:::[Third Person POV]:::

After Adam and Blanca left, Liu and Zax discussed the changes in Adam's attitude.

"So what do you think?" Liu said, trying to inquire Zax's opinion on the matter because she was there with Adam during the time she was abducted.

"I feel like he is hiding something from us because he avoids bringing up the topic," Zax replied, thinking back about their discussion with Adam.

"I see. Is it because he doesn't trust us?" Liu said, looking a little bit concerned about the situation because there must be a reason why Adam decided to not share certain information with them.

As a person who had some secrets herself, Liu knew how crucial some information could be depending on the circumstances.

'Why is he trying to do everything by himself?' Liu thought, looking back at Adams's decision to go to the city by himself.

"I don't think that he doesn't trust us. I think something happened to him when we passed out and made him more.. how to say it.."

"Pessimistic?"

"I would choose the word 'careful.'" Zax said.

"Even so, the way he said it sounded like he was implying that we are useless so he has to do everything alone," Liu said, looking a little displeased after thinking about how Adam had more or less told them to wait for him to find a solution for everything by himself.

"Maybe he is just worried about what happened and thought that it's better to keep us safe," Zax said, and even though she wasn't even sure if that was the case, she couldn't stand seeing Liu and Adam like that because she liked them both and believed that Adam cared for Liu even if he didn't show it to her for some reason.

"You think so? It doesn't appear to be something like that to me." Liu retorted but at least she didn't think that Adam had bad intentions and she just thought that it was something related to the power that she acquired miraculously.

'Does he think that I am too unstable? Or is he confident that he could handle everything by himself? I can somehow understand why he brought that woman with him and his arguments made sense but I still felt like he didn't even include us in his plans.' Liu thought, trying to understand Adam's decisions.

"Well, I am sure that he will manage to deal with this situation like he did when he saved you so let's trust him for now, and as he explained, we should avoid moving in a group to reduce the probability of being spotted by the monster." Zax tried to take Adam's defense, looking at Liu who didn't look pleased by how Adam did things.

She knew that Liu was a stubborn person who didn't like it when someone took care of a serious problem that involved her life in her place.

Moreover, Adam's explanation sounded logical and reasonable but the problem was that Liu didn't like it when she had to wait and feel anxious because similar to Adam, she wanted to do everything by herself.

"I hope so," Liu said but uneasiness showed on her face and she asked herself if everything would be alright.

She didn't want to admit it but until now, Adam handled things better than she would have, making her feel like she was depending too much on him.

However, Liu wasn't stupid enough to try something that could bring harm to Zax so she didn't go anywhere and stayed inside the house as Adam expected.

*****historical

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

I knew that we were going across a kind of sewer system but I still felt like throwing up.

'What the hell is this? That monster looks like it's infecting the whole area.' I thought, looking at the walls that were covered with disgusting substances.

After we made sure that were not followed, we halted a bit and I began to explain to Blanca what we were about to do next.

"It's dark here so we need to be cautious," I said, looking at the two cubes that illuminated the surrounding. "From here you need to remember these signals because as I said, I need these two cubes when I fight so we can't use them as helmets. Is that clear?"

"Okay."

"Good, now listen carefully. There is a particular monster ahead and it has many tentacles that react to sounds and movements." I said, beginning to explain how we would take care of the tentacle monster. "But I believe that its weakness is its cores so while I neutralize the tentacles, you have to use your power to take care of its main body. Then when the cores are exposed, I will destroy them quickly before it regenerates. And we also need to make sure that it doesn't regenerate even after the cores are destroyed because I suspect that the monster will certainly try something if it feels that its life is threatened and as you can see, this whole area is part of its body, so we need to make sure that such a thing doesn't happen by destroying its remains. To put it simply, all you have to do is destroy it with your power. Do you follow me?"

"Yes.." Blanca said, looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

'Did I talk too much and she didn't understand it?' I thought but since we couldn't discuss it for too long, I just left it at that. 'In the first place, I didn't need her help but since she is here, might as well use her for now and economize my power for more desperate situations. Well, I can't leave her to die too because it would be a pain if she died now.'

"Okay, let's go now," I said gesturing Blanca to follow me.

We moved forward at a slow pace but we made sure to be aware of our surroundings so it was inevitable.

The more we approached the monster's main body, the more we felt that there was something mixed with air in the environment. After realizing this, I gestured for Blanca to cover her mouth and nose just in case it was something that affected the body.

Then I used my hand to signal Blanca that we were close to the monster and we needed to stop.

We took a peek at the monster while making sure that the tentacles didn't detect our presence, then I pointed at the main body and with the help of hand gestures, I told Blanca that we will begin attacking after I counted until three.

'One, two, three.' After that, I rushed forward and activated my power.

"Kreeek!"

The tentacles made intimidating sounds and tried to attack me with their mouth but as soon as I activated my power, they stayed frozen in place.

"Swoosh!"

As I expected, Blanca's power was very effective against the tentacles and decimated them in no time after she created two crimson red tornadoes with her blood.

Still, the main body was tough and the red liquids inside of it overflowed out when Blanca's power damaged its carapace. However, it took a little bit more time for her to destroy the main body, unlike how she dealt with the tentacles.

"Sssssss!"

Fortunately, I didn't use Cristal to attack the body because a huge hole was left on the ground after the liquid fell on it.

Of course, I didn't miss that chance when the cores were exposed and instantly used my new weapon to grab the cores and destroyed them into pieces.

The wires that I created were very thin but they were still as effective as the sword when it comes to destruction power even if they lacked brute strength and were pretty useless if I couldn't control them with my thoughts using my spiritual body.

"Now, finish it!" I said.

After Blanca heard my words, she used her power to destroy the remaining tentacles and the main body.

"Sssssshhh!"

As if roaring flames were burning the monster, Blanca's power began to decimate it, and soon, there was nothing left apart from the disgusting substances on the wall.

And as I expected, after the monster's body was taken care of, a huge metallic door appeared in front of us.

Without any delay, I used my sword to open the door.

Klang!

"It seems like we are not lucky," Blanca said after looking at what was beyond the door.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a little bit disappointed myself, "but this is not what we are interested in."

I entered the room and unfortunately, it was empty and I couldn't even find a single can of food.

'It seems like someone had passed by this room before us.' I thought, looking at the state of the room.

From the look of it, it seemed like someone took all of the things that were stored inside of this room and they came here at least a few times. 'I might be thinking too much about this but I think that there are still some survivors Somewhere in this city .. The question is, what did they do when they ran out of food?" I wondered.