Scenario One - Try Not To Die (IV)

"I'm done..." I sighed in relief.

I had completely stored a huge amount of blood that could last for at least a few years.

And it was all thanks to the constellation "Shivering Veil".

I'll keep that favor in mind.

"I guess I should go back now..."

I still needed to kill two more monsters so I could get the bonus. Besides, I still had more than 10 hours left.

"Mhm~"

"...What is that?" My eyes suddenly sharpened as I saw a bunch of giant rats being reduced to nothing but ashes.

Strangely, I didn't hear any sound...

I hid myself behind a spot where I couldn't be seen and took a deeper look at the situation.

"...Alaine? I knew she was hiding something!" I couldn't help but mumble to myself in satisfaction.

However, my hopes quickly went down as I saw Daniel next to her.

I waited for a few minutes and noticed that they were simply farming for exp, and as before, Daniel was being the bait.

"Whatever..." I got out of my hiding spot and walked towards them.

I'm not going to tell them about the food, though.

This is all mine.

I'll tell them about the convenience store, I came out to get food after all.

"Daniel!" I called out to him, waving my hand.

"Oh, Lucius!" Daniel waved back at me.

Both of them quickly approached, so I immediately told them about the convenience store.

"There's a convenience store right there. So, you guys can go and stone a bit of food on your inventory; I already filled mine with it."

Surprisingly, without even saying anything, both of them ran towards the convenience store.

They must be really hungry... Well, I had already eaten, so I'm alright.

"The only problem is that I lost my sword..." 

It was indeed a big problem. And, not gonna lie, I'm not telling them about my new skill.

I'll keep it as a hidden card.

Shine...!

"Oh... that's shiny..." I couldn't help but exclaim as I saw something on the ground where the giant rats had died.

I quickly approached it, and found a small ring with a shining gree outline.

[Giant Rat's Ring

Rarity: Uncommon.

Effects: +5 Dexterity]

It was useful, to say the least, so I quickly put it on my finger.

How come they didn't notice it?

After a few minutes, they finally left the convenience store, and I could see Daniel eating chips with a happy expression.

Alaine in the other side, simply remained calm.

Quite the weird duo.

"Lucius, what level are you?" Alaine suddenly asked.

"Level 4."

I'm at Level 6.

"I see... it seems that when one reaches Level 5, they can acquire skills." Alaine said as she suddenly put on a thoughtful expression.

"Exactly! I'm glad I became the bait, now I have a running skill that increases my Dexterity stat temporarily! It seems that we only need to do something continuously so that we'll receive a skill!" Daniel said proudly as he ate another chip.

Fuck, really?

"Really?"

"Yeah, even Alaine received a skill! What skill did you receive again?" Daniel turned to Alaine.

"Low-level Magic Recovery; it seems that I can increase his skill with Upgrade Orbs. It's also something we found out." She added as she suddenly created a small fireball and played around with it.

God, it has only passed three hours or so since I left.

I guess it's time to spam ice magic against a wall and wait until my magic recovers.

Thinking about all the crazy things that I already did, this was probably the most useful one so far.

"I guess I'm the dead weight now. I even lost my sword." I shook my head with a faint smile.

I could probably use this as an excuse to free myself from them. Then, I could level up in a fast manner.

Thud...!

Suddenly, I felt two massive lumps pressing against my chest, as a pair of hands wrapped around my back.

"Don't say that... You will never become a dead weight to me." Alaine looked at me from below as the light reflected her beautiful eyes.

Fucking hell.

Who gives a fuck about women in a freaking apocalypse?

"....."

Definitely not me.

Right?

Yeah.

Probably.

Mayhaps.

Anyway, my plan is now gone.

Well... I can still simply kill them, right?

That wouldn't be such a bad idea...

"Get away." I pushed Alaine away with a faint sigh.

For now, I'll at least keep Alaine around; her fire magic, or whatever its called, could be pretty useful for me.

[The constellation "Shivering Veil" emits a deep chill...]

...The fuck?

I looked around and noticed a faint bar of metal, which I grabbed and asked Alaine.

"Could you use your flame?"

Yup, I was going to use fire to bend this fucking thing into something sharp.

Alaine nodded her head and conjured a faint flame on the palm of her hands.

Then, I put one of the edges of it on the flame...

It passed a few minutes, and so I bent the metal bar. It was still quite difficult, especially when it was quite hot, but I endured it and simply bent it.

"...Are you even human?" Daniel suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Look at your fucking hands!!!" He exclaimed as he pointed at my hands.

I looked at them and saw them in a blazing red color.

"Oh... they're hot." 

"Hot!? They're fucking BLAZING HOT!"

"Do you have CIPA?" Alaine asked, which I simply shook my head.

I could still feel pain very clearly; I was just built differently.

By that, I mean that my pain resistance is very, very high.

"I just have very good pain resistance; after all, I've been through worst." I simply commented.

Compared to the pain from a few minutes ago... this is honestly nothing.

Anyways...

"Let's just go kill some monsters to raise our level."

"Sureeee..." Daniel said with an excited expression.

Alaine simply followed us.

She, somehow, can be pretty expressive and silent at the same time.

For these remaining hours... I'll dedicate them to hunting, and for the last eight hours, I'll simply sleep.

The world is now an apocalypse.

So, I should quickly adapt myself to this new world.

After all...

The weak quickly get eaten by the strong.

In the two meanings... ahem!