It didn't take long to see who was talking, it was a group of four-man and two women there were next to each other talking with a small torch in the middle lighting up the surroundings.

The four-man wore different clothes of an employee of one of the shops of the mall, and the two women were the same too.

" Ahhhhh"

after hearing footsteps coming from where Clement was guarding they turned their head and saw clement, that was now with another group but when this new group came closer to them, one of the men took the torch and aimed it to the group behind clement to see them clearly and when they saw that this group was covered in blood with a pale face they almost screamed but they quickly remembered that they should keep quiet and stepped back, the two women with their hand on their mouth trembling, the men's weren't in a better state with their legs shaking.

" cle...clement what are those guys, don't come closer you were supposed to check if it was safe upstairs "

clement seeing their reaction could only shake his head, he reacted the same way too before so he explained to them who this new group was and that they needed to heal their injury, the group of Chris on the other hand was now breathing heavily just standing there waiting for them to finish to talk was taxing for their weak bodies state.

but after one minute clement came back and said to join them, everyone was too exhausted to argue with their useless discussion and after founding a good spot with the view of the surroundings they sat on the cold floor it was now a subconscious tough to always have a good view of their surroundings even if this ^place seemed safe, not too far from them clement was talking with his group and they now was coming all toward them.

" Edward you take care of them with Fred, don't scare them we might be stronger than them but we are weak now better keep a good relationship "

I said to Edward who just nodded but didn't get up to meet the group same with Fred and just waited for them to come.

By now I started to feel normal to give some instruction and the others would tell me if I go too far, or just do as they want.

And I enjoyed giving order too so why not keep it like that.

" Hi I am sorry for our previous reaction but you guys are pretty scary with your appearance "

the same guys with the torch came in front of us and said he was felt his body becoming heavier just when standing in front of this group like if he was stared at by a group of beasts instead of some human even the mother with her kid in her arm when she looked at him makes him turn his gaze.

" OHHH it's nothing what do you want "

Edward still Edward just gave a cold shoulder and asked why they were here and the man asked him if they could explain to them how was outside going, since two days when they came to work they were sent in this strange room and when they came back there was some monster that looked like normal animals but bigger and stronger killing the people they saw in the street, they were on the mall when all of this happened and some beasts entered the mall too but they were able to escape killing some beasts by chance working together and went on the underground parking.

But after the first day, the scream upstairs subsided and they only hear growls from time to time of some beasts fighting but they no longer have the courage to go upstairs even if they know that by killing those beasts they can gain energy point and stat point to get stronger.

we looked at the others and they all looked at us waiting for our answer, and hearing their stories Fred and Edward stopped to look at them and told them some parts of what we went through but they didn't share any information about the energy core, for now, they know it was selfish but even Sarah and the others girls didn't complain that they didn't share it.

And I took the time to look at them the four guys weren't particularly attractive but they were still above average and the two women seemed to be in their late twenty with still a good body that should attract any normal ma and with their clean leather armor and sword at their waist they seemed like a baby that didn't go to the hell that was the real world outside and could be killed at any small mistake.

after they heard what we went through to come here they only stood there not sure what they will do, their family and friends should be either at their home or at their work but from what they heard the center city was too dangerous and if they want to leave the center city they will have to fight the beasts outside that now was getting stronger and with their low level, they wouldn't be able to go far.

" excuse me but then if it's so dangerous in the center city why are you here "

one of the women asked she was more scared to go outside after hearing how it was dangerous for them.

" that it's not to me to answer ask those two "

Edward now bored to answer their question pointed to the three of Alex, hector, and Emily letting them take care of them he just wanted to sat and sleep and by now he didn't care anymore if he had a good bed.

the three of them seeing how he gave those guys, glanced at him but after seeing he closed his eye either resting or checking his status screen.

Emily was the one to tell them that they were here to search for their family, and hearing her the women asked a few questions about the system and Emily shared with them too happy to talk to forget the pain of her body.

the others also slowly started to talk with them too and I took this time to check my status screen

When I saw that I had 2275 energy point I wasn't too surprised by how much I had with all the fights we went through but the more surprising was the leader path that advanced by a huge marge and I was more eager to see what I will gain when I got it completed.

