The first time I saw Ethan, he looked to be a madman, crossing the town alone looking for his family, covered with blood and he didn’t even think twice about avenging his dead friend. Although, when he woke up, he understood that it had been a bad idea. He never gave up on it. According to him, Martin had helped him a lot. Even though they only knew each other for a day, he felt that he should avenge him. That seemed to be a little too radical for me, but who am I to judge other people feelings and decisions?

Although he had a crazy side, he also had a praiseworthy side, even alone, he faced many enemies, got wounded and even lost half of his ear. He did all of this to find his family as soon as possible. He only retreated because he didn’t have any other choice.

In my opinion, he was a guy to be admired, a bit impulsive perhaps, but still a good guy. However, for some people, such a single-minded determination also could be seen as madness. And thanks to that, at first, Rose didn’t trust Ethan. Probably because she was studying psychology, she saw in Ethan, an unstable person, and since Rose was that kind of person, she didn’t hesitate to say that in from of him. Although her words made me feel shivers, Ethan just accepter her words, like she was right. But that was only because she wanted to keep us safe, in some sense, she was also troublesome

On the other hand, Sarah had more personal reasons not to trust him. Even though she wanted to be a doctor, she had difficulty interacting with strangers. You see, eleven years ago, they lived in an orphanage, although the place wasn’t that great it wasn’t terrible either. Then both of them got adopted by a pair of teachers, and so they became my neighbors. Before you could imagine, they became a happy family; after all, their new parents were good people. However, suddenly, a pair of kids appear in a neighborhood; obviously, they would interest the other kids. But sometimes kids can be quite cruel, as soon as they discovered the fact that they were adopted, they bullied Rose and Sarah.

Eventually, the bullying ended. But the marks didn’t disappear, Rose distrust almost every stranger, and Sarah fears them. But that was fine; they only needed some time. Eventually, they would be able to trust other people, my little sister Sabrina and I were proof of that.

I still remember that time, a week before Rose and Sarah moved to the house on the other side of the street, my father passed away. He was my hero; he was the person who I wanted to be. He was my best friend, but then one day, he suddenly wasn’t alive anymore. For weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to be motivated about anything. I also couldn’t care less about my new neighbors; besides, when I saw them for the first time, I concluded that they were pretty boring.

When I remember about those times, I laugh a lot. Sarah rarely left her sister side, and she was afraid of everything. While Rose was too damn serious, she always got angry about every stupid little detail, although neither of them changed much since that time.

It was Sabrina who made me get close to them; at some point, my little sister was having trouble with some math problems. And since I wasn’t smart, she decided to ask for help from our new neighbors. After that, Rose and Sarah began to hang out at my house pretty often, and eventually, we became friends.

Thanks to Ethan’s addition to our team, our movement speed increased a lot. He could offer a lot of attack power with the crossbow, and he also could sense the presence of nearby enemies. Our group became very balanced, which was great, but our interactions were kind of lacking. Rose and Sarah kept their distances from Ethan, and he seldom spoke and never made any effort to keep our conversations.

However, that situation didn’t last for much time. We found a new enemy, a giant mutant rat, and thanks to Ethan’s strategy, we managed to avoid a dangerous fight. But he suffered a lot of damage, even though when we found him he was still breathing, Sarah said that he was a lost cause. If we didn’t have encountered that strange building, he would have died. I knew that part of the city pretty well so that odd-looking building didn’t escape my eyes. Besides, no monsters approached the place, and that was a good sign.

Eventually, Ethan woke up and looked fine. But Rose, Sarah, and I weren’t fine at all; for hours we studied that statue and the map, we tested almost every function. And thanks to that, we confirmed the death of Rose’s and Sarah’s parents.

Sarah cried until she got exhausted and fell asleep, and Rose became lethargic; she didn’t even have the energy to talk. For more than a day, they cried and kept staring blankly at the ceiling of our room. But they managed to recover themselves to help me, but that had been a mistake. Since Ethan couldn’t wait for us and we were also shocked by the recent new, we didn’t notice those criminals approaching us. We fought, but we lost, and they took Rose and Sarah.

I knew what would happen to them, and I couldn’t let that happen, so I forced myself to follow them, even with both of my legs broken. But I was too slow, and the monsters attacked me, little by little they began to take pieces of me until eventually, they defeated me.

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However, I was lucky, I didn’t die, and Ethan helped me. He was indeed a good friend, without second thoughts, he used his evolution coins to heal me, even though by doing so, the meeting with his family would be delayed. And he decided to buy another potion again, but we didn’t have time for that.

