Chapter 27

Arriving at work, things went about as well as expected. After stepping through the front door, everyone looked at Anthony like they were seeing a ghost. He now regretted not leaving his shirt at home, since the sight of his shocked co-workers was more amusing than he expected.

He was grinning all the way to the boss' office, where he put on his serious face and walked in, ready to throw hands. Inside, the lady behind the desk was the calmest person he had seen all day.

"So you really did survive."

She didn't even bother hiding the fact that she knew what was happening. Her uncaring attitude was the primary reason Anthony hasn't resigned so far, since this made her probably the only person not antagonistic towards him. Now, however, the situation could be a little different.

"Is there a trap in this room? Or maybe I have to fight my way out of this building?"

He was ready for almost anything, except the one thing that actually ended up happening. He was offered a deal, and a good one at that.

"I want you to pretend to be dead, for a while at least. I managed to arrange interviews with a few people you wanted to visit. You can have all of them if you promise to keep a low profile until you're done."

The proposition sounded good, but Anthony had enough negotiation skills to know that he was missing the full picture.

"What's in it for you?"

"Your continued employment and hopefully some nice interviews with some of the most sought after individuals. If you don't mind me saying this, you're our greatest cash cow and I won't be giving that up just because of a petty grudge of the higher ups."

Anthony was suddenly reminded why his resignation was collecting dust for so many years. His boss worked by a profit motive and knew exactly what to say to keep him at the company.

"What's my first destination?"

"One week from now you will go to Ascension Island to meet with their king. We'll cover all of your expenses and make travel arrangements."

With his travel plans already settled, he was about to go home for the day when he was stopped for one last piece of information.

"Mr. Stone also agreed to an interview, on the condition that you bring the kids with you."

Meanwhile Peter was waiting for Anthony to get home. Him and Manda were standing around in the driveway with Sarah joining them after a while. There was an argument whether she should tag along, with Peter being firmly opposed to the idea. In the end he relented, on the condition that she explained in detail how her abilities worked.

This was an attempt at convincing Manda to change his mind, which was absolutely ineffective. As suspected, Sarah gained power from the dead which wasn't affected by the target's strength. It was really convenient now that any form of strengthening had a significant effect, but Peter quickly realized that after a certain point she would have to go on huge massacres for any meaningful change to happen.

The greatest difference between her ability and Peter's was that, unlike her brother, she could use it on people who recently died and targets that were not human, explaining her attraction to roadkill. Her other abilities were pretty self-explanatory. She could turn dead people into zombies and she was gradually turning into one of them, without all of the downsides. That last part would have been hard to believe if there wasn't the doctor's diagnosis from a few weeks ago and the skin wasn't peeling off her fingers.

Upon further inspection, her hair was also graying gradually.

Anthony arrived after a long wait and the four of them headed off to hunt. The only difference, aside from the increased attendance, was that they stopped by every dead animal they happened to find.

The result of the day was four successful captures, with only Anthony receiving significant injuries. They had to take a slight detour because eight people, four of them unconscious, couldn't fit inside the car. Otherwise it was an overwhelming success.

[Successfully absorbed class 5 flame blessing.]

[Successfully absorbed class 6 healing blessing.]

[Absorption failed]

[Successfully absorbed class 3 wind blessing.]

[Results: STR +0.15, AGI +0.2, END +0.1, STA +0.15, MGC +0.16, EXP +140]

After they were finished for the day, Helen pulled Anthony aside to give him another assignment. One he would do alone at night. The kids were obviously interested but when they hinted at wanting to join him, they were rejected without a second thought.

The three were told to go to sleep and they reluctantly complied.

A good night's sleep later, Peter woke up to the usual morning pain. Despite his rapidly increasing recovery speed, he was still struggling with his injuries.

[Estimated time until complete recovery: 24 days]

[Physical attributes are 73% effective]

He slowly walked down the stairs towards the kitchen, like it was just a regular day, when he encountered the result of Anthony's night-time solo mission.