Part Six

Several hours later, I was contemplating the outcome of the day’s fighting. Cameron had barely survived. I guess asking him to hold back D-Ranks was a mistake.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t. One-on-one he could probably handle, but when he got surrounded. It was a miracle that he’d survived.

I’d been pushing both myself and them too hard. I’d gotten carried away after leaving the labyrinth. All the monsters I’d met were far inferior to the ones inside. Even the Goblin Crusher wasn’t anything close to the doppelganger. This led me to over estimate what we as a group could handle.

Tomorrow, I’d make sure to apologize to the both of them.

I was also feeling a sense of great urgency. Thus wasn’t going to stop here. It was something that would get worse and worse. There was a real possibility that I’d fight monster that were beyond anything I could imagine. I wanted to get stronger.

Still, considering what I’d gone through, maybe it was inevitable. I’d been trapped in situation that should’ve killed a hundred times over. That I’d survived was due both to luck, and my constant pursuit of strength. And I did have one way to grow stronger, faster.

One of the primary functions of the System was that it allowed you to take energy from those you killed. I don’t know if you’d call it Qi, Prana, Life-force, or something else. But the important thing was that it caused your body to start evolving.

I’d already done some tests and I’d discovered that I could easily break two by fours. My reflexes and perception had gone up, as well as my agility. These were feats I never would’ve been capable of before. I wasn’t bulking up. I didn’t look any stronger, it was that the quality of my muscles had improved.

It wasn’t just my base abilities that had improved. The Nightmare’s Twin Swords were beyond anything I’d had in the labyrinth. They were far sharper, and possessed two incredible skills.

Nightmare’s Twin Swords

Rank: Unique

Equipment Skills: Beast of the Nightmare, Cursed Blade,

Description: A set of twin blades, possessing great potential. The blades are bound to their owner, and will curse others who try to use them. Individually the swords are known as Triumph and Sorrow.

Upgrade Requirement: These blades hunger for blood: Feed them. Lives taken ( 73/10000 )

Yep. I know what you’re thinking. Ten thousand lives! It’s an almost ludicrous amount. The upgrade had been more than worth the time it took. They’d gained an extra skill as well.

But this only adds to what I was worried about. In the first two fights, Cameron held his own because I was right there with him. I killed the stronger goblins, which disrupted their ranks. That, combined with Alicia’s support, gave us all the edge we needed to deal with the swarms. If those two had been on their own, they’d have had little chance at surviving.

The best thing for me might be to just fight on my own. I can just drop those two off at the shelter, see if Clint is around, then I’ll just leave and wander like a nomad.

If all I wanted was to acquire power, this would be for the best. If I failed, I wouldn’t drag anyone else to an early grave. I could fight until I was completely satisfied, and discover every secret of the System I could pull out of it.

I spent the rest of the night fruitlessly trying to get to sleep.

I was sorting through the supplies when they came into the living room.

“Michael.” This wasn’t going to be fun. “Me and the lass have been talking. Well, I’ve been talking and she just nodded along, but…” He paused here, as if mulling something over. “Are you alright?”

His question caught me completely off-guard. “ W-what do you mean?”

“Sometimes it seems like you’re too focused on fighting. You’ve gone out of your way to kill all the monsters. I’m not complaining about that, as it led you to find us, but I’m afraid you’ll bite off more than you can chew.”

This… this was shocking. Rather than be upset by the fact that I’d nearly gotten them killed, they were instead worried about me. I rarely experienced this kind of concern. Even if it was because I’d saved them, it was still touching.

I had been raised in a strict household. My parents expected certain things from me, and when I couldn’t deliver, they were extremely disappointed. After that they had left me alone for the most part. Not that I complained, it felt more natural to me that way. But only my sister had shown any concern for me, at least until I met Clint.

Maybe they should know.

“Alright then. Just don’t freak out on me. Back when this mess started….”

“……and then I woke up and discovered the world was completely fucked up.” Whew, that took a while to retell.

