The next day, everyone readied themselves to continue through the subway tunnels. They started early in the morning and planned to stop for lunch at a maintenance tunnel. It was a small space carved into the wall of the tunnel meant for maintenance workers. Those places had ventilation to the surface, allowing for fresh air to be pumped in. It was amazing after breathing in musty air all day.

Until then, they were hiking.

Not a lot had gone down in the first hour. At least not on the level of wandering through a nest of giant spiders that had a passion for turning people into juice boxes. Only an hour and a half into their journey did they encounter one of the humanoid demons. No one wanted to shoot it for a variety of reasons, so Leon was happy to take care of it with his barely regenerated reserves.

He knew he should wait until his Qi had fully recovered, but that would be another two days at the earliest. Like a car enthusiast after replacing their engine, Leon wanted to take his brain out for a spin. He was burning with curiosity at what had changed.

Qi gathered in Leon’s hand, only unlike before he upgraded his brain, the amount of effort he needed to form the skill was a fraction of the original. The disk was also smaller now, his skill having adapted to the new standard of being ten percent smaller and more condensed.

He was happy with the changes. Every ounce of strength he gained was another chance at seeing tomorrow, not to mention that it would make him less likely to inconvenience his friends. But at the same time, Leon wasn’t content with his progress. Seeing his improved skill only made him think about how else he could improve.

For example, if Qi Burst became several times stronger after being condensed by a tenth of its original size, what would happen if he shrunk it by half? Leon moved to test just that, his mind bearing down on the Qi in his palm.

The skill becoming harder to control by the second, Leon was forced to stop when he reduced it to seventy percent of its original size. It seemed like a small and insignificant change from the surface, but with help from Olivia, he learned how to calculate the change in volume and density. For instance, reducing the diameter of the original Qi Burst by a tenth had increased the density by forty percent.

Now, if his mental maths was correct, reducing the original skill by thirty percent was an increase in density of over three times. That meant the disk was now over seven times denser-. Wait, how did he calculate that so easily? Was his mental enhancement really so great?

Leon had never been able to do such complex calculations in his head before, but seeing the demon pounce at him, he was forced to push the errant thoughts away. Pulling his arm back, Leon smacked the demon square in its pale, chalk-coloured forehead.

He imagined the monster flying back, its head destroyed. Instead, he flew back, agony lancing into his mind as the blood vessels in his hand split open. Leon crashed into the front line and knocked the unprepared Marcus and Dominic over.

Their packs kept them from hitting their heads, but the force of being thrown to the ground left them groaning. Leon’s hand dripped blood onto Marcus’s leg. He rolled off them and spun around to see if the demon was coming, but there was no monster to be found.

Leon had instantly killed it.

The demon’s upper body was ripped into chunks, its soft innards ground into a red mist that coated the walls of the tunnel while its legs were on the ground about twenty metres down the tunnel. The original version of Qi Burst was a small shock wave. Now, it was a literal explosion of force.

[Congratulations! You have evolved Qi Burst (Common) into Qi Eruption (Uncommon).]

[You have successfully evolved a skill. While higher rarity skills are more efficient, powerful, and refined than their inferior counterparts, what’s most important is suitability. When creating skills, ask yourself this question: is your skill effective in achieving its purpose? If not, then know that until you advance your cultivation to the next realm, changing your skills is relatively easy and comes with little backlash.]

[We urge you to explore all of your options regarding different techniques, for each skill is merely a lantern that illuminates your Path.]

Leon focused on that word, Path. It was capitalised, meaning it obviously wasn’t a passing statement meant to highlight the importance of the premise. He wasn’t sure what a “Path” was referring to, but he did gather that experimenting was good. It wanted him to try things out and find what fitted him. Maybe that was all a path was; something that worked for Leon.

The Inspired and Prodigy titles had also been upgraded.

[Inspired I: Create a common-rarity Qi technique before establishing your foundation. +1% to Mind.]

