Phobos was standing in the middle of the street but the mutant that was closest to him still couldn’t see him. It was about a hundred meters away from him but it seemed that its eyesight was not that good. As opposed to the one on the residential building it has clearly seen them and was stalking them.

When the one on the ground finally saw them it stopped for a moment then it bellowed a massive roar. It started changing at them immediately with no signs of intelligence.

Phobos calmly analyzed it while it was madly charging at him. It looked very different from the first one he killed. It looked more like a gorilla but with the similarity to the first mutant that it had tougher skin. This time it was almost like rhino skin.

When the mutant came right before Phobos it lifted its massive gorilla-like arms and tried to smash Phobos to a pulp. Phobos however easily dodged to the side and then made a light jump and stabbed the pick in the neck where he imagined a major artery in the neck to be located.

Phobos was actually aiming at the ear canal so that he could kill him with one stab to the brain but the mutant reacted fast enough and twisted so that Phobos was incapable of reaching. The mutant at the same time swiped with his hand and tried to pummel Phobos. Phobos attempted to retrieve his pick while dodging but had to give up as it was stuck in the excessively thick skin and muscles.

Phobos wasn’t worried at all however as he saw that the mutant’s specs were better than him only in pure power. Every other aspect didn't even come close. So he dodged a couple of times, went behind the mutants back, easily straddled it and dislodged the pick from the neck. Then Phobos repeatedly stabbed the mutant in vulnerable places on the head.

The mutant crazily tried to get Phobos off him but the exaggerated size and mass of the mutant's arms had lowered its flexibility significantly. The mutant could do nothing else but flail as it became weaker and weaker. At some point, it fell to the ground and didn’t move anymore.

Phobos leisurely got off it and didn’t pay much attention to it but was more interested in the reactions of the two other mutants. It was interesting that the one that was stalking on top of the building went away as soon as it saw Phobos easily dealing with the gorilla mutant.

The second one that was just a bit further down the road had the same reaction as the gorilla mutant. It started charging crazily towards Phobos. This one didn’t have such exaggerated physical change. It only had a bit longer limbs and again the skin looked a lot tougher than normal.

Phobos didn’t have any problems dealing with this mutant. He finished it in just a couple of moves. Phobos wasn’t even that focused during the fight he was more interested in the fact that mutants mental capacity differed. Although it was a really small sample size for now it was enough.

Phobos categorized them in two for now. The first one was a Feral mutant. It was mostly mindless and attacked crazy when it perceived a target. He couldn’t name a category for the second one as he didn’t have much data but it exhibited some form of intelligence. As soon as it saw Phobos easily dealing with the gorilla mutant it chose to retreat. Phobos felt that he may be reading too much into it but his intuition was telling him that he was correct.

Phobos didn’t feel like inspecting the dead mutants much. He neither had the knowledge to find something useful nor the interest. He got in the van while yawning. Eve didn’t say anything and just started on the road again.

Phobos just remembered that he hadn’t slept the whole night. Although he did yawn he wasn’t sleepy at all. He felt refreshed or rather he felt better than ever.

Phobos realized that the ice pick was not very useful especially with larger targets. That is not to say that if utilized properly it couldn’t be fatal to big targets. A person just has to see a bullet and he can grasp that small object can be fatal as well. However, he did not have the ability to move the pick with the same velocity as a bullet. So he had to make it up with mass.

Phobos didn’t have steel laying around to add to the pick so he did the next best thing and started improving the pick’s form. Although he can’t create mass from nothing he was able to make it more ergonomic and more lethal. He hadn’t tried it before but if he had extra steel he should be able to add it to the pick so that he made something more like a sword.

It would be best just to find a sword while searching for solar panels but who would buy a sword in the modern age. There may be some enthusiast who had purchased such a thing but his chance to find it was slim. It would be way easier to find a butcher shop and acquire a big butcher knife.

When he was finished improving the ice pick it wasn’t changed much. At most, it had a more comfortable grip and the length had increased slightly. It was a bit tougher as well and didn’t incur compromises in any other aspect to make up for it.

Right about when he was finished with the pick Eve stopped the van. What was in front of them was an eco-friendly remodelling firm. There may be some solar panels if the firm had solar power projects in a close period.

Phobos got out of the van and Eve followed. They entered the firm and looked around. First was the reception area. What seemed to follow was an office area. Most likely the storage area was in the back of the building. The whole building was quite large.

