Just like that, a day had passed for the world, and Kimsung went about his temporary routine. Wake up, eat, leave the building with the other survivors, and avoid the dungeon gate in the main entrance. Enter the buildings nearest to the museum, wash off, and finally raid the supermarkets again. Weirdly enough, the supermarkets were restocked, even though he was sure they had taken everything they could yesterday, which was a lot. He didn't think much of it, and they loaded up bags with food and any medical items they found, then returned.
Keido was off, practicing with that worm of his, and Heidi was still stuck in that recipe book of hers, reading all the different things in it and what materials she'd need. So far, Heidi herself hadn't been able to contribute much, since her skill wasn't exactly meant for combat, but rather support.
But in his opinion, having an alchemist in his group was better than buying whatever vials, potions, and other products alchemists made, because they'd always charge terrible or unfair prices for something that had little use. So for now, she'd be stuck as a back liner, assisting from behind and staying out of the fighting, which he and Keido would handle. Better to figure out those roles now than later, in all honesty. It would matter even more, since he planned to enter the dungeon later in the evening with them.
He walked through the makeshift shelter, a few weak barricades made from the residential buildings' furniture, such as couches or chairs, and even a few bookcases. It wasn't much, but if the civilians were to stay here long, it was a decent start, in his opinion.
He found Keido and Heidi in the Greek Arts section, most likely looking through their systems, as from his point of view, it appeared as if they were staring blankly at the wall. Heidi noticed him and waved him over.
"Kimsung, have you put anything in your inventory yet?" She asked, taking out what looked like a broken urn. He nodded, taking out a bag of chips he'd saved during the morning raid, and sat down with them. She placed down the urn shard on the ground, and Keido took out the banana he'd placed in his inventory, still fresh and healthy.
"I guess food doesn't expire in the inventory, huh?" Keido guessed, inspecting the banana. Kimsung takes the banana and peels it, taking a bite as well. Keido's mouth opens to protest, but he doesn't say anything, taken aback by how casually Kimsung had not only stolen, but was eating his banana he'd saved. After Kimsung finished eating the banana, he tossed it in a nearby trash bin.
"I think it's time we talk about the elephant in the room." An elephant passed through the room, unnoticed as it headed towards the Rockefeller wing.
"Address me." It spoke as it walked, completely unheard.
"You want to challenge the dungeon, right?" Heidi asked, with a nervous tone: "We can do it, but I haven't even received any crystals yet, so I'm already out."
"Maybe we can look for monsters in Central Park? I'm sure there have to be a lot of them there."
Kimsung shook his head. He was still wary of the squirrel hoard, and it gave him a bad feeling, naturally something one shouldn't ignore in any case. However, he himself didn't know an easier way to help with their blatant issue, which was mana crystals. He'd only collected a little over twenty, which was impressive considering it had only been two days, but it wasn't nearly enough to challenge a dungeon. Maybe if he got to fifty, or even better, seventy-five, he could safely challenge one, but a mere twenty-two, even with his experience, was too little.
[You've been given +153 EXP]
'Oh. Well, that's convenient.' He blinked, both confused and shocked. But what worried him was where that EXP came from. Nothing ever came without a price; that was a law that couldn't be defied no matter what. So whatever gave him that EXP, clearly wanted something from him.
"Hello there, Death Defier Kang Kimsung." A voice spoke next to him. Kimsung turned his head quickly to see a blonde-haired man with golden armor and twelve tucked white wings on his back, with a sword on his waist. The man's presence gave off a low, yet noticeable intensity. Kimsung turned slowly, facing the man, much to the confusion of Heidi and Keido.
"You know who I am?" He asks, not recognizing this particular man. There were many gods and goddesses he knew about, but in all his resets, he'd never met this one. He guessed it had to do with the sudden change in this reset, which must've meant a different god would introduce himself to Kimsung. The blonde-haired man smiled; he looked almost amused at Kimsung's expression.
"Of course I do. You consider yourself Christian, do you not? Naturally, I, of all people, could recognize one of The Son's followers." That being said, not in an "Obviously" tone, but rather a respectful tone, as if praising Kimsung. "I am Saint Michael, Kang Kimsung, and I have a request for you."
Kimsung paused, having expected a request, but certainly not from an angel. However, he still needed to ask how this man knew of him in the first place. As far as he knew, there were few gods whose domain partially included time, and Michael was not one of them.
"How do you know who I am?" He asked. There were very few beings with time affecting abilities that knew or even spoke to him. Michael spoke with a calm voice, as if he were talking with a friend, except with formal language.