->

[Inspired II: Create an uncommon-rarity Qi technique before establishing your foundation. +2% to Mind.]

[Prodigy I: Your Qi control has improved rapidly without guidance, proving your talent in the spiritual. Remember, a cultivator that cannot control their Qi is no cultivator at all. +1% Mind.]

->

[Prodigy II: With superior Qi control, you become able to shape and compress your Qi beyond what is possible by most. +2% to Mind.]

Leon nodded at the improvement. He hadn’t gained a new title but he had upgraded two. It was small now, but a permanent increase of two percent would add up eventually.

“Maybe relax a bit with the experimenting, kid,” Dominic said, grunting as he stood up. “I’d like to not be crushed by a thousand pounds of rock.”

Leon was about to agree when Redgy walked over and helped Marcus up. “Like a god damned bomb. Holy smokes that was awesome. When I awaken my spirit, you better teach me that one.”

“Teach us,” Marcus replied. “While I think of myself as a refined gentleman, I am no less susceptible to the allure of blowing shit up with magic. Of course, that’s only if you would be so kind as to enlighten us, oh venerable master?”

“Of course… but let me get this sorted out first, my virtuous students.”

Leon held up his bleeding hand. The density of Qi had burst some veins, but the bleeding had slowed a bit from the infusion of life essence. Not to mention that his supply had filled up quite a bit. The new skill was a little less expensive and much more volatile, the eruption burning the skin of his hand and tearing apart the softer veins.

***

Five days passed by in a blur. The first three had been excruciating with his injured arm. It had swelled to twice its size and his entire hand was purple for four days. If Leon could move his other arm, he would be slaughtering every demon he could find to heal faster.

Instead, he took turns with the other injured med students to shoot monsters they came across with a rifle. He only managed to recover on the fourth day. Painfully long, but for an injury of his magnitude, all of the doctors expected him to take weeks before he could use his hand again.

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It was a miracle of sorts. The only problem was that it involved risking his life, something that a lot of people outright refused. Some of the med students were still injured from the spider event, but they didn’t want to fight the demons even if it meant they would heal faster.

Many people were still in denial. Despite being intelligent and hard-working registrars, the stress of the world ending was too much for many of them. They had been studying for close to a decade in order to become medical professionals, and now demons had murdered their friends, destroyed their careers, and were in the process of hunting them down.

Leon had tried to talk to a girl who had lost her fiancé. They had met on their orientation day but only became friends when they had a group presentation the next year. They were in the process of planning a destination wedding in Fiji when the world ended.

Now he was dead, killed in the most traumatic manner Leon could imagine.

She had broken her wrist from the fall, but she didn’t even care. Her friends had to force-feed her and more or less drag her along with them. She didn’t care about some ridiculous system or cultivation. Her family was probably dead, the love of her life was gone, and now she was probably going to die in a musty tunnel with her coworkers.

Dominic said they should leave her behind, Eric believed in giving her time, and Leon wanted to force her to shoot a few demons so that she would level up and gain access to her status. Maybe it would shock her awake, or maybe the feeling of being healed would appeal to her sensibilities as a doctor and garner some interest in these strange new powers. If neither of those happened, Leon believed that the life essence would at least enhance her brain enough to better cope with the trauma of what she had been through.

All three of them disagreed with each other’s plans, so nothing happened in the end. They simply dragged her along until they reached the next station on the sixth day. Everyone was tired and worn out, leaving Eric and Dominic to make the decision to rest for two days.

The idea was both to scout the area and gather some resources. Supplies were running low and so was morale, nearly everyone getting blisters and sleeping poorly due to the uneven ground. They had walked nearly two full marathons in the last nine days and it was starting to take its toll on the regular people.

Although most of the students had killed a demon and gained access to their status sheets, it hadn’t made that much of a difference. Some of the med students reported that they felt less exhausted the next day and that their endurance had increased, but that was about it. Only one level seemed to have a minuscule effect.

