Jacob and Francis had been walking for a few minutes, but one of them was already tired.

Useless body, Jacob thought.

“So, care to explain?”

Francis was getting more and more fidgety. Something smelled fishy to him, and he had never seen meek little Jacob behave like that.

“We are on the brink of extinction, or at least we will be by the end of the day,” Jacob said, dead serious.

Francis took in his words and looked around as if something in the scenery might have revealed more to him. Or as if someone was going to pop out and say: “Well, this is all a prank! Thank you for your collaboration! Boys, it’s a wrap!”

“So, where are we going?” Francis asked, confused.

“You’ll see.”

Jacob could feel that Francis didn't believe him for the most part, and he didn’t blame his best friend. The ruckus in the high school hadn’t been enough to make people believe the apocalypse was upon the world. Nevertheless, Jacob had still to care of some business: in a matter of minutes, they would meet their quarry.

The main problem was how to slay the monsters. It would be quite the desperate fight, for sure. Or rather, it might have been a problem if Jacob did not have the knowledge of his past life.

Demonic Wolves were quicker compared to their non-demonic kins. The main problem was their teeth. The beasts had two massive canines that sprouted from their maw, so sharp they were prime material for low-level spears.

However, their resilience was nothing much. The wolves weren’t sturdy nor particularly dangerous once you kept away from their bites.

The change had begun, but it would last for decades. Then, slowly, the normal flora and fauna would evolve. Some trees, however, had already evolved. No one knew why this happened.

Jacob finally found what he was looking for. A majestic tree stood in the clear, undisturbed by other weaker woods. Its foliage was grey with thin and bloody veins of red.

“Wow, I have never seen this tree before…” Francis muttered, more and more fidgety by the minute.

“It’s a Steelbark Bloody Tree. They are very rare and precious. Most notably, however, their branches are coated in a thick layer of a steel-like substance. They make for excellent makeshift maces. Their leaves are very sharp—”

Francis tried to grab a leaf and immediately pulled his hand back with a thin but bloody gash on it.

“You are really freaking me out, man,” his friend said, hissing and nursing his hand.

It was only expected that Francis would start to lose it.

No one had been ready for what was going to transpire soon. Humanity didn’t just have to learn how to use magic and qi from scratches; humans would have to adapt to a world where the strong trampled the weak, no questions asked.

And they would be fighting on a daily basis with Demonic Beasts. Thankfully, Jacob had brought with him all the knowledge humanity needed to thrive.

It had taken decades before humanity had spread Cultivation Techniques, even the ones of the lowest grade. Mostly, they had survived and become more robust thanks to some Ancient Ruins that appeared all over the world; those places where most Cultivation Techniques had been found.

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Sadly, it wasn’t just a matter of becoming stronger in a literal way. Many had died paralyzed by terror in front of inferior beasts. Those who weren’t built to react fast when facing Demonic Beasts had been all eaten up at the beginning of the apocalypse in his past life.

“Look for branches with cracked bark all around. We are going to need weapons for the wolves.”

“Wolves? What wolves?” Francis's eyes went wide.

“Crack the branches. We don’t have much time. Soon people will start dying if we do not act swiftly”, Jacob said.

He knew from experience that giving others things to fear and complain about was the wrong way to go. His friend needed orders right now. If they wasted even a minute, someone’s blood would be on their hands.

Francis started looking, and soon he was climbing and kicking hard on some branches with cracked bark around their base to have them drop on the ground.

In the meanwhile, Jacob sat on the ground, catching his breath.

This useless body is going to be a huge problem. I can feel some Mana in my Meridians, but my newborn pathways can barely handle a trickle of Qi. Time magic is unknown to humanity and extremely taxing on the body. I couldn’t even affect dust with my current Magic.

Magic and Qi went hand in hand. They were not exclusive. Some people just decided to focus on one and use the other as support. Only great geniuses were able to wield both at the same time effectively.

Jacob scratched his nose.

Well, great geniuses and lucky cockroaches who found a Great Relic.

Martial and Magical Cultivation had ten Realms each, with the same names of Talent Levels. They were further split into ten Levels and three Stages per Realm. Once one ignored the stupid names people had come up with for the Realms, it was pretty straightforward.

Three Stages would make a Realm. The 1st to the 3rd Level of a Realm constituted Early Stage, 4th to 6th Level made the Intermediate stage, 7th to 9th Level represented the Advanced stage. In the 9th Level of Realm, there was an ulterior classification; once a person was a step away from the next realm, it was referred to as the Apex of a Realm.

One would need to raise both Martial and Magical Cultivation, as they had distinct levels. Some were more talented in one of the two. Others, like Jacob, sucked in both.

In any case, our guy took in his hand one branch while his friend wielded the other.

The branches were considerably heavy and quite hard to maneuver for Jacob. Francis was faring a bit better, but it still felt uncomfortable for him to brandish a stick coated in metal and with razor-sharp leaves.

Thankfully, Jacob had remembered the presence of those trees near St. peter. Otherwise, they would have had to fight bare-handed.

Giving it a couple of swings, Jacob already felt tired. He had evolved and brought his body to be as resistant as a Golden Dragon in his past life. Now, he was back to being a squishy bug.

Back to square one, Jacob sighed.

“Are you sure we got this?” his friend asked.

“All peachy,” came the answer from the shorter friend.

Truth to be told, it was not peachy at all. They were two teenagers who were going to fight a Demonic Beast. If Jacob could have chosen, he would have brought some adults. However, he was sure no one would have believed him; since he could not afford that, he put his trust in his long-time friend.

If I could only have a couple of days more to cultivate my Qi...

With his pitiful 1st Level Talent in both Qi and mana, it would take him many days to reach the first stage of the Cockroach Realm without any help.

However, considering his weak body, even that would have been a major change for him. For starters, jogging for one minute without wheezing right after would have been nice.

“Jacob, would you tell me what’s going on, for real?”

Jacob had started walking with a resolute frown on his face, ready to fight to the death. Francis, on his side, was not as steady.

“World’s changed, Frank. Demonic Beasts roam free. Three relatively weak Demonic Beasts – Demonic Wolves, to be precise – roam the outskirt of the town. If we miss them, they will slowly move in until they find someone to tear apart. No one would believe me, but I’m sure of this. Adults would never trust my words. Internet is down—you can at least check that.”

Francis whipped out his phone in a second and looked at it.

No signal.

No internet.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

“How do you know all this?” Francis asked right after.

“Uhm… I had a vision, kind of. Let’s say somehow I saw the future, and I know some useful stuff. If you tell anyone, we both get killed by greedy monsters, by the way. So, don’t say a word to the others about my… visions.”

Francis scratched his head and sighed.

“Well, let’s go, then. Oh, and if I die, I will haunt your fucking dreams, pal. Count on it.”

His friend was nervous and tried to show off some bravado. Jacob knew he could only go along with it: it would make no sense for him to bring his friend down and make him more hesitant than he already was.

“I’d expect nothing less.”

All they had left to do now was to kill multiple ferocious, deadly beasts while not having any Qi nor Mana at all.