They picked through every house on the street, gathering supplies. With John's Mana Sense, they didn't have to worry about getting ambushed by hidden monsters, but they moved with caution anyway, ensuring they didn't draw attention to themselves.

Still, that didn't mean they were completely silent. When outside, conversation was kept only to necessity. Inside, it seemed the others couldn't help but chat a bit. Just by hanging around in the periphery of their conversation, John learned a lot more about his new companions.

Lily was 28, born and raised in Orlando, Florida, and worked as a waitress. She'd saved up for a long time for this trip to London that she'd been dreaming of ever since her teenage obsession with Doctor Who. Her time in the fandom had long since passed, but her ambitions to visit the UK had lingered. A decade later, she and her friends had decided to go through with it, partially to help one of her group get over a bad break-up.

"Talk about bad timing, huh," she said with an awkward smile.

She didn't mention what had happened to the friends who'd accompanied her on the trip, and no one asked.

Jade was 21, and she told people she was from Inverness because it was easier to explain than going through the painful process of describing the location of the small town she lived in that was actually a few dozen miles away from the city. A staunch supporter of animals rights, she'd decided to take up the cause as a lawyer fighting animal abuse, and thus had come to London to study. There was an implication she had little time or tolerance for close friendships, but there had been people she got along okay with, and she'd been intending to meet them when the end came.

"Never made it to the rendezvous point, though," she grumbled.

Again, no one voiced any speculation as to whether those people were still alive. They all knew the chances.

Chester turned out to be the youngest of their group. At 19, he had been about to embark on a gap year between his A-levels and University, though he still hadn't decided what he was going to do at the latter. Something related to sports, he reckoned, since he'd found such enjoyment in physical activity throughout his life. His biggest lament for the apocalypse, aside from all the death, was that the gym was going to be closed.

"I really liked that place," he said sadly. "It felt like I could just fade into the background there, you know?"

A bout of melancholy settled on the group for the next few houses, everyone lost in their losses. Conversation only restarted when Jade nearly killed a cat.

They'd been searching one of the small terraced houses that lined the street, and they'd split up to cover the place faster. Jade and John had gone upstairs, and Jade had encountered a locked door. It wasn't exactly a strong build, so she'd been able to shoulder it open easily enough. She hadn't been expecting the dark shape that came charging out, hissing and spitting.

Luckily, she'd managed to stop herself before her golden machete projection thing had bisected the terrified feline. It had been a close thing, though. A matter of inches.

After seeing how thoroughly outmatched it was, the cat had promptly run away to hide under a sofa downstairs, and no amount of bribery would get it out. It hissed at any finger that came close.

Further searching revealed bloody smears in the master bedroom, back upstairs. The room the cat had been in lacked a bed, instead playing home to a cat tree, a cat litter box, some frayed scratching posts, and a whole lot of animal toys. In other words, the cat had been a spoiled little bugger.

"Poor thing," Jade muttered, after being forced to accept that their presence was only stressing the cat out further. They'd left the back door open, giving it a chance to escape the house and fend for itself rather than starving, as John had done for those parrots in what felt like another lifetime.

In the next house on from the cat, Jade lamented that she hadn't received a power that allowed her to communicate with animals. Lily commiserated, revealing that she would have much preferred something that worked in close combat, or at least didn't involve aiming down sights. Chester just whined about his Scouring Light spell's natural propensity to draw attention to himself, like if you took a picture with flash on in a dark room. In his own words, he would have taken literally anything else if he could.

John volunteered no information about himself, and was prepared to harshly rebuff any inquiries. Luckily, it appeared the mysterious stranger persona worked in his favour there; no one asked him any personal questions, because they knew he wouldn't answer.

Once they were all thoroughly stocked up on supplies, they went monster hunting.

Taking the lead once more, John navigated them through the dense urban streets of north-west London. The trusty combination of Mana Sense and Soul Vision let him identify the threat level of monsters and avoid them as usual.

He took extra care to ensure they never ended up in a position to actually see any higher-level monsters, because he wasn't sure what would happen if he tried one of his nonsensical little quips that let him bluff his way out of a direct confrontation. Even if they didn't have any magical senses, he was pretty sure they'd be able to see he was bullshitting if he claimed some giant abomination that was obviously more dangerous than anything they'd faced was a weakling not worth his time.

