It had been two months since Zane and the girls had first arrived at the bunker. During this time it would be accurate to say that their progress had been significant. Not only in terms of leveling up but also in terms of building a sustainable community.
It turned out there were pockets of survivors all over the Carson area, and though battles were waged with some of these survivors, who were, shall we say, more villainous than others? Angelica's expanded abilities allowed her to not only detect lies from people but also their true nature.
This made it easy for Zane and the girls to build up a small community of some fifty survivors based around the neighborhood where the bunker was located beneath its surface. A small wall was constructed around the area, and the undead within it were thoroughly purged.
Armed sentries were posted in a way that made it so there were no blind spots, and had a strict schedule of shifts ensuring that the community of "Gravestone" as it became known, was always protected.
Unlike the safe Zone in Reno which ran out of power ages ago, Gravestone was constantly powered by Olivia's abilities, and because of this it was one of the few "civilized" regions in the world were electricity still functioned like before the apocalypse had begun.
There were also several greenhouses constructed to grow food for the community and enough surplus supplies beneath the bunker to supplement these crops. Meat was probably the hardest thing to come by, as wild animals became less and less common, and livestock were nowhere to be found.
This problem was solved by the wandering caravans that established regular trade between the safe zone in Reno and the newly formed "town" of Gravestone. Which was named as a pun, making fun of Zane's last name, which was "Graves". A bit of self-deprecating humor by the man who was essentially the dictator for life of this small community.
Still, every man and woman was put to work in some fashion, whether as sentries protecting the town, or as farmers in the greenhouses, or as mechanics and maintenance men for the small fleet of armored vehicles scavenged from the old national guard.
Olivia, being a former high school teacher, was tasked with both powering the electric grid and teaching the few children among the town's survivors. While Angelica cared for the sick and wounded. Her abilities had improved significantly as she leveled up to ten.
Finally, there came Zane. He had changed the least out of anyone in the group. After all, he required significantly more experience than the girls as after reaching Level 10, one's levels took substantially more experience to climb higher.
But today was that day. After taking out the last of Eliza's abominations, Zane stood with several Tier III blood crystals in his hands. With these, he could finally break the barrier and climb to level 15, where, hopefully, his only skill would evolve into Tier IV. That is, of course, there were any unforeseen circumstances.
After standing there staring at the large spherical blue crystals, Zane did not hesitate to pop them into his mouth, where he immediately felt overjoyed by the flavor. What would be the most putrid and acrid thing a normal human being could ever taste was nothing short of a delicacy to Zane.
And as the blood crystals turned into liquid, which he drank with satisfaction, a message appeared in Zane's vision, one he had been waiting a very long time for.
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[Level up! You are now Level 15!]
[+3 Attribute Points!]
[+1 Skill Point]
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