When Al opened his eyes, he could only think of one thing.

'...It hurts.' He seemed to be lying on a bed, looking at the unfamiliar ceiling above him.

'I would say "an unfamiliar ceiling" right now, but...'

His body wasn't moving, not in the I-can't-feel-my-legs kinda way, but in the It-hurts-like-hell-to-move-a-finger way. He couldn't even move his jaw without it hurting. His stomach seemed strangely full though, it was just that his muscles didn't know that, so they were basically eating themselves.

A look at his status told him that he was still starving according to the System, despite having been fed. 'I would like to meet the kind soul who rescued us...wait, we were all rescued right? I pushed ahead while the rest collapsed behind me, I think... actually my memories are kind of fuzzy since I was in so much pain that nothing really registered, but I hope whoever found me found them too!

Al made a colossal effort to move his head to the side, and saw Koro lying next to him in the bed. He was pale, thin, and sleeping so quietly it was concerning, but he was alive. 'Good'

There seemed to be another bed in the room, but Koro's still massive frame blocked the majority of it, not letting Al see if there was anyone lying on it. As Al's muscles got used to moving again he looked around, and he found out that he was in epwhat seemed like a big bedroom that covered the whole attic of a small house. The slanted roof reached the floor on two of its four sides and two triangular walls covered the rest, one of them with a big glassless window from where sunlight came in.

It was all made of wood, but it gave a comfy feeling. It reminded Al of the orphanage... he quickly began thinking about something else in order not to keep brooding unnecessarily.

Then a trapdoor swung open, and a lady in her early 50s with hair that was starting to turn ashen came up with a tray holding three bowls of soup, the smell that emanated from them made Al salivate

'Well, what would you expect from someone who's only eaten leafs and spicy meat for months'

"Oh? You're awake deary! How are you feeling?"

Al struggled to talk, but eventually managed to squeeze out "Hurts"

She put a downcast expression and started feeding Al the soup, which he gulped down merrily. The taste spread through his mouth like warm bliss, almost making him cry. She then did the same for Koro and Yuly, who was on the other bed. She was much paler than Koro, and looked almost anorexic.

Al told her "more, plea...se", though not without effort. She then brought up a huge pot of warm soup, and fed Al another bowl. He tried his best to smile despite the pain, and she seemed to appreciate the gesture. He then pointed at Koro and said "...Eats lots"

She seemed to get it and gave him two more bowls, taking care that he wouldn't choke. Al pointed at himself and said "Al", then pointed at her.

She smiled and said "My name is Caexiu, sweetie. What about your friends?"

Al pointed at the big guy, his arm shaking from exertion, and said "Koro", then at Yuly and said "Yuly...a" 

When he asked her if she had seen a three-tailed cat she told him that it was sleeping downstairs, so Al just said "cat, she, Misty."

Caexiu chuckled and started telling Al about how her husband, Baolao, found them collapsed in the forest while out hunting, and Al profusely thanked her for taking them in. Well, at least he tried to, but his body wasn't very cooperative.

When Caexiu left the room Al quickly fell back into sleep, only to wake up after hearing loud groaning noises from beside him. It was still light out, though it was much more likely that he'd been sleeping for almost a full day. He said "Koro", and the only reply was

"Hurts...like a bitch" 'Well, I took a bit of Liberty in translating that one...'

"I know. Don't worry, we're all safe" Although Al's body still ached all over, he could now do small movements just fine, and talking was one of them. His Status still showed how weakened his stats were, however.

Alberto Peñas

Age: 4 years

Level 17

Class: Prodigy of the Lightning Rapier 

Strength

D+ (F-)

Dexterity

C (G+)

Toughness

D+ (D)

Will

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D- 

Intelligence

D-

Charisma

E- (F)

Perception

E (F+)

Assignable

0

Skills:

[Mana Molding] (Mid)

[D Grade Core] (High)

[Physical Augmentation] (High)

[Sense Enrichment] (High)

[Palm of the Storm] (Low)

[Impulse] (Low)

[Flash] (High)

[Zapper] (Mid)

[Piercing Throw] (Low)

After briefing Koro on the situation the big man fell asleep, and Al gingerly stood up. It hurt, but it was bearable. He did some light stretching and more or less got used to his own weight, but it was only thanks to the Squirrelic that was still strapped to his back, beneath his thick shirt.

He managed to open the trapdoor and go downstairs, and found Caexiu gleefully humming as she cooked something. From the smell alone, Al started salivating. 'The soup was good, but this is on another level'

It was several pieces of meat skewered on wood sticks and roasted over the fire, along with some spices. Al said "Hey. Can I...taste that?"

Caexiu turned around and looked at Al surprisedly "You're up already? I thought your state was very severe..."

Al rubbed the back of his head and said "Well, my whole body hurts, but meat would be the best thing to get me back to normal. Koro also woke up a while ago, so getting some for him would be ideal too..."

