Ectoplasm was a kind of spiritual essence or fluid, according to human dictionaries. 

As for what the Archive considered it to be, I wasn't sure. Still, everything displayed by the Archive was in English terms that I could understand. It was unlikely that the Archive's Ectoplasm was much different from what we thought it to be, considering it used that specific term. 

In that case, could I strengthen my spirit by using Ectoplasm? It was counted by units and acted as some sort of currency, so it could definitely be used for either getting something or increasing something. 

I rested in the locker room. Elijah did a count, and after the recent deaths, there were 93 athletes present. Along with the 7 coaches, there were a clean 100 of us. 

Since it was the end of the day, I had decided to munch on some snacks and do some tests. 

I haven't gotten to really sit down and contemplate my situation yet. We had constantly been moving, so now was the first time I had gathered myself and checked the changes in my body. 

Everyone had changed in some way, or it would be more accurate to say that everyone had been strengthened. I went to the weight room and did a few tests, and the result was a bit shocking. 

I had previously been able to deadlift a maximum of 485 pounds a single time. But now? I was able to deadlift 615 pounds. 

My bench press likewise increased from 255 to 365. 

I did lifts for nearly every muscle, and the result was a drastic increase in strength across the board. I also took a look at myself in the mirror, and despite having lost a few pounds, I had actually gained muscle mass. I had a bit more size, and was more cut due to lesser fat levels. 

The sudden changes were obviously supernatural. I had worked out for years and had been rather close to my peak. Getting stronger would take a lot of time and dedication, my strength growing much slower than years prior. 

But to have a large percent increase in strength over the course of three days? That wasn't normal by any stretch of the word. I knew just how difficult it was to get stronger. This was physically impossible. 

And for those who had been even stronger than me, it was even more exaggerated. Elijah did a test too, and he went from bench pressing 355 pounds to 505 pounds. 

It was ridiculous! Even Kevin discovered that he was faster than before after going for a sprint. 

I knew that we had gotten stronger, and I had subconsciously wondered why everything seemed so much easier, like easily knocking over zombies that were full grown adults. This was why. 

It all came down to my stats and this new Power. 

After doing a tiny bit of math and seeing the difference in Energy and Health for my skeleton before and after his little upgrade, I figured out that:

1 Power = 3 Energy

1 Vitality = 5 health.

It was rather straightforward, as were the functions of the other stats. Strength increased the strength of my muscles, Agility increased my reaction and movement speed, and Intelligence... well, I wasn't exactly sure about that one. I hoped it would make me smarter though. 

With all that, I evaluated myself and my capabilities. Considering most zombies had been regular adults, and even before the apocalypse I had been much stronger than the average adult, I was definitely in a good position. Killing zombies was easy, and if not for the infection, killing bare handed wouldn't be difficult. My only problem was my skill with weapons and confidence. 

But again, this brought me back to the same problem. 

"How the hell do I get better?"

I scratched my head in thought. This Archive wanted us to evolve, and it helped us in a game-like fashion. 

By that logic, the rewards from killing should be able to be used to increase our strength, or our stats. 

Did that mean Ectoplasm could be used to increase my stats?

Getting to that point, I pondered for a second before opening my mouth. 

"Uhh, use one Ectoplasm to increase Strength."

---

{Would you like to distribute [Ectoplasm] into [Strength]?}

{It costs (x1) [Ectoplasm] to increase [Strength] by 1.}

---

"Oh! This is it!"

I suddenly felt a surge of glee seeing those alerts. 

Stats could be increased using Ectoplasm!

My mind whirled with thoughts. 

I had 33 Ectoplasm after a couple days of killing zombies. Did that mean I could increase my stats by 33 points?

My Strength stat was 15. If I doubled it to 30, would I be doubling my strength? Could I become one of the strongest men on the planet so easily?

And my agility was 18. Could I become the fastest? 

Could I become the smartest?

I was hopeful yet skeptical. I found it hard to believe that I could so easily reach the limits of humanity simply by killing a few zombies and distributing points like a game. But here I was, about to do exactly that. 

Either way, I wasn't going to pass on this opportunity. Question was, how would I distribute my points?

After a bit of thinking, I found that my strength was more than satisfactory. That would be secondary. 

On the other hand, better agility would help me greatly. It would help my reaction speeds and movement speed, which is what I needed to better fight zombies. I was always anxious when fighting them, and being faster would calm me down knowing I could react quickly. 

