Chapter 32: Clearing the Mall PT3
Susan could be seen heading towards Samuel's tent. They hadn't seen him in slightly over 2 hours so Levi sent her to go check on him. It was past 1 p.m. so everyone was eating lunch. She soon reached his tent and called out "Hey Samuel are you in there. Everyone is having lunch so I came to call you". A few seconds went by but no one responded.
"Samuel, are you there" she called out a little bit louder. Only for her to get snoring sounds in response. 'Is he sleeping? Maybe the first hunt was too tiring for him' Susan thought. She decided to enter the tent. "Excuse me." She said as she raised the tent and walked in. What met her gaze was the figure of Samuel sleeping. He was using one of his bags as a pillow. Seeing Samuel in such a vulnerable state made her chuckle slightly. She found his appearance cute.
"Hey Samuel wake up," Susan said as she, crouched down to wake him up. Her hand moved to nudge him on his head. Just as her head reached a few centimeters from his face. Samuel suddenly opened his mouth and tried biting her fingers. Luckily Susan was fast enough to move her hand out of the way. "What was that about" Susan yelled in irritation. She was slightly flustered by Samuel's sudden attempt to bite her.
Samuel groggily woke up. He stared at Susan with a confused expression. "What happened? Why are you in my tent?" Samuel asked. "What happened?...you just tried to bite me. What's wrong with you?" Susan said visibly upset. A look of understanding appeared on Samuel's face.
"Sorry about that. I kind of do that on instinct whenever someone or anything passes over my face." Samuel said with slight embarrassment. Susan didn't know what to say in this situation. He didn't try biting her on purpose. "Whatever, just follow me the others are having a launch and Levi told me to call you to join," Susan said as she walked out of the tent.
Samuel hastily got up and made sure he was dressed properly before following after her. "Wait a second. I have my own food in my bag. I don't want to take from you guys. Food must be hard to come by with the state the world is in." Samuel said. "Don't worry about it. The food we are eating now is those that will go bad soon. So we might as well not waste them. Save what you have. You are going to need it for the trip to Blue Bell." Susan said.
The two soon reached an area on the first floor. It was a wide open space with multiple people seating everywhere. Whether they were from the 1st or 2nd floor of this base everyone was enjoying the food together. "Samuel boy! Come over here this stuff's good. Come quick before it's all gone." George Sai out loud. Calling Samuel to join him.
George, Alex, Rebecca, Levi, Cole and other fighters set together. The atmosphere was oddly pleasant. Accompanying the fighters were many ordinary people. They all ate, talked, and laughed together. In a world on the verge of destruction with their hopes of survival being near zero. These people found hope and comfort in the presence of those around them. This atmosphere of unity made Samuel smile as he joined George and the others.
"Here you go, boy. Eat up maybe with some proper food you might become as big as me hahaha!" George said as he slapped his fat stomach. "Who would want to look like you old man? That sounds like a threat rather than good wishes" Alex said with a mocking expression. "Who wouldn't want to have these bad boys," George said as he flexed his arms. The muscles beneath the clothing bulged with clear strength. "Ain't that right Cole. What better physique is there, than that of a man that looks like he can carry the weight of the world on his back." George said.
Cole let out a light chuckle "You might be an old man. But you always speak wise words. Of course, there's no better physique." Cole said as he got up and flexed his arms as well. "Hahahaha!" everyone in the area burst out laughing. Other guys joined the flexing. Showing off the strong muscles they had gained from living in this apocalypse. Even Levi joined them displaying a refined and muscular body.
"All of you suck," Alex said with clear envy in his voice. "Did you say something skinny? Can't hear you down there" Rebecca said. She even participated in showing off her well-trained arms and legs. Alex could only grit his teeth. Unlike the others, he had a smaller frame. He was fit by all means. But his physique fell into the slimmer categories.
"Come on Samuel show us what you got," Levi said invitingly. Samuel couldn't resist as he got up. "I don't have much but here it goes." He flexed his muscles and everyone saw what he had. He wasn't as large as George or as defined by Levi and Cole. But he had a pair of strong arms and a sturdier physique them most.
"Not bad boy. See that Alex even Samuel's got you beat hahahahaha!" George burst into laughter and the others also nodded at Samuel's physique. Alex stayed quiet as he gave them all a middle finger and kept eating. "idiots" Susan said from the side as she ate quietly. Although she acted aloof a gentle smile appeared on her pretty face.
Launch was a pleasant event and by the time it ended, everyone went in to do their business with renewed enthusiasm. Some performed maintenance of their weapons while others went on guard duty. Everyone had something to do. Samuel returned to his tent. He took out the legend crystals he had collected from the hunt. There were 34 in total. Legend crystals give a fixed amount of energy when absorbed regardless of the stage of the legend that it came from.
All mortal-ranked legend crystals give an increase of 10 to a person's mythos reserves. Walker rank gives 100 and Voyager rank gives 1000. The amount of energy is fixed to the legend rank, not the stage. Samuel had attempted to use Legends Forge to fuse two legend crystals. But his ability failed when trying it on the crystals. He felt that he was missing something. As if his Karna hadn't met the requirements to forge legend crystals together. Samuel proceeded to absorb the crystals one by one.
It took a few seconds for Each crystal to be absorbed. After a short while Samuel had increased his Karna's Mythos reserves by 340. But that wasn't enough. "I need to increase how long I can keep my enhanced perception active. The battles that are to come won't just be shot skirmishes. I'll need it activated for much longer periods of time. That's why I need more crystals." Samuel said to himself.
But Samuel faced another problem. He needed more legend crystals not just for his Halo ability. He also needed it for when he increased his stage. The increase in strength one experiences when the increase they legend rank or stage isn't a fixed value. Rather the user's stats are increased by a percentage. That means that the gap between each gets wider and wider. That's what makes fighting opponents on a higher stage than yourself difficult.
Karna users are slight exceptions to this rule due to the boost they get from their karna. But that exception only applies to battles between Karna users and non-Karna users. Samuel needed more crystals but he did not know where to get them. "Sai, do you have any idea where I can get more legend crystals? I need to increase my Mythos capacity as much as possible before I reach stage 3. My progress bar is at 78%." Samuel asked Sai. His hidden companion replied. "From what I've seen from these survivors. They don't seem particularly interested in the legend crystals. Although they collect them, most of them haven't absorbed any. Well, at least the ones I've been watching haven't. All legend crystals are stored in their storage room. You can either ask Levi if he's willing to give you some or ask Susan." Sai said.
"Why Susan?" Samuel asked. "She is the only person I've seen that absorbs legend crystals. So she might be able to help you." Sai said. Samuel got curious about this new information. "Why is Susan the only one that absorbs legend crystals? Let me just go ask her." Samuel said as he stood up and went to find Susan. It didn't take long for him to find her. She was in her tent.
Samuel sensed the gathering of Aurora around her tent. That energy was then absorbed by her. She wasn't the only person he had seen do this. Samuel had assumed it must be how they trained and increased their aurora. "Susan, it's me, Samuel. I need to ask you something." Samuel said as the Aurora energy that gathered around Susan dispersed. "What do you want?" Susan asked. "I wanted to ask about legend crystals. Do you know where I can get any? I need some for my training." Samuel asked.