Arc - One Chapter 7

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Waking up more than 18 hours later from the alarm next to the bed, I found myself waking up from within Souma's arms. Looking at Souma's pale complex, I knew right away that it is already the next day. Crap, just how deep does my feeling run for this man?! Just seeing his face when I woke up in the morning was like seeing a sun in the middle of hell's darkness. My heart clenched tightly at the thought and my breath slightly shortened.

And if there are tears suddenly in my eyes when I just woke up early I the morning then there's nothing wrong with it. Even then, I notice the complexion of Souma's appearance... And my heart tightened in understanding.

By the looks of Souma's physical appearance, it seems like there isn't that much time left for us either.

5 weeks and 5 days was all that we have left to be together until his current physical body completely collapsed and he has to leave. Just the thoughts of that were both a deep desperation and loneliness that causes my heart to shakes. The thoughts of not having this son-of-a-damn-god here with me were... not a good thought.

This current physical body of Souma was getting worse as time goes on. 

Today is May 23, early in the morning. 

So, five weeks and five days was the limited amount of times that I have left with Souma before this body completely went bye-bye and he has to go back to the Seals. And that thoughts caused my heart to shakes.

Just thinking about it causes my heart to shivers in loneliness. Thus, I drove deeper into Souma's arms and tightened my hold on him. Ahhh, our possessiveness of each other really knows no boundary. 

So, what am I going to do now that we're finished with this safe house/apartment? Trains? No, not yet. I want to spend the times that Souma had left with him. Not in training. Because once I start training, I tend to forget about everything else asides from training and getting my skills and abilities as efficiently as possible. So, no training. Then, what? What am I going to do with Souma for the next 5 weeks? 

Just as I was thinking of what should we do now that I had completely reinforced this building and the other two buildings, a small beeping ringtone that I recognized sounded out. 

Oh, my father is calling?

Why?

I mentally sighed out loud as I lessen my hold of Souma while Souma opened his eyes and kisses my forehead with fondness.

Taking out my cellphone from my Inventory, I saw that it was actually a text message and not a call.

Reading the message, I have to stop myself from lifting my eyebrows at the news.

It seems that after the Clan moved into my previous home, the Sakura tree in front of the building and that large bird that has assimilated with the tree decided that it doesn't like a couple of the people in the group and had attacked them. 3 adults male were killed in the fight against the tree and the bird, however, my father had decided that he won't do anything to the bird and the tree since clearly I had given it permission to settle there. As for the three males that were killed, my father was actually going to expel these three men out from his clan because they had betrayed the clan by selling the weapons that my father had crafted to an outsider. However, before he could do that, they were killed by the bird and the tree.

Thus, saving him the effort to do so himself.

As for the other news, it seems that my mother was pregnant again after eating one of those eggs that the bird had given birth to. A male bird hatches eggs... yeah, it's a thing alright. What in the world is this world becoming?

She's currently really happy that she can still get pregnant after that accident that loses my Former-To-Be-Sister. 

The third news that my father wanted me to know was that he had tamed a group of mutant birds flocks and that he had turned a couple of the blocks nearby the base into their nests. However, unlike the bird and sakura tree in front of the building, this flock of mutant birds was a lot smaller and was easier to trains as a messenger and package carrier. They can avoid Dungeons in the air due to their Air and Mana Sensitivity ability. 

The fourth news that my father wanted me to know about was actually bad news. One of my cousins in China had died. No, murdered. 

This cousin that was murdered was the son of the two cousins that were in China working as actors. Yes, they had an incest relationship with each other but somehow had involved a girl into their relationship and now had four sons and three daughters with her. 

The son that had been murdered was the youngest son. That boy was only 9 years old. So, right now, cousin Qian Wei and Qian Xiu are on a warpath looking for the killer. Their shared-lover, Zhang Baili had fallen sick in her grievous and needed medicine that the current apocalyptic time does not have in China due to the sheer amount of dungeons forming there. And let's just say that China's dungeon and American's dungeons numbers had hit the three digits already. Luckily, Japan was an island country so there's a limited amount of land that dungeons can be formed on. Even then, it was already devastating for Japan, especially right after the start of this damn apocalypse.

So, my father wanted me to send some of those medicines over. And if I want to, I could go to China to train myself there and made another safe base for the cousins' safety. Father had already marked the location, routes, and warning on the map for me. 

The fifth news was that my father had found the materials needed to upgrade my Space Ability up to the next level. So, I have to go back to that base to get it.

The sixth news was that grandpa had decided that he want to come to Aizubange Town Base to live here with cousin Akira. They were already on their way here. Well, damn, luckily, I just finished reinforcing the apartment complex. They could choose to live here if they want to or live nearer to the town center where the markets and official locations are nearer.

