Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System
Chapter 81: Foraging and Hunting

It quickly became lonely while walking through the quiet, rainy bundle of nature. If nothing else, it provided some time to be with his own thoughts, having far too much on his mind. Being alone with those contemplations was not strictly a beneficial process; the smile he wore faded and his sense of worth was questioned as he moved.

Constantly, he lingered on his regrets; the mother he was too late to help, the friend he perhaps could've saved, and the killer he could've killed.

It felt like static played in his mind, disrupting his own thoughts as he struggled to focus, coming to a stop as a sharp migraine permeated itself through his head.

"Nggaaah…!" He let out.

What was merely static felt like now his brain was being prodded by needles that shocked it, bringing him to hunch over as blood seeped from his nostrils.

"Do you feel like you belong to the world? To yourself?"

That familiar voice with a tone laced in nihilism brought him to raise his gaze again. There it was again–the sight of that black-and-white figure, across the forest, halfway tucked behind a tree.

"You…what the hell do you want with me? I don't get it," Finn asked, his voice strained and muffled as a result of his pain, merely a gasp of air that couldn't reach as far as the man was.

The nameless stranger continued speaking without any regard for what was asked, "There's a small flame still sputtering deep inside of you. I wonder why you're still holding on. Vanity? Do you think you owe it to somebody else to keep going?"

It became too intense; the headache made each word feel like his skull was being rung, bringing him to cover his ears out of instinct to avoid being hurt further.

Yet, it did not stop him from being subject to listening to those words deprived of hope, soaked in cynicism.

"There's no point to any of this. No matter how hard you fight, there's no world that can be guaranteed peace. All you can hope to replace is something straddling the line between total despair and being content; nothingness."

As the words were spoken as if going right into his ear, he moved his hands away, looking up again as he found the figure to be gone. The migraine settled down as once more it was silent, leaving him to wipe his trail of blood that slid down from his nose.

'What's going on with my head? That man…I only started seeing him after I came to this place–maybe it's something messing with my head. It has to be–I'm not losing it,' he assured himself.

Peering at the blackened blood on his fingertips, it was washed away by the unending rainfall, bringing him to lift his gaze. Seeing the sky that mirrored the land he stood on, with entire mountains hanging above, it instilled a sense of smallness in him; feeling homesick for his own world.

'I want to go back–I never thought I'd say that after what the world's been reduced to, but it's better than this place,' he thought.

Shaking the buzz from his mind, he moved past a line of bushes between the trees, discovering an unusual sight. In the middle of the vale was a tucked-away hot spring.

It was a tad unusual though, as the water seemed to glow with a soft, cerulean hue.

There was a sweet scent that came from the oddly-glowing water, like that of blueberry cotton candy.

"The hell?" Finn mumbled as he stepped closer.

Peering into the otherworldly hot spring, the surface of the steamy pool suddenly bubbled up and rippled as something rose from it.

"Huh?—" Finn stepped back as he called his dagger.

"BA-HA! That's a new record!" A man with muscles on top of muscles claimed proudly before noticing the assassin. "—Oh, greetings, stranger!"

It couldn't have been more perplexing for Finn, feeling as though he'd seen quite enough to not be surprised anymore.

Yet the sudden presence of the muscle-bound, mustached man that was, for some reason, resting nude in the hot springs that was far removed from any civilization.

'Maybe I am losing my mind,' he thought.

"Have you, too, come for the splendor of the Spring of Lucarnia?" The eccentric, muscle bound man asked.

"Erm…" Finn didn't know how to answer.

"Apologies! I should introduce myself!"

With a far too outlandish flare, the strange figure leapt out of the hot springs. Finn watched the mustache-wielding man flip several meters into the air as pieces of illustrious, golden armor flew to his body as if guided by magnetism.

Going from nude to fully clad in exuberant equipment, the eccentric man landed with grace like that of an acrobat. The armor was nothing short of the exorbitant man, with a lion-faced helmet and a cape made of a golden-furred beast's pelt.

"I am Godfrey, Champion of the Golden Sky! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance—?" The impossibly energetic man extended his hand while introducing himself, seeking a name in return.

The peculiar stranger was imposing; Finn found himself having to look up as the man stood more than a head taller than him, with shoulders broad enough to be twice his width.

Finn was too stunned to respond right away, taking a moment to accept the gesture, "I'm Finn."

Just as he clasped the much larger hand, he felt the grip of the lively man squeeze his own like a vice.

"Finn, eh? I am glad to see there are still adventurers daring enough to test this region," Godfrey remarked, stroking his mustache. "It's a tragedy what it's become."

It didn't seem that the mustached man of impeccable muscle recognized that he wasn't from the land, though Finn chose not to correct him. The man might as well be an alien to him, even if they were both "human", at least he presumed so; their worlds of origin remained different.

"Mighty cities spanned the region, monsters were forced to hide in the shadows. Now look at it," Godfrey lamented, looking towards the forest deprived of civilization. "I'm not sure there's much more than a handful of people in this land anymore. Perhaps the world truly is dying."

"Yeah, maybe," Finn halfheartedly responded. "What happened to this place, anyway?"

"You don't know? Hrm, I guess the truth does like to change the farther it travels," Godfrey said, rubbing his chin.

At the very least, it was fortunate that the men he encountered didn't seem wary of his origins all too much, instead seeming more than happy to answer his curiosity.

Godfrey looked towards the distant, sublime castle that was showered in a tranquil radiance, "Many years ago, a cataclysm arrived to the world. The balance of power shifted from humanity to the monsters. The Storm King sheltered this land, single handedly shielding it, yet even he could not last eternally like that.

His mind broke before his body, and as a result, we dropped to the bottom of the food chain," Godfrey explained.

Hearing what happened, it was a familiar fate in some ways to what his own world experienced, leaving Finn quiet for a moment while peering at that castle.

"Well, I shall be taking my leave now, friend. Good luck in your journey," Godfrey said with a pat to his shoulder.

Finn was still confused about the encounter, "Bye?" He returned the farewell.

Not knowing quite how the extreme man would leave, he witnessed the golden-armored one leap into the air before a coalescence of exuberant dust manifested into a gilded chariot. Like Santa Claus through the night sky, the eccentric man took off as the plated horses ran on the air itself.

'What the hell is up with this place?' Finn questioned, watching the chariot swiftly become distant like a star.

He looked at the vibrant, blue hot spring, feeling allured by it for a moment before pulling himself away from it. For a moment, he forgot about the entire reason he was even there until a bush rustled close by.

Bringing himself down to a crouch, he kept his dagger ready as he set his eyes on the direction the noise came from. With silent steps, he moved closer while watching the bushes move as if something was busy foraging.

Getting a bit closer, but staying a safe distance away, a squint of his eyes brought him to see white fur behind the bushes.

["Throwing Knife"] [Mana: -100] [1600/2500]

With a quick toss, the projectile was thrown at the bundle of white fur that hid itself within the foliage. A direct hit, striking right into the hidden creature.

'Got it,' he thought, standing up.

Just as he rose to his feet, the bushes rattled more intensely ahead, parting as the bits of white fur he saw revealed itself to belong to a much larger mass.

It stood as tall as a bear on its hind legs, snapping its buck teeth as its beady, red eyes locked onto him; a monstrous rabbit. The throwing knife looked like nothing more than a toothpick in its leg, only serving to earn its aggression.

"You have to be kidding me…this place just keeps on giving, doesn't it?" He muttered to himself, facing down the oversized creature.