Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!
Chapter 67 A Future Deal

A future deal

[Ace POV],

I threw the empty beef can into my storage ring after choosing my job and finishing my food and made my way to the living room, where I found Anna and Mia. Chris was nowhere to be found.

Anna turned her head to me as I got closer to them, so she may have heard my footsteps.

"Where is Chris?" I inquired as I approached her within a meter.

"He's outside," she said, adjusting Mia's posture to rest on her body as she approached and stood beside me.

Hearing this, I nodded as I exited the building with Anna, only to see Chris at the doorstep when I opened it.

Maybe he's deep in thought because he wasn't aware I was behind him. His sword, on the other hand, is close by.

"Brother!" When Mia saw her brother, she called out to him.

"Uh?" He muttered muddled as he turned his head towards us, surprised to see us at his back.

"Ah! Mia!" He exclaimed as he quickly stood up.

Seeing his flustered expression reminded me of Emma, with whom I had recently spoken. I could tell by her expression that she had seen her parents die in front of her, and it wasn't a pleasant sight.

Chris' age should be reflected in his appearance. He should be no more than 12 years old. At this age, he should be thinking about how to finish his homework and set aside time to play video games, which I believe boys his age enjoy, but instead, he is killing monsters in order for him and his sister to survive.

I've seen kids his age in this camp, but they're all mediocre to him. In the sense that I was confident that 80% of them would not survive what Chris had gone through.

According to what I've seen and observed in this camp, the kids' lives are still relatively better because they can sleep and eat if they do some kind of work in the camp.

Even though it is only the fourth day since all of humanity has awoken, it would not surprise me if millions of lives have already been lost at this time.

According to what I've seen and observed, it may be because the planet has largely enlarged to an unknown size that meeting other humans appears to be rare. If not, perhaps I would have noticed the true state of humanity in the world now.

I'm wondering how my family is doing.

I looked at Chris and asked him a question as I was thinking about these things.

"What were you thinking?" I inquired, and before he could respond, I spoke up and asked another question.

"Do you want to stay here?" I questioned.

Though he had been deep in thought for some time, I noticed his eyes occasionally looking at some of the passing people in the camp.

Staying in the camp, in my opinion, has advantages for Chris, the most important of which is that it can provide some sort of safety for his sister. It's better than her following us on a dangerous journey when we're not sure if we'll make it to the next day.

As I was thinking this, Chris finally spoke up and responded, saying;

"Are you tired of me, Brother Ace?" He inquired.

Even though it was a strange question, I responded.

"What do you mean by that, and why should I get tired of you?" In response, I inquired.

"I assumed you were sick of me and my sister and didn't want me back on the team," he explained.

"If that's what you mean by tired, I'm not tired, and just because your sister is a burden doesn't mean you're out of the team. It is up to you whether you stay or leave, but won't yours's and your sister's lives be better if you stay? At the very least, your sister is in a relatively safe location," I said.

"I've thought about it," he claimed.

Oh?

Wondering what he thought about and without me speaking, he spoke.

"Though it appears to be a safe haven, it is only for the time being. Nobody knows what will happen in the future, and perhaps what is happening now is just a practice run before the real thing begins. A tutorial training to be direct. In this situation, I believe one's own strength is the most reassuring "He stated.

I nodded when I heard this. What he said made sense, especially given his age but why did he use those terms though?

Since he had decided, then he has decided. It's up to him, not me. She's not my sister.

After Chris made his decision, I turned to Anna, and she spoke before I did.

"I'm following you," she said before I could say anything.

Seeing this, I turned to Anna and Chris and said;

"It's dangerous. If we make a mistake, we're already dead "I said, expecting a response, but all I got were determined looks from them.

For some reason, Mia was biting her finger.

Seeing as they'd both made their decision, I ignored the particular topic and proceeded to Adara's residence.

'I wonder if she's around.' 'I still haven't collected my gold coin,' I thought as I made my way to Adara's residence with Anna, Mia, and Chris and decided to check my status while doing so.

...........

[Status],

[Name: Ace Blaze [Yet to evolve]],

[Age: 17],

[Race: Human [Homo sapiens]],

[Level: 25[+]],

[Job: [Alchemist lord[0%]],

[Store],

[Title: None],

..........

When I looked at the texts on the panel in front of me, I noticed some new changes.

Beside my name, it's written that am yet to evolve. This is quite simple to understand because I have indeed reached the level where I can get a job and evolve, but because I have yet to secure a job, evolving will have to wait.

And in the job section, which was previously empty, there were now a few sets of words written in it, one of which was the name of the job I chose and currently attempting to evolve with. I'm guessing the percentage progress/rate is related to the completion rate of the job requirements; Alchemist Lord. Perhaps when it reaches 100%, my job will change and I will become an Alchemist Lord, allowing me to evolve.

Of course, the road in front of me with the 100% completion rate is so far away that I can't even see its shadow.

"Ace!"

As I was thinking about these things and things pertaining to my job, I heard my name being called and turned around to see someone unexpected.

Brian.

When I saw this, I and my team came to a halt and waited for him to get closer.

When he finally got close that we were only one meter apart, he looked at me deeply before speaking.

"I heard what happened in the dungeon," he said, pausing briefly before continuing, "I heard you fought with a rank 1 monster, and while I don't know how powerful one is, I can guess how strong one is from what I've heard," he said.

"You're strong, " he suddenly said.

"Before all of this, you were always ahead of me in everything, whether it was academics, recognition, or anything else. I couldn't understand why a bastard like you would be better than me in everything, and now I replace out that you're still ahead and stronger than me in this new world!" He said all of this quickly, with a frustrated expression on his face.

He calmed down after saying what he needed to say, then spoke again.

"I've always competed with you to show you who's the best, but I've always lost, and I'm not going to let that happen in the new world."

"Unlike before, when you had to use your brain and other things to get ahead of me, things are different now. Only strength matters now, and it will reveal who is superior between us. You may be stronger now, but that will not be the case in the future. I'll make you realize that in the end, you don't deserve the name you bear or the position you hold to me in my eyes. Remember this well, in the future, I'll let you see reality," he said, and then he abruptly left.

I know Brian said all of this for a reason, but I couldn't understand him.

I knew he was always competing with me, but this doesn't even appear to be a competition again.

"Wow! What a sight! So cliche! Is it a forbidden love or a love triangle? I thought such things only happened in movies." Anna exclaimed beside me as Brian walked away.

"Movies?"

What is wrong with this woman?

Ignoring what I said, she cupped her chin in her hand and gazed at me intently before asking me a question.

"Ace, do you have any deep history with the person who just left?" she inquired.

When I heard this, I thought about it for a while and remembered that, aside from seeing each other a few times when we were younger, there was nothing worth remembering that happened, or perhaps I forgot about it, so I told Anna no.

When she heard this, she looked at me again before speaking, saying;

"Right now, he just said he'll make you recognize something, but I don't know if you noticed, but it looks like he's looking for recognition instead of making you recognize something," she explained.

'Brian? looking for recognition? From who?' I thought, and because I couldn't really understand how people felt, I ignored it and focused on what Brian said.

'Looks like a future deal. I wonder what will happen then,' I thought as I made my way to Adara's residence.