Whichever one he chose, I would respect that. Although if he chose to live here with me then I would have to reinforce his chosen home with a lot of Talisman to stop my Power from affecting him and myself. My Power didn't affect Souma because this current body of his wasn't his real body. However, if grandpa comes here, without precautions, my passive ability will affect him and me. I can't have that right now. I cannot afford that right now.

The seven news was about the zombie apocalypse virus in the air. It has mutated due to the radiation from the sunlight and that Red and Blue Mist. Which... were the results of those Dungeons Seeds being implemented into this world. More mana from the dungeon means that more magic will slowly seep into this world's core. And if Spiritual Energy doesn't want to lose to Mana Magick, then it would influence the Non-Dungeon Zombies to get stronger much faster. And if ND Zombies(Non-Dungeon Zombies) gets stronger, then humans will have to get stronger, too. This cycle is reinforcing life to go on and continue living on in this world.

Thus, it is now harder to cure the virus within human bodies. This caused my father to asked me to see if I can create the cure for those that haven't turned or were on their way to turning into zombies.

This, I can do but I would need a lot of zombie cores, nuclei, of a much higher grade, and 27 different kinds of materials that I don't have right now.

I know that these materials can be found inside Dungeons so I am not worried. I am just worried that such a cure isn't available right now to outsiders. After all, for the System's anti-zombie Cure to work on other people, I have to meet that person face to face and interact with that person enough to understand his or her personality first. This is one of the requirements and it was how the shot that I gave Tsunayoshi worked on him.

Otherwise, by now, I would have sold the elixir shots to this base and earned hundreds of times back already.

However, not all hope was lost for humanity since my father's insane group of scientists had found ways to train Ability Users. They had created the Formula for the Ability Shots medicine that can help train Ability Users by using the zombie's crystal nucleus. Thus, now, the zombie nucleus was now called Crystal and it is the primary currency that the people inside my father's base trade with. 

This medicine was made possible only because of Tsunayoshi's intuition and his mother's Witchcraft ability that was able to make use of Potion Alchemy. Otherwise, such a thing wouldn't exist at this current time. Of course, this doesn't count if Grandpa and Father wanted to give out Ability Shots Medicine to other people directly from their System's Shops. Hmmm... Maybe not Grandpa. Just Father, since Grandpa's System, was currently mine, now. 

So, yes, Tsunayoshi's training to be the leader of their base was going well. Which was a great thing?

The eighth news that his father wants him to know about was that THING, Protector.

It has shown signs of waking up now. And father had already reinforced the seals over it. 

That last news was what cause my eyebrows to start twitching. Yeah, Souma was right.

I and Souma exchanged look as we both sighed out loud. 

There was some great news and very bad news. My mother is pregnant and that I will get a sister or brother in nine months was actually great news. However, the news about his cousins in China and concerning the virus mutation was not good at all. Tsunayoshi's help with creating the Training Shot medicines or elixir was great news while the awakening of that Thing was Bad News. Capital Letter Intended for emphasis. 

As for the other news, those are good and general news.

Father taming a flock of birds was not unexpected since he was known to be a great tamer.

I reread the news again and check the make sure that the medicines that my two cousins in China needed for their wife were still good. 

As for what and how to send them over, that's not an issue.

Talisman and Drone was the answer. I reinforced the drone with a talisman before it left with the medicines, foods, water, clothes, firewood, zombie nucleus, seeds, and a couple of notes that I had taken down about this new world of ours. Especially about the dungeons and the mutated virus in the air. I also included three training guidelines to help the two cousins train the family members. All of this was placed inside a sealed talisman inscription and only my two cousins can open it. Of course, I also included in a letter that lets them know that I will be coming over in two months to reinforce their home as my father had suggested me to do.

As for my mother's pregnancy; I should send over more materials just in case. Summer right now is moderate in temperature. However, once September comes, the temperature will start dropping. And that was not a good thing for mama.

As for my Space Ability getting an update, I really don't care. However, once the news was acknowledged by me, the four systems started to react like little kids on a sugar high.  

All Four Systems wanted their Cores to upgrade to the next level. This wasn't something that they can let go of. Thus, I and Souma decided that we were going to be going on a picnic and go back to my previous home for those materials. Of course, to make sure that nothing goes wrong when grandpa and cousin Akira got here, I even send them a message about where this place is and how to come inside here. 

Since I am going back there anyway, I could just send over the materials for mama myself. 

So, the goal of setting another base up north for myself was put on HOLD for an unspecified amount of time. 

Now, the goal was to go back to the Clan's current location and update my Space Ability. After sending off the drone, I and Souma took a bath together in the onsen that Souma had created under a protective shield. 

Then, I made food for us. A full Japanese Style breakfast, a large multi-layers bento box, picnic mats, and seating cushions later, I and Souma left our base and headed to the Mission Hall Center. 

