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"...Babe we need another fridge." Aria stated after putting the things they just bought inside a storage bag. "Let\'s go to the appliance store next."

"You\'re the Boss..." Ashton replied as they walked hand in hand towards the next store.

Both of them are currently out on a trip to replace the furniture and appliances that Ashton ruined during his last breakthrough. While they\'re out here, Jerry was left there in the house making repairs.

With Jerry\'s recent enhancements, he\'s perfectly capable of doing the reconstruction on his own, in fact, he\'d even be faster than ten people working together so they might as well leave it to him.

As they shopped for supplies, Ashton took this chance to get a general feel of how things usually go from a regular citizen\'s perspective.

Lately, he has been busy with things that he didn\'t have time to do this but since they\'re already, he might as well start.

This is some kind of market research if you will. Ashton wanted to see how society is currently faring, comparing it to what the internet was showing. He knows that ultimately, what he sees on screen and what he sees in person were bound to be different.

He wants to broaden his horizons since the state of society would be important for his goals too.

As they went from one store to the other, Ashton kept his eyes peeled and observed the crowd.

Due to his sharp senses, he could see and feel many things that other people pointedly ignores.

For one, there is a trace of uncertainty and anxiety within Fantasia brought by the recent events, more specifically, because of the Cult.

He could sense everyone\'s unease. If they were given a choice, these people would\'ve preferred to stay home and wait until the entire Cult was dealt with before going out again. Unfortunately, time waits for no one.

The majority of people here have responsibilities to shoulder. Be it feeding their family, paying bills...survival in general, so even though they want to just stay at home and be safe, they couldn\'t. They have to go out and risk their lives for the sake of survival.

Add the fact that everything is quite strict at this point due to how sensitive these times are, people are in distress.

Ashton has yet to see one genuinely happy person out here so far. And that is rather alarming.

There is discontent in the air, and if this continues to fester, who knows what could happen?

Humanity is already at a disadvantage, being divided won\'t do them any good at all but looking at where the trend is heading, it seems that they wouldn\'t be able to avoid it.

It really makes one wonder...does the Morning Sun Federation knows this?

If they do, then why aren\'t they doing anything to prevent it? And if they don\'t know anything, then how the hell are they managing everything that is happening so far? It wouldn\'t happen to be chaos there wouldn\'t it?

\'...well, no use in thinking about this for now. Not like I\'m going there anytime soon anyway.\' Ashton mused to himself.

There will come a day when he\'ll visit the Federation, but today is not that day. He still had other matters to attend to.

...like making sure Aria wouldn\'t empty their bank accounts due to how many things she\'s buying. Seriously, half of the things she bought so far weren\'t something they needed, some don\'t even fit the room being rebuilt yet she still bought them.

He better takes control or else they\'d come home without a single penny left to their name.

Alice, Blake, and Mary had been put through the wringer these past few days.

They\'ve been dragged left and right, trying to respond to the sheer volume of Skydemons pestering the metropolis. They were tired and hadn\'t had any good sleep in a while.

Somehow, they\'re still kicking which is a miracle on its own. Alice started getting suspicious of Blake. She has no idea what he\'s putting in that coffee but it is shockingly effective. Hell, she\'s even starting to get addicted to it as well.

But no seriously, they\'re tired. They need some sleep and preferably, some good food as well. They\'re getting sick of consuming military rations.

Of the three of them, Alice is most concerned about Mary\'s sake.

Compared to her and Blake, she\'s weaker and isn\'t used to prolonged fights like this. It\'s clear that this has been difficult for her, obvious by how she easily loses consciousness the moment her back hits the bed.

She\'s a mage after all. Even if her talent lies in Archery, she\'s not as durable physically as Blake or Alice. She didn\'t receive enough training to be that way. Honestly, it\'s already impressive that she could last this long.

In the end, it wasn\'t just them. Other teams like hers are also suffering the same fatigue. None of them were having a good time, that\'s for sure but what can they do? This is their responsibility to bear.

"...can we really not pull Ash into this?" Blake asked out of nowhere while they were resting. Alice looked at him with a flat gaze as he continued: "Hey, I know we\'ve said that we\'ll leave the decision up to him, but still...you know."

"This would be a hell of a lot easier if he was here with us. Just saying." He shrugged.

Alice rolled her eyes at him and closed her eyes. She wondered to herself why, of all people, why this guy? Why does it have to be him that captures her attention?

Anyway, she can\'t really refute what he said. She knows how valuable Ashton is to anyone. Ashton might remain discreet about it but she can tell he\'s formidable.

Those buffs alone were enough proof of that. A White Mage with powerful supporting spells like that could easily double— no, triple, or even quadruple any team\'s efficiency!

Hell, the reason why the three of them have been racking in tons of merit points recently was because of Ashton\'s buffs. And he was kind enough to not take any points away from the, hell he even made them weapons that are seriously useful to them nowadays.

Alice herself couldn\'t afford to part with this sword now. Seriously, it was one of the best ones she had ever had in her hands. It\'s lightweight, stays sharp, and could easily slice through Skydemons\' flesh like a hot knife through butter.

Still, it\'s a matter of respecting the guy\'s choice. Ashton clearly wanted to have a peaceful time...well, relatively \'peaceful\' supposedly. And they couldn\'t fault him for that. After all, the guy\'s had rough the past 5 years out there.

"Yo, you guys look dead. Good for you?"

Speak of the goddamn devil and he shall appear, Alice thought to herself.

The three of them looked up and saw Ashton peering down at them, looking as fresh as a morning breeze, eating some ice cream with Aria by his side. Hell, the fucker\'s even wearing sunglasses as if he\'s in the middle of a vacation.

Jumping down from where he was, he landed close to them, softly like a feather. He and Aria started walking toward them when Ashton lifted his hand and produced a golden orb of light which he pushed toward them.

He just used the Warmth Spell which restores their stamina and heals them over a set time.

The moment the golden orb of Warmth went to them, they instantly felt their spirits being lifted. They couldn\'t resist letting out groans of comfort.

And Ashton, feeling generous today, also used the Reinvigorate Spell which restored their energy and their mana. Just these spells alone were enough to completely restore the trio to their peak state.

"Work\'s kicking your ass I assume? Geez, you guys need some sleep. Seriously." Ashton unceremoniously sat down next to them as they rested.

"Oh, we would love that actually." Mary snorted, "Unfortunately, we don\'t have that kind of luxury here. We\'ve signed our lives away. We\'re essentially slaves here. Help us please."

"I can\'t be blamed for the consequences of your actions, Sweetheart. Sorry, you\'re on your own on this one." Ashton shrugged while Aria chuckled.

"What are you doing here?" Alice asked, "We didn\'t call you...did we?"

"We didn\'t." Blake answered here.

"Right, you didn\'t." Ashton confirmed as well. Then he looked past them and said: "But she did."

They looked over and saw Oracle Felicia walking toward them at a brisk pace.

"We were in the middle of shopping for supplies when she suddenly called." Aria stated, "She told him that it\'s urgent and wanted us to go here. That\'s how we ended up here."

Nobody said a word after that, they just waited until the Oracle arrived.

The moment she came, she didn\'t even say a word to her disciple. Instead, her focus was on Ashton. Her expression was grim, making the others feel mildly concerned.

Then, she said: "A Black Fog is heading here."

Hearing those words, Mary and Alice were confused.

Blake and Aria\'s eyes constricted, their faces paling several shades up.

And Ashton...well, he released a long and exhausted sigh as he spat...

"God damn it!"