Chapter 1153: Where? What?

"Ha... Ha..."

’Where am I?’ Clovis thought to himself, looking around the area. It looked like an abandoned city.

Nature had reclaimed a part of the city as trees were sprouting everywhere. The road had cracked all over it. He could still pass on it, but a lot of trees had simply grown too large.

"Is there no survivor here?"

"!!!" Clovis was startled. He could hear himself talking. ’Hmm?’

Clovis shouted, "Hello?! Anybody here? Please respond!"

His voice echoed five blocks away, but there was no response.

"..." Clovis could only grit his teeth. "I guess, as I expected, there’s no one still alive in this city. It has been ten years, so it can’t be helped."

Clovis gritted his teeth, but he really couldn’t do anything.

"Dear, there’s no need to feel bad. It’s good if we can find survivors, but we shouldn’t expect too much. It’s been ten years ever since that incident. It’s better to focus on gathering anything we can find from here."

Clovis turned around, finding a brunette. She adjusted her glasses with the right lens already cracked, while looking around.

He recognized her. Although she looked a bit older, her appearance didn’t change much. She just looked much more mature and gentle.

’Melody.’ Clovis gasped.

On the other hand, the Clovis he saw replied to her, "I know. I just want to believe that humans are more resilient than this. I hope we can find people, or I don’t know what will happen to this world."

"We will be able to overcome it. Believe in ourselves. Believe in yourself." Melody smiled, trying to reassure him.

Clovis just closed his eyes. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t. "I am a failure as a leader. We barely scrape by. At this rate, food will be scarce. We want to increase the quality of our warriors, but there are not enough resources for that. Our strength... I’m afraid it’s going to decline sooner or later.

"Then, all of us will be gone, the rest will follow soon. There’s simply no solution to our food supply. There’s nothing for us to eat other than some plants we can plant in our place. It’s not enough."

Melody sighed. "Everyone is working on it. I believe we will be able to overcome this difficult time."

"I hope so. Unfortunately, my ability can’t do anything. I thought it could become a ray of hope for all of us, but... we couldn’t even do anything about it. This ability is useless."

"Not useless. Everyone is also working hard to try to utilize your power. I believe we will find the way soon. Even right now, I’m about to be done with the prototype."

"..." Clovis sighed. "Sorry. I have been too negative lately."

"I know, we know. You are just doing your best. You feel responsible for everyone. Please trust us..." Melody came to him and hugged him gently, trying to soothe his heart. "You are the best of us even without that ability. We need you to remain strong. You are our symbol of hope, my dear."

"Yeah, sorry." Clovis wanted to hug her back, but he suddenly heard something moving.

Both Melody and Clovis hurriedly stepped back and turned around, finding moving rubble.

Clovis watched everything from the third perspective. He couldn’t help but gasp, "What the hell is that?"

A creature suddenly came out of the abandoned building, pushing off a boulder at the edge.

The creature had four legs. Its height was about 3 meters and its length was almost 6 meters.

It had claws, but more importantly, its body was covered in black substances. There were multiple red eyes all over its body. In addition, there were four long tails that kept swaying left and right.

It looked like a dog, but it was simply too big and terrifying for a dog. The pair of eyes that the dog usually had was replaced by a single big eye in the center. The nose was gone, and the mouth looked like a black hole with no teeth.

As soon as both of them spotted each other, Clovis immediately raised his left hand, gesturing for Melody to step back. His other hand pulled his weapon. "Watch out!"

Suddenly, the creature leaped off the building at lightning speed. That momentum struck Clovis, who blocked it with his sword.

Bam!

The tremendous momentum pushed him back slightly, but Clovis remained in his position and pushed it back.

The creature slid on the ground and started jumping around in zig-zag, trying to confuse him.

Clovis remained calm and collected. When the creature pounced on him, he raised his short sword, but it turned out the short sword was already broken, leaving only a handle.

Still, Clovis first blocked the creature’s charge with his long sword before slashing to the side.

As expected, the creature sent forth all its tails toward Melody as soon as Clovis blocked it. So, the short sword released a momentum that knocked away the tails.

After that, Clovis took a step to the right and let the creature slide next to him before kicking it up.

With the creature’s body tilting back, Clovis immediately slashed its body.

The strike wasn’t hard enough to kill this because Clovis was actually holding back. This long sword had cracks all over it.

If he pushed it too hard, this long sword would end up in the same state as his short sword.

Still, that strike was enough to hurt the creature badly.

Then, Clovis leaped into the air and hammered the creature’s head with a drop kick, smashing it on the concrete road.

The head burst, and the body finally dropped to the ground.

Clovis, who witnessed everything as though he was watching a movie, couldn’t help but analyze the situation. "What is that creature? Looking at its strength, it should be around Tier 6, no, maybe it’s Tier 7. I can’t accurately measure it.

"Meanwhile, the strength I’ve shown... I don’t think I have possessed it yet. So, I might be Tier 9... However, why are my swords in that state?"

His answer came right after.

Once Clovis confirmed the kill, Melody said, "That’s good enough. For now, let’s dismantle as much metal as possible. We need some materials to reforge your sword."

"..."