Asan didn't know how long they had been running: whether it was a few minutes or hours. The fear of what was behind them constantly fueled their energy, and they just kept moving through the burned forest until they reached the highway. Only then did they finally stop and sit on the floor. The first thing Asan did was empty his stomach. Laszlo looked just as bad but didn't rush to follow Asan's lead. Their heavy breathing was the only sound heard on the highway, and in the dusky light of the sky, it looked even somewhat ominous.
None of them wanted to talk, and there wasn't much to say anyway. The mood couldn't have been worse, especially after seeing the girl. It was a choice without a choice, Asan understood that he was utterly incapable of helping her at that moment, but that was the reason for his terrible mood. She wasn't guilty of her death.
Unlike her, Asan was incredibly lucky to get out of the village in one piece, but still, one question stuck in their throats like a lump.
"Why... What the fuck is going on? Why would anyone do something like this? This System... shit..." — He panted heavily.
Asan, sitting on the cold asphalt, could only look into his friend's eyes, which showed despair. He felt sick again, but there was no more food left in his stomach.
"What... What should we do next?" — Asan asked his friend, barely regaining composure.
Anger flashed in Laszlo's gaze. He jumped to his feet and approached Asan.
"What are you talking about?! Do you not care at all about what happened before?! A poor girl was torn apart right in front of your eyes, and you're wondering what to do next?!" — The enraged Laszlo shouted, clearly not in the mood for it.
Asan could only silently watch his friend.
He knew that he was not at all angry with Laz and did not blame him; it was just that he was boiling over. In his eyes reflected pain and bitterness, not even from the girl's death, but from how useless, fragile, and weak they felt as people. How could they fight against such creatures that possess such immense power?
They were just two orphans who had never served and knew nothing about handling such situations. Suddenly, a slight smile appeared on Laz's face. It was something like a nervous laugh.
"Hey, we're lucky, Las" said Asan, looking at his friend who was still on edge.
"What are you talking about?" snapped back the other, frowning heavily.
"We're lucky that we... are orphans. I can't even imagine what it would be like for those who have families. If I had a family, I'd probably go crazy worrying about them," replied Asan softly.
Laszlo calmed down a bit. It was true—there were people who were faring much worse right now, people with their own families and children. They were lucky in that sense, but it didn't make things much easier. Seeing that Laszlo had calmed down slightly, Asan decided to ask the question again.
"Alright then, what's next? What are we going to do?"
Laszlo sat down beside him and ran his dirty, light-colored hair through his fingers.
"Be damned if I know… What do you think the government is doing right now? Maybe there's some kind of evacuation point we should head for? You know, like in those apocalypses."
Asan merely shrugged and looked up at the blood-red sky.
"I doubt the government still exists. Judging by Ronnie, at least part of humanity has turned into creatures that resemble zombies in some ways, but they're way too strong compared to what you see in movies."
If there is any evacuation point, they definitely won't take us, simple orphans. There will probably be rich people and all sorts of scum who don't give a damn about us, let alone regular folks," Asan said, mesmerized by the bloody sky.
It was beautiful, no denying it. Even though your eyes get tired quickly if you stare at it constantly, for some reason it seemed incredibly beautiful to him, like a sunset.
"You're right... Then where do you think might be safe now?" Laszlo asked, also fixing his gaze on the sky.
"Fuck if I know, maybe somewhere where there weren't many people before? On some islands, in villages. Wonder how the army is handling this now? I reckon with firearms we could beat these bastards, especially if we nuke the shit out of them."
Laszlo raised an eyebrow and turned his gaze towards Asan.
"Well, when the whole world is already covered by this plague, I'm afraid neither firearms nor nuclear weapons will help here."
That's when something clicked in Asan. System. Since she created such creatures, then the magic she created should be the perfect countermeasure. Perhaps it would have been better to first see what she could offer before leaving the ant colony.
"Well, since that's the case, there's only one thing that can help. Summon your tablets, let's see what can help us survive in this 'New' world."
Thinking about his abilities, a familiar tablet appeared before Asan's face. Tapping mentally on the icon for magic, he began to study what might help him now. Naturally, it was necessary to analyze everything he saw before making a choice and take what would definitely help him at the moment.
"Hm, Asan, what do you think, which magic should I choose? I have Lightning, Fire, and Air here."
