Despite the good news he just received, Luna calmed himself down, he looked at the two people they just saved and noticed that they both had name tags on. The woman looked like she was half Filipina and half Caucasian, her male counterpart had healthy brown skin.
"Dr. Torre." Noticing that they both had the same last name he could only guess that they were a couple.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for saving our lives, we're forever in your debt." They both slightly bowed as a sign of gratitude.
Gesturing for that there was no need for such formalities Luna replied "There's no need for that, you two. Everybody in the Philippines knows of the family behind one of the Philippines' best hospitals. Were you two in there all this time?"
The Riverside Hospital, also responsible for the Riverside College, was owned by the Torre family.
"Yes. During the night of the attack, we were still working, we managed to kill the zombies that spawned beside us, but.. when we saw the people we were taking care of running towards us, we didn't quite have it in us to 'kill' them. So we cleared the rooftop, and brought whatever supplies we could, with us. We saw you tearing through those zombies, and we knew it was our only chance. I apologize, we didn't mean to lure that behemoth towards you."
"No issue. He ended up as nourishment in the end." Luna assured them. He then gave them a choice, they could either stay with him and journey to the Government evacuation area when it was safe or join his <Nation>. After having their lives saved, the two felt grateful and decided to join the <Sovereign Nation>.
Luna then proceeded to power-level them to level 10. He believed that level 10 would be the minimum requirement for survival in this new world, very soon. Luna hadn't known it yet, but the two he saved today, would pave the way for a huge majority of the future Doctors within his <Nation.>, more after that, they would later become famous as the Combat Doctors of the <Sovereign Nation.> Healing the injured, and eliminating the infection known as the zombie apocalypse.
After giving the two of them, their pair of Itak Tagalogs, Luna signaled everyone to start falling back to their home base. Sura excused herself, knowing that Luna had to do his duties as a leader, she continued her slaughter. This way, they would be constantly progressing. If the Hulking Variant zombie today was any proof, was that they should always be a step or several steps ahead in terms of evolution.
As soon as Luna got back, he especially arranged for the two Doctors to have their own room. The rest were to either share the remaining rooms, find a spot in the living room, or take the rooms reserved for the servants nearby the surroundings of the main house.
It wasn't the best of accommodations, but it felt like paradise compared to the nights they had beforehand. Luna briefed everybody regarding what he knew, including the <Territory> system. Giving others a choice on whether to participate or not.
Everybody decided to participate, even the younger children, which Luna decided he would place in the backline once the fighting started. While they were enthusiastic and level 10, an actual fight would still affect those mentally not prepared for it. Seeing an actual fight in front of them would be the change in perspective they would need to find out if they were cut out for it or not.
As everybody was getting ready to rest, the rest of the original team decided to go out while there was still some sunlight out to get some Exp. The higher their levels got, the higher their Vitality would be, which means they would need less time sleeping to recover their energy. They didn't want to sit around while they had so much energy remaining and there was still some sunlight out.
As Luna was observing his once empty house, now being filled with people, he dreamed of the day his <Nation> would be a larger safe haven for even more survivors. With that thought in mind, he went back into his room, to go through the new information he received earlier, in more detail.
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<Congratulations on getting to level 20! You are now considered a Rank 2 evolved being>
You've gained 20 extra stat points to distribute.
From this point on, you will receive 2 stats per level.
You have gained the passive <Enhanced Vision> - this ability enhances your overall vision. Vision during nighttime has been improved. This skill enhances automatically every 10 levels.
You have gained the passive <Novice Regeneration> - Enable your body to regenerate from injuries faster. This skill scales off of your VIT stat. This skill enhances automatically every 10 levels.
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"Amazing. I thought the difference in levels was huge beforehand, but this.. A level 20 player could basically dominate a group of level 10 players with ease." He started to think about what getting level 30 would get him, but he quickly snapped out of it. Regular zombies basically gave him next to nothing now, in terms of EXP. Evolved zombies, he would need to kill a thousand of them. After reaching level 20, the EXP needed to gain even a single level rose exponentially.
Regardless of that fact, it only filled Luna with an even more burning desire to level up. A thousand evolved zombies? Fifty or even a hundred of those new variants? It didn't matter. The Negros Occidental/Oriental islands alone has a population of over 5 million people now. He highly doubted that even 100,000 people in total survived. That would leave around 4.9 million zombies, not counting the spawned zombies.
The reason for Luna's urgency to expand, besides the fact that he needed a territory, was because he wanted to establish a sizable territory as soon as possible. If he could be the first one to liberate a city, with the majority of its citizens being dead, leaving a lot of vacant housing. It would be a huge rallying point for survivors. Survivors would be the crucial manpower he would need to maintain a nation.
Especially for the lucky families that managed to survive, having a safe haven for their family to stay, they would have even more of a reason. A person wouldn't mind fighting if it meant their kids could have a safe place to stay.
There was also the issue of being able to feed his people. Eventually, the grocery stores will be emptied out, if they only relied on those. Luckily, the Negros Islands had the capacity to eventually feed such a huge population.
Not to mention it was by the sea, which meant that although it would be susceptible to attacks from the evolved aquatic life forms, they would also provide even better nutrition than before. But that was a plan reserved for the future, as of right now, the only ones by the ports are the spawned zombies, he obviously wouldn't mind if those guys sustained the fish.
The next day, Luna would instruct everybody to set up a defensive line around the perimeter of what was deemed as part of their <Territory> in preparation for the invasion when they claimed it. Setting up a perimeter was simple, the remaining time Luna, Maria, Clara, Sura, and Hana tried to teach some simple fighting techniques to the rest of the survivors, they were highly doubtful it would prove to be highly useful in such a short time, but learning some easy techniques that they didn't know before, definitely gave the rest a boost in morale.
It was the same way when a coach would tell a fighter what to do prior to a match. Having a game plan in mind would better prepare someone for a fight. After all the preparations were set, everybody got into their positions. They didn't know where the enemy would come from, so they formed a circle.
The original group took their places on the outer perimeters, the newer survivors were behind them in case any zombies got through, while the two Doctors, the children, along with Apple were in the middle. Her role was to be the immediate assistance to whichever side would be struggling.
"It's time," Luna said while pulling up the option in his consciousness.
Would you like to claim this Territory? Y/N
"Yes."