Departure for the Mission

The roar from afar was loud enough to wake up those who were already sleeping in the rooms. A few men walked out and checked on the trio.

"It's from far away. We're probably safe here. Just keep silent." William told the others. They switched off their lamp but still stood guard.

"You think you can deal with that zombie?" William asked Miles out of the blue.

Miles just shrugged and said. "I don't know because I haven't seen it but who knows?"

"But I can count on you if something happens, right?" William became more serious.

"You're depending on me too much." Miles shook his head.

"It's a given because you're stronger than us."

"You can be one if you really like to." Miles chuckled. "I can help you."

William smiled. "I'll hold on to that."

The three kept watch until Paul's team replaced them.

The night passed and when the sun was starting to rise, the group began waking up one by one.

Cecile began cooking their breakfast with the other two chefs.

It was 7 am and they gathered in the hallway.

"Did you sleep well?" Dante asked Miles.

"Like a baby." He smiled.

"I wish I could sleep like that too." Dante said.

"You couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking about something." Dante sat near the table and Miles followed him.

"What is it?" he asked.

Dante waved his hand and spoke. "It's nothing."

Miles didn't ask any more.

William greeted them and the simple breakfast was served.

'Oh, Cecile leveled up.' Miles thought as he looked at the [ 10 ] number above Cecile's head. Non-combat classes could level up a bit differently from the others. They could just do their class profession and it will give them exp.

She told William about it and he helped her distribute her stats and skill points.

After finishing the early meal, William stood in front of the people.

"We will raid the dormitory building 4 today. With the increase in our levels, I'm sure that this task will be easy but I still want everyone to be very careful. Those who want to go can go. Just tell us so that we can assign a position for you."

"Now, after our task, we will return to this place and will be discussing our next plan." William announced.

The group has 39 members and 24 of them were going to raid the last building in the area. The remaining people will stay in the building.

It was 9 am when the team left. The zombies around the building were almost gone except the few that likely just wandered there.

William gave the newcomers a chance to gain exp by killing those zombies which they did eventually, albeit very scared at first.

They moved swiftly and arrived at building 4 with no difficulty.

"Let's go." William began attacking the zombies on the ground floor.

His axe descended and split the head of a zombie in half.

Miles was about two meters away on his left side. He too was swinging his axe and killing the zombies in a small amount of time.

With the two of them leading, the group cleared the floor in a short amount of time before moving to the second floor.

"Alright. Gather around Helen." William said.

Helen activated her Priest's Prayer and increased the stats of everyone.

The zombies on the second floor were like training dummies to the team.

They collected the drops, secured some survivors and looted a few supplies.

The group moved from floor to floor until they finished raiding the building.

On the fifth floor, they took a rest for a few minutes and immediately returned to the faculty dorm.

It was about noon when they returned to their 'base'.

After sorting things out, they learned that they managed to collect a few drops this time and found an 'enchanter' from the six new survivors.

Brent was a third year student with the class 'enchanter' who specializes in buffs, debuffs and crowd controls. Along with Helen, he would be a great addition to the team and the fact that he was willing to fight with them was the best thing.

The chefs cooked them a hot meal and after they had their fill, they began discussing their next plan.

"Then, I'll tell you what we talked about last night."

He then relayed the few things he, Dante and Miles talked about.

"I plan to transform the Brightville University into a safe settlement for survivors. And in order to do that, we have to kill all the zombies inside the campus and rescue the survivors. That would be impossible with the gates open and the zombies kept pouring in."

He placed the map of the university on the table and pointed at the building where the security room was.

"First, we will take control of the building where the security room is so that we can close all the gates. Not only that, we can see the situation through the cameras of the campus. This building also has the broadcasting station and we can use the tower to communicate with the campus and the outside."

"Our goal is to travel to this broadcasting building, take control of it and close the gates. Now, the question is what do you think of this?"

Willam finished speaking and the group began murmuring to each other.

"Just say your thoughts about it. No need to be reserved." Dante spoke.

Right then, Lilia raised her hand.

"I just want to know. A settlement? How did you come up with that idea?"

William stared at the map and replied. "The university is enclosed by walls so a defense was already available. If you take a good look at this place, it has everything that could support survivors. If we can use the facilities to our advantage, we can continue living here until help arrives from the outside or even if it doesn't come. When we get stronger, we can venture outside and find our families."

Paul and the others looked at the map and as they read the facilities that the university has, they realized that William was telling the truth and his idea was feasible.

Heck, just the Agriculture department and the Shops and Practices facilities would be a great help to the people. These two could sustain their food supply and also produce weapons they can use against the zombies.

The group was slowly being convinced.

"That is true. But your plan is to take control of the broadcasting building and it's a bit far away from here. How would you plan to go there?" Paul raised his hand and asked.

