Chapter 12
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Hello! Before the chapter starts, I just want to announce that we do have a discord server! So if you are interested then please feel free and join. You can get benefits like early update notices and more! 

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Chapter 12: Saved!

"Lee, quickly use this crystal."

Titus said so after he ripped the crystal out of the monster's corpse. Lee didn't seem to be so disgusted by the gory scene anymore unlike before, but the idea of killing still made him frown. Nonetheless, he nodded and took the crystal and crushed it at the first instance. 

"Th—this is amazing! I can feel the strength from the crystal 'flowing' over my body. *Ahhh* It feels good..."

Both Uncle Brown and Titus stood and watched him drown in pleasure. They already knew the feeling themselves so they weren't weirded out by Lee's reaction as it was the proper way to react in that situation. However, when Titus heard Lee exclaim 'flowing' nonchalantly, something clicked on his mind. 

He was currently pondering why the second crystal only gave him half a human of boost and he wanted to know what was added apart from bodily upgrade. So when he heard the word flowing, he immediately closed his eyes and started feeling the inside of his body. Indeed there was a thin string of energy that was barely noticeable. It seemed that it wasn't there when he first used the crystal. To test out his theory, he asked.

"Uncle do you feel some sort of energy flowing inside you?"

"No." Uncle Brown tried to feel the energy in his body but found nothing. So he shook his head.

"Lee, how about you. You said the energy from the crystal flowed inside your body. Can you feel it now?"

"No, that was only after I used the crystal. After it settled down, I don't feel any energy anymore. I only felt my strength (including senses, speed, etc.) increase two-fold just like yours and dad did."

With this, Titus now had proofs to support his theory, so he decided to tell Lee and Uncle Brown with his findings.

"Lee, Uncle, I've used another crystal meaning I used a total of two. The first one increased my strength by two-fold, this you already know. But the second one only increased my strength by half of a human. Instead, what made up for it was a slim string of energy that is flowing through my body. Feeling it again now, it seems to be 'nurturing' my body independent from the crystal's initial effect."

Lee and Uncle Brown were shocked! Such valuable information. If that was indeed the case, the more crystals you consume in the future, you would get energy instead of experiencing direct increase in your strength. You can then use that energy to power yourself up. 

"So it's like mana right—"

*Bang!* *Ratatatatat!*

When Lee was about to 'culture' [1] Titus and his dad, he was interrupted by gunfire followed by a series of bullets spraying. However, instead of getting angry, he was overjoyed instead.

"Saved!" They are saved, the government and/or the military has now arrived! The city's situation must have already been settled so they were now sending out troops for rescue in places like this.

"Brother, Dad, let's go! We're saved!"

Titus and Uncle Brown both breathed a sigh of relief, easing their tense nerves. Thinking about it, Uncle Brown saw how dirty they were, so his 'motherly instinct' kicked in. [2] Plus they couldn't possibly go meet other people covered in monster blood right? They would be considered crazy if they did so. Unless they were regular mud then that was somewhat understandable since chaos ensued abruptly.

After cleaning the blood off themselves, they started heading towards the sounds of gunfire. When they arrived at the scene, they saw soldiers with guns bombarding a group of monsters with bullets. They were shocked not because of how brutal the scene was but rather the monsters weren't 'fishmen' and were more like 'goblins.' Though they already knew at the back of their minds that there were certainly other types of monsters in this ridden world, the truth still smacked them hard.

*Pew*

And with the final fire of a laser gun from the captain, it marked the end of the battle.

"Spread out and search for survivors! Take safety as priority. Human resources are critical at/during this time, so the more you save, the more hope it will bring to humanity."

The captain sternly ordered while the soldiers under his wing immediately got to work. Taking this chance, Titus' group of three approached the soldiers cautiously.

"Captain, three survivors confirmed!"

When a soldier noticed them, he immediately reported to the captain, while escorting them near the 'trucks' of the soldiers.

Soon after, more survivors were found. Some were injured severely while some looked fine albeit exhausted. Those that were injured were treated by the onboard medics of the soldiers. After a thorough search, a total of 17 survivors were saved. While the military was sorting out their business, survivors started chatting amongst themselves as a form of comfort (?). Titus' group wasn't an exception.

"Brother, they don't seem to know the crystals inside the monsters. Should we tell them? I mean, look at those dead monsters, they are basically free loot!"

"No, we shouldn't be rash. I doubt that we are the only ones who discovered the crystals, so we should stay low and just let the others make it known to everyone. There's no need to take the risk of being detained and questioned."

"Your brother is right. Although, it is indeed useful if more people know of this, especially the military, for the greater good, but we don't need to take the risk. We are, after all, only ordinary people. They would find out about it sooner or later anyways. Didn't you see how the higher ups act? This is basically akin to gaining superpowers so we may endanger ourselves if we let it be known. I'm sure people who want merit would tell them soon enough."

"But... Those crystals... free loot!"

Lee was still unwilling to just give up those crystals.

"Alright, I also covet those crystals myself. The more power we get for ourselves, the better.  Because in case of critical moments, we could at least save ourselves. This is survival of the fittest after all and the world isn't the peaceful place we knew before.

All we need to do is to 'act'!"

Lee and Uncle Brown looked at each other in confusion.

Proofread by: @lynn

Author's Note:

[1] Culture is a way of saying that one is educating an ignorant person about stuffs like anime, etc.

[2] Motherly Instinct since he's technically acting both father and mother since Lee's mom died early on. 

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