Universal Power System

The rain had made the ground muddy, making their feet sink into the ground a bit, so they had put extra effort into every step.

Despite that, the group continued to track forward at a reasonable pace. They continued their journey, sticking close to the flowing stream and keeping watch over each other's backs, especially Mako's who couldn't fight since he was carrying Bill on his back. If he made sudden movements, it might cause Bill's stitches to tear open so he tried to minimize that as much as possible.

Luckily, the group hadn't run into any beasts on their journey thus far and things were going rather smoothly.

The intensity of the rain was steadily increasing, and it seemed likely that they would soon be caught in a genuine thunderstorm if the trend persisted.

Erin had been doing a good job, protecting everyone from the rain, but there was a limit to her power. She couldn't constantly use her ability without any drawbacks. Just like any other ability, constant use would strain the body. Attributes such as Fortitude and Stamina are helpful in this situation as they reduce the amount of strain on the body and increase the amount of time before the body begins to strain itself.

Erin's arms were completely sore from constantly using them to direct the water away from them and maintain the bubble.

After arriving at a location with a pair of sizable trees that bore a striking resemblance to their initial campsite, the group paused briefly after making sure that the area was secure. However, as they had no intention of remaining there for too long, Leon retrieved only one of the tarps from their backpack and fastened it between two trees to create a makeshift resting spot.

Seated inside the shelter, the group leaned against the tree and huddled together. Leon gave Erin a water bottle to quench her thirst, but Iris suggested a more practical solution.

"We should try and conserve our limited water supply for situations when we don't have access to water. For now, let's use this rainfall to our advantage." She said.

Using her own water ability, Iris channeled a portion of the rainwater directly into Erin's mouth. The sensation was revitalizing, as the chilly droplets provided an instant cooling effect.

Mako used Analyze to observe Erin's condition, and he noted that she still had a decent amount of energy and would be prepared to continue once she had rested and recovered from her fatigue.

Meanwhile, Mako also intended to take a much-needed break himself, but Mako's attention was suddenly drawn to a faint beeping sound.

Iris was attempting to make conversation with Leon, but it was proving to be difficult as Leon gave short and to-the-point answers, making it hard for her to get the conversation going. Meanwhile, Erin had opted to rest, her eyes shut, leaving only Mako to attend to the peculiar beeping noise.

Mako slowly got up from his spot and signaled the other two to be quiet by putting his finger on his lips. Iris and Leon didn't understand what was going on but they understood Mako wouldn't joke around and so they quickly shut up and watched as Mako walked out into the rain.

He really didn't know where that beeping noise was coming from, but he remained cautious and equipped his combat knife just to make sure he would be ready to strike if it was coming from something that might potentially harm them.

Iris and Leon gazed intently at Mako, intrigued by his actions and curious as to what had captured his attention. The abrupt silence even woke Erin up, prompting Iris to quickly quieten her by placing a hand over her mouth.

All three of them watched with anticipation as Mako slowly approached the tree that seemed to be the source of the beeping sound. It was only a couple of feet away from where they had set up their temporary shelter.

Mako prepared himself for action, readying his blade and prepared strike at a moment's notice. Advancing towards the tree, he swiftly darted to the right, hoping to catch whatever was emitting the beeping sound off guard. However, to Mako's confusion, he found nothing behind the tree. Although he could still hear the beeping noise, there was no apparent source for it to be found.

With nothing there, Mako sheathed his blade and instead relied on his sense of hearing and perception to locate the origin of the sound. Tracking the intensity of the beeping noise, Mako deduced that it was emanating from above. Despite the rain constantly impeding his vision, Mako scanned the trees overhead in an effort to identify the source of the sound.

To his absolute surprise, Mako found something that he was least expecting attached a bit high up on the very same tree. A huge smile appeared on his face as he quickly called Leon and Iris to come out and look at what he had found. They were intrigued after seeing Mako's sudden mood change and quickly came out to see what he had found.

Iris formed the bubble so that they won't get wet and quickly reached Mako. Mako was soaking wet at this point, but he didn't care as he just pointed upwards toward the tree. Leon and Iris followed and looked in the same direction and that's when they saw it as well.

After spending one-third of their total time on this island, they had finally found an information tablet!

The information tablet was high up from the ground and blended into the surroundings so it was quite hard to spot. Even though it was in an obvious location just like Brigadier Jones had said, he had failed to mention that it wouldn't be at the normal height level.

Mako was slightly ticked off about learning this fact, because who knew how many tablets he had walked past without even knowing that they were there. Nevertheless, Mako asked Leon to check and see if the tablet was removable or not.

Leon raised an earth pillar and quickly reached the tablet. The tablet was on standby mode and had one of its corners blinking red. There was a seam around the screen and the casing of the tablet which indicated that might be removable; however, when Leon attempted to do so, the tablet activated and a prompt appeared before Leon.

[Warning!]

[The tablet can only be removed once a cadet has logged in!]

[Cadet Login]

[Enter name: ]

[Verify Fingerprint: Pending]

"It's asking me to sign in if I want to remove it from the case!" Leon shouted relaying the information back to Mako.

"What information is it asking?" Mako asked.

"Just my name and fingerprint!" Leon replied.

"Okay... Go ahead and log in and see if you remove the tablet then." Mako instructed.

[Cadet Login]

[Enter name: Leon Czolgosz]

[Verify Fingerprint: Pending... Pending... Pending...]

[Fingerprint Verified!]

[Welcome, Leon Czolgosz]

Leon entered his name and placed his thumb on the case and soon the case lit up green. The tablet released itself from the case and a new prompt appeared on the screen.

[Leon Czolgosz has turned on information tablet 35-C, which has a full battery life of 2 hours. He needs to return the tablet to its designated charging case before the battery runs out, as each charging case is specifically designed to charge only one particular tablet.]

[Warning: Failure to return the tablet to its charging case within the allotted time will result in a heavy deduction of points.]

Leon lowered the pillar to the ground and entered Iris's bubble once again. He gave the tablet to Mako and explained to him the condition that came with removing the tablet from the case. Mako acknowledged the warning and thought it was quite clever; how the military had set up these tablets.

The process was akin to borrowing a book from a library, where one would use their library card, which was linked to their information and registered in the library's system. Once borrowed, the book could be taken home for reading, but it had to be returned within the specified timeframe, or else the librarian would impose a charge on the borrower's library card.

The tablets were treated like books, with the library serving as the charging case and the military as the librarian. Just as a late book return would result in a fine, failing to return the tablet to its designated case in time would lead to a deduction of points as a penalty.

The trio eagerly made their way back to the tarp, where Erin awaited, curious about their discovery. She was thrilled to learn that they had found an information tablet that would greatly aid them on their journey.

Mako sat down in the center of their little space and excitedly turned on the tablet's screen. The rest huddled around him as they all were excited to see all that the illusive information tablet had to offer.