Al woke up, but his mind felt more tired than when he fell asleep. He was,startled for a moment from waking up in an unknown, torn down house, but then the memories rushed back into his head. 'Oh right, almost everyone I knew in this life is dead now. Fuck this shit.' Al plopped back down onto the bed. For a moment he considered piercing himself through the heart, maybe he'd reincarnate somewhere else if he died.

Then his eyes landed on Yuly, who was peacefully sleeping in the bed. Her clothes were torn, dirty and bloodied, and her eyes were puffy from crying, which made her the living image of a frail girl, someone that belongs in a palace, a place far from the cruelty of the world. Yet she was here. Al couldn't imagine what would happen to her if she was left alone.

'Fuck, I gotta snap out of it,' Al thought as he painfully lowered himself onto the ground. His mind was a mess, self-deprecating and pessimistic thought creating a depressive mood in his mind. Al decided to distract himself from it by doing some work. Looking around, he saw Koro snoring on a nearby couch, with Misty on top of him. Al took some meat out from his backpack and lit up the fireplace with a spark of mana. He then started grilling the meat. It would be hard to chew, but it would have to do for breakfast.

Once it was properly cooked, Al took a crude knife from the kitchen, sliced the meat up and divided it in three plates. He put the biggest one next to Koro, then went to wake Yuly up.

He sat on the bed and caressed Yuly's cheek, and he whispered into her ear "Time to wake up, princess" She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Al, then got up and hugged him as she sobbed.

"It's alright now, Yuly. We're gonna be alright," he told her as he caressed her back.

She eventually calmed down, and wiped the last tears off the corners of her eyes. He Dave her the plate of meat. "Come on, you have to eat up."

She slowly nodded and started chewing the meat.

Al then woke up Koro, and started eating his own breakfast. Yuly used her healing on the three of them, curing their muscle aches and small injuries, along with the one on Koro's arm. Then they started to search the village for useful things for their travels, but to their dismay almost two thirds of the houses had been burnt for some reason. 'Probably someone who tried to kill the beasts with fire, and it got out of hand.'

In the end, they found various knifes and cooking utensils, swords that were worse than Koro's, some furs and clothes, (though almost all of them had been damaged), several water canteens, some elemental gems and grand amounts of food.

Yuly had apparently learn how to knit from the adults, so she fixed the eight or so holes that had been poked in their backpacks. They had found some backpacks too, but none as good as the two they had, so they only took a third, smaller one, for Yuly to wear.

They packed one bag exclusively with the Hareth Collapser fur they had, since it was light and extremely good for bedding and shelter, since water and dirt just slid off it. The other big backpack was filled with tools and utensils, some meat, some boar jerky, along with salt and spices.

The meat would rot in just a few days, but if they properly dried or salted it, it should last longer. They didn't get many vegetables, since many edible berries could be found in the forest, unlike the animals that had turned black and were now probably inedible. Al had read a manual on local flora and his memory and senses were pretty good by now, so he was confident in finding them.

What surprised Al was that Koro hadn't exploded in rage or gotten depressed from losing his home, and instead carried a fiery determination in his eyes. When Al asked him about it, he replied "Because I have to get stronger. I have to be strong enough to crush the fucking bastard that turned the beasts into black demons, make him feel the pain that he has caused!"

Al was surprised at how he had managed to turn this desolate situation into a motivation, but he wholeheartedly respected him for it.

He was actually coping with this situation better than Al himself, and he'd been through some tough shit before.

Yuly, however, wasn't doing so good. She hadn't spoked a single word since she woke up, and when I asked her "What's wrong?" she just broke down crying. Al then took her in his arms to calm her down, and told her "Hey, we're here for you, okay? We have to stay strong right now, and one day we'll get revenge"

As a reply, she just hugged him tighter.

Al was actually saying this both to Yuly and to himself, since he wasn't in a good state of mind. Theyy spent the full day collecting resources, and spent a second night in the broken down village. Unfortunately there were no survivors, or they had fled into the forest. Al found a couple of corpses under collapsed walls or shelves, and he made sure to hide them out of Yuly's sight.