We needed to take at least one mission per month if we are Ability User. Since grandpa's going to be coming here, I and Souma both think that it is a good idea to earn some resources and exchange tokens. Exchange tokens are used as the secondary currency of this base so it is a must-have if grandpa wanted to live here.

So, we went to the mission center to take a couple of easy tasks. 

The Mission Center was a former three-story supermarket with large glasses doors and a tightly secured metal mesh fence. There were only hundreds of people inside the mission center this early in the day. Thus, the smells, sounds, aura, and presence of humans were still bearable for me.

Both I and Souma didn't wait to talk to the desk lady as we went straight to the quests and mission board.

There were a lot of missions and quests on the boards. The majority of it was for Zombie Termination Quests and Mission. The rest was for Resources, Investigation, and mundane tasks like cleaning the street, moving bricks to create walls, houses, and such.

Each person can accept up to 10 Level 1 quests/missions with no problem. However, to accept a level 2 quest and above, you need to be in a team. Souma only has 5 weeks and 5 days left. Thus, we didn't bother with registering for a team plate. Instead, both I and Souma accepted 3 level 1 mission and after signing the documents for it, left the mission center without looking back.

My mission was to gather stones to be used in cement and building resources. Souma's mission was for firewood for the military cafeteria. 

I need to have at least 15,000kg worth of limestone, clay, or sand to complete the mission. 

Souma needs at least three piles of 4 ft by 4 ft by 16 inches worth of firewood to complete his mission. 

Souma's mission is worth 5 Exchange Tokens. Mine is worth 6 Exchange Tokens. One Exchange Token is worth 50kg of grain in exchange. So, you can think of 1 Exchange Tokens being worth 100 Meal Tickets.

Tsuchida Chuo Mining Company was nearby but we didn't plan on going there to collect the materials for our quests. Besides, Tsuchida Chuo Mining Company is filled to the brim with the Clans that had controlled over this mine. 

We left the town safe base behind without looking back.

On the way, I make use of training my Air/Wind Ability to avoid as much of those Air-Dungeons as I can, and yet, we still got sucked into two of them on our way back to my former home. 

Luckily, it was a low-level dungeon so after killing all the werewolves, Iced-Elves, and Ice-Trolls inside the dungeon, we made it to the core room and took out the core. I didn't destroy the core because I happen to like this dungeon. The way that the werewolves were fighting was pretty much within my acceptable range for training my melee combats. The way that the Ice-Elves are great at fighting long distances with their bows, daggers, and magic was great for me to train my reflex, movement, and magic resistance. The Ice-Troll's blood has great healing properties once you combined it with a couple of herbs. Thus, these guys are money-making machines. Gold's that does grow on trees for me for free and with no need for maintenance.

Not only that, due to the Ice-Freezing cold environment that these beings are in, they had also created a completely different world biome within this dungeon. Thus, the trees that were growing in this place all have cold resistance to it. Therefore, I also took all of the trees within this place back with me. Fuels using these trees last 10 times longer. Houses build using these trees are able to resist cold better. And the best of all, There. Is. No. Insect. Problem. with these trees due to their sheer coldness. All of these conditions caused me to take the Dungeon Core of this dungeon back with me.

The second dungeon that we accidentally step into was... the sea. The whole dungeon was a huge sea. And the sea creatures in those dungeons cause my stomach to growl in hunger. Why? Because the sheer sizes of the creatures in that sea were so huge that it was unthinkable. 

Souma took one look at those creatures and he starts to laugh out loud with both amusement and gratitude in his tone.

"Ohhh, Kou-chan, your luck is still so damn Majesty. To think that you actually got into a dungeon that's like this one! You have no idea how lucky you are right now." Souma had laughed as he said that with tears in his eyes while petting the floor with his fist.

"...What?" What luck? What is this place that causes you to laugh so badly?

"Kou-chan, this dungeon is called 'Myriad Sea World'. It is a very Rare Dungeon that can only be found from SSS+ worlds because it needs special energy called the Origin Chaos Energy to form. Don't judge this sea by its appearance. In fact, just what you had senses so far was but a tip of its peak. Not to mention, unlike other dungeons, this dungeon doesn't have a core. What you need to do was find a special Pearl called the Sea World Pearl and either tame that pearl or make Contact with that pearl. However, to do so is hard. After all, in this place, where the sea was even larger than that planet Jupiter, finding the Sea World Pearl was even harder than finding a needle in the middle of the desert. Its size was only about inches in diameter. Finding that amount the billions of life in this place was next to impossible without spending hundreds of years in here... Kou-chan? What are you looking at?" While explaining what this place was and how to get out of here, Souma finally notices that I was only paying half attention to him since my sight was on a certain small white object right below our feet. 

