May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 54: Needs and Lacking

Aila did not know that her protagonist was able to string the strings together and almost knew about their relationships. If she knew, even if she was kilometers away from him she would panic and be more paranoid than she already was. Reborn or not, Alfred is still this world’s protagonist. Wherever he is, troubles will always find him.

There was actually another reason why Aila chose to settle so far away from the city they had lived in for more than a decade. She was afraid of the plots she had once written. Although the unknown is scarier, Aila just did not want to risk dying again due to her own carelessness.

Thinking about it, even if she does not realize that she is living in her own book, she subconsciously goes to places where she places importance in the story. Being near there only brings death to her if she stays in close proximity to those places.

But as she does not have any idea of Alfred’s thoughts currently, she is still ignorantly preparing for the winter.

Aila did her best to collect as many crystals in their hands. Even if she and the others have yet to announce the real usage of the ‘ vitamins ’ they have been giving to the populace, everyone has some understanding that this is helpful to them. The demand is expectedly large, so they had to keep up with the needs.

So she once again went out, only this time Harry and Travis came with her. The two have cleared their schedules just to squeeze this trip out. Something about wanting to observe the changes of the plants with their own eyes. Though when they came to this place they more or less saw the weirdness of the plants, they wanted to take some data for archives. If possible, they wanted to make some statistics to make some predictions of what is to come with them.

An earth spike came out of the ground as the team madly worked together to subdue a group of zombies they had found. The undead were no longer human-looking as they were months ago. They are more rotten and they have weird changes in their bodies. Like the ones in front of them.

These zombies are not those with special abilities and they are the suppliers of the transparent crystals for their use. They are still upright when walking and are distinctly more or less deformed in their facial features. Their teeth have grown long and sharp, similar to those of a canine, their hands have grown darker in color along with their now sharpened nails, and unlike the first time they first appeared, they are much more agile in their movements.

Harry more often than not used his abilities on earth to paralyze or trap these kinds of zombies like he is doing now. And then he then herded them in a corner, burning them to ashes using his fire ability. It was a clean execution most of the time and this has made their time outside of their protective walls much more productive than they used to.

Travis was the one who stored their spoils as he harnessed his own set of skills. Although he is someone who doesn't like violence, he is more or less capable of doing a few tricks. Being a hyena causes him to learn some techniques that one of them was interested in. This was the reason that they were no stranger to guns, as Felix had his own hobby and he let them learn a thing or two when they were younger(all of this was done on his private shooting range with his uncle supervising and teaching them).

Currently, he is using everything he has learned from the classes they shared. Close-combat from Bella and gun mastery from Felix, coupled with his natural reflexes, he is like a fish in the water. It is unbelievable that this is just the first time he did something like this with the team.

Would Aila be far behind? No. Using her instincts and experiences from her last life, she lets loose all her frustration and every pent-up suffocation on the zombies. Slashing and eliminating them using her knife, she rushed at her targets like a madman. And when she is in danger, she uses her natural reflexes to avoid and take down those nearby her.

The rest of the hunting team did not slack and dropped their own attacks on their targets. Flashes of abilities flash from time to time. Agile and ferocious attacks fell from all sides until they eliminated the group they had found.

“That was intense,” Travis said as he wiped his forehead. “Was this enough for the day?”

“We had a lot today, but having more is not bad.” Harry says as he asks for a bottle of water to drink.

Hearing that, Travis immediately materializes some pet bottles of water for everyone. Harry was the first one to get his, and, out of consideration, after he drank a few mouthfuls, he helped with distributing the water for everyone. Which made everyone thankful for his kindness.

“Winning people with virtue, huh.” Aila cheekily said as Harry handed her her share. “Still so crafty, I see.”

“Shut up.” Harry only rolled his eyes at Aila with annoyance.

“Next we had to dig all these undeads’ heads for crystals.” Travis was a little dismayed as he said this. Although he likes dissecting as one of his science activities, harvesting the crystals is really not his favorite thing to do.

“Well, this is the reason we are here after all,” Aila said as she commanded everyone to prepare for the extraction. Instructing them to be double alert in case some of the bodies that are on the ground are really not ‘dead’.

Following her instructions, the rest of the team skillfully harvested the crystals. Aila saw one body moving, without much though she shot it before she smashed its head with her foot. Afterwards, she reached out her hand to get the undamaged crystal from the corpse she was stepping on.

“No matter how many times I see you like this, I still cannot believe what my eyes see.” Travis sighs. He was hugging a bucket that was filled with water. Inside the bucket of water was the crystals that he had harvested.

“Nothing worth mentioning.” Aila only said before adding, “Bella is more violent than me.”

“No doubt about that,” Travis easily replied, as there is indeed no violent person there is other than Bella in his mind. Even if Aila is a little savage and brutal in his eyes now, she is at most tame in comparison to their alpha female.

“New type of crystal.” Harry said as he dipped the dark green jade-like crystal he dug out. “What ability is this compatible with?”

Aila took the crystal to examine it before she said, “It’s for plant abilities. Liza will be happy to have this later.”

“Really? Such luck.” Travis was envious as he heard it. So far, they have yet to find any crystal that is compatible with his powers. Although he does not strive to get ahead with everyone, he wanted to experience the sensation of consuming the same crystal attributes himself. According to Harry, doing so is so addicting that he cannot wait to find some more earth zombies for his own portion. Describing his feeling of consuming earth attributes chewable as ‘earthy’ for the lack of better words.

He also often hears Albert agreeing on the matter as was told by Harry. Only as he was in the water system, as he described his ‘digestion’ to be cool and refreshing. Using cool iced water in his stomach on a particularly hot day as a metaphor of the sensation.

To find out the validity of his words, he also took some of the other attribute enhancers they had made. He did get some sensations, but it is far from what was described by those with appropriate matches. Digesting the energy inside them is hard too, so he did not dare to do something similar again. Thus, all this time, he has been consuming the transparent ones as the rest of the populace was. Still, he is so curious about many things.

Listening to their words, he is very curious about what it feels like to ‘eat’ space attribute crystals. All this time, although unlikely, Aila described the rarity of his attributes, he was looking forward to having to answer the questions he had somehow. But it looks like he really needs to wait for some more time to get what he wants.

“Don’t be envious, it's not just that you are the only one not paired with the crystals you need.” Harry comforted Travis, who made no secret of his jealousy. “Just take Bella, for example. Hers is harder to find than yours.”

“Yes, Lightning ones are the hardest to collect for many reasons.” Aila confirmed as she dropped the crystal in her hand to the bucket Travis was holding. “Lightning crystals are notorious for their fierce zombies, getting one of their crystals depends on strength and abilities other than just luck in stumbling over their existence.”

“At least Lightning zombies are easy to find.” Travis wore a wronged face as he said this. “As long as there is a huge thunderstorm or abnormality in the sky, it is estimated that there is one nearby. Space zombies are harder to find and are more dependent on luck to encounter. I don’t know if this knowledge will make me happy or depressed.”

“Well, at least you know this first and do not have high hopes in the first place.” Aila only consoled him and continued picking the crystals in an orderly manner. “Wait for a year or two, the crystals you need will be available much more in the future. But currently you have to endure the transparent ones.”

“Well, what else can I do?” Travis only grumbles under his breath as he vents his frustration on the pile of corpses.

After a few more minutes, they were able to fill two buckets with crystals. After changing the dirtied water into buckets, Travis stores it again in his space. Once again, they continued their hunting for an hour more before they returned to their base with a surprise waiting for them.