I didn't get a new path but I was ok with that, for now, short sword mastery helped me a lot and I could still feel that although I could now use all the movement I learned from dodging, parry, or how to balance the weight of my body to use efficiently my power I was still far from mastering it completely since I always get a backlash after using them.

And I allocated my energy point for reach level three and I felt that the energy that was entering was coursing my body but unlike before when it seemed to rampage after entering my body I felt that my bloodline absorbed it enlarging the energy I had before.

And at the same time after I felt that my body was starting to adapt to the new energy, I took the energy core I was able to take before we run for our life, there was about 10 of them and I absorbed them all but I wasn't able to reach the stage two it was like if the requirement of the condition for my bloodline upgrade wasn't completed and I could tell that even if I absorb a level 4 energy core it wouldn't change so now I will have to figure out what I need to do to upgrade my bloodline.

Name: Chris Specie: Human Talent: In process... Bloodline: Warlord - stage 1/10 [High]

Path: [ leader - 20% ]

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Energy point: 575 Level 3 - [ 0/3000]

by now when I opened my eyes the others seemed to have also finished talking with the group of clement and they were upgrading their level and after that, I felt the surrounding submerged by a huge amount of energy that it almost hurt my eyes, but it only last for a few second before I felt that the energy of everyone around me getting stronger with the thin layer of energy protecting their body now becoming stronger too.

But the most strange was claire, Lisa, and John, their energy now had a different feeling, claire, for example, her energy now was like some small blade surrounding her but without hurting anyone around her, same for john his energy was getting heavier and for Lisa it was the same energy close to the evolved beasts but without the bloodlust.

" you guy seems to have also finished, so what do we do now "

I told them after I saw that they were more focused after adapting to their gain of strength after making some stretch or small punch in the air.

- " We should go upstairs and search for food we lost our bag during the last fight and besides we need new clothes, we are almost naked look at the states we are "

Eillen who only listened to our talk normally was the first to talk, it seemed she was eager to change her clothing even if with the blood on her body it wouldn't change something, but everyone was also ok with her words.

" ok then let's go, it would be nightfall in no time so better hurry up"

I said, and everyone started to walk for the stair, even if they leveled their body didn't heal, and Sarah didn't have time to restore her energy.

" Sarah how long would you need before you could heal us "

I asked her but before she could answer we heard footsteps behind us

" Hey guys are you going back upstairs, with your state isn't it better to wait that you heal your wounds "

One of the two girls from the group of clement asked us but I didn't know her name.

" Hey Louise we're fine it's just small cuts, compared to those we had before "

Emili seemed happy to see the two girls and went near them and explained to them but they couldn't understand how a young girl like Emily was ok with her body being full of wounds but still wasn't afraid to go upstairs where there might be some huge beasts ready to kill them.

But for Emily, this kind of situation was starting to be normal so she didn't feel it strange

" ok then if you want to come with me Louise and Stella maybe you will get a chance to kill some low level two beasts "

after saying that she came back to the group and they started to go upstairs, she hoped those new friends she met to be able to protect themself, she wasn't sure if her family was still alive so she hoped that maybe some group like her group will at least help her family to strengthen even for just one time, some tears started to fall when she started to think that maybe her family might already be dead.

" Are you ok "

the girls of the group seeing her starting to cry came next to her trying to console her, which helped a little, hector listening to their conversation was also worried about his family but for him, he wasn't too close to his family his stepdad wasn't that kind with him and his mother being always at work didn't have time to spend with him, so he could only hope that he will be able to find his mother but with the fact that they encountered two levels five and some level four just after entering the city center wasn't a good sign.

When we arrived on the ground floor, it wasn't different from before with some shop in sorry taste with blood staining the floor, with could still hear growls of some beasts but it wasn't closet us so we started to check for food and clothes but we still keep our guard and formed smalls group with Lisa, Edward, and hector in front and for me well I started to enjoy to fight in front all the time and was in front of the three groups but not too far like that if it became too dangerous they can help me.

But when we entered another store after we found new camping bags and we were starting to fill them with some clothes and we took also sleeping bags, we were about to go check quickly the shop at the entrance where there were the corpses of level three beasts we killed.

