God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain went through his inventory again and found one more rune inside, as well as a few bottles of HP Regen potions and just three bottles of Mana Regen potions that he had gotten from the other monsters he had killed.

Small HP Regen potion: Recovers 100HP per bottle. Can be directly applied to the surface of injuries or orally ingested.

Small MP Regen potion: Recovers 100MP per bottle.

Can only be ingested orally.

Cain retrieved some HP potions from his inventory and drank one while he poured another on the surface of his injury, which let out white smoke as it healed at a speed visible. He healed up quickly afterward, the wounds leaving no scars.

He proceeded to walk toward the others after he was done recovering.

After absorbing the {Rune of Strengthening}, Cain's strength had increased by 5 points.

As Cain approached the others, he noticed David, had already woken up and was busy sulking in a corner. As for Blaze, he had been fed some HP potions by Vincent and was now conscious.

"Impressive bro! You managed to beat that thing!" Vincent gave him a thumbs up, amazed by the display of skill Cain had put up against the monster.

"It's not that impressive. I only managed to beat it with everyone's help." Cain replied modestly.

"Let's go back into the main building. It's not safe out here." Cain said in a serious voice. Staying out in the open was too dangerous, as they could encounter monsters at any moment, and they were all wounded and exhausted from the previous battle.

They rushed back into the school building, shutting the main doors as swiftly as possible.

***

Cain was a major in science and technology at the university. His department complex was separated from the main campus by a good amount of distance, about an hour on foot and a few minutes if a vehicle was used.

It was completely isolated from the main campus by the artificial forest. It possessed various facilities such as a gymnasium, a workshop, and even a laboratory. All this was made possible, only because of how prosperous City Z was.

There weren't a lot of people in his department when compared to the rest of the school. Hence, It was probably safer when compared to other places on

the campus.

From what he could notice when the God Ash fell, and the devils began raining from the sky, most of them fell towards more populated areas, almost like they could smell where the most amount of prey was and would gravitate there automatically.

Once they made sure everyone was safely inside the building and the doors were locked properly, they began moving forward. The scenery inside the building was just as bad as the one outside. The monsters made a mess of the place.

Blood and broken bodies were everywhere. Most of the corpses had huge chunks bitten from them, making them look incomplete. Others were just divided into multiple pieces, their parts spread across the ground.

The sound of rapid breathing and quiet sobbing was resounding in the quiet hallways. The people that were left didn't even number to a hundred. Behind the moving crowd, Cain, Vincent, David, and Blaze were conversing, sharing what they knew about the current situation with one another.

The crowd moved on for a while until they eventually arrived at the main hall located downstairs. This hall was fairly large and was used for important events like orientation and the like.

They all made their way into the hall. Most of the crowd sat down, huddled together at the center, clearly still terrified that they would be attacked by the monsters once again.

Only a few of them were Wis enough to know that a large group staying so close together would serve the opposite effect intended when it came down to making their escape or protecting themselves.

'Fear, huh...' Cain reasoned out that they most likely huddled together because of one thing, fear. This fear didn't allow them to think things through. The only thing they could think of was feeling safe. Giving themselves a false sense of security was the only way to do that.

Cain stood at the door, observing the crowd, while at the same time, paying attention to anything that was happening behind the doors. It would never hurt to be extra careful.

"Are you alright?" Susan came up to Cain from where she was seated. She used her eyes to scan his entire body and was shocked when she saw that it was soaked in blood.

"You're injured?!" The look of panic in her eyes was genuine, which was something Cain didn't expect.

"Ehem... I'm just looking out for a classmate. Don't take it the wrong way." Realizing that she had overreacted, she tried to cover up her embarrassment with a cough, her cheeks turning a shade of pink.

"Hahaha. Thank you for your care, Miss. Class Monitor, but the blood isn't mine." Cain lied. He saw no need in letting her know he had been injured previously.

As they made small talk with each other, suddenly...

" W... What are we going to do against those monsters?!" blurted out one of the teachers present in the hall.

"Do we try to escape from here?"

"Yeah right. Those things will murder us all if we dare go outside! I'm not taking any chances!" a student in a shaky voice.

"Guys, I suggest we all calm down and wait for the police or government to show up and rescue us." the head of the technology department said in an attempt to calm the hearts of those present.

"I'm leaving this place." Cain instantly made his decision. He was definitely against the plan to wait here like sitting ducks. Rather, he wanted to go look for more monsters to hunt and kill so he could become strong enough to fight back against the monsters.

"What?! It's too dangerous out there!" Susan said with eyes wide open.

Others were contemplating how they were going to avoid the monsters, but he was trying to hand his ass over to them to eat. What is he thinking?!

"Let me give you a bit of advice, Miss. Class Monitor. Times have changed. Likely, we aren't the only ones who have encountered monsters such as these.

By killing these monsters, we can get stronger." Cain called his blade out of his inventory.

"If you want to survive, I advice you to take your fate into your own hands, and stop waiting for others to save you." With that, Cain opened the door, preparing to make his exit.

"Young Man, What are you doing?! Going out there now is foolishness. You should wait for help to arrive." The head of the department called out to Cain as he prepared to walk out the door.

"I'm not going to sit and wait for my death like a fool" Cain replied coldly before walking out of the hall.

"Welp... That's my cue. Ciao!" Vincent followed after Cain, exiting the hall before the door could even close on its own.

After Vincent left, David, the teacher who had followed him to fight also left, alongside Blaze. Although they wanted to protect the group, they were against staying here and doing nothing, whilst they waited for help that might never come.

Susan stood on the spot, the words Cain said to her playing over and over in her head. Eventually, she gritted her teeth and rushed out of the hall as well.

A few others who were against waiting for help also exited the hall as well.

Apart from them, the rest had decided that they would wait for the government, or someone to come to save them.

"You are all following me?" Cain turned around and was shocked to see more than one person following behind him.

"Of course, boss! You lead the way, and I follow." Vincent gave Cain a wide smile and a wink.

"No, thank you." Cain immediately shut the fatty down without any remorse.

"Ahhh? How can you be so cruel, boss? Do you want to hurt my delicate heart?" Tears were forming at the edge of his eyes threatening to fall at any moment, but Cain just ignored him completely, as he could already guess the fatty's true nature. He could change faces like underwear.

He had more than one mask covering his face at all times, making Cain feel the need to be constantly on guard around him.

"I suggest we form a team. It will be many times safer if we move as a group." David said to the rest of them. Including Cain, there were a total of 8 guys. Including Susan, there was another lady among them.

However, to Cain, this wasn't any of his business, as he planned to move by himself in the meantime, just to get a grasp of how things were, as well as to develop his skills a little before he decided whether or not it was a good move to roll with them as a group.

"I plan on moving alone in the meantime," Cain said moving forward as he said so.

"What do you mean, boss?! You and I will make a golden tea-" Vincent tried to convince Cain to stay, but was once again shut down by him.

"I've made my mind up. If we meet again, perhaps there's a slight possibility I might have a change of heart. But for now, I'd prefer to move alone." With those words, he walked away from the group.

Before he left the group completely, he could feel someone's gaze upon his back.

Turning his face to the side, he caught a glimpse of the other girl. They made eye contact with each other. The beauty had been staring at him all this time.

She had pure white hair that looked like freshly fallen snow, fair skin that had the texture of porcelain, a high-bridged nose, and thin red lips.

Cain could swear that she was probably the most beautiful person he had met in his life. The only thing off about her was the way she stared at him.

He decided to break eye contact, turning his gaze forward and sprinting across the hallway. In a split second, he arrived before the doors to the building and was gone in a flash...