Al was woken up by the movements of his fluffy bed. 'Wait, no... this isn't a bed, it's...'

"...Misty?"

The response he received was short. [Finally awake]

As Al lazily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he discovered that he was indeed laying on Misty, strapped to her back. He more or less understood the situation, and sighed in relief. "You guys managed to find me...thanks."

Apparently Koro was nearby, as he said "Al! You're awake! Thank god. Yuly told me what happened, and if it wasn't for you...anyway, thank you. But if something like that happens once more, just leave me behind and don't do something like that again. I can take it! If something happened to you because of me, I..."

Al interrupted Koro with a chuckle as he thought 'he finally stopped calling me runt.' Then said "Well, something did happen to me. But thanks Koro. I don't even know why I did what I did though, it was just kind of a spur of the moment thing..." he slowly trailed off, as he became more aware of his surroundings.

"Oh, you dried my clothes...? How long did you have to stop because of that?"

This time, it was the crestfallen Yuly who answered by writing in her miniature blackboard. -We were all tired from going downstream for the whole night, so we stopped when we found you. Koro managed to make a fire with the method of rubbing rocks you taught us, and he let me sleep for a while-

'Well, if it wasn't for Koro's monstrous Strength, than method would be pretty much impossible...'

She then quickly erased it all and added -Honestly, it still hasn't really sunk in yet...- Seeing her sad expression, Al beckoned her to come closer and started patting her head.

As he did this, he asked "From what I see it's already evening, meaning I slept for almost the whole day?"

Koro simply nodded, and Al continued "Well, I see we're moving west. That's good. We have to cover as much distance as possible so that the beast horde won't catch up to us..."

Al unstrapped himself from Misty's back and lowered himself down to he floor. He felt slightly uncomfortable all throughout his body, but it was manageable, nothing that would hinder his movements too much.

As they threaded forward through the earthen trail that cut through the plains, Al asked about their inventory. He was concerned about how little food they had, barely able to last them for a couple of days,and summer was still a ways off, meaning most plants hadn't bore fruit yet.

Despite the lack of food though, they were well-stocked with knives and other tools, simple cookware, and cloths (namely Hareth Collapser's) to make tents and cover themselves with.

Al was a bit worried that they weren't on a trading route though, since it diminished their chances of finding a human settlements quickly. They were out on the plains due his group having gone south from the city by following Al downstream, and the dirt trail they now followed reminded Al of hiking trails, something naturally crated by people going through the same place time and time again and killing the grass underneath.

This path was already fading though, and it seemed like it hadn't been used in a while. As night approached, Al saw a horned rabbit enter a hole in the ground, so he stealthily approached it and pushed a not-so-big [Palm of the Storm] inside. He pulled out two slightly blackened corpses, so they decided to set up camp right then and there as they enjoyed their recently caught dinner masterfully cooked by Yuly.

Koro wasn't completely satisfied with the amount of food, so Al gave him some of the more perishable rations they had. They decided to use the same guard shifts as when they were wandering through the forest, which brought some bitter memories to the group.

This meant Misty would go first, so the other three slept in the makeshift tent. Koro fell asleep immediately, but Al noticed that Yuly was covering her face with a blanket, trembling slightly. Al's experience told him she was crying, so he wordlessly hugged her from behind.

It was a bit comical since Yuly was a lot taller than Al, being amost twice his age and all, but it seemed to word as she soon fell to sleep while grasping Al's hand with both of her own.

When his turn to guard came, Al opened his Status to kill some time. He hadn't had much progress other than some skill upgrades and a single level, but he had nothing better to do.

Alberto Peñas

Age: 4 years

Level 19

Class: Prodigy of the Lightning Rapier

Strength

D+

Dexterity

C

Toughness

C-

Will

D-

Intelligence

D-

Charisma

E-

Perception

E

Assignable

0

Skills:

[Mana Molding] (Mid)

[D Grade Core] (High)

[Physical Augmentation] (High)

[Sense Enrichment] (High)

[Palm of the Storm] (Mid)

[Impulse] (Mid)

[Flash] (High)

[Zapper] (High)

[Piercing Throw] (Mid)

As he thought about the skills he should focus on training, Al unconsciously started carving. After a while, a blue screen appeared and gave him a surprising message.

You have acquired the [Carving] skill. It will give insight on how to carve with more proficiency in order to create better works within less time.

'Oh wow, I'd heard that crafting skills took a long time to learn back on Earth, so people who focused on utility tended to use skill tomes. Who would've thought that me fooling around would give me an actual skill.'

The next morning they set off once again, this time carefully looking for rabbit holes. After a while though, the grass started to disappear and was replaced by plowed dirt, with some kind of grain that slightly resembled rice planted on it, but it reached much higher, about 1.5 meters.

Some parts of the plantation had been trampled, but what was left seemed to be ready for harvest and would be enough for a family to eat for a couple of years.

Al said "Pity we have to keep moving, this place seems nice. There must be a farmhouse nearby for the farmers to live, shall we look for it?"

'Some human interaction would be really welcome'

But as they exited the fields that blocked most of their visibility, they saw a burnt-down house and destroyed stables. "Fuck. Whoever is commanding those black beasts sure is thorough, to exterminate even the farmers living in the middle of nowhere."

The remnants of what Al guessed to have been a house were in such a bad state that it made looting impossible, so they moved on to the stables. They were also partly burnt down, but they seemed to have been mostly destroyed by the ram of a big beast, most likely a Tusk Tank.

Affer searching for a while they found mostly dissolved bodies that Al guessed used to be fire imps, a very common Rank 1 creature whose physical strength was incredibly weak, but who were mildly intelligent and worked in packs, wielding powerful magic in comparison to their low Rank.

"Seems like this used to be a core farm. The fields must be used as feed for these imps..."

Core farms were very common in this world. They raised the few Rank 1 beasts that had cores, or sometimes even Rank 2s, and raised them until their cores were fully formed, then killed them and sold those cores for cultivators to use.

"Let's search the stables and try to find every core there is. These will fetch a pretty decent prize if we manage to get to a market."

After a couple of hours of hauling debris about, they had found 17 marble-sized red cores. There were probably more, but they couldn't waste any more time so the party moved out.

Of course, they gathered quite a lot of the rice-like grains, enough to completely fill up their backpacks, so they wouldn't have to worry about carbohydrates for many days.

As night came, the group once again camped and ate a nutritious and delicious dinner that managed to raise their spirits ever so slightly. They all fell asleep quickly, but when Koro woke Al up when it was time to switch guard duty, Al was surprised to find Yuly merrily snoozing away as she snuggled up against him.

He went a bit away from the camp and used this time to train [Piercing Throw], aiming to get it to High proficiency.

The next day, the group set off once again, though after a while there was no path to follow anymore. Soon enough, the amicable hilly plains started to dissapear, replaced by a harsher rocky terrain. At least the three kids had good, barely worn down boots, so their feet didn't suffer too much. Still, there was barely any food around, other than the occasional bird that crossed the skies.

The terrain was also sloped, and although it couldn't quite be called a mountain, they were definitely climbing a large hill. Thankfully, their improved physique made the normally arduous task for normal humans an easy feat for them, and it even gave them a good point of view to scan their surroundings.

Looking back, Al could clearly see the farm they had left about a day ago, and just a bit further back there was that terrifying sea of black. Al had more or less expected this, but it was still terrifying.

"We only have a bit over a day of advantage over the beasts. Come on, we have to pick up the slack."

Thus, the group continued their escape.