As Orion lazily leaned against the door of the rooftop, he felt a presence near him and opened his eyes in surprise.
"Hey," he said before offering her a bottle of water from his backpack. "Need a drink?"
She didn't say anything and glanced at him for a few seconds before shaking her head.
"What? Disgusted by all the blood and grime on me? Can't really do anything about it. There's no water in this place."
"I know," she said.
"Were you planning to peek at me in the shower?" He said teasingly before feeling the temperature of his surroundings drop.
"Because I'm the one who emptied the tank," she said coldly. "How long do you need to rest?"
"An hour or so. I'll take a short nap. Watch over me, will you? And try not to stab me, considering I'm the only hope of ever curing your sister."
Leaving those words, he closed his eyes. Of course, he had a different plan in mind than simply sleeping.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Origin Energy: 76.34 Units
Physique: 26.84
Matter Limit: 9 KG
Techniques: (Expand)
Knowledge: (Expand)
Having killed an absurd seven thousand zombies in the past two hours, netting almost one zombie per second on average, he had collected enough Origin Energy to get him something he desperately needed right now, which was the strength control ability. He called out to the gear in his heart and spent fifty units of Origin Energy to dream about the technique.
Immediately, he found himself in the same vivid dreamscape as before, where he'd learned about swordsmanship. The person in front of him did the same, guiding him to sit down on the ground to meditate and achieve harmony with the body. Like a blur, a whole year passed as he continued sitting perfectly still and meditating with the teacher. It was then that the two of them got up. The remaining year and a half were spent doing various calisthenic exercises that had him using muscles that he didn't even know existed. From things like Yoga to direct calisthenics, he went through all sorts of different exercises that were designed to give him the most perfect control over his body and muscles.
When his eyes opened, he was back in the real world, feeling well rested and refreshed, as the dream truly felt like nothing more than a dream.
Dream concluded successfully.
Current mind strength is sufficient. Infinitesimal possibility of integrity loss.
Techniques:
Foundational Swordsmanship (Integrity 100% — Integration 23% -> 34%)
Foundational Strength Control (Integrity 100% — Integration 0%)
Nice…
As he continued using the katana, he noticed that the increment in integration was lowering. That was because the technique involved more than just the Katana consisted of foundational techniques for all kinds of other swords.
I need that Creation Introduction thing going, man… Without that knowledge, I'm practically handicapped, unable to use my strongest power. Once I get that down, I'll be able to freely create any weapon I want, including guns…
"Feeling better?" She asked, noticing him the moment he opened his eyes.
"Were you watching me sleep?" He asked with a chuckle.
"…" Sadly, the Ice Block named Mai seemed to feel disdain in responding to his words.
"Don't you need to rest?" He asked. "You should rest for a while as well. I'll keep watch."
"No need," she shook her head.
"You sure?" He asked. "I promise I won't even come close to you. Scout's honor."
She continued looking at him flatly, seemingly a little confused.
"I was a Boy Scout in middle school," he said. "We have this thing with oaths and all. Everyone takes it pretty seriously…or at least as seriously as a bunch of fifth and sixth graders can remember."
Mai didn't respond to him and disappeared from his perception without the slightest movement.
"Seriously, this is like insanely overpowered…" Orion's eyes hadn't lost focus for a single moment, but Mai literally blinked out of existence right in front of him. He was very tempted to completely focus on getting the introduction to runes solely to get the inspection rune, which would allow him to see Mai's status and skills.
Not getting any response from the Ice Block, Orion shook his head and wrapped up his backpack again, and made his way downstairs.
Now, as he effortlessly started mowing through the zombies, his movements were even more refined than before. While his knowledge about perfectly controlling his body and musculature was all mental, with no muscle memory to speak of, his movements were more than thrice as fluid, and it was only increasing as the technique's integration shot up. The chances Mai had to intervene with a zombie had practically been reduced to a tenth with the sudden improvement of Orion.
As he got the hang of his new technique, he realized just how much power he was wasting with his previous actions. With his current physical attributes being equivalent to thirty times that of a normal person—even if it was a linear improvement—he could, without a doubt, take on tens of thousands of zombies and barely break a sweat, as opposed to before, where he had to take a break after only two hours and seven thousand zombies.
