Arc One - Chapter 6

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The road to Aizubange Town was filled with zombies, mutated plants, and all sorts of weird things. Normally, using cars, it would have taken 7 hours of driving from my house in Tokyo to Aizubange Town before the apocalypse. However, now that there are zombies everywhere, with dungeons forming days by days, traveling to Aizubange Town would have taken I and Souma at least 5 days and that's only because we're inside Stigma.

Due to the change of my eyes, which had now changed to be the same kind that Father's eyes was, I could now make out shapes and forms of things that are completely supernatural and not a fantasy illusion. My eyes aren't that strong yet so all that I could see was semi-transparent smoky-substance shapes that sometimes look similar to a human's spirit.

When the end of the world hit the Earth, more than half of the world's population directly turned. Those that turned aren't humans anymore. Thus, their former bodies rejected the souls of their former selves. All that was left was a body without a soul. So, seeing shapes of smoky-substance in the air all around me, I knew that these are the souls of the people who died without a burial ground.

At the current time, even I was unable to do anything for these souls. After all, I don't know how and I don't know the methods or ways of the spiritual. All that I could do was make sure or take caution to not accidentally destroy a soul.

Asides from being careful to not accidentally destroy a soul, I had to be careful to not accidentally step into a dungeon while walking or driving Stigma. Again. And this is only accounted for the Dungeons that formed in the Air... As this only occurs when I was driving Stigma, which wasn't on the ground.

Souma doesn't have such a problem. It was only me that has this problem. It seems that due to my abilities and my two energies being in complete harmony with each other, it was easy for me to step into places that have already turned into a dungeon. In fact, this was already the 12th time ever since we left home that I had stepped into a dungeon. Luckily, or maybe not really lucky for me, they were all low-grade dungeons and not big enough for me to worry about. Because low-grade dungeon doesn't help me train my abilities...

Although I said that they were all low-grade dungeons, dungeons are still dungeons. So, a couple of times, I had accidentally droved Stigma to directly hit those monsters within the dungeons just as we stepped into them... What? I and Souma were inside Stigma on our way to Aizubange Town. So, when I said 'stepped into dungeon' I really mean that it was with Stigma directly going inside such dungeons.

Dungeons have grades and difficulties, too. Just like how level 11 and level 12 zombies are different in terms of difficulty in killing them, dungeons become more difficult the deeper or higher one goes in based on the level of that dungeon itself. Only about 10% of all the ability users can go beyond the 10th floor at these current times. And that's only for those that are already level 2 with their ability.

During dungeons forming and appearing, it is very common for the dungeons to appear on the ground. The ones that formed in the air and sky are the abnormal ones. Even for low grades dungeons, when it formed in the air, the dungeon itself was already abnormal. It was just that there was no way to tell where the dungeon's door was at exactly. Thus, this situation of I driving Stigma directly into those dungeons by accidents. Souma doesn't have such a problem, but he can't tell where those doors to the dungeon that formed in mid-air are at either. If he was by himself, he won't be pulled into a dungeon if he doesn't want to, but since he's with me inside Stigma, when I go in, he does too.

Normally, cars and transportation devices or vehicles like Stigma can't go inside the dungeons. However, since Stigma is a contracted vehicle bond to me, it made it possible for Stigma to go inside the dungeons too. After all, Stigma was now a magical object. So, it was not a problem for 'him' to go inside at all.

The first 4 dungeons that I step into were filled with monsters that would cause countless men and women to scream in terror and or disgust. For example; pupae, ants, superworms, bees, wasps, beetles, locusts, and even grasshoppers and crickets. In another word, those dungeons are filled with insects.

Although, their sizes aren't a joke and their potential danger was not normal by any means. Even more dangerous than a level 3 zombie with abilities.

Hell, the first dungeon was full of ants of various kinds and types. The most common type was the Giant Black Antler Ants. And like any ants that we humans know of, these ants were all colonized in their own way, too.

The smallest size of the Giant Black Antler Ants was about the size of large human male adults. Thus, they are very huge, normally. I found out that their shells were nearly as hard as the shells of the crustacean's claws crab, the coconut crab's shell, after mutation with the Red Mist. So, it was going to be hard for normal people to hunt these little devils.

They have very strong antennae and jaw. I saw these Giant Black Antler Ants kill a large earthworm about the size of a bullet train and devoured it within less than 5 minutes. It makes me wonder what would happen if these Giant Black Antler Ants went against a group of level 12 and level 11 zombies. But in the end, I had this feeling that the ants would have won 9 out of 10 times if that really happened so I didn't ask. After all, these Giant Black Antler Ants are very strong. Of course, this was only if none of the zombies that the Giant Black Antler Ants went against are mutant in any way. Otherwise, such ideas were but a dream.

If I wasn't being careful back then, and actually use enough force to crack open the ant's shell, by now, I would have been turned into ant's food.

But then again, I should feel glad that only people who have a moderate amount of mana can enter these dungeons. That means that ability users have to be level 2 first before they could even come close to the door of any dungeons.