But we heard voices behind us and it was clement group it seemed they followed us, they to the back of the mall but with our new upgrade as long we pay attention to the surrounding it isn't hard to hear from a long distance.

They were searching for us but I was too lazy to told them to stay quiet and it was now almost nightfall so I told the other to let a note on the entrance of one of the shop, if they came here they would wait for us the back of the mall seemed safer than the front so they should be fine unless some lone beasts were searching for weak prey.

" Are you sure we shouldn't go back and at least told them that they are too loud "

Sarah in the back of the group said but I didn't respond, I wasn't selfish doing that they choose to come upstairs so they should at least know that they should keep their voice down.

" Sarah they should be fine beside we were in the same situation as them and the surroundings wasn't this safe "

claire told Sarah which after some talk shook her head and continued to advance with the group, even if she wanted to help them she couldn't make her group lost time too.

we reached the entrance of the mall and we could now saw how much it was destroyed with stones and dust covering all the zone like if it was crushed by a camion and footprint of different beasts everywhere the shops near this area were completely destroyed and I wasn't sure if those people who called for help when we entered were still alive.

but after checking outside we saw corpses of two of the level four, one was the beetle his shell was scratched everywhere with marks of claw and even bite but it was still fine, it was his legs and abdomen who were in a sorry state with organs on the ground and blood all around him, and the other was one the dog in the same state than the beetle, but his body with almost only bones.

" ok let's go check the level three beasts upstairs maybe there still some corpse with their energy core "

Fred said after looking around and not seeing anything strange apart from the buildings destroyed compared to before when we arrived here, it should be the fight of levels four that destroyed some walls and maybe making all the buildings collapse but we didn't know what happened after we run.

When we went to the shop with the corpses of the level three beasts we saw that although those at the front were now only bone which gave a feeling like if they were in a grave full of bone those at the back near the two walls destroyed were still intact and we were able to found two-level three energy core and the rest was only the level two core with ten also.

" wait how is it possible that there is so low energy core left, guys how much was you able to take before we run "

Alex saw that we found only those energy core asked us but after everyone said how much they were able to take, it makes sense with me taking ten energy core in my rush to escape I found a quick method thank Low anatomy I was able to find the right place to cut for reach the heart and take the energy core and it seemed it was the same for the other.

And we somehow how in two minutes or maybe more were able to take most of the energy core, with that I realized how much those pieces of information from the Path we gain, even if they seemed not useful before in the situation we were before it can be really helpful.

and after we didn't found anything else we started to go back for the underground where we saw the group of clement fighting with a level two cat even if his attacks weren't strong his speed-compensated it and they were struggling to kill it and by now they were gasping for her with their leather armor with marks of claw and the guys with the shield at the front was starting to lose their strength.

and the cat took this chance to attack but it seemed that Emily and Sarah were faster and had already launched an arrow and an ice cone hitting his stomach and head making it fall to the ground with organs flowing due to Sarah ice cone that pierced his stomach, the group turned their head toward us but didn't move not sure if they were scared by their near-death experience or just unable to said a word because of this shock that this beast was killed so easily.

" Sarah are you ok "

Emily next to Sarah seeing her almost fall grabbed her but Sarah wasn't able to stand up properly.

" are you suddenly fainting like that "

Emily continued to ask her and Sarah explained that it was because she used the small energy she was able to gather for her attack causing her to lose her strength.

" ok then but stop doing something so stupid your wound aren't still healed and it will only worsen your state "

after they finished talking, the group of clement came at us

" thank you guys you saved our life "

clement and the two girls, Louise and Stella thanked us while the four guys in the back only shook their heads not sure what is happening in their minds.

the two guys with a shield were gasping for air they were both around twenty-five years or maybe more but now they were like if a single noise will make them scream like a scared kid, they know that they would be the first to die if this cat wasn't killed in time, saving their life and all this time they kept their breath it's after they saw the others walking to us that they, started to breathe once again.

" it's nothing at least your alive "

Emily told them it wasn't anything for her, so she didn't take it in her heart but for the group of clement it wasn't and they could only thank her.