There were no words necessary between Phobos and Eve. Mostly Eve knew how to accommodate Phobos almost perfectly. On the other hand, Phobos trusted Eve to be perfect for him. Even if he didn’t latch on to her ideology of eternal servitude he believed her professional ability.

Eve was walking ahead of Phobos. She looked like she had no care in the world but Phobos wasn’t worried. If he had to bet on who would survive the longest in any situation possible, he would bet his whole fortune on Eve. Even if his and Hera’s capacity didn’t differ much from Eve. Their mentalities did.

Phobos wouldn’t strive that much as he had not much attachment to life. If the suffering he endured to stay alive exceeded a certain limit he would rather die. If Hera was thrown alone with no mental support structure she would stop functioning fast. Of course, if she was thrown with Phobos she would make sure they both lived out. Even better if she was able to overcome her weakness now that Phobos had erased his influence he would have to change his bet to Hera.

Eve had gone through quite a lot. So her survivability was high. She looked quite leisurely while walking but she was inspecting every angle. Phobos just followed along. If he could he always chose to do less. Only if he had a genuine interest in a subject would he apply himself. For now, his ability did interest him. That is why he was so active in improving things around.

If he had some other ability he would leave everything to Eve and Hera and just play with his ability.

The whole building was deserted. There was no movement. There were no mutants or humans. After going through the office area they entered a big storage area with a high ceiling.

“Hahaha. Boss, we are lucky. They have stocked solar panels for installation.”

Eve walked leisurely through the storage shelves and saw the necessary items for a solar system installation. Phobos too felt that they were lucky. He had seen a glimpse of the projects that the company was doing and it was more in the line of remodelling with eco-friendly materials. But apparently, they offered solar installation as well.

In reality personal solar power installation was not that widespread in the European Federation. It was mostly used in solar farms. After all, in some parts of the federation single-family homes were not that common. It's especially hard to find in cities but of course, there are exceptions.

They didn’t dawdle and transferred most of the solar panels and battery packs that were available in the storage unit. They didn’t take it all only because the van was at full capacity.

Phobos and Eve got in the van and started returning to the restaurant. There were no other situations on the road. At most, there were a lot more people starting to roam about. When they arrived Phobos got off and started going to the kitchen. Eve started unloading things.

“Hera take Diana and go help Eve unload the materials. Then figure out how to install the solar system. It doesn’t matter if it's not working. When I come back I will fix it. Also If you know where Anna, Alice and Megan are, tell them that I will be gathering supplies if they want to follow me.”

While walking through the common area Phobos prompted Hera who was tinkering with some electronics on one of the tables. He didn’t wait for a reply and entered the kitchen. He found some utensils with good quality steel and started trying to improve what was still an ice pick into a sword-like weapon.

Phobos could have taken a knife and improved it but he felt that it didn’t matter much what he improved. The amount of effort wouldn’t differ that much. So the first part was to somehow transfer mass. It proved to be harder than expected. Although when improving an object he moved matter inside the item he was improving but it usually had no interaction with the outside world.

He had to practice for about ten minutes until he finally felt a tangible amount of mass transfer. The rest was easy. After all his ability was the epitome of snowballing. Just the first step is the hardest. He just improved his capability of transferring mass after he found it. Phobos liked this aspect of his ability the most. It was not locked to a defined state. He could always improve it.

When the mass of the pick reached two kilograms Phobos stopped. Of course, it couldn’t be called a pick anymore. It was more of a lump of steel with a handle on it. Phobos didn’t mind that however and just continued improving it. It wasn’t complicated at all.

First, he elongated it until it was about a meter long. Then he started shaping it and making an edge. The final product looked like a claymore but there was no guard. Phobos felt that it wasn’t that necessary after all this sword was not meant to fight against humans. He improved the grip so that it was almost impossible for the sword to slip from him.

The finishing touch was making it incredibly sharp. Phobos didn’t have nanometer control while improving but in reality, there's no need for it. Although it is said that razor's edge is in the ten-nanometer range. Humans can’t even perceive it but they still achieve it. Phobos used the same principle to sharpen the sword.

When the sword was finished it had a mirror-like reflection. If it was to be looked at with a microscope even if you ignored the edge the rest of the sword would show almost no imperfections.