Dungeons appearing suddenly was already something that everyone knew of and about. With the current situation of the Apocalypse, electricity, and the internet are down and still haven't come back up yet. But, the majority of the radio stations in Japan have already been fixed and working alright. 

Due to the Red Mist, all the technician that can make radio works has to crack their brains open and find a new wave to broadcast. As a result, by the end of the third week in March, Japan's radio broadcast start working again. Thus, anyone with a radio device had already known about these dungeons forming.

The scientists that belong to my clans had already done a couple of researches on those dungeons. Especially the dungeon that used to be our Family's Clan House. 

After fathered had cleared that dungeon, it vanished and leave behind the Dungeon Crystal, which father had then used to create a training hall for the ability users from the clan.

Before I and Souma left, we had also cleared two dungeons near my home.

Those two dungeons are of Rank C and D, respectively. One was a dungeon filled with all kinds of Undead like zombies, ghosts, and all sorts of spirits. Clearing that dungeons give me all sorts of crafting materials, minerals, Chinese Yuan, experiences, and zombies nucleus crystals. Including the Main Level Floor where the dungeon crystal was found, this dungeon has 9 levels or floors.

The other dungeon was a large 50-floors prairie of land filled with all sorts of animals that were normally found in prairie biome locations. Bison, pronghorn, prairie dogs, pocket gophers, wolves, coyotes, swift foxes, badgers, black-footed ferrets, owls, sparrows, grouses, meadowlarks, hawks, and quails are among the prairie biome animal species. What I found interesting was that normal animals that would be found in Africa, Australia, India, and South America were also found in that second dungeon.

By the time that I and Souma cleared this dungeon, my Inventory was filled to the brim with all sorts of meats, bones, intestines, blood, furs, pelts, feathers, and loots from this dungeon. Unlike the first dungeon, where all the loots that I got were from looting and not dismantling. In this second dungeon, I loot and dismantle the monsters that I killed. All of them.

Of course, I left about 90% of all those resources and materials back home with my father. I only keep the meats and materials that I know I will be needing.

This dungeon that I had accidentally stepped into this time, was a rare ranked SSS Resource Dungeons. A rare Only-Resources Dungeon.

There were no monsters inside it at all and as a result, I can't even find the dungeon crystal core even after 2 months have passed by with I and Souma being inside here. With no monsters to fight, I and Souma were nearly bored to death as we investigate this dungeon.

In total, there are 100 Floors. Each floor has a different environment.

Both I and Souma exchanges look as we went back up to the first floors of this dungeon and did quick research using our abilities again just to confirm our findings.

"Kou-chan, I think that this dungeon will disappear after all the Resources in this dungeon are gone..." Souma sighed loudly with a groan as he looks up at the fake sky above our heads.

Since there were no monsters in this dungeon, I don't have to worry about Stampede occurring.

A Stampede or Overflow is a state where monsters overfills from a Dungeon. Because of this, some locations had nearly been overrun by monsters. It indeed is a very dangerous Phenomenon that any alive beings don't want to occur. Because if and when the monsters inside the dungeon got zombified too then that would increase the numbers of zombies a lot. And no, once a stampede occurs, unless the dungeon crystal was broken or taken out from the dungeon, then it is impossible to solve the problem unless every one of the monsters is killed and taken care of.

This dungeon has a lot of the Earth's resources that used to be the cause of wars on Earth. Natural Resources such as fossil fuels, switch-grasses that are ten times taller than even Souma, metals, waters, and such.

Metals deposits, water resources, plants, cleared and already purified salt deposits, coal deposits, nitrites deposits, petroleum deposits, natural geological formations resources such as marbles and stones, and things like that are plentiful in abundance.

Hell, even the walls of this dungeon are resource mines.

And to my and Souma's happiness, these dungeons that I keep on accidentally stepping into have very high compatibility with my systems. So, all that I have to do was have the System extract those resources directly and within a couple of days, all the resources in this dungeon will be gone.

Those resources that can't be directly extracted by the Systems are hand pick by I and Souma using our abilities. Things of Bio-tic Resources Agriculture; seeds for rice, wheat, corn, cotton, sugarcane, and all sort of cultivation plants like ironwood trees. It was very fast using abilities to picks/harvest such things. 

And I was right. 3 days after I and Souma finished picking all those natural agricultural resources, in all 100 Floors, the four systems finished extracting all the other resources within this dungeon. 

A large rift-of-space occurs right as I and Souma stepped inside Stigma. I directly drove Stigma and left this place of emptiness. There was nothing left inside that dungeon that could keep the dungeon alive anymore. Thus, when that door (Rift in Space) occurs, we directly leave without looking back.

When I and Souma came out from that dungeon, it was already May 14. The weather was very hot and dry. The air on the ground causes waves of heat to raised up. 

Both I and Souma exchanges look. Souma has less than 1 month left. He has to leave on June 28, and right now it was already May 24. 

... We didn't say anything as we both rushed toward Aizubange Town. Luckily, or maybe not, we didn't accidentally step into another dungeon.

