A Dilemma

'Finally!' Miles shouted inside.

He was enduring the pain for a few hours now and was very close to breaking.

After moving his body and stretching for a few seconds, he felt really great.

"Thank you, guys." Miles thanked the group once again.

At that time, Michelle was still hesitating to accept the skill book.

"Why are you hesitating?" Miles asked her.

"Well, I think it's useless for me because I have no shield." she replied.

However, Miles was thinking that she didn't want to owe the people anything so she was refusing to accept it.

"Well, alright." Miles said then turned to William. "She's fine so she won't take it. Just give it to the other shielders in the team."

"Alright."

Paul received the skill Strong Shield. However, he still could not learn it because of the level requirement which was level 5.

After resting for some more time and checking the rooms, the group finally resumed their raid. There were no survivors on the second floor.

With their level increase, their speed was faster than before.

The zombies on the third floor were being cleared at a quick rate.

'Hard Fist!'

William punched the chest of a zombie, breaking its bones and sending it ten meters away from them.

The others also used their attack skills without hesitation and after gaining an increase in their strength, everyone's confidence was high.

When the floor was cleared, they proceeded to scan each room for survivors.

"We have someone in here!" Paul shouted as he opened the door. "Five women."

The girls from the team came forward to check on the ladies.

They checked if they were bitten anywhere and when they were good, they gently talked to them while giving them food. It has been almost two days since their last meal.

Lilia, one of the warriors of William's group, comforted them and put them at ease. She was at the same age as William but has always had a mature aura around her.

"There are people here too!" another one shouted.

One after the other, the rooms were opened and survivors appeared, scared, hungry and tired from how they were acting.

There were a total of fifteen survivors and all of them were female students.

The group tended to them and gave them a nice meal.

The students were really thankful to the group because of their help.

"What should we do with them? Asking them to fight in that state is a bit of a challenge." William asked Miles.

"Of course, we're going to take them if they're willing to come with us. But first, we have to know their class and they have to wait here because we won't delay today's raid." he answered.

"Alright."

William went to the ladies and asked them with a smile.

"I'm William and I'm kinda leader of the group."

"Thank you for saving us. Thank you." one of the female students said with teary eyes.

"Mm. Of course, we're willing to help people in need. If you want to come with us, we will take you." William said.

"Really? Thank you."

"Thank you, thank you."

One of the women raised her hand.

"I'm Helen. What do we need to do? Do we have to sell our bodies or something?" she asked suspiciously. She was thankful for what William's group has done to them but there's no such thing as free in this world.

The others became cautious and tried to cover their bodies.

"No, no, no! Don't misunderstand. We won't ask something like that. Ask any women in our group. No one was abused. We are trying to help each other and create a strong team. Doing those would just break us apart." William quickly explained while waving both his hands.

"I can vouch for that. There's a few women in the team and we are treated nicely." Lilia assured them.

"Then what do you want from us?" Helen asked.

William cleared his throat. "First, we want to ask for your classes."

"Our classes? The one that this game-like system gave us?" Helen asked.

"Yes. That."

"I'm a 'healer'." She replied without hesitation.

Miles' jaw dropped to the ground.

'If I have waited for some more time, I would have saved a health potion! What a pity. But there's nothing I could do.'

"Oh! That's great!" William was delighted. 'Finally! A support!'

He was excited about the idea of having a healer in the team. They were composed of mostly offensive classes and a support would be a huge help to the team.

"You should also tell your classes, just your classes." Helen told the ladies. She didn't know most of them except her friends but seeing that they were timid, someone should try to be a voice.

The others looked at each other and one of her friends asked Helen.

"Is it really fine to trust them?"

"Do we have any choice? Plus, they are clearly stronger than us. If they want to do something to us, what could we do? Just tell them. Anyways, it's just a class." Helen said.

Her friends began introducing themselves and their classes followed by the others.

Ten of them were combat classes while the remaining five were non-combat.

"If you want to follow us, that will be fine. However, our request is just that we want you to work with us. Those who can fight must fight. If you don't want to, that's fine but you have to do something that contributes to the team somewhat." William explained.

"We are going to the upper floors and check it, stay here for a while and we will be back in a few hours."

The team gathered again and Lilia went to the ladies and told them they don't have to fight immediately because they are still regaining their strength.

"I want to come with you." Helen said as she stood up and approached the team.

"That's not necessary. Just rest for now and you can come with us later." Julia said with a calm face.

"But you will be far stronger than us that time and I don't want that. You said to contribute to the team, right? I have three skills that could help you." Helen said.

The people murmured.