The current place that I and Souma are standing on was a beach. This place is a small 2 miles in diameter island. This island is the door to the outside world. Thus if we found the pearl, then we need to come back here. And the pearl... isn't it right below our feet? I been down and pick up the 3-inches pearl white that seems to want my attention.

"...Kou-chan... You..." Souma's eyes widened so hugely that he looked like he was going to choke in shock.

"This..." Is this the Sea World Pearl that you were talking about? It seems to be calling out to me ever since I've stepped foot in here. 

"Kou-chan... Oh my god, Hahahahahahaha!" Souma laughed so hard that he was holding his stomach in ache as his fist hit the sand floor, causing sands to fly all over the place. I don't see the point of why he was laughing so I ignored him for now and check on the Sea World Pearl.

It was a complete white pearl that was exactly 3 inches in diameter. Once I took a hold of the pearl, the Idle's System woke up with a beep.

[Idle's System Notice: Sea World Pearl Detected. Sea World Pearl would like to request the Master to tame it. Please note that once you tame this Sea World Pearl, your Farming System's Farming Space will increase by 3000 times and a sea will be formed within that space.]

I looked at the Sea World Pearl and send a somewhat telepathy voice to it. "You wanted me to tame you? Do you know what that would mean? You will be tied together with me. If I die, then you will die too." 

The white pearl gives out a bright shine in reply. It warms my fingers. 

"... Souma..." Souma, this Sea World Pearl wanted me to tame her. Any suggestion?

Souma, who was still on the floor laughing his ass off, wipe the tears from his face as he nodded. "Go ahead. If the Sea World Pearl had made this decision by itself then it means that this Sea World Pearl had already gained a spirit of its own. And judging by the size of this dungeon, it had already formed a spiritual soul of itself for more than a billion years already. I just don't know how or who it was that dropped this pearl into this world, dimension. After all, Sea World Pearl cost more than 5 million Origin Gemstone. And 1 Origin Gemstone was enough to create a world the size of Earth as a planet completely with its own laws, environment, and life cycle." Here, Souma laughed again. This time, there was a deep profound look in his eyes that cause my back to shivering in understanding.

Someone deliberately drops this pearl into this world. And I don't know who.

The Higher Being that was watching me was still watching us. However, I know for sure that it wasn't from them. How do I know this? Intuition. 

So, whoever it was that dropped this pearl into this world had done it purposely. 

And that being must've been very strong. So strong that the other Higher Being couldn't do anything about it or know about it until it was far too late and the Sea World Pearl had already come to my hand.

Looking at the white pearl, I accepted its request and tamed it. 

"Your name from now on will be Cosmos." With that telepathy command, the whole dungeon started to shake. It continues to do so for about 30 minutes before it shined brightly one last time, and everything completely calms down. The pearl was gone from my hand, and somehow, I was able to sense it in my mind, like how the Learning System was after it had been absorbed into the other systems.

Somehow, this reminds me of that presence in Tokyo Bay. I haven't shown Souma that presence yet. So once we're back to Tokyo, I will take Souma to go see that whole void of space that's completely filled with seawater.

Now that I have tamed Cosmos, everything here can be controlled by me. However, doing so was stupid since this dungeon is huge. Too gigantic in size.

As Souma had said, this dungeon sea was easily the size of Jupiter. In fact, it might be larger than Jupiter. I had never been to Jupiter, so I don't know if its size was the same or larger, but I have this feeling that comparing Jupiter and this Dungeon was not fair to Jupiter's planet at all.

Once we got out, Cosmos sent me telepathy thought about wanting to know more about my world. This world and its current situation. This, I have the other Systems connected to Cosmos and show her everything that she has to know, needs to know, and wants to know. 

For billions of years, ever since Cosmos got a Soul of its own, it had already turned into a complete Spiritual Being. Thus, I don't view Cosmos as a pet or an A.I. However, I also don't view it like how I view Protector, either. 

For some odd reason, I know that Protector and Cosmos will get along together very well once they meet each other... Yet, there's no sensation of worries or caution about the two of them meeting at all. 

Just... What is Protector exactly? 

He was born with me, from my soul. So, who does that make me?

"Kou-chan, don't overthink about it. It isn't the time yet," Souma said as he took my left hand and kissed it. I looked at Souma with a deep look.

Fine. Clearly, Souma knew who I was. But if he thinks that it isn't the right time for me to know about who I am, then I will wait.

Clearly, my strengths at this current time aren't enough.

After all, there has to be a reason why Higher Beings like those Beings are interested in me. And there has to be a reason why the Systems chose to come to me when, clearly, my Father was a better choice. There's already a lot of information that I had gathered that had hinted me to the future.

But for now, such knowledge is not for me. So, I won't bother worrying about it yet.