Although we met a couple of level-4 zombies, with abilities and more than 3 hordes of zombified monsters from 3 Monsters Stampede. Once again, we both killed all of those zombies and got countless various grades and types of zombies nucleus crystals.

And of course, to not let the bodies of the zombie's monsters contaminate the land, even more, I and Souma burned all of the corpses before purifying the lands using our Abilities.

By the time that we made it to Aizubange Town Base, it was already two more days after, May 16.

Aizubange Town Base was a lot different compared to how it was before. 

There was an additional 2 more walls surrounding the base, with plenty of spaces for farming and other things. The gate to the base was heavily guarded and the staff members were all armed to the teeth.

There were lines of people waiting to go in but there were also lines of people coming out. 

Teams of abilities users and non-abilities-users alike drove their cars out of the base was a common occurrence. 

I drove Stigma and lined up with the rest of the survivors as we waited for our turns.

While waiting, I took out my phone and dial the number that connected to the cellphone I gave Totsuki Kanae.

It didn't even bring a second time before an excited voice called from the other end with a "Hello? Hello? Nii-san? Nii-san, was that you?" 

"... Be quiet," I said with a cold voice. Already, the presence of a large number of people has already started to cause my head to ache. Luckily, inside Stigma, the smell was blocked off by a large portion so I didn't feel like vomiting. But if this boy's voice sounds anymore louder, then I might just turn back home. 

"..." The other end seems to know that I was getting annoying so he too quiets down.

"Outside the gate. The home still the same?" We're outside the gate waiting to get inside the base. Are you two still at the same location as last time?

"Yes, we're still living with uncle Shino-san." 

"Hmm." I hang up after confirming the location. 

Souma chuckled as he kisses my hand that didn't control Stigma.

I ignored the kisses on my hand as I took out 5 gallons worth of water, 5 bags of rice, 5 bags of wheat flour, 5 bags of coals, and 3 pack of salts that's 10 pounds each, and put all of them on the back of the now-illustrated-as-a-SUV-car. 

3 hours later, it is our turn. The soldiers who check on us both look at me and Souma with a surprised look in their eyes.

"Fill out this form and once it's your turn, turned it in along with the tax fees that you wish to pay with." The soldier said with a blank look in his eyes. 

It has already been 98 days since the start of the end of the world. And it has already been more than 3 months since humans had learned that, Yes, Gods hates Humans. 

It has been more than a month since abilities become a thing. And yet, this was the first time in 3 months that the soldiers saw someone who was not affected by the zombies' apocalypse like I and Souma.

We're not dirty. No blood smear on our clothes. No rotten smell of contaminated blood in and on our car. Everything was clean visibly. 

Nevertheless, the soldiers still have to do protocols. 

When it was our turn, I give the paper to the soldiers and got out of my Stigma after double-checking everything inside the car. Then I stood a couple of meters away with Souma as the soldier sterilized the car and check our bodies for any infection or wounds. Of course, there was none and so within less than five minutes, we were let into the base.

Half an hour, after countless humans passing by and a large headache later, we finally got to the large building that the Totsuki brothers were living in. I called him once again and a couple of minutes later, Totsuki Kanae was holding Totsuki Kyou as he came out to open the door for us.

With just one look, I can tell that both the Totsuki brothers are Ability Users. In fact, Totsuki Kanae has two abilities while his younger brother shows the aura of three abilities.

... Yeah, these two boys aren't normal at all.

We followed the boy upstairs after parking the car. Souma has four bags of rice on his shoulders while I have flours and water. Of course, this was just a show so that people won't talk about us after seeing that we're strong enough to protect ourselves and our goods.

Inside the apartment unit where the Totsuki brothers live with their uncles, there were a lot of plants and greens. I can see at first sight that they took care of their fresh vegetables pretty well. I nodded toward Souma. Souma put the bags of rice into a corner of the room while looking around. I too put the bags of flour and water away from inside the kitchen area. 

Totsuki Kanae was so excited that he particularly bounce around with his little brother looking with wide-open eyes.

First of all, Souma introduces himself as a temporary teammate of mine. And much to my shock, I found out that yes, Totsuki knows about Souma.

Totsuki called Souma something that sounds like the Chinese Words for "Hell Overlord". Except that I know that it was only sounded like so.

As the son of a higher being from a far higher realm, Souma's identity was not something that could be called upon easily. So, the best that Totsuki could do was called them the equivalence of such a title.

And to my shock, Souma knows who these two brothers were.

"Kou-chan, Totsuki Kanae was one of the Soldiers that you had trained long ago. His brother Kyou was one of the children that you had adopted way back then." Souma looks at the two brothers deeply for a couple of minutes before he facepalmed and sighed out loud. Turns out that yes, these two brothers have ties with me.

Just like how Haganezuka's ties are to this world's future, their ties to mine were as soldiers and subordinates.

... Why though. I really don't want any subordinates. Teammates? I really don't mind much but subordinates? Not interesting.

