I Slept Through The Apocalypse

Clover and Pringles arrived at a forest. The trees were vibrant with growth and the grass swayed peacefully, a scene unlike the wreckage that came from the man-made buildings. Clover was standing under the waterfall half-n.a.k.e.d, his long hair dr.a.p.ed past his shoulders. His average body had begun exposing some muscle as a result of the intense training. His skin was slightly tanner, which made a huge difference to his appearance since before then, he never went outside. His stomach that showed his ribs before now showed the early making of his abdominals. Punching a nearby boulder, one could see that his muscles were incredibly sturdy as he left cracks in the boulder. Apart from pushups, he began running, burpees, and air squats. He was now able to do five hundred of each and still run ten miles.

He also picked up combat moves which Pringles had stolen from the Renaak elite schools. With the assistance of that sophisticated combat theory unlike anything that Earth has never seen before, his punches were sharp and cut through the water. With Pringle's oversight, his overall combat techniques became simple yet profound.

A week passed since Clover and Pringles headed North. Clover had made significant progress with Dream Assimilation which enabled him to swiftly recover any fatigue or muscle soreness within an hour. It played a huge part in his physical cultivation training. He had reached peak beginner level mastery of Dream Assimilation, which made Pringles excited. He hoped there would be a new effect so that Clover would have an easier time fighting whatever forces were out there. He always kept his spiritual sense scanning the surroundings in case anything came at them. He was extremely cautious because of Clover's weak strength. Without the use of meridians, it was very difficult to reach stone level and enter the cultivation world.

There was still hope. Pringles had gauged Clover's rapidly growing physical strength. With Clover increasing pace as he got used to the extreme training, he calculated that within a week, Clover would have the physical strength to take on an Establishment level cultivator.

Clover's entire shirt was drenched in sweat. Heavy panting could be heard as the teen finished his ten mile run and then jumped into the river beside the waterfall. In the depths of the slow moving river, he closed his eyes and let his consciousness wander around. He watched as the energy in his surroundings headed towards his body. The fatigue from the workout once again slowly faded. His muscles experienced subtle changes as they recovered stronger than ever. His body let out a soft golden glow. Something different happened this time, though. As he felt himself reach full recovery, his body and the energy in his surroundings began shaking.

RING!

Bright white specks formed from his surroundings, and entered his body along with the golden glow. The golden aura created a thin film along his skin while black ooze seeped out of his body.

Pringles was shocked. He's experiencing body cleansing already? Could this have something to do with Dream Assimilation? Pringle's consciousness swept through Clover's body. It turns out, Clover's physical body had just reached Establishment Level!

He was overjoyed. Dream Assimilation was a perfect cultivation technique for Clover! He waited till Clover was finished recovering and released all of his body's impurities before he told him the good news. Clover smiled. The body cleansing felt so comfortable so he was in a good mood. Meridians or not, he now had a strength of a real cultivator. And this was only after a week. If he was given a month, maybe he could even handle the energy overload with his body alone.

Clover felt a little dejected. It had been a week and he still hadn't seen any signs of life whatsoever. He had no way to know when the trail would end, Pringles just told him that they trail is still leading north. An image of his mother and sister appeared in his mind. He tried not to think about the worst case scenario.

The entire week he did his best not to think about what could have happened to his family, but he couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Clover's shoulder's trembled and he clenched his fists. For a short moment, he stood there overlooking the river with reddened eyes.

He was still a sixteen year old, yet he had to keep a strong front for the majority of his life to take care of his sister and mother. It wasn't until they were missing that he finally cried. Pringles noticed that Clover was having an emotional moment and let him be.

Tears streaked down Clover's face yet he made no sound. He didn't wipe them away. He silently watched as the tears dripped from his face and into the river. A few moments later, his face immediately returned to normal with a sniffle as he wiped his tears and those worries away.

He wouldn't think let those negative thoughts haunt him anymore. He felt more refreshed after letting those feelings out.

Pringles was silent. He had a pretty good idea of what Clover was going through. He was impressed by his mental fortitude.

