My bear was significantly stronger, but I still don't think it could handle another similar mini boss. After killing a few groups of zombies and absorbing their mana, I used it to summon a group of small mice. They were small, but particularly fast and intelligent, and they also had a certain amount of mana that allowed me to commune with them over long distances. For now, they would help me keep an eye on the area around me and keep me from unpleasant surprises.

An hour later I got back to the camp and from a distance I saw several groups of people building things out of wood. I approached and questioned them and was surprised to find out that they intended to carry pre-made wooden walls and barricade themselves in a well defensible place and then to attract large packs of zombies and defeat them all at once. Using their weapons through special holes in the walls, the fighters will safely attack the zombies, while the archers and the sorcerers would be able to safely shoot their enemies from above.

"Pretty interesting idea," I thought. "I'll have to be extra careful not to run into any large groups of zombies that are drawn to their fortifications. Or perhaps the traps they'll probably set."

Mr. Dellucci was absolutely fascinated by the amazing gift I brought him. When he saw the zombie boss, his eyes almost popped out of their orbits. His look was very comical. While I was telling him about the zombie's abilities, he kept looking around for a suitable place to dissect it. Eventually almost the entire group of alchemists gathered, as well as a large crowd of people from the camp. I chatted at length with the more practical Joseppe and through him we signed a few contracts with Mr. Delucci's entire crafters group.

Then I looked around and suddenly realized how hungry I was. My nose sharpened, and I subconsciously sent some magical energy through my growing magical channels to it, slightly stimulating it and soon, attracted by the smell, I hurried to find one of the new “restaurants” where I had prepaid and reserved a large amount of food since yesterday.

My fears, however, had been in vain. After talking to one of the cooks, I found out that a large number of people had started exploring the forest and had killed a fair number of wild animals.

"But isn't it hard to kill wild animals?" wondered I. After all, I knew one didn't just become a hunter in a day.

"People who choose to explore forests don't do it by accident." the cook replied. "They either have experience in hunting from Earth or their skills and training are suited to it. Besides, a deer or roe weighs several dozen pounds, and today they even brought us a trapped hippo that weighed almost half a ton! Forests are abundant with all kinds of wild animals, even ones that shouldn't live in these places. In addition, the river is full of fish, crabs, water snakes and other creatures. This place is a paradise for wild food lovers."

"I'm glad that at least food won't be an issue in the immediate future."

"That's right, everything here is 'Organic'. The shop sells rare spices and we have plenty of magic chefs and people who want to help in the kitchen. Not everyone is crazy enough to go fight zombies or explore unknown forests."

"Makes one wonder why they agreed to get in the game in the first place then." I muttered quietly.

"People are as varied as their interests." the cook shrugged, then I signed off and picked up my food.

I looked around and found a vacant spot where I settled in for a hearty dinner. I was hungry as a bear and couldn't wait to try the steaming hippo steaks and the fish soup.

Hippopotamus meat was rich in mana and was prepared by chefs who had trained and developed special skills to help enrich the meat and help more easily absorb said mana.

At that moment, however, I was approached by George Bristol, a charismatic man of about 35, whose ideas I approved of, and one of the more active political figures in the camp. From the first day he worked ceaselessly to organize things that were needed and useful to the camp.

"Meridin, tomorrow morning the sentence of the woman you detained will be pronounced. We have decided that she shall be sentenced to aid the advancement of mankind for the next five years or until we meet a competent government to decide her fate. For now, she will help us cut wood, clear land and other such physical activities. I guess you're OK with that decision?"

"Seems fair to me.", I replied after a brief reflection."

How many resources would we have to spend to guard such criminals? How much effort would we need to make to build a legal system that we could then uphold? Would such measures be enough? These were important questions, but they could easily have been overlooked, especially in this hostile new world.

George also ordered food and sat down with me to discuss the various political issues. He was very interested in my support and suggested various projects for the future of the camp. He also briefed me on most of the figures that had emerged on the political scene and some of the behind the scenes games that were starting to happen. Most of those new figures had not been able to take advantage of the publicity that the conviction of the rapist gave us, and the morning training that we were organizing, so they were starting their own political maneuvers.

We talked for nearly three hours, being frequently joined by various persons, and finally we separated and I went to a more secluded spot, where I pitched my tent and continued my experiments and practices in summoning which I had begun in the "garden" and which I had kept up for the last five weeks.

Finally, very tired, I summoned a group of special magical beings to help me recover faster, one of the tricks I had found in the library, and went to bed for about four hours.

I woke up feeling very well rested, thanks to the magic of those creatures and as I ate breakfast my thoughts returned to my speech when I arrested the rapist.

"I grew up around politicians and influential people. It's easy for me to talk to them, but I'm not my father," I thought. "I don't even have the desire to be. Why am I doing all this?", I wondered. "Maybe I do believe in something...But at the same time, I enjoy hunting zombies and developing my magical powers. Unlike my father, I don't want to devote my life and all my time to this thankless profession."

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I thought about the so often empty seat at the family table, remembered the missed birthdays and our always busy father. Couldn't he have made more time for his family? For me? Were we any less important than whatever he was doing there? But here I am now, facing a similar situation. Weren't the consequences of this "game" more important than a family or two? Didn't those thousand people, and the other one million in the towers, deserve someone to work for them?

"Is it possible that my father was right and I was just a little kid, unable to make sense of this complex world?"

