With his tactic, King was able to kill the peak stage Knight fallen. In a month where he fully experienced the apocalypse without the protection from Kence he managed to hone his fighting skills. He don't need to fight the fallen head on, it moves slower than him and it was hard for it to change directions. He just need to slowly accumulate damage until he finally killed it

After killing the strongest fallen the rest naturally become easier. They just need to clean up the remaining weaker fallens

Seeing the bloodied corpse all over around them doesn't affect the two too much. They already have a lot of experience and was already used to things like this. The two left the area immediately for the fear that fallens or mutated animals will be attracted by the smell of blood

They stopped and rest under the shade of a tree. The two rested their backs on the tree while breathing heavily. The fight still took a toll on their body and they are now exhausted.

King looked up the tree and saw an apple like fruit all over the tree but instead of it being color red the fruit was ice blue in color. King stood up to take one of the fruit and put it on his palm

"System, Identify"

*Beep. Checking Host's Cultivation Base and knowledge

That familiar mechanical and neutral voice resounded inside King's head

*Beep. Checking done. Criteria met. The corresponding energy will be deducted on Host's body

King felt a chunk of his already running out energy vanished to who knows where before a blue transparent screen appeared on his vision

*Beep. Item Identified

Soothing Apple

A mutated apple that absorbed ice energy particles in the surrounding. It can be use as an ingredient or eaten directly to lessen muscle aches

Since they learned the hidden function of the Voice of the World, King naturally used it to his advantage. He grab more fruits from the tree and gave some to Kennedy

"Eat it, it can treat muscle aches" Kennedy took the fruit, he doesn't need to verify if the fruits are edible as he has great trust to King.

The two ate the apples and a stream of cold soothing energy travelled inside their body and brought comfort to them. The pain from their muscles that was overused from fighting lessened

"Should we stock these fruits?" Kennedy asked and King nodded. King took some of the fruits and put it inside his backpack. If before his backpack was full of blue fruits, now it was filled with all sorts of things

There are fruits, grass, flowers, stones etc. All of these things mutated when they absorbed the energy particles in the air. They gained various properties and King took the things that will help them survive

After resting and regaining all their strenght, the two continued their journey

They entered an abandoned town and walk a few minutes around. However, their muscles tense up and they immediately become on guard

Normally, if a town was abandoned it would become a fallen's lair but they didn't even met any creatures on the way. Not even mutated animals

This made them to raise their guard as sweat formed all over their body for the fear that an unknown creature will suddenly attack them

Fortunately, the thing they saw in the town filled them with happiness. There, in the middle of the abandoned town they saw that familiar wooden shop. The shop that they were trying to find for the past month

King even felt bitter as this town was only two kilometers away from the forest they took as their base. He circled a few kilometers from the forest, after all what he needed to find was the closest Angel's shop. If he went too far from the forest then the shop he will find will be harder to have an access with

What made King felt bitter was the location of the shop was exactly the opposite of the direction where he first went. If only he started journeying in this direction he don't need to spend a whole month in the wilderness

The only good thing is that he was able to hone his battle skills

"We finally found what we are trying to find!" King said excitedly, in the past month he greatly misses his son a lot. He can't wait to go back and hug his son

"Yeah, finally!" For now, their goal was finally met and they can take things easier now

"I'm going back to my family, do you want to come with me?" King asked hopefully, the two's plan was only to find an Angel's Shop. After that they didn't had the chance to talk about what to do next

King already thought of Kennedy as a close friend, if possible he want him to join his team. Kennedy was also a stronger, this will boost their team's strength

Too bad Kennedy shook his head. "I actually plan on journeying myself after this. Since the apocalypse started my life goal was to serve the military because I thought that will make the citizens have a better life. But I witnessed a lot of corruption there, even I was almost skilled because of the higher ups greed. For now, I want to travel and find another purpose in life"

Although King already kind of guessed that Kennedy will say this but when he finally heard it he can't stop himself from being sad. "Don't be sad! We are comrades to death. I'm sure that someday we will meet again and fight with each other!"

"Okay! Survive okay? We still have a lot of fighting to do!"

