Chapter 682
Like seemingly everywhere else in the world that had an invasion point within sight, the city had been largely deserted after the coming of the second wave. There were subtle signs of damage all around to match those empty streets too, with the occasional collapsed building or sign of violent magic marking the fact that demons had made it within to cause some havoc before being eliminated.
Of the few others around, it seemed like it was largely handfuls of returning civilians who couldn’t bear to leave their homes and businesses, government officials who were doing their best to keep things running, and both members of various military organizations along with adventurers to attempt to protect the people who remained and who used the city as a handy base of operations for looking after everything going on outside of its grounds, with those groups looking like they were either going out or coming back from combat, plenty of the later having some superficial injuries to take up the time of whatever healers the place still had.
The state of it all didn’t particularly lend itself to basic tourism either. Sure, they found some open restaurants around if they wanted to stop to feed themselves but the things they’d normally try to do, be it seeing shows or visiting local museums or art galleries, were completely unavailable.
But then, maybe that’s not exactly a bad thing. It’s not like things went particularly well at the last gallery we saw and even if the mood isn’t great, at least it seems peaceful.
So what if the streets were empty? It wasn’t like they were completely void of options and the two chatted the best they could despite it all while following their noses down to the cost to enjoy what was available, taking advantage of the bright sky and cool breeze to relax for just a bit to try and forget what troubles they had, even if it wasn’t enough to get Ben to stop working.
He was still materializing all of the souls he could and he was still connecting to the few people they passed, both looking for new skills to add to his rings as well as to just train connect in general as he browsed through their minds and memories, not caring about whatever potential right to privacy they may have had in the face of his goal or raising his levels.
It was basically background noise to him at that point, something certain minds were regulated to do constantly for what bit of experience it gave him while they went, off to look for something to eat once they felt done at the beach.
They’d passed enough restaurants on the way there that seemed open that they weren’t worried about finding anything and it seemed like Thera at least had her eyes on a few, cementing their dinner plans for the time being. Or at least it should have until they were stopped in place.
“Hey there.”