"Ow..."
Ace woke up from his very short sleep and he looked around.
"What the hell happened to my body?"
He looked at his burned clothes and supposedly burned skin. And then he looked at the dungeon gate that should've been in front.
"You completed the dungeon and did this to my body in the process."
"Look next to you."
Ace looked beside him and there were lots of pills and a skill book.
"Although you got this stuff. I don't approve."
"Accept what you can get. You are going to need it."
He opened the red skill book and got the type of skill he expected.
[Lava Manipulation]
Ace shrugged and made fun of him.
He looked at all the pills and he ate them all.
His veins were popping out and a little bit of blood came out from the veins.
[+23 Strength]
[+30 Vitality]
[+12 Mana]
Ace's muscles popped disgustingly and it became more defined and a little bigger, he was becoming stronger and stronger.
Ace got up and he walked outside of the house and he looked in a garage that was across the street.
What he saw was something he had never seen before, he was fascinated. It was a pre-apocalypse motorbike, this was a collector's item that only the rich could think of getting.
He learned a little about them when he was in school and he ran to look whether there was gas inside, unlike he hoped there was no gas.
"Do you know anything about gas?"
He thought this would be useless but he still tried.
"Just fuel it with the Shadows, that was what I did with my bike."
"Your bike? You existed pre-apocalypse?"
"Yeah, some things happened and now I'm like this."
Ace proceeded to stop questioning and he got on the bike, and he just sat there.
"I need help, I don't know how to do it."
"I can't talk for long so I'll make this quick. Cover the wheels in Shadows and make the wheels spin, the rest is on your skill."
It was surprisingly simple to Ace, so he did what The Shadow Monarch told him to and it started to move at a high speed but he couldn't control it well.
He either couldn't steer properly or the shadows would go feral like tires that had been cut and thus he couldn't work it properly.
He crashed multiple times but after many hours he got the hang of it but it was almost nighttime.
He was still in the rural area and he looked for a house that wasn't broken in any way.
He found a two-story house and he parked the bike outside as he was entering.
He looked around in all the rooms and there was no problem whatsoever, the only intact house had nothing wrong with it.
Ace sighed a sigh of relief and relaxation as he shut the door and went up to the master bedroom where he fell asleep instantly.
Time passed by and it was morning. Surprisingly nothing happened and he woke up as if it were a great day.
He got up and he walked downstairs like there were no monsters outside and he opened the fridge, in the fridge was a massive stock of food.
The power was still working as well.
"This is nice."
He cooked a batch of eggs and he toasted a few pieces of bread.
He sat down at the kitchen table and ate his food, he was having the time of his life in the apocalypse, he never could've been in a house like this if this place didn't fall.
"If only it could always be like this."
"You know it can't be like this. Go get the damn skill book before someone else does."
"Damnit I know, I know."
After they exchanged their words Ace grabbed a bag that was in the house and filled it with food, water, and many other necessities.
He walked outside and he got on the bike, the wheels were engulfed in the shadows and he started to drive to what was supposed to be the center of New York.
He entered the city and there was no person in sight, and all the buildings were intact which was a wonder to Ace.
"I expected at least a little to be destroyed."
"I sense a monarch."
Ace froze at the words of The Shadow Monarch.
"A monarch, what should I do?"
"Avoid the Monarch at any cost, anyways we are heading the wrong way. This is not the center of New York."
"Not the center of New York? Where is it then?"
"Not anywhere here, this is not the geographical location of the center."
Ace thought to himself "the geographical location?"
Then something popped in his head while he was busy thinking about it.
"I remember an article I read said that the geographical middle of New York is somewhere in Brooklyn."
"I sense it that way which means you must be right."
Ace got on his bike and he started to go through the city at the fastest speed he can go.
He was going at an incredibly fast speed and in an hour he almost reached the end.
Then suddenly he fell off his bike and he fainted like he was knocked off.
Ace was on the floor when people from the surrounding buildings walked out and a man descended down from the air.
"This was what I was sensing. This was what I was waiting for, a monarch."