36 hours after the first impact, the blue planet viewed from space was no longer blue.
Meteorite strikes had come to a halt. The group of people gathered in the basement of what seemed to once be a large building had finally calmed down a little.
Silas had slept for a few hours, then looked around and met new people for the rest of the time. His mana force had replenished and was ready to use spells, though he decided not to recklessly use any.
There were no wielders among the group of people who had survived inside the basement. They were truly lucky, unlike Silas who had come into the radius of massive shockwaves multiple times. Had he not timed Regeneration perfectly, the shockwaves could have proved fatal.
This basement is going to collapse. Silas could tell. As a manalogy enthusiast, he had learned a lot about things unrelated to manalogy because of his love for manalogy. He had once tested how much force would be required to cause an underground tunnel to collapse.
After that, he replicated the same explosive force using spells with the help of his sister. As for why he was experimenting with explosives, it was simple, a scientist needs no reason other than curiosity.
Before Silas could speak out and tell the group about his intuition, someone among the crowd spoke up.
"We don't have enough food. We have to find a way to gather sufficient rations."
"It seems the meteorite strikes have stopped, we can go out to look for help," another person suggested.
"Help? Who's gonna help? Do you seriously think anyone is alive out there? If they are, they must be a god... or perhaps the devil," an old man said, disagreeing with the suggestion.
"We can't sit around and do nothing. We have to go out and look for anything, or we will all die here. Do you want to die without trying?"
"How about this, we send a few people out. They can survey the surrounding area and return at once. Then another group follows and explores a little further. This way we will expand our reach slowly and steadily."
Everyone accepted the suggestion. It was the best possible thing to do.
"So who is going out first? Anyone who wants to volunteer?"
"May I suggest something?" The same man who had suggested the previous idea raised his hand. He had a long face with a prominent nose.
"How about we send out the elderly and children first? This way they only have to explore the relatively closer surroundings and can run back in case of any danger.
"Then we'll send the next group consisting of women. They can explore a little farther, and they are able to do so more efficiently compared to the elderly.
"At last, we will send out the men. They will be tasked with exploring even further. Our only hope is to map out our surroundings in these three waves. If we can, then we'll plan what comes next. If we can't, then we all die."
The room was silent for a moment before the old man who had previously been against going out spoke again.
"What's this? You are sending us first? You are trying to use us as pawns, sacrificing us first. This is ridiculous, don't accept these conditions."
"So what you're saying is you don't want to participate in exploration and instead leech off of others' findings? If you don't want to go first, it's alright, you can join the second or the third team. But can you manage exploring a larger area?"
The old man was silent. Even though he was against going first, there was enough logic behind it. If he were to go out second or third and they did encounter danger, he most likely would not be able to evade.
In such situations, as all humans would do, the old man accepted what felt like the easier way out. He agreed to go out first.
There were three elderly: two old men and an old lady, and two children, a little boy who was around twelve, and of course Silas. Even though Silas had turned eighteen, he still happened to be a child among the group of adults.
After hearing the man's explanation, all the elderly agreed to the conditions and groups were formed. The twelve-year-old boy did not have a choice either—when all the adults were eager to send him out first, what could he do?
He felt extremely sad thinking about his parents but soon realized that they might not be alive anymore.
After four out of the five members had complied, all eyes turned to Silas. The same man who had been proposing the ideas walked over to persuade Silas to accept going out first.
As soon as the man approached, Silas felt a sting in his head, as if he could sense danger. But the sensation was very different from the one caused by his manacule perception.
What's this? This is not my own sense... It feels like I have six senses instead of five. My manacule perception feels more internal, directly in my mind and consciousness, but this is more external. I can feel it in my entire body.
It was not long before Silas realized what exactly was happening. What he was feeling was an actual sixth sense. When he had inhabited this body, not only had he inherited the septa-wielder characteristic, he had also inherited something unique that this body possessed.
Sixth sense, a sense of danger. The original Silas, being a psychology freak, had trained his mind relentlessly to reach a state where he could sense danger. Though this sense was only triggered when he encountered an intelligent danger.
In other words, Silas was a psychology freak who had trained his brain to recognize different types of people so well that his body remembered which types to avoid. He had developed a muscle memory of danger—the true sixth sense.
As soon as Silas realized what was going on, he smirked a little.
"Fine, I accept your conditions. But in order to even breathe outside, we need masks. What are you going to do about that? And about exploring the surroundings, how far are we talking?" Silas questioned.
"We don't have masks, but we can make something that can last for a few hours using clothes. As for the area, though it would be nice to explore more than five hundred meters in all directions, if you encounter any difficulties return at once. Start exploring towards the west—that would be to the left when you exit."
Silas thought for a moment and then complied. He was ready to head out with the first group, which comprised five people.
After making makeshift masks using cloth pieces by stacking and layering them alternately, the group was finally ready.
Silas was at the front, the little boy stood clinging to his trousers, and behind them were the three elderly. Without wasting any more time, Silas left the basement, going up the flight of stairs and finally arriving at the metal trap door.
Silas and the two old men pushed open the trap door and were immediately met with hot, intoxicating gas. Smoke made it very difficult to see clearly. After struggling for a good minute, they were finally up. They closed the trap door and headed west, moving slowly as a group.
Although he had trouble understanding people and emotions, Silas wasn't completely oblivious to the sly and cunning nature of humans. If he were given even a slight clue, he could brute-force his thought process to run simulations of all possible scenarios.
This was an extraordinary way of doing things. For someone like Silas, who lacked the common sense to grasp the very basics of human behavior, this was the only way. In such a case, he felt the sixth sense was a godsend. Not only did he have a wielder level above all, he also had a body that could understand people for him, eliminating his biggest weakness.
That man was smart. For once, even I believed he was thinking about everyone and that his proposed idea was good. How naive of me.
Among the 15 people present, there were 5 men and women, 3 elderly, and 2 children. This made it easy to assign groups, but it also led others to fall for tunnel vision. This was not the best possible arrangement at all.
In fact, that man definitely knew this. The reason he proposed the idea wasn't because he wanted to explore the surroundings, instead it was because he wanted to eliminate some people from the group.
There wasn't enough food for 15, but what if you got rid of a third of the group? Suddenly your chances of survival have increased a little more.
He had excellent logic, or should I say he used the fear and anxiety of the people to guide them into believing what he wanted them to believe.
If I were the real Silas, I would call such a person; someone who comes up front in times of danger to guide everyone and make decisions—a king. But that person was more like a false king. People who only care about themselves and will use everything and everyone to ensure their survival.
He did not care about anyone. He brilliantly placed himself in the last wave of the exploration team—the exploration that would never happen.
Getting rid of the elderly and children because they could not be useful in such conditions and would only drag them down. That man had thought of everything. He was someone like Silas indeed. Or should I say Caleric, because he is now Caleric, right?
He might be smart like Caleric, but I must say he is a little worse.
As they were walking ahead, a loud thud was heard from behind. The crashing sound scared everyone in the team except for Silas, who had expected it.
"What was that?" The little boy clutched tightly at Silas's trousers.
"The meteorite impacts have weakened the ground. It can even collapse suddenly. Nothing to be scared about." His face carried a slight smile which was obstructed by the make-shift cloth mask as he looked at the boy.