Still, we need to talk to the two cousins that the two Totsuki are living with first before any decisions are made.

The next couple of hours were spent talking about the news that has been going on in this base and the other base that was formed.

The people's knowledge of the dungeons. What happened to such a group when they entered the dungeons. How many Stampede has already occurred while I and Souma were inside that Rare Dungeon? How many bases were already over-run by Dungeon Stampede-turned-Zombies Horde?

The North of Tokyo has more than 17 bases that were known of. However, by now, only 7 of those bases are left. The other ten bases have already been overrun by stampedes and hordes of zombies.

Asides from this Aizubange Base, there are another 4 other bases in the same prefectures. Fukushima Prefecture is in the Tohoku Region. Compare to the other base in Fukushima Prefecture, Aizbubange Town Base was very small. Aizubange Town Base was a Military Force base while the other base was Clans Base.

The Power Made up of these bases in the Tohoku Region of Japan was very loosely and not as compact when compared to the bases of the Kanto Region.

Near Aizubange Town Base was the base located to the East of Aizubange Town, Miharu Town in Tamura District. Unlike the Military Force Base of Aizubange Town base, Miharu was a Base made out of four large clans; The Toue, Kanagi, Sasaki, and the Miharu Clan.

Going through the information that was provided by the Totsuki Kanae, I and Souma make out that there's a population of 6 million people total in this base. 12% of those people are Ability Users. Their morals and team personality are a lot more disciples and so far, there's no killing of ordinary humans around since there hasn't been any lack of water and food yet.

Groups of teams are assigned specific tasks. The powers are balanced in all teams so there were no power-hungry teams popping out of nowhere. Civilians can also form teams after a period of training. The taxation in town was not that high but also not low. Normal citizens are taxed at 40% of their earnings but the help and protection that they got were worth it. While Ability users are taxed at 20% the military wouldn't necessarily help them do task missions.

The public works and contributions were organized and very clean. No private trades took place. Everything is out in the open to stop trashes people from taking advantage of normal citizens.

So far, in this town, people are motivated to plants crops at home using the Less-to-No- Soil planting methods. Vertical farming, Aquaponic, and even hydroponic farming were created left and right.

All in all, this base was actually not that bad compared to the Always-fighting-Clans-bases that shot up in the west region. Miharu base has more Ability Users but their morals and behaviors needed many works. Normal Citizens are treated as working-class people and have to work for a long time without rest. Taxes there for normal people are also very high at 60% too. Thus, in Aizubange Town, there was more normal people, and people work in a timely manner.

Which in turn leads to more proficiency and effective working environments.

As for any dungeons near this town, there are five of them.

Good, I can use those five dungeons to do my other missions from the other Systems.

Hmm? Now that I recalled it, I didn't check the Idle's System's Active Mission's reward. I know that I had already completed the mission right before we left the base to my father. But, Souma was too distracted so I completely forget about the reward.

Now that we had some time, I remembered the reward.

The Anti-Radiation Pills, Books of Knowledge, and the 10 Comprehension Pills.

I didn't bother to give Souma the Anti-Radiation pills since it was no use for him. However, if the two Totsuki brothers were going to be going with us, then they need it. I don't need it but there's only one Anti-Radiation Pills.

Will, Pills... But, it's only enough for one person. All of the pills were similar to a red-version of the mini-Aspirin. 

I decided that these four paired of pills should be given to Totsuki Kanae first. That boy needs the pills the most. The Books of Knowledge, however, was something odd and yet completely informative.

It is very scientific informative with plenty of illustrations and notes about the dungeons, zombies, mutant plants, mutated animals, and odd things. Even about how those pills were made and what is required to make them.

As for the Comprehension Pills, those can be used for when I am going to level up one of my abilities to a higher level. According to the description of those pills, eating it before I level up a skill or ability will give me more ideas and concepts on how to make the abilities stronger and purer.

It is recommended to use those comprehension pills when I am going to update, and level up the abilities to level 8, and up. Otherwise, using those pills would just be a waste.

After all, in the System's shop, The Comprehension Pills cost more than 4000 Zombie Coins.

And to get even 1 Zombie Coin, I need to kill 25 Level-11 Zombies.

So far, I have 12460 Zombie Coins inside my account for the Zombie Slaying System since there aren't a lot of level 9 zombies yet. Level 10 zombies? There are plenty of them but I need to kill 500 Level 12 zombies to be the equivalent of a Level-11 Zombie.  So, yes, 1 Zombie Coins is the equivalent of 500 level 12 zombies or just one level 11 zombie. As for the other System, it varies.

The Martial Arts System was the lowest in terms of credits and trading powers since I haven't been able to train with this System much.

The Trading Currency for the Knowledge System is the Knowledge Points. Not Zombie Coins or Zombie Nuclei.

While the Martial Arts System uses the Zombie Nuclei as a currency.

