AN: Chapter 9, shopping.

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“I'm back!”

“Where the hell have you been? We were worried you know?” said Diane as Erwin appeared at the entrance.

“I wanted a cat!”

Then they looked at the red beast that appeared from behind him and stopped at his side.

“His name is Ras, a scarlet wildcat. Ok, listen. I wanted to tame one of them since I first discovered them. It's not that I don't like you guys, however we have gotten stronger. Animals have better instinct that men, they would have kept their distance from a group. That's why I went alone. I was sure you wouldn't want to leave me alone, so I lied. And as I've said before, I can take care of myself in this area.”

“Still, you should have explained instead of keeping it to yourself. We wouldn't have minded that much.” said David.

“Well, don't mind it David. As punishment, I will take care of his special training to raise his constitution” she said with a smile that reached her eyes, but not in a reassuring way.

She took her spear and advanced toward him. Erwin paled, then resigned himself and told his pets to stand back as Diane dragged him by the neck into an empty room. That evening he emptied his mana solely for healing. The next day, he had gained 3 points in constitution and a level in healing. Diane gained a level in spear mastery.

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“Everyone, for today, the 3 of you will be hunting on your own.”

“Why is that?”

“Is it because of Diane's care yesterday?” asked Greg with a grin on his face.

“Nope. It's because with 5 or 6 people in the group we won't gain enough experience. Yesterday we were able to gain up to 2 level with 5 persons. If we want to gain a single level today, we must use smaller groups. Besides, the population of spiders has diminished, meaning less kills for each of us.

I have a rough idea about the positions of the territories of the differents species we encountered. Between the south and west of our position is the spider's territory. I guess that between the south and the east is the wildcats territory. Between the west and the north, there should be the little fuckers. It is just an estimate. And the power of the individuals may vary in certain areas.”

“So you suggest us to hunt around the south-west area so we can hunt spiders and wildcats?”

“Yes.”

“What about you?” asked Diane.

“I will explore the outer layer of the ruined town, from the north-west to the south-west passing by the west. I'm wary of the center, I don't want to go there yet. Also, I have the 'crude equipment crafting' skill. I want to retrieve as many tools and materials I can to make better equipment. And I will probably find more usefull things.”

“I see. It's a nice idea. But why are you wary of the center?” asked Greg.

“I can feel that there is something there, my intuition tell me that, and probably because of my mana sense as well.”

“Then we shall avoid it as well” he replied in a somewhat hurried fashion.

“I will start with the northern area this morning, make a break at noon here at the base, then do the southern area in the afternoon and be back before dusk.”

“Ok. Then, Diane, Greg, let's go. See you tonight.”

“Be carefull.”

“It's you guys who should be carefull, you won't have any support magic nor any healing.”

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When they left, Erwin got a look at the content of his backpack. There were some important papers, a notebook, his laptop which seemed damaged but not ruined, his 3DS, and the remains of the crystal flower. Those were his remaining personal possessions, along with the clothes he was wearing and his phone in his pocket. Ever since the world fusion, there had been no signal available, so he had turned it off, only checking it twice a day to save some battery.

What he needed were tools and materials to improve their current equipment or make something new. He was going to look for the ruins of hardware stores and garages, others stores dealing with crafting materials and tools. With that he would look for protective clothing. He also wanted all kinds of cleaning products. Another building he wanted to find was the police station, and with luck, some guns inside. Food and water were no longer much of a problem, so he could take care of it later.

He put his possessions in a ruined drawer in the base, put the empty backpack on and left with his 2 pets to look for his targets building while moving north. On the way, he noticed that he didn't find any car wreckages. In fact, there were barely any pieces of roads and sidewalks, just ruined buildings.

He took notice of several places with materials and tools he could take, but he realised that moving everything would be annoying. He needed some kind of cart or trolley. He found 2 shopping trolley and a travel backpack. I filled one trolley with all the manual tools I found, and the other with the few battery powered devices I could get my hands on. The travel backpack was filled with cleaning products and the normal one with diverse fastening and binding tools.

He carried his backpack at the front, the travel packpack at the back, and a trolley in each hand. 3 hours after he left, he was back in the base, tired despite using buffs on himself. He placed everything in the ruined room where he left his possessions and took a good break. An hour later he went out again, and came back 2 hours later with whatever protective clothes and tailoring tools and material he could find.

It was around 2 in the afternoon when he started to think about what to do with everything he found. He made a harness with big pockets so Ras could carry things as well, then he left, this time to get materials. It was a lot harder than he expected since he was looking for good metal pieces. Around 4 in the afternoon, while exploring the south-west area, he found a garage with a lot of usable materials and tools, and most importantly, a blowtorch. Erwin decided that this place would be his workshop. He emptied his bag there and went back to the base, not without getting some food on the way.

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“Welcome back. How was your shopping day?” asked David.

He smiled and led them to the room where he put all the things he retrieved.

“Whoaa, you found a lot of things.” said Greg.

“And we're going to move almost everything here to another place tomorrow morning. I found a nice workplace around 45min away from here.”

“Then why not just move the base there?”

“No Diane. There is a chance to attract something there due to the noises and the smell. Thinking of smell, some of this products are to be scattered in the area to cover our scent. Remember 'I am legend' when Will Smith sprayed some liquid at his door steps.”

“Are you some kind of survival expert or something?” asked Diane in a slightly mocking tone.

“Nope. You know, many movies, books or even games depict world-changing events, be it natural disaster, human mistakes, aliens or supernatural events. We know those things are fictions, but some people ask themselves 'what if it really happens? How to survive?'. Those people ask experts in various field how things would most likely happen in reality, and how to prepare themselves for that.

Some documentaries were made for things like survival in zombie apocalypse. I've seen some of those documentaries about things that most deem unlikely or impossible. And you know what, some of them make you realise that the world is full of incredible things. Long ago, some people in southern america said that the end of the world would be in 2012, however some experts found out that the right year could be 2015. And here we are in summer 2015, with the aftermath of a dimensional disaster in our hands.”

“““...”””

“It doesn't sound that crazy anymore right? It made me want to both laugh and cry.”

…

“Enough about about that, how was your day?”

“We all gained 2 levels, including in our spear mastery skills, and I gained a level in my physical resistance skill. Fighting without you is a pain in the ass.”

“Too bad for you, cause I'll be spending the whole day in my workplace tomorrow. As for you, you can either continue to hunt in the forest or explore the ruins while looking for usefull things. If you chose the second option, let me remind you to stay away from the center. In fact, you should just do that. Explore the ruin while I make better weapons and protective gear for us.”

“Are you that good with your hands?” asked Greg.

“More than the average citizen. I'm familiar with the DIY. So is my guardian, who is an engineer.”

“Then we will leave it to you.”

“Now, David, let's suffer together tonight at the hands of our comrades. All for the sake of surviving the days to come.”

“... Nah, I'll pass.”

“... If you say so. Well, Diane, you up for this?”

“Not tonight, fighting without you was tiring.”

After eating, they all went to sleep. All except Erwin. He was observing each of the monster cores he retrieved the day before, focusing on the mana inside of them. He also tried to move his own mana at will. Unless he cast a spell, he still didn't achieve that. He though that, maybe, his mana perception wasn't high enough. After all, there were 8 elements and he couldn't differentiate them yet.

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AN: ...