Asan looked at his friend and thought about it. Lightning sounds very interesting; if he could shoot lightning from his hands like Zeus and also summon storms, that would be quite a formidable weapon against hordes of enemies. Although Asan doubted that such powerful magic would be available right from the start. As for fire, it's pretty straightforward — fire is strong in many ways, not just by being able to incinerate your enemy. If you need to eat or stay warm, it's the best thing for survival. Wind was the least interesting option, at least according to Asan. Blowing away enemies might be cool, but he couldn't really imagine it doing significant damage.
"So? What do you think?" Laszlo asked again.
"Okay, look for yourself. Fire has many advantages for helping us survive. Lightning is probably the most powerful and will be useful in battles, but as for wind... I have a feeling it won't help us at all right now."
Laszlo put on an intelligent expression and nodded along with the arguments in favor of fire. That's exactly what he did; five seconds later, he extended his hand forward, and a small flame appeared on his palm. Looking at his face, one could mistake him for a child who had just received a very expensive and cool toy that they had longed for. Although this looked childish in the situation, even Asan couldn't help but smile at the sight. Wait, why...
"Hold on a second... Las, you only had three options to choose from?" Asan suddenly asked Laszlo .
Laszlo, distracted from examining the flame on his palm, turned to Asan.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Do you have less of something?" Laszlo said with a sly smile.
Asan grinned mischievously and held out his hand in front of Laszlo, showing four fingers. Laszlo looked at his fingers somewhat offended, then sighed.
"Well, what do you have? What do you control?" Laszlo asked, for some reason sounding slightly offended.
"Darkness, Gravity, Time, and... Space," Asan said, reading the inscriptions on the plaques.
Laszlo, pretending to be a sage, raised a finger to his beard and started stroking an invisible beard, deep in thought. He made this face when he barely started using his brain, which looked comical on his pretty face.
Asan, however, decided to conduct exactly the same analysis as Laszlo did with his magic—but Darkness? What could it be good for, and what is it? Could he create eclipses or something like that?
It's unclear exactly what darkness could entail, although one could imagine many things, for example, games. Mostly, practitioners of dark magic could use necromancy. This variant didn't suit Asan very much, as imagining himself in a robe surrounded by skeletons... He just couldn't picture himself like that for some reason. Gravity was simpler. Most likely, he would be able to manipulate it, either lightening himself and objects, or making them heavier. Just think of all the movies that played around with gravity, making enemies float and squeeze their throats; all that remained was to learn to breathe through a special apparatus and get a laser sword. Then your enemies would definitely fear you, no matter who you were. Time... Time could be interpreted differently: mainly, the process of aging or rejuvenation. So, does this mean he could age himself?
No, this is nonsense.
You could also stop time, though scientists would immediately start crying if they found out that in stopped time you can see things, although Asan doubted that science could explain magic in general. The only thing left is space – the most mysterious thing according to Asan. What is it? What can be called space? A street, a house, an apartment? Unclear.
" I think you should take gravity," Laszlo abruptly interrupted the boy's thoughts.
"I'm not sure about this choice. Although it sounds interesting, but how will this help us?" Asan asked a logical question.
"You'll send the creatures into the air, and upon landing, they'll turn into mincemeat right away," Laszlo provided a simple argument.
"Yeah, as long as the sight of such a scene doesn't make me vomit afterwards."
"No, I think this won't help us for now," Asan countered, switching to another branch that had nothing to do with magic. This was Aura, which he hadn't really considered before.
[Aura of darkness, Aura of gravity, Aura of space, Aura of time, Divine Aura].
Five panels popped up in front of him. The first four repeated his magic, while the last one hinted at something inside Asan. When Asan focused on the aura related to magic, he noticed a lock on it, requiring him to study the magic first before accessing the aura. The last panel, however, required a full three ability points to unlock. There was nothing to be done; even though he wanted to know what it was, it demanded too much.
In the end, after a couple of times considering in his head what to choose, he still opted for dark magic. He had no particular interest in martial arts, and craftsmanship was definitely not worth looking into yet. Thus, Asan became a full member of the circle of darkness. As soon as he poured a drop into dark magic, a huge sign appeared before him with a bunch of small squares drawn on a large tree. Right now, one of the squares was open; it was located at the very root of the tree.
[Darkness Manipulation].
[rank: Very rare].
[Rank 1/10].
[Mastery level - terrible].
"Alright, now I'm a dark wizard," said Asan, extending his hand forward.
He felt some kind of energy flowing through his veins. As soon as he wanted it to move into his hand, it did so immediately, and a completely black flame appeared in his palm, somewhat resembling Laszlo fire. However, there was something he had not taken into account.
"Ouch! It hurts!" Asan suddenly cried out, and the flow stopped.
It turned out that his magic was quite unpleasant to use.