Morning, Silva was beyond tired but he still refused to laze around. He spent most of the morning scavenging for packaged food and bottled water. He also stored all the knives he came across inside his inventory. After roaming every room in the building, Silva finally left at around noon.
The first place he headed to was the underground subway station. If the city had turned into a monster infested land, he had to find the bottom feeders. And there's no better place than underground. Silva stood at the subway's entrance and a knife appeared in his hand. His domain was fully deployed as he stepped into the darkness.
Silva crouched low and stayed still for almost a minute before standing up and moving around confidently. If one saw him now they would realize that he looked almost entirely monstrous. His eyes had turned large and feline like. His ears had grown larger and greatly resembled a bat.
Silva didn't even notice it but he was walking on his toes, the soles of which had turned thick and fleshy, reducing the sound of his footsteps. He moved through this light less, underground space with the stealth and confidence of an apex predator.
Silva walked for minutes before encountering a cockroach. If cockroaches were as large as a human head and moved like shadows. The bug hadn't noticed him since he was absolutely still and it was busy feeding on what Silva assumed to be part of another monster.
Silva stalked forward, ceasing all movement whenever the bug's antenna twitched. He was so focused on the hunt that he hadn't noticed that his teeth had grown larger and sharper. His nails had turned into short claws. Silva pounced, the knife he held stabbing into the carapace of the bug as though butter.
True to its fame, the cockroach struggled fiercely forcing Silva to pull more knives from his inventory and stab it. The bug finally died after Silva plunged the eighth knife into it. Immediately after it died, Silva felt his domain pull something from the bug and he felt greatly rejuvenated. 'I guess killing does make me stronger.'
Silva spent the next few hours hunting cockroaches. His speed, strength, efficiency and coordination rapidly increased with each kill. Soon he could kill the bugs with a single swing of his knife. Eventually he realized that it was easier to crush the bugs with his hands than to use a knife.
'If this was the same as the game, I would have gotten an achievement like bug's bane or something. I really need to stop talking to myself.' With that, Silva continued to hunt. He would only stop to hydrate and eat before continuing to move.
At some point he reached another station. This one was partially submerged and there wasn't a single cockroach in sight. Silva left the subway only to realize that it was already dusk. He could see that most of the area was covered in water as though the place was flooded. The biggest difference was that this water was entirely clear. All the trash was gathered quite some distance away from the water.
'Really clean water, no waves, no monsters. This looks really familiar. What kind of monster is this much of a territorial clean freak? I honestly don't know. I spent way too much time in Murim and Eden. I really regret my decision now.' Silva went back into the subway before returning to the edge of the water.
He found a tall building and decided to swim towards it. Silva submerged his body, leaving only his head on the surface. His fingers and toes grew longer and a flap of skin connected them. He swam in a way that greatly mimicked a frog allowing him to reach his destination within a single breath. He left the water and climbed the stairs as his body returned to its default form.
Reaching the roof, Silva pulled out a cockroach corpse from his inventory. Using his newfound strength he threw it as far as he could into the water. He pulled more corpses from the inventory and threw them into the water. After all corpses were gone, Silva stood on the edge of the building and looked at the place where the corpses had landed.
The water there turned brown and dirty. Silva observed his handiwork for a few more minutes before the water rippled. Multiple crabs about the size of a human surrounded the mess. A few minutes later, the water was cleaned up and the crabs vanished into the water. Silva watched all this silently before heading back into the building and resting for the night.
The next morning, Silva noticed something new. His inventory was as large as his domain. His domain had also increased to twelve meters in radius. With this, he stored every item in the room and went to the roof. He then dumped everything over the edge leaving only the essentials. He repeated the process two more times before the crabs showed up.
Silva returned inside and stored the largest and heaviest furniture he could find before dropping it on the crabs. The furniture landed with a bang. The water dispersed and amidst the chaos, Silva felt a great surge of energy get absorbed by his domain. 'So it also works from this range.'
Silva wanted to kill a few more crabs in the same way but they had noticed him and were now trying to scale the building with no success. He was about to head inside when a beam of light fell from the sky and struck the area where most crabs had gathered. Silva glanced at the sky, saw a gigantic bird diving down, and decided to bolt into the building. There was a gentle thud as the bird landed. Silva held his breath and hid inside the building.
"I already saw you. I've been watching you since this morning. I didn't approach you at first because I didn't wanna scare you but I had to come down and help. Those crabs you pissed off are coming and they will keep chasing you till they kill you." There was a short pause before the voice from the roof continued. "I'm human too. I don't know what happened but I can suddenly turn into a giant bird that shoots lasers from its eyes. I know you have powers too. I've seen you use it. I'm just asking to talk. There's monsters everywhere and I just want to talk to another person. "
Silva had listened to everything the voice said. He had even used his domain to sense the person. The door to the roof slowly opened and Silva walked out. In front of him was a man with the same height as Silva. His body was packed with enough muscle to gain the envy of professional body builders. His face greatly chiselled and a light beard covered it. The man looked like an exaggerated version of a Greek god. In comparison, Silva's lean build and slightly gentle features made him appear weak.
"Who are you?" Silva asked cautiously. He wasn't afraid of the man's build. He knew that it was from the character creation of the game. What Silva feared was the laser eyes. He didn't have any way of protecting himself and people who picked combat abilities were especially deadly early in the game.
"I'm Falcon. You must also be a player. What should I call you?" The man asked.
"Since we are using our usernames, then call me Ares."
"What exactly was your plan to deal with the crabs because they are rushing up here. "
"Just ignore them. Can you carry me to the opposite building? " Silva asked. A moment later, the two landed on a different roof just as the crabs reached the one they were on before. "That's a useful ability you have. The only thing I have is an inventory and short range, 360° vision. "
"Honestly, it's not that great. I've been trying to leave the city but there's a crazy monster bird that's been hunting me down."
"Can't you just blast it with your lasers?"
"It's too fast. I've tried hitting it but I can't even get it's shadow." The man replied and Silva went silent for a while. It was only a few minutes later that Silva spoke.
"Can you lure it here for a second? I just need to see how it looks." The man agreed quite easily. He turned into his bird form then released a loud cry. He turned back into a human and led Silva inside the building. Moments later, Silva heard what he initially assumed to be a jet engine.
He looked up to see a black dot streaking across the sky. The bird left his field of vision a second later but the impression it left was different. Silva went silent and walked onto the roof. The man was following behind him.
"So, what do you think? Can we beat it? "
"Tomorrow, we'll fly out of this city. But now, we need to leave this building before the crabs get here."