I was weak, and I recognized that I wouldn’t be able to help Rose and Sarah, but Ethan would. I begged him, and without hesitation, he went to rescue them, and obviously, he succeeded in bringing them back. But even before I could ask him to help them, Rose and Sarah already suffered irreparable damage.

When I saw Rose and Sarah, I felt a lot of emotions. They were alive, and I felt happy, but then I saw the unconscious Rose and the low-spirited Sarah, and then I felt shame and rage. I was too damn weak; I couldn’t even protect those who I loved. I loved both of them, and I wanted them by my side forever, but did I deserved that? Such a pathetic person deserved their love? Even though my words had no value anymore, I swore to them that I would protect them, I’ll obtain the strength necessary to do that, or I’ll die trying.

From that day onwards I decided to change, I had to become stronger and also bring my mother and little sister to my side. Even I had to stay away from Rose and Sarah for the most part of the days. I felt guilty because of it, but that was necessary, some distance wouldn’t make weak our relationship. Besides, now that they lost their parents, I had to become the new pillar in their life. I couldn’t be lenient anymore; otherwise, the same thing would happen again. Not to mention, Claire was also in the hotel, her skill with the bow was excellent, and she was also a trustworthy person. She said she would look after them, even though she was also suffering because of the loss of her relatives.

Fortunately, Ethan didn’t refuse to help me. He had improved a lot in just a few days, and now he could quickly kill a mutant cat even before the creature could get closer to him. Not only that, but he also received a new skill and thanks to it, finding enemies became easy and getting ambushed almost impossible.

With Ethan’s help, I managed to break my physical limit four times in a little more than a day and obtain three thousand evolution coins. Now both of us could transport one of our family members to our side, but who I would transport? That question made me feel like needles were piercing my heart. But that feeling disappeared when I received the message.

You have obtained 10000 Evolution Coins.

Before I could understand what had happened, I saw the confused faces of everyone looking at the entrance door, and Ethan also had disappeared. He was the only person with that amount of evolution coins, but why? Did he change his mind? That was improbable; after all, he fought so eager to see them, even though he always felt disgusted while fighting. But I couldn’t let that chance escape; I could talk to him later to understand his motive of doing that.

I cried for hours after I transported my mom and Sabrina to this area, I saw them a little more than two weeks ago, but I felt that I hadn’t seen them in months. Both of them looked quite tired and skinny, but soon we solved that. We had a small party to celebrate that reunion. Even though they lost their parents, Rose and Sarah looked genuinely happy. Even Claire, who only knew us for a day or so looked delighted. I guess in situations like that; even the small accomplishments were enough to raise the spirits of the people.

After the party, mom and Sabrina soon fell asleep. We all were curious to know about the situation of the other areas, but that could wait. To my surprise, Sabrina’s weapon was also a whip, and my mom’s weapon was a lance. But of them didn’t look much proficient in using those weapons, but they managed to survive, and that was more than enough.

At midnight of that day, the last thing that was in my mind was the battles. But then that changed when we all received that message. Except for the kids, we all received some rewards. Those items would be helpful, but I couldn’t help but frown. That was another clue; we decided to keep it in the back of our minds. We didn’t have time to worry about that; it was time to take the next step: make a base of operations.

For the past few days, I saw Ethan looking at the map on the ceiling; it seemed that he was also thinking on those same lines. So I decided to consult the others on the following morning. And to my surprise, Ethan didn’t have returned. I thought that we agreed to form a team, but come to think of it, we didn’t explicit said that.

I was happy with mom’s and Sabrina’s presence, but I couldn’t keep partying forever, and they understood that. It was time to plan our actions on a large scale seriously. Since it was the best plan of action, everyone agreed about bringing other survivors to the hotel. But we had to be careful because the city didn’t have the government, the police or the army. We had to select our new allies, after all carefully, any individual who managed to break their limits a few times could cause a lot of problems.

To do it, we had to analyze and study the map on the ceiling at all times. And we also would need Ethan’s help. Claire also broke her sensorial limit a few times, but she was also breaking her physical limit, so he wasn’t a tracker. Besides, Ethan’s radar skill was what we needed for the job.

Fortunately, Ethan returned at the evening of that day. But he looked a bit different; he also looked tired and thoughtful. Everyone but I and Frank understood that for some reason, he needed to be left alone, but I decided to force him to talk a little. However, even though he didn’t wholly ignore us, he seemed very annoyed. In the end, we decided just to give Ethan some space. But nothing changed.

After three days, Ethan stopped avoiding us. But he didn’t look very interested in our conversations or our plans. He always answered our questions with a ‘yes’ or an ‘alright’ and ‘fine.’ He always looked thinking seriously about something, and after a week, I understood what he was thinking. He simply just forgot about everything else and was just focusing on killing monsters for the sake of killing them.