Neither Malrik nor Lucien wanted to delve any deeper into the strange skill point situation they were facing.
"Let's just forget about it. What we need to do now is quickly gather ten cores so we can trade them for clothes," Malrik said, handing the sword back to Lucien. "We can't increase our strength any further anyway. We don't even know the method to break through to Two-Star."
At first, he had some hope that he could somehow analyze the breakthrough method for lower ranks and derive a higher-level version from it. But after acquiring more knowledge, he had to officially admit defeat.
The entire magic circle and those bizarre sounds that were supposedly the key? He couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. If he tried to analyze it piece by piece, who knew how many months or years it would take?
"You're not wrong. For now, we should focus on the development of the Cult of the Evil God. We must have uniforms that match our status." Lucien nodded solemnly.
With that, the two of them headed out to the hospital courtyard.
When they saw the massive number of zombies wandering everywhere, both of them were momentarily overwhelmed, unsure where to even start.
That's when Malrik suddenly had an idea. He moved behind Lucien and wrapped his arms tightly around him.
'Shit! The cult master doesn't have some weird fetish, does he?' Lucien cursed inwardly, immediately going on high alert.
"You want to try out my divine skill? I think we'll fly really high."
Malrik's abrupt words made Lucien freeze in place. At the same time, curiosity about this so-called divine skill piqued his interest.
"Fine. It's hard for me to die now anyway, so what's there to be afraid of?" Lucien smirked.
"Then let's fly!"
A pair of translucent wings formed from glowing blue energy appeared behind Malrik's back. With one powerful flap, he shot into the sky like a missile.
Within mere seconds, they had soared past the tallest building in the hospital complex.
Lucien was nearly knocked unconscious by the sudden increase in pressure. And Malrik wasn't doing much better.
Unaccustomed to flying—especially while carrying someone else—Malrik's movements were fast but wobbly. It felt like they might crash into a building at any moment.
"Damn it! Cult Master, can you fly properly?!" Lucien cursed.
He hadn't expected the speed to be this insane. At this rate, one wrong move and he'd be a corpse for sure.
But Malrik wasn't in the mood to respond to Lucien's swearing—he was too focused on getting a grip on his divine skill.
'Damn… this really is a divine skill. With this kind of speed, who the hell could catch me?' he thought to himself while trying to adapt on the fly.
It didn't take long before he started flying more steadily. However, it quickly became clear that the skill had a glaring flaw—it couldn't adjust its speed.
Lucien noticed this too, and he immediately felt that something was seriously off.
"This damn divine skill doesn't seem to have a speed control function. Does it drain a lot of stamina?" he asked, slightly panicked.
"Not really. With my current strength, I can fly dozens of kilometers before I even start running low," Malrik replied while scanning for a landing spot.
Lucien let out a breath of relief. At least that meant they weren't going to fall out of the sky all of a sudden—or worse, crash uncontrollably into something.
They spotted a wide-open space on the hospital rooftop. That seemed like the best place to land.
They avoided landing on the ground floor since it was crawling with zombies, and one bad landing down there could turn into a disaster real quick.
Malrik began his descent—but the speed didn't drop in the slightest.
Lucien, now at the front, could see his head about to crash into the building wall and simply gave up resisting, leaving everything to luck.
Just before they hit the rooftop, Malrik abruptly exited flight mode and came to a sudden halt. He landed lightly, with perfect form.
"Ah, we're fine. It looks like this divine skill actually works really well. As long as I want to stop, I can stop," Malrik exhaled in relief.
A moment ago, when he realized the speed couldn't be adjusted, he'd genuinely thought they were screwed—but it turned out he'd worried for nothing.
"Huh? Why do I feel like something's missing?" Malrik scratched his head, muttering to himself.
BANG!
A loud crash echoed out, interrupting his thoughts. And at that very moment, he realized exactly what he was missing.
When he deactivated the flight state, his body returned to normal. In the process, he'd unconsciously let go of something… or rather, someone.
Since Lucien wasn't the one who activated the divine skill, he couldn't cancel out the effects of inertia.
The moment Malrik released him, Lucien shot forward—slamming headfirst into a wall.
The loud noise just now? That was the sound of Lucien smashing through it.
From within the cloud of dust and rubble, a hand emerged—still gripping a sword tightly. Lucien staggered to his feet, pushing his way out of the debris.
"You son of a bitch! Cult Master! Were you trying to assassinate a fellow cult member?!" Lucien roared furiously.
If he hadn't broken through to One-Star, that crash would've sent him straight to the afterlife.
Malrik scratched his head awkwardly. It was his first time using the divine skill—so, yeah… he lacked experience.
"My bad, ha ha... But hey, you're totally fine, right? This divine skill is super useful! We can travel long distances without a problem."
Lucien didn't continue acting like a madman. He was pissed, sure—but he could still think logically.
"You're not wrong. But next time we fly, I'm holding onto your leg. If you grab me like that again, I won't be able to move at all," he said.
If his limbs had been even slightly more mobile earlier, he might've been able to avoid smashing into the wall like a human missile.
Malrik, for his part, had grabbed Lucien so tightly because he was afraid he might fall to his death mid-flight due to inexperience.
"You still got enough strength left to kill some zombies?" Malrik asked.
He wasn't entirely sure how durable a One-Star body really was. From a normal person's perspective, crashing through a wall like that should've been fatal.
"Hmph, a one-star person isn't that weak. Let's move. If those delivery guys leave, we won't be able to trade for clothes," Lucien huffed.
Despite his annoyed tone, he was secretly shocked. He hadn't expected his body to be this resilient. Aside from some soreness and bruising, he wasn't seriously hurt at all.
"Alright, let's go. No more experiments—we can mess around later. For now, we'll sweep the hospital from the top down," Malrik said as he made his way toward the staircase.
"Fine," Lucien nodded, following close behind.