"Why?"
Kyle hearing Corey's question repeated the same word but his tone contained amusement then a chuckle escaped his lips.
He raised his head and with a calm and indifferent expression plastered all over his face, he looked at Corey's cold eyes.
"Are you asking why I did what I did or Are you asking why I killed our 'friends'?"
With an indifferent tone and expression Kyle questioned but Corey had no change in his expression.
"Both."
Corey replied coldly and a small smile appeared on Kyle's lips. It was a smile containing amusement, pity and disdain.
"I did all I that I did so as to gain power to kill the tier 2 monster at the academy gates."
Kyle replied and Corey's brows furrowed.
"That doesn't make any sense. There's no evolution center here so you can't reach tier 1 no matter how much you try."
Corey said and Kyle looked in a particular direction causing Corey to raise an eyebrow.
"If you think you can distract me by trying to look away, then just stop. It won't work."
"Do you know why I had those two monsters as my pets despite me been as strong as I am?"
Kyle asked while still looking in the distance, ignoring Corey's words.
"How do you expect me to know?"
Corey replied causing Kyle to look at him for a second before he sighed softly then he spoke:
"I had those two so that I could kill the tier 2 creature. They were level 101 when I got them so I made them eat the bodies of everybody that I used so that they could level up meanwhile I used the soul stones to level up and increase my stats."
"A lot of the things you said don't make any sense. First, where did you even get two tier 1 monsters as pets?
Second, how do you expect the two tier 1 creatures to kill the tier 2 creature at the gate? They're not even that strong, I mean I was able to defeat them easily and if I can do that, doesn't that mean I can kill the tier 2 creature?
Also, shouldn't it be that after absorbing the fourth soul stone you can't gain anymore stats?"
Corey asked and Kyle raised an eyebrow, a surprised expression appeared on his face causing Corey to be confused.
"You don't know?" He asked.
"Know what?" Corey asked.
"I see."
Kyle did not reply but looked down and muttered. Two seconds later he looked up.
"A human can gain stats even after absorbing more than four soul stones of other humans. It's the same thing for other races."
Corey's pupils constricted hearing Kyle's words and with a disbelieving expression, he spoke:
"You mean?"
"A human can decide to continuously kill other humans so that they can continuously increase their stats by absorbing the soul stones. As long as the difference in the level between the soul stone and the human is not greater than 20, then the person would gain at least 1 stat point to one of their attributes."
Kyle said much to Corey's shock. Kyle saw Corey's shocked expression but he ignored it and continued to speak with a calm and indifferent expression:
"Why did you think I decided to increase my strength by killing people?
Was I a murderer before the apocalypse?"
Although it sounded like Kyle was defending himself, not a single sign of regret could be seen on his face or even heard in his tone.
"Couldn't you have found a better way to increase your stats or to gain more power?"
Corey asked and Kyle looked at him strangely before chuckling.
"Are you an idiot Zane?"
"Tell me, how else do I increase my stats?"
"When we were weak we could only absorb four soul stones of Revenants which were below level 50. There were also Dark Revenants but those were below tier 2 and we could only absorb 4.
Also, although there are five dungeons in the academy with the dungeon you just came out from being the most dangerous, do you know how dangerous it is to go solo in a dungeon?
If you now decide to go with a group to kill the monsters in a dungeon, how many soul stones will you be able to absorb to increase your stats and level?
Not only that, it's also very difficult for an average person to fight above their levels so that they can increase their stats by a lot after absorbing the soul stone of higher leveled creatures."
"If somebody decides not to do all that I did, please tell me how do you expect the person to reach their stat limit so that the person can have a higher chance in killing or escaping the tier 2 creature?"
"To survive and leave this academy, no, the prison that we are in. Doing what I did is the only way to leave and survive this prison."
After Kyle spoke, he coughed out blood and his expression became a little bit weaker.
Meanwhile Corey was shaken by all he heard from Kyle. He wanted to refute his words and say there was another way but he could not.
All that Kyle said was true.
When the apocalypse happened, the monsters they could fight and kill for their levels were the low leveled Smileys and it was in fact dangerous for normal students, teachers and staffs of the academy to kill the low leveled Smileys since they didn't have prior combat experience.
Not only that, they could only gain additional stats from the first four soul stones of the Smileys they absorbed.
The only way for people to now increase their stats is by using the free attribute points from each level up.
If people depended on that, then there was no way they would be able kill monsters at a higher level than them without much difficulty.
Eventually there would be no way for them to defeat the tier 2 creature at the academy gate.
"Zane."
Just as Corey was lost in thoughts, he heard Kyle call out to him. He looked up and saw Kyle with a pale face, he looked at his left chest which still had the spear he threw in it.
He frowned slightly when he saw that the injury was not healing despite Kyle having maxed out his constitution stat.
"You don't know what's going outside Corey. The outside is extremely dangerous. You think what I did was inhumane? You think that me killing our friends and almost everybody in the academy for power was inhumane?"
Kyle asked and Corey nodded seriously.
"Yes. Yes it was."
*Cough* *Cough*
Kyle chuckled softly then just as he did, he coughed out more blood.
"Maybe you're right and maybe you're wrong. You'll know later in the future. Just know this Corey, you don't know anything about the outside world. It's much more dangerous than you think."
Kyle spoke with a solemn tone and expression but Corey didn't say anything in reply.
Kyle sighed softly then looked down at his chest where a spear was impaled into.
'I shouldn't have used the Supreme Art. Because of my cracked lightning core my body can't heal easily.'
Kyle thought with a solemn expression then he looked at Corey.
"You asked me two questions previously. The question on how I planned on using those two tier 1 monsters to fight the Tier 2 monster.
Well, I planned on taking them into the dungeon you came out from and after they both kill the monsters in the dungeon, their stats would have increased a lot.
But, because of you, that's no longer possible."
Kyle paused then exhaled and inhaled painfully. A few seconds passed before he looked at Corey.
"As for where I got the two pets from, I got it from- fro-"
Corey frowned as he looked at Kyle who had a dazed and blank expression.
"Kyle?"
Corey called out to him but there was no answer.
"Kyle?"
Corey called out once again but this time, he shook Kyle lightly but Kyle did not wake up.
He was dead.
Corey stood still for some seconds before he sighed.
He looked up to the sky which was beginning to darken showing that nighttime was near.
"This is messed up."
Corey murmured softly a few seconds after he looked at the sky.
Today was the first day he killed a human but not only that, he killed three humans today.
He killed one in a brutal manner, he killed the second one with less brutality and the last person he killed was once his friend.
And the worst part of all of this was that Corey felt nothing at the moment.
He did not feel sadness, joy, anger or depression after Kyle died. He just felt indifferent to the events that happened today.
"Haaa."
He sighed once again then looked at Kyle's body which he had placed on the ground.
"I'm not sure if you truly died by my hands or by something else but it doesn't really matter at the moment. I'm going to leave the academy and I'll show you that it's possible to kill the tier 2 monster even if I don't do what you said."
Corey muttered then he touched the Kyle's corpse and put it inside his spatial ring.
Despite them been enemies at the end, they were once friends and Corey felt he should not just live his corpse out in the open since he could carry it with him.
Step Step Step
He heard sounds of footsteps and he looked up.
"We need to talk."
Mrs. Ashley stood before him with her hands folded.
His eyes went to her breasts for a second before he looked away.
He got up from his crouching position, dusted his hand then spoke:
"Yes. I believe we do."
----
[A/N: It's official now. Chapter 79 marks the end of volume 1, so 9 more chapters until we go premium and shit gets real.
Anticipate!!!]