The day passed relatively easily. He made a fair pace, less than10 mph average as the morankai were a bit thick on this bridge so far, but not too many abnormal morankai so that was nice. He kept it up the majority of the day, focusing on practicing freerunning and parkour techniques as well as getting acclimated to his new pickaxe. It wasn’t necessarily a great weapon for really strong opponents because his axe energy couldn’t do anything with the hammer side, but it was heavy enough, Kev was strong enough, and his abilities suited for absolute overwhelming destruction. Instead of taking limbs, Kev broke bones. Instead of lopping off heads, Kev put holes them. It was … well gruesome but also not much more so than normal so Kev kept moving.

On the bridge and feeling less urgent, Kev stopped at night. He didn’t have Kevin’s Advanced Mask anyway. His night vision was good, everything getting better as he climbed in Cultivation and his Soul stat improved, but still, he didn’t want to risk injury or surprise. He cleared the cabin area of the ship he was on, using a headlight and flashlights he bought from the shop as well as a few big glow sticks. He found a room and locked himself in.

Kev ate, had a sponge bath, and tucked in for the night. He woke up about 6 hours later, he might not be as urgent in need as Kevin, but Kev still wanted to see his mother safe to say nothing or telling her about Katie being there too. So, he had some breakfast and on he went. A couple more days passed like this. Compared to the novelty of the first bridge, combined with the lack of urgency to get to Katie, made the trip a little more enjoyable actually.

Kev trusted his mom to be OK and safe, at least as safe as one could be on the first layer. Her still being pingable by Soul Tracker meant she was still alive. If he found her and she was not safe and healthy, then someone would be paying for that in blood, but in the meantime this was actually not too bad. The grasslands were monotonous, but the different ships were kind of interesting. Kev even took the opportunity to explore a few of them.

As he had before, every once in a while, Kevin would ping for golden morankai or for the orb. Another few hours and Kev was going to call it a day and get some rest. He could pick this back up tomorrow. That’s when he pinged and got a response. A black orb was on the ship up a little. A luxury cruise ship of some sort, old but still pretty nice looking. Kev kept pinging looking for where to enter while on a cruise ship. He was almost halfway across the deck when he found another pack of abnormal morankai. That could be a problem. He hadn’t had the opportunity to restock the caltrops. He didn’t have as good of weapons or armor. So Kev changed his tactic a little. He ran

This bunch was on a cruise ship with him. He could feel a black orb below him but was more focused on the abnormal horde. He entered a hallway. Doing so immediately limited how many of their number could approach him at a time, as well as separating them more from their normal morankai companions. He didn’t want to box himself into a room where things could get hairy, so instead he found a stairwell.

Entering the stairwell, Kevin was able to prepare by holding his ice axe to the stairs. A layer of ice started to form as the abnormal morankai closed the distance, unerringly headed in his direction.

Unlike the normal morankai, these were larger, they had toughs of fur around their necks and shoulders like some proverse analog to lion's manes. There were only 7 this time, which was still more than he wanted to fight at once but was less than the other pack.

Kev pulled his buckler shield out of his storage ring. The small shield fit on his hand like an extra large dinner plate rather than a full shield, but a shield it still was and one that allowed for a little extra mobility.

Kev poured his basic shield energy into the buckler and intermediate axe energy into the double bit ice shield. The first abnormal reached the steps, took a step and slipped. It landed face down and before it could recover, Kev put his ice axe in the back of its head.

— Points Obtained: Points 312 —

Kev allowed the next one to climb over its companion, which was convenient because it meant he didn’t have to bend over as far when he bashed it in its face with his energized buckler. The abnormal lion morankai flew back, knocking over two of its kin. With three up, three down and one dead, Kev had much more favorable odds. He battled his way back, giving a little ground here and a little ground there, but always making them pay for it in limbs and blood.

By the time Kev had traveled up two flights of stairs, there was only one abnormal lion morankai left, but the normals had finally caught up. Kev wasn’t too worried about it, until he felt a meaty paw-hand land on his shoulder.

