Samuel awoke the next day in his car with Moon coiled over his neck, Sun holding his left arm hostage, Newt in his lap, and Argon at his feet. Looking around his car, he would find Shape and Shifter sleeping on his head while Venus... was busy biting on his finger, wanting some food. The vibrations had also stopped, which was good.
Samuel yawned as he sat up, getting his pets down. As much as he wanted to let them out, the warehouse was too big, and the outside was too dangerous for them to wander around in.
After cleaning up his car, Samuel brought his pets breakfast before leaving the warehouse. He looked left and right as he got out, before heading out as silently as possible to go find his target. Anything worked, and he would find his target, even if meant he had to walk all over the city.
And that was what Samuel had done, walk. Sometimes fly over some rubble or to escape, but it was mostly walking and sneaking so he wouldn't be detected by his targets.
"So my targets are:
1. Red-Furred Wolf (RW): Fast, high attack, but easily damaged by its enemies. Pack hunter. Travels with a pack of 20 other canine-type animals. I think I can kill it if I catch it off-guard with an attack from the sky. TBD.
2. Giant Mantis (GM): Slow movement, fast attacks, strong damage. Solitary. Only really moves out to get food. I would get diced to pieces before realizing it. Rejected.
3. Living Armor (LA): Slow movement, slow attack speed (Greatsword user), high defense. Solitary. Does not appear to require water or food to survive. Might be worth checking if I can chip it enough over a long fight. TBD.
4. Black Blaze Bear (3B): Fast attacks, high damage, high defense. Solitary. Often gets into fights with groups of more than 30 creatures and wins. Undoubtedly the strongest among the candidates. Rejected.
5. Flamvenom Titanoboa (FVT): Fast movement, strong defense, DoT specialist. Solitary. Kills its targets through long ranged magic venom attacks or through coiling around them to crush their bones and stop them from breathing. Will attempt to tame once I'm stronger."
"Looks like it's either gonna be an instant kill on the wolf or a long fight with the living armor..."
Samuel, who was now heading back to his base, wrote down a list of targets on a notebook he picked up from a broken shop while smoking a cigarette. As he enters the safe zone, a notification rings in his head.
[Three new entities located inside the user's domain.]
"System, lock down the area and highlight them in white."
The green color of the safe zone suddenly turned red, and he could see three white colored figures. one was tall and muscular, another was slender and of average height, and the last one was small. A family of three was Samuel's first thought. They were all behind one of the racks, cooking something, and not waiting for him at the door, which meant that they couldn't ambush him.
Walking to the door, Samuel opened it up, alerting the people within before taking a seat next to his car, which still had its windows. He was thankful that the people didn't think of taking it.
"You... Are you the boss here?"
As he took his seat on the floor, Samuel heard a gruff voice ask. Before him stood a muscular middle-aged man almost two metres in height, with a white beard and white hair.
"Yeah that's me. Name's Samuel Zaya. Call me Sam or Samuel."
"Nice to meet you, mister Samuel. I'm William Locke, call me Will. I only ask that you let me and my family remain here. We'll do what we can to help you."
"I appreciate it. For now, I just need some questions answered."
"Of course. I'll answer you to the best of my abilities?"
"First. How did you know this place was occupied?"
"When we entered, we received a message telling us this place was controlled by Samuel Zaya."
"I see. Second. When you kill monsters, does anything drop?"
"Could it be that you haven't gone through your awakening yet, even though you have wings? We can help you if you want?"
"Just answer the damn question."
"Yes, yes. I understand. When you kill a monster or a person, they commonly drop weapons and rarely skill books on their location of death."
"People?"
"Yes, the system does not differentiate between man and beast. That's why it refers to everything as beings or creatures. This is just something I've heard from someone else, but I never got to test it out. They told me drops are also affected by your level. They got an uncommon sword for killing a level five as a level two."
'So that eliminates the wolf since its drop would fall right into the mass of canines, but there's no guarantee that I'd be able to fight it without attracting anything.'
"Do you have skill books you can't use?"
"This..."
"I'll give you some food for it. Along with information about areas to avoid."
"Can I discuss it with my wife first?"
"Make it quick."
Samuel checked on the lizards in his car, taking a seat to cuddle with his pets, feed them, and to keep Argon from breaching his containment zone. While he was doing that, William had come back.
"I can give you these three skill books for what you offered me before."
Samuel took the three skill books to check them.
[Magic Manipulation for Dummies: Grants you the ability to control magic.]
[Way of Unarmed Combat: Fills your mind with all sorts unarmed techniques.]
[Feather Storm: Shoots feathers from your wings to assault your opponents.
Requirements: Magic manipulation Lv.1. Feathered wings.]
"These all seem like very solid skills. I can understand why you gave me that third one, but the other two seem too good to spare."
"Think of it as me paying rent."
"What am I, a landlord asking you for a 200% tip? You said these things were rare, but you can just hand out three."
"That's-"
"No, let me guess. It's probably one of your party members' unique passive skill that increases drop rates, most likely... a perk for your daughter that can't defend herself, am I right?"
The cogs rolled in Samuel's brain before he spoke, saying the first thing that came to his mind. He wanted to say more, but he saw William reach for the sword on his hilt while his expression twisted into a frown, which also angered Samuel, who was ready to put William down with his wings.
"Will, take your hand off of your weapon. I was just guessing why you had that."
Hearing that, Will took a deep breath before letting go of his weapon.
"Sorry, I'm just on edge from all of what's going on. You can understand what it feels like having your loved ones threatened."
Samuel looked at the reptiles he was keeping before giving a nod in response to William's words. The two of them then made some small talk before William walked back to his family while Samuel learned the skill books.
[Acquired: Magic Manipulation Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery Lv.1, Feather Storm Lv.1]
"System, return the safe zones back to its normal settings."
Samuel stepped out of the car and stretched before beginning to practice the new skills he got while singing a song. Magic manipulation didn't seem to do much without other skills, and Unarmed Mastery felt like he had always been practicing martial arts... Too bad that getting muscle memory of martial arts didn't mean he got the stamina to practice them.
"F*ck... I shouldn't have skipped gym class..."
He panted after thirty minutes of training, downing a bottle of water before getting back to training, this time with Feather Storm, which showed some crazy results. The feathers swirled into the shape of a tornado before embedding themselves into the wall of the warehouse.
"Damn that's cra...zy..."
Were the last words that Samuel could utter before dropping to the ground like a log due to falling unconscious.