It was already dark outside when the conversation with Jack ended so Jordan sit down in his room and leaned against the wall, there was no light but he could see just fine so he wasn´t troubled, thankfully Jordan couldn´t sleep because even laying down here was impossible as there was no room for that, the room was square of 1x1 meter (3 ft).

With nothing else to do Jordan took a coin from his backpack and started to train his mana manipulation first, he manipulated the mana from his center of power and moved it toward the coin, Jordan already had some experiences from the training in the old factory but the whole process still took a considerable amount of time.

But with every try Jordan´s proficiency was getting better, it could be that something like muscle memory formed in his second heart, and with every try, the manipulation of mana was getting easier.

Still, it was going to be a long night, it took dozens of tries and about an hour before the coin finally lift off and began to float in the air.

It was a small milestone but nothing really useful so Jordan began to explore the uses of it and started to rotate the coin or just slamming it on the wall, even though Jordan could manipulate the coin freely he wasn´t able to put much power behind it so making bullet from it was out of the question.

Jordan spends several hours on the training of manipulating the raw mana before he decided to try and make the smallest fireball, Jordan gathered mana on his hand and let it spread around it, then he manipulated the smallest drop he could muster and began to change it to fire, focusing on two things at once was quite hard and even though Jordan got a boost in his mental capabilities after he mutated it still took him several attempts before the small fire began to shine on his hand.

The fire was about 1 cm (0,4 in) big ball, Jordan enveloped it in mana from his hand and then send it against a wall, as Jordan enveloped it in a rather thick layer of mana the ball of fire bounced off the wall and began to bounce in the small room, eventually, the ball went for Jordan so he caught the ball in hand and quickly extinguished it, Jordan slightly burned his hand but nothing serious.

Jordan recalled his first attempt in handling mana and decided to do the next experiment outside or at least in a bigger room, with this just like in the old factory he moved on and began to experiment in mana strengthening.

Jordan focused and tried to infuse the meaning of strength in a bit of mana that was in his center of power (second heart) and then he sent it to his body through the conductors that were connected to his center of power, after several tries he directly felt an increase in power, like he could punch through a wall but shortly after he lost his focus and the mana dispersed and left his body ´it would be very hard to maintain in a fight´.

Immersed in the training Jordan continued until knocking on the door brought him back, Jordan stood up and went out of his "room". The sun was already high, it looks like nobody bothered to come for him, ´whatever I won´t be staying here for long´ Jordan had in plan to stay here until he is sure he got everything he could from there then he will move on.

Jordan had in plan to start his own settlement, with his ability to control monsters he will hold most of the power and will be free to do as he wants, for this reason, he already chose the location where he will move into, it was a library that was located in the town plaza, the library was located in remodeled fortress together with a small museum of old weapons, with a bit of luck maybe he can loot few old swords but that wasn't the most important thing, the most important thing were the books, now that electric machines stopped working books were the only source of information.

Jordan will use the old fortress´s thick walls as perfect defense and with a few hundred workers he may even remodel the stone wall that went around the plaza and was partially torn down to make room for buildings.

For now, though staying here wasn´t that bad, he will try to convince few people to join him, after all, the beasts he saw so far were only good at fighting and he needs to think in the long terms, if recruiting won´t work here Jordan will just move on.

Simon took Jordan to a classroom where a group of people was waiting, there were about 10 men and one woman, Jordan greeted them "hello there, my name is Jordan Hall, it´s pleasure to meet you!" For a while no one responded, it looks like rumors about him already spread and they aren´t exactly nice ones. Finally, the only woman there spoke "I am Marie, sit down we are going through the plan" Marie had long blond hair and a modest figure, nothing about her particularly stood out but she was still quite pretty, Jordan sat down and one of the men began to explain their plan.

In the end, the plan was quite simple it was just getting in get out, the only thing they discussed was about where monsters usually gather or their routes, Jordan already said that before but still confirmed with them what he knew, one more thing they went through was their roles, Jordan will be in the front row together with 8 other men while one will be scouting and it looks like one who was probably Eric with awakened heart will be the vanguard and will be looking out for Marie who is the sole long-range attacker.

From how the discussion went Jordan felt more like a disposable pawn and if it came down to it, he won´t hesitate to leave others to their fate but the same went for them as well, they wouldn't risk their lives for Jordan.

With the discussion over Jordan got back his weapons and went together with the group before the gate, Jordan put the knives behind his belt and hold the pipe in his right hand.

The gate slowly opened and the group began to run at a moderate speed to the nearest supermarket while running they formed a circle around Marie and Eric while Jordan was in front making him the first one that will enter combat if they meet the enemy.

It didn't take long and they met their first group of beasts, thankfully it was the only pack of 6 beasts with different elements ´strange, I thought they are only in groups of the same elements and only the leader can force them to be together, maybe the leader is nearby or he sends them here´ Jordan "do we fight or take a detour? There might be a leader nearby" Marie "we fight, get ready!" Everyone got to their position and they quickly approached the pack of beasts.

When they got near enough, the beasts started to growl and then began to run straight at them, Jordan slightly moved back to form a line together with others while Marie began to cast her spell, Marie´s element that she was attuned with was fire, she began to focus and even before the fire could start to form on her hand the group of beasts was already in a fight with the people in the frontline.

None of the beasts went for Jordan, rather they tried to leave him for the end as they could feel that Jordan was probably the strongest one here, ´tsk, that won´t do…´ Jordan swung with his pipe and hit the nearest beast to its side, the beast was thrown away before it could even get near the human the beast was attacking.

Jordan beat the beasts from behind while the others tried to stall for time, normal humans had a hard time fighting the beasts, they mostly tried to dodge and when they failed they were done for if someone didn´t help them. It was the first time fighting for everyone here except Jordan, so they were scared and made many mistakes.

Slowly they began to get the upper hand and nearly one minute into combat Marie shouted, "out of the way!" and send a fireball with a diameter of about 15 centimeters (6 in), everyone stepped out of the way and the fireball flew and barely hit one of the beasts on it´s back, the beast ignited for a bit and staggered but nothing more, by making way for the fireball they lost the upper hand they had and had to struggle once again. The situation changed once Jordan killed another 2 beasts, with this the fight was 2v1 and they managed to quickly finish the beasts off.

After the fight Jordan looked with spite at Eric and Marie, first they detested him and acted like they were something more, now they only managed to look on the ground. Jordan could feel his inside burning while wanting to crush them all, sadly they didn't have time for that and if Jordan beats them, he will have to think hard about further cooperation with the settlement, but the cooperation with the people forming this team is over, after they get back he will give them a piece of his mind.