After spotting the dark circles within the monsters, Kael charged toward them as they rushed to attack him.
Without hesitation, he leaped forward, thrusting his sword into the mouth of the nearest monster. He pushed it deeper until it hit the dark circular core inside its head.
As soon as the katana, now infused with a small amount of mana, touched the core, a small crack appeared. The crack gradually grew larger until the corrupted core shattered.
Kael pulled his sword back and rolled to the side to observe the result of his effort. Finally, as he had hoped, the monster whose corrupted core he had destroyed fell lifelessly to the ground.
However, using mana without having fully reached the base level of his mana core left him exhausted. He knelt, panting slightly, and cursed, "Damn it. Killing you now costs mana, and you don't even give mana in return."
Seeing the other monsters roaring angrily over their fallen ally, Kael spat on the ground and began channeling mana to his legs. He needed to avoid them for now, but first, he had to retrieve a critical skill item, one he had used in the past.
As the monsters drew closer to him, Kael darted away at full speed, rushing into the house. He jumped through a window frame with no glass or sill, rolled across the wooden floor, and ended in a half-sitting position.
Once his eyes adjusted to the dim interior, he walked to the fireplace, which was covered in vines and moss. He reached into the upper inside section of the fireplace.
Feeling his hand touch something cold, he grabbed it and pulled it out. In his palm now lay an emerald-green stone.
At that moment, the monsters outside, smashing through the walls of the house, finally succeeded in creating a breach. Though only a small part was broken, they began tearing through the hard stones to get to the human inside.
Wasting no time, Kael crushed the stone in his hand. A thin green mist entered his body, causing it to tremble slightly as he felt the item's effects take hold.
Kael then turned to face the monsters and could now see two bars in the upper right corner of his view. One was red, and the other black, along with the monsters' type and level displayed next to the bars.
The monsters were called Tentacliths, and their level was one. The red bar represented their health, while the black bar beneath it showed their corruption health, and both bars were showing full.
Likewise, in his view's lower-left corner, Kael saw two bars for himself. One was green, representing his health, and the other was blue, showing his current mana level.
Next to the bars, his name, "Kaelan Riverwind," was displayed, along with his level, which was now three. His health bar was full, but his mana bar was down to 10%. A small pale circle on the side of the mana bar indicated his mana core level.
The view before him resembled old game systems where health bars of characters and their enemies were shown during combat.
Kael sighed as he saw how little mana he had left, regretting not crushing a few of the mana shards he had secretly pocketed earlier. Sheathing his katana, he sprinted toward the nearby wooden door and smashed through it with a punch.
He ran as fast as he could northward, heading to a place he knew would offer an item crucial for quickly leveling up.
After distancing himself from the monsters, Kael stopped and entered the ruins of an office building. He pulled out all the mana shards he had with him.
As he glanced at the mana level displayed in his view, the bar read 0.02%. Crushing three mana shards at once, a blue light entered his body, raising his mana bar to thirty percent.
He crushed the remaining two, increasing his mana bar to fifty percent. Leaning against the rubble, he closed his eyes and circulated mana within himself, recovering from his earlier weakness.
Ten minutes passed before Kael opened his eyes and stood up. Now he felt hungry, but the backpack he carried held only clothes and water.
He continued walking north, heading to a small convenience store shielded from the destruction of the tall office buildings. Inside, he grabbed food and drinks to replenish his supplies.
He also picked up other necessities for his journey north, like clothes and salt. Now he could hunt monsters like rats and cook them, but he still needed salt for seasoning.
With everything packed into his bag, Kael resumed his journey north, leaving Lindenburgh behind, alone.
Along the way, Kael encountered several monsters but carefully selected which ones would yield mana shards. He avoided monsters with visible corruption bars in his view.
He didn't want to waste energy or mana, as his level was still too low. His focus was on quickly growing stronger.
The appearance of corrupted monsters so early in the apocalypse and the earlier-than-expected opening of the third gate convinced Kael that events wouldn't follow predictable patterns due to the altered timeline.
These two factors were the main reasons he decided to leave Thalia with Kelvin's group earlier than planned.
In the past, they had also been separated, and Thalia had thrived, developing her skills while with that group. Kael believed that in this life as well, she would shine even brighter and eventually gain the divine power of the Goddess Artemis.
Kael tightened his backpack and kept walking north. Several times, he passed vehicles that were still functional, but this time he ignored them completely.
Using a vehicle would attract the attention of the monsters and leave him highly vulnerable, especially if he encountered a horde of them.
Besides, his current strength was already enough to allow him to run quickly, especially when he used mana. In his mind, he reaffirmed a line he had read in an online novel: "If mana existed in this world, then technology would no longer be needed for defense or transportation."