The levels of the beasts in the horde ranged from level nine to level eleven. They weren't all that strong, and for Zayden, defeating them would be a piece of cake.
Now, this was where the problem came in. He couldn't use his Law of Darkness because it would corrode the meat of the beasts, making them inedible. And in this apocalypse, any source of food needs to be handled with care.
Waste was unacceptable.
But there was no need to use his law of darkness, as his strength was way higher than that of the beasts, and a swing from him could cause death.
Now, what made things more interesting was that he needed to absorb power shards for his rank-up. Although this wasn't enough for his class, it was still useful.
So now, Zayden wasn't seeing these beasts like the scary monsters they were; instead, he saw piles of power shards that could go towards his class upgrade.
With that in mind, Zayden entered the midst of the beast, swinging his sword out, releasing a strong whoosh of air every time. But as soon as it came in contact with beasts, there was a slight moment of resistance, but the beasts were ultimately killed.
'I need to fix my forging, ' Zayden thought.
Everything just told him that there was a problem with his forging style, leading to a reduction in the sword's integrity. While the sword looked unbelievably sharp, it wasn't excellent.
The thing was that Zayden didn't know where he was to start.
As for the horde, with the help of Valeria, they were defeated within a few minutes. They pocketed the power shards and the corpses of the horde.
The reason the corpses were needed was that they were edible, and they gave improvement to those who ate them, like a slight increase in the cosmic energy or stats.
Zayden and Valeria jumped up, landing perfectly on top of the bus.
About twenty minutes of driving later, the bus was in the city, well, the outskirts of the city.
The drive wasn't troublesome. Apart from the horde that they defeated and a few stray mutant beasts, there were no other problems.
That was until they entered the city.
The city was teeming with nulls and mutant beasts, and on every turn, they had to deal with a few nulls, way stronger than most in the buses. But with Zayden at the helm, defeating the nulls was a piece of cake.
Seated on top of the bus, Zayden's eyes were closed as he pictured the way to the place he wanted to make the shelter.
It wasn't that far, just at the edge of the city, but why would Zayden want to form the shelter there of all places when there was an easy college for him to do that?
Well, from his memories, he remembered that after they left the college, they came to the city and reached a street. The street in question was already inhabited by a group of survivors.
Now, while those survivors didn't create a shelter, they were just like a group of people that wanted to create some sort of 'safe place' for other survivors like them.
The thing about this group was that while they were low-levelled, like very low level, just one level above ten, they were way stronger than their level. Like they could fight an entity more than ten levelled above their level, and they had a large concentration of cosmic energy in them.
He later figured out that it was due to a pond, in the depths of the street. The pond was white with twinkling crystals in it. It gave off terrifying waves of cosmic energy and could increase the strength of the people who drank the water of the pond, or rather bathed in it.
It was known as the Cascading Starlight Pond.
These ethereal ponds appear at random, seemingly choosing their ground. It could be in a crater in a ruined city, a broken highway overpass, a crack in the desert; any of these could, by some unknown logic.
It was called the Cascading Starlight Ponds because every night, as the stars twinkle in the night sky, the starlight cascades onto the pond, and rather than disappearing, it becomes liquid, containing unimaginable powers.
It was so scarce that Zayden could recall no more than five appearing on the continent of North America. But after the knowledge of these ponds spread out, the appearance of one could cause war between shelters.
This showed the importance of the pond.
It was a very good fortune for Zayden, as even if people are around the vicinity of the pond, their strength would increase gradually, making them stronger than others.
With knowledge of this, there was no way Zayden was going to give up his pond. Even if the group from before was there, he didn't mind forcing them into submission.
As Zayden and the buses approached the street, the amount of beast increased. The thing was that these beasts were weird.
They were no higher than level eleven, but they had strength way higher than their level, but it was nothing that Zayden couldn't handle.
Valeria, who was seated beside Zayden, couldn't help but frown. The characteristics of these beasts were weird, and they were getting weirder as the beasts advanced.
"I think there might be a problem with where we are going", Valeria said as she turned to look at Zayden, only to see him smiling.
'Is he going crazy?' she thought
"This is a good thing," Zayden said
What she didn't know was that Zayden was excited. The characteristics of these beasts told him that the Starlight Pond had appeared, and the beasts must have been in the vicinity of the pond, increasing their strength.
"How is it a good thing if the beasts are too much? We will be unable to make the shelter", Valeria said.
"Don't worry, we'll take care of it", Zayden said.
There was no way he could tell her about something that had not yet happened, and to be sincere, he didn't really have the strength to explain things to her.
"Stop the bus", he said while knocking on the glass of the driver's seat.
The buses rolled to a stop, their engines rumbling to silence.
The team stepped out one by one. They had been driving for hours after escaping the college, after fighting through waves of nulls. They should have felt relief. Instead, they felt watched.
Zayden stood in front, looking down the cracked boulevard. The rest of the team gathered behind him.
"Are we there?"
"Where are we going to stay?"
The confusion and agitation of the people were understandable, seeing the run-down situation of the street around them.
There were beasts in the distance, and even though most of them weren't evolved, they could see the beasts in the distance.
Most of the houses were broken down, with holes through them, bones, skulls and piles of dust every. But apart from that, from the condition of the street at the moment, they knew that it wasn't a habitable place even before the apocalypse.
They couldn't imagine how they could leave the college to come to a place like this. They were unhappy to be here, but there was no way to voice their concerns; they didn't have the strength to accompany it.
"I don't like this," Isara said, folding her arms. Her eyes scanned the rooftops, seeing the eyes of different beasts.
"Those beasts… There are too many. And they're acting strange."
"They were bad enough on the way here," Tyrel said. "Stronger than they should be."
Of course, the rest of the team noticed the weird characteristics of the beasts, and they were starting to think that forming a shelter here would be a mistake.
"They shouldn't be this strong," Valeria added quietly. "Not at their level."
Amara's voice was calm but sharp. "Zayden, you still want to build a shelter here? After seeing this?"
Zayden turned to face them. His eyes were steady, a slight smile on his face. "Yes. I still do."
Tyrel frowned. "Why here?"
Zayden looked past them, at the street ahead, where the faint glow seemed to deepen as night drew closer. "Because this place matters. I can't explain it to you, not yet, but I know we need to stay."
For a moment, no one spoke. The wind blew across the cracked asphalt, carrying the sound of distant growls.
Finally, Soren broke the silence with a grin. "Then let's take a look. If something's messing with these beasts, I want to smash it in the face."
Darian chuckled and rested a hand on his axe. "Fine by me. It's better than running."
Zayden stepped forward, the sword in his hand glinting faintly. "We move carefully. No risks."
Aiden adjusted his new bow, his eyes still scanning the rooftops. "The closer we get, the stranger it feels."
Amara gave Zayden a long look, then sighed. "You're hiding something… but fine. We'll follow your lead."
Zayden nodded once. "Stay sharp."