Days continued passing peacefully, with exception to a night when Al decided to destroy the third gang of the city. Koro had finally made a full recovery, and he had become more lively and irritable, as if he had tumore or less back to his old self.

'Well, he'll probably never truly go back to how he used to be, but who would after what we went through?'

Al was currently hunting in the forest but, unlike most days, he had decided to part ways with Baolao. This was because he was killing the prey in a fairly unusual manner. He stabbed them on their non-vital spots with his Squirrelic, which he had recently sharpened due to it becoming blunt, and then used [Zapper] to finish them off.

'And why am I doing this? Well...'

A blue screen appeared before Al as he killed the fourth rabbit of the day.

[Zapper] Skill has reached High proficiency. It will now apply a paralysis effect on the target. Duration depends on amount of mana and target's strength.

'Good. Using this skill might be really awkward while using the Squirrelic due to how it messes with the weight reduction effect, but that's no excuse to just let it sit at the lowest proficiency. Guess I'll move on to training [Piercing Throw] now.'

That day, Al brought a baker's dozen of half mutilated, half fried animal corpses.

Yuly made dinner that night, but of course Caexiu wasn't cruel enough to make her use Al's messed up prey, so she instead got to work on cutting apart the bodies of some red birds and horned rabbits neatly caught and bled by Baolao with a single cut on the neck.

His family had always possessed the air element, and he was no exception. It may not have much raw power, but it excels in precision and speed. Along with Baolao's family's techniques to make prey stay still by means of baits and traps and their methods to hide oneself, Baolao's hunting was always extremely efficient.

Caexiu's element was also primary. It was fire, and it suited her kind and warm personality quite well. It was also handy for cooking, drying clothes (though air would be even better for that) and warming the house, making it the ideal element for a housewife.

The couple seemed to be pretty famous in the neighbourhood, since not many people managed to awaken their elements like them, and they always used them to help out when they could. They wouldn't even accept tips for their efforts, which was a testament to their kindness.

As he recalled these things, Al finished setting up the dinner table, and sat down, patiently waiting for Yuly to bring the first-ever proper meal she had cooked. Judging by the incredible smells coming from the kitchen, which made Al start salivating, it shouldn't be too long now.

Then, Caexiu came out of the kitchen.

"Okay boys," She said to Baolao, Koro and me, who were sat at the table. "She's bringing it now. Be sure to praise her properly okay? She worked real hard to get this far!"

Then Yuly came out with a giant, steaming bowl of stew goodness. Al was worried for a bit that it would be too much weight for her, but then remembered that her Strength was already higher than that of a normal adult. She placed it on the table and started serving everyone their portions with a large ladle, and when Al tasted it, he couldn't help but say "Mmmhhh, it's so freaking good!"

Yuly showed a small smile and wrote -Really?- with chalk on a small slate she had begun carrying around recently.

Al answered "Of course, it's freaking amazing! Yuly, did you really learn to cook this in less than two weeks?"

Yuly put her hands on her face, hiding her expression, but Al could see the tips of her ears getting red. Al used this time to shove more spoonfuls of the meaty stew into his mouth, until eventually Yuly erased her previous question from the slate and wrote -It was...pretty hard to make it. Actually, Ms. Caexiu had to help me..."

The woman was reading what she wrote too, so she replied while waving her hand "Oh come on sweetie, don't be so modest! I only guided you a bit when you didn't know how much spice to put in!"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Yuly started shaking her head weakly while starting to write -But...- when Al chimed in once again, saying "Well damn, you must have a talent for this! Seems like you're becoming much more reliable, Yuly!"

As Al said this, Yuly couldn't stop a small smile from forming on her face, and Al went back to eating his food, satisfied with the outcome.

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

The days kept passing peacefully, but Al was worried. They were growing complacent, but soon they would have to head out to the west in order to get stronger. Here, the low amount of mana made both cultivating and physical training extremely inefficient.

Al had been training his skills, but due to his mana regeneration being very slow here, he had a hard time doing any substantial amount of training in regards to magical skills. He had even stopped using his enhancement skills constantly, though the Squirrelic worked better that wat, and along woth the low mana, it reduced his weight by more than half.