With that, I decided to distribute some points. 

While thinking of how many points I wanted to put in, I spoke. "Distribute Ectoplasm into Agility."

---

{(x6) [Ectoplasm] distributed into Agility.}

{Agility has increased from 18 to 22.}

---

"Huh?"

Seeing the increase, I was confused. I put in 6 points. Why did it only go up by four?

I hesitated before speaking again. "Distribute 1 Ectoplasm into Agility."

---

{(x2) [Ectoplasm] are required to increase Agility by 1.}

---

"Two? But I thought..."

I scratched my head in thought. Did Agility take more points to increase?

"Distribute 1 Ectoplasm into Strength."

---

{(x1) [Ectoplasm] distributed into Strength.}

{Strength had increased from 15 to 16.}

---

"So it only takes one for Strength. Unless..."

I thought about the increase in Agility. 

"It only took two points to go from 18 to 20. Then four points to go to 22. That means it gets more expensive. So when the stat reached 20, it costs two points. Does that mean it'll cost three points when it reaches 30? Ouch."

Although I wasn't completely certain, for now I was assuming that it got more expensive the higher the stats. In that case, I couldn't just blow up my stats as I thought. I would have to be somewhat sparing. 

Still, now I knew I could increase my stats. 

"Oh, what about my Power stat?"

Suddenly, I remembered that increasing my Energy level could only be a good thing, perhaps more important than strength or agility. 

"Distribute 10 Ectoplasm into Power."

....

Nothing happened after waiting a few seconds. I immediately knew it didn't work. 

So Power couldn't be increased by Ectoplasm, I guessed. 

"That's... not good."

I frowned. Increasing my Energy would be crucial, but I didn't know how if not for distributing points into it. 

I also didn't have anything else at my disposal to try. The only currency I had was Ectoplasm. So for now, my Power and Energy were stuck where they were. 

But it wasn't like I had to stop at increasing my stats. 

My skeleton still needed to be upgraded. 

"Upgrade Skeleton Sentry to Stage 2."

---

{Upgrading [Skeleton Sentry] to Stage 2 requires [Ectoplasm] (x20)}

{Confirm upgrade?}

---

I smiled, glad I had enough Ectoplasm to carry it out. 

"Yes."

---

{Upgrade confirmed.}

{[Skeleton Sentry] is now Stage 2.}

[Skeleton Sentry]

Ability: A minion of bone who will faithfully carry out any of your basic orders. This minion sustains itself with the bones of its enemies. It can be summoned and unsummoned at any time. Should the Skeleton be destroyed, 7 days are required to reform it.

[Inherent Skills]

Remarks: Doubles as a durable xylophone (applicable instrument skill required).

---

"Oh. Very nice."

I nodded pleasantly. While the stat increases weren't amazing, I had gotten an idea about what increasing its Stage did. 

The Skeleton's Power had been halted at 19, and upon advancing a Stage, had increased to 20. Again, it was only my guess, but I was sure that the Stage determined maximum Power capacity. Increasing it would allow you to gain more power. My Skeleton should now be able to grow through absorbing bones and get up to 29 Power. 

I was Stage 3 myself and had 32 Power. While I wasn't sure how I got to that stage or get that Power in the first place, the logic matched. 

"Hm, learn something new every day. Oh, I should tell Elijah."

Happy with my new discovery, I decided to go share it. By this time, Elijah had stopped the day's zombie combat training and brought everyone back in. Everyone had also moved to another locker room that didn't have a pile of corpses outside of it. 

After sharing my discoveries with him, he was elated. He hurriedly distributed his Ectoplasm, boosting his Strength to a whopping 26 points. 

The changes in his body were immediate, and a bit obvious. His muscles bulged a bit more, and I could practically feel the power radiate from his body. He looked like a miniature hulk. 

And when he went to go deadlift some weight...

"Oh yea!!! 995 pounds baby!!!"

I heard a testosterone-fueled roar just after the heavy slam of metal weight. 

Myself and half the guys on the track team ran to the weight room, only to see Elijah deadlifting over 20 plates. 

The bar bent under the vast weight. Thankfully our college had olympic bars, otherwise they might snap. 

Still, when he slammed the weight down again, we felt a tremor in the ground. The bar was now permanently warped, unable to retain its form under his strength. The plates even fell off. 

"So that's what 26 Strength gets you..."

For a moment, I was incredibly tempted to dump the rest of my 6 Ectoplasm into Strength. It would only get me to 21 Strength, but in front of being able to move such weight... 