"Shiva told me." Oh. So that's how Michael had come to know of him. He was directly told by the Auspicious One. That helped Kimsung relax a bit, since he had a bit of an amicable relationship with the four-armed god, enough to at least trust him. If Shiva had told Michael about him, it had to be for a good reason, right? Not to mention judging by Michael's tone, he, too, was on good terms with the blue-skinned god.
"So, what do you need me to do? Do you want me to find some artifact or kill someone?" In Kimsung's past experiences, he'd been offered rare items in exchange for doing small things. The gods could not directly do such things, so they requested things from him a lot, even buying some food from a fast-food chain they wanted to try. The angel nodded and spoke again.
"Yes, I do need you to kill someone. It just so happens to be one of your brothers, actually. Originally, Father would have sent Gabriel for this kind of thing, but he's assigned her to be on standby for Keido. I've been informed of your skill, so I trust Shiva's word enough to give you a down payment on your reward."
Kimsung nodded. If God wanted someone dead, it would be the perfect time to do so now, when the world is in a state of panic, and no one would be surprised if someone suddenly died. He'd been asked of such things before, and sometimes he was nicknamed The Hunter by some gods because of his efficiency and determination. Well, of course, he'd be determined. Who wouldn't want easy rewards? Such a thing was obvious.
"Who's the target?" He asked, already thinking of a plan. With the added EXP, he could kill just about anyone at this time with little effort. The more EXP one had, the stronger they would become. It was like training your body; the more you train it, the stronger you are.
"Oh, nobody really. Just a man named David, but you probably know him as the Sky Lord or something." He said in a casual tone, as if it wasn't important.
Kimsung's eyes widened. He was basically being asked to kill the future leader of the North American survivors, someone who survived until the fifth disaster only because of the region he was in. If it were any other region, the man would have no doubt survived. He remembers speaking to Jamal and Armando about him, and they spoke of him as being smart, too smart even. During the death charge of the North American Survivors, David and Achilles held back millions of monsters, E-rank and above, for hours before what Jamal called "The Divine Beasts" intervened.
Killing someone who wasn't a Z-rank talent, yet had enough skill to worry two of said talents, was enough for kimsung to hesitate. It was like fighting a snake; you knew you could handle it easily, yet it still had a clear, undeniable advantage against you.
What made it even worse, he still didn't know the location of Achilles yet, and if he was there, it would be impossible to do it. He'd tried to destroy the man's barriers before, and it was difficult even as a Z-rank.
"You… You want me to kill him? Why?"
"Well, that's a bit of an easy question to answer. It's because we see him as a bit of a threat. To put it simply, he is an unparalleled talent, and he makes everything too easy, so he must die."
They wanted David dead, simply because he had greater talent than others? It didn't make sense to Kimsung, but if he knew the law of equivalent exchange, he understood the reward had to be of equal value to what he was about to do. It's not that he didn't feel bad about killing another person, it's just that he'd done it so many times, both out of circumstances and an urge, to be revolted as he once was.
Michael waited for his response; meanwhile, Keido and Heidi were busy themselves, having received similar things as Kimsung and the same objective. After a minute, Kimsung nodded, accepting the request. It felt a bit convenient, but now they had the strength to enter the dungeon and clear it without sacrifice.
He looked at the siblings and opened his mouth to speak, but Keido beat him to it.
"You also got a request to…" Keido looked around before speaking quietly. "To kill David?"
Kimsung nodded once before speaking. "We shouldn't focus on that right now. We should deal with the dungeon before we leave, at least. I might not prioritize these people's lives much, but I'm not heartless enough to let them die to it."
He really didn't want many people to die this time, since the death toll was always staggering in every reset he's had, so he wished to repent by at least keeping the people living here alive a bit longer. Perhaps they had died in the previous resets, perhaps they hadn't. They could've all died to the wolves, or didn't. He wasn't sure at all, because this was the first time in over a hundred resets he actually went to one of the Americas before the Disasters hit.
He wasn't a saint, not by a long shot, and he was capable of doing at least one good deed, but usually if it benefited himself. He stood up and headed to the main part of the temporary shelter.
An hour later, he returned to Keido and Heidi, having delivered the news to the survivors that they'd go into the dungeon and clear it, and once they did, He, alongside Keido and Heidi, would leave the museum. Granted, it garnered the reaction he expected from them; things like shock, despair, and fear were the most common, some of them begging him to stay, since he'd been the only one who could actually fight off the monsters that were near the museum.
