Making sure to leave Silvia at the base, Lucas set off in the direction he saw the smoke yesterday.
Walking along a barren road, vines and grass broke through the concrete and sprouted in places without concrete to block its path. The grass grew as high as five feet tall.
The occasional rodent would scurry across the road in search of food.
It didn't take Lucas long to arrive in the vicinity of the origin of the smoke. "Hello!?!?" Lucas's voice echoed off the walls of buildings, startling a flock of birds into the sky.
Coming to the intersection. Lucas stood in the center of the four-way stop and spun around, looking in each direction. Standing in front of Lucas, about five meters away, was a lion that was probably once in a zoo. It was much larger than an ordinary Lion. Standing at three meters tall and two meters long. They proceeded to have a staring contest.
interrupting their little staring contest, "Sui!" An arrow came flying out of nowhere and sunk into the lion's rump.
"Roar!!" Roaring to the heavens, The beast went into a rage and charged at Lucas.
Sighing at his misfortune, Lucas unsheaths the black obsidian sword off his back. Raising it high above his head, Lucas enters an attack stance to receive the big feline.
Popping scaled out all over his skin, Lucas went from looking like an ordinary youth. To an Abyssal black-armored humanoid beast.
Even Lucas was surprised what happened next, as he didn't expect it to be such an easy feat to kill the lion. Lucas brought his sword down with great force, simply splitting its head in half as it dropped to the ground in a rumble just within inches of himself.
"Hehe" Laughing to himself, Lucas circles the colossal beast and retracting his scales, Lucas was determining how to take care of it next.
"Wait!! Wait, I tell you!" Lucas paused when hearing the voice. "That's our prey; you can't just steal other people's prey!"
Hearing the voice. Lucas only remembers now that there happened to be an arrow that pissed the beast off. Running out from the alley between buildings, four people came. Which much surprised Lucas.
Humans, actual humans!
There were three girls and one man. The man wielded a spear and soft leather armor with a large sack on his back. A short Brunette with a short sword and small buckler. She had a unique set of armor made of an assortment of shells. Did this miss come out of the sea?! The last two both wore soft leather armor, dyed black — one wielding dual daggers and the other a longbow.
Lucas was ecstatic!
"Come on; We've been tracking this beast for a week already. This is ours!" Said the blonde.
"Hello, I'm Lucas. who are you?" Lucas asked nervously.
"We're Silver Arrow, Don't you recognize us from the guild? Aren't you an adventurer??" Said the short Brunette with her head raised proudly to show off her prowess and might.
Seeing the look of confusion on Lucas's face, the girl wielding daggers brightened with enlightenment. "Hello, Lucas. This idiot over here is Tom," She said, pointing at the only other man in the group. Gesturing to the blonde, then the shortie next. "And these two are Alyssa and Beckie; You can call me Alice..." Alice hesitated for a moment. ".. Were you lost until now? since before the 'Shift'?"
The other three finally had knowing looks on their faces.
Lucas looked at them in puzzlement. "What is... shift?"
"You remember the earthquake. The researchers in the Adventurers guild said it had something to do with dimensions merging. Earth is several times larger now and is said to be still expanding today! Around seventy percent of all humans died in the Shift, you know."
"What?!?!" Lucas was horrified. What about Ellie?? Was she alright??
"Yeah... If you're looking for more information, I'd suggest going to Seaside City. It's Southeast of here. Most humans within several hundred Kilometers went there. It's also a good chance to sign up with the Adventurer's guild. That's where we came from" Informed Alice with a kind smile.
"Have you heard about survivors from Deer town?? My sister was there last."
"I'm sorry... I haven't heard anything..."
"That's ok... I'll have to keep searching..."
Sensing the depressing atmosphere, Alyssa changed topics. "Hey, I'm hungry. Lucas, right? Come eat with us at our camp!"
"Sure." Lucas was happy to get to know such kind people.
"By the way, kid. I saw you wearing armor earlier. Where did it go?" Asked Tom with curiosity.
"Yeah! I saw it too!" Happily shouted Beckie, You could tell she had a naturally bubbly personality.
"You mean this?" Lucas surprised them by extending all the scales out of his skin, causing them to back off in fear with weapons drawn at Lucas.
"What's wrong?"
"Aren't you human?!? What are you if not???" Tom angrily yelled.
"Eh? It's a long story. Just put down your weapons first, and I'll tell you slowly!" Lucas waves his hands in an attempt to calm them down. Luckily Alice always seemed to be a level headed person and helped to calm everyone down.
A few minutes later, everyone was gathered around a campfire near the river listening to Lucas's story with great zeal.
Hearing the story about the super fat mole king, Beckie giggled, thinking it must have been amusing. When it came to slavery, everyone had a bit of uncomfortable and dislike shown.
When it finally came to the giant Stalker, Everyone held their breath — listening to the dramatic story coming to an end.
Beckie, with the bubbly personality, was the most easily excited, asking a million questions.
"I'd heard about a spider den near here; I didn't think it'd be that bad..." Alice said.
"Agreed, I don't think we'd have been able to handle it." Said Tom, happily knowing the spiders were dead.
"I bet if you go back down sometime, you could harvest that Stalk Queens silk pouch if the corpse remained intact. That would be some premium material for clothes!" Alyssa said excitedly.
"So, what happened to all these prisoners you helped to escape?" Alice asked with curiosity.
Lucas told them about his new base and kindly invited them to stay there while in the city. They were more than happy to take up the offer of safe accommodation. Taking the opportunity, Lucas also asked if they'd seen a girl who looked very similar to himself, with long black hair. His sister.
"Unfortunately, I've never seen anyone like that. But I'll keep my eyes open for any information about her, But if she's fine... I'd recommend you take the time to visit the Adventurer's Guild. They have some of the most advanced information and work directly with the government to help protect us, remaining humans." Alice informed Lucas.
"Well, I think I should check our house in Deer town first, and then I'll see about heading to the Adventurer's Guild after. Just a small detour." Lucas said without many expressions but even could tell he was depressed.
"Well, Let's go to my base. You'll be able to sleep comfortably there," Lucas said.
Lifting the giant Lion over his head, they were all amazed by his pure strength and followed him back to his base.
They just happened to reach the base at the same time as Rex, who was happily carrying a deer over each shoulder for tonight's dinner.
You could see a few girls wandering around, looking for edible plants in the vicinity as well.
That night they had a great party that lasted most of the night.
--------
Early the next morning, Lucas came downstairs groggily and saw Tom taking apart the Lion corpse, skinning the beast, throwing out all the entrails, and finally reaching in and taking out a lump of flesh the size of a baseball that looked like some cyst.
"What is that thing??" Lucas asked with a bit of curiosity and disgust. "Ah, Right. This is a beast core, look. If I peel the flesh around it, this is what you end up with." Said Tom, as he used a knife to cut a seam in the flesh and to rip it all back. Exposing a cloudy white gem with waves in it.
Feeling his chest, Lucas could feel the red gem on his chest under his shirt and wondered if they could be related.
"You should probably stock up on these, Most beasts who learn how to absorb the Dimensional Energy in the air grow a beast core. The Adventurer's Guild also uses them as a currency." Tom explains