Caexiu nodded warmly and started skinning two more horned rabbits. Al knew that for Koro it would only be an appetiser, but he didn't want to get on the woman's bad side by bothering her too much.

The meat tasted incredible, and Al filled himself to and beyond capacity. Well, he ate less than an adult so it wasn't as dramatic as if Koro had done the same thing, but it would help hasten his recovery immensely.

When Al felt confidence enough in his nutritional intake to check the surroundings for mana, he found out that Caexiu was only in High F Grade, the same level as Koro. When he asked her about the average cultivation level of the city she told him that more than half of the commoners didn't even form a core in their lifetimes, so she was actually above average. Her husband had actually recently reached E Grade, so he actually in the top 10% of commoners in terms of cultivation.

Al decided to reveal a little bit of his power so Caexiu would see him as someone useful, so that she would take care of him and his friends, at least until they recovered enough to move out on their own. He told her that he had reached E Grade too, and enhanced himself with lightning mana as he created a pretty sizeable lightning ball on top of his palm to prove it, before Caexiu even had time to question his claim.

She couldn't believe her eyes, but she was forced to do so as Al took a piece of meat and threw it into the lightning ball formed with [Palm of the Storm]. When he released the skill and the ball fizzled out of existence, only ash remained of the once juicy meat.

"You...just what are you? How can a toddler...be so strong?"

Al decided to tell a half truth. "Well, when the black beast invaded our forests, we had to run away from them for months through the winter. If it was easy, more people would have reached this town. One had to be strong, in several senses, to survive that. And we survived."

She took a while to process what Al said, but she seemed to have gotten stuck at the begging "Black...beasts? Wha..." She trailed off.

"Oh, so none reached your city? One day, a sudden wave of unknown mana flooded our forests and turned all the beasts, no matter if they were Rank 1 or 3, into black, goopy, crazed, stronger versions of themselves."

After answering several more of the never-ending questions without revealing any secrets, Al was exhausted and woke Koro up to eat his share of the meat, them said hi to Misty who had just woken up and told them about their situation before collapsing onto the bed once again.

----------------------------------------

When Al opened his eyes again it was dark out, and everyone else was sleeping. He stealthily got out of bed and noticed that his muscles hurt a bit less than before, and checking his status, his effective stats had improved. He walked down to the first floor and found Caexiu and a man of around the same age sleeping huddled up on a couch. 'I see, they gave their bedroom to us...'

He couldn't see or them very well because his sight was still a bit fuzzy, which reminded him to activate his body and sense enhancing skills as he moved towards the entrance.

Al felt hungry and wasn't epanywhere near top condition, but he felt incredibly well-rested. He had been sleeping a lot lately, and he barely needed 5 hours of sleep with his improved Toughness to get a full night's rest. He probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so he decided to explore outside.

As he passed by the three tattered backpacks that the couple had lined up near the entrance, he picked a knife suitable for skinning.

'I can walk fine now, thanks to the Squirrelic and the mana enhancement. I just can't use any physical skills or...run without burning in pain, for that matter. Well, if any trouble arises, I can just fry it up.'

Al was a bit surprised to discover that the small wooden house didn't have a lock, but then again, there wasn't anything much of interest inside for a thief. 'If the two had a daughter, they would probably be more careful. Well, with their age, she would probably be in her late 20s and would have moved out already,' Al thought as he stepped into the dark streets, not lit by any sort of street lamps.

'Oh, these streets are just asking for baddies to prowl them.'

The couple's house was on the outskirts of the city, outside the city wall. 'Well, more than half of the city seems to be outside...a case of bad urban planning I guess.'

Al walked towards the forest that could be seen in the distance thanks to [Palm of the Storm] providing light, and surprisingly dodn't get attacked. He felt the presence of some people when he passed by an alleyway, but they didn't confront Al in the end. 'Well, I say presence, but it was just my enhanced hearing picking up on their hushed murmurs...'

He reached the forest with no trouble, and was glad that the days had been getting warmer. Al believed that winter hadn't ended yet monthwise, but it sure felt like it. He found some Rank 1 horned bunnies and red birds during his hunting session of around 2 hours. He also found a squirrel, but for some reason it was extremely thin so he let it go.

The Rank 1s seemed stronger than the ones at the orphanage, but there were no Rank 2s or boars at all. He skinned the 3 rabbits he killed in a shocking manner 'I'm not sorry' and cooked the, solely with [Palm of the Storm]. He had perfected doing this some weeks ago so they could eat their prey on the spot and not have to make a fire every time, and although he hadn't tried it on bunnies many times, it turned out decently well.

The first one was a bit charred but it wasn't uneatable, the second one was meh, and the third one turned out decently well. Yes, he ate all three. When his belly felt like it would burst any moment he stopped eating, leaving about half of the third rabbit. This was an insane amount of food even for a big adult male, but Al's toughened digestive system seemed to somehow compress the food. 

'I'm starting to unravel Koro's secrets...'