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Kev turned and saw another abnormal morankia, this one resembled the last abnormal lion morankia, except it was almost 9 feet tall. It’s mane was larger and covered its body more and it was obviously much stronger.

It picked Kev up with one hand and threw him through a wall. Kev had just enough time to reinforce the armor with shield energy before he put a Kev shaped hole in the wall, went through a bed, and then through another wall. That was impressive.

“Well that fucking hurt.” Kev said, getting to his feet. He heard a crash as the extra large morankai followed him, breaking through the first wall with ease. Kev didn’t stand still. He threw his axe at it. The double bit flew through the air, the big bastard moved its arm and the axe blade bit deep into the flesh of the forearm. It brushed the axe off, not even seeming to notice it. Kev tapped his ring, stored his buckler and pulled out his new weapon.

“You hit pretty hard.” Kev said as the creature started rushing toward him. He swung the huge pickaxe in a big circle around himself, he crashed the hammer head into the side of the lion monster morankai as it leapt in the air at him. “I hit harder.”

The creature went through two walls of its own in a satisfying hit. “Yeah OK that was a bad joke.” Kev said as he ran over, picked up his ice axe and threw it at the last abnormal lion morankai. It hit that one in the shoulder and Kev dashed after the lion monster morankai.

The monster started to stand up as Kev’s pickaxe came down, beak first. The creature dodged it. The shock on Kev’s face was wiped away by the beak going through the creature's foot and embedding itself into the floor. The creature bellowed, swiping at Kev, the strike sending Kev flying away. He dropped his new pickaxe, the spike still holding the creature's foot down.

Kev rolled to a stop and stood preparing for another blow, but the creature was trying to pull the pickaxe out of the floor and failing. Kev tapped his ring and pulled out his bow. He pulled the string back and less than twenty feet away Kev couldn’t miss and he tapped, knocked and released putting an arrow in the creatures neck. He took a break to shoot two normal morankai who had found the hall he was in before loosing another arrow into the lion monster’s ribs.

The creature bellowed again and Kev put his bow away and pulled out the viking dane axe. The creature took the one step he could take to meet him, and Kev dodged the strike it threw. He swung his axe into the creature's thigh which was as big around as a tree trunk. He dodged again and put the blade into its arm, which was as big around as Kev’s thigh. Neither strike severed the limb. The next strike did take its hand though.

Kev methodically struck and dodged and took the creature apart as it tried to dislodge its foot from the floor. When it finally died, Kev got a nice surprise.

— Points Obtained: Points 822 —

“Damn thats a good haul, this one must be special or something.” Kev said as he went to work on the remainder of the normal morankai, the last abnormal morankai playing the part of the ice statue, shattering as Kev pulled his axe out of it.

In short order, Kev was in the lowest parts of the ship, staring at a black orb. He unstoppered a Store bought item, the Boiling Dragon Ginseng Booster. It was a “powerful accelerate that will temporarily boost the body of anyone who swallows it.” Kev would need every advantage he could get. He did the glue and dumbbell weight trick as Kevin had before, and he prepared himself for the blow.

Kev knew he could break it, and though it was dangerous with the white beams the orb could shoot, Kev managed to break the orb in two blows avoiding the lasers.

— Points Obtained: Points 17,525 —

““Huh, no notification about soul enhancement this time.” Kev said. “Status”

Status: Name Kevin Moses (Divine Doppelgãnger)

Points: 26,985

Race: Human doppelgãnger

Soul Quality: ✪

Age: 5 days

Stats: Strength: 135

Endurance: 117

Recovery: 79

Soul: 28-30

Abilities: 6/0

Soul Tracker

Ki Cultivator Earth Tier (Middle)

Basic Shield Mastery (5/5)

Intermediate Axe Mastery (1/5)

Ceaseless Mind

Conqueror’s Spoils (LOCKED)

“Well that’ll do, and it proves that I can continue growing, also good. I wonder how that will affect the merger with Kevin.” Kev said as he climbed to the surface of the cruise ship and continued his run down the bridge towards his mother.