:::[Adam's POV]:::

Reaching the airfield took more time than I had expected because as I went deeper inside the city, the number of monsters continued to increase.

'This is going to take a while, so for now, I should focus on finding something edible..'

Most of the monsters didn't wander inside the buildings so I had time to search inside, but as expected, there was not much to discover.

'I need to find something like a vault or a storage room.. There must be one somewhere.'

Scrrreeeh!

'!?'

I immediately hide behind a wall after hearing a very weird noise. Because I wanted to find a room that might be used as storage, I went to the basement of one of the buildings, in the hope to find something, but I didn't expect to see something extremely disturbing.

The area was very humid and the water hadn't completely dried up, making it extremely disgusting to look at, because of the moss and the slimy substances that covered the walls.

It was dark inside, but Cristal helped me to see so I wasn't disoriented by the foggy shadowy environment.

At first, I thought that the weird substances on the walls were something natural because the place was abandoned, but as a ventured inside...

"What kind of monster is that? I never saw something like that before." I said, after seeing a very disgusting creature.

[It looks like its body is made of some sort of viscous substance.]

"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't change the fact that it's utterly disgusting. And more importantly, I can't probably kill it with one hit." I said as I examined the monster from afar.

I thought that it was better to leave it alone and move to another building, but just in case, I needed to make sure that I didn't miss something.

"Cristal, activate the x-ray vision."

[Understand.]

"This is.."

I was surprised by what I saw, but then I thought that it made sense for such a thing to exist. 'Still, I didn't expect something to exist here.. A secret pathway, huh. I wonder where it leads.'

However, there was a problem, and it seemed like I couldn't ignore it, because there a disgusting monster was just in front of a door. It was not a normal door, because, behind it, there was a room, and inside of this room, there was a hidden door that led to a secret pathway.historical

I thought about using the plasma sword to make a hole in the walls and avoid the monster, but they were too thick.

'Should I give up and find another way? But it would take time, and from what I can see, it seemed like monsters didn't manage to find this pathway yet, so there is a high probability that I will find some survivors.'

However, if I went that way, it would take some time and I didn't want to leave Zax and Liu alone for too long.

'Well, for now, I should look inside the room, because there is a high possibility that it's some kind of storage too.'

But firstly, I needed to get that monster out of the way. 'So it has some kind of cores, huh.. X-ray vision is sure convenient. I am glad that I Cristal was equipped with a lot of useful functionalities.'

Still, the thing in front of me was very disturbing to look at, since it looked like something out of these scary sci-fi movies. Its body consisted of a black viscous substance that spread on the walls like tree roots, and at the center of it all was a transparent oval-shaped object that contained a red liquid. There were a lot of tentacles that moved like snakes around it, and these tentacles has heads with mouths that were extremely frightening to look at.

'Are these bones? It was weird that monsters didn't wander around this kind of place, but it was because they became the prey of this thing when they did. Hmmm.. There are five cores in total.. However, as long as I don't come too close, it shouldn't be able to discover me. In that case, I should just finish it from here.'

However, to do that, I needed to turn Cristal into a sword, which implied that I would be defenseless. 'Well, I would be able to use my fist, but the way I am now, the thing I could do is limited.. This sucks. No matter how I look at it, the best choice was to avoid this thing, but somehow my instinct tells me that I should go beyond that door..'

I was also wasting time as I stayed still, thinking about what I should do, and that wasn't a good thing, because I needed to return before it get dark. 'It should be about 3 PM.. I need to hurry. It doesn't look like I will be able to find a spaceship today.'

I looked at the monster again and thought about the things that I needed to take into consideration if I wanted to attack it now.

"That red liquid is bad news.. However, the cores are somewhere inside of it. Also, if I turn Cristal into a sword, it would reduce my ability to see, which would be extremely dangerous. No, I should avoid it, for now, it's too dangerous. I should come back later and bring Cristal's other part. Finding food is more important.."

My chance of winning wasn't low, but I wanted to avoid any problems for the day because I was not fully recovered and Liu and Zax needed to eat something.

After that, I decided to turn back and search for food inside the other buildings. As expected, I didn't find any secret pathways, at least inside the other buildings that I investigated.

'Still, this is awful.. How many people died here. No matter how I looked at it, protecting everyone was impossible for a Lord to do, even with the help of nobles. Well, things like this are not something that one could predict.. There was nothing they could do about it.'

I looked at the decomposed body of a little girl. 'She deserved better.. I don't know her, but I think no one deserves to end up like this.. From here I should do everything in my power to prevent something like this to happen to the people I care about.. Damn, I hope I am not too late."

This was the cold reality, and I couldn't do anything to change the definite outcomes, even though I had so much power. 'In the end, if I couldn't use it.. Then it's useless.'

But that didn't mean that I couldn't do anything at all, and the most important was to do the things that I could do in a way that I wouldn't regret. 'Well, I feel like I am just trying to avoid the main issue .. But that's fine, at least for now.'

After searching from one building to another, I finally managed to find a home where a rich merchant lived, or so I concluded.

"Finally!"

I took the canned foods and put them into a ragged bag. "From the look of it, this room wasn't filled with water even when the whole city was submerged under water."

[Yes, it seems like this room was conceived to be the last hideout for the person who lived inside of this house.]

"Unfortunately, it seems like he didn't get to use it in his final moments.."

The room was tightly shut, but with my plasma sword, I could manage to force my way in. Nevertheless, I needed to make sure that I didn't make too much noise, knowing that I was almost in the middle of a city where monsters roamed around the streets as if they were its inhabitants.

'I should go back now..'

In the first place, I should have taken a break and recovered my strength before coming here, but the thoughts in my head wouldn't let me rest without doing anything, so in the end, I decided to take a closer look at the situation.

During these last few hours, I thought about many things, and it seemed like I was now calmer than before, but it didn't change the fact that what I saw around this city was something that I need to reflect on.

'I hope Zax wakes up when I come back.. Her skills are needed to repair the spaceship or the floating vehicles.'

I could do it alone, but it would take time as I was not a specialist, but with her skill, we should manage to repair one.

[Master, someone suspicious has appeared near the cabin.]

"What? Are you sure that it's a person and not a monster?"

[Yes, but they are quite different from a normal human.]

"A gift holder? Shit, tell Liu to not do anything if they don't attack. They must be wary of us, but it's better to try to talk things out if possible. I am already on my way back." I said.

After all, it would be bad if Liu and this person thought of each other, considering the circumstances.