Thus, the two parted ways today. Kennedy went inside the Angel's Shop first to buy the Mind Crystal containing the basics of cultivation. Although King taught him what he already grasp but it was still better to have one on his own

King on the other hand went back to the family he misses greatly. He can't wait to hug his son again

-----

Cesar was still working on making a self-sustained barrier, however without having knowledge on just how Runes work he was grasping in the dark. All humans knew was the process of making a Rune but not how exactly it work. That was enough to make a simple Rune but making complex ones are almost impossible to do. This was also the reason why they want to find an Angel's Shop, to buy some information they need

Ivy was in better condition, the process of using the Rainbowshade Flower was not that too complicated. She was slowly getting use to it, the only thing she needs to do was to make the flower stronger. She tried feeding it with her energy but in terms of making it stronger, it was inferior to the energy that her soul occasionally provided on it.

Calter on the other hand was still the same as usual, always cultivating and making himself stronger. However, in this past month his mental state was not good. Evident by how the free energies in the surrounding around him become unstable because of his emotions

Calter opened his eyes as he really can't focus on cultivation "Is dad still not back yet?" Calter asked worriedly. It was already a month since King left but there was still no news about him. This naturally made all of them worried

"He'll be here soon Calter, don't worry" Ivy tried comforting the child but she was also started being pessimistic. Without any form of communication who knows what happened to King now

Calter, Ivy, and Cesar was currently inside a cave. They still don't have a permanent residence yet as the place they want to build a house was still being 'cleaned' by the carnivorous flowers

"I'll go check if dad is with Master" saying this, Calter stood up and run to where Kence is

Ivy and Cesar looked at each other and both of them sigh at the same time

Unlike before, the core part of the forest has less corpse. In about a few days the corpses would be fully clean up. Kence now has a hundred carnivorous flowers scattered around digesting the food they ate

"Master!" Hearing Calter's voice Kence opened his eyes and the green energy surrounding him dispersed

He doesn't know if it was because of the peace they had for the past month or it was him slowly being closer to his tree body that his mental state become better. The demons on his heart was subdued for the time being and he felt so close to nature

It feels like he's really a tree that loves the environment inside the forest. As the creatures on the forest were cleaned up from the previous battle royale aside from the occassional stray fallens or animals they didn't had much of a bloody battle for a month

They let the docile mutated animals that don't discriminately attack to make the forest their home. There were already some animals in the forest and they sometimes play with them. However, they still regulate their numbers. It would be a disaster if the animal's number become too high, that will threaten the sovereignty they have on their base

Now, Kence become calmer and he was unlike before that will become angry immediately.

"What is it Calter?" Looking around and not seeing his father made Calter to be sad. Kence sensed this and regretted a bit why he let King to travel on his own. Maybe, he should have come with him

"Is dad still not here?" Although he already knew the answer Calter still asked in hope that his father finally returned

Kence sighed helplessly "Your dad is powerful, I'm sure he will come back soon"

As Calter already heard this phrase too many times it didn't make him feel any better at all

Seeing this Kence doesn't know what to do to make the child feel better. "Come here with me"

Kence controlled a branch of his tree body and it extended until it reached the ground. Calter stood on the branch and it put him next to Kence who was seating in another branch

Kence pat the child's back and Calter hugged him. Kence can feel his clothes becoming wet that is apparently due to the tears coming from Calter's eyes

Kence awkwardly hug back the kid and just let him cry on his chest. "M-master...t-today is my birthday.....I want dad"

His words stab Kence on his heart, if he knew that the mission he gave to King will make him to miss his son's birthday he would never assign him with the task

"Dad.... I miss my dad... I want my dad back!" Calter cried harder and Kence hugged him tightly while feeling regret

Kence's body glowed with light green light and used it to surround the two of them hoping that the calming and soothing effect that the nature of his energy has will make Calter to feel better

It proved quite effective and maybe due to emotional stress Calter was slowly closing his eyes and was about to fall asleep before he heard a voice that he longed for a whole month

"Son!" Calter's body jolted in anticipation and he saw his father running towards him

The kid immedi jumped down from Kence's tree body and run towards his father. The father and son duo pulled each other in a warm embrace

This time Calter cried not because of pain but due to happiness. These were tears of joy. His father he worried for a month was finally back to his side!

Even the free energy particles in the surrounding was affected by Calter's mood. It was as if someone injected them with drugs and they danced happily in the air

"I have something for you!" King broke free from their hug and took an item from his bag

"C-chocolates!" Calter exclaimed happily

"Happy birthday son!" Calter hugged the cookies and cream chocolates, his favorite. Even though it was just a simple gift, for him this was the best gift he could ever have