Thus, their forward progress wasn't exactly swift. Despite the awkwardness it created, John kept to his unconcerned gait, pretending all this meant nothing to him and he wasn't worried one bit. With his hands in his pockets and his sunglasses over his eyes, he affected a slouch and strolled along, ignoring the weird looks the other were throwing him. He tried not to imagine what they were thinking.

+400 Aura

The Aura gain did make him question his assumptions. Was he being rewarded because his companions legitimately thought he was cool, or was the system itself the sole arbiter of what was considered impressive?

He eyed his companions from behind his shades. Really wish I could ask.

But he couldn't, so he endeavoured to ignore them and kept at it.

Mercifully, they didn't have to go far before they encountered a weak monster. Barely two streets over from the last house they'd raided found them sneaking through a block of flats and into its back garden, approaching a yellow lizard creature with thorn-like spikes lining its spine, and big, bulbous eyes each equalling the size of its arrow-shaped head. Its soul was blue.

John slipped off his backpack and left it with the others. While the lizard monster was distracted with chewing on the roots of an apple tree, John stepped forward, activating two Mana Blades, one for each hand. He held them out to either side and stalked towards the monster with Ninja-soft footsteps, keeping his centre of balance low.

+400 Aura

He blinked away the notification, allowing no distractions. John's eyes were fixed on his enemy. The monster was still chewing away.

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Would it be better to sneak up and stealth kill it, or let it fight back and show off my abilities in direct combat? Either way, I have to make it seem like I'm mentoring them in monster killing. So the question isn't just the coolest way to kill it, but also the coolest lesson I can bullshit from the kill?

Chester muttered something behind him, but was quickly shushed. John didn't glance back.

Activating Insight told him little he hadn't already gleaned: its glistening spines implied some kind of poisonous substance, its sharp teeth and wide jaw potentially meant a strong bite, and the spike at the end of its long tail would need to be watched out for.

When John was less than a metre away from the monster and it still hadn't seen him, he figured the decision had been made for him. Accelerate thrummed through his body, and he lunged forward, both arms coming forward at the same time to drive his Mana Blade right through the beast's arrow-shaped skull. There was a crunch as they impaled its head. To his surprise, it struggled briefly, but a twist of his arms to change the angle must have sliced through something important, because it went limp an instant later.

John stood up and deactivated his Mana Blades, turning back to where the other three were watching.

+1000 Aura

There was no stopping the smirk this time, but he didn't want to. Receiving a thousand Aura for killing a blue monster felt like an occasion worthy of a victorious smile. He figured it fit his image, anyway.

Casually strolling back over to the others, he spoke, "You guys are weak, so it's best to take your enemies by surprise, like I just showed you. Luckily, there are plenty of monsters that are weak, too. Though obviously we'll have different standards of weak."

+400 Aura

Man, I'm starting to feel like the system really does just want me to be a dick.

"If you can deal a killing blow in one shot," John continued after a brief pause, "always take it. You guys have the tools, so use them."

Jade nodded slowly, grimacing at the lizard monster as it began its rapid decay. "You make it look easy."

"It is easy, when you're strong like me," John said.

+400 Aura

Seriously? That was so bloody arrogant…

Luckily, none of them seemed to take offence. Or, if they did, he wasn't socially adroit enough to spot the signs of it. Their expressions and posture hadn't noticeably changed, so he figured he was doing okay.

"Just remember," he said as he tugged his backpack back on, "if you think you have the ability to kill one of these monsters, you have a duty as a human being to do so."

+400 Aura

They moved on as a group, with John taking the lead once more. He already had his eye on another blue he'd spotted with Soul Vision nearby, and he led them straight to it. This one was nosing around at a row of wheelie bins down a narrow alley that ran between two houses. Looking like an eldritch monstrosity had sculpted an emaciated raccoon out of glittery red Play-Doh before upscaling it to the size of a German Shepard, the blue-souled monster could at least claim to have been paying more attention to its surroundings. It saw the humans coming, and it went on the attack.

Sadly for it, John was there to meet it. He didn't even bother to take his backpack off, dashing forward with a Mana Blade extending one hand and his Rock Shield attached to the other. It lunged for him, and John didn't even need Accelerate to get his Rock Shield in the way. Its gleaming, gem-like teeth found no purchase on his shield, and he was able to redirect its momentum and slam it into the wall. Dazed, it could offer no resistance as his Mana Blade slashed through its neck. John spat on its rapidly rotting corpse for good measure. It had been a while since he'd done that.