Even though the kid is extremely weak, he has a strong mind. Pringles thought to himself. I'm excited to see what becomes of him in the future.

In the middle of that thought, Pringles jolted upwards. His spiritual sense found movement nearby. When he sent his spiritual sense to identify the target, he was shocked to see a huge spider walking towards their direction.

"Spiritual beasts! At least Establishment intermediate level!" The orb of light entered Clover's consciousness. Pringles sent directions to Clover to avoid them. Clover quickly packed up his things and sprinted away deeper into the forest. They could not win this fight.

"Wait! Pringles, the trail!"

"Rest assured, we're still in range of my spiritual sense. Go left!"

"What are spiritual beasts doing on Earth?" Pringles had told him vaguely of some spiritual beasts before. Pringles himself, was a spiritual beast originally. Clover was confused where all these organisms came from.

"It might be the Valeite ore. That might have caused the animals on Earth to mutate."

Clover continued to run north, avoiding the beasts that suddenly began appearing. Left, right, in the trees, under tree stumps. Without Pringles, they would not have made it far in the forest. The distance they traveled slowed down, since they spent more time avoiding the spiritual beasts.

Eventually, they reached a clearing in the middle of the forest. It was the remains of a barn, and a house. Greenery grew over the rubble as humanity's property slowly returned back to nature in the last two years.

"There's a familiar aura coming from those barn remains. Should we check it out?" Pringles informed Clover.

"Familiar in what way?"

"I've felt this aura somewhere a long time ago. I'm not quite sure what it is yet. Something is blocking my spiritual sense." The orb's voice gave away traces of confusion and excitement.

Not sure if they were doing the right thing and in order to satisfy their curiosity, they both began walking slowly towards what remained of the barn. A part of the barn was still standing. It looked like a small lean-to as the barn door was leaning on the remains of a wall. It was eerily silent as they approached the rubble.

As they inched closer, they heard a faint noise.

Tap, Tap, Tap.

"Do you hear that?" A chill went up Clover's spine. What was making that creepy tapping noise?

"Pssst, Pringles. Go check it out!" Clover urged.

Unknown to Clover, Pringles had a weak spot against scary things. But he didn't want to expose that to Clover.

"Why me?"

"Because the Renaak race are superior to us lowly humans. It's just a tapping sound, nothing an elite like you can't handle… right?"

Pringles went silent. The tapping sound continued.

"Perhaps this is a bad idea after all, lets just keep going."

Clover smirked at the orb of light and used his last resort, "What…. are you scaaared?"

Checkmate.

Pringles shook even harder. "N―no.. of course not. Humph! I'll show you how it's done. How dare you question me?"

With a smirking Clover watching, the orb of light floated over to the barn's rubble.

Trembling uncontrollably the orb of light inched closer towards the barn. Finally, Pringles reached the area that his spiritual sense was blocked.

From a few feet away, Clover watched to see if anything attacked Pringles. When Pringles reached the area, the tapping suddenly stopped.

"Anything?"

Pringle's used his spiritual sense to search the barn again. "That's strange, there was something just her―"

Pringles went silent. Clover was confused as to why Pringles wasn't speaking anymore.

"Everything okay over there Pringles?" Clover hollered at the orb of light which stayed unresponsive.

"Pringles, this isn't funny…"

"―I remember now."

"What?"

"I know where I've seen that aura before."

There was another pause. Clover was really confused now, why was Pringle's acting so weird?

"Okay, where have you seen it before?"

"A long time ago in a really dark place." Pringle's spoke really slowly and in an almost hushed tone.

"Okay, so where is it no―?" Wait. Clover stopped himself. He broke out in a cold sweat. It couldn't be... right? He didn't move and instead asked Pringles again slowly.

"Pringles... Do you know where it is?"

Pringles didn't answer Clover's question. Instead, he whispered slowly.

"Don't move..."

Tap... tap... tap….

The strange tapping sound appeared once again.

Tap... tap... tap….

But this time, it came from behind Clover.