"Three? Don't we all only have two skills?"

"And she has three?"

"Maybe because of her class?"

"Maybe."

William stared at her and was also surprised. Everyone on his team including him only has two skills so he assumed it was the starting number. However, he didn't put Helen having three skills too much in his mind. "Sure. You can come with us. Take a weapon and get ready."

Meanwhile, Miles was surprised by the reaction of the group.

'They only have two skills at the beginning? But Julia and Michelle also have three skills so that should not be rare at all. Maybe because of their class.'

Julia and Michelle were looking at each other and their eyes seemed to be talking.

'They only have two skills? But we have four. Why is that?'

'I don't know but we should just keep silent about it.' Julia slightly shook her head and looked at Miles.

'Look at Miles, he's not talking about it too.'

'Right. Let's keep it to ourselves.' Michelle nodded.

William clapped his hand twice and led the team to the fourth floor.

"Wait." Helen stopped the team.

"Gather around me as close as possible."

The people were hesitant so William said, "Do it."

Then they gathered around Helen like she said.

"Priest's Prayer." she put her hands together like she was praying and closed her eyes.

Right then, a light green aura surrounded the team and they felt that their strength increased.

{ You have received the Blessing from the Priest's Prayer. Your STR, SPD and MGC is increased by 10% in the next two minutes. }

"Oh! A percentage buff!"

"GO!"

The team charged on the zombies with high confidence.

'Damn, this feels good.' Miles thought. Although he didn't receive a notification about it, he still felt the increase in his power.

Receiving the buff from Helen was amazing. Even William was smiling from ear to ear.

Buffs like this were the one that could help the team tremendously and it being an AOE(Area of Effect) skill brings its worth to a higher level.

With the Blessing of the Priest's Prayer, the slaughter of the zombies on the fourth floor was the smoothest and shortest.

They thanked Helen again and again for her help.

She just waved her hand and said, "Just doing my part."

They divided the team into the ones who search and collect the drops, check the rooms for survivors and tending to them, and those that take the supplies that were useful.

The fourth floor had five survivors, all of which were students. Four females and one male.

William and Lilia were the ones who talked to them.

After collecting the drops from the zombies and bringing the survivors to the third floor, the group raided the fifth floor.

It has only a few zombies on it so clearing it only took a few minutes.

There were no survivors on the fifth floor and the rooftop was empty too.

"Let's take what we need and get back to the faculty dorm." William announced.

The team moved and took the supplies they needed. Food, clothing, the electronics and anything that proves to have any value to them.

They went back to the third floor and met with the survivors.

"We will now return to the faculty dorm. Let's move quickly and don't fall behind. Those who can carry stuff, please do so." William said.

They prepared their bags and left the building dorm 3.

With the way cleared off of zombies, the team moved with ease but still kept a quick and careful pace.

After some time, they finally returned to the third floor of the faculty dorm.

"Haah..we're finally back." Dante breathed relief.

"Let's arrange what we obtained today. Miss Cecile, could you make us something to eat?" William requested.

"Of course."

"We found some vegetables and fruits and they are still fresh. There's also two of the survivors that have the same class as you. Maybe you can ask them for help." he added.

"That will be great. I will do that." Cecile replied.

It was 4 in the afternoon when the team returned. They decided to raid the dormitory building 4 the next day.

The group now has 39 members. With the increase in number comes the increase in food consumption and with the supply being scarce, each one needs to work on something to be worth feeding.

Lilia hasn't given any roles to the ladies yet but she was willing to wait for what they will say tomorrow when they are fully rested.

But two of the survivors already went to the kitchen with Cecile and became her assistant.

While their food was being prepared, Miles spoke to William. Behind him were Julia and Michelle.

"We'll go down for a moment." He said.

"Why?" William asked.

"We've killed a lot of zombies and haven't checked their drops so we're gonna search for them," Miles explained.

"Oh.Yeah sure. Go on. You don't need to get permission from me." William chuckled then asked. "Do you need our help in collecting the drops?"

"No. We're fine."

"Just come back safely."

"Okay."

With that, the three departed and began their search.

"Where are they going?" Lilia asked when she saw the trio leaving.

"They didn't check the zombies they killed for drops so they are going to search for it." William explained.

"Oh, will they be fine?" She asked.

"Of course. They're far stronger than us. Come on, let's see what we got." William turned to the table and looked at their gains from the first raid.

…

On the other side, the three were searching for the drops from the zombies they killed from the past days.

However, there was a huge problem.

'Damn. I don't know which is a drop and which is not.'

Miles couldn't tell which of the items around was good or bad.