Undying Warlord

"They didn't care about fighting the 'weak' zombies on the fifth floor…they thought that it would be easy to kill the monsters outside the hospital as long as they wielded the Bronze treasures you provided…"

The moment Dilan heard this he knew that all of them had died.

This was something he could easily tell based on Kathrine's expression.

"How many did we lose?" Dilan altered his question, while his expression was stoic.

He could already tell the answer but somehow, Dilan wanted to confirm it with her.

"Four…Four Survivors died. All of them around our age…"

Kathrine felt guilty because she had allowed the Survivors to go out of the hospital and do whatever they wanted to.

Dilan didn't really think that it was her fault. Rather, it was he who had motivated all Survivors to go outside, and to give their best to fight and learn to survive.

"Four Survivors died…and I just fueled their desire to fight...fuck it!!" Pushing back his hair in frustration, Dilan took a look at everyone.

More than half of the present Survivors were eager to leave the cafeteria with the weapons Dilan had provided.

This was good, but only if one were to consider that they would strengthen their group's prowess instead of dying needlessly because they overestimated themselves.

Now that he had learned about the recent deaths, Dilan couldn't help but frown deeply before he thought of something.

Using all of his strength, he clasped his hands, making a thunderous noise resound through the cafeteria.

Once the sound subsided, Dilan was able to speak freely.

"I have one more thing to say. I found clues about several human groups outside the hospital. Unfortunately, I have yet to find out which group is approachable and which group we should avoid for now.

As such, I hope everyone can avoid going outside for longer periods for the time being. Of course, I won't hold anyone back from leaving, but for your own sake use the zombies inside the four towers of the hospital to your advantage if you want to practice!"

Dilan wanted the others to gain more combat experience, Essences, and Status points. The easiest way to do it was within the Rian mountainside hospital.

With his short speech, it was possible for him to prevent most people from going outside. His words had been for their own safety, to begin with.

After he finished speaking, he turned to Kathrine, whose expressions were still not better.

"Even if I'm the leader, and I give you or others some responsibilities, that doesn't really mean we owe their lives.

They can do whatever they want as long as they abide by the loose rules I have enforced. We inform them about the dangers and allow them to make their choices with the intel they receive.

We can help them to survive in some situations as well, but there is only that much we can do!"

They were not the nannies of their group, and neither responsible for their lives or survival outside the hospital.

Even in the cafeteria, Dilan could only set up rules in the hope that his authority was enough to force everyone to abide by them.

If nobody would listen, he could either accept it, kill everyone, or leave if he was no longer required.

But they needed him now more than ever before.

That was why Dilan was not really worried about being betrayed by one of his own.

Kathrine just nodded her head even though she was not sure if he was correct.

She wanted to guide the others, and lead them to a better future.

It sounded like a grand dream but if that was required to protect her sister, Kathrine was willing to do everything.

Meanwhile, she felt like Dilan took the news of the death of the four Survivors way too easily.

He was not attached to them, at all. This was something Kathrine didn't like about him, even if it looked like he was trying his best to protect his people with his utmost effort.

Dilan spent his time improving the living conditions of their entire group, followed up by strengthening their combat prowess to the best of his capabilities.

That was already enough for most, but Kathrine expected more from Dilan.

She was not sure why she thought so, but it was as if she could see that he had more potential and that there was more he could do even if it was just a tiny bit.

'I'm probably just thinking too much,' Kathrine told herself in the end, before seeing that Dilan approached the weapon corner and picked up the sharpest dagger.

Using some strength, he cut himself lightly, as fat droplets of blood trickled down his forearm.

'So my skin is not hard enough yet. Seems like I need to stay focused!'

Dilan smiled faintly and began thinking of a solution to overcome this obstacle.

As long as he could still cut himself, inflicting deadly injuries to himself was still possible.

With a smooth movement, Dilan took off his burned robe, the upper part of the tracksuit he was wearing, and the shirt he wore below.

Standing in just his jeans, he took a deep breath before stabbing himself with the Bronze treasure.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed the dagger deeper into his flesh as an unbearable burning sensation swept through him.

This feeling got even worse when he pulled the dagger out. Dilan could only see red while looking down.

It looked like a flood of blood spurted out of the self-inflicted injury.

However, Dilan had steeled himself to not be affected by the sight of his blood and simply took a deep breath to ready himself for the next attack.

He aimed at a different spot to inflict a second injury.

An awkward silence filled the cafeteria as everyone watched him in a daze as Dilan pulled out the dagger just to inflict himself yet again.

Afterward, Dilan started to sweat profusely. He was taking deep breaths just to use all his strength to pull out the dagger once again.

His entire abdomen was severely injured by the three deep cuts that he had inflicted upon himself.

But even then, Dilan's eyes were ice-cold as he stared at his body.

The last time Dilan injured himself the wound had stopped bleeding after a few seconds, but now he injured himself three times in succession, and his wounds didn't seem to be healing at all.

Despite that, Dilan was unruffled and just closed his eyes while activating the [Regeneration] ability over and over again.

Every 10 seconds he activated it once more.

Dilan repeated this a total of 10 times which was enough to stop the bleeding and to initiate the healing process of three deadly injuries.

[[Regeneration]- Tier-0 ★★★

1) Survive <8> Deadly injuries have been attained!

2) Health of <20> has been reached!

Upgrade to Tier-0 ★★★★]

What followed this message was an upgrade of his Origin ability.

From an enhancement of [+9 Health], it went up to [+14 Health].

An increase of five full units was extremely valuable as it increased the gap between ordinary Tierless existences and him!

Even valuable equipment could only increase someone's stats to a specific degree. They were also limited.

But that was not the case with Origin abilities!

However, to upgrade his Origin ability, Dilan had to face unbearable pain.

'Even if I used [Regeneration] ten times in a row, I still have not gotten used to the itchiness during the healing process….Well it's not like it is any better without the Origin ability being activated. I can still feel my body recuperating with every passing second.'

Dilan could only smile lightly while telling himself to save up on using his Origin ability too often in succession. He was not sure about this, but Dilan felt that it might be too much of a burden for his body, even more so because he was currently lacking nutrition!

If it hadn't been for the circumstances they were in, he would have given himself some more time to inflict one deadly injury upon himself after another.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence, and Dilan had to be as strong as possible.

He could tell that he had to be in his best shape tomorrow.

And this was possible with the use of his enhanced Ability.

Slowly moving from the position he had been standing for more than ten minutes, Dilan put aside the Bronze dagger before taking a look at the kitchen.

"Bianne, I heard that the meat of the War Krendels is really tasty. Is there something left for me?"

His eyes searched for Bianne, only to find the shocked woman in her late 20s looking at him as if he was insane.

When she noticed that Dilan made eye contact with her, Bianne felt embarrassed about her horrified expression which was why she hurried into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she walked towards him with several slices of bread and a meat broth made out of the War Krendels most nutritious meat!

Dilan thanked her and started a small conversation in which he wanted to find out how everyone reacted to having the meat.

At the same time, he almost swallowed everything without even chewing it properly.

Thus, Bella brought him a second helping.

However, the moment she came back to him, Bianne's smile froze as her gaze was fixated on the entrance of the cafeteria.

And turning his head, Dilan could only frown as he saw more than a dozen armed men and women standing at the doors of the cafeteria, aiming at all Survivors with their rifles and shotguns.

"Hello my little sheeps, your shepherd has finally arrived!!"

'Just how bad can my timing be?!'