Fifteen minutes later, he got up. He wasn’t completely recovered, but now wasn’t the time for that. He could rest at night.

When he got up, he saw everyone waiting for him.

"Well," he said. "You’ve experienced your first fight. How was it?"

"Not what I expected," came Marcus’ low voice. "Especially not after what I saw you do."

The others nodded in agreement.

Kain let out a low chuckle. "You’ll find out soon that life will give you many more surprises. What you need to do is prepare."

He looked around at the dead bodies on the rooftop and the blood splattered all over the ground.

"You all go down, I’ll take care of it." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

They protested, saying they wanted to help.

Kain opened his palm, a fire orb dancing in his palm. "Do you think I’ll be faster or you will?" Extinguishing the fire, he continued, "Get some rest. Tomorrow is another day."

Finally convinced, they took their time and headed back down.

The second they were out of sight, Kain waved a hand and sent the bodies into space. As for the blood, it took a bit more concentration, but he condensed it into a ball and took it into the space.

The entire thing took no more than a minute.

When he was done, his forehead was sweating again. This time was worse than the last.

Amelia moved forward to catch him. The children ran up, clutching his pant legs.

"It’s fine. Blood manipulation is just a bit tedious, is all. Don’t try it during your Awakening stage."

The statement was made for the three little ones and one big one to hear. He ruffled the little one’s hair and kissed Amelia on the forehead.

They began making their way down.

Before they could take a few steps, they saw Jon running back up.

"There are mosquitoes inside!" he yelled.

"What?" Amelia gasped.

Kain closed his eyes for a moment before straightening up. He quickened his pace.

Stepping onto Floor Five, the first thing he saw was the mangled mosquito.

"Where is everyone?" he asked Jake. "They went to the lower floors to check."

Kain didn’t run to the lower floor immediately. He looked at the locked door. If there was one in the hallway, does that mean there is one in the room?

Unsheathing the broadsword, he pulled the door open.

He didn’t enter immediately. He stood at the door, waiting. When nothing came out, he inched inside. No sooner had he stepped past the threshold than he felt a chill on his back.

Instinct told him that he needed to move. He lunged forward, landing on a nearby table. He scrambled up to see the mosquito on the wall in front of him.

He moved and slashed without hesitation, taking the mosquito’s head from its body.

He moved around the other room, making sure there was none anywhere else.

As he made his way down, he, Amelia, and Jake walked slowly. He had the children stay in their room. The window wasn’t broken. If anything should happen, they only need to stay inside.

He did leave them their swords as a line of defense.

Making their way through the building, they didn’t find the remains of any mosquitoes, nor did they see the rest of the group. It wasn’t until Floor Two that they saw a dead mosquito and the doors open.

The hallways were silent. There was no one here.

Floor One was the last place they could look.

Before they even turned the corner, the sound of sobbing filled their ears.

Marcus had just cleaved a mosquito in two. There were people and things scattered around the room and hallways. The place was a disaster zone.

When they stepped closer, the corpses of four mosquitoes came into view. Along with them were two corpses.

Their skin was stretched over their bones. Hollow eyes and mouths lay open. Their emaciated bodies lay crumpled on the floor.

Kain scanned the room. He checked the people one by one until he confirmed the dead. The two were people from the hunting team.

ding

The system notification chimed.

[Kill the army of mosquitoes]

[Reward: Sanctuary Upgrade, Bee Queen Core]

Kain raised an eyebrow. He had been wondering why the mosquitoes could come in. Not the system decided it would upgrade the sanctuary. Clearly, it had known this might happen.

Or it realized the severity and decided it would force the upgrade. Whichever it was, Kain didn’t care at this point.

He stared at the second reward. A bee queen core.

He was already tangled after learning about the ’body bead’ as his son called it. At this present moment, as far as he was concerned, everything he had previously learned was bullshit.

He could no longer use the public knowledge he had learned from his past life. He could only use the predictions of a certain event.

Even then, it was something he could only take with a grain of salt.

Ignoring the rewards for now, he surveyed the room. The entire building would need to be deep cleaned.

"Somebody, throw them outside," Kain pointed to the bodies dismissively.

Marcus stepped forward, tossing them casually out the window. The others didn’t dare make a sound. They were already scared out of their wits by the giant mosquito. They couldn’t handle anything else.

Focusing on the few cowering people, a mocking grin formed. "Still not willing to fight?" he asked.

"Let’s go; they can clean up their own mess." With that, he walked away.

Without missing a beat, the other followed.

Everyone stopped at the junction between Floors Three and Four.

"You can decide among yourselves who sleeps where. Jake and Veronica are still on Floor Four. If they want anyone to join, that’s up to them."

He took Amelia’s hand and went up to their room without paying attention to the others.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Mhm," he hummed. "Just thinking."

"About?"

His eyes fell on her, roving over her body. A gaze hungry with desire met her eyes.

"About how to devour you."