The girls had almost immediately removed their sweat- and dirt-stained clothes and used the bathroom to wash off the grime. Aurélien, Takashi, and Kohta had found ammunition in the main room of the cottage, and where there were bullets, there were bound to be guns—at least in Kohta's opinion.
The sounds of laughter, shouting, and splashing water drifted upstairs from below, and Takashi remarked, "Sounds like they're having fun."
Kohta was fiddling with a crowbar they had wedged between a locker door and the frame and said, "Want to go take a peek? You know we're supposed to, right?" he suggested with a lewd glint in his eyes.
"I'm too young to die," Takashi declared.
"And you, Aurélien? Want to do the manly thing?" Kohta asked. Aurélien smiled. "Tell you what, Kohta. You go take a peek first, and if you come back alive and unharmed, I'll go have a look," he joked.
"Forget it," said Takashi. "If there's nothing in here, I'm going to be seriously pissed!" he added, glancing at the ammo crates.
"We've found the ammo, so there must be something," Kohta said confidently.
"Either way, it's worth checking," Aurélien added.
"Well, let's go," announced Takashi as he, Aurélien, and Kohta leaned into the crowbar and prepared to push.
"One, two, three!" they shouted together, and with the screech of bending metal, they forced the door open and tumbled to the ground. Aurélien rubbed the front of his head with a groan of pain, grateful he hadn't sustained any real injuries. Looking inside the locker they had pried open, Aurélien saw that there was indeed something in it.
"Well, well, there was something after all," the technopriest remarked. Takashi peered into the locker and whistled softly. "Nice!"
Kohta looked inside, and his smile turned gleeful. "Hehehaha! I knew it!" A disturbing grin spread across his lips.
"So this house belongs to Miss Shizuka's friend, right?" said Takashi. "Who the hell is she?" he asked, eyeing the assortment of weapons in the locker.
Kohta grabbed the first gun and looked down. "Springfield M1-A1 Super Match," he said to himself. "Semi-auto, but M-14 automatics just waste ammo anyway," he added. "I can load 20 rounds in the magazine! That's illegal in Japan! Illegal!" He chuckled maniacally.
"Uh, Hirano?" Takashi asked the chubby boy with a worried look on his face. Aurélien placed a hand on Takashi's shoulder and said, "He's in his own little world now, Takashi. Let him be. I'm the same way in my workshop."
Kohta pulled out the next gun. "A Knight's SR-25… no way you can get that in Japan! They must have completely modded an AR1-10!" he said excitedly. "Then we've got a crossbow! A descendant of the one Robin Hood used! Barnett Wildcat C-5, made in Britain. You can kill a bear with it!" he declared.
"Actually, from what I've read in the tales, Robin Hood used a longbow, not a crossbow," interrupted Aurélien. Kohta looked at him confused. "You're confusing Robin Hood with William Tell, who used a crossbow," he informed the chubby boy.
"Really?" Kohta asked. "Huh… I guess I can see that now. I can't believe I mixed them up!" he fumed.
Takashi then pulled the last weapon from the locker and Kohta's eyes lit up at the sight. "That's an Ithaca M-37 riot shotgun!" he nearly shouted. "It's a super-six shotgun made by Americans! It played a big role in the Vietnam War too!" he said.
"I see," muttered Takashi, aiming the weapon absentmindedly toward Kohta. The latter screamed in terror. Aurélien reacted quickly, grabbing the barrel and lowering it. "You damn fool! What if it was loaded?" Aurélien scolded Takashi, who at least had the decency to look sheepish.
"He's right. Don't point it at anyone, even if it's unloaded. But if you do—shoot to kill!" Kohta told Takashi.
Takashi's expression turned grim with understanding. "Of course. I just hope we'll only need these against those things."
"It's foolish to assume they'll be the only ones we'll have to kill," Aurélien said to Takashi and Kohta. "Remember what I said back at the school: we'll have to make hard choices and live with them. That includes taking a human life."
"Aurélien's right. And besides, if I ever get bitten, don't hesitate to put me out of my misery," Kohta said with a dark smile.
An internal conflict stirred in Takashi's mind. On one hand, he understood the necessity of doing what it took to survive. On the other, a small inner voice told him how hypocritical it would be to stoop to the level of a killer.
"So we're clear?" Aurélien said with a bit of humor. Takashi and Kohta nodded in agreement, though neither noticed the averted gaze of the brown-haired student.
Kohta then began loading the magazines with the ammo. "Will you guys help too?" he asked his companions. "Loading bullets is boring," he complained. The three boys got to work.
"Did you practice with airsoft guns?" Takashi joked.
Kohta smiled and replied, "Nope, with real ones!"
Takashi and Aurélien stared at Kohta in shock. "You're serious?!" Takashi asked.
"When I went to America, I trained for a month in a private militia called the Blackhawks with their veteran instructor," Kohta said. "He was a former Delta Force captain," he added proudly.
"Damn, Kohta! That's a side of you I never would've imagined. To think, all this time at the academy you were a wolf in sheep's clothing!" Aurélien exclaimed. "What else are you hiding?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm glad we're on the same side!" said Takashi.
"Yeah~" Kohta murmured.
"But what about these weapons? I mean, they're definitely illegal, right?" asked Takashi.
"Well, it's legal to buy these weapons in parts, but assembling them like this is illegal," Kohta informed them. "Whoever lives here really knows what they're doing, and it makes sense since Miss Shizuka said her friend was in the military," he added.
"So you get away with it if you're a cop?" Takashi asked.