Four hours later, after avoiding more than 20 dungeons in the air, Souma and I finally came back to what is now the Asari Safe Base.

A lot of things have changed. The surrounding blocks of skyscrapers building had already had people living in them. The base had grown by a lot. From within Stigma, I can see that within these buildings, farms were set up, and people were using their ability to grow such and such plants.

I looked down and noticed a couple of kids using their ability to plant a large oak tree. Once it was high enough, one of the adults with Power ability came in and chopped it off. Then, the kids would continue to use their abilities to chop the oak trees into logs and dry them using a combination of fire and wind. This was right on the street, and no one said anything. In fact, it seems like everyone was doing the same thing. Are they farming firewood?

I called Father and went directly into the three buildings that make up the core of this base. Stigma was invisible so no one saw me and Souma coming in until we were on the ground. But even then, no one can say anything since my father was waiting with mama beside him. There were three fully armed guards behind Mother, but she completely ignored them as her face shone brightly in my direction. 

Just as I step off Stigma, I can hear the shout of my excited mama calling my name.

"Kohinatsu! Welcome home!" She said as she walked toward me really fast, causing my father's calm face to change slightly as he followed after her to make sure that she didn't fall. 

"Mama..." Mother, please be careful. Don't walk too fast. It's dangerous. And why are you outside? It's very hot outside right now. 

"I know, I know, but I was too excited. And Souma-kun, welcome back, too." She said as she smiled brightly at Souma, who stepped out from the other side of Stigma. Souma smiled softly at my mother and nodded in greeting. He then turned toward my father, and they seemed to have a conversation through telepathic right now. 

I held my mother's hand as I guided her back to the building. However, before I could even step in, a loud cry of a bird interrupted my walking. I looked up to see the bird that was on the Sakura tree landing down on the ground not even 3 meters away with a loud and excited cry.

"Hey," I said to the bird, causing its eyes to twinkle with excitement as he chirped cheerfully. The guards were alert, and they had their guns out, but the bird completely ignored them as he lowered his head down to see me with careful, cheerful chirps. It seemed like he knew that my mother is pregnant right now, so he was careful with his movement in fear of frightening her. 

Looking at the caution bird and how cheerful it was, I had to resist a smile. I took out a couple of fruits from my Farming space and threw them toward the bird. The bird happily opened its mouth and chomped down on the fruits with cheerful cries before it trotted toward the Sakura tree.

I ignored the awe-inspiring looks on the guards' faces as I continued to lead my giggling mother back inside. We went into the elevator after I made sure that no accident was going to happen. Mother continues to happily tell me about things that she had been doing to help herself and my new unborn sibling. She's three months in now, so her stomach isn't showing yet.

My father just completely ignored me as he half paid attention to my mother's walking half telepathic with Souma. I don't know what they were talking about, but somehow, my father's eyes started to twitch halfway through. 

Father and Mother led us to my farming apartment unit while the guards waited outside. They and Grandpa had been living here ever since they moved in. Everything had changed, but everything was still the same, too. Father had reinforced the whole building to be able to support additional gardens and farms within this unit, so now there are a lot of plants inside. Since my mother loved to cook, my father had to connect this residential unit with the other one and turn that one into a farming space for food. 

Once we were safely situated inside, my father didn't wait as he threw me a couple of Spatial Bags.

I didn't ask either as I started to transfer materials and resources into those bags.

The Spatial Bags that the father has were from his own System's shop thus, they are slightly different due to the different Runes on them. The Runes that were on the Spatial Bags from my own System's shops seem to have been made using Earth's Languages, while the Runes from my father's spatial bags are made using Otherworldly Languages. I couldn't read or understand what the Rune meant, but I did sense the Laws that those Runes Governed over.

Each of the Spatial Bags that Father had thrown was as large as 10 Football fields each. Thus, it was able to hold in a lot of things. And once inside the Spatial Bag, time froze inside. As a result, I didn't worry as I continued to transfer more and more resources into the bag. After all, Souma had probably told him about that Resources Dungeon that we had cleared out. So, I didn't hesitate to put in as many resources as the Spatial Bags was able to hold.

It wasn't a full 3 hours later that I was done. Then my father gave me a small 8-inch by 6-inch by 4-inch dark metal box. I didn't open the box but directly put it into my Inventory. 

Within less than a minute, I felt very sleepy, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep on Souma's arm already. The last thing on my thought was that the Systems are upgrading themselves. And then nothing.

By the time that I woke up, two days had already passed by. And my Space Ability was now completely over-powerful. I can sense even more things and a much longer distance.

Shit! I groan. My head! Being overwhelmed right just as I woke up was not what I had in mind! The smell of rotten zombies, humans sweating, smoke from the fire, and god, too many things. Groaning loudly, I opened the System's shop, bought the highest-grade of scent blocker, and used it on me before I could breathe without feeling like a billion of information was entering my mind at the same time.  