Qi was the real power source.

Sadly, no one had become saturated by aura yet. Marcus was close, his saturation reaching eighty now, but he was still around a week away from actually awakening. And strangely enough, the next five candidates were also very young. Neither Eric nor Dominic had over thirty points of aura saturation while everyone with more than sixty points was under twenty five.

If that was a coincidence, it was one hell of a statistical anomaly. Everyone who had gathered the most aura just so happened to be all of the youngest people? But while that was good to know, it didn’t change anything.

Leon attempted multiple experiments with the help of Eric, the head doctor, but they did nothing besides hurt the old guy. Releasing Qi around Eric’s body for him to breathe in and absorb did nothing. Pushing Qi into a piece of steak also did nothing when he ate it.

Finally, the experiments ended when he shoved a finger-thick strand of Qi, which Leon was now capable of thanks to his enhanced mind, into Eric’s forearm. The poor guy’s skin was split open and the muscle was badly bruised. Nothing permanent, but he wouldn’t be using that arm for a while without some discomfort.

Eric luckily wasn’t on the task force for collecting food, so there were no issues there. Leon, however, was one of the group members. He had been expecting something horrible to happen the entire time. He was tense the whole way to the nearby shopping centre, only relaxing when their little group hauled two shopping carts fully down the subway stairs.

They divided up the food and water by group, and then once everything was sorted, people rested in preparation for the next stop. Ten days away, the tunnel would open up and release them on the edge of a huge suburban development backed by a forest and a mountain range. There were natural springs, lots of deer, and according to Eric, edible plants there. Hobby mycologists were often carted into the hospital because they ate the wrong mushroom from that area.

Seeing everyone break off into their own groups, Leon made his way to the showers. He grabbed a change of clothes and his towel when the radio flickered to life for the first time.

“This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. Nuclear weapons have been simultaneously launched all over the world. While most were intercepted, hundreds have managed to successfully strike their targets.”

Mila grabbed the radio and brought it out to the rest of the group, Leon following closely behind. People whispered as they gathered around her, but silence reigned once the broadcast came back in full force.

“The extent of the damage is not yet confirmed and neither is the death toll. No one has taken responsibility for initiating the conflict. Experts believe that it may be the result of an accident or glitch, but there is no evidence for this claim besides the simultaneous release of nuclear weapons across the globe.”

“Reports of mutated animals coming out of the drop zones have been sent in front around the world. We advise non-military personnel to flee the blast zones as quickly as possible, but if you are not within the blast zone, please stay in your own homes and stay tuned to this wavelength for more information. In a few minutes, we will list out wavelengths and area codes for operating radio stations that can broadcast localised information.”

“If you choose to leave your homes and flee, know that you will be exposing yourselves to great danger. Radioactive fallout, which follows a nuclear explosion, is extremely dangerous and can result in severe injuries and even death. You are safer inside your home than a vehicle.”

The broadcaster began to give advice on food storage when the girl who lost her fiancé spoke up.

“Mutated animals?” Danika whispered.

Leon almost didn’t hear her she was so quiet.

“MUTATED ANIMALS?” Danika shouted, her voice laced with burning anger. She snatched the radio from the bench Mila had left it on and smashed it against the floor tiles again and again. “Tell the truth! Tell the god-damned truth! My Bretty didn’t get killed by a stray dog with a third eye. It was a monster! It was a god-damned monster! A monster...”

Danika collapsed to the floor as tears poured down her cheeks, her voice breaking as she wailed for her dead fiance. Her friends ushered her away, leaving the rest of the group to stand around in silence. Some people cried for her, but most just looked sad or empty.

Someone eventually grabbed another radio. The broadcast played again, giving them the wavelength for their area. They tuned in but nothing was being said even after five minutes. Another broadcast might start at some point, but Leon decided that he was wasting his time.

He needed to stop wasting his time and break through.