"By foot of course. We don't have any other choice." William smiled bitterly.

"There will be many zombies along the way. Are you saying that we will travel that far while fighting zombies?" he asked again.

"Yes, there will be many zombies in the way. But that is why we will be moving in a small team of ten so that we can move faster." William answered.

"Who's on the team?" Lilia asked.

"Me, Dante and Miles are sure to go. We can talk about the remaining seven." William said.

The group became silent.

"Are you confident in this mission?" Paul asked.

"I'm confident." William responded without hesitation.

"Then, I'm going with you." Paul said.

"Me, too." Lilia raised her hand.

"Thank you. That's five." William smiled.

Miles looked at his team to see their thoughts but Julia and Michelle were already raising their hands.

"We'll go with you." Michelle said.

"This mission is dangerous but your goal is interesting. I'd like to participate in this." Helen said.

At the end Brent and Nathan, a shielder, filled the remaining spots.

William and the others were satisfied with their team.

The group had some more discussion about the ones who will be left in the building.

The mission team gathered.

"So when are we going?" Paul asked.

"Today." Miles answered.

"Today?"

"Mm. If we leave at 2 pm, we can reach the next area and raid the nearest building before it gets dark." He smiled.

"Hmm. That's true."

The team stood around the table and Dante laid a paper on top of it.

"I'll just brief you about how we are going to reach the broadcasting building."

This time, he presented himself to help William in planning for the team. Because he gave a good impression to him, William agreed to it.

"Our first stop is the Lecture Hall Annex building then we'll move to the Lecture Hall Main Building. The time of our departure is at fourteen hundred and we should arrive at the first point at fourteen thirty. Our allotted time for the raid of all six floors, checking for survivors and collection of drops and supplies is only one hour. The survivors will be gathered and secured into one of the floors until we return or they are escorted to this base. At fifteen thirty, we'll move to the Lecture Hall Main Building, raid it, and spend the night there. That will cover a third of the distance needed to reach the broadcasting Building. We'll move to the next point the next morning at zero five fortyfive."

"For our formation, we'll do a spearhead. Miles will be the most front, me and William will be behind him followed by Miss Michelle and Nathan then Paul and Lilia. Helen and Brent will be inside the formation and Miss Julia will be our rear guard. Any questions?"

When Dante finished speaking, the team was surprised.

"What?" he asked them.

"Feels like the military." William said with a smile.

Dante just gave a faint smile and began answering their questions one by one.

After a few minutes, they dispersed and did a quick prep before returning to the exit of the building.

"Are you nervous?" Miles asked Michelle.

She lightly nodded. "A bit."

"Miles." Julia called. She was a bit nervous like her friend.

This time, they will be traversing something that could be called a swarm of zombies and will raid bigger buildings in a shorter amount of time, more difficult than what they were doing.

"We'll be fine." Miles reassured her when he felt her anxiousness.

He tapped their shoulders and spoke. "You guys are already stronger than yesterday so have a bit of confidence in yourselves."

The two smiled and nodded. "Right. Thank you."

When the others arrived, Miles handed them some of the items they collected last time.

"This is a loan." he said as he distributed some of his items.

The others were surprised to see the items he gave them. They possessed one each from the past raids and Miles loaning them another one or two was a tremendous help.

"And here." He handed the HeadButt(E) and KickBack(E) skills to William and the Crushing Blow(E) and Sky Blade(D) to Dante.

Both of them were stunned to see Miles willingly handing them skill books.

"Miles, this is too much." William said.

"I said I'll help you right? There, my help." Miles just said with a smile.

'I can't even see the details of those skills.' he muttered inwardly.

"But still…" William hesitatingly looked at the skillbooks. Of course he was happy to see the skill books appropriate for his class in his hands but he also knew that Miles' team was the one who obtained them with their own strength.

"What are you hesitating for? Thank you for this Miles. I'll definitely pay for it in the future." Dante accepted the skill books and quickly learned them. He has two skills and having additional two would be great. Unfortunately, he still can't learn the Sky Blade(D) because of the level 10 restriction.

"Well..alright. I'll accept it and pay you in the future." William said with gratitude as he learned his new skills.

Miles turned to the others and apologized.

"I don't have any skills for you guys but here, take this as an extra insurance." he then gave the others, except Julia and Michelle, one health potion and mana potion each and for Helen and Brent, he gave them three mana potions. The two of them were important to the team and if they have no mana to cast skills, it could be catastrophic.

"This is very nice of you. Thank you." Helen showed a beautiful rare smile.

"Oh.. Uhm.. alright.. We can go now.." Miles said.

"Let's go." William said and pushed the door open. What they will face on the other side was still unknown to them.