Chapter 54: Out in the Woods

Everything was silent in densely populated trees, filled with all kinds of vegetation that showed no human intervention. The only sounds came from the rustling of leaves and the occasional cricket call as the full moon's light illuminated the canopies.

The forest was untouched by the hustle and bustle of human civilization, a quiet oasis amidst the chaos of the world.

Especially since... everything had gone to shit. As the flames of destruction could be clearly seen from the city located several miles away from this foliage.

Suddenly, there were sharp bursts of wind coming out of the ground of grass and stones, followed by a rusty groan as a large circular hatch opened out of the ground.

"Yes, yes! Finally! Oh finally. Sweet fresh air!!" A brown haired boy cried out as he climbed out of the hatch and crawled onto the ground, tears flowing dramatically down his cheeks. It was to be expected though, having been trapped underground for more than an hour and going through all kinds of hell... a normal person would've even made out with the ground now for comfort.

Heck, Ryota would've been down for it but after he had cried out his long held frustration and relief... he slumped down and held his throat in pain.

"Geez, I can understand your sentiments but just how are you still so lively and reckless? We haven't checked to see if there were any nearby enemies. You haven't completely healed up yet, remember?" Coming up from behind the collapsed boy was Naze, her pretty face scrunched into a frown as she stared up at the star-filled and full moon night sky.

"Finally, some good luck. With the help of the night's darkness, we can easily go through the school and the city undetected if we use either the sewers or the residential areas." She said as she climbed out of the hatch, stood and stretched out her arms.

"We go through a residential area." Zenkichi unhesitatingly spoke up as he followed after her. He looks no worse for wear, wearing his school uniform's white t-shirt, tie, and pants without a single scratch on him. The only difference was that he ditched the jacket.

Now I know what you're thinking, but no. Zenkichi clothes aren't invulnerable, he actually lost almost all of his clothes when he was dealing with Medaka but thankfully he had gotten a male school uniform beforehand that shared the same size as him.

"I am not going back underground so soon, not unless we're really getting desperate. We go through alleys or even buildings if we have to." Zenkichi continued, casting a glance back at the hatch that had served as their temporary sanctuary. His words held a certain grit indicating his own dislike for the confined spaces underground – an understandable sentiment considering they'd been trapped in one for so long.

"Perhaps we should draw a strategy first," Naze suggested, her analytic mind instantly jumping into action. "And Ryota, for goodness' sake, rest until you're atleast in a condition to walk. We can't afford to drag dead weights around."

"You're mean, Naze-senpai," Ryota protested weakly, stretching out flat on the grassy ground. But he didn't argue further. He was too exhausted, too drained. His throat starts to ache with a sudden, harsh intensity but he ignores it, knowing he needs to conserve his energy for their journey ahead. He would have time to recover later.

"Sorry I couldn't fully heal your throat, Ryota. I don't have full control over my new skill yet." Zenkichi said mirthlessly, he raised his right hand to show a bright green glow before dissipating.

It wasn't one of his Quincy skills or new ones he got, but something he learned from another world.

Magic. The magic tomes that Brunhilde had sent him had a healing spell in it that he got to reading back before he was kidnapped and then started learning it when they were wandering around the labyrinth to head towards the Door of Rejection.

Now I know what you're thinking, a healing spell? It's a very useful spell, sure, but why didn't Zenkichi just read some teleportation or other destructive spells? With his really OP title: 'Man from Another World', which makes him learn any skills from another world instantaneously, already made him memorize every single spell and the Viking martial art that Brunhilde had sent him.

The only problem with it however, was that he had barely started his wizardry journey, having only gathered a small pool of mana with the amount of a glass of water. So despite learning them in an instant, he couldn't use them if he had little fuel.

Fortunately though, his mana managed to hold on till his healing spell healed enough of Ryota's wounded throat.

Ryota waved his hand at him, sitting back up on the ground with a weak smile on his face. "It's fine, it's fine. I'm actually more hurt by Naze-senpai's words."

"Hey, I am just concerned about our survival, okay?" Naze said, rolling her eyes but Zenkichi could spot her cold indifference softening a bit. She walked closer to Zenkichi and said, "For the time being, we should plan our route towards Ryota's apartment."

Zenkichi nodded, his gaze looking towards the dark woods. "Right," He agreed, his Reading Minds remained activated and he didn't sense any nearby enemies. "But do you know where Ryota's apartment is?"

Ryota raised his hand and said, "It's on—"

"He lives downtown, right in front of a family restaurant and his apartment building is one of those cheap wooden ones so we can't really miss it."

"... How do you know that?!" Ryota incredulously stared at her, completely bothered.

"I'm the lead researcher on the Flask Plan project, I have access to a lot of the subjects' personal info." She merely shrugged, indifferent.

"O-Our personal information...? How much do you guys have on us?!"

"Almost everything that the IT department can find, including some videos of all the guys... secret time."

"You videotaped us...?" Ryota's face turned pale white, his soul leaving his body.

"It was on your contract."

"I did not see any 'we can monitor your daily and private lives 24/7' in my freaking contract!"

"Fine print."

Zenkichi stared at the two in amusement, shaking his head, he asks, "Alright looks like we know our destination. My next question is, where are we?"

Naze turned towards him though she paused for a moment to look around and replied,

"We should still be on school grounds, based on the fact that the Flask facility we were on is built under the Clocktower and we were just about a couple miles down from the first floor. And considering that the forested area of the academy is just a couple miles away from any road that leads towards the city..."

Zenkichi nodded, taking mental notes of their location and surroundings. "Alright, then let's get going before any enemies catch up to us." He stood up and extended a hand towards Ryota, who took it and slowly got up to his feet, wincing from the pain in his throat.

