God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Compared to the outside, the gymnasium was the safest and sanest place they could find. There was also a lot of space within, so Cain was able to get his much-needed privacy.

While the interior of the gymnasium was fairly okay, that didn't mean it was at 100 percent. Some parts of the roof had caved in, and there was debris all over the place with all the equipment and furniture scattered over the place, but compared to the pile of rubble outside, it was paradise.

Since they all had a day before they headed into the forest to search for a way to get to the main campus, they decided they would all do their own thing while waiting for Cain to make his preparations.

David and Blaze searched for survivors since there was a possibility of someone hiding out in one of the storage closets within the building to preserve their lives. They had no intentions of leaving anyone behind if they could save them.

The rest of them, which included Manny, Steve, and Vincent separated to do their own thing...

"What do you think of him?" As they searched, Balze suddenly asked David.

"Hm? Who are you talking about?" David raised his brows quizzically.

"Cain... What do you think of him?" Blaze asked again.

Blaze and David were somewhat similar in character. They made the extra effort to do good and be considerate of others, but not at the expense of their own lives. While Blaze was more hotheaded, they both had relatively good hearts compared to the others in the group.

So, it was only natural that they got along fairly well.

"Well, I've known him even before the start of all this madness. He's a good person."

"A good person?! Although he's not as bad as that bastard Hunter, he most definitely isn't a good person." The flames burning within Blaze's eyes spoke more than a thousand words.

If David had any words to explain what he saw within his eyes, they would be righteous indignation...

A false sense of holier than thou...

"I know you can see it as well. They are both the same. They are looking for ways to control us! What you just did I giving that bastard the ticket he needs.

As soon as he realizes that, he'll hold it over our heads, making us dance to his will!" Blaze said, his voice filled with malice and anger.

'Ha... He's still unable to see it clearly.' David looked at Blaze, a complicated look in his eyes.

"So what do you want to do? We need his help if we want to get in touch with the rest of the world. You said it yourself that your flames are not strong enough to burn those things down." David pointed out.

"Did I? Who knows..." Blaze said, a sly dark look flashing in his eyes.

'Hmmm?' David's eyes narrowed a bit, but he decided not to press any further.

"Blaze, promise me you won't do something that would jeopardize and put all our lives in danger!"

Blaze didn't say anything but nodded his head to indicate he got the memo.

'These kids... I just hope they won't go overboard. All our lives are at risk here. ' David lamented.

If David had a choice, he would rather take matters into his own hands personally, but he knew Cain and understood his character and what he was capable of.

"Ha... Alright." David sighed before going back to searching.

***

Cain separated himself from the group, sitting in a secluded dark corner of the gymnasium.

The first thing he did was to pull out the {Devil's Broken Claw} to inspect its changes.

{Devil's Broken Claw} increased proportionally to the number of enemies he slayed.

{Devil's Broken Claw}: (epic)

Strength: 30. Attack power: +20%

Agility: 20.

Control: 0.2.

Defense: -5.

Skills: Fear, Bloodthirsty.

{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 7%.

{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack power increases by 1%, but weight increases by 10kg. Effectiveness of {Fear} also increases by 0.1%.

Cain saw that a new value had popped up on the stats of the blade.

'System, what is this?' Cain asked, referring to the attack power stat that had mysteriously appeared.

{Replying to host: This is called a hidden stat. Much like how you gain stats when you experience a very drastic increase in a certain unknown stat, you automatically gain a way to measure that stat, which happens the same way for weapons.

Because the weapon received such a huge boost at once, it was able to figure out how to calculate the attack power stat}.

'I see... But damn is this thing heavy!' The blade's weight had increased by a total of 200kg. The blade weighed about 200kg previously, so an extra 200kg added made it twice its previous weight.

The strongest man on Urbus would have been barely able to lift 500kg, but his blade weighed almost the same thing.

To Cain, the weight wasn't the main issue, but rather swinging 400kg in a battle was going to be very tasking.

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 24.

Strength: 205.

Agility: 266.

Stamina: 15/112.

Vitality: 50.

Defense: 61.

Control: 4.8.

Perception: 4.7.

HP: 1,950/4,900.

MP: 2,090/3,500.

Magic: 250.

Ki: 3.

Resistance: Poison- 10%.

Spirit: 2

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Ingestion Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Seal, Hollow Judgement, Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer's Mind.

Free attribute points: 27.

System points: 510.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

His strength stat was at 205 points, which meant the maximum weight he could bare without any stress or strain at the moment was 205kg. This meant that he was barely able to lift the blade, not to talk of swinging it around in a fight. As for his agility, his maximum speed would be about 133mps.

This meant that he was faster than most normal animals would have been before the apocalypse.

'So this means I am not even strong enough to swing my weapon?'

{Replying to host: Affirmative...}

Cain: "..."

'Thank's for rubbing it in.' Cain felt the need to roll his eyes, but stopped himself and continued with his preparations.

'That just means I need to increase my strength. And what better way to do it than with runes.'

{Mark of Hermes}: +10 to agility stat.

{Mark of Bestial Strength}: +10 to agility stat.

{Bulwark of Protection}: +10 to Defense stat.

{Rune of Sharpening}: Increases attack power by 2%.

Cain decided it was finally time for a drastic upgrade. He had 3 of each type of rune in his possession, so using them would bring him a huge increase in strength. However, this increase in power came at a cost. The cost is unbearable pain...

Pain worse than the pain he had to endure every time he activated {Golden Blood}. But it wasn't something he couldn't bear with when he thought of all the benefits he could gain from them

'This is gonna hurt a lot...'

Cain retrieved the first three runes, which were all {Mark of Bestial Strength} runes. These runes increased his strength by 10 points, and as mentioned by the system, they were to be applied either onto the arms or shoulders. The runes resembled tattoos glowing with faint red light.

It had a circle engraved with weird bold symbols, enclosed in a rhombus.

'Here goes nothing...' Although he had done it previously, he still wasn't used to the pain. The forced himself to endure the pain by violently gritting his teeth. As soon as he had applied one, he picked the next one and repeated the same grueling process.

Once he was done with applying all the runes he could apply to his body, he opened his status screen;

Strength: 235.

Agility: 296.

Defense: 91.

"It still isn't enough..." The weight of the blade was still over the supposed limit the system gave him.

He retrieved the blade from his inventory. The inky dark blade had become an even darker shade of black. The eye attached to its hilt had become even more vivid and intimidating. Even though it had gone through a drastic increase in weight, it still maintained its slim and sharp exterior.

One would even argue that it looked sharper than before. The blade had the same length and shape as a nodachi, which was a traditionally made sword made during the waring ages of an ancient civilization that existed before the war that had taken place a thousand years ago.

These blades were still existing today because although the old world had disappeared, the interest of the people of the present in the old ways hadn't. Various lost knowledge had been recovered over time, which included a ton of information on the types of civilization that existed during that time.

The curvature of the {Devil's Broken Claw} also made it very suitable for cutting. However, its tip was jagged indicating that it was a broken weapon.

'That's probably the reason for its name.' Cain swiftly concluded.

As soon as he placed it in his hands, he could feel the immense weight.

"Damn it!" Cain let it fall vertically, to which it embedded itself into the ground. The blade cut straight through the floor of the gymnasium like a hot knife going through butter.

"Shit!" Cain cursed as he started at the dillema he had caused for himself.