A surprised Samuel sprung out of his place as he woke up with an aching head and neck, along with the smell of a nice breakfast that reminded him that he had been living on military MREs and feeding his pets dog food.
"I should have learned to cook like mom told me. System, why did I pass out and how long have I been asleep for?"
[You lost conciousness due to a lack of mana. It has been fifteen hours.
Time remaining to claim your privilege: 15:49:38]
"Can I see my status window?"
[No. You must awaken first.]
Samuel reads through his notifications while heading deeper into the warehouse to get some paracetamol, passing by the family of three on his way there. Other than William, who he had seen yesterday, a middle-aged woman with brown hair sat next to a pan while handing the others food. There was also a young girl dressed in some pink clothes.
"Ah, come get some breakfast with us, Sam."
"Let me soothe my aching head first."
"You know you can't drink paracetamol on an empty stomach. Come get some coffee and breakfast first."
Will was still unsure about inviting Samuel to get breakfast, but after he came back to tell his wife what had happened when he went out to meet the warehouse's leader, she yelled at him telling him to ask Samuel to join them for breakfast the next day to make it up to him. Snapping back to reality, Will finds his wife glaring at him.
"Ah, right. I suppose introductions are in order. This is my wife Marie, and my eight year-old daughter Rose."
"Pleasure to meet you. Name's Samuel Zaya. Call me Sam or Samuel."
Marie nodded and gave a smile before handing him some bacon and eggs along with some bread.
"It's not much, but please go ahead." Said Marie.
"Mister, why are there sounds in your car sometimes?"
"Ah, Rose- please forgive my daughter's curiosity." Apologized Will with a bitter smile on his face.
"Must've been my pets playfighting or Argon trying to escape again."
"You have pets?! Can I see them?"
"If you're not afraid of snakes and lizards, sure."
"Ah..."
Samuel couldn't help but laugh at Rose's reluctance to meet his companions, almost choking on his meal in the process.
"Yeah that's the reaction I was expecting. No one likes my lizards all that much."
"Years of evolution do that to you." Said Marie.
"Fair point. Are you guys doing anything today? I might need your help with something."
"We were thinking of grinding some monsters for drops and levels, but we need to hear what you have in mind." Will responded.
"I need you to come with me to keep watch over the area while I hunt my awakening target. Alert me if anything gets close. Yell, cast a spell, ring a bell; anything loud enough to alert me."
"Awakening target? You haven't awakened yet, Sam?" Asked Marie.
"Indeed. I'll go find a suitable weapon and we'll head out right away."
Samuel quickly got up and looked through the common weapons available, picking a hammer in the end. He found several other blunt weapons, but most of them were too heavy to carry while flying, and the others were flails or variations of it, which would interfere with his ability to fly.
The reason why Samuel picked a hammer instead of a sword or bow was quite obvious, since they would just ricochet off of his target's armor, but a hammer dealt real damage. A gun would have been better, but the storage didn't have any.
Moments later, he walked back to the family with the axe in hand. He found them waiting for him at the door, which they couldn't open because Samuel forgot to remove the safe zone's quarantine setting.
"Sam, are you sure you only need us to keep watch? We'd definitely help you to kill it if you need us to do so." Said Marie, who was concerned for Samuel.
"Yeah, uncle! We're very strong!"
"The system said that I'm the only one allowed to engage my target." Simon answered while shaking his head.
The four of them continued on their way, being as quiet as possible to not alert the hordes of monsters, and they soon reached the Living Armor thanks to Samuel scouting from the sky. It stood at two metres tall and its silver armor was dyed red with blood as it took a seat on some rubble right in the middle of a road. It was cleaning its sword from blood and instestines.
Samuel took a deep breath before walking towards the armor, which picked up its sword and charged at him once he was twenty metres close. It swung its sword, sending a blue blade of energy in Samuel's direction.
"You didn't have that yesterday!"
Simon couldn't help but exclaim as he spread his wings and flew up to avoid its strike before closing the distance between the two of them. As he did so, the armor swung its sword to cut him in two, but it did not expect a hurricane of razor sharp feathers to interrupt its attack by piercing into it, followed by a hammer strike to its helmet, denting it.
Samuel retreated after striking it, satisfied that his initial assault was successful, but he didn't really know how many more times he could use Feather Storm. From the areas that were struck, a purple mist began to leak out along with the sound of wailing as the living armor took its stance again, letting out sword aura attacks once more.
Samuel, with no other choice, flew towards the armor with great speed, grazing some of its sword slashes in the process. So far these were manageable, but he was concerned about the miasma leaving the living armor's body.
The two continued to exchange hits for several minutes in which Samuel continued to use the hit and run method to chip the armor before him, nearly seeing the river Styx a few times in the process.
As he got ready to swing another another time, a soul-shaking shriek left the living armor as endless miasma flowed out. On that miasma, Samuel could see countless faces, all wearing twisted expressions of agony.
"YOUUUUUU, CHICKEN BASTARD! HAD YOU NOT COME HERE, I WOULD'VE IMMEDIATELY ASCENDED INTO A DEATH KNIGHT! BUT YOU HAD TO RUIN MY EASY TICKET, DIDN'T YOU?! WELL JUST LIKE YOU RUINED MY CHANCES, I'LL RUIN YOU— PERMANENTLY!"
Countless voices echoed out the same words before they all abruptly stopped, getting sucked back into where they were released from, revealing the living armor that now wore a cape and was dressed in black.
[Detected an existence that shouldn't be allowed in this world yet. Please retreat while the system activates safety measures.]