I shook my head, purging these fantastical thoughts. I wanted to save the Ectoplasm just in case and didn't need to satisfy my ego. That could come later. 

Well, at least I had enough motivation to kill zombies. 

With that little event, the day finally ended. Night fell, and everyone retreated to the locker room. 

After one last meeting with the Coach, everyone tried to get some sleep. This was difficult for them since we'd be leaving the stadium tomorrow morning, but exhaustion still triumphed over anxiety. With all the training and zombie killing, everyone was spent. 

Like that, the next day in this apocalypse dawned. I fell asleep wondering how my family and friends were doing. Wondering if they were still alive despite the existence of the two mutated zombies I hunted...

.........

---Elijah POV---

We set an alarm to wake everyone up when the sun rose around 6am. Thankfully, everyone woke up rather easily. 

As I opened my eyes and crawled out of my makeshift bed that used my backpack as a pillow, I recalled the prior day. 

I had brought people out to train with their weapons, killing some zombies in the process. And now, I was incredibly thankful that the team had gone along with things. 

They were infinitely more prepared for today than before. Killing even a single zombie was extremely valuable experience. I remember when I killed my first zombie in the parking lot. 

The shock, the disgust, the fear. It was all so overwhelming, but for the sake of my image, I had shoved all those feelings down. I had been so close to vomiting right in front of Jack, Kait, and Coach Todd, but I didn't. I had mustered more willpower and adrenaline than ever before, barely being able to keep myself upright and strong. 

And the kills that came afterward were much easier.

The second time, there wasn't any shock. 

The tenth time, there wasn't any disgust. 

And after I received that ability from Jack, there wasn't any fear. 

Now, I could comfortably kill zombies with my machete. And through my experience I knew that if we were going to fight our way to the grocery store, our group needed to be able to kill zombies. 

I had debated heavily over how we were going to carry out this mission, and in the end, I felt it was better to keep safe. We were going to go in groups of around 25, each group being led by myself, Jack, Kait, and Coach Todd. 

That way, we could keep groups relatively small while making sure they were led by people with experience. We were the most experienced and held authority over anything involving navigating through the apocalypse. I was glad that I had stepped forward to lead the scout group in the first place.

While it was risky, doing what I did, I was now awakened and equipped to grow in this apocalypse. Truly, if Jack hadn't given me an ability, I don't know what I'd do. 

Though, I had a hard time understanding it. Why would someone give away something so valuable? I understand he had that skeleton minion. Honestly, that ability was better than mine. But with my Weapon Imbuement ability, I could harvest rewards from all enemies, so long as I was sparing with my Energy. 

I'd want both, not just one. And it wasn't like he could ask anything for it. It was the apocalypse now. What did anyone have to give? But he still gave it away, allowing me to step onto the path to power. 

And there was also his odd way of taking charge. When he had stepped up with his plan at the store, I had seen how excited he was. Although briefly, he even spoke of taking back the city, taking back the country. Getting power back online, water plants functioning again, purging the zombies. It was all incredibly ambitious, and he held himself back so as to not get ahead of himself. 

But then when it came to speaking with the coaches, he left things to me. He let me brief everyone, shrinking back as if with stage fright. It contrasted greatly with the image of him in the store. 

Still, I was more than happy to take the spotlight. Maybe I wanted to prove my value, but I found myself stepping forward a lot. I talked to the coaches on even grounds, spoke to my fellow teammates who now had to follow my directions. 

The feeling of being someone who others would listen to was almost intoxicating. I was glad I stepped up, glad I took the risk. Now, I was at the forefront, knew things that others didn't, attained powers that others didn't have. 

And now, I was leading my teammates through hostile territory. We'd be carving our way to that grocery store. I thought it was exciting. 

And so, the time came to leave. 

Everyone packed their items, slinging bags across their backs and hoisting their weapons. They were all anxious, but I knew that would fade when we started moving. Anticipation and overthinking made things out to be much worse than they were. 

After gathering everything, everyone moved to the parking structure. The sun was still rising, and it was bright and early. Despite that, everyone was sharp and on edge, though perhaps a bit more than was healthy. 

I was going first, taking a group of 25 people. Coach Todd would be behind me with his group, Kait would be behind him, and Jack would be last. We'd have our most powerful at the front and back, and each group would jump from building to building sequentially, one after the other. 

And so, we stepped forward.