Investigation

It was time to go out exploring the nightmare city. He had previously left his usual dwellings, but had never gone very far, except for his first visit here.

This was of course not something he would just decide on the spot. He had, in the two weeks prior already gotten his hands on a gun, which would give him some extra safety when exploring. He had learned how to operate a gun in the military and since then not forgotten it. While he doubted that it would be of any use if he faced some other creature that had strong psychic powers, it would at least give him the option of injuring a creature if he could het the drop on them.

The reason for his sudden urge for exploration had two reasons first of, he was looking for more benefits and more power. Second, he had found his training to be lacking in the aspect of actual battle experience. While he was glad he had not met another creature until now, he still believed that fighting would provide him with invaluable experience.

But the gun was not the only weapon he had purchased in these passing two weeks.

He had the first time that he had unlocked his telekinesis, realized its uncanny potential as a weapon and support tool. At the start his use of it might have been lacking, but he had made rapid improvements.

At the start of the second week, he had actually bought a nano fiber string, that was extremely thin and durable at the same time. While it was expensive, he did not need to care about money anymore.

He constantly trained with that string to use it as a weapon. The light weight and its sharpness made it an optimal weapon for using in combination with his psychic powers. While he might one day be able to use just his psychic powers as weapons, the time for that was still away.

But now, he was able to cut things with his psychic powers easily and also set up traps with it.

The thin thread would be incredibly difficult to see. With it, like a spider, he would spin a web to catch his pray, only that instead of sticking to the web, it would cut them apart.

That was the plan at least.

Resolving himself to be as careful as he could be, he stepped outside the gym, and immediately went looking for a vantage point to help him find some creatures.

It took him only some mere ten minutes to reach the top of a skyscraper in the center of the city.

His sprint was extremely powerful and allowed him to easily cross large distances in a short time. The thing that cost him all this time was in actuality walking all the way up the stairs, especially with all the equipment he was carrying in his new backpack and the spear resting in his hand.

He had already made an effort to lower the weight his body had to carry by using his powers, but it had only worked to an limited extend.

He was not yet at the level of power where he could fly like the moth had been able to.

Standing on the top of the building after unlocking the door to the top with a heavy kick, he viewed the city beneath him. Even the other buildings that looked like giants from the streets mow seemed quite small in comparison to his location.

Looking straight down to the street below, he felt his mind go slightly numb. He felt a mix of fear and excitement, though the fear was quite quickly drowned by his excitement.

"One day I will be able to reach such heights with only the powers of my mind."

This thought he had just uttered made him even more excited for what was coming up. He knew that only more of the energy he had gotten when killing the moth previously would allow him to reach this goal any faster.

Without it would likely take him about a month longer to finally advance his power to such a level.

He was not very keen on waiting for so long. He wanted to fly for god's sake.

In the distance, the city seemed to have come to an end. He could actually spot the Suburbs and beyond that a large forest that was visible in the distance.

"Eh what? I am pretty sure that in the real world there was only acres upon acres of fields in that direction there. Why is there a forest there?"

It was quite weird. While in some aspects the nightmare world overlapped with the normal world, in many other ways, they were completely different from one another.

In his mind, Kalvin marked the forest as another thing that would have to be investigated some day

Shifting his gaze back to the city, several odd places caught his sight.

From the far corners of the city a dark glow was emanating.

One place was the city's graveyard, another was the hospital. There were also several other places that emitted the same kind of glow.

He recalled the first time when he had been here. Even then he had noticed the odd appearance of the hospital and the smoke emanating from it.

Now that he had become stronger, maybe he could go to one of the many places that emanated the smoke to find out what caused it and what the smoke itself did.

Of course, the hospital was out of the question. Whatever this place was, it gave him shivers just looking at it.

Instead he chose too look for some other place with the same energy but a lot less of it.

He settled for some place nearby, that did not look all that special from the top of the incredibly high building.

But exactly because it did not look special and was at the same time still nearby , he chose to explore this place.

"When going to explore one should first start with their backyard."

Kalvin said sarcastically. Lately, speaking to himself had become a habit of his. Maybe it was his solidarity whenever he was in alone in this world or he was actually starting to slowly go crazy from his chase after power.

Though it was probably a bit early to be going crazy already.

Having already gotten a good view of the surroundings and placing the sight within his mind, he went back to the staircase and looked down it, seeing the myriad floors he had to go down again.

"Sigh... Once I can fly I will never take the stairs again."

Reluctantly, he made his way all the way down again and to the place he had previously spotted.

Finding that place from below had been quite easy with him already having planned the way to take to there.

When he stood in front of the building, he noticed that it looked quite dilapidated. He saw that it was actually the entrance to a bar. It was weird, but all bars he had seen until now had that mist surrounding them.

On the other hand, maybe he had only found the bars he had seen due to the dark atmosphere surrounding them.

"These people must be really bad businessman, if it is that difficult to find a bar.

Well whatever, lets head inside."

Opening the door, the first thing he saw was total blackness. While it was not particularly bright outside, the place was still extremely dark.

While he initially wanted to enter, he held himself back for a second.

"Not going in there if I can't see nothin."

Instead, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, while scanning his proximity with his psychic power. He had developed it after he had unlocked the vault door. Just that unlike before, instead of scanning only a small region, now his power covered a distance of about two meters, which he could point in any direction to gain information about the place.

He had of course tried covering his immediate surroundings with it, this however, drastically decreased the distance of the sensing ability, making it essentially useless when applied in such a manner. For now at least.

Making sure nothing was lurking behind the doorframe and his eyes having adjusted to the dark in mere moments, he entered the place with his spear held ready for battle. He used it instead of his gun, since if something were to jump at him from afar, he would have a hard time defending himself on a close range with only a handgun in his hand. He could try using it with his psychic powers, but he was not confident in using it only with those.

The last time he had entered such a place, he had been way less careful. But this was only because ack then, he had no other real choice.

Now however, if he wanted to achieve his goals, he had to be careful not to become careless.

Even a creature that could defeat him with complete ease, had become victim to its own carelessness and died for it. So what about Kalvin who was still weaker? Of course, he had to be constantly on guard when doing something if he wanted to survive.

Inside the bar, there was , well, normal bar equipment. A counter, a few tables and chairs scattered here and there. The only thing that was different was the odd atmosphere inside. It seemed uncanny. As if an icy cold was prevailing the entire place. Yet at the same time, the actual temperature did not drop by much.

"This cold, it seems to ne more of a mental effect. While my mind feels like I am cold, my body feels that there is barley any temperature difference. Whatever is causing this is surely worth an investigation."

With his spear raised an his nano fiber thread unraveling itself from his backpack and surrounding his body, as if it was alive, he went forward to explore the rest of the place. There were a few doors that lead to side rooms and such, which he needed to investigate.

To say that he was not scared of the place would be a lie, though his curiosity and desire for growth easily drowned it out.

The first door he found, he lightly kicked open,as it seemed to be not completely closed.

Inside he found a guest bathroom with nothing inside but a toilet and a sink.

"I guess I picked the wrong door."

Kalvin said aloud, standing in front of the 4 square meter big bathroom.

Approahcing another door, one that was located to the right of the counter, which was standing on the wall directly opposed from the entrance, he also opened it. This time with his powers, as it was locked.