Elyn was her name. Emery now had a general idea. So she could speak English all along or had she learned it while he was speaking?
The latter didn't sound very possible, but she was as strong as a Class Ten Awakened. Classifying her by normal standards would be a dumb mistake he didn't plan on ever making.
"Do you know where you come from, Elyn?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"Memory… gone."
Well, that was that. There was no point in dwelling over the matter any longer. Right now he'd started thinking about much bigger issues.
'We need somewhere to stay and I need to find someone to heal this arm. Magical dishes won't help me forever.'
Emery said that, but he had little to no idea on what to do next. How would they be able to find a permanent place of residence using only his and Elyn's skills?
Cooking was an option but unfortunately for him he'd used up all his spices and garnishes with this last meal he made.
"I need credits." he surmised quickly.
And that was when it all clicked in his head. 'Right, Hemp! Some of his men buy Beast corpses for a bit of money!'
"Elyn, do you have any energy in you to hunt beasts?" he asked.
The girl paused then nodded.
"Then let's go. I'm going to need a lot of your help!"
It left a bad taste in his mouth, having to rely on someone but one day. One day he would gain the strength to be able to do some of the things on his own.
He packed up his tools and placed them back in his rucksack. They would have to move a distance away from the city before finding any more beasts. The lower-ranked ones usually avoided areas where mid-rankers and high-rankers had been.
The tiger Elyn had killed before was an anomaly. Most beats didn't come to this part of the city and they would definitely avoid any place where stronger beasts had been. So it was probably in the area before the Class Five got there.
Emery and Elyn traversed the terrain with much more ease than the first time. They were fed this time and had a purpose. Emery had it slightly harder. He stumbled over rocks, and debris, opening all the past injuries.
He tried his best to ignore it and instead drifted off to other thoughts.
'Can I check her stats too?'
[Ding!]
[Name: Elyn]
[Job: N/A]
[Race: ??? (Not enough information)]
[Level: One…Exp:10/50]
[Attributes:
STR- Class Nine
AGI- Class Ten
INT- Class Ten
DEF- Class Ten
DEX- Class Nine]
[Skills: Brute Strength, Punch, Kick, Rush]
[Status: Slight Exhaustion]
Emery gulped down a bit of saliva. Based on strength and dexterity alone she could be classified as a Class Nine Awakened and only when you brought her other stats into the picture, was she a certified Class Ten. Even then, she could probably deal with a few Class Nines.
'If I remember correctly a Class Ten beast corpse goes for about 10,000 credits. I should be able to get some of my injuries fixed in that time.'
Suddenly all his other goals didn't seem half as far-fetched as he thought in the first place.
[Ding!]
[Mandatory mission accepted!]
[Details: You are not to be bound by mediocrity. Kill ten Class 10 beasts in the next two hours.
Rewards: 20 Energy. 150 exp. Random offensive skill]
Emery narrowed his eyes at the timely response of the system. It seemed like it could read his mind and perform certain actions based on his thoughts.
This mission sounded simple enough but there were far too many factors to consider. The biggest one being Elyn's exhaustion levels. If they got themselves in a needlessly dangerous situation, they would inevitably perish.
And despite all that.
'If I wanted to sell the whole bodies, how would we transport them to Hemp's men?'
Too many factors, but he had to remain calm.
'I'm a chef. My entire job is to make sure these factors don't negatively affect the dish. So right now my job as the chef is to make sure these factors don't affect the results of the mission.'
Even if he failed to take these factors into consideration, the rewards were enticing enough. 5 energy, 150 exp and an offensive skill?
He chalked a few things down so far. The first being that he had Awakened, just not in any common way.
Was his awakening this Doomsday Chef System or the ability to summon?
Then the skills were the sub-abilities he acquired or had beforehand. Emery's confusion became a bit more evident in this area.
Flame-element Awakened had flame-based combat, movement and support skills. They wouldn't be able to use any other element skills. But what about a Summoning Awakened?
What kind of myriad skills would he be able to get access to?
That was what he wanted to find out.
Soon enough they came upon the edge of the city. The moonlight shone better upon the terrain than it did with all the buildings of the city blocking it.
A small forest came into view. He couldn't quite tell from this distance but there seemed to be a small body of water at the center of this small forest.
The trees were not too tall and had still green leaves despite the season currently being autumn.
"Are you ready?" he asked Elyn.
The white-haired girl's eyes twinkled with something that looked like excitement, "Yeah."
'Is her English getting better?'
That was a question for another day. As they rapidly approached the forest, a medium-sized beast came into view.
Their first opponent was here.
It was a blue and white badger-looking creature and was as big as a normal dog before the apocalypse.
*Hiss*
The badger creature arched its back as it noticed Emery and Elyn and bared its two blue-tipped front fangs.
[Ding!]
[Name: Poison Badger]
[Race: Beast]
[Threat rank: Class 10 Threat]
[Skills: Swipe, Poisonous bite]
Emery tensed up slightly. He knew the final outcome but coming face to face with a beast was far different than seeing its dead corpse on the floor.
But finally, he mustered all the confidence he'd been missing his entire life.
"Take care of it, Elyn!"