"Kou-chan? You okay?" The presence of Souma's soul was goddamn heaven to my heavily overwhelmed sense. I can feel my whole body was going against my mind as it tries to overcome my badly shaking senses. Shit anyone who hasn't experienced having a very sensitive sensation needs to shut the fuck up. Because this was pure torture. Without the scent blocker from the system, right now, my ability might have completely snapped from my control, and god knows how many people will die if that happens. 

"Leave..." We have to leave right now. The scent blocker can only last 48 hours. 

"Are you sure, Kou-chan? Right now, a level 8 zombie has appeared. You don't want to go play with it first before going back?" Souma said with a smirk as he helped me massage my head.

A level 8 zombie? Now? Isn't the evolution of the zombies a little bit too fast? But then my mind flashes to the dungeons and how the dungeons stampede occurred, and  I understand why, how, and what causes and effects it has on the zombies. For a level 8 zombie to appear right now might have been far too slow. Not faster, but slower.

Seeing the look on my face, Souma smiled as he took out a file. 

On the file were the details of the level 8 zombies and the mutant zombies.

A couple of level 10 zombies with mutant power had appeared in the South—three in the West and two near here. As for the level 8 zombies, the scout group had found insight into the intelligence within the level 8 zombie since it was able to search for crystal nuclei by either creating an accident that kills the level 12-10 zombies or by hitting the nearby object and accidentally killing lower level zombies. 

This level 8 zombie was 5 meters tall and had four arms. Its speed was very fast and was very flexible. It was able to withstand gunshots and a sniper rifle with no problem. 

Okay, I'm in. Where's the level 8 zombie? Nearby a dungeon? Okay, let's go!

Souma saw the bright, twinkling looks in my eyes, and he laughed softly. 

Well, what do you expect from someone like me who adapted to chaos and deaths like breathing to do when I find out such information? I'm not stupid, but I am a combat maniac. 

12 hours later, we came back to the Asari Safe Base with a pure dark red zombie nucleus and a couple of tens of thousands of lower-level nuclei. Now that I have had my fun, I and Souma can finally go back to Aizubange Safe Base—much to my mother's reluctance. 

Of course, before leaving, I took Souma to see that 'Presence' in Tokyo Bay. Souma took one look at that void and his eyes lifted up in surprise. He just chuckled softly and told me to leave this presence alone. This presence was here only to rest for a couple of years before leaving. And thus, this presence won't cause any good or bad or even neutral things to happen.

I looked at the void filled with seawater and feeling slightly mischievous, I took out one of the Spatial Bag that Father gave me and filled it up with books, manga, novels, video games, and the devices that go with it. Souma took one look at my action and he started to chuckles.

I then threw the Spatial Bag into the center of that void and left with Souma. I didn't look back, so I didn't see what Souma had seen. All I knew was that Souma had started to laugh out loud afterward and then started to kiss my cheeks with amusement in his eyes.

On our way, we slow down and have a picnic in the sunlight on a field of grass. 

What I didn't expect to find was a family of 9 squirrels that tried to steal my dessert and nuts. But these nine squirrels were all normal squirrels. Not mutated animal. And the tree that they had lived on was a normal tree, not a mutated tree. How were they able to hide away from zombies? 

And then, oh. It wasn't a family of 9 squirrels but rather a whole village's worth of squirrels. That hole in the tree? That's a small dungeon about the size of a small forest with plenty of trees that bear nuts, fruits, and flowers. As for the family of 9 squirrels, they used to belong to a family nearby. But now... that family is probably among the zombies that I had killed.

As for why they would steal my dessert and nuts, that would be the same reason why animals cannot survive in the wild without training. Either lack of instinct, laziness, or pure ignorance.

Feeling slightly pity for the animals, I took out a couple of fruit seeds and used it to grow a large orchard field of various fruits. Those fruit trees were large enough to protect the squirrels from upcoming hailstorms and winter,; they should survive this year. The family of squirrels was pretty surprised that fields of fruit trees suddenly appeared there, but they happily went ahead and started to grab fruits to eat.

Then, Souma and I slowly and carefully made our way back. We didn't want to enter another dungeon right now accidentally. The closer we got to Aizubange Safe Base, the fewer zombies that we saw. Any zombies that we saw, we took care of.

About 4 miles away from the base, we decided to travel on the ground instead of the air. This way, we would know where the on-ground dungeons are.

To my surprise, we entered a dungeon right just as we landed on the ground. 

And to my surprise, we cleared that dungeon in less than 12 hours. This dungeon was a Ranked C-Dungeon. It has 50 floors. It has monsters of various types, and their strengths were slightly higher than normal. And hence, I had fun and went all out. I left Souma to dismantle the corpses and carcasses of the monsters. This was why, 12 hours later, I had completely cleared all 50 floors of the dungeon without any problem.

