Although Phobos had secured a not-so-bad worst-case scenario he continued to explore a better fix for the situation. It was not economically sound to use non-stop feeding as a means to gain energy when in a survival situation. Although food is not so scarce to be unacceptable.

While Phobos was exploring a way to gain energy it was not quiet in the outside world. There was a lot of noise being raised in the city. Most of it came from mutants who were hunting for prey. That prey being mostly humans.

As the restaurant is located in a strip full of different kinds of shops, restaurants, and other facilities there was not much human population. However, that was slowly changing as people started to notice that mutants were searching to establish a territory and it tended to be a higher building.

And except for the skyscrapers which were not a lot the tallest buildings were residential ones. The mutants wanted to build a territory but as there were just too many mutants, they were not that far apart. Sometimes there would be two or more mutants settled in the same building. For bigger buildings, there would be even more.

The women on the first floor didn’t feel much when they heard the sound from the city. The screams were already a norm. On top of that, there had been a mutant body in the center of the restaurant a couple of hours ago. So that even if they knew that the mutants are scary and deadly they didn’t feel much fear.

It was the same with dangerous animals. Even if you know that they could kill you, there is not much fear. Out of sight out of mind. The problem occurs when you meet one and are not equipped to handle it. Once a person is placed in front of a wild animal, he will find how scary it is to be in direct opposition to one.

Of course, it was not that exaggerated with the women in the restaurant. It was still fresh in their mind the ferocity and deadliness of the mutants. There was just a little sense of security with them knowing that they could handle the mutants.

That didn’t mean that they didn’t do anything to make the restaurant more secure. The least they did was install blinds on the windows. They found them in the nearby furniture store in which Anna had found the mattresses earlier.

In reality, they were in a really good position. There were all kinds of stores on the strip. There were just a few missing. The most basic being a grocery store. After all, it was a strip that you walk down upon and stop in a shop or restaurant you like, people wouldn’t come grocery shopping here.

Missing as well was a store that would have solar panels. It may have a small office that specialized in that area on the strip, which is highly unlikely, but there won’t be any inventory inside it.

There were a lot of shops but most of them were clothing ones. Few useful ones would come in handy in an apocalypse but the furniture store was one of them. It was not that clothes were useless but weren’t essential.

In the room, Phobos was already sitting in place for five hours. There was not much improvement in the situation. He couldn’t even find a way to cut the link between him and the women.

He was nearing the depletion of his energy. But it wasn’t all hopeless. Phobos found a small change occurring in the link. Or rather he started perceiving it. There were really small wisps of energy floating from Eve and Hera.

However, he didn’t know where they were coming from. At the same time, this energy was inconsistent. When the energy showed up was totally random. And although it showed up in the link few reached him.

The only thing Phobos could do was focus on improving his perception of the energy. It took him half an hour and the rest of his energy to start to feel it more consistently. But that he could feel it didn’t mean anything.

Phobos didn’t even know what this energy was or where it came from. He technically knew where it came from. It was from Eve and Hera however it wasn’t any normal energy. He was already able to siphon their physically stored energy. But this he couldn’t even touch.

Phobos got up and followed the link and found where Eve and Hera were. He thought that if he was closer to them he would be able to better feel the energy. When he arrived downstairs he saw a big change to the restaurant.

All the windows were covered with blinds so that the movement inside could not be detected from the outside. Although that meant that they had to use the lights even if it was still daylight outside. For now, the blinds would have to be used sparingly.

Phobos didn’t pay much attention to this. He went close to where all the women had gathered and sat aside. He started observing both through his sight and through the link the energy that was being generated and traveling through the link.

At the same time, he started eating what was on the table to replenish his lost energy. It took Phobos half an hour more to further refine his vision of the energy. At one point he began to be able to see it being generated not only from Eve and Hera but from Diana, Anna, Alice and Megan as well.

But the difference was that the energy they generated floated to the air and then spread out to the world but the energy Eve and Hera generated flooded the link between Phobos and them. He had a feeling that this may be the reason why they were disconnected from the free world energy.

It was something connected to the exchange of energy. However, the link between Phobos and them had made it so that the energy generated traveled through the thread and wanted to go to Phobos rather than spread into the world.