They had also changed their sleeping arangements. Baolao and Caexiu slept on one double bed while Al and Yuly slept on the other, and Koro slept on the couch downstairs. Al had wanted Koro to sleep on the bed with Yuly at the beginning, but he covered more than 60% of the bed's width kust lying down, and it'd be pretty uncomfprtable for her.

One night, as Al slept peacefully, a rumble rehaced Al's enhanced ears as he slept. He didn't wake up at first, just incorporaring the sound onto his dream, but it got stronger and stronger. Eventually, Al begrudgingly woke up, only to be greeted by a flurry of black feathers, covered in equally dark fires, going straight through the wooden roof and down onto their house.

One feather hit Al, but his improved Toughness made it so that it barely got past his skin. Another one fell towards his face, but he evaded it as he winced in pain from the black fire that was ravaging the area around the wound.

Al hurriedly removed the feather since, even though he has partially immune to fire, the black flames still burned him somehow, then quickly got up and looked around.

Yuly was clutching her stomach, an anguished look on her face. Baolao had been pelted with feathers, all of them causing deep cuts and the flames ravaging his body. He was wailing in pain.

Next to him, Caexiu was ignoring a feather stuck in her lower leg as she tried to take out the ones stuck in Baolao.

It took less than a fraction of a second for Al to decide. He threw himself at Yuly and found two feathers in her abdominal area. Al plucked them out while ignoring Yuly's cries of pain, then told her to heal herself. He went to Baoalo's side and helped Caexiu take out the rest of the feathers in Baolao.

At this point though, the man's skin was burned off completely in several places, and he'd passed out. Caexiu's leg where she had been hit was also in a very precarious state. It looked like something that would cause a permanent disability, but Al was almost certain it could be fixed. He looked at Yuly.

'Good thing she can heal- huh?' Al saw Yuly sweating profusely as she steadily reduced the size of her burns. They seemed to be fighting back though, as if they were alive, and were repelling her healing magic. Eventually she managed to heal herself, but when Al asked her how much mana she had left, she showed him five fingers and then three.

'What? She only has three fifths of her mana left? Then how will we heal...' Suddenly the noises of wood creaking and falling that Al had ignored at first became much louder, and the burning roof started falling apart.

Half-burned wooden beams fell with a crash, one of them almost hitting Yuly. Luckily she managed to jump away in time, since Al couldn't protect her at that moment. He was carrying Baolao and Caexiu out from the collapsing corner of the house where their bed was.

As he was doing this, Koro appeared from below the trap door shouting "What happened!?"

Al didn't explain and simply said "Take Yuly downstairs and gather all our things! We have to go!"

Al kept walkimg towards tje trapdoor as je saod this, but then, Caexiu weakly said "Stop that."

Al turned his head surprised and said "No, I-I have to carry you out, otherwise you'll die!"

Baolao, who seemed to have regained consciousness at some point, sonce he replied "Leave us. Even if you somehow healed us, we'd be no more than baggage. We don't want to hinder you on your journey."

Al couldn't stop the tears from leaving his eyes. "No, but... not again. We can always...we can always move somewhere else...live peacefully..." Then, as the walls burnt away and fell off, enormous, black flame-covered birds could be seen shopting their feathers everywhere, and a sea of murky black moved in from all sides, encasing the city. It was the black beasts, hundreds of thousands.

Caexiu looked at Al and showed a melancholic smile. "Come on, you need to get revenge right? For that, you need strength, and before that, you need to get out of this city alive. We would just hold you back. Plus, this is our home. It has memories of our decades together. Now it is burning before our eyes. We cannot just leave."

She looked at her husband who nodded bitterly, and then weakly turned his gaze to Al "She's right. I have just one request... remember us,"

Al's tears were falling like waterfalls out of his eyes. He couldn't accept what they had just told him, but he knew they were right. They'd never be able to get through the beasts with the old couple in tow. Eventually, as the air slowly became unbreathable due to the smoke and beams continued falling from the roof, he spoke up.

“Yes... I promise. I, Yuly, Koro... we’ll definitely remember you. Always.” Al held their hands “father, mother... thank you for everything.” He turned around, not waiting for a reply, and stormed down the stairs. He found Koro, Yuly and Misty at the entrance, carrying stuffed bags filled with patches.

When Koro asked "Where are the hunter and her wife?" Al just passed him and said "Let's go. We have beasts to kill."