Chapter 175 Embracing Your Fears (1/2)

They stopped at a place near the river, with flat grass.

While drinking from the river wasn't safe, it was hard for them to find a place with an abundant number of zombies that weren't too difficult for beginners to practice on.

Alec gripped his whip and lashed out, causing a few zombies fishes to fly out and land on the ground, flopping around. The zombie fishes had large, sharply protruding teeth. It was much sharper than the human zombies' teeth.

Unlike the listlessness of the human zombies that were back in the city, the zombie fishes appeared full of life and vitality even when they were clearly zombies. They flopped around powerfully and didn't die even when they were out of the water, further proof that they were indeed zombies.

Karen choked off the shriek that wanted to leave her mouth, standing clear of the dirty fishes. Ugh. Disgusting!

”First thing's first. Copy the aura of the zombie fish.”

Karen and Liam stared at Alec doubtfully, but dutifully closed their eyes to feel their magic.

They yelped when a stinging pain was felt from the lash that Alec gave them. For some reason, they didn't feel bad even when Alec gave them a lash.

”Don't close your eyes! Do you think you'll be able to take your time accessing your magic in the middle of a battle?”

Karen's eyes twitched. ”Ew, did you just lash us with the same whip that grabbed the zombie fish?!”

”I don't see another whip here,” Alec said a bit dryly.

Karen struggled to shove down her disgust. Calm, Karen, calm. She had to get rid of this pesky mysophobia quickly! She couldn't be a burden forever! This was the apocalypse. The apocalypse!

She couldn't allow this damn mysophobia to rule her instincts forever! One slip and she could lose both Lukas and Liam to a zombie, which was just unacceptable.

Lukas, curious, was already copying the aura of the zombie fish. It felt distinctly different from the zombies in the city.

Perhaps it was because the zombie was originally a fish and not a human. To put in in simpler words, the aura felt more… watery as compared to the human type zombies.

Within ten minutes, Lukas had successfully managed to copy the zombie fish's aura. Meanwhile, Karen and Liam were still struggling, one more than the other.

While Liam had already gotten a hang of using his magic throughout his body and was able to direct it to specific parts of his body. It was almost as if he'd obtained another limb and was getting the hang of it quickly. He was currently trying to copy the aura after being egged on by his brother's early success.

Karen on the other hand, was still struggling to find the magic inside her. Perhaps it was because she kept getting distracted by the wriggling zombie fish on the ground near her, but she just couldn't find it!

Splash! Lukas jumped into the river, startling a worried shout from Liam.

”Don't worry. Unless he's directly bitten by a zombie, at the stage your brother is at, he won't turn because he's entering the water. You, on the other hand, cannot! So faster get to the first stage!”

At least, that was how it was in all those novels. Whether it was true or not remained to be seen, but if a regressor was willing to take that risk, then who was he to stop him?

Liam nodded and concentrated harder. Determination filled him at the sight of his brother putting himself in danger. He didn't want to be left behind in safety while his brother was facing dangers.

They were twins! He wasn't willing to be left behind!

Karen was still struggling even after Liam finally managed to copy the aura of the zombie fishes.

Alec studied Karen, thinking. While he'd gotten good at reading people over the years because of his interaction with his master – due to his normally stoic face – he wasn't a mind reader.

All he could see was that Karen was feeling scared, disgusted and apprehensive.

At first, he thought that she was just scared of the zombies in general, which should have been dealt with easily the longer she stared at zombies, which was the reason why he'd picked to stop here in the first place, but that didn't seem to be it.