They moved out early morning the next day, following a faint trail that was used by the merchants that visited the village every six months or so. Many only stayed for a couple of days so Al never got to see them, but after his first encounter with one, he met another two which he bought some manuals and other such things from.

Fortunately the trail ran along a stream, most likely the same one that ran along the orphanage.

As they treaded the forest they didn't find as many beasts as when they were near the orphanage, and the mana levels were much lower. Any beasts they found were black though, so they wouldn't be able to get new meat anytime soon.

The first night out in the wild was spent inside a shoddily erected Hareth Collapser tent, since Al's tentmaking skills were a bit rusted. They took turns standing guard, starting with Misty so she wouldn't have to split up her sleep, then Koro, Al and finally Yuly. Koro and Al actually made their shifts slightly longer, since Yuly was the worst for guard duty so they didn't want her to it for too long, plus they wanted her to sleep for as long as possible.

The next morning they picked up some berries to eat alomg with grilled meat, and went on their way. For the second night the guard turns remained unchanged, but when Al finished his and woke Yuly up he couldn't fall asleep for a while due to unpleasant memories resurfacing, and started heaing a faint sobbing noise from the outside.

Al peeked out of the tent and found Yuly crying silently. He hugged her from behind which seemed to startle her, but she quickly relaxed when she realised it was him, and she leaned agaist him, peacefully falling asleep. 'Great, now I've got double guard duty.'

The next morning Al cooked the rest of the meat they had, not counting the dried and salted one. This was because it was on the edge of starting to rot, so even though they were only able to eat about two thirds before they were completely full, he just threw the rest into the stream without a second thought.

They moved out, clutching their bloated bellies and relying on Misty for the beasts, and continued walking.

They passed through an empty village, that seemed to have been attacked by Rank 2s and even some 3s. They hadn't encountered a Rank 3 for a while, so this surprised them quite a bit. Someone was definitely leading these beasts. The control over them clearly wasn't too precise, and whoever lead them didn't seem to have noticed Al's party, but the villages seemed to have been attacked.

There seemed to have been survivors from this village though, as no food or other valuable tools and resources could be found, even though this village was considerably larger than the one close to the orphanage. There were also some basements with tough iron trapdoors, so that would answer the 'how?'.

The group spent a night in the village and went back on the move.

One week after they left the orphanage their food was about to run out, when they found the first non-black beast. It was just a Rank 1 horned rabbit, but they merrily hunted it and skinned it, then ate it for dinner. Koro ate way too much for his own good, so the rabbit alone wasn't enough, but if there was one there should be more.

And their prayers were answered.

The next day their hunt was bountiful, with several Rank 1 beasts. They ate well and salted the rest of the meat, and continued on their journey west. They didn't know where they were going, but they had to find a place to stay.

After another week the amount of animals started dwindling, and they started relying more on wild herbs and berries, along with their salted and spiced meat. When their salt ran out they had switched to some sort of pepper, which Yuly seemed to absolutely detest, but there was no better alternative.

Then the black beasts started appearing again. The ambient mana was getting higher, so maybe they migrated here, or maybe someone led them here.

After another couple of days, they found out that it was the second.

In front of the four lay a city plagued with black beasts, that had clearly already conducted a thorough destruction of every structure. Squirrel Bombers circled like vultures in the sky, along with some black bird beasts that Al had never seen before. The mana in the surroundings on the town was much higher than in the surroundings, probably the reason why it was founded there in the first place.

It was a pity, since many of the group's tools were turning blunt and their armours were starting to break down form wear and tear, and a food refill would always be handy. Unfortunately the beast's didn't seem to want to wander out of the town, so Al, Yuly, Koro and Misty could only begrudgingly avoid getting near the town and keep going along the stream.

The stream was not only their sole source of water, but also where they washed the little clothes they had (two pairs per person) and themselves, and they would probably be long dead by now without it.

By killing some of the stray Rank 2 beasts near the town Al finally reached level 17, but he felt scant satisfaction from it.

'Fucking levels. What's their worth if they don't even make me strong enough to protect what I care about.'