Isabella comes closer, her eyes wide as she stays nearby while looking up at me.

"I spoke with Alie," she begins, referring to the girl who still shyly glances towards us, "I told her about Biscuit."

Ah, I see. The first conversation with a different civilization is about the gluttonous telepathic dog. Nice. Nothing to worry about.

"At first she didn't understand what a doggo is, but then I described Biscuit to her a bit more," she pauses dramatically for a second, ensuring I'm listening and with a serious look on her face, "Alie then became happy and… and," another pause as if she still can't comprehend it.

What then? I know it's probably something super silly, but you are making me curious. Tell me already.

"She said that we can eat him!" she says, deep outrage clear in her voice, even jumping up a pitch.

Oh, that kind of makes sense. They must have a similar problem with food as we do, right? I wonder how they deal with it. This is the information we need to get from them first.

Also, I would like to see them try to eat Biscuit. The little beast is more dangerous than it seems.

"It's fine, we won't eat Biscuit," I assure Isabella, who seems to have already given up on befriending the other girl.

I continue to listen to their conversation with Cipher. The man seems to be asking the right questions, so I don't step in. Instead, I only listen to it while circulating mana through my body, bit by bit, and still carefully sending perceiving impulses to our surroundings.

"We should move quite soon," I say out loud, just in case, and Cipher immediately nods, only to ask them if they have any hideout or know how to get back to their group.

They lie about the group, but they tell us about a hideout a few streets away. They are too scared to move there on their own because they see a few monsters around, so they hide here. But with us not giving them another chance, we start moving there.

While we walk through the streets, with Isabella and me probably being the calmest ones, I continue to scan for us, my skills most likely much better than those of their scout. Cipher still continues to ask carefully, avoiding some questions to not seem like someone who hasn't lived here his entire life. But I wonder, does it really matter?

"How do you get your water?" I stop and turn to them, "How do you get your food?" I remind myself that they are most likely not real the same way people on the second floor weren't real, no matter how real they seem.

The moment I ask them these questions, they fall silent and their eyes widen. They even take a few steps backward and, instead, start asking questions, surprised that we don't know something that seems to be basic here. Well, it's not like I didn't expect that.

"Answer my question, or we will leave you here," I interrupt their questions, and I send a strong pulse of mana into our surroundings, this time not for perception, but to make us easier to find. Like a glowing beacon pointing right at our position.

"You're crazy," Cipher says, and I see that his opinion of me has changed. He probably understands me better now. The man then turns to them and repeats my questions, holding them so they won't run away.

"We get it from tunnels under the city! Food is mostly from sparrows and mice!" he blurts out, nervous and scared, shielding his daughter behind him. I think his name was Oliver?

"Okay, continue to the hideout. Isabella and I will take care of the monsters."

"You're weird," the girl says to me after they leave.

Let's just say that no one in hell difficulty is normal. Okay? Also, why did I do that? Am I that frustrated? Is [Focus] not working properly? Or am I just that dumb? There are so many different and better ways to get the information from them.

The monsters are getting closer and closer, Rottenfang Vermin, a lot of them, two Wererats, one Gargoyle. The group is pretty big, but not something impossible to deal with.

Why did I do that? Why am I getting so frustrated lately and continually slipping out of [Focus]?

Well, I'll deal with that later. Now, there's something else I have to do.

I release my Mana Regulator a bit and it starts sucking on 20% of my generated mana, and my heart starts beating even stronger, almost feeling as if it should send small shockwaves into our surroundings.

Five heartbeats and I release the energy in front of me, obliterating the group of vermin that I let come close.

[You have defeated a Rottenfang Vermin - lvl 19]

[You have defeated a Rottenfang Vermin - lvl 23]

[You have defeated a Rottenfang Vermin - lvl 31]

[You have defeated a Rottenfang Vermin - lvl 29]

...

[Redistribution - lvl 17 > Redistribution - lvl 18]

[Lvl 80 > Lvl 81]

Oh nice, more mana, I guess.