I pondered the question for a long time, but I was unable to find an answer. Now, I see how obvious things were, but back then I was just a teenager obviously not ready to see the bigger picture

"I'll help as much as I can," I consoled myself. "But I won't sacrifice my life. Let the others play the governors. I'll try to back George Bristol as far as I can in the next election, but after that I won't meddle that much in politics!" decided I..

Then, with new strength and a clear mind, I took time to practice and improve my skills. My fusion with the shadows and my mysticism and meditation, for now, were not particularly helpful in my battle with the zombies, and were not particularly developed. I'd have to spend considerably more time training them until they were able to become useful. Still, I had high hopes for them and in no way regretted having chosen them as part of my starting skills.

During my months spent with the tower spirit, I'd picked up little nuggets of information about the expanded versions of the various skills, and I knew that the seemingly simple meditation and mysticism skill was perhaps one of the skills with the greatest potential of all, and merging with the shadows could someday allow you to hide in others near planes of existence.

When the sun finally woke the sleepy camp, I hurried to help Mr. Delucci and the other alchemists. They had prepared a large clearing furnished with some simple conveniences for the instruction of beginners in alchemy. Practically anyone who had mana and a reasonably good mana control could start learning alchemy.

The benefits of alchemy were endless. I knew from the tower spirit that alchemy was one of the main sciences in the magical worlds in the galaxy. Developing it in this tutorial island was essential. Something I spoke of often in my political discussions.

Mr. Delucci's group had prepared promotional materials which we posted at the camp. They explained the benefits of various alchemical practices and invited people to participate in open courses as well as inviting everyone to bring any interesting mana-rich objects they came across, be they herbs, parts of animals or interesting minerals. There were even modest prizes to be given away on a lottery basis. So the prizes wouldn't be given to everyone, but they would be bigger.

As we worked, Mr. Dellucci would talk to me excitedly about his research on the mini boss and often mentioned how it would lead to great discoveries in his practice.

"We've already managed to isolate several types of necromantic poisons and two independent ways to extract it. We just need the right zombie parts. Also, the poison we extracted from the miniboss is far more potent when added to the other poisons from the various poisonous plants we found in the city and in the forests...."

I also picked up one of the brochures describing common herbs and minerals that were found in the city. Together with the other alchemists and their backers, we had collected a large sum of currency and with it we had bought a number of reference books describing many magical plants, animals, minerals and other alchemical reagents.

Furthermore, various types of specialized artisans had joined the originally small group of alchemists. There were rune masters, formation masters, talisman makers, spiritual blacksmiths, and all sorts of auxiliary professions related in one way or another to alchemy. Since this group of artisans was the largest, it was about to become the first oficial artisan chamber of commerce.

After we finished working with the alchemists, I headed to the training ground where dozens of people were training under the supervision of the martial experts. I also joined in the training, and when it was over I pestered the instructors with questions for about half an hour. There was so much I could learn about the strange and specific practices of circulating mana through one's body to improve one's physical performance.

Also I had to work hard to build up my muscles and the energy channels that could energize them.

Since I didn't have to fight zombies in person, my body didn't get enough strain, so I ordered special weights from the store, and they cost a big chunk of my currency units, but they were able to be conveniently attached to different parts of my body and could be easily removed when needed.

If I survived the next few days and got used to the weights, I would be able to free them if the situation called for it and escape at high speed. Especially if the bear was covering for me. I certainly didn't want to be caught off guard by some miniboss or something scarier. Most importantly, though, was that this way I'd be training my body in this special mana rich island, full of possibilities.

At 9:30 am I gave a 30 minute lecture on mana control and then answered questions for 20 minutes. At 10:20 I grabbed a food package from the restaurant and ran into town. I was considerably late and the more active hunters had been hunting for hours.

"I need to manage my time more efficiently!", I said in frustration as I looked at the zombie corpses in the streets. Soon I came to streets uncleared of zombies, but I didn't stop there for long, instead heading into the inner city. I had my imp and my magic rats, so I could take some risks in order to make up for lost time.

As I hunted, I had to use my crossbow more and more often, but I had gotten comfortable with using it. I picked the right targets and didn't even have to kill them. Even if I managed to slow them down and distract them, it was a big help when fighting groups of zombies.

I would get the zombies' attention, and the bear could attack them by surprise and then escape, or better said - reposition, before they had time to focus on her. In the meantime, I was pelting them with arrows, magic balls, and larger stones, and even the imp could jump into the fray if needed. He'd swoop down close to the zombies and distract them with his presence, and he also had his own small supply of mana and could fire off some weaker magical fireballs.

My rats had no effect in battles, but with their help (and that of my imp) I was able to move easily and safely from group to group.

I was getting better at absorbing mana from living and dead zombies, and it was allowing me to shoot more magic balls. Plus, I started to develop strategies with my shadow fusion, allowing me to surprise the zombies and also run away and reposition more easily. This way I was gaining valuable seconds and confusing them further and at the same time practicing my skill.

From time to time I would come across places that I recognized with my skill in mysticism and where I would stop to meditate and explore the place with my mind. This would charge me with mana and although it interfered with my hunting, I strengthened the energy channels in my body. In addition, my mysticism skill was developing in me a certain intuition, in my work with the mana, that was a strong investment in my future.

The whole day passed in relative silence, avoiding contact with other groups of hunters or stronger zombies. While I did well with the hunting, I didn't venture too far into the city and only encountered a few more special zombies.

For them I spent time and collected their more valuable, mana-rich organs. Also, mainly because of my rats' magical sensitivity, I managed to fill my entire backpack with magical herbs and reagents. The town had a plethora of poisonous magic herbs, as well as several types of minerals with interesting magical properties.