(Two days later)
Corey woke up after a long sleep and stood up from the bed in the room.
After having his bath and brushing his teeth, he looked at himself in the mirror in the room with just a towel wrapped his waist.
He touched his chest and arms which still had a few scars and bruises despite him healing himself with average regeneration.
Also, his body which was skinny the first time he woke up was noticeably better after sleeping and eating lots of food.
"Haa."
He sighed softly then walked to the bed where a black hoodie, black shorts, boxers and a pair of cool black sneakers lay.
He picked up the boxers which was given to him by Ashley along with the remaining clothes. Although he was curious as to where she got the clothes, he didn't bother asking since it was clean.
As his mind thought about Ashley, he could not help but remember the events that happened after Ashley left after kissing him.
At first he was extremely confused as to why Ashley kissed him because never in his life did he think that Ashley would kiss him or even find him attractive in any way.
Anyway, despite the thoughts or feelings Ashley had towards him, he couldn't reciprocate nor did he have time to bother with it.
His main goal at the moment was revenge and him saving his sister.
He didn't have time for feelings which he definitely could not feel nor reciprocate.
After ridding his mind of unnecessary thoughts after the kissing escapade, Corey instead of how best he could preserve his life in the black sea.
Although it seemed like he was nonchalant when Ashley spoke out her concerns regarding his decision, Corey definitely did not want to throw his life away.
He very much wanted to avenge his family and destroy the temple of flames, so why would he want to throw his life away.
So Corey started thinking of a plan that could enable him to survive in the black sea, and it was during the time he was formulating this plan that he remembered the two tentacle mermaid corpses he had in his inventory.
He brought them out and after dissecting them, he found their soul stones and a skill crystal.
The skill crystal contained the passive skill, Underwater Breathing much to Corey's relief.
Although the skill granted him the ability to breath under water, he could only breath for two hours under water with the skill.
With the skill, Corey had a much better chance of surviving.
So after thinking about his plan for a few hours, Corey went back to sleep and surprisingly Ashley came to his room the next day.
Although when she entered his room, the atmosphere was slightly awkward for a few seconds, then Ashley spoke and told him her reason for coming.
She told him she forgot to tell him about the clown and the words he spoke.
Corey was surprised and slightly stunned hearing the words spoken by the clown and he could not help but wonder what sort of effect the clown's words must have had on people.
Although he was curious on the reason as to why the clown wanted chaos and did what he did, he didn't dwell too much since he had other things to focus on.
After Ashley told him about the clown's words, she gave him two item, his ancient spear and a soul stone.
Corey was at first confused when Ashley gave him a soul stone, but when he held the soul stone with his right hand and a notification popped up from the Universal System, he was stunned when he realized that the soul stone was the soul stone of the tier 2 Smiley.
After he took it, she told him that apart from the soul stone, the tier 2 Smiley dropped a staff which was meant for mages, so she took it and gave him the soul stone.
Although Corey was at first confused when he heard that the tier 2 Smiley dropped a magical staff, he eventually shrugged it off and kept the soul stone.
Since at the moment, he was not a mage nor did he have magical attacks, he left the magic staff with Ashley, knowing full well that it was more suitable for her.
After he kept both the ancient spear and the soul stone in his storage ring, he thought that was all Ashley wanted to tell and give him, but then she asked him a question which shook him slightly.
She asked him if he wanted to see his parents.
Corey was not able to reply for a few seconds before he told her that he would see them tomorrow, which was now today.
Corey sighed softly once again as he just finished tying his shoe laces. He inhaled then exhaled softly and a second later, he stood and walked to the door.
He opened it, walked out of the room, then closed the door.
He walked towards Ashley's room which was also on the top floor of the duplex they were in.
As soon as he reached the door to Ashley's room, he saw two people, a male and a female, standing outside the door as guards.
They both glanced at him and after seeing him, they opened the door without saying a word, seemingly expecting him.
Corey walked into the room which resembled a study and there he found Ashley sitting behind a desk with her left hand on her cheek and a small frown on her face as she looked at a bunch of papers on her desk.
Corey glanced at her and seeing her huge amount of paper on her desk, he spoke:
"What happened to you?
Why are you frowning?"
Ashley looked at Corey with a slightly surprised expression hearing his words.
Although she knew when Corey entered the room and she was just about to greet him, she was surprised when she heard Corey asking those questions.
"Uhm, it's just a slight issue that I already expected."
Regaining her composure, she tried to brush off the topic while resting her back on her chair and rubbing the middle of her brows.
"What is the problem?"
Despite the fact that Ashley tried to brush off his question, Corey still asked confusing Ashley the more. She looked at Corey and saw that he had an indifferent expression and her confusion increased once more.
"I want to start my force, my own organization but I need various things. People, resources, money, clearance of the monsters around, and so on.
I'm just thinking of how to solve those problems."
Even though she was confused as to why Corey was still insisting on knowing what her current issues were, she decided not to ask and just tell him.
Meanwhile Corey walked to the chair in front of Ashley and just as he took his seat, he spoke:
"How much money do you need?"
"Like 5,000 gold coins."
With raised eyebrows, Ashley replied, wondering why Corey was asking.
She did not believe that Corey had up to 5,000 gold coins since it was not exactly a small amount.
"Stretch out your right hand."
Corey spoke calmly, confusing Ashley.
Though she was confused, she complied and stretched out her right hand.
Corey also stretched out his right hand and held Ashley's outstretched right hand.
"Transfer 5,000 gold coins."
He spoke indifferently and a second later, Ashley's eyes widened when she saw a notification pop up in front of her, asking her if she wanted to accept 5,000 gold coins.
"Wh- What?"
She stuttered and Corey replied calmly:
"Accept it."
Ashley looked away from the translucent screen in front of her and looked at Corey:
"Why are you giving me 5,000 gold coins?"
She asked with a confused tone, not bothering to ask how Corey had 5,000 gold coins instead since she knew that he definitely had his secrets such as her.
Corey was slightly surprised hearing her question since he expected her to ask him how and where he got 5,000 gold coins from.
"You helped me bring my parent's corpses to this place and I'm grateful for that, because if you didn't, there's a very high possibility that their corpses would become possessed by revenants."
Corey spoke calmly and Ashley became slightly stunned hearing his reason for giving her 5,000 gold coins.
"Yes, I brought your parents to the building so that revenants would not take over their body but isn't this amount too much?"
Ashley spoke with a suspicious tone and Corey heaved a tired sigh.
"Do you want the money or not?"
"If you don't want it, reject it and take me to where my parent's corpses are.
If you want it, accept it and please let's go to where my parent's corpses are.
I want to leave this place as fast as possible, the longer I stay here, the more dangerous it is for me here."
Corey spoke with a slightly annoyed tone and Ashley quickly accepted the 5,000 gold coins.
"Thank you."
She spoke softly since the money Corey gave her would help her a lot with her plans.
"No problem, let's go to where you kept my parents."
Corey replied nonchalantly and stood up from his chair.
"Alright, let's go."
Ashley replied and stood up also.
