System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 27: Requirements Met!
Damon turned toward the direction of the voice. There, standing with a puzzled look and wide eyes, was Victor.
Beside him, he saw Ivy stare more at Kitsune than at him, a rather perplexed expression on her face.
"Hmm, I’ll leave you to it." Kitsune suddenly said in his head before turning back to her fox form. "Don’t forget to raise mana~"
Damon scratched the back of his head. Victor’s unblinking gaze indicated a barrage of questions he didn’t feel like answering, and so instead of explaining what just happened, he decided to change the subject altogether.
"Casper disappeared into the city. We can use this moment to get some rest-"
But before he could even finish his suggestion, Ivy had already turned away, heading straight for the city.
Damon raised a brow at her sudden departure. He turned to Victor, who looked even more confused than he was, and so he followed after her.
"It’s the middle of the night, and he can hide his presence. If he wants to stay hidden, then we won’t find him, no matter what."
Ivy’s walk came to a halt at Damon’s words.
He could see her hand clench into a fist so tight her knuckles turned white until she loosened her grip and turned toward him.
She didn’t speak, and instead, she simply stared at him. But Damon didn’t need words, in that moment a quiet understanding dawned on him. He remembered the reason they split in the first place. She left to find her family.
The cruel reality of her situation became more apparent with each thought. At best, her family was missing and at worst...
He shook the thought away. It wasn’t his place to speculate or ask questions.
"Let’s rest until sunrise. Then, we will help you with whatever it is you wish to do," Damon suddenly said.
The girl seemed to debate the suggestion internally before nodding in approval.
***
It took them no more than thirty minutes to find a suitable shelter.
The journey was uneventful, other than a half dozen undead humans they had to dispose of, which took no more than a few seconds, they spent their walk in complete silence.
But now, after a rather short walk, they approached a medium-sized grocery store. Unlike most shops one would encounter during an apocalypse, this one looked only half looted, with many items still intact, and the group didn’t waste the opportunity.
With hunger and thirst gnawing at them, they began looting almost immediately, grabbing whatever they found edible to ease their needs.
Moments later, each of them was already sitting against the back wall of the store. To his right, Damon saw Victor chewing on some type of protein bar he found, while to his left...
"Huh?"
Damon’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Sitting no more than a meter away to his left, Ivy was already asleep. He could tell she had been through a lot since he had last seen her, but to see her so off guard was still surprising.
’She must’ve been quite tired, huh?’ he noted.
He could still clearly remember that she was the one who suggested keeping watch when they first met. Since the start, she was always the cautious type, which made it clear to Damon that her sleep now was a necessity rather than a luxury.
"I’ll take the first watch. You can get some rest," Damon whispered to Victor.
With his mouth still full, his scrawny companion nodded before quickly finishing his food and taking Damon’s offer to get some sleep.
Damon, on the other hand, didn’t mind taking the first watch; in fact, there was still something he wanted to do, so it worked out well.
Without wasting another moment, he summoned his status window.
[Name: Damon]
[Level: 18]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Error-!]
[Attributes: System Breaker, Dark Evolution (Dark Mage)]
[Classes (2/2): Divine Beast Tamer(Active), Dark Mage]
[Abilities: Black Ice Manipulation (Dark Mage)]
[Stats:
— Strength: 31 (with [Nameless Tachi] equipped)
— Dexterity: 25
— Vitality: 39
— Stamina: 25
— Mana: 20 (Available: 10)
— Luck: 1]
[Stat Points Available: 4]
His stats had risen quite a bit since the last time he had seen them. He also had four stat points, which he felt like he should use.
But looking at his stats, he couldn’t help but frown slightly. Both Stamina and Dexterity, which had previously been lagging behind, were now caught up. The only stat, other than luck, which he didn’t intend to waste stat points on, was mana.
Damon let out a soft sigh as he could almost feel the radiating happiness coming from Kitsune as to what he was about to do next. He grimaced slightly as he commanded all four points into mana.
"What about the rift shards?~"
’Aren’t you a bit too greedy?’
Her giggling echoed in his head in response.
Realising she did have a point, and realising he had almost forgotten about it, he opened up his inventory.
There, he saw an item which was slightly different from the rift shards he had seen earlier.
[Medium Rift Shard]
[Quantity: 2]
[Description: Can be used to raise any stat below 30 by 4 points. Can be used to raise any stat below 60 by 2 points.]
His eyes widened at the description. His surprise, however, wouldn’t last long as Kitunse was quick to explain.
"The harder the rift, the better the rewards."
Damon’s lips curved into a grin as he stared at the item in his inventory.
’No point hoarding it, is there?’ he told himself as he summoned the two rift shards to his hand.
Crushing the first one, he focused on his strength stat, raising it by 4. He had grown accustomed to it being 31, but that was only due to his tachi. Without it, his strength had only been 21, so raising it seemed like a new priority.
The second rift shard, however, took a second of thought.
He was internally debating every stat one by one, but in the end, he decided to go with mana, since half of it was being stolen by Kitsune anyway.
But as he crushed the second rift shard and focused on the mana stat, his entire body tensed. A newfound surge of energy burst through him, followed by a series of notifications he did not expect.
[Requirements for *Dark Evolution* Met!]
[Your Class evolved!]
[Dark Mage -> Dark Sorcerer]
