Chapter 474 - [Bonus ]Days MCMLX - MCMLXXXVI, Part VI

After me changing the spots, my hunting got kinda crazy. On the very next day, I encountered another ghost, but he was not as strong as the previous one. He died really quickly thanks to my rapid growth in strength.

The two next ones I encountered were on the other hand crazy strong. Both were mages, and I couldn't do shit to them until they had mana, so I used my tactic of avoiding their crazy attacks until they had nothing more to throw at me. Then I finished the fight.

After that, there was a little bit of break with another weaker one, and on the very last day of my hunt, I finished with another very strong ghost.

I didn't use the crystals I got from the weaker creatures. Instead, I saved them in my vault, for the future. I had few ideas of what to do with those, but nothing was decided.

I almost died few times, but in the end, from the three crystals, I got a nice number of 750 927 888 745 000 regular points and  42 724 class ones.

I spend most of it on 'ArchInfernalist', getting the following skills to the twelfth level: 'Control flame V', 'Create flame V', 'Fire resistance IV', 'Combustion IV', 'Chained combustion III', 'Scorch III', 'Flame mastery II'.

After that, I still had a few hours of staying awake, so I finally shadow walked back to Ark. I landed in the city center in the middle of a nice sunny day. There was almost nobody around with all the hunters gone. Some were hanging around the bar, but that was it.

I went to the research facility since the school was supposed to be there, or at least that was what I thought. I wanted to check up on Tihana. As her fake dad, I still had some responsibilities towards her. If I were to ignore them, there was no difference between her living on the streets of LA or in Ark. One could even argue that LA was safer.

I passed next to the gate hall. You could hear from the street how busy life was there. Then I entered the right building.

- Good morning - said a neatly dressed young Indian woman. - How can I help you? Are you here to register for school?

- What? N-no... I have a kid who is going here, and I also wanted to talk with the director, Mika Sawamura.

- There is a lesson going on, so I'm afraid you will have to wait. Please sit there - she pointed to the waiting area - and I'll check if miss Sawamura is available. Might I ask for your name, sir?

- What? Oh, yes... I'm Peter.

She smiled at me and grabbed a phone. They clearly had some kind of telecommunication inside the building.

I went to have a sit, as she contacted the Japanese woman, but I didn't even manage to get there.

- Sir! - the women stopped me, just as I was gonna take my spot on the chair. - Miss Sawamura accepted the meeting. She will be right here. Please leave anything made of metal here, and then you might go pass through the gate.

It was kinda pointless, as there was no guard there so nobody could even attempt to stop me. Maybe she would try, and for a moment I even thought about verifying that, but then I realized it would take too much effort since I didn't even have anything that could trigger the alarm on me anyway.

Well, maybe I could pull a can from my vault, but that felt kinda dumb, so I just went to pass the checkup, and further to the corridor. Just as from the staircase, at the very end on the left side of the 'T' section, emerged Mika Sawamura.

- Peter? I thought you were gone for a month. We tried to contact you, but Hatta said you left for a while - she said loudly, moving towards me.

I shadow walked right in front of her, scaring the shit out of her.

- Yeah, I just came back.

She squeaked and almost fell on her ass, touching her chest over her heart.

- You almost gave me a heart attack!

- Sorry - I lied since I did it on purpose. - I wanted to check on Tihana, and also gave you guys something.

- That's why we actually wanted to talk with you, to obtain more of the alien technology.

- Well, then it's your lucky day, but first, tell me how my daughter is doing.

- It's hard to say since it only has been few weeks, but I heard she is putting in a lot of effort.

- Ok. Now you can have this - I said and pulled out the drone from the vault.

I let go of it, and the thing immediately started levitating in the air, throwing a blue light at the corridor.

- Is that... - the engineer didn't finish as the drone started rotating left and right.

Then it slowly drifted through the corridor, illuminating it.

- ...working - she finished.

- Yep. It is.

She looked at me, with eyes wide open, and laughed.

- That's amazing! Thank you - she said, and just hugged me.

- Oh... ok. I wasn't expecting that.

She immediately stepped back, a bit embarrassed about her reaction.

- Sorry.

- No, it's fine. I just didn't expect such a reaction. I never said I didn't like it.

Her face got a bit red.

- H-how about I take you to the classroom? This thing won't fly away, won't it? - she said, looking behind me, as the drone slowly traveled through the corridor.

It stopped on the 'T' section, rotated around, and kept going in the same direction.

- Sure, yeah.

She passed me and brought me to the correct door. I could hear people talking behind it. She popped inside to call Tihana. The girl came out shortly holding her backpack.

- I never expected my fake dad to help me ditch school - said the girl.

- It's nice to see you too.

- I'll live you two alone - said Mika Sawamura, smiled awkwardly, and went to the other room, to bring some more people out.

Mainly to catch the drone. Me and Tihana headed outside.

- So, how was the hunt? - she asked.

- Good. How is school?

- Hard, but I'm really trying.

- Good. You need to learn the basic stuff. If you do well, I'll get you something nice, but for now how about we get dinner, and catch up?

- Ok - she nodded. - But I need to tell Irina. She will be worried.

- Then let's visit her, and then off to my place for... How does pizza sound?

- It sounds good.

We did as we agreed upon, and for the first time, my fake daughter spend a night in my house. I told her about the fights I had, and she told me about the lessons, and teachers. The hardships she had with catching up since she never studied very well. Fortunately, the egg-heads were so nice, that they would spend additional time with her to explain everything if she needed that.

I had my suspicion that they were counting for more stuff from me in exchange, but still. It was a nice gesture, and she really needed help.

My time spent on hunting came to an end with 72 064 765 548 000 regular points and 61 831 class ones on my account in Loistavadvaar, and 24 360 310 regular points, and 21 class points in Ark.