The cold and gloomy winter night had passed, and the golden morning light started to stream through the windows.

A hint of warmth touched the two figures who were in their sleeping forms on the bed, stirring the beautiful princess to wake up.

Rubbing her eyes to ease her drowsiness, she looked to the side and smiled at the man lying next to her, before giving him a warm hug and said,

"I am sorry dear, I fell asleep… I… ah, it was, it was really great… I never knew you are such a giver… You are so selfless, I love you dear."

Viktor, who apparently had woken up, could only respond with a wry smile upon that declaration.

On one hand, it was great that the girl had a great blast last night, but on the other hand, the same couldn't be said for himself. From the dark bags under his eyes, it was clear that he didn't even catch a wink of sleep last night. In fact, both him and his 'little brother' did not.

"That damn inhuman quest!" Viktor cursed in his mind. 𝙗𝒆𝙙𝒏𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡.𝙣𝙚𝒕

Now that the morning has arrived, the sooner he wakes up and leaves the bed the better. There is no way he will let the girl realize that his tiger down below was still untamed… or from such an embarrassing sight last night, it would be more accurate to call