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Chapter 8 - Exile 8: Battle Assistance

When Orion woke up, he felt no traces of the previous night's pain. If anything, he felt like this was the best sleep he'd had in years when he finally woke up. His thoughts first went to his status panel to see the actual numbers.

Name: Orion Vaelor

Exile Gear: Infinite Dream

Specialization: Creation

Origin Energy: 0 Units

Physique: 26.84

Matter Limit: 9 KG

Techniques:

Foundational Swordsmanship (Integrity 100% — Integration 23%)

Knowledge:

Japanese Language (Integrity 100%)

A satisfied smile appeared on his face as he realized that his physique was already well into the double digits now. He also realized that the way his stats were calculated worked linearly with Origin Energy. His stats were equivalent to the amount of Origin Energy that comprised his body. Whether this kind of linear scaling was good or bad was something that he wasn't yet sure of. He spent a few minutes recalling the things he'd decided yesterday and finally got up from the floor—he'd left a good part of the bed charred yesterday. Standing up, he walked to the bathroom and ripped out the handle instead of pulling the door open.

His brain shut down for a moment as he froze with the knob in his hand while looking at the part of the door to which it was attached.

"Great…" He sighed, trying to grab the remaining part of the knob that was still attached to the internal mechanism. It immediately flattened under his grip, but he was able to twist it, opening the door successfully. "Slowly…slowly…"

He had to maneuver through the bathroom with very slight touches as he started brushing his teeth.

I need to control my strength…

Technique: Foundational Strength Control

Origin Energy Cost: 50 Units

Two and a half years? This better not be some scam where I have to spend this much after every powerup… I doubt it, though. The system might be a little torturous, but its stuff is comprehensive to say the least. Both the sword training and the Japanese tutoring dreams provided me with insane amounts of knowledge.

With his new upgraded physique, he didn't need to worry about the integrity of Japanese falling, which was a bonus. He had to do everything very delicately to not accidentally obliterate things here and end up with a flooded bathroom. Such a large amount of wasted water was enough to cause significant distress, even if their reserves were plentiful. Finally, he ended up having a completely cold shower even though he had the option. Solely because of a side-effect of his suddenly improved physique. His first guess was that it was due to some kind of hormonal imbalance created by the sudden improvement, but it seemed unlikely after he saw how the burns on his arms had not only completely disappeared overnight, but his skin was exactly the same as before. Even his burnt-off arm hair had grown back to its previous length. That left him with the second conjecture that the comprehensive improvement included his libido as well.

"Forget it, I'll leave it to future me to deal with. I'm not touching myself. Period. This is the apocalypse, I'm sure that more than enough women would be willing to do it with me if only to relieve their stress…Except for that ice block of an actress, I guess. She'd probably cut my cock off if I even suggested it. The worst part is that I wouldn't even know about it until after the fact because of her insane stealth that can even affect my memory."

The cold water helped him clear his mind and calmed him down as he got dressed, packing some food items in a smaller backpack that he'd found in this apartment. The one from before had already been ruined and was much more bulky than he needed, considering that this place was going to serve as his base for the next few days at least. He grabbed a small breakfast, feeling thankful that Mai wasn't cooking anything aromatic for breakfast. Otherwise, he'd probably he forced to swallow his pride and beg her for food.

Finally, with enough supplies to last him two days packed in the bag—he wanted to be prepared for something unforeseen—and a raincover tightly wrapped around it to keep it from getting full of blood and grime, he stepped out of his apartment and cautiously knocked on Mai's door, making sure not to damage it. He'd already replaced the door handle and didn't want to get threatened by her to replace the entire door.

Soon, the door opened, revealing Mai. Her hair still seemed a little damp, and she had an apron covering her full-sleeved top while wearing a pair of jeans.

"Morning…" He said with a casual smile, trying to hide the response of his heart at the irresistible girl-next-door vibe that she was giving at the moment. A sudden chill went down his spine as he noticed Mai narrowing her eyes at him.

Now, if only she could do something about this icy aura that follows her around. It's eerie and intimidating…Probably has to do with her weird stealth ability. I could take her in a one-on-one, easy, but she could still stab me in my back without me ever knowing about it.

"Come in," she nodded, stepping back and letting him enter. "I just finished eating. Give me five minutes, and we can leave. Take a seat and don't touch anything."

"Sure," he nodded, feeling that it was a pity not to have any leftovers. The kitchen seemed immaculately clean, with no traces of any cooking having taken place in there.

