Joining the group (2).

"We need to leave this place as soon as possible..."

"As you all know, the world we live in has become... Different from what we are used to."

"These mutated creatures and strange beings called devils are the least of our problems."

Waiting for his words to settle in, he took a breath before he continued...

"The most urgent matter we currently have to deal with is the matter of food and basic living essentials."

"Food?"

Grrrrr!!!

The stomach of someone in the room suddenly let out cries for sustenance.

"That wasn't me!"

"Me neither..."

They all instantly looked at the only fatty in the room.

"You freaking bodyshamers! Just because I'm fat doesn't mean I–"

Grrrrr!!!

"Fine, it was me..." The fatty said with a defeated expression, his fat cheeks jiggling in sadness as he fought back tears.

"I haven't eaten anything in two freaking days, alright!"

"But I didn't feel much hunger, not until recently," Blaze said with a frown.

"That is most likely due to the action of the so-called mana we have been absorbing in our bodies. It must have greatly slowed down our metabolism, and as a result, we haven't felt any hunger." David replied.

"However, make no mistake. From all my years of being a student of science, all things obey a certain law. Even though this strange new element called mana has been introduced, highly doubt it would affect it by much."

"What are you trying to say, Mr. David?" Hunter, the blond-haired guy asked.

"What I'm trying to say is this... Haven't you guys thought about this? Where does this energy call mana come from, and how exactly did it come to be?"

Well... Cain had the perfect answer to this question...

"God Ash..."

"Huh?" Everyone in the room turned to Cain with confused expressions.

'I see... '

Judging from their expressions, Cain concluded that they most likely hadn't heard the term before. He instantly made a mental note of this detail...

"You guys remember the Grey colored snowflakes that fell just before things went to shit?"

"I remember!"

"Yeah... Where the hell did that stuff come from..."

"It truly was a strange phenomenon."

Everyone had their piece to say, but David had a look of realization appear in his eyes.

"You mean?"

"Yes... That stuff is what caused all of this to happen. Think of it as the catalyst of armageddon..."

They all started in shock, trying to process this information.

Meanwhile, Cain was currently having a conversation with the system generated voice in his head.

'System... Why don't they know about the God Ash?'

{Replying to Host: The system is only authorized to answer the questions asked by the host. The information provided might be free, or it might not be. However, the information must be sought after by the host. The reason some information have high prices in the system shop is that they are, at that moment, regarded by the system as rare and precious on the host's planet}.

'I see... '

Cain began to realize how important information was. There was always an advantage to knowing more than others. With the way the system worked, those more informed than others will always be one step ahead.

Cain had no plans to share his latest discovery, so he decided to keep what he had just discovered to himself.

"God Ash, huh? What exactly is it?" Susan asked Cain.

"From the little I know, it is actually formed from the corpses of dead gods. I don't know anything other than that." Cain lied with a smile on his face.

"How do you know all this? " Hunter asked Cain suspiciously.

Cain turned to hunter with a glint in his eyes, his thoughts unknown.

"I just happened to know, is all. " Cain replied vaguely.

"Oh?... " Seeing that Cain wasn't going to give him the truth, he backed off skillfully, and continued his quiet conversation with Dan.

'I need to watch out for him...'

Cain was wary of everyone in this group. They were all incredibly smart, and the fact that they were able to survive this long spoke lengths about their strength and cunning...

"gods? Well... Things just became waaay more interesting." Manny said, excitement boiling in his eyes.

"Well, back to the topic at hand. I think we should leave this place because we need to learn more about what the hell is happening to our world. Not only that, the matter of food as well as resources cannot be tended to if we stay here. There is literally no food here. If we keep staying here, we might die of hunger before the devils can get their turn."

"I see your point, Mr. David. I agree with you."

"I agree as well."

"I don't really care. I just wanna fight some monsters."

"Tis a wise choice indeed. I am in total agreement with this plan."

