While I was collecting my spoils, I was carefully being observed by the others. But as always, I decided to ignore them. Although I only found three mystical potions, the bodyguards had a lot of items and other potions, nothing really impressive like those mythical potions. But those were worth a lot. Their weapons were particularly powerful, and I bet I could sell each one for at least one thousand evolution coins.

“Ethan, you are scaring me, man,” Harry said while putting his right hand on my shoulder.

I sighed and then looked at him for a second, although he had a reason to be worried, he should be thankful that I almost alone get rid of all the troublemakers of the city.

“Do you want to see me screaming, running like a madman or hitting my head against the floor or some walls because I caused the death of hundreds of peoples? Too bad, but I’m not going to do it.”

“Well, it’s not like I want to see that, but…” Harry said frowning.

Rose approached him, and then she shook her head, and because of it, Harry backed off. I was thankful for that; their usual selves were already too annoying to deal with. I would feel a terrible headache if they act like they were worried about my mental health every day. To avoid that, I guess I will have to control my actions a little more.

After I decided that, I noticed a group of survivors approaching. They were the guys who tried to kill me but fled from the battle. I could see fifty of them and all of them, and they had their weapons on their hands. I glared at them for a second, but soon I lost interest.

“Excuse me, are you the friends of this young man?” A man with gray hair and well-built body asked.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” Sandra asked, studying the man.

“Because I want to know your intentions, but honestly, I don’t expect anything good from the friends of that little barbarian.” The old man said.

I didn’t know if he was acting like that because of their numerical advantage or if he was just sincere being because he was tired of being used by those who had more power than him.

“According to him, you guys weren’t controlled, but still attacked him. Five hundred against one.” Sandra said, emitting hostility in her voice. “He killed many, but I don’t think he started the fight. I think you guys were the barbarians, or perhaps did he lie?”

“No, you are right.” The gray-haired man said. “We tried to kill him, not to suffer under the hands of that woman. But that is just an excuse.”

At least he was brave enough to admit his actions; I can respect that. Although even if I respect and ignore his previous actions, I don’t think he would do the same to me, many of his friends probably died because of my actions after all. But, in my opinion, they only reaped what they sow.

“So, what are you going to do with us?” The old man asked.

“Nothing, you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t cause us any problems,” Sandra explained. “We intend to reunite all the survivors in a single place, but we don’t intend to force anyone to join us. It is your choice.”

The old man looked at his companions, and all of them nodded, but after that, they looked at me uneasily.

“If you guys are that afraid of me, I can always look for another place to…”

“No!” Claire said without giving me any room to refuse.” You are going back with us!”

“So noisy.”

“He may be a high-maintenance child, but he is inoffensive,” Sandra said after sighing. “As long as you don’t want to be the king or the god of the city. So, what is your choice?”

“If you are willing to forget this incident, then we also willing to join your group.” The old man said.” But, there are many other survivors left on the hotel, and I can’t speak for them.

“We will have time to talk to them,” Sandra said, looking around. “After we deal with the aftermath of this battle.”

While all the others were reuniting the bodies of the dead to cremate them. I returned to the hotel and searched for the things Ann had on the hotel, and to my surprise, she had a lot more than I had expected. Although many of those were useless to me, like makeup and perfumes. I sold all the unnecessary items, and then I checked the others.

’Fifty-three low-quality MP potions, twenty-eight medium-quality MP potions, and two rings.’

Fire Ring (Rare): It increases the damage of fire attacks by 50%.

Ice Ring (Rare): It increases the damage of ice attacks by 50%.

Such awesome items and she left on her room, why wouldn’t she use those all the time? She could have killed me if she had just one of those rings.

‘She probably didn’t leave the hotel in a long time, and she received orbs and coins thanks to her minions. But at least, she was smart enough to create those to get rid of one of her weakness.’

In any case, those would be very useful. The medium-quality MP potions could recover five times more MP than the low-quality ones. So, it was inefficient to use those for the time being, but it didn’t matter. Eventually, I would be able to use it without losing any benefit.

I left Ann’s room, and I headed toward the statue, and in the lobby, I found the old man talking with the survivors who stayed at the hotel during the battle. I wasn’t interested if they would join us or not, so I just used the statue to learn the elemental magic arrow. Although the spiritual knife was almost an offensive skill, I didn’t learn much when I got that skill. But when I learned that new skill, a lot of knowledge entered my brain. Now I knew hot to control the MP inside me and how to make it manifest outside my body. I also learn how to shape the MP and how to add the properties that I wanted. Only at that moment, I noticed the true potential of that skill. However, that didn’t excite me. That skill was only a means to an end, but I didn’t have any more goals in my mind.

HP: 75/75

MP: 89/89

STA: 75/75

Evolution Orbs: 4111/5300

Evolution Coins: 71125

Skill list:

Concentration Lv04 81%: Raises your attack power and range by 4% each hour. The bonus resets when you sleep.

