A God's Apocalyptic Entertainment 183 Group Cha

*Huff*

I let out a small breath of air as the last Rock Titan fell to the ground, its huge body splashed some of the lava as I collapsed down, but thankfully none came near us. I waved my hand slightly to store my origin halberd and sat down on the dirt. My body was tired after all the fighting.

It had taken longer than expected to kill all of them. We had kept up the divide and conquer method and were killing them in a relatively safe manner. But because it was safe, it was also a lot slower. Even now after finally killing all 8 of them a few hours had passed.

It was taking so long that I thought I might resort to using the kids as I first planned. But in the end I decided I could try that tomorrow. It was already well past mid-day and getting into the later hours. I didn't think we would have enough time to finish another room so I decided we would rest here for the day.

I sent my gaze over the area as I assessed the lava flowing about. I couldn't tell the time of day because we were inside a mountain and instead was using the clock on my EPC. This also highlighted another annoying aspect about the dungeon. We had no clue when it was night or day.

With no light source, other than the lava around us, the cycle of each day would easily be disrupted. Even when we went to sleep the lava lit up the room like a light. Falling asleep would be a hassle.

*Sigh*

One thing at a time I guess. The group gathered as I told them we would be camping for the night. There was one piece of good news though, the amount of Exp we were gaining. Just killing 8 of them had given a huge boost in EXP. I had no clue how deep this dungeon would lead, but I was sure we would level quite a few times.

*********

We set up a large perimeter on a solid piece of land. Most of the ground was carved up by the lava streams so finding a large piece for all of us to fit on was harder than I first thought. The kids went to start making the fire, grabbing a few piece of wood and lighting them with the lava around us, it wasn't long before we would start cooking some meat.

We had kept some from the beast we killed on the way here, we couldn't get more meat from the Rock Titans obviously, and I didn't want to rely on buying food from Hunter till later. Save us some points and all that. Also I had started to acquire a taste for the beast meat we came across. The meat that was provided by beasts that had higher levels tasted unnaturally good.

I was sure it wasn't an effect from being connected to Ella. The abilities that I shared with her made it possible for me to eat the meat without any side effects, but it didn't change the taste of the meat. This was something I had figured out over time. Beasts were just naturally tasty.

It sort of made sense though, for them to be so strong and evolve, they had to have better genes and always improve upon themselves. Compared to the animals that populated the earth before the apocalypse, anything that was over level 10 were miles ahead and deadlier of course.

But this also meant that the meat and nutrients in their bodies would taste better and better. I think the same would go for humans, explaining why they were so attracted to eating us. I was sure that any infected still out there would love to eat a high level human; in fact they might be drawn to them instinctively.

But enough of that. I rummaged through one of the backpacks we had and quickly found some of the meat that we saved. Cooking it slowly and adding some of the pepper and salt that we had on hand I made a simple meal for us.

I was never a first class chef and hadn't learnt anything from a cook book since I had changed. I was sure with my enhanced INT I would pick up a skill like cooking fast, hell there was probably a skill that I could level that had to do with cooking.

But for now this would do, I wasn't game enough to add other things such as rosemary or other spices; I didn't know how it would taste with my mediocre skills.

Just the other day I think the kids were getting tired of the meals we made. I saw one or two of them trying to cook something in the free time they had when we weren't traveling. I guess I would find out in the future if this was the case.

I bit in to the juicy piece of meat and savored the small taste that came with it. I would die for a coke right about now. Wait a minute.

A small thought came to me as I went over to Hunter and had a quick talk with him. Opening up his store I went through the items section. Hunter had procured an assortment of items that were from earth when he first started out; 'never know when it could come in handy to have such items', or so he told me.

I scrolled through it quickly and found what I was looking for. For a small amount of EP, only around 2 points, I was able to buy a glass bottle of coke.

*Pop*

Twisting the cap off I listened to the sweet sound of the lid coming off and it reminded me of the past, when I would crack one open with my family and friends. It only lasted for a second though, before I took another bite of the tender meat and then a long swig from the bottle.

I let the feeling flow through me for a second before getting back to the meal. It was honestly the best meal I had since this damn nightmare started.

***************

It was later in the night and the others had gone to sleep. Me, Rose and Ella were still awake. We had chosen to take tonight's night duty at the same time; there were a few things we had to discuss, or that I wanted to discuss.

Seeing that the others were fast asleep we started to have a mental conversation.

'I've been lazy….No, we've been lazy…'

I started off the conversation and got straight to the point, though as I started to talk to them my thoughts changed. Rose gave me a small frown at the words, while Ella gave me a quizzical look. Seeing their looks I quickly continued.

'What did I promise you when I bound us together Rose?'

Roses' frown deepened as she heard my words. She had a look of concentration on her face as she thought back and I gave her time. I had been thinking about this since I had been defeated by the bandit leader.

'You promised me revenge….. The ability to help those like me…'

Her eyes shimmered as she spoke to me, I could see the emotions that swelled deep within. Our connection was being restricted at this point in time so I could hear there thoughts, but not her emotions.

I nodded my head slowly at her words.

'Yes I did, but…. I haven't been doing that…. We haven't been doing that. You remember those slaves in town?'

Roses' face turned to one of anger at the mention of the slaves in town. We couldn't help them; no matter what we did then and there we couldn't help them. Yes we could have attacked the shop and tried to free them, but then the guards would have tried to detain us, and things would have gone to shit.

We didn't have the time and more importantly we didn't have the power!

I gripped my fist as I thought of that final word.

'I did promise you those things and I have become lazy! We have had more than ample time to get stronger, all of us!'

I turned to look at the two, looking in their eyes as I confirmed their attention.

'I needed the kick up the ass from that bandit woman to see this! And this needs to stop now! We need to train, to get better, stronger, and more powerful! We need to do anything to make sure we can and do fight for what we believe in!'

I could tell by now there was a sort of fever in my eyes. I was sure that if I was talking out loud my voice would have already reached a shout. A passion was building up in me as I spoke and it took control.

'I was lazy, I was stalling as we made our way here! We have so many skills that we could be trying to level, so many skills we could try to naturally learn, but I never did such a thing.'

I laid my faults flat to bear, I should be ashamed of what I was like.

'But no longer! I want us to get stronger! I want us to keep improving so we can enact our revenge! So we can save those that are like us!'

The fever had spread from me to Ella relatively fast; she stared raptly at me with wide eyes. I could see the adoration she was throwing my way, in some ways she still looked up to me too much; it had been this way since she was young.

It had also reached Rose. She heard my words and had also gripped her fist. The fire of determination burnt brighter than I had seen it before. She was starting to realize that she too had been caught in the trap of getting comfortable, of getting laze.

Her fists gripped once or twice as I saw her thoughts race through her mind. Finally she spoke.

"What did you have in mind?"

I grinned and grasped both their hands.

'Time for some training!'

Chapter end