"What do you think, Cain? " David asked.

"Me?"

Cain didn't expect David to ask for his opinion.

"Well... you are now a part of the group, so your opinions will definitely be taken into consideration as well. " David said in an endearing tone. Since they had been close even before the apocalypse, David was trying to look out for Cain in his own way...

"I agree as well. That isn't far off from my initial plans."

Cain had also made up his mind to leave this place, as he had come to the same conclusion as David in his mind.

He wanted to see what else the present world had to offer. Although danger was everywhere, Cain cherished the feeling of battle that existed alongside the dangers. There was a very exhilarating adventure waiting for him ahead, and he couldn't wait for it to get started...

"Alright... I suggested we leave soon. If we want to make it to the main campus before nightfall."

"Let's meet in an hour."

***

Cain sat in an empty class, looking at the items before him.

'System, what are these mana shards?'

{Replying to host: Further information only be purchased in the store}.

'Sigh... '

Opening the system store, Cain swiftly locate the information on mana shards, then used his system points to purchase it. It wasn't costly, and he had a lot of system points from killing the {Miasma Devil}, so although it stung a little bit, he let it slide.

{Purchase successful.. }

{Replying to host: Mana shards are the condensed essence of mana only possessed by Demon beasts and Mutants. Advanced forms of mana shards are called Mana cores. They are the power source of the mutant beasts, and can serve various purposes. These uses can be discovered by the host, or purchased in the system store}.

'What about this Devil orb?'

{Replying to host: Further information can be purchased in the store}.

"..."

{Purchase successful... }

{Replying to host: Devil orbs are the same as mana shards, but they are possessed exclusively by the devil race. Devils are also able to condense mana shards as a secondary power source, but it is many times weaker than the mana shards possessed by mutant beasts, and can not evolve to form mana cores}.

'How do I use them?'

{Replying to host: Further information be purchased in the system store}.

'You've got to be kidding me!'

Cain fumed in silence as he once again purchased information from the system. With all these purchases, all the system points he had gotten from killing the {Miasma Devil} had completely vanished...

{Purchase successful... }

{Replying to host: Mana shards can be directly consumed by the host. The effects vary with the strength of the mana shard. They can also be used to create weapons and artifacts. As for the Devil orbs, there are two ways to use them. They can either be used directly or indirectly. To use Devil cores directly, all the host needs to do is apply some force to shatter them. The benefits received from the Devil core can vary depending primarily on luck. The host can acquire weapons or special artifacts created from the manifestation of condensed Devil mana. The host can also acquire powerful Devil skills from them. They can also be used on weapons to grant them special skills or attributes aside from the normal elemental ones. They can also end up not containing anything. It all depends on fate}.

'Hmmm...'

Cain was stuck...

He had to decide how to use the resources before him.

On one hand, he could keep them for future use, but on the other hand, he needed as much power as he could get his hands on. The artificial forest they had to travel through to get to the main campus would most likely be a death trap by now.

He didn't know what to expect, so he had to be prepared...

'Fuck it! '

He grabbed the mana shard and applied some pressure to it. A cloud of green smoke escaped from the gaps of his clenched fist, traveling into his body from his orifices. He let out a deep breath as a flash of green traveled across his skin for a brief second, before fading away.

{+5% poison resistance}.

'Good. Now for the other one...'

He grabbed the devil orb, taking a deep breath of anticipation as he applied pressure on it. The pitch-black orb shattered under the pressure of Cain's grip.

A thick black smoke was released from his palm and was replaced by a pitch-black blade with ominous markings etched onto its surface.

The blade was only a finger wide and about 150 centimeters long. It was a very long curved blade and on the hilt, there was a pitch-black menacing-looking eye staring back at him.

Cain instantly fell in love with the blade. He was a huge fan of curved blades, and his training with his teacher included him mastering how to fight with them.

'Let's see what this bad boy's made up of!'