Later that night, the trio snuck out of the shelter and stood outside of the Met. The light blue portal stood at a towering ten meters, like a crack in reality yet to be fixed. Kimsung felt a bit nostalgic. Usually, he survived quite far into the Disasters, only ever dying to something that he couldn't work around.
Keido gulped, extremely nervous. Who wouldn't be in his situation? The only danger of these dungeons he'd ever known was behind a screen. He never felt such fear and doubted there was anything on the level of it in a normal world. They would have to fight monsters, kill the boss, and repeat. A cycle that he and his sister were unfortunately forced into, their only chance to escape meant becoming stronger.
Heidi did one final experiment with her abilities. It was an alchemical ability, yet she knew nothing about it, not even the basics. The novel never truly went into depth about alchemy or its process, and she only had the book of recipes to rely on. The three did not speak, the mood already terrible as it was. But the rewards were greater than the risk.
They walked into the dungeon, and it swallowed them in.
They landed on grass, or more specifically, a forest. A beautiful forest, with tall trees, rocks, and hills. Dungeons always had different terrains compared to the locations, but sometimes they matched the area to provide the right challenge. Apparently, a forest full of monsters was the best choice. However, judging by the sun, it was sunset.
"Where are we?" Keido asked, looking around cautiously. Kimsung shrugged; all the information about his resets was completely useless in a place such as this one.
"We must be in a forest. Probably the past, based on how uninhabited it is."
Growls were heard before they could continue speaking, a mutated wolf similar to those that had invaded the museum on the first day, but larger. Kimsung didn't hesitate, and with the experience of many resets, he rushed at the beast. Keido and Heidi watched as he accurately dodged each of the wolf's swipes and bites, forcing it to play a long game of tag.
The reason for this was Kimsung's skill. His skill, called [Little Swimmer], gave him foresight up to five seconds in time or two actions from an opponent. It gave him a way to perfectly avoid any of the wolf's attacks without much difficulty, and the added mana from Michael's down payment let him move his body in a way it wasn't fully yet developed for.
In a world where movement is crucial for survival, it's the more flexible or fit humans who make it further than most due to the simple advantage of dodging attacks. Kimsung's body wasn't properly trained yet, so he had to substitute it by enhancing his speed and dexterity through mana. This way, his body didn't cramp up or feel any pain as he moved. It was something he had picked up from his forty-first reset, when a comrade taught him how to move his mana properly.
He moved smoothly, not like he did at his peak, but smooth enough at his current level. He soon cut the wolf's legs, and then its head, killing it.
[You've slain a F-rank Mutated Wolf, you've gained +1 EXP!]
Judging by how large the dungeon was, it would take a while to explore the forest and find the dungeon boss before they could leave. Not to mention, they'd surely be encountering more of these wolves, so Kimsung estimated it would take a few hours. He looked up at the sky. It did not change for the entire time he'd toyed with the wolf, which meant it was a fixed setting. Fixed settings in dungeons were permanent times of the day or weather, so they'd have ample light to see and not be seen in the forest.
"We should probably move out. I doubt that this wolf here is a stray; it looks healthy to me. Which means there has to be more around here somewhere." He explained that years of hunting gave him a sense of urgency.
The siblings agreed, and they made their way through the forest. Thanks to kimsung's warning and a natural expectation, a pack of six wolves began to attack them. Kimsung dealt with the bulk of them, while Keido and Heidi dealt with one of them. Kimsung's skill gave him the advantage he needed in the group fight, and Keido used the Worm of Doubt to make the wolf hesitant whenever it tried to attack. Kimsung noticed this, noting how useful and terrifying an ability it would be when Keido had proper time to train it.
[You've slain…]
[You've slain…]
Two of the four wolves attacking him made the mistake of attacking at the same time, and with a simple circular swing, he cut both of their necks, his blade also enhanced by mana, sharpening it to cut through the F-ranked wolves. Now that there were only two, it was far easier to kill them. Keido and Heidi had also finally managed to land enough wounds, most of them shallow but enough to make the wolf bleed out.
[You've slain a F-rank Mutated Wolf, you've gained +1 EXP]
"Finally… I thought I'd die." Heidi let out a breath of relief and panted from the effort exerted. Clearly, the body she had transmigrated into was at an average physical health, which was to be expected. Afterall, most people in the world were at average physical health as well, so it's not like she was doing badly.
Keido took out a water bottle and took large gulps of water from it, also panting and sweating. It would take a while for his body to be in the physical state required for him to do well in a fight, but he would've at least liked it if he could put points into the skills of his so he wouldn't have to. The systems with level-up features like point distribution would make this so much easier, in his opinion.
Since it was not the case, he'd unfortunately have to train his body the long way.