The Farming System, however, does not use and has any use for any currency. The more plants I planted, the larger than lands get. The larger the land is, the more I can plant. The more I plant, the more experience points I got. The more experience points I got, the larger variety of seeds I can buy from the Farming Store. And any rewards that I would ever get will be in the form of more seeds and experience points for the farm. As a result, there are no Zombie Coins for this System. What I used to buy more seeds from the Farming Stores is Experiences,  Exp. 

Thus, in total, there are the Knowledge Points, the Zombie Coins, and the Zombie Nuclei as the only three currencies.

12460 coins were more than enough to buy 4 Anti-Radiation Pills for Kyou. Each Anti-Radiation Pill costs 60 Zombie Coins(ZC). So, 4 pills cost 240ZC in total.

After making sure that both Kyou and Kaname took their pills, I made some food for us while we waited for the two men that Kyou and Kaname are living with to come back. 

I made bread, tomato basil soup, and hearty daikon soup with bones from the bison that I killed before. 

Since gas is precious right now, I had Souma opened the window and took out a portable wood-burner cooking stove and used that to make all the food. We saved some for the two men that haven't come back yet. Just in case, I also made an additional pot of soup with tomatoes, daikon, dried mushrooms that my mother gave us before we left, and dried eggplant. 

I also made some eggplant-stirred flies with soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Half an hour later, the two men came back and for the first time, I meet the other half of Kaname and Kyou's uncle. 

Just right at that moment, the rain for the day started to fall down like gods were pissing at the earth. Hails started to fall down with the rains causing all sorts of damages outside. However, by now, the survivors had already long learned and adapted to such a situation so there was no panic shouting. 

I and Souma exchanges look at we both stared at the 4 men at the door.

Shinonome Seiichirou, I had already met. But Kuou Ryuichi? I haven't met that guy yet. 

A member of the Kuou family? Kuou Ryuichi. It seems like this man really was that old fox's grandson. 

Like I had said before, in Tokyo, there are a lot of Old Man that are Foxes and are a pain to interact with. As the only son of my father and the only grandson of my grandparents, I used to have to go to these social parties for the rich in Tokyo a lot. That was until I had enough and nearly kill a couple of those so-called Old Family's grandchildren that my father told me I don't have to go again if I don't want to.

Hmph, who the fuck told those brats to act like they were going to be my wife or husband. Just because Souma isn't there with me doesn't mean that other people can butt in into my life.

Kuou Ryuichi is Old Man Kuou Youichiro's grandson. I had never met this person before because Old Man Kuou knows that I am not someone to who he could introduce his grandson without thinking of the consequences. The last time that I heard of this grandson of his was before I went to high school and that boy went into the military.

As for the other 2 men behind Kuou Ryuichi and Shinonome Seiichirou, those two old men I knew well.

"Oh my. Asari-sama? Why are you here?" One of the Old Man in Military Official Outfit asked with his eyes wide open once he saw me.

I just glance at the two men and completely ignored them. 

The old man that had called out to me was Yamamoto Chikusa, one of my grandpa's old subordinates.

As for the other man, that old man was Madarizaki Sousuke. My uncle Kyubou's eldest cousin from his mother's line. 

"Asari-sama," He too also bow down as he greeted me. I nodded at Madarizaki. This old man is okay. Ambitious but not greedy. He knows his limits and has his own moral lines that he would never cross. He also really love my uncle Kyubou as a son that he could never have, too. Not only that, it seems like Madarizaki and my grandpa used to have a somewhat-of-a-relationship? No, not in that way. More like, grandpa was his mentor? 

Both Kaname and his two uncles looked at how the two older men bowed down to me with respect and their eyes blinks in perplexity.

Souma didn't ask questions as he just started to move the food that I save for them to the table and told them to come to eat. 

The two older men exchanged looks before excitement entered their eyes as they seat down on the dining table while Kuou Ryuichi and Shinonome Seiichirou looked slightly confused. However, the two men were smart and cautious enough to not ask any questions at the current time. They just start eating once Souma and Kaname told them that they had already eaten first and these foods were theirs. 

Food shortage might not be a situation in this base but it doesn't mean that they have a lot of it to waste. Thus, all four men finished their meal cleanly and perfectly within 10 minutes. 

Shinonome took the dishes to wash while smiling contentedly. The food was great! It has been a while since he last ate this much!

Shinonome looked like he doesn't really know what to think of me who've bought his nephews back but he'd have sensed that I could be trusted. As long as Shinonome doesn't betray me first then I also won't bother to betray him later. While Shinonome was washing the dishes, Kuou Ryuichi came beside him and help him dry them before putting them away. Both men exchange a glance as understanding shines in their eyes.

Souma, who was watching them from the corner of his eyes could help but smirked as he saw their actions. I saw Souma's smirking lips and mentally rolled my eyes before I place my head on his head. 

... Yep, still feels weird since Souma's in this body that's smaller than me. 

Afterward, we all sit on the sofa in the living room as we looked at each other. 

The two older men look slightly awkward while the Totsuki's uncles look confused as hell. Souma still has that light smile on his face that was totally not a smile but more of a smirk. 

And I still don't want to open my mouth at all. 