"It's obvious the person living here isn't your average citizen," Kohta said. "Single cops usually live in dorms, but if they're renting a place like this? Either their parents are rich, their partner is rich, or they're taking some kind of bribe," he said.
"Well, it doesn't matter much right now," Aurélien said. "We have weapons now—that's all we need to know."
Then some loud shrieks of amusement from the bathroom drew their attention and Kohta said, "They should probably quiet down a bit."
Takashi moved to the balcony and looked through a pair of binoculars. "It's fine. We know they respond to sound, but they won't hear the girls over all that," he said while scanning. On the bridge in the distance, lights illuminated a large crowd. Takashi handed the binoculars to Kohta. "I'm sick of looking at this. Here, you take a look if you want," he said tiredly.
"There's a scene from Apocalypse Now this reminds me of," the pudgy boy murmured before something caught his attention. "Eh?" he muttered.
"What is it?" Aurélien asked Kohta, who replied, "Turn on the TV."
Takashi grabbed the remote and turned on the plasma screen, which displayed a live broadcast of the bridge. A protest was underway led by a man wearing a hard hat, claiming the deadly pandemic was part of a conspiracy between the Americans and the Japanese government. The protesters believed it was a biological weapon.
"Are they serious?! What biological weapon?!" Takashi yelled in disbelief. "They know damn well no science can explain why the dead are walking around eating the living!" he said angrily.
"Which means this group is a bunch of bona fide fanatics," said Kohta. "Either that or they're mentally ill," he added.
"They're just looking for someone to blame for this crisis," Aurélien said. "And the government makes as good a target as any," he added darkly.
"The leftists, you mean?" Kohta said dryly, sharing his political opinion.
"Leftists are often fanatical and sick in the head," Takashi remarked. "Just like conservatives," he added.
"I'm surprised to hear you say that, Komuro," Kohta noted.
Takashi sighed and said, "Some of my mom's colleagues are leftist activists, even now. Pacifist anti-war types who would see bullying on the schoolyard and look the other way."
"Sounds charming," Aurélien commented. "In the end, today's political parties are too focused on attacking each other while defending abstract ideological values. They've forgotten they're supposed to be brothers, complementing each other's flaws to bring prosperity to the nation. Now that society's collapsed, whatever's left of the government will become heavily radicalized to save what it can. It's ironic that even with a threat like this, humanity continues to tear itself apart rather than unite under strong leadership," he added melancholically.
Their conversation was cut short by a gunshot. On the TV, they saw police shooting at the undead. The protest leader began ranting that the authorities were now randomly killing people. Then the police chief approached the protest leader, trying unsuccessfully to reason with him. The last scene showed the officer shooting the protester in the head before the screen turned to static.
Aurélien thought of a famous quote as he watched the chaos and waste: "It is the country that begets its children, not the other way around. Whenever in history a man tried to surpass the power of his nation, he only managed to bring chaos and disaster."
"This is madness!" Kohta said.
Takashi turned off the TV and spoke. "We have to get the hell out of here," he said.
"Bad idea," Aurélien shot down. "We could run into them in the dark," he said.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around Takashi. Aurélien and Kohta jumped to their feet, thinking one of them had somehow gotten in. But to their great relief, it was just Shizuka, and that relief quickly turned into discomfort when they saw she was wearing only a white bath towel and was clearly drunk, judging by her flushed cheeks and giggling. The tipsy nurse tried to grope Takashi's crotch, her large breasts squashing against his shoulder as she tried to kiss his cheek. The young man struggled to push her away.
Aurélien sighed at the scene, left the room, and with a parting remark, said, "Good luck with that!"
He then went downstairs to the first floor and settled into one of the bedrooms. He opened his backpack and pulled out the swordsmanship manual he had received earlier as a reward.
The book was short and contained numerous diagrams of the human body, but after a few minutes of quick reading and skimming, Aurélien understood how he could manipulate the ambient Mana to strengthen his body. According to what was written in the book, mana naturally enhanced all living beings, increasing their endurance, strength, and longevity. The method passed on by the guide allowed one to amplify these effects and, at higher levels, to circulate mana in order to gain temporary boosts. The training methods in the manual were mainly focused on increasing speed and self-regeneration.
Intrigued by these prospects, Aurélien began applying the guide's methods to feel the mana flow through his body, starting with meditation. After a while, he finally felt an energy enter his body through his meridians. The first step in mana manipulation consisted of body tempering—feeding the various parts of the human body with mana until they reached their limit, a threshold that varied from person to person.
Following this practice, he tried to direct the flow of mana toward his broken rib. Since this was his first time attempting such a thing, the result was underwhelming. Yet, through effort and patience, he felt the pain in his rib begin to subside and the bone grow stronger. After 30 minutes, the bone was fully healed and had been reinforced to the point where it could withstand a direct blow from the creature that had caused the injury. Aurélien's face was covered in sweat; he could feel fatigue and hunger creeping in. He was satisfied with the result, but also knew this was only the beginning of his body's enhancement.
Even though he would become more skilled at manipulating mana, body tempering would take a long time to complete—after all, bones, due to their simplicity, were the easiest to reinforce with mana, and for now, he had only strengthened one out of the 206 bones in the human skeleton. He would then have to move on to muscles, blood vessels, and so on.
Pushing these thoughts aside, Aurélien left his room and decided to go to the kitchen to ease his hunger and rest afterward.
Author's Note: Honestly, don't take this training book too seriously. I put it in there mainly to give a logical reasoning for the MC's personal power increase, and to show that the MC is tied to mana over time. After all, mana is derived from the Warp.