(XXXIV) Departure

Sam departed toward the North. He walked far enough for prying eyes to no longer watch him before he activated his Ability, becoming a blur as he ran through the streets, reaching the city limits in a few moments.

'How do you know they're going to be there..?' Khrista asked him as he ran.

'Something happened to me, and it gave me knowledge of the future.' He replied, fighting back the feelings from his past life.

'It must have been terrible for you to feel like this...' She added, a ton of concern filling her words in his mind, 'I'm sorry that happened to you, Master.'

'Thank you, Khrista.' Sam thought, dashing along the road, using his electromagnetism to force the stray vehicle out of his way, muttering, "I will have my revenge..."

'Are you sure we can reach this place you call Chicago before the sun sets?' She asked him.

'Definitely.' He replied after mulling it over. Assuming there were next to no interruptions, he should easily be able to reach the city that was nearly 500km away.

This was only the first stop he had planned to make along his journey. Every major city had numerous portals open in them all over the world. This had made northeastern cities in the United States a goldmine in his past life.

There would be hundreds of thousands of F Ranked Beast Cores to gather. There were also a few essential chess pieces he wanted to collect in a couple of the cities.

These Awakeners would become vital components for the settlement he planned to replace Dusktown. With his knowledge of the future and their unique abilities, he would cement himself as the de facto leader of the Western hemisphere.

It took him a few hours to reach the remnants of Chicago as he stood atop a destroyed highway, staring down into the ruins of the city with Khrista beside him.

In this new world, no city retained its uniqueness from the past, and all were rubble, and each experienced a devastating blow. Some were complete ghost towns waiting for the vultures.

He had made a few stops in the countryside, collecting as many seeds and vegetables as possible without spending too much time. He wanted to reach Pittsburgh by sundown and had two more cities to hit.

He pulled his bag off and handed it to Khrista, placing it over her head and settling it on her hip, "Here."

"Thank you, Master!" She said with a large grin, leaning forward as he placed it on her and kissed him on the cheek, causing the young man to blush slightly.

"You know what to do." He said, turning his head.

"Yes, Master." Khrista bowed and slithered away, off to collect as many Beast Cores and place them inside the pocket dimension as she could find.

He jumped off the overpass and landed on the road below, sticking his hands into his pockets, and strolled into the city. He found a backpack and slipped it over one shoulder as he walked along the streets.

He ignored nearly all of the crystals at his feet, only picking up an F Rank Beast Core when he found and absorbed a D Rank one and put them into his backpack to keep count.

He continued to make his way toward the Woodfield Mall, repeating the process until he had absorbed ninety D Rank Beast Cores and collected the same amount of F Rank crystals.

He dashed toward the mall and leaped onto the hood of a car, using his magnetism to launch himself into the air using the hood and fly on top of the humongous structure.

"Okay, Mr. Gamer God..." Sam muttered to himself as he walked along the ceiling, looking through the glass ceiling into the mall itself, "Where are you..?"

In his past life, the teenager was only six when the apocalypse destroyed the planet, and he had survived by sheer luck, unlocked an overpowered Ability, and hid out in the mall.

He continued to walk along the rooftop as he scanned the interior of the mall but saw nothing inside moving. He started having doubts, thinking he might have beaten the kid here and would be stuck waiting.

He walked around the rooftop a dozen times and failed to see anyone moving around inside. He shook his head, summoning Khrista inside his mind, 'I need you.'

'I'm coming, Master!!!" She screamed telepathically, and within a few minutes, she appeared on top of the mall, panting heavily. She grabbed the top buttons of her robe, undoing them as she revealed her cleavage.

"Hand me the bag." He said, scanning through the glass, still searching. She pouted, sulking as she removed the messenger bag from over her shoulder and handed it to him.

"Thank you." He said, opening it and reaching his entire arm into the pocket dimension inside, "Sneak inside and see if you can find anyone... If you do, come get me!"

"Ugh..." Khrista huffed, refastening the buttons as she slowly slithered away, muttering, "I thought you needed me..."

Sam smirked and rolled his eyes, pulling out the ten C Rank Crystals he needed to finish his ascension to the next tier, sitting down as he started absorbing them.

He sat in lotus position as he finished the final dozen. Similarly, waves of a pale aura surrounded his body.

It started as a slowly rising smoke before growing and intensified as a fiery aura flowed off his body. As he finished the last Beast Core, his breath grew thick.

Each time the young man took a breath, he took in more air, and when he exhaled, he released air concentrated with rich mana.

╔══Congratulations on ascending from D Rank Hunter to C Rank Hunter! Available Ability Slots have doubled.══╝

C Rank Hunters were where the gap in power slowly started to increase beyond the point of being able to compete with a higher-ranked Hunter.

F and D ranks were close enough to overcome the advantage with good enough abilities, but D to C was a rough wall.

Having access to eight abilities versus four was an insurmountable gap, and the valley only grew drastically.

Samael sighed as his breath returned to normal, and he opened his eyes, dismissing the notification. He stood and rolled his shoulder with a smirk.

With the revelation of the hidden effect in the [Soul Thief], he had continuously thought about what abilities could be merged to create a more powerful Ability.

'Master!' Khrista called out as he turned to face her location, 'I've located him.'

'Good job, Khris.' Sam thought, lightning dancing around the heels of his boots, 'Keep an eye on him, but stay hidden.'

'Yes, Master.' She replied as the lightning danced around his legs and jumped to his fingertips. He snapped his fingers and grinned.

'I'll be there in a sec.' He said, leaping forward as he vanished above the glass.

The sun had started to fall as Samael dashed above the rooftop of the mall. He frowned as he had lost a lot of time searching for the target.

"Tch!" Sam clicked his tongue, pushing back the annoyance at the thought he should have been leaving Detroit right now.

"Now's not the time to be thinking about that…" He sighed, steeling his face as a stern expression spread across it, "It's time to hunt!"