I poke Souma to get him to start talking.

The reason why I and Souma came to this place was actually that I and Souma had found the location that Souma's original self will be appearing at, once I am strong enough. However, I don't want to live near humans. So, we're visiting this place for a couple of days before going up slightly North to Kitakata. 

There's an Assisted Living Facility near where the Ichinoto River and the Gomaizawa River meet up in Yamatomachi Aiwaka in Kitakata. That small community has a lot of land for farming and it is out of the way enough that there would be little to no zombies in that small village. I plan on clearing the village off its zombie and made that place my base. 

As I said, I would rather live by myself in the middle of nowhere than live with humans and all their emotional bullcrap. Not that I hate it but it was damn hard to bear the headache that every emotion I had sensed from the surrounding people had caused. 

Besides, Yamatomachi Aiwaka Village happened to have 5 Grade SSS Dungeons in its surrounding forest. The reason why my father had recommended that place for me was due to this. 

And... because I want to practice very negatively viewed abilities and skills. 

Necromancy.

And by that, I don't mean"the supposed practice of communicating with the dead, especially in order to predict the future." I mean the "Raise the Death as Skeleton to Work for you for Free." You know, the D&D Necromancy Way.

I would like to do that very much.

Why? Because I learned that just myself is not enough. Once Souma left me in a month, I would be by myself and no matter how strong and organized I am, it wouldn't be enough for me to get into a self-sufficient-automatic state.

Thus, I need servants. Servants that aren't human and or animals that have a will of their own. What I need are puppets. 

Robots. Puppets. Non-living Slaves.

Thus, Necromancy.

Souma had agreed with me because he knew that I will ask permission from the souls of whichever body that I would be using before I used that body. Especially when those bodies would be from the zombie's corpse after I cracked their brains.

Otherwise, I would just use the bones that I got from killing those zombies and death knights in that dungeon. There are a lot of resources and materials that I can play with when it comes to Necromancy.

Thus, I sipped my tea quietly as Souma told the men what I wanted to do. 

And if there's a house far away enough from people that I can rent for a couple of days.

Turns out, that yes, there's a couple of houses far away from the town. But those house needs to be clean, fixed, and well, basically a make-over before it was livable. 

Oddly enough, a vision suddenly caused me to go into a daze without any warning.

A large wave of demonically looking beasts and zombies alike breaches the inner second walls of the town's defense line. Causing countless survivors to die in a sea of screams, fires, thunder, and earthquake. A young boy with a calm look in his eyes slashed a large mammoth beast in one slashed as red blood tinted with purple substance splashed all over him. Another boy, a teenager really, used archery to killed multiple targets with his arrows.

"Kou-chan? What's wrong?" A voice called me back to earth.

I blinked my eyes dazedly at Souma a couple of times. 

Oh. 

Oh... 

So this is what father had meant when he said that my eyes are slightly different from his.

"Kou-chan? You're eyes... What are you seeing?" Souma's soft voice asked tenderly as he grabbed my hands.

I didn't answer as I turned toward where Kanane and Kyou were sitting instead. 

I already had an idea that these two kids are important. But... really? 

Seriously?

Do I have to be the one to train them? 

Do they really have to live with me?

... Fine. 

If the World's future rested on that boy then this vision would mean that Kanae and Kyou would have to be Japan's future.

I sighed out loud.

What a pain in the ass.

Both I and Souma exchange looks before he starts sweat-dropping. 

"Ohh," He murmured in understanding before he looks at the two kids sitting on the other sofa with a slight pity looks in his eyes. What are you pitying them for, Souma? Shouldn't you be pitying me instead?

Besides, didn't you say that Kanane was the reincarnation of one of my subordinates from some previous life ago? And that Kyou was adopted by me some life ago?

Then, wouldn't that mean that their souls were already used to doing things my way?

What are you pitying them for?! I pinch Souma's arm without hesitation. 

"Owww, Kou-chan. Okay, okay, I'll stop!" Souma looked at me with pitiful eyes as he tried to act cute all the while whining like a puppy. 

Idiot. 

I huffed out loud as I ignored him. He pouts for a couple of seconds before turning into the four men that were looking at us in surprise. 

The talks continue on. 

A couple of hours later, Shinonome took me and Souma to the House Distribution Center to rent the house that I wanted.

The house that I wanted to rent for a couple of days was farther away from the town. Located on the East side of Aizubange town, in Mimyo village.

This place was still within the walls of this town, however, the wall on this side was lower than the other sides due to the land terrain of this side. Which was slightly mountainous. 

And because this place was an onsen full to the brim with corpses and virus contamination. The corpses were cleared off but the contamination was still there. As does the smells of rots and such.

