Second chapter of the week. I wonder if I'll be able to get out a third? Regardless, enjoy. I'm posting this in school so I won't be able to PR it until later.

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--Two Days Later--

Slaughtering these guys is like slaughtering livestock.

Kyte calmly walked down a street as he nonchalantly flicked his wrists in the direction of a few monsters. A split second later, the top halves of their bodies slipped off their bottom halves and fell to the bloody ground. All that blood quickly surged toward Kyte’s body and disappeared within it.

He also didn’t forget to absorb their souls, which was incredibly important. Kyte noticed that the souls of these human-monsters were different than normal humans. They no longer had vague outlines of a visage on the soul and they wouldn’t thrash about either. The strength of the souls were actually increased by a noticeable amount but, compared to the entirety of each soul, the increase wasn’t that much.

Regardless of that, Kyte took them all. Even with all these souls, he barely achieved late seventh stage for his soul. The ball within his soul had also slightly grown and it began to show slight signs of change. Kyte couldn’t really “see” the change, but he could feel it.

By now, the entire area within a mile radius of the apartment building was almost wiped clean of the monsters. Though of course, monsters would randomly stroll inside from different locations so it wasn’t totally wiped out.

Kyte also noticed that there were a few stronger monsters located throughout the area. Those were the ones that completely ravaged their surroundings and effortlessly tore apart the weaker monsters. These stronger ones were always completely bald and had a few extra arms sprouting from their back which were at least twice as long as normal arms. Not only that, but those extra arms didn’t even have skin. It was a creepy sight.

Kyte had actually observed some of the monsters as they devoured each other. Sometimes he saw an extra limb grow from them as well, which was a gruesome sight. The limb would sort of just burst out of, let’s say, the monster’s back. There would be no skin on the extra limb and blood would continuously squirt out of it. The monster would be giving out bloodcurdling screams while writhing about on the ground. During that sequence, Kyte could feel the monster’s power quickly increase. Once it calmed down, the increase stopped.

That happened several times as Kyte was going around cleaning them out. Just a few hours earlier he saw one that reached the power of a B ranker. He assumed it roamed into the area from outside because how could a monster that powerful escape Kyte’s Spiritual sense?

Kyte looked up at the sky and saw that he still had several hours left until the day ended. Though, because it was slowly approaching spring, the sun would stay out longer day by day. There were still two months till spring actually arrived, but it seemed as if it was appearing faster than normal.

Anyway, since he had quite some time till he had to go back, Kyte decided to roam out farther than the mile area that he cleared out. He quickly rose up into the air and flew above the numerous houses and streets. He still remembered the time when he could see normal people walking around. Parks filled with kids playing on swing sets and slides, lovers walking side by side...Now, however, it was like Hell decided. No one was spared.

Kyte saw the clear distinction between his area and the area beyond. He could hear shouts and screams coming from the districts further away, which piqued his interest. Although there definitely wouldn’t be any A or S ranked monsters, it’s still interesting to see a new life form evolve. There could potentially be different types of monsters once they reach a certain power level. Along with that, variations and rare-type monsters were possible. Kyte just hasn’t seen anything like that yet. Probably because the one mile area he cleaned out wasn’t even a fraction of the entire city.

Flying over several rows of houses, Kyte felt the different aura the new area emitted. It was a thicker aura of blood and death created by the rampaging monsters. Since Kyte was the only one he knew that used blood as a source of power, he assumed he was the only one who would willingly use free time to slaughter the monsters.

Although the increase in power was slight. Kyte wondered if the quality of blood was what caused this. His own power was far above these monsters; he was on a completely different level. The blood of these lower forms naturally proved to be incredibly weak. If Kyte was at the fourth or fifth stage, the monster’s blood could potentially be worth the time. Kyte, being at the seventh stage, naturally would benefit much. However, all the blood adds up.

Plus, the main reason why Kyte was doing this wasn’t for Internal energy but rather Spirit energy and life force. It would still be a while till he broke through with his Soul, but every bit counts. Every single body-worth of blood he absorbed was like another life gained.

As Kyte was going over his thoughts, he didn’t notice that he flew quite deep within the new area. He suddenly stopped and looked back, confirming the distance between the cleared and new area to be about two miles. Looking around, he spotted several groups of monsters all attacking each other. He lifted his hand, but just before he was about to release fire from black light, he felt a faint ripple of energy from his left. This energy definitely wasn’t something rudimentary that comes from an unintelligent monster.

Turning his head, Kyte saw small pieces of flesh flying into the air every few seconds.

I guess I’m not the only one out here. This place does seem like a good area to train if you’re at most a B ranker.

Kyte calmly turned back and just before he was about to snap his fingers, he remembered that using fire wasn’t exactly the smartest choice. Of course, it was the quickest way to destroy the monsters, but what’s the use if the blood just evaporates? Maybe he just likes to see them squirm from the flames as they die...

Kyte sighed as he landed on the ground. He indifferently walked down the street as thin strings of energy flew through the air and sliced monsters into pieces. Their blood quickly disappeared, and it actually looked like Kyte was a cleaning service as he absorbed all the blood from the monsters and the surroundings. Everything used to be completely blood red until Kyte walked through. It then looked like normal, except for the several corpses lying around.

Kyte headed in the direction of the energy pulse mostly because he was curious to see who was killing these guys off. Kyte doubted that he would be the only one, though he didn’t doubt that he would be the only S ranker killing them. He didn’t think S rankers would lower themselves to slaughter weaker life forms. Like he did. Though, Kyte did have a reason to do so.

