The World Cataclysm

Having kept a low profile in the university, Dave hardly paid any attention to the students around him since he had tried to fulfil the sole duty of a student, studying. Including the fact that he was just a freshman student, Dave didn't have a chance to get close with any students, so he was truly ignorant about the people around him.

However, he knew someone who does keep his eyes on people around him!

"Adam, do you know anyone who can handle a longbow? It must be someone from our close surroundings, someone from our group. You're the one who handles them, so you should know a thing or two about them." Dave decided to rely on Adam regarding this question.

Sighing in a helpless manner, Adam didn't know what to do with his friend. "Dave, you know you should be more mindful of people around you. How can you be so ignorant when we've got admitted into the university at the same time?"

"What do you mean?" Dave said puzzledly. He sincerely didn't understand what he was talking about. Did he miss someone? He didn't remember meeting someone with the qualities of an archer.

"That's why you should talk more with people around you." Adam sighed heavily. "The choice should be obvious. Rachel was a member of an Archery Club. She's quite famous in our university for winning several archery competitions."

"...I've never heard about it," Dave said in a deep ponder. Well, he had truly lived quite a reclusive life in their university. However, knowing Adam's nature, Dave knew that information provided by Adam was possibly true.

'Either way, she's not fit for melee combat. Maybe, she'll show herself better with a bow in her hands.' Dave decided to test Rachel's bow mastery later.

"What? Is it that widespread? I've also never heard about it." Brian joined their conversation, feeling kinda left out.

"Yeah, it's true. I've thought you knew about it." Evelyn said in agreement. Having heard the same thing, Arthur also backed her up.

"Are you talking about that girl with raven hairs? She's quite beautiful, so I've kept my eyes on her. I've seen her with a bow several times," Richard chipped in their conversation. He had his eyes on beautiful women in their university in the past, so he knew one or two about some of them.

"Ugh...disgusting!" Evelyn looked at Richard with visible disdain in her eyes. In response to getting daggers from her, Richard just shrugged his shoulders, deciding to keep silent. He shouldn't antagonize people close to David.

'They are quite lively,' Rebecca thought inwardly as she observed everything, trying to hold her smile.

...

Nonetheless, after a small pause and after packing longbow with them, they still ascended to higher floors. Having depleted their mana reserves, Brian and Rebecca each drank Basic Mana Potion to have the mana for accidental situations. However, they still fought in close range, deciding to save it to avoid any casualties.

During their ascension, they still exploited Richard's innate ability to avoid getting surrounded by zombies and get an advantageous position. However, Richard was already tired of his role. The blood was splattered all over his body with a mix of zombie's saliva.

For some reason, he felt filthy...and violated. It was an uncomfortable feeling.

However, not only Richard was in a not right state of mind, but others also had slowed down compared to before.

Brian and Rebecca were low on mana, feeling slightly exhausted. Furthermore, they had spent quite a bit of spirit, so both of them felt slightly weak.

Evelyn and Arthur were tired from continuous battles as their attacks got duller than before. Dave suspected that they had exhausted their stamina.

Adam was also nearing his limit as he had already been using his Telekinesis for more than an hour. They were replenishing their energy by using consumable items like Basic Mana Potion, Crystal Apple and Restoration Bread, but everyone was already nearing their limits. Furthermore, the number of such consumable items in their possession wasn't infinite.

'Then, we're gonna wrap everything here,' Dave thought inwardly as he stopped being laid back during the fights. It was a good opportunity to increase their battle experience, but if it was already their limit, then there was no meaning in dragging it even further.

After half an hour of continuous battles, everyone was dead tired; some were low on mana, some were mentally exhausted, while some of them were short of breath. Noticing how everyone was panting heavily, Dave saw no meaning in acting laid-back anymore.

He had hoped to use this mission as the means to increase the battle experience of his team members, but if they were already near their limit, then Dave decided to not torture them anymore. 'It should be enough.'

Currently, they were clearing the 12th floor. Staying in a backline, Dave observed how they were fighting for a moment. Having exhausted his spirit, Adam had also joined the ranks of vanguard as he clutched his Broken Spear in his hands.

Activating Mana Enhancement and Reinforced Breathing, Dave dashed forward and plunged right into the ranks of zombies. With every swing, Dave killed one zombie after another as he quickly dealt with a dozen of them. It took only several seconds for him to slaughter dozen of zombies on his way.

As sweat dripped from their foreheads, everybody looked at Dave with pleading eyes as if they were saying "If you could do that from the start, then why didn't kill them?"

"What? Am I not worthy of your applauds?" Dave said bitterly in a joking manner. "We've lost quite a bit of time on our way. Let's rush over the left floors and rest after that, okay?"

After his words, they quickened their pace of clearing floors as Dave literally carried them through the last three floors. Adam and others didn't even have time to think everything over as Dave used his Mana Sensing to accurately spot the position of zombies and kill some of them, taking an advantage of his sudden appearance and taking down some of them.

With his level and stats, it wasn't impossible for him to solo all the building if he wanted to, so they smoothly cleared all the floors in no time. After finishing their task, all they needed to do was to collect the spoils on the last floor.

'We've spent quite a lot of time on this building. Interesting, how are others doing? Their numbers are higher than ours, so they shouldn't fall far behind us.' Dave thought as they headed towards the first floor.

Dave had six people following him, and they had finished clearing all floors in more than 30 minutes. The dean's teams had more than a dozen of survivors, while the most numerous one was Luther's gang which was close to 20 members.

However, Dave was more worried about their well-being. Although they hadn't any casualties inside of the group, the same can't be applied to other groups. Some casualties were bound to happen either because of simple carelessness or due to bad luck.

Coming down to the base floor, they passed through the long corridor and finally left their assigned building.

"Hey, how..." Brian tiredly raised his hand as he intended to ask how was their mission, yet he stopped halfway at his words, noticing a grim aura hanging in the air. It was so suffocating that he wasn't able to utter any other word.

It seemed that they weren't the first to finish their tasks as one of the groups were already standing in the inner yard. They grimly stood in a circle, pressing their hands to each other and keeping them near their abdomens.

Signalling others to follow him, Dave and others silently joined their ranks. Coming closer to the encirclement, they could finally see what was happening.

A male, probably a third-year student lay at the stony ground. He had a large wound on his shoulder as blood leaked from it without any signs of stopping. Dean Siphon sat close to him, pressing a rag of cloth to the wound.

'That's bad. He won't live through it. He had lost too much blood. Furthermore, he was definitely bitten by a zombie, so he didn't have much time before he turns into one.' Dave calmly analyzed the current situation.

That student was hardly keeping his eyes open. Moreover, taking the nature of the wound into consideration, the young student was rapidly turning into a zombie, becoming a tad paler as blue veins were visible on his face.

He was already a lost person as he was hardly understanding what was even happening around him. Seeing that he was slowly dying in her hands, Dean Siphon understood that there was no meaning in dragging it even further.

She took a dagger from her people and slit the student's throat with it. The student in her hands didn't even sense how his throat was slit as he had already lost control over his body which had turned cold and dull already.

"Hope you find peace in an afterlife," The dean mumbled softly, passing the dagger to its owner.