or something."

Dante crossed his arms. "If something happens to the security room, the broadcasting floor will not be exempted."

He then continued. "Plus, there is the administrative building cafeteria next to the building."

William looked at the map and nodded.

"If we can control that tower, we would have both communications and food. That's good. But now for the real challenges. The distance from here to that building is about a kilometer. Traversing that distance with our number is a very troublesome and dangerous task. We can't travel at night because the darkness will hinder our movements and using light will attract zombies. We also don't have access to our vehicles because they are parked in the north east area of the campus. Our only option is to move by foot during the daytime."

"What choice do we have?" Miles said. "But that is actually good. We can level up through the zombies and maybe secure some more survivors and supplies along the way."

"And that is the other challenging part. It's true that leveling up is good but.." Dante slowed down.

"Moving in a huge group with only a few of us fighting would put a huge burden on us." William sighed once more.

"And don't forget if we encounter some other surviving groups. Some of them might be hostile to us. We should be prepared for the worst." Dante massaged his temples. "Killing the zombies is a huge matter but dealing with the survivors will also be a very troublesome thing in itself."

"Right." William rested his head onto his palm.

A few minutes of silence descended onto the center of the three. Each one of them was thinking about something.

'I actually want to kill the zombies for points.' Miles thought.

'Hmm. I just hope that we can pull whatever we are going to do with as low casualty as possible.' Dante massaged the center of his brows this time.

'Please, I don't want to kill a living human...' William gnashed his teeth silently.

"Can't we just move in a small number?" Miles asked.

"That would also be great. But we should leave some people to protect the non-combats." William said.

"We must gain some levels tomorrow." Dante spoke.

"Let's just ask the others tomorrow and hear their opinion on the matter." William laid his back onto the chair.

At that moment, a loud sound was heard.

Roaaaar!!

The three of them immediately took their weapons and peeked at the window.

"It's that sound again." William said.

"What is that? That's the second time I heard that sound today." Dante asked.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'm assuming it's a zombie that could turn other zombies into an enraged state, increasing their stats. It must be a strong one." Miles explained. "We encountered the enraged zombies in the morning before we met you. I dealt with them but it's not easy at all. That's where I got my injury and Julia and Michelle have to escape."

The two looked at him with surprise and then realization fell upon them.

"We will lock ourselves inside the campus with a zombie like that?"