He inwardly shook his head at her demeanor. She was completely treating him as someone in a lower position of authority, using a casual tone while calling him out for the same thing, and making him switch to formalities.

Calling her an ice block seems accurate enough. Still, her stealth is far too useful for me to just leave her be. If nothing else, having her on my side would make sure that she doesn't end up assassinating me at some point. On a positive note, though…the things that she can do with her stealth make had an invaluable ally. Who am I kidding? I'm coping. If she weren't so beautiful, I wouldn't take half the shit she's giving me.

As the minutes passed and he continued spiraling deeper and deeper into his own thoughts, he came to an abrupt realization that improving his stats was clearly not helping his ADHD. If anything, his increased thinking capacity was allowing him to fall into even deeper holes of thought that kept occasionally distracting him.

Soon enough, Mai emerged from her room with a fully loaded blue cargo jacket that matched the color of her eyes over her thin shirt, a holster on her waist to hold her tun, and two knives. She even had her own sword that was strapped to her waist. Somehow, even with so many out-of-place things, she was not only pulling it off, but she had an almost heroic aura about her that he couldn't quite understand.

She definitely has some kind of charming skill. This is ridiculous…

"Let's go," she said, looking at him flatly as he shook the extra thoughts out of his head.

"Yeah," he nodded, standing up. "You know where to go?"

She nodded, stepping out of the apartment ahead of him and waiting for him to come out.

"Let me take the front line, I'll slowly clear out the zombies on the way while you provide support for me. Can you do that?"

Mai wordlessly nodded as he stepped out, and she locked the door behind her.

"I'll trust your judgement on which zombies to kill."

Not hearing any response from the woman beside him, he quieted down and walked ahead of her to exit the building. The moment he came out, his blade flashed, and he sliced through three zombies, ending them. At the same time, he felt Mai's presence disappear.

"Mai?" He turned to look at her, only to realize that she was gone. "Damn…"

"Focus," he heard her voice from in front of him, and saw her stabbing her knife into all three zombies' heads. "Stab their heads. Haven't you killed enough of these to realize that they don't die?"

"What?" Orion frowned. "I'm pretty sure these zombies aren't the immortal kind and don't need me to stab their heads."

Mai chose to act upon his words and unsheathed a sword from her scabbard. All Orion saw was a glint of her blade, and a nearby zombie was cut in half.

He felt silent as he saw the zombie continue to writhe and grunt, struggling to grab Mai's leg as she stabbed the sword into its head.

"Maybe it's my sword, but I don't need to stab the brain," he said, turning to see a nearby zombie, only to pause and raise his brow. "You can make your stealth apply to more than just yourself?"

She didn't respond and started looking at him with a menacingly icy look.

"What?"

"We aren't on a first-name basis," she said before he lost perception of her again, and she disappeared.

"What a troublesome woman," he spoke to himself, and got ready as the zombies suddenly started approaching him. "Your sword technique isn't good. Take some time to practice with me when you are free. I'll help you hone the basics at least so that you don't waste so much energy in a single swing."

He didn't wait to hear a response, well aware that the Ice Block wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. He quickly lunged forward with his sword, stabbing one of the zombies in its heart before pulling it back and swinging it to cut through another zombie that had reached the range of his katana. He stepped toward the approaching zombies, lunging again and directly slicing through five of them. Hearing another zombie approach him from the side, he leaped back from the surrounding zombies, raising his blade to stab it, but before that could happen, its skull was cut in half.

"Thanks," he said, immediately slicing through a zombie on his side and jumping over it to cut through two more.

Slowly and steadily, he was getting the hang of the Foundational Swordsmanship Technique, at least the katana section of it. Its integration percentage was visibly rising as he cut through more and more zombies. He was also coming to understand Mai's movements. Being unable to see her was a pain, but otherwise, he was slowly understanding the times that she decided to make her move. Still, he was far from completely trusting her and made sure to be ready to handle even the zombies that he was sure she would take care of. While it slightly slowed down his progress, he didn't particularly mind since it was already many times better than the previous day.

They spent two hours simply walking through the zombie-infested streets, and by that point, Orion needed a break. Even though the Katana was as light as a feather to him, he was far from being used to such constant combat. Feeling mentally drained after keeping his focus at its peak for two whole hours, he took a break on the roof of one of the nearby buildings.

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