As he made his way down, Kyte continuously felt energy pulses roughly thirty meters away. It didn’t feel like normal energy from any Gifted and the only pulse of energy that comes from a Guardian that Kyte knows of is the help signal. Kyte knows that there will always be oddities within the Gifted community; Shadow is one of them. What kind of mutation allows a Gifted’s power have the ability to repel any type of Gifted energy except its own?

After traveling about twenty meters, Kyte turned a corner on a street and looked at who was causing so much ruckus. The energy pulses had calmed down by now, but Kyte could still sense the person roaming around in same area. When he turned his head to see, he was quite surprised to find a completely normal looking person going from corpse to corpse. Though, what happened next was quite disgusting.

The person would rip off a chunk of flesh before stuffing it in his mouth. However, it was only ever one chunk. Once they were done, they would move to another corpse and get another chunk of flesh.

Kyte saw this and immediately thought of a variant-type of monster. Kyte could tell that this one was close to an A ranker in power, but not quite. Kyte silently moved toward it while erasing his presence to see if it could notice him. It couldn’t, so Kyte continued to observe as it took another chunk of flesh. What happened next was a little confusing though…

“Hmm, nothing new this time. I think I’ve absorbed most of the abilities from the guys in this area..”

What? It can speak? Absorbing?...

Kyte quietly watched as the monster started walking forward as it continued to talk to itself.

“I should be leveling up soon. Too bad I can’t find anyone higher than level twenty.”

Is this guy crazy? Leveling up? Is this dude on drugs? Is it even a dude?

Kyte continued to silently follow the monster as it would pick off any stragglers it saw. Once the monster moved on, Kyte would absorb all the blood behind it. Strangely, it never noticed anything.

After about half an hour of following it, Kyte suddenly felt a small jump in its power.

“Geeze, finally. These lower levels just don’t cut it anymore.”

I think I’m getting the gist of what’s going on….Either this dude is forever high on some new drug, or he really is a variant-type. Would it be better to call him a rare-type? Hmm...Well, not like he can do anything to me. Might as well just ask.

Kyte stopped hiding and openly walked forward as his shoes made light tapping sounds on the ground.

“Hm? One snuck up on me?...”

It turned around, and when it saw Kyte, fear covered its face. Kyte leaked out about twenty percent of his Dread aura, which completely covered the monster.

“W-w-wh-who are you?!” The monster yelled as it fell on its butt.

“Just a passerby. Though I’d like to ask something. You see, I’ve been cleaning out the areas around here but I haven’t seen any monsters that were different than the rest. So, might I ask what you are?”

“I-I-I am...My name i-is...uh...Mark…”

“I didn’t ask who you are, I asked what you are.” Kyte increased the intensity by one percent.

“I’m sorry!! I a-am a u-unique-type Apis…”

“Apis?...What’s an Apis?”

“I don’t know.”

“I thought as much. So, what’s your power exactly? I’ve following you for the past half hour but I’m still confused.”

Though I do have a hunch.

“I-I have t-t-the abilities Gamer and Absorption…”

Really? REALLY? What? How? Why?

“So, you have a power like a game or something?”

“Y-yes.”

Kyte released his Dread aura since it was getting annoying. The dude breathed a sigh of relief once the pressure disappeared.

“And your absorption?”

“It allows me to absorb any ability from something I eat.”

Woah, that sounds..nice.

“I see. So, tell me what happened with you. Are you one of them, or no?”

“Them? Oh, you mean the Dread Walkers. No, I’m not one of them per se. I just remember waking up with a blue screen in front of my face. I was in a pile of corpses, though.”

“That doesn’t seem too bad. Well, I’ll let you do your thing. However, before I go, I’ll give you a piece of advice.”

“What is it?”

“The world is a much bigger place than you think. Right now, you’re just a frog looking up a well. Although you’re some-what powerful right now, don’t act recklessly. Good luck out there.”

“Ah...thanks.”

Kyte lifted up into the air, however, just before he was about to leave, he looked back down at Mark. Mark was slightly confused as he looked up at Kyte. He didn’t expect for him to suddenly fly up into the air.

Kyte lowered himself until he was about ten feet above Mark.

“Here, take this.”

Kyte threw a small sphere down to Mark.

“What is it?”

“It’s called a Signal Sphere. If you’re ever in too much trouble, just crush it. I’ll receive a message detailing your location. I’ll come if I have the time. However, just because you have my back up doesn’t mean you can act recklessly. Only use it if you’re certain you can’t get out of a scenario.”

“But...why?”

“Because you interest me. I don’t want to see a guy like you die so early. One last thing: Head over to the East Train Station. There will be trains being sent out to the Core. If you make it, ask around for Branch 4 Sector 31. See ya.”

This guy has too much potential. It would be a waste for him to silently disappear. It's better if I take him before anyone else.

Kyte flew off into a different direction to find more hordes of monsters, leaving the surprised Mark behind. A new flash of surprise appeared on his face as he looked in the area in-front of his face.

“A...quest? That guy’s level was displayed as question marks...I wonder what it was. Oh well. I guess this is already a lot more exciting than my previous life.”

Mark turned around and moved the sphere in the air. It suddenly disappeared with a small flash. He turned around and continued to jog forward with renewed excitement.