Chapter 18: Getting Ready

Brian passed the piece of paper over to Alex and said, "They would try their best but not without food and water to sustain them.

"The backup generator for their building’s power might also go out soon, and they need someone to go and top up the diesel for it.

"The guys that they sent earlier to do so didn’t make it back."

Alex read the reply written on the piece of paper and nodded his head.

It seems that they would have to make a trip over to there.

He glanced at the darkness that was outside of the window and said, "We will organize a party to do so tomorrow.

"For now, let’s eat first." He sat down and handed a few packs of the MRE ration packs over to his friends.

They opened it up and took a bite of the main course for the ration pack.

Their faces squirmed with their features squeezed together.

"Are you guys exaggerating?" Alex frowned when he saw their faces and took a bite of the ration pack he had in his hand.

And they were right.

His eyebrows furrowed together and he forced himself to swallow whatever it was in his mouth.

It was gooey and tasted like a mouthful of preservatives.

The ration packs could sustain them but he’d rather have fresh food if he had the option.

He thought about whether it was possible for the rewards to have raw ingredients like vegetables, meat and eggs when he got to the 200 kills.

It would be a wonderful bonus if it was so.

But for now, he and the others had to make do with the MRE ration packs.

For a few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of eating and drinking in the room, as they wolfed down the food.

After taking a few bites, the hunger in them had taken over them and the taste didn’t matter to them anymore.

Burp.

Terry gave out a loud burp when he was done and patted on his stomach.

"I could hit the bed now and be done for the day." He said as he finally felt the fatigue in him after such a long day.

Alex glanced at him and said, "You wish. We are not done yet."

He stood up and asked the others, "Do you feel more powerful now?"

Brian also stood up and raised his hands.

A fireball appeared in front of his palm, and then another appeared.

He tried to create another and a third one appeared successfully.

"Let me try it out too." Not to be outdone, Terry quickly stood up and tried out his ability immediately.

His body turned into metallic form and on his hand, a small metallic rod with a sharp end slowly formed.

"What do you get to have such flashy abilities instead?" Riley cursed and he tried to create as many bubbles as possible.

This time, the bubbles he created were bigger than they were before at the size of a fist.

Alex felt relieved that their abilities were getting more powerful.

The mutated beasts might be even more difficult to deal with soon and this gave him assurance that they were on the right track.

Killing more of the mutated beasts now helped with their survival later.

He raised his hand and tried out his own ability.

A slit appeared in front of him and it opened up into a portal.

Now, it was as tall as he was and twice as wide as he was.

Large enough to cover his body from harm.

"Even you have something that’s more flashy!" Riley cursed and shook his head at the bubbles that were in front of him.

"Next, I need your help." Alex said and the others glanced at him.

"I need you to fire whatever you can into the portal." He said and the others weren’t too sure that they’ve heard him correctly.

"Are you sure?" Brian said and Alex nodded at him.

"Well, if you say so..."

Whoosh.

One of the fireballs shot at the portal that was in front of Alex and it disappeared into it.

Alex could sense the fireball with the kinetic force still intact inside his storage space.

It would come in handy for him when he was in trouble.

"Go on, continue." He said to Brian and Brian did what he was told.

One after another, the fireballs shot at the storage portal and they disappeared into it.

"Can you do more?" Alex asked and Brian rolled his eyes at him.

"I should have known that the dinner would cost me." Brian said but he continued to create more of the fireballs and got them into Alex’s storage portal.

This went on for twenty over rounds until Brian felt the need to rest.

Terry sighed when he saw Alex turn around at him.

He shrugged and started to hurl the sharp metallic rods into Alex’s storage portal.

After twenty over rounds of doing so, Terry was also tired like Brian earlier.

He had to take a rest from the exhaustion.

Finally, it was Riley’s turn.

The bubbles that Riley was able to create flew at a much slower speed than what Terry and Brian were able to do with their abilities but they were much more numerous.

At one go, he was able to create at least twenty bubbles at the same time.

The bubbles flew at the storage portal and Terry quickly stayed away from them even though they didn’t look devastating.

He knew what they were capable of and it was better that he stayed a safe distance away from them.

And for Riley who was at SS Level compared to Brian and Terry, he was able to sustain thirty over rounds of doing so until he was too tired to carry on.

The storage portal disappeared and Alex also felt exhausted from sustaining it for so long.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and there was a knock on the door.

"Who’s there?"

"It’s me Eddy. We have gathered up the students in the dorm building outside the corridor."

Alex walked over to the door and opened it.