With the increased efficiency, his speed also significantly increased as he covered the rest of the distance in half the time, taking only an hour to reach a small villa in a more upscale part of Fujisawa. Once he was close enough, Orion entered the villa adjacent to their destination and decided to recoup with Mai first before trying to contact her friend.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing, I'm just catching my breath before I meet someone I have no idea about. I don't want to end up getting ambushed like before," he said with a pointed look. "How are your clothes completely clean? You got quite a few kills in, but not a single drop of blood splashed on you?"
"Don't dally too much," she said expressionlessly.
"Aren't you curious how I suddenly got so much better?" He asked her, trying to see if she cared.
"Probably got an ability," she mumbled indifferently before stepping away and disappearing.
Orion was left with an annoyed expression on his face and sighed. "I really want to find a way to break through that ability of hers and keep track of her position."
The response that he got from his gear left him both flabbergasted and confused.
Knowledge: Primordial Rune of Tracking
Primordial Origin Cost: 25,000 Units
His first thought was that twenty-five thousand was practically nothing considering how insane an ability she seemed to have. Then his eyes went to the little prefix of Primordial behind both the energy and the rune. That was what left him stunned for multiple minutes as he realized just how insane Mai's stealth might actually be. That response completely crushed all thoughts he had about getting rid of the Ice Block Actress.
Despite her cold exterior, I'm sure that she has a warm heart. Considering the lengths that she is willing to go for her sister… I just need to warm up to her, and she should accept my friendship eventually…Fucking hell, the lengths a simp goes to justify his actions. At least I'm self-aware. But goddamn, she might just be like some kind of nexus being of this reality…Getting rid of her for being rude would just be dumb.
He pushed the thoughts of an entirely different level of existence to the back of his mind, unwilling to confront the meaningless existential crisis that would follow that particular train of thought.
He spent ten minutes or so getting refreshed, drinking some water, and more before walking out of the building. As he started cutting through the meagre remaining zombies on the street, he noticed Mai appearing beside him.
"They aren't here. Probably out scavenging…"
"I see," Orion said. "Do you want to wait for them, or to look for them?"
"Let's look. I have a bad feeling about this. She usually leaves a note for me whenever the two of them go out to scavenge."
"I'll follow your lead. With your stealth, you can just scout on ahead. Send me a signal the moment you notice something. I'll continue clearing the zombies."
"You don't need me to provide cover for you?"
"I'll be fine without mommy Sakurajima-san looking over me for a little bit," he chuckled, only to receive a cold look from her as she disappeared. "Geez, can't even take a joke. I even used your last name and everything."
Knowing Mai was no longer backing him up didn't change much for Orion. He never had any idea when she was going to act, causing him to have to constantly be alert to every zombie around him. All he had to do was swing his sword a few extra times to take care of Mai's role. Of course, that did slow him down a little, but not by much. With his continued increasing integrations, he was constantly getting better and faster.
He continued randomly going around the area, constantly killing the horde of zombies for another hour or so. He hadn't received any signals from Mai, so he ended up backtracking to her friend's villa to see if he could find either Mai or the unknown friend there.
Since he'd already cleared the zombies on the way, it barely took him ten minutes before he was in front of the villa, while getting a few stragglers on the way.
I'd thought as much… He thought to himself, hearing the voices coming from the villa. When he finally turned a corner, he noticed three people standing in front of the house, talking. One of them was Mai, and she seemed to be waiting for someone, while the other two seemed to be talking to her, receiving indifferent responses without much substance. The other two were a woman and a man, with the woman sporting ash-blonde hair and a pair of blood-stained glasses on her face. While it seemed she had rinsed her face, the traces of blood were still there, especially on her hoodie. Beside her was a well-built man with brown hair whose clothes were much worse off. Still, neither came close to the rivers of blood that Orion's clothes seemed to have experienced.
Just as he noticed them, they also noticed him and turned to look at him.
Immediately, Orion felt a chill go down his spine. His first instinct was that Mai was glaring at him again, but that wasn't the case. This chill came from the look that her friend, the ash-blonde woman, gave him. A mix of curiosity and disdain, mixed with an otherworldly feeling that he couldn't really pinpoint but made him feel like she thought of him as nothing more than a bug to be played with.
I this some kind of intimidation aura? I much prefer that of the Ice Block Mai… This woman…something feels off.