Undying Warlord

Dilan knew that it would take time for everyone to trust each other.

That was to be expected, and it would be weird if the Survivors were to naively trust every single new member who joined their small community.

However, it was still difficult for many to digest that their number increased from a meager 60 to more than 600 Survivors!

The difference was quite a lot, to put it simply, and Dilan was sure that conflicts would erupt quite soon.

But even then, he was happy to have the shepherd's gang by his side.

Earlier, he had not liked them, but that was mostly owing to Xias and his people. They had been outcasts in the gang, according to everyone Dilan had spoken to.

This little piece of information made a big difference to him as it allowed Dilan to have a fresh and unbiased opinion about everyone, without having a prejudice against the shepherds gang!

Thus, after spending almost half a day with the other Survivors and gang members, it was quite obvious that they were different to most of the gangs he had imagined.

He had already encountered some gangs in the past when he visited his friends in their underground fights, but reality seemed to be different from everything he thought he knew about gangs.

They accepted his rules without batting an eyelid, while Xenia and Williams readily agreed to him with a thumbs up.

Dilan was pretty sure that both Williams and Xenia were not completely normal in their minds, but that was something he could say about himself as well.

In the end, it was great that the shepherds would adhere to his rules, and follow his orders.

This made things much easier than Dilan could have hoped for, even more so when more than 60 shepherds were willing to join him in collecting ordinary Essences.

Most of them were at a low level, but that created an opportunity as well!

Out of their group, only Williams had reached level 10, while his inner ring was at Level 8 and 9. On the other hand, the shepherds were at Level 4 to 6.

Dilan knew that he had a lot to do, and by providing the shepherd members with the ungraded, Trash and Bronze weapons he procured, he had armed them to the teeth.

"I will take care of the stronger zombies. Just don't die on me, or do something stupid, otherwise, I will show you a different side of mine!!" Dilan cautioned the Ascenders that were now under him.

Initially, he had planned to dash through three floors before waiting for the morning sun to arise.

But that didn't seem to be feasible anymore as everyone was way too eager to become as strong as Dilan.

Even Williams and his inner ring chose to join him in his conquest.

This was quite frustrating if Dilan were, to be honest, which was why he added further in a loud voice.

"The moment someone messes up, we will stop reclaiming the first hospital tower for tonight. I'm already tired after fending off the monsters back at the police station and relocating everyone. As such, I realize that you guys wouldn't be fully awake and focused either!"

It was not as if they were overly pressured to procure ordinary Essence crystals.

There was some pressure on them, but Dilan was sure that everyone would survive for the time being.

They were given something to eat and the few that looked the worst received something to drink along with Essences to absorb.

Knowing that the stress that weighed on him was not too much of a burden.

He could shoulder the burdening responsibility alone, but that was not necessary anymore as he was surrounded by many people that were willing to support him with all their might.

After understanding that he was not alone, Dilan chose to provide everyone with the best possible comfort as he turned on the lights of the fifth floor up to the seventh floor.

This was a decision that he debated mentally on but it was necessary as they had to see in order to fight.

"The hospital lights are not that easy to see from the city. Most panorama windows are pointed toward the mountainside.

And even if others somehow see the hospital lights, it is not really that much of an issue.

To be honest, there are quite a few buildings where the lights are still working even though they're empty.

We've been in a few of them to search for more Survivors!"

That had been Sven's comment when Dilan kept pondering whether to turn on the lights of the fifth to the seventh floor or not.

Sven spoke a lot about the things they had done in the last 11 days, and most of the time they were busy fighting other monsters, and groups, or searching for food, weapons, and people.

As such, the shepherd gang's intel was quite informative and helpful.

However the same applied the other way around as Dilan's approach to survival was quite different to theirs.

He focused on himself first before nurturing others.

In fact, it was quite obvious that Dilan wanted to become even stronger, and only both Williams and Kathrine could guess what was holding him back from becoming even stronger.

'He is gathering enough Essence for a powerful occupation!'

Both Kathrine and Williams wanted to do the same. But they also figured that Dilan was much stronger while still being considered a Tierless existence.

He had reached some sort of limit, which simply meant that they should attain the same before focusing on accumulating essence for themselves.

This would be the best approach to become even stronger in their opinion.

Following Dilan's path sounded rather easy for them at first glance, but it was easier said than done.

After all, Dilan had advantages that others didn't have, and he faced situations that others had never encountered either.

That was one of the many reasons for Williams to follow Dilan.

There were too many things he was curious about, and his interest had been enough to make him give up his former position as leader of his gang and the Survivors he had taken in.

But Williams also knew that he would have soon given up on protecting the other Survivors because they didn't have any food, let alone water left.

As such, Dilan had not only protected all of them from the zombie crowd, but also from starving to death.

A majority of the newly rescued survivors clearly understood this.

They understood that meeting Dilan had been their extreme stroke of luck since the Primordial Ascension started, which was why he immediately gained lots of trust from nearly everyone.

Knowing that Dilan was there to protect them, everyone was able to sleep soundly, while Dilan and the others chose to start clearing the upper floors.

However, it was only two hours later that they had returned already.

Dilan's body was riddled with zombie scratches, and his mood was simply bad.

Frustration could be seen in his eyes as he walked down the stairway, while some rather young Ascenders ran behind him with apologetic expressions.

Fear about Dilan's response to their current behavior could be clearly seen in their eyes, and a moment later, he did give them a piece of his mind.

"I'm not your nanny. If you guys want to become stronger, don't drag down your own people!! I won't save you guys the next time the two of you rush into the hallway like headless chickens!!"

Dilan's voice was low so as to not wake everyone up.

However, the trace of annoyance in his tone caused everyone who followed him silently to feel chills running down their spines.

Meanwhile, Williams appeared next to Miles and placed his hand on his shoulder.

He felt a little bit weird to see Dilan like this, but Williams could only agree to every single spoken word.

In fact, Williams was quite sure that he wouldn't have saved the two teenagers if he had been in Dilan's place.

Not because he didn't want to, but because he would have died while rescuing them!

It was only a few minutes earlier when a handful of young Ascenders had mindlessly barged into the front hallways on the seventh floor.

As if that was not stupid enough, before Dilan had been able to check everything, they had left the doors open to let a handful of evolved zombies had emerged out of the shadows.

In the end, Dilan was bitten and scratched more than five times, just to protect the kids before he was even able to retaliate.

By now, he should have turned into a zombie, however, nothing had happened.

This was, of course, great and allowed everyone to sigh in relief. However, it was still weird!

But that didn't seem to bother anyone else but Williams and his people as even Kathrine, who couldn't sleep well, woke up just to see Dilan's appearance.

She simply shrugged her shoulders before smiling dryly, imagining what the newcomers would think of him to see his haggard and disheveled look.

"I should really reconsider taking in new Survivors if they keep acting like this…" Dilan just mumbled in frustration, as he walked past Kathrine.

Kathrine could only smile bitterly, knowing that he didn't truly mean it.

However, she could also understand that it was quite a hassle to be responsible for some people, who had yet to understand that life and death were not that far apart anymore.

After all, the Primordial Ascension changed…everything!