Crosshair: Lv09 25%: Creates a crosshair in your field of vision to aim at enemies.

Radar: Creates a radar in your field of vision to detect any living creature on your surroundings. Effective Range: Sensorial limit (34) x 10 meters.

Analyze Lv06 61%: Analyze and show enemies status and information. Cost: 01 MP

Spiritual Knife Lv01 90%: a weapon created by the spiritual energy of its user. It can be safely stored inside the user’s body. 10 MP will be used to summon and to store the weapon. It's able to ignore the target's defense. This knife will disappear after being used a single time.

Domination Lv 04 22%: It grants the user the ability to command other living beings. To activate the skill, you need their permission. Survivors currently under your control: 39

Meditation Lv 02 19%: By putting yourself in the lotus position, you can restore two points of MP every minute. Your MP can also increase by two points each four consecutive hours of meditation. Moving or receiving damage cancels the skill

Search Lv01 95%: By activating the skill, you can search for specific items, monsters, or survivors in a certain range around you. Effective Range: Sensorial Limit (30) x 5 meters. Cost: 10 MP.

Elemental Magic Arrow Lv 01 00%: The user can create an arrow made of magic possessing one or more of the existing properties in the universe. The arrows won’t move or disappear until you select a target. One arrow can be created every ten seconds.

Cost: 20 MP -> ???

Even after spending so much evolution coins, I still had a lot, so I decided to upgrade my backpack to level three, even though that cost thirty thousand evolution coins. But at least I could carry four times more items and other things. I tried to think about what I should buy next, but I didn’t have a single idea. My mind was still kind of foggy, and because of it, I knew that I wouldn’t have any good ideas. So I decided to rest for a few hours, maybe on the next day I would wake up, and those weird sensations in my body would disappear. But I was wrong. When I woke up, I was more tired than before, I only woke up at the end of the next day. However, my mind was still foggy, and my body heavy. For half an hour, I stared blankly at the ceiling of Karl’s room. Nothing came to my mind at that time, and I didn’t find any reason to get up. I only get up because I heard the sound of someone opening the door.

“You are finally awake,” Claire said after entering the room. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, did you guys already finished your business here?”

“Yeah, and Sandra persuaded all the survivors to come with us.” Claire said, and then she sat on the bed by my side.” Lucius will also join the council.”

“Who is Lucius?”

“The grey-haired man who didn’t seem to like you very much,” Claire answered

“He has plenty of reasons not to like me.”

“In any case,” Claire added. “He is respected among the survivors here, and he was a martial arts teacher, he will be a good addition to our team, and he was pleased about the idea of training all the survivors in some self-defense techniques.”

“I wonder if that kind of thing will be useful against the monsters.”

“You never know,” Claire said. “Now, back to the topic. How are you really feeling? You aren’t the type of person to oversleep, and you probably had a good reason to sleep on a bed instead of sleep while you meditate.”

“…Not really, I just wanted to sleep, and so I did.”

“You can talk to me, you know,” Claire said while looking me in the eye. “If you want to, I won’t tell the others. But please talk to me, Ethan. Share your concerns with me.”

“… I think we should get going; we lost too much time in this place.”

After that, I left the room and headed toward the lobby. But before that, I heard Claire sighing, slightly slapping both of her cheeks with her hands, and then she murmured “patience, patience.” It was a weird feeling, sometimes feeling guilty because of my actions and sometimes don’t feeling anything. That wasn’t normal; it was probably because I lost my goal. I needed a new one to keep me moving forward.

‘Let’s see… my new goal is to become the strongest person in this world.’

It was stupid, and I also didn’t feel any real changes in my body and mind. It was an empty goal after all, what would I do after I become the strongest? I probably would feel empty too. But when I headed to the lobby, I had an inspiration thanks to the orange sunset.

‘I need to see more of this new world.’

All my life, I tried to become as awesome as my parents and siblings, but that wasn’t possible. I tried to be someone who they could be proud of, but that was also impossible. From that point onward, I would expand my horizons, and I would find things like that beautiful sunset. Things which could make my heart warm. Although that wasn’t possible for the time being, because I was weak, but that didn’t matter, in a little more than two months, something would change, something big would happen. The countdown was proof of that. Whatever happens, it will give me the chance to leave this. But first, I had to become stronger to be able to live on this new planet filled with monsters and mutant apex predators.

‘With the help of the elemental magic arrow, I will be able to defeat any opponent. But first, I have to master the skill and increase my MP. In two months, I will obtain the strength that I wanted.’

Surprisingly, my body became lighter, and my mind became clear after I set my new goals. My problems were only mine; my secrets were only mine as well, and the most important thing: my life was mine. On this new world, no one will tell me how to live my life. Despite everything, after those six weeks fighting for my life, I earned the right to live as I please on this world. As long as I don’t kill or hurt innocents, no one will have the right to complain. Those who have power in this new world are free, and I will obtain that power. No matter the cost.