Sloane looked over the assortment of tools she placed on the dining table.

She's already made a list of all the tools she has at her disposal while organizing them earlier and according to Anarchial Recipe, the tools she had at hand are decent enough to be turned into weaponry.

Sloane stopped looking at her tools and went back to reading the pages of A.R, what did it tell her to do again?

Apparently the book recommends that during an apocalypse, she should make something that utilizes renewable ammo such as a crossbow or a pipe-based airgun.

Pipe bombs are also good to have, but the book warned her of the dangers of attracting attention through loud explosions so she scrapped that idea until she could defend herself from large groups of monsters.

A.R described looters as more dangerous, in fact it was the only thing the book has in terms of danger in a ruined society but that was mainly because the author didn't predict that someone would be reading his book during an apocalypse full of monsters.

Regardless, even the book knows just how rabid humans can truly get when enabled. Apocalypse or not.

Sloane let out a frustrated sigh.

Was she a piece of shit for wishing everyone who hurt her to die horribly in the hands of monsters?

She scoffed.

Sloane focused back on the book, there were multiple recipes on how to make a crossbow, most of them had three main parts; a body, the bow itself, and the primer.

This was basic stuff according to the book, she just needed an elastic string for the bow or if not, a garter that could be tightly wound without snapping.

The body could just be a piece of wood. It was the primer that was hard to make, as it needed to be properly crafted. It was also complicated.

Mostly because the primer had two different mechanisms; a lock and a trigger.

One kept the bow in place when primed and the other releases it when pulled, shooting the arrow forwards.

Making it didn't risk breaking her materials so she could try over and over again until she got it right but before that, she needed to make the "bow" part of the crossbow.

First, the string.

The book had a guide on how to tell how much power a bow string has based off of a simple test.

First, she had multiple pieces of paper held up by a clothespin.

Second, she would make a temporary sling using the garter or string she wanted to test and place it in front of the paper.

She would then pull and release it, striking the paper.

The power of the crossbow depends on the layer of paper- the maximum for the contraption that held it is five, - that has been torn apart by the sling when it's released.

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The bare minimum needed to be torn was three pieces, which indicates the string has enough force to use sharpened sticks for arrows while five could fire makeshift crossbow bolts.

Actual crossbow bolts were apparently heavy, and the best of them could pierce through plated armor. Hence why it required a large amount of force to be shot.

Sloane didn't know when she'd be able to find something like that, but according to A.R, she didn't need anything close to heavy crossbows to defend herself, just a decent weapon to threaten other people with.

Again, she was dealing with monsters, not people.

But at the same time; maybe the book had its merits. The monsters in her home died from bullets and a box cutter so they were obviously not supernaturally durable.

Sloane got out of her head and went back to testing the strength of the garter she picked and it managed to break 2 layers of paper. It was usable, but it could be better.

Sloane ran upstairs and opened her drawer to grab the elastic bands she used to constrict her hand. She'd sew it into the garter and further strengthen its elasticity.

Before she left, Sloane checked what was going on outside her window, see how the neighborhood was doing and all that.

This was a decision she immediately regretted.

She pushed herself off the window and down to the floor, she groaned from the pain when her back impacted against the hardwood but moved despite it and hid.

Sloane held her mouth as she quivered under her bed.

She needed to reinforce the entrances of the house.

Not that wooden planks would be able to save her from a 5 story tall skeleton that destroyed houses just by simply stepping on them but according to Anarchial Recipe, every bit of protection counts.

When she found the courage to get up, Sloane immediately did so. She wasted no time afterwards and quickly started working.

Sloane hammered boards into walls and covered the windows even when she felt the pressure of a headache building up inside her skull.

She sawed, cut, and broke apart furniture just to get enough wood to cover up the exposed windows, she reinforced doors and framed the ones she didn't use shut, all in the name of safety.

When everything was over, Sloane limped to the table full of tools she worked on earlier this morning and sat down. She had already left the elastic bands here sometime back, now all she needed to do was stitch them into the garter and this thing would be done.

Sloane looked at a boarded window for a brief moment before turning away just as quickly, with one hand holding the elastic bands, she lifted the garter and promptly fainted from exhaustion.

Sloane found herself floating in front of the seven stars again, the red dots in the distance that once made her distrustful now gave her a false sense of hope.

She thought that somehow, by harnessing the benefits they can give her, she would be able to fight back against the monsters. It was delusional but not hopeless.

It gave her the courage to step forward in spite of what she's witnessed.

Sloane focused back on the stars. No time for sentiments.

She already had an idea for what kind of benefit she'll get this time around and she quickly got to obtaining them.

The first thing she sought was Mental Works, the benefit would do a lot for her in the upcoming days.

She already had a lot of books that guided her how to DIY stuff and mental works could further help with that.

Sloane went to the star and began feeding it the mass inside her being, pain engulfed her existence but Sloane gritted her teeth and continued feeding the pit in spite of it.

She already knew that no harm would come to her despite the pain, and that it was superficial at best. Nothing bad would happen- nothing bad would happen-

Sloane exhaled-

She couldn't breathe- she raised a hand to grip her throat and found out that she couldn't- the pain was gone so- wait- what-

... Why was she still in front of the star?

Sloane didn't get it, the last time she fed one she immediately woke up after finishing.

What was going on? She tried to feed it again and the mass inside of her shifted. And that was when it clicked.

She killed two monsters instead of one before going back here didn't she? Was that where the mass came from? So they are what? Some kind of EXP?

Sloane looked back at the star, the pit was only filled with lines on the outer edges, she could go and try to feed it again, upgrade it, but that didn't seem like something she should be doing.

It didn't feel right...

Sloane decided that instead of upgrading, she should get another benefit instead. She went back to staring at the seven stars and considered her options, everything besides Aura and Mana Channels had drawbacks or effects she didn't want.

And between those two options, she wanted to pick Mana Channel. The drawback for getting aura made her senses more dull, which she didn't want, she was already deaf, why would she make it worse?

Sloane flew to the star with the corresponding benefit and was greeted by the familiar mark of a head which had opened its third eye.

She hoped that this didn't make her blind... Well, it's not like the drawback mentioned anything like that so it should be safe.

Sloane stopped tip toeing and fed the pit the remaining mass inside her body, she began screaming from the pain, this time most of it was allocated to her head, centralized within her skull.

Sloane felt herself wanting to collapse but the pit didn't give her that much reprieve.

She was only able to rest when the process finished.

Sloane woke up with a jolt.

She pushed herself away from the table and began heaving. Her body was soaked to the bone in sweat and her lungs wanted as much air as her heaving mouth could provide.

But her ragged breathing and stressed out state was only the start and a headache began to gnaw away at her head.

Sloane reached for her temples and screamed.

When the pain subsided, she looked around, her sudden awareness warning her that something outside might have heard her screech.

... Nothing did.

Sloane let herself relax and laid down on the floor, she stayed like this for the next few minutes and when she felt that she could finally move, she got up, went to her room, drank some water, and fell asleep.

She didn't go to the stars this time around.