As I said before this is a very short chapter but the next one will return to the normal length, it will probably come 28/09,

Originaly I planed to release chapter 7 and 8 together to make up for it's short lenght but I just didn't have time sorry, see you next time

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After the node finished turning blue Aaron used his power to tie the hands and feet of the minotaur females then walked back to the boss’ throne and sat down, it was unexpectedly comfortable for such crude thing, sitting there waiting with nothing better to do he looked around, his eyes caught the meat over the fire and thought why not?

Materializing a new string he pulled a piece of lamb? It was probably lamb, laying his head back he took a bite out of it he enjoyed the taste of well roasted meat while his mana slowly recovered, he had a little more than an hour to wait anyway, his arms, back and head still hurt like hell but he was used to pain, strangely enough the food seemed to help with health regeneration as well, just another oddity with this new world, finishing his lunch he put the helmet back on and closed his eyes to rest.

Snapping awake with a jerk Aaron instantly materialized his power making his four knives cross around him in a defensive position while his rifle pointed at the supermarket entrance “Don’t shoot!” lowering the gun he stretched his arms and looked at the internal clock of his armor, he had actually been napping for 32 minutes “Well come in Mica, make yourself at home, grab a bite”

The four teenagers looked completely fine, Mica even had a new spear with a wide blade and a shinning black wooden shaft, his eyes narrowed suspiciously “Say… you guys wouldn’t have a healing item with you?” with a wide smile the girl spoke “Sure we do soldier, what would you give for it?” “How about your life?” all of them instantly stepped back, weapons ready, Mica’s face was a mask of determination, both the girl and the other warrior’s eyes filled with rage and the mage was just scared.

“Joking, I am just joking, didn’t I already say I am quite happy with you guys being alive?” using 4 strings to send some meat their ways he continued “Besides, if I really needed those items I could get them without even hurting you guys, they are merely a comfort not a necessity” the mage’s knees nearly gave up “Oh thank god!”

Looking around the place the girl barked “How can you still eat in a place like this!” glancing around at the corpses and spilled blood he shrugged “You get used to it” finally noticing a big red orb laying besides the shaman’s body he used his power to pull it to his hand, “Wow you got a skill book” turning the orb around in his hand he turned to the group “This is a skill book?” “Yeah” “Well it certainly doesn’t look like it” he decided to inspect the thing anyway

Consume Spirit – Skill BookCan consume the spirit of a creature slain by your own hand to temporarily empower yourselfhigher levels increase number of spiritshigher levels increase durationmana cost depends on spirit consumedat higher levels can have other effects

Creepy skill, it could certainly prove useful in some situations but he thought it didn’t really fit him, searching for more useful items laying around he picked up the shaman’s cane, the boss’ axe and a well crafted jeweled blowing horn.

Uthar’s axeCLASSDATACKSLASH3BLUNT2PIERCE0MAGIC0ABILITIESN/Aan iron axe crafted by a minotaur blacksmith, not the best of weapons but good enough for one of the primitive creaturesForged by IanokUsed by UnokUsed by Utharkin good condition

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Oakwood staffCLASSD+ATACKSLASH0BLUNT1PIERCE0MAGIC0ABILITIES+5% magic skill powerA magic staff made from simple oakMade by EthokUsed by Ethokin good condition

Horn of the Oxblood clanCLASSCABILITIES+ 10% morale for nearby allied troopslight stun effect for enemy troopsA horn crafted from Ethaol Oxblood, creator of the Oxblood clan, by a master craftsmanUsed by many generationsslightly deteriorated

“Well well well this makes things easier, how about this, I give the axe to angry boy there and the magic staff to your mage, in exchange you guys share half your health and mana potions with me plus you guard this place until reinforcements arrive?” “Yes!” “No” “We gotta think about it” said the mage, the warrior and Mica at the same time, the girl just kicked some things aside and started looking around.

Letting them discuss things among themselves he opened the inbuilt compartment at his back and put both the skill book and the horn inside, having to take out the last 3 boxes of normal bullets to make space, they were mostly useless anyway, he slowly recharged the rifle with piercing bullets and the handgun with his last exploding hounds while waiting.

Eventually Mica approached his chair “When do those reinforcements arrive and what would they do with us?” “In about an hour they should be here to defend the node, as for what they would do, they would probably offer you a job really” pushing himself up from the chair he continued “I suggest you guys take it, lone groups will not live long in this new world” exchanging a look with the other 3 Mica nodded “Fine, we accept”.

Taking out 9 small bottles about 7 cm tall  from their backpacks 6 of them had a red color and the other 3 were blue and slightly shinning, the mage separated 3 of the red ones and 1 blue before handing them to him, he raised an eyebrow at the division but didn’t say anything as he was not sure half a bottle was even effective.

Opening one of the red bottles he took off the mouth piece of his helmet and sniffed it, it smelled like a mixture of strawberries and blood, draining it all he noted it was tasteless like water but far thicker burning like alcohol as it went down his throat, immediately he started feeling better, the muscles at his back no longer ached, his arms were no longer swollen and his head stopped hurting, his health bar was very quickly going up only stopping at 87%.

Noticing his mana was nearly full from the node’s bonus regeneration he walked out of the supermarket and looked at the sky, it was already the end of the afternoon. “Control what’s the situation?” “The city core is still in human hands but we haven’t established communications, the human node has received no attacks and Beta team has just finished the rat node, plan Delta has been successful and we will be dropping troops to take over the node in 10 minutes” “Will it be fine without the Einherjar?” “The army is not incompetent Loki, besides we are dropping Titans at each location” “Fine, I will be moving towards the city core soon, a group of survivors will hold the node” “Understood”.

Taking off his helmet for a while he felt the wind in his face and enjoyed seeing the beautiful orange light of the sun just about to go down, he smiled at the beautiful scene, at his freedom, he ignored the boy observing him from the market’s door “And you called us kids” said Mica as he stared “A useful method to establish seniority and, with it, dominance” walking to his side Mica watched the sky with him “Beautiful isn’t it Mica?” being in a particularly good mood made Aaron chatty “Why did you act like such a dick?” “Let’s just say the place where I grew up was not the best one to learn about social manners” smiling wide he had to continue “Besides, you guys probably won’t live long enough for me to care about your opinion, good bye Mica, hope you guys make it”

Putting his helmet back on he started jogging away in fast but sustainable speed before using his strings to pull himself to the top of a building and disappearing from view.

An hour latter Aaron turned around to see the skydiving troops fall over the supermarket, two huge metal balls were slowly descending with many parachutes, the titans he presumed, ignoring them he continued on.

As the sun completely went down he engaged his helmet night vision on the left eye, taking about 10 minutes to get used to the different perspectives from each eye before moving on, noticing a movement at the street he stopped on the edge of a rooftop and looked down, a man got out of his car through a window, he was in a daze as he turned towards Aaron’s destination and started to slowly walk towards it with slow but sure steps, all around him other man and woman started to get up.

“Control, was operation delta really successful?” “Affirmative Loki, the army on sight confirmed the death of a necromancer boss” “And the elite?” “It’s body was probably destroyed in the bombardment” “Fuck, I think we got a problem.”