After cleaning up and changing clothes, they searched the neighborhood for survivors, checking the houses of friends and acquaintances in the area. They found only zombies. During this time, they let Mabini, Apple, Maria, and Clara take the regular zombie kills, boosting each of them to level 7.
They found five more evolved zombies, but this time the creatures were together in the same vicinity. Luna decided it was a good opportunity to practice team fighting. Boni took the lead. His Holy Aura made the evolved zombies instinctively focus on him, causing them to tunnel-vision toward his position. Boni also wanted to test just how sturdy he was.
With his 26 base VIT, a +5 bonus from his mace, and the 10% mitigation from his passive, each hit still took about 3% of his health.
Luna instructed Mabini to guard Apple from any surprise attacks while she channeled Chain Lightning, dealing periodic damage to all five zombies. As the lightning staggered them, Maria and Clara each targeted one.
Clara got the last hit on her target, but Apple's Chain Lightning managed to secure the kill on Maria's assigned zombie.
Luna and Sura finished off the last three. Both master and summon shared the experience, leveling up to 10.
Clara and Apple had only just reached level 7 a few zombies earlier, so they were still short of the next level.
After reaching level 10, Luna received a flood of new information. He was both curious and excited, but since they were out in the open, he decided to wait until they got back to his place before sharing it with everyone.
"Let's head back," he announced. "Reaching level 10 has given me, or rather us, some exciting new benefits!"
The moment they got home, they were so eager that they decided to put off sleep for a few more minutes to hear Luna's news.
"Alright, bear with me. I haven't looked over all the information yet, but I'll tell you the parts that benefit you first." Luna collected his thoughts before continuing. "First and foremost, reaching level 10 has introduced the Nation system. It's similar to a guild system, but with a few key differences. Do you guys want to hear the pros first or the cons?" He looked around the room, waiting for their opinion.
"You know I like my desserts first. Pros!" Boni replied enthusiastically. The rest of the team couldn't help but giggle.
Luna gave Boni a look of disbelief. Was this guy so tired that he was getting hyperactive? He had the highest VIT in the room.
"Alright. Well, the good news is that anyone within the same Nation can choose to evenly share experience from kills with whomever they want, at any time, as long as they are within a mile of each other. This means we won't have to worry as much about who gets the experience, and it allows us to cover more ground and grind more efficiently. However, experience can only be shared by a maximum of one thousand people at a time, with the ability to designate specific groups."
He let the others absorb this information before continuing.
"There is also no member limit. I'm not sure what the goal of the Nation system is, but if it works like a regular guild system in an MMORPG, it was built to encourage competition. The fact that there's no member limit means enough people can join to form armies, with an efficient way to level them up and defend themselves as a squad." Luna cleared his throat. The others waited quietly for him to proceed.
"Each kill also taxes the members of their VIS coins and deposits them into the National Bank, which is only accessible to the leader. When killing zombies that drop only one coin, it takes every other coin. If you have two or more members in your even experience share group, it gives the first coin to Member A, then the National Bank, then Member B, and so on. We don't know what these coins are for, but I have a feeling we'll unlock their purpose at higher levels. Now, for the cons."
"Yikes. Now we're about to get the vegetables," Boni commented. The rest of the group didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Could he think of anything other than food? What was he going to say next, that zombies looked appetizing?
As if reading their minds, Boni spoke the unspeakable. "I wonder if you ate sterilized zombies, would you get more experience since you're digesting them naturally?"
Simultaneous facepalms sounded across the living room. This guy.
"Boni, you... never mind. Focus, Boni!" Luna was filled with disbelief. Boni definitely needed some sleep, so Luna continued quickly to wrap things up.
"The only con, depending on how you look at it, is that if someone kills the leader, that person's current Nation absorbs all the bank's currency. If the killer doesn't belong to a Nation, the currency goes directly into their personal inventory." Hearing this, the room tensed. Being the leader of a Nation essentially puts a huge target on your back.
"We need to consider this more after a good night's sleep. This isn't something we can rush," Apple suggested. The rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"Very well. The personal advantage of reaching level 10 is that you get ten more stat points to distribute instead of the usual one." Surprised and excited expressions spread across the room. It was clear that reaching level 10 was a significant power spike.
"Alright, that's it for now. We'll discuss how to distribute the skill books we got earlier tomorrow. Everyone, get some much-needed rest. The security systems are online, so if anything or anyone tries to get inside, the blaring alarms will wake us all up."
Everyone was exhausted after the day's events, especially after everything that had happened. Despite it all, the best outcome of this whole situation, aside from Luna hitting level 10, was that the team now felt like family. This was especially true for Apple and Mabini, who had been strangers who lost their parents just hours before. Now they felt a renewed sense of purpose.
They were all going to become as strong as they possibly could and establish a foundation no one could destroy. Each of them now knew the pain of losing loved ones. They would never let it happen again.
Meanwhile, as everyone slept, something happened unbeknownst to all of them, including Luna himself. His body began to glow with a dark light, outlined by a faint red aura.
Sensing this, Sura, who had been sleeping on Luna's bed, woke up. She silently moved to the sofa and snuggled beside him. The glow now enveloped them both. As if nothing strange had happened, she comfortably fell back to sleep.