They seemed to be in a state of complete shock. That was pretty reasonable. It was an insane story.

While I sat there, Alicia came over and hugged me. Umm, no please?

“Lad that’s….. that’s pretty messed up.” He almost seem to pity me. Hey! Don’t look at me like that. I’m mostly okay.

“You don’t have to worry about it. I got carried away and tried to do something that could’ve gotten us all killed.” Alicia pulled away at this, and glared at me. No stop! Your glares are actually scary!

“Alright, calm down you two. Let’s just say none of us are to blame.” He did make a pretty good point.

I had to sigh. These two might trust me a little too much. “Fine, fine. Well go with that. But we still need some way through. We might’ve killed enough goblins by now that we can make it.”

“Then we’ll do that.” *nod nod* huh? This went better than I thought it would.

It was almost anticlimactic how easy it was. After we’d killed so many of them, the goblins had pulled all their patrols. This made getting around the school a simple task. Though, there was one problem.

“There’s not many monsters in this area.” That’s right. The monster population dropped significantly once we’d gone passed the school.

“Hopefully, it’s because the people at the shelter are killing them.” But if it wasn’t, we’d be in danger.

Is there some C-Rank monster that slaughters everything?

“Lad. Look at that.”

We’d come to a side street near the shelter, when we were met with a wall. Well not so much a wall as a pile of junk haphazardly thrown together. This isn’t something monsters would do.

It was primarily made from broken down furniture and what looked to be debris. It was just pieces of wood and other miscellaneous stuff. Also, there was dirt spread over it, probably to help bind it together.

“Well there’s our answer.” It seemed that there were indeed still survivors. “So, how do we get in? Do we just climb over, or walk around looking for an entrance?”

“Walk around. We won’t be able to climb that, and they might think we’re monsters if we try.”

That decided that. The only issue would be navigating the side alleys to get around. It’s funny. It took us almost two days to get here, but we only started about fifteen or twenty minutes away. Most of the extra time came from resting and fighting goblins. I still stand by the fact that we had to fight some of them, though I did get carried away.

“Who the hell are you!?”

That rather rude shout broke my train of thought. As we’d come out of the alley, a group of men had left one adjacent to ours. Whoa, talk about random encounters.

The four men each carried an assault rifle or shotgun. Furthermore, two of them had knives or short swords strapped to their belts. But the strangest thing was what they were wearing. Those… those are Vagabond sets. They’re not complete, but each one has at least two pieces of armor. And that guy’s wearing a Soldier’s Set. What is going on here?

Other than that, they looked like ordinary people that you’d see around town. Though their faces looked haunted and they were obviously stressed out.

I signaled Cameron with my eyes. I wasn’t the one who should deal with them, as I was more likely to try and hurt them. I had no patience for people who couldn’t be civil, and they looked like they could snap at the slightest provocation.

“Whoa there. We just thought there might be some people inside the evacuation shelter and came to check.” Wow! He’s good! He had a level of patience with people that I could never achieve.

“Hmph, Fine then. Follow us.” Wow, what an asshole!

They soon led us to what could barely be called a gate. It was made of pallets nailed together and backed with metal sheeting. It probably took four or five people to move the thing. The wall around it was sturdier than what we saw elsewhere.

Upon closer inspection, I could see small gaps that were probably used to see and shoot through. How did they do all this? Even if there’s a few hundred people, it still would’ve taken a few da-. Oh that’s right. I lost close to two weeks while I was in the labyrinth. Still, for there to be this much, they must’ve worked around the clock.

Surrounding the gate were twelve people fitted out in full body armor. I’m not talking about stuff from dungeons, this was tactical body armor. The kind of stuff the military would use. Well some did. There were some others that were only wearing regular clothing. What the fuck!?

“Boss! We found some outsiders!” WHAT THE HELL! Do you think you’re a gang in some zombie apocalypse TV show! And why are you talking like a lackey. There was way too much to retort on.