Phobos didn’t even have to tamper the sword as he had already designed it in the desired state. He had changed the properties of the sword while testing it in a simulation he created in his mind. There he tested its sharpness, sharpness retention, toughness, flexibility and then changed it accordingly.

Phobos was done in no more than twenty minutes. The most complicated part was transferring the mass. He didn’t make a sheath for the sword as he didn’t have the necessary materials so he found a tablecloth and wrapped it around the sword. It would be bad if someone were to hurt themselves on it.

When he went to the main area he could see that everybody had gathered. Anna, Alice and Megan had gone to a nearby furniture store and had taken some of the mattresses that were on the display beds. Phobos was relieved that they had some initiative to help out. Although the tough sleeping conditions last night may have forced them.

“Are you ready?” Phobos inquired of the three as he had assumed that Hera had filled them in already. Anna affirmed simply.

“Yes.”

That was all Phobos needed to know so he headed to the van. He again took the passenger seat. As there were only two seats Alice and Meagan got in the back and sat on the tires but didn’t complain. They had been quiet most of the time but with growing up in the information age and the mutants they saw they knew the situation was serious.

There was not much room for wayward behaviour. Of course to be able to grasp that they had above-average intelligence, as some people would act completely irrationally, especially so in such a special situation. Like the three sad souls who tried to break in the restaurant that had thought that it was the perfect moment to achieve all their desires.

Anna got on in the driver seat and clasped her belt on. She looked towards the back and saw that although the two girls looked a little uncomfortable they were relatively safe so she looked toward Phobos and asked.

“Where to?”

“Well, you are more familiar with the area so choose a relatively larger supermarket that is closer to us.”

Anna just nodded at that and started the van. It didn’t take long to get to the supermarket. There were no interruptions on the road but there were a lot more people going around. It was just a little hard to navigate the road as there were cars that had crashed sporadically.

When they got to the supermarket there was a crowd gathered there. Phobos looked around and wondered how to deal with this situation. If they were to leave the car alone someone would try to steal it. Almost all the people in the parking lot were staring at the functioning car.

And if Phobos was left in the car there was a chance for the women to enter a conflict inside and be hurt. There were a few people that were beaten up walking away with almost nothing in their bags.

Phobos could somewhat understand their mentality and tendency to panic and stock at the cost of physical conflict but he knew that that wasn’t the smartest decision. Predators in the wild rarely went for a hard kill because a small injury while securing their meal could later cost them their lives. Although humans could somewhat mitigate that, the situation at the moment could be categorized as worse than the wild.

Phobos thought about it for a moment and got out of the bus. He signalled for Anna to open the front hood and got access to the engine. Then he gathered all his strength in his right hand and with his muscles rippling all over, he smashed towards the engine. There was a dull thud and the engine became a little concave.

“Try to start it.”

Phobos stepped so he could see Anna who had bewildered eyes and told her. Anna just nodded with almost no thought and followed his instructions. She was wondering if coming out with Phobos was the right decision but didn’t have much choice at the moment.

Phobos saw that she tried to start the engine but it just made a pitiful attempt and almost broke apart. Phobos was satisfied, he would need just a minute or two to repair it but if someone with no ability that specialized in repair came it would take him months or even years. It would be better to make a new one. That is if he was even capable of doing it.

Phobos reached in again to cut the battery wires just to be sure. Even if this was easier to fix it would still take some time. But even if he could fix it fast just seeing the state of the engine he would give up.

Phobos was now comfortable leaving the van aside and entering the market with the women. Alice and Megan got out of the back door wondering what happened. They didn’t see much because of the hood and because they were in the process of opening the back doors but felt like the van was hit by another car.

When they got to the front Anne was already out and they inquired about what happened but Anna chose to remain silent. When she had a few seconds to think she gathered what Phobos was doing and she was somewhat aware of his ability. Although she wondered about his methodology she didn’t say anything.

“When you get in, try to go for less desirable products that could keep long in a frozen state. After all, there is no need to scrabble for “non-perishable” food if we have the advantage of the freezer area. Although I am not afraid of conflict let's keep it to a minimum. After all, the most likely victim in the situation are the three of you”

When they started walking Phobos talked to the three of them without looking back. The three women started to discuss what they needed to gather. There were all kinds of suggestions from needed hygiene items to daily necessities, of course, food was the main topic. They didn’t have much need for water as the restaurant was stocked full. It would be enough for them for at least half a year.