"Do your best to keep up," Zarek called out as he broke into a jog.
"I can keep up just fine. My Endurance has always been better than yours."
"I think we both know that's a lie."
Priya was about to reply with proof, but then she realized the double meaning in Zarek's words and snorted.
"Just a few seconds without my boyfriend being a perv would be nice."
"No can do."
Zarek laughed, racing down the paved roads. They could have taken the jeep he had locked away in a basement garage of his home, but he left it there on purpose for a rainy day. Plus… having a moving vehicle when the world was still in too much chaos might be more of a detriment than anything else.
They would have quite a distance to travel—the length of four and a half marathons, in fact. With their current stats, they could probably do it in a day, but it would definitely be pushing it.
As for his Endurance, it had always been great. Priya was right in that she almost always beat him in long distance, but that was because normally he would work out on his own first before he dragged her along. By then, he had already depleted himself of everything he had.
—
Name: [Priya Synghe]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: F+] <B>
>[Dexterity: F+] <A->
>[Intelligence: FF] <SS+>
>[Endurance: F+] <S->
>[Charisma: FF] <S>
Talents:
>[Melaloon: F+] <SSS->
[Abilities: Absorption]
[Energy comes naturally to you]
>[Unawakened]
>[Unawakened]
—
He was quite happy with how Priya's first session had gone. Although she didn't manage to reach the FFF tier, it was good enough. It was doubtful that she could unless he could transfer his experience in using [Tearing Gut] to her. For now, she would just have to rely on her S Class Growth Potential.
It wasn't a good idea to slow down her advancement too much, so tonight they would definitely break into the E tier in earnest.
…
The streets were mostly clear. With everyone having been evacuated, the number of Turned in the region was actually quite limited.
The only reason the school grounds had had so many was partially Zarek's fault for not closing the Godsfall Tear soon enough. This attracted the Turned to stick around.
In the outside world, though, unless there were Hubs, Godsfall Tears, things of the like, or—most importantly—humans to consume, the Turned would wander aimlessly until they found what they were looking for.
Plus, these were the suburbs, not the heart of a metropolis. The population density wasn't very high to begin with, and obviously Turned were once humans. So if there weren't many humans here, how could there be many Turned?
From time to time, the duo would come across a Turned slinking out of the shadows, and Zarek would slowly let go of the reins and allow Priya to deal with it.
In order to increase his proficiency with Temp Duplicate, he got into the habit of copying bullets for Priya to use with her gun.
Of course, Temp Duplicate had a huge weakness: that being that the durability of the items copied was nowhere near the original. But in this case, that actually worked in Zarek's favor.
It forced Priya to get used to protecting the bullets with her Melaloon Talent, not only when releasing them toward a target, but inside the gun itself. If she didn't, the combustion would crumble the bullet before it even made it out of the barrel.
The noise of the gun firing attracted more Turned toward them, but Zarek wasn't very worried about this with the low density of them.
They moved across the four-lane highway toward the other side and slipped into the wilderness.
"The Turned here might be a bit wilder."
"Because they're animals?" Priya asked.
"Mm. Any living creature can become a Turned. If the vegetation is complex enough, in rare instances, even trees and such can. But every species has different variations. Beast Turned are more powerful at this stage than human ones are. They're more in tune with their instincts, they're faster, sharper, more coordinated—essentially, they've adapted far better."
Priya nodded as she took this information in.
"Here." Zarek handed Priya another magazine loaded with bullets.
"Is there really no limit to this?" Priya looked down in surprise.
Zarek chuckled. "There is. But let's just say I have a lot of pent-up energy."
In Zarek's gut, there was still a Strength Type sliver remaining. He was pulling on it every time he activated Temp Duplicate.
Since he couldn't use the energy on anything else, he might as well use it to practice like this.
Unlike his Skills, he had no experience with Temp Duplicate at all. Plus, it was a Talent with only B Class Growth. It would inevitably take him quite a bit of time to level it up.
'I'm getting a feeling that I've already run to the end of my rope with this. This is probably one of those Talents I'll have to use on a variety of things to improve. Just replicating the same bullets and casings again and again isn't going to cut it.'
Though he said this, Zarek didn't stop. Priya still needed more bullets, so he refined other things—his speed, his observation time, how perfect the mirrors were.
The changes were incremental, but Zarek's experience shone through. He might have never had this Talent before, but he had decades of experience in growing Skills and Talents. He knew how to teach himself properly.
"Zarek…" Priya whispered.
Zarek came to a stop and nodded.
They were following along the highway from the cover of the trees. There was a slight elevation between it and themselves, and the highway itself almost hovered up on pillars like a bridge while the wilderness was down below.
The reason they weren't on the highway itself was obvious enough. It would make it too easy for them to be picked out. But just now, on the highway of crashed and parked cars, the noise of a motor reached them in all the quiet.
Zarek reached back and took Priya's hand, ducking behind the shade of a tree.
As dangerous as the Turned were in this world, humans were probably even more so. Priya was smart enough to understand this and didn't question Zarek's actions at all.
Zarek thought that they would just pass by, but his eyes narrowed when he saw the group of motorcycles weaving through the highway.
'They're still looking, huh?'
It seems that Malik had sent out his gang again. There was no doubt who they were looking for.