+1000 Aura

Hmm. No real appreciable difference between sneaking up on the other monster and killing this one in one blow. Should I try to draw the next fight out?

Once again, he found the other three staring at him when he turned to them. He cleared his throat, hoping to mitigate the chances of any voice cracks. "If you can't sneak up on an enemy, end it as soon as possible," he said. "Even if you're weak, there will be ways to utilise your abilities to the fullest. Identify enemy weaknesses and play to your strengths."

+400 Aura

None of them replied, so John said, "Good," and they set off once more.

This time, John had to inconspicuously steer them away from a couple of stronger monsters lingering in the neighbourhood. There was an orange a few streets over which he wanted absolutely nothing to do with, and a handful of yellows were patrolling around. His aloof stroll could only take him so far, and it was clear the other three were growing frustrated with his fake lackadaisical attitude—in fairness to them, he was pulling it off well enough they didn't actually know it was fake. To them, he probably just looked like an inconsiderate ass.

+400 Aura

Which the system loved, apparently.

Knowing he couldn't resort to nonsense about not wasting his time fighting clearly-stronger monsters, he instead delved into the realm of pseudo-philosophical piffle.

"Time is our most precious resource, so we must not waste it on stress," he hypocritically bullshitted at one point when Jade stared at him incredulously—he'd moved to lean up against a wall with his hands in his pockets, acting like he was stopping for a break, when really he was trying to stall long enough for a yellow-souled monster to pass by the next street without seeing them.

+400 Aura

"I was just admiring the beauty of the sky. If I have to look at these ugly monsters for too long, I might get… angry," he said when the others questioned why he'd sat down in a back garden. He couldn't exactly tell them the orange monster was too close for comfort.

The sky was still on fire, of course.

+400 Aura

"Remember: rest is important," he told them as he lay down behind a wall, having hastily instructed the rest of them to do the same.

They all stared at him incredulously. "I thought there was a monster coming or something," Lily muttered.

There was. A red soul, drifting along in the distance like a gasbag jellyfish swimming through the burning sky. He'd spied it out of the corner of his eye and promptly panicked when he'd used Soul Vision on it. Couldn't tell them that he'd just reflexively hidden, though.

"If you start hiding from monsters, you'll never stop," he said, conveniently ignoring how much time he spent hiding from them. Then, even more hypocritically: "Never run away. Never hide. Have pride as a human, and you'll always come through adversity."

+400 Aura

And so it went. It was a miracle they weren't outright questioning his drivel. Their exasperated looks implied he wanted to—assuming he was even reading them right, and those looks weren't actually murderous frustration.

Thankfully, most of the monsters in the area were gree​​ns and blues, and he was able to steer them to another of the latter after only a few minutes of misdirecting them with mysterious-sounding bullshit. The cringe might have been fatal if it had gone on much longer.

This next blue was actually inside a block of flats, lounging in the communal gym there. It was yet another rat monster, if slightly more muscular than the ones he'd previously encountered. As many blues seemed to be, it was preoccupied with slurping up the remnants of a bloodstain.

Grimacing, John activated his Mana Blade. The grimace wasn't because of the upcoming fight, and nor was it because of the harrowing reminder of the horror these monsters were inflicting upon Earth.

Both of those elicited plenty of negative emotions in him, but they couldn't compare to the sheer terror he felt at what he was about it do. In the last two battles, he'd approached things pragmatically, keeping his mouth shut.

Now, he was going to test out how things went when he threw quips and insults at the monsters while people were watching.

His heart was in his throat. His hands were clammy. His stomach was tumbling over and over like it was in a washing machine.

He opened his mouth to speak.

"John," someone whispered behind him.

John froze. His heart hammered in his chest. Slowly, he turned.

Jade, Chester, and Lily were crouched by the doorway, watching him.

"Are you going to let us fight at all?" Jade asked. "We need to get stronger, right? Can't just be watching you kill the fuckers for us all day."

To his surprise, both Lily and even Chester nodded in agreement.

And in his distraction, the rat monster found a chance to attack.

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