To rent this place, it cost me 15 Zombie Core(nucleus crystal) for a week. However, there's a big problem with that. First of all, there's a reason why no one was living in that place. Asides from how badly contaminated it was. That would be how badly damage the land was due to land shifts and floods. After surveying the lands, I found out that contamination and flood was the last of my worry. Why? That would be the Soil. Or the Softness Soil. The foundation of the earth itself. After the Start of this damn Apocalypse, the earth itself had started to change. The density of the earth's soil itself had changed. Some places have more clay, stone, gravel, etc. Some places have less of such soil materials. In this case, the density in the soil leaves much to desire. So, I forced the whole Housing Distribution Center to see my points when it comes to this land.

The 15 Zombie Core turned into 7 Zombie Cores plus other materials as fees. Then, I and Souma proceed to retain and compact the soil using our ability. I forced the earth and its soil to condense tightly while Souma used his ability to enhance the soil itself. This way, the soils won't lose their goodies. But if I and Souma was going to fix the land, then this land will belong to me and other people can't live here.

Thus, to make sure that no one touches this place afterward, I decided to directly buy the whole block for my own private use. In total, it cost 4000 Zombie Core and 12 Bags of 100lbs of grains, along with 500 kg of dried meats(beef, pork, and chicken), purified waters, and 12 various meds.

Shinonome was shocked that I have this many zombie cores with me. And that yes, I still have 12 bags of grains unused. Then, he shows us what sort of building the so-called house was actually. It took us 28 minutes of driving from the House Distribution Center to get to the destination. We passed by lots of tents houses, makeshift buildings, camps, and market stalls on the way before all that we could see were farmlands full of murky bloody fields. Like I said, the soil had left much to desire.

The people on this side of the town have already long ago evacuated to the center of the town and the farmlands had already been submerged under all the rainwater that had accumulated in these past months. We could even see some leftover bones in the fields.

The first thing that I and Souma did once we got here was to completely removed the buildings in a fit of fire in disgust. The smell of the onsen water mixed with rots from zombies was not a pleasant smell. At all.

After the fire burned down, Souma used Wind to clean everything and double-check the soil foundation before rebuilding the whole building. This building just happened to be an onsen, too. Thus, after rebuilding everything in a flick of a hand, the former Aizubange Chouyakuda Shiori No Yubange completely change.

The view from this location was great but... there's a reason why no one is living here. 

Before, it was due to the sheer amount of rainwater floods and zombies corpses here that no one wanted to live in this location. But now that I and Souma had completely burned everything off and rebuilt everything from the ground up, I imagine that after we left, people would start moving in. And I seriously don't want that.

Especially when Souma had to rebuild everything to be three to four times the size of its former place. Thus nothing of the onsen was left.

I didn't get a good look at what the former onsen was like but after Souma had finished building everything, the former onsen turned into a five-star apartment complex with three buildings, a front gate, walls, and all that. And a completely isolated block. 

Shinonome, who was there watching us, already has his jaws dropped to the floor in both awe and surprise. One look at him and I can tell that we might have shortcutted this man's brain and its flexibility. 

Oh? He snapped out of it. That's pretty fast. His mental strength must've been pretty strong. Although that look in his eyes was slightly... off.

Anyway, the three-building in front of me looks exactly like the three apartment complexes that I had left behind after fortifying it. The wall, like a brick wall, surrounding these three apartment complexes was high and thick enough. It wasn't a proper City Wall but it is damn close. As for the gate, it seems that Souma just copies the same design as before.

Everything was familiar and there was no sensation of alien. 

I looked at Souma who had this calm look on his face and I can feel my heart skip a beat.

Yeah, he's doing this completely for me. Even if we're only going to stay here for a couple of days at most.

I dismissed Shinonome and entered the building with Souma's hand tightly grasped in mine.

Ahhhh. My heartbeats. Yeah, this is the feeling of being alive. With him by my side, everything seems so much brighter and more colorful. Unlike before...

"Kou-chan, don't think too much," Souma's deep voice comes from my side as we both step into the completely empty middle apartment complex building. 

While looking at the completely empty building, I was reminded of the hard work that I did on my own apartment complex that I left behind for my clan.

I then looked at Souma.

He smiled softly in understanding, "Okay, I will leave everything to you while I furnished the building." He knows that I wanted to train my abilities. And what better ways to do so than first-hand-practicality experiences.

Since Souma had already built the building, I have to be careful that I don't accidentally collapse everything into the ground as I reinforce the ground.

Now, my Earth Ability was already level 7. I can now earth soils into minerals like diamonds and crystals. However, doing so takes time and concentration. That's why I won't turn the soils that this block of land has into such minerals. That's stupid and a waste of time and effort. 

However, I will turn the soils into hardening earth and stones. In other words, granite with basalt stones and compacted earth. 

After that, just like how I reinforced my previous apartment complex, I did exactly the same thing here. The basement floors and all. Of course, unlike my previous home, at this place, I created the basement floors a lot deeper. 

Even though I really don't want to live in this town for long, I know that at this current time, it is not a good idea for me to go up North. And because Souma only has less than a month left to be with me before his human body completely collapses.

During this time, I want to be with him as much as possible all the while training as much as I can. By that, I didn't mean only myself. I also mean training Kanae because that boy was going to be the hope of Japan.

But, the majority of my time will be with Souma. Not just training. Thus the underground basement needs to be much deeper as the training facility needs to be able to withstand both I and Kanae's training.

After all, I know exactly how long it will be before I and him would be separated. 

Just thinking of the future that won't have a Souma by my side was very frightened, dark, lonely, and honestly was very heart-wrenching for me.

Shaking my head of such thoughts, I continue to turn, reinforce and separated the earth to create the underground basement that I wanted. 

By the time I finished manipulating the earth and turning it to metal minerals, my back was soaked with sweat and I was already panting in exhaustion. Checking the time, 8 days have already passed by.

Honestly, using Earth Abilities alone was already tiring enough. But, using Wood, Wind, Water, and Fire at the same to help turned the Soil from Stone to Mineral and then Purify them with Fire first before turning them into the finished form of metals using Metal Ability was NOT EASY. Not to mention, using Thunder Ability and Metal Ability to create the Walls, Ceilings, and Floors of each floor of the Basement... Yeah, I was constantly snacking spiritual and magical fruits to replenished my qi and mana. 

I know that the majority of that 8 days spent on making the foundation support of this block of apartments will make this area much stronger.

10 meters of the metal iron plate was right below the floor and connected directly to the three apartment complex building's foundational support beams. After that was the 6 meters of concrete stone earth, then the 4 meters thick of marble stone, followed by the 2 meters of granite stone, and the 4 meters of diamond earth stone.  In total, the supporting floors and foundation of the three buildings themselves were 26 meters thick. Then, after that was each basement floor's foundation floor, which was 5 meters thick consisting of granite stone followed by a layer of 5-meter of soil. On. Each. Floors.

Luckily, now the controls, manipulation, and knowledge of my ability were much better compared to before. Thus, it was easier to manipulate my Abilities. But this still took me a whole 8 days to finish. Why? This is because I made the damn wall that surrounded the basements a whole 14 meters thick out of Granite, Basalt, Diamond, and a layer of a 1-meter thick metal sheet. This 1-meter thick wall of the metal sheet was because it will be charged with thunder and lightning to fries any ground beasts and or zombies from reaching my home.

And where did I get all the resources to create this base of mine? Well, that would be from the Resource Dungeon and from transmutations all the already there resources. Don't worry, I still have plenty of resources left inside my Inventory. Hell, I don't even know when would all these resources be used up. Not in the next 1000 years, that's for sure.  

Just creating the walls that surrounded the whole basement constructor took me 5 days!

Fuck, even with all of my Elemental Abilities being at Level 7, it was still so damn exhausting using all of the ability saved for Sound and Space at the same time.

But, all of my hard work is now paying off since I can sense that my abilities are now getting a lot stronger and easier to understand, much less manipulated and control. It will be a while before they can be upgrading to level 8 but that doesn't mean that they aren't getting easier to control and manipulate now.

I haven't stopped using my ability at all in these past days that I and Souma left my previous home. I constantly use Thunder/Lightning to charge Stigma while driving as I control the temperature inside Stigma with Fire and Water. I was also constantly controlling my Wood ability using my Mental Ability on any passing plants that I passed by all the while controlling gravity with Earth and Wind so that my Stigma doesn't look like a Load of Lead on land. 

So, for all of my Elemental Abilities to be at Level 7 wasn't such a shock at this current time. Especially when I had cleared more than two dungeons with them already. Still, right now my brains feel like it has lead inside instead of brain matter. I might have overstrained myself too much.

Now, I need to train my Sound Ability to match up to the other Ability but such a thing will have to wait until I don't feel like my brain is made out of lead instead of brain matter. My Sound ability isn't going to be getting any training time any time soon, that's for sure. When would it get some time? 

And that will be during my training with Kanae after Souma left. It isn't now.

Honestly, I really don't want to train my Sound Ability. 

I was already sensitive enough to humans' aura and emotion. I really don't want to be sensitive to human sounds and activity too. 

But... I know how useful the Sound Ability is so I won't be as arrogant as to say that I won't need my Sound Ability.

Especially now that dungeons are becoming more and more permanent in this world.

After I finished creating the basement and implementing the plumbing systems into the floors of each floor, I left the basement and come out to see Souma.

The first thing that I saw once the elevator opened was a completely empty floor with nothing but pillars and support columns. 

I can sense the hidden weapons on those pillars and support columns so I knew that Souma had finished furnishing this building already. Even the large tree in the front was already properly planted and grown. The only thing missing was the large mandarin bird.

I don't know about the other two buildings but I think that I will check on them later.

For now, I want to see Souma so I entered into the elevator that will take me to the top floors of this building. 

Just as the elevator opened with a small ding, I was already falling into the arms of Souma who had waited for me at the elevator's door. 

Of my god, I think that I am ready to go into a coma for this sleep.

I didn't wait for Souma to greet me as I closed my eyes and let my brain shut down for now.

Sleeppppp.

I neeeeedddd sleeepppp.

When I woke up, I will greet Souma.

Until then, goodnight.