However, as Phobos was inept in sensing and handling the new energy the world was able to take it from the link. As Phobos became more adept in the new energy he was able to keep in the link without scattering. He was still unable to absorb it but he felt it wouldn’t take long.

After half an hour more he started to be able to accept the energy into his body. Phobos even found out what that energy was. It could be categorized as thought energy. Or another name could be belief energy.

He couldn’t analyze it in depth but it was really special. The fact that it almost came from nothing was not scientific. Although it could be argued that thoughts use power to be manifested but the amount of energy being produced exceeded the amount even the whole body needed to function.

The only problem was that even if Phobos guided the thought power in his body he couldn’t use it. It was a bit like the sun. Although it was an enormous mass of energy, humans couldn’t really use it for most of their existence. Of course, it was only the same in the inability of Phobos to use it. The amount of energy generated from Eve and Hera at the moment couldn’t even be compared to the sun.

It was still quite a bit for a normal human. If Phobos was able to utilize it, calculating the intensity generated every moment. He would have access to at least quadruple the amount of energy he had used since the morning.

And it seemed that different people had different amounts generated. From the people in the restaurant Hera, Eve and Diana were generating the most, with Hera leading. While the rest were generating about half the amount of them.

Phobos thought that it may be something to do with the awakening of abilities but he was more inclined to having to do with the intensity of their thoughts. What that meant however he didn’t know. Maybe if someone is smarter or if they have a strong belief in something. Or maybe it was connected with the soul.

Phobos didn’t know and it was not important for the moment. He was concentrating on making the thought energy usable. He was eating and recharging while running his improvement ability to the max to find a way to “refine” the thought energy.

It took him more than an hour to be able to refine just a wisp of energy but that was all he needed. His ability didn’t fear a weak start but having no start at all. Having something weak, broken, useless he could improve it until it was strong, fixed or useful.

But if he didn’t have a thing to improve his ability was quite useless. Thankfully his ability came with a strong auxiliary analytical ability. Phobos could find his own start when searching for something new and unknown.

After that, he started refining thought energy and the process was improving by the minute. Everyone around him had scattered to do their own thing and he stayed at his seat and was concentrating on improving it.

Eve was in the now bedroom and was trying out her ability. She was concentrating on gaining better control over it. Hera was retraining some martial arts she had learned before. Now that her body and mind were functioning with twice the efficiency she was finding it was way easier and could do way more.

Diana was just staying in the main hall and exploring the world through her ability. Being able to calculate the numerical values of everything lets you see the world in another way.

Anna, Alice and Megan were mostly organizing the shared and their personal living spaces. There was no discrimination against the people without abilities. Everybody was just doing what would be most useful for the future. However even in such a small community with no intention of different attitudes for the non-powered. There can be seen a gap between them.

It was a big sign of what was to come in the near future. More so if some extreme people who have gained powers appear. It would be hell for those that were not favored by the luck of the draw. Of course, if you count those that turned mutant or died in that draw. It could be said that they were the unluckiest.

After about an hour more Phobos was able to refine enough though power so that he can reach an equilibrium of the amount used and the amount needed to start improving an item. Of course, that energy was just enough for the lowest possible drain from the improvement ability.

As he refined more energy he would increase the intensity of his ability and at the same time be able to refine more energy. That is why his ability is such a snowball. If Phobos finds a stable source of energy he would become exponentially better.

Phobos didn’t worry much if he didn’t find this unexpected energy from the link. Even if he couldn’t access the massive free energy, he didn’t worry much but just felt unfair to Hera and Eve. Phobos felt that he would be able to make his body be able to access and refine electrical energy if needed.

From there, his only limitation would be the energy generated from the solar panels. Of course at the moment after he perfects his thought power refinement his limit would be the energy Eve and Hera produce.

Phobos would have to assess if there are any drawbacks to Eve and Hera when he refined the energy but there should be no problem. After all, the rest of the women were non-stop producing thought power and spreading it in the world.

When Phobos felt a little tired and wanted to rest for a bit he opened his eyes and saw that it was already dark outside. He had the habit of going to be early and rising early so he started heading to the room that he stayed at last night.

Although he hadn’t perfected the refinement of thought energy he wasn’t far off. Phobos felt comfortable that the next day before breakfast he would be done. And there were no direct dangers that he needed to be careful of so he didn’t rush to do it.