I step back and let Isabella release her flames. A blue flame melts the cobblestone in some places and sets wooden pieces of the houses around us ablaze. They coil around us, reminding me of a serpent that then hungrily attacks and burns the monsters surrounding us.

Vermin, Chameleon Bats, and weaker monsters get burned nearly immediately, sometimes not leaving anything behind.

I grab Isabella in my arms and use kinetic energy generated by my heart to propel us away quickly before the Gargoyle with glowing tattoos all over its body smashes into the ground.

Two perceiving touches of the Wererats reach me and they continue calling for more and more vermin to attack me while using some sort of mental attack that I get rid of by activating my mana more and entering deeper [Focus].

Blue flames roar once again, following the Gargoyle that continues to run, jump, and fly to avoid them, all in spectacular order, sending shockwaves into the surroundings from all the power it is using to strengthen its body. Flames melt and burn the monsters that get in the way, yet are still unable to catch the monster that now dashes at us and forces Isabella to create a bubble of flames around us, in an attempt to stop the monster.

A mistake that would have cost her life if it weren't for me.

I send disruptive mana towards one side and jump out from her defensive flame shield and at the same moment, the Gargoyle passes through the opposite side, ignoring the flames brightly burning on its skin and smashing the place where we stood before.

A cone of kinetic energy hits its head, unfortunately only making it stagger backward with a terrible wound on its face. Then without any hesitation, it dashes right towards us.

I continue to push against the air, buildings, and streets to dodge its strong swiping attacks that partially destroy houses, crack the ground, and obliterate a few vermin that are dumb enough to get close.

Another surge of flames comes out of the little girl's hand, this time weaker than before, her reserves already dwindling. The monster dodges them easily only to be hit by my dark yellow flame, its strength still weaker than Isabella's.

Detecting presences from behind, I turn around, my flames burning two Chameleon Bats sneaking up on us, giving the Gargoyle time to move closer only to miss us as I use kinetic energy to push against the monster, propelling us away and slowing down the monster.

It charges again, and I reach out, absorbing its kinetic energy to slow it down before dashing away once again.

Then I make a mistake, a small silly mistake.

As I jump away, mana slips out of my control because of a sharp pain hitting my side, the aftereffect of creating my construct, and my weakened body staggers, for a moment not strengthened by mana. The Gargoyle reaches us in that short moment, its massive hand swinging right at the center of my balance, the place where Isabella is.

A kid. Small, young, innocent kid.

Damn, this is going to hurt, isn't it?

I throw Isabella away from me, even using some energy to gently push her with my kinetic energy. Still, she screams as she rolls on the ground, probably gaining plenty of bruises.

My eyes stay focused on center of the balance of the Gargoyle and with my peripheral vision, I see the fist moving closer and closer, barely having time to reach with [Redistribution] to absorb some of this energy and to boost my endurance through Symbiotic transference.

My body screams in pain even before the fist hits me, throwing me against the side wall of a house, a few of my ribs surely cracked.

But instead of pain, something else goes through my mind as I get back on my feet.

Rage.

A wild rage that is kept at bay by [Focus] since the end of the second floor. My feeling of powerlessness during the last moments of Ruby and the second floor, rage at Sophie for deleting who knows what memories of mine, rage at the system that always feels like messing with us.

Rage at this damn monster that continues to attack me like it's some hot stuff. And rage at me for making so many mistakes and hurting my body because of my impatience.

So, I let go, and [Focus], which keeps running almost permanently, always being fed by some mana to help me concentrate and forget useless stuff, weakens. I don't completely turn it off; I just slightly weaken its hold on my emotions, loosening some of my logical thinking.

The monster dashes again, while a few rats already attack Isabella, and wererats continuously call for more monsters while keeping their disgusting probing on me.

This time I do not dodge and face the gargoyle.

A third of my mana should be fine, right? I change the setting of Mana regulator and my heart thumps wildly as my eyes sharply follow the gargoyle.

You are so dead.