After that, we continue our way back to the safe base. Of course, I didn't forget to buy another Senses-Blocker from the Shop and renew it on to myself as we continued on. 

A couple of hours later, we finally made it safely back inside the safe base. Then, using our abilities, we made wagons and carriages and filled in the materials and resources needed for our missions. Of course, both Souma and I ensured that no one had seen us before we created the wagons and carriages. I then used the large bones from the larger monsters and creatures found inside dungeons to create three large bulls to pull our wagons and carriages. 

I covered the wagons and carriages and then tied them to the three bone bulls and left with Souma for the Mission Center. On our way, we attracted a lot of people due to bone bulls. 

At first, they were scared of the creepy-bone-looking bulls, but seeing that those bulls didn't even pay attention to them, their fear slowly calmed down, and curiosity perked up instead. As a result, people started to follow us to the Mission Center, chatting all the way. This created a huge headache for me.

So, I hurriedly turned in the mission materials, got my Exchange Tokens, and left with the three Bone Bulls without looking back.

When the gate to my home shut closed and locked out the curious lookers, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Grandpa must've noticed the commotion, so he came out to see what was going on with cousin Akira. Aside from Cousin Akira and Grandpa, there are ten other armed people. Those are Grandpa's guards that he had personally trained. And thus, those ten guards knew who I was.

They all conditionally bow with a greeting to me. I nodded toward them all as I and Souma led Grandpa and Akira back inside. Akira was very talkative, and as my Grandpa's right hand, he knew me very well. So, all the talks and words that came out of his mouth were all information that I found useful to know about. 

For example, the real leader of this base. Tsuchida Minato. He's one of the rare 3 Abilities Users that Japan has. He's a Power, Fire, and Water System user. He had led 30 people into one of the closed dungeons nearby and successfully came back with a lot of resources. No one died in this expedition led by Tsuchida, and all 30 team members leveled up. So, he was very famous on this base. As a result of this expedition, the walls surrounding this base got taller and wider with more protection, leading to more apartments being constructed. The living hood for the people of this base got better, and more survivors continued to join the base.

One of the groups that had joined this base was a group of Abilities Users called Akasha Group. Akasha Group has 150 members, and 50 of them are Abilities Users. This group at first tries to cause problems, but in the end, with one moved from Tsuchida's group, everything quiets down. 

Akira continued to talk about all sorts of things, but after 40 minutes, he noticed that I was looking at him with a slightly annoyed look, so he finally stopped talking and left for his room, which was next to Grandpa's room. Grandpa had already left a while ago since he noticed the change in his health when he came closer to me. Akira was the one who had to continue to talk and talk, completely ignoring the looks Grandpa had given him when he left.

Now that Akira too left, Souma and I took a shower real quick before soaking ourselves in the onsen.

Inside the onsen, I slowly let loose my senses and tried to control them. 

Without the Senses-Blocker, the smells of everything nearby nearly closed me to kneel over with agony. Souma helped me overcome the agony and slowly trained my senses to get over the overwhelming sensation of everything. By the time I had control over my senses, I had already evaporated all the onsen water and had to resupplies it again.

Souma easily picked me up from within the onsen and dried both of us as we made our way to our room. He made sure that there was nothing wrong with our room before placing me on the bed. I had to stop myself from buying another Senses-Blocker because my control over my sense of smell still wasn't that strong yet.

And I don't want to become addicted to using Sense-Blocker. 

Instead, I just had Souma directly limit my senses before we go to sleep.

The next morning, Souma woke me up and helped me limit my senses. I made breakfast and called Grandpa and Akira to come to eat with us. 

Freshly steam magical rice, miso soup made with magical beans-turned-tofu, grilled mackerel, and simmered vegetables. Not a full hearty breakfast but ones that have much more protein, nutrients, and would last far longer. Grandpa had started to work with the leader of this base and so he needs to eat healthy foods that can sustain him for a much longer time period. Akira, as his right-hand, has to be able to keep up with grandpa's work, too. And thus, I made sure to cook magical- food for them. 

I also made some breakfast for the guards too. Although, theirs are only normal rice, grilled mackerel, and miso soup. There were no simmered vegetables for them and it wasn't made with magical ingredients. Still, they were very surprised when Akira told them that it was for them. 

After breakfast, I had grandpa and Akira takes the bentos with them as they both left for work with the 10 guards. 

Both I and Souma didn't go anywhere today. We planned on spending our time together closely. The only thing that we did was to make more pickled vegetables; Japanese style, Korean, and Chinese Style since there aren't enough. 

Each style has its own tastes to it so I like all three of them. After that, we just lazily around the house listening to music, playing games, and doing nothing particularly interesting. 

