Tehya looked at Alphonse. Taking a step forward, she was going to see who it was. Grabbing hold of her wrist, Alphonse shook his head.

“I’ll deal with it.” Alphonse said. Then vanished from the spot. Using Ground Perception, he was able to accurately blink to his desired spot, and that spot was right behind the young man in the hallway.

Alphonse’s hand clasped around the back of his neck.

“Wh-what the hell are you?” The young man jumped in shock.

“Shut it will you? How do you know Tehya?” Alphonse’s grip tightened. He could feel how brittle his little neck was. He obviously had little constitution.

Tehya’s door swung open.

“Jake? What are you doing here?” Tehya said.

“I came to check on you, to see if you were ok. With everything that’s going on right now, I was… worried.” Jake said.

“And that required a knife?” Alphonse, with his free hand, reached into his pocket, taking out a sharp blade. Something dark had dried on the knifes edge, covering its perfectly shimmering blade in a brownish-red.

“I-it’s for self-defence. Do you know how many monsters are roaming the streets?” Jake shouted. His voice becoming hysteric and eyes shifted, unable to maintain a semblance of eye contact.

“That’s strange.” Alphonse brought his nose closer and sniffed the nape of his neck. “I don’t smell a hint of beast on you.”

“T-Tehya, I’m telling you the tru-”

Alphonse slammed him against the brick walls of the building's hallways. A sharp groan left his mouth.

“Any last words?” Alphonse grinned.

“S-stop.” Tehya grabbed hold of Alphonse’s arm. “What are you doing?”

Alphonse dropped him. His eyes shifted back to Tehya. “The world isn’t what it used to be, Tehya. You never know when a snake will show its fangs. With power comes… greed.”

Just as Alphonse finished his words, a knife lunged at his chest. Jake made use of the distraction. While Alphonse had his head turned he attacked. Tehya screamed, but nothing happened. The smile on Alphonse’s face never changed. Looking down at his own chest, the blade never even broke the skin, let alone there being any pain.

“See, Tehya?” Alphonse grabbed hold of Jake’s throat once more. “With snakes, you need to behead them and bury their toxins so they don’t poison you. This is a lesson.”

Alphonse’s hand clenched. With a snap, Jake’s body fell to the floor.

Tehya tried to stomach it, but her body refused to listen. She keeled over and bile left her throat. She took a minute to recover before looking at Alphonse.

“How many have you killed?” Tehya wiped what was left of the bile from the corner of her mouth.

“Enough to remember each one.” Alphonse said. "I won't say sorry for killing someone aiming for my life."

Tehya nodded. Her eyes filled with determination and confliction. With a creak, a door opened, then the next. Heads popped out from behind their doors as they looked in their direction. Their eyes widened at the sight of the dead boy. Before their doors instantly slammed shut in panic.

“Nosy neighbours, huh?” Alphonse chuckled. “You ready?”

Tehya nodded. She rushed back into the room and grabbed her bag. That was already ready. She picked up their family picture, tightly clinging to it as they left the apartment building. As they left, Tehya’s shoulders recoiled backwards.

Alphonse looked at the monster standing in the distance. Its body was enormous, bigger than the orcs he had faced. One long piece of fabric covered its body like an oversized kilt. It was the singular eye that stood out the most, however. I wonder if it can shoot out a beam from its eye. That would be cool, although I already have a power like that, but I need to be in the Titan Construct form to use it.

“Stay here, I’ll deal with it.”

“Are you sure?-” Tehya words fell on nothing as Alphonse had disappeared from sight.

Using his cleaver to slice open his palm, he blinked to the side of the cyclops. With his hand touching the ground, ice exploded forward and climbed up and combined with the humanoid monster like a symbiotic relationship. It was like the ice had a mind of its own, like a snake. It constricted the movements of the enormous monster.

Alphonse wanted to test how strong his Ice Arts actually were. But it was hard to tell the strength of the monster, his instincts told him it was strong, but it wasn’t exactly an accurate measure. The ice is holding. I need to let it attack to get an idea of its strength.

With the crazy plan in his mind, he let go of his connection with the ice as the monster broke free. Redness swelled up within its only eye as it swung its giant wooden club at Alphonse. Blinking out of the way, the surrounding air screamed from the cyclops attack. Although it wasn’t much, it at least told him it would suck if it hit him.

Experimenting with the cyclops, he wanted to see if the monster had any abilities worth stealing. If it had a useful ability, he wouldn’t mind cooking others until he was granted its ability. After a 5 minute long fight, and multiple gouges later. Blood spilled from the monster, but no ability was used.

Ah, disappointing. With a swing of his hastened, fire covered cleaver, he separated the monsters from its head as it thudded to the floor. Making sure Tehya couldn’t see, he lopped a piece of its flesh off and cooked it on the spot with his fire. He at least wanted the extra stats from cooking it for the first time.

Chef’s Kiss activated

Recipe: Crackled Cyclops Skin.

Crackled Cyclops Skin: A humanoid monster with a giant bloodline. Without abilities, it relies on its advanced body to smash its opponents into the ground.

Yeah, I thought so…

[ Rating C- ]

+20% added stats from equipment set.

| 58 -> 69 strentgh added

| 49 -> 58 constitution added

| 25 -> 30 dexterity added.

With the boost in stats, he blinked back by Tehya’s side. “Okay, ready to go now.”

“R-right.” Tehya looked at Alphonse in wonder. “You made that look easy.”

“You’ll be able to do the same if you keep levelling.” Alphonse walked into the street. They headed towards the new city. “With the system, all you need to really do is fight and survive and you will become stronger.”

“Is that all?” Tehya chuckled.

“Well, obviously, there’s talented people around the universe. Some have unique classes or abilities that make them stand out from the rest. Even if you are high levelled, those with unique powers will completely overpower those at the same level.” Alphonse warned his sister. “And expanding on the unique abilities, be careful what you do and how you interact with certain people. Some might hear from miles away or kill you without lifting a finger.”

Tehya nodded at the warning. Alphonse watched her taking mental notes. At least she was taking it seriously. He thought.

“Are you unique?” Tehya said.

“I guess you could say that, yeah.” Alphonse nodded. He was hesitant to say more, not because he didn’t trust her, but because he was worried it would involve her. The less she knew about his so-called apostle status, the better.

After avoiding most of the monsters because of having Tehya with him, they soon left the dense buildings and entered the suburbs. Pretty houses lined the streets, complete with their own gardens. They were like the one they had slept in the first night. The only difference being was that the suburb was like a maze of houses, the roads traversing in and out of each street.

Not another maze. Alphonse flinched at the painful thought but was brought back to reality when he spotted a convenient sign. “Kreson.” With a sigh of relief, they followed the signs. Thankfully, it was well marked. He could imagine the pain of figuring out where the exit was to this place.

After slaughtering a familiar foe, goblins. He wondered at the strength of the monsters so far. They were strong or weak. No inbetween. The further they strayed from the city centre, the weaker they became. I wonder if it has something to do with the population? The system might expect people to work in numbers, whereas there’s fewer people here. Didn’t know the system was capable of a conscience. It didn’t think that way when it gave me an extreme mission for my first. Well, I suppose I have Gluttony to thank about that one…

They were just about to leave the suburbs when a door was flung open.

“Tehya?” A group ran out, shouting her name.

“Guys?” Tehya’s eyes lit up, a smile fitted to her face.

They were friends? Alphonse thought.