The mutants could be said to be dangerous but for Phobos and most likely Hera, they wouldn’t be much of a problem. Hera didn’t have much action against mutants but Phobos felt her specs and she was comparable if not beyond his.

But Phobos felt that they were outliers in the awakened people. Although he didn’t have much to compare to except for Diana and the person he met in the parking lot. Even Eve’s ability seemed a bit powerful for just awakening. Of course Phobos could be just imagining it and the norm could be him and Hera.

When Phobos opened the door of the bedroom he was surprised to find three figures inside sitting on the two newly spread big mattresses. He was just a bit surprised Diana as she had a tendency since yesterday to want to get closer to them but didn’t expect her to just join in like it's natural.

Phobos was more surprised at the sight of Hera. Although he didn’t detect any big changes after he cleansed her mind, he felt that at the least she would keep some distance for some time.

Even if she returned in some capacity later on he would accept it naturally but Phobos just didn’t expect it to be so sudden and as if nothing had changed. Although he was surprised to see Hera he didn’t mean to comment on it but he had a bit to say to Diana. So he walked a bit closer to them and focused his gaze on her.

“It may be a bit offensive but please hear me out. I understand that you as a mature woman have made a choice but I feel that this is not the time to make haste decisions. Let us say that I am not ready to welcome you to our bed for now. However, I feel that if you make the same choice tomorrow night my choice will be different. It is just that in a complicated situation that is the catastrophe we are expiring at the moment adding another factor to make it even more complicated should be at least postponed for a bit.”

After Phobos’s little tirade he was met by two confused faces and one that showed no surprise. That would be Eve and Diana with the confused and Hera with the calm one. In this situation, a man would maybe think that he had misunderstood the situation. That they had just gathered in the room with Diana having no intention of sleeping with Phobos but he didn’t worry about that.

It was not that Phobos was conceited and thought that it was normal that every woman wanted to sleep with him but just knew that Eve wouldn’t bring a woman in his room if it was not to sleep with him. After all, although he was a bit promiscuous and slept with a lot of women, he liked his private space. Even if they gather to talk about something it would not be as what Phobos thought was his private space.

In that logic, Eve wouldn't have let Diana in the room if she had not made clear that Diana had the intention to sleep with Phobos. Eve was a little confused because he almost never refused women delivered to his bed.

However when she thought about it for a couple of moments and understood. Although Phobos didn’t reject women delivered to his bed they have to be with no strings attached afterward. And in this situation where they had established a small survival group that wasn’t much of a choice.

Eve forgot to take this into account because she didn’t push much for Diana to be recruited to Phobos’s bed. It was mostly Diana’s initiative. That is why she didn’t put much thought into the aftermath.

Diana on the other hand was a little confused because Eve said that there would be no problems. On top of that normally she would feel humiliated that she was rejected when she basically threw herself at Phobos. But she didn’t feel that at all. When Diana listened to the calm voice that was coming out of the handsome and at the same time beautiful man opposite her she didn’t feel bad at all.

Although she made this decision mostly because of her ability to tell her that it was the most beneficial outcome when Phobos rejected her she didn’t feel any bad intentions.

Only that he respected her choice and Diana even felt that she had disregarded Phobos’s will. She had just assumed that he would sleep with her. Diana was quiet for a second and then looked at the almost golden eyes.

“I understand Mr. Gold. I apologize for my abrupt actions. I shall retire for tonight but I expect for sir to keep his words and give me good news tomorrow night.”

Diana smiled calmly and stood up and slowly exited the door. Phobos found this little unexpected as most women don’t accept rejection well. Diana didn’t feel anything weird. She had a calm personality to begin with but this new ability kept her a lot calmer.

Phobos didn’t feel like commenting on the situation. So just after Diana closed the door he proceeded to undress. Hera and Eve saw that, glanced at each other and followed along.

This night Phobos had gained a lot better control of his ability. This time he extended the pleasure Eve and Hera felt for an hour. By using the boosting aspect of his ability with finer control, it was longer and more intensive at the same time.

By the end of it Hera and Eve lay exhausted on the bed, their beautiful bodies glistening. That was Phobos's favorite sight. Although Hera and Eve’s bodies were similar in stature they had different charms. On top of that, they were almost perfect in their own way.