Souma's arms were around my waist as he hugs me with his head on top of my chest. We're both were currently laying on the sofa. Since I was currently taller than him, his head could only reach my chin. It still feels slightly odd having him being shorter than me but I don't mind much.

I have an audiobook on speaker and was relaxing with Souma. Our mana was out and twisting around each other. Even though our bodies aren't entwined into each other(sex), our magic still twist and combined into each other. Thus, this moment was far more intimate than even sex could be. Not to mention, sex could be done with anyone who wanted to but entwining mana together between two different people has requirements and have a far deeper meaning.  

First of all, they have to trust each other to the level of two souls becoming one. Secondly, their souls have to be compatible. Soul Compatibility was something that even Fate can't control. The same way as the soul of a person cannot be controlled even by Heaven. And thus, for two people to have Soul-Compatibility was something that is so rare that even Heaven can't do anything other than to bless them.

Me and Souma's souls are very, very, compatible. 100% Compatible. So much that even in a whole other Dimensional Plane, Souma was able to find me. No matter how many times I reincarnated, rebirth or such and such in whatever realm, dimension, and place. He would be able to find me regardless. That's how compatible our souls were.

And entwining a pair of souls together like how I and Souma did ours was so magical and spiritual in-depth that everything else pales in comparison. 

So, even though I and Souma were doing nothing and just listening to audiobooks, in fact, what our souls are doing was already pretty much more valuable than anything else in this world.

When the sun sets on the horizon, we stop and make dinner. Then, we waited for Grandpa and Akira to come back to eat. Once again, our soul started to entwine again just as we both relaxed on the sofa as we waited for Grandpa and Akira to come back.

When they finally came back, we eat dinner together before going back to our own room. 

The next morning, I made breakfast and listen to Akira talked about things that happened. 

According to him, a new dungeon was opened about 45 minutes to the East of here. It was an underground dungeon that seems similar to a maze with multiple levels.

Tsuchida's team had already made a moved and had secured that location so that no zombies accidentally went inside and infested or inflected the monsters inside. Thus, they request all the abilities users to help clear that area and sealed it off from zombies. 

Today, Akira and the guards are going to join in that mission while grandpa provides supports from the rear. 

... I have a slightly ominous feeling about this so-called conquest or mission of theirs so I force grandpa and Akira, along with the guards, to take a couple of equipment with them. Equipment that was freshly made by me and can only be used by them since they got my permission. 

I didn't go with them and I didn't want to go with them so that's the best that I could do for them. Of course, with grandpa's abilities, I don't really need to help them but... just in case grandpa wanted to play the low-key cards again, that equipment can be used as camouflage and will diverge people's eyes away from them. 

Grandpa got a full leather armor set while Akira got a leather mixed metal armor set. All the guards got reinforced plating armor for their uniform that was inscribed and imbued with spells to make them stronger and faster. 

Of course, there are also three healing spells inscribed on the guard's armors to heal them three times if they were injured enough to required it. In addition, there's three Poison Cure Spell that can cure most poison.

While that happened, I and Souma spend every second that we have left together. Talking, snuggling, playing with each other's soul, and making training plans for the Totsuki brothers and the other people that I would train - aka grandpa's guards. 

... And myself. Of course.

But the majority of my and Souma's times was spends snuggling together doing nothing and anything that we could think of that doesn't include sex. 

We have battles in all sorts of the way as excused to see who wins and loses so that the loser would have to initiate kissing the other. I lose the majority of the time and I have to kiss him a lot but that's only because Souma could be very cunny and sly when he wanted something from me without directly saying it. And because he knew that I was... nervous with initiating kissing from when we were kids.

Even now, the most that I had done when it comes to initiating anything was hugging him and holding his hand. And it wasn't because I was shy. It was because I got nervous because he's far too important to me. It causes my heart to shakes and that's why I got nervous.

He knew this and he loves it. So, he always freaking damn tease me with this knowledge whenever he could. Of course, he didn't do it too much too because otherwise, I would have beat the shit out of him. 

Yeah. I totally would do that. 

Anyway, just like that, times seem to be so short that it passed by without even letting me know. 

And far too soon, the last day for Souma to stay with me came.

It... was...

....

I didn't cry. Because I know that he will come back to me when I am strong enough. 

I didn't hesitate to give him a kiss for the last time, unlike before. 

I didn't hesitate to smile at him and told him that I will get stronger because this isn't a promise. It's a vow. An oath between our souls.

... Tomorrow, I will start training. 

For now, this body needs to be properly buried and prayed to as thanks for letting Souma use his body. The soul of this boy who had died and lead his body to Souma, I pray that your next life is a peaceful life but with plenty of adventurers and a loved one to be by your side forever.