Naze was already walking ahead, leading the way towards the city. Zenkichi took a final glance at their escaped hatch before following after her, the forest swallowing them up as they moved forward towards their destination.

As they walked, Ryota couldn't help but ask, "H-Hey, Hitoyoshi-kun."

"Just call me Zenkichi. I don't want to get mixed up by other Hitoyoshi out there."

"R-Right, you can call me Ryota, though you guys already do. But anyways, what happened with Medaka? Is she...?"

"No." Zenkichi sharply replied, his face scrunched for a moment and he let out a sigh. "S-She's just momentarily restrained at the moment."

Naze raised an eyebrow, having heard their conversation. "Restrained? I'm sorry but I think I misheard you, because restraining her in her current state should've been impossible."

"Not impossible just... extremely difficult. I just got lucky and managed to subdue her temporarily," Zenkichi explained vaguely, not divulging anything more.

Because when Medaka showed signs that she was copying his Quincy skills, he didn't hesitate and finally used Real Eater, Shiranui's skill, to add a 'rule' to Medaka's skill, The End, that when she uses her skill or copies a skill she'll be unable to move for the next five hours. That was when he used that chance to go after his friends, though not before saying to Medaka that he'll be back to save her.

Having used Real Eater, Zenkichi realized just how fucking disgusting it was. Not because it gave him stomachaches or something, but because of how broken it was.

Real Eater is a skill that allows Shiranui, or the user, to eat and alter the properties of other skills, as well as vomiting them out to others to use. It was basically a skill editor! Of course he also used it on his skills as well.

All his martial arts related skills; Savate, Taekwondo, etc, Swordmaster, Hidden Weapons Technique, Killing Impulse, Hold My Bear, and Beginner's Hard Luck and mix it all into one awesome skill...

Devil Style, a skill that increases Zenkichi's combat capabilities to absurd levels, hitting his opponents with pin point accuracy no matter what defenses or dodging skills they have; even if they hide themselves in another dimension.

And that's not all. Who would've that when he altered the Hold My Bear skill into Hold My Beer and its other properties before mixing it with the other skills, it'll get to this. He gets 3x increased of his physical strength and sharper senses when Devil Style is activated, but when he lets someone hold his beer... boss music would start to play, he gets back to full health and all his physical capabilities would double, adding to the triple increase, it makes a total five increase of his strength.

Oh when he created that skill, Zenkichi felt like he was a boss from a video game.

Shame that it was a trial card, having only lasted for ten minutes but fortunately the rule he added to Medaka's skill would last until its initial command is completed. Now I know what you're thinking and Zenkichi had tried to put a longer or permanent side effect on her skill, but The End was too powerful to restrain Medaka further.

He tried using the skill or Divine Reflection to try and make the Real Eater permanent for him to use, but it was useless. The system didn't want to try any loopholes with its prizes, though it was still possible for him to get through Divine Reflection as long as he sees the original, Shiranui, use it.

And so he used the remaining time he had with the Real Eater to... alter a few of his skills. And since most of his skills were one now, he felt a sense of satisfaction at his status panel being so clean.

.....

[Status]

NAME: Zenkichi Hitoyoshi

TITLES: Demonic Hound, Dragon Warrior, Harem Protagonist, Admin of the Multiversal Chat-Group, Man from Another World

RACE: Human[Quincy](Awakened)

AGE: 16

GENDER: Male

BLOOD TYPE: AB

MENTALITY: Abnormal

PHYSIQUE: Beyond Abnormal

SOUL: Beyond Abnormal

MANA/SPIRITUAL POWER: Beyond Abnormal

ABILITIES:

–Lottery[???]

–Cooking[Normal]

–Cattish Tale[Abnormal](Updated): Like how cats are known to have nine lives, you now have nine lives and automatic resurrection after death. Moreover, the previous ways that killed the user would be completely nullified after he resurrects.

–Divine Reflection[Divine]

–Super Charisma[Abnormal]

–Femme Fatale Charisma[Abnormal]

–Reishi Manipulation[Legendary]

– Spiritual Awareness[Legendary]

–Spiritual Pressure[Legendary]

–The Iron[Epic]

–Liquid Morph[Abnormal]

–Reading Minds[Abnormal]

–Weighted Words[Abnormal]

–Norse Magic(Advanced)[Epic]

–Devil Style[??]: A culmination of several skills mixed into one, the second true skill of Zenkichi Hitoyoshi. When activated the skill would strengthen Zenkichi's body, strength and power by several folds; he would release a wild beastly murderous intent by a dozen meters in diameter that would make any weak minded person piss themselves or pass out, all his senses would sharpen, his mind would maintain a clear headedness that could make rational and logical strategies, he has also become a master of all weapons and martial arts, and lastly when he has beer in his hand and hands it over to someone else... he becomes a video game boss.

[New system update of skill ranks; Normal, Abnormal/Minus, Epic, Legendary, Divine, ???, ???

.....

Ryota nodded, his eyes filled with concern. "I hope she'll be okay. With what's happening in just the underground facility, I worry about the rest of the city... or the world. I never thought things would escalate like this."

"It'll be fine, there are some very powerful people that I know are wandering around the city and are probably trying to stop this," Naze chimed in, her voice indifferent as always. "But right now, our focus should be on our own survival and finding Ryota's apartment to stop the chaos that's engulfing the city."

As they continued their journey through the dark forest, a sense of urgency clawed at them. The city was in turmoil, and they knew they had a crucial role to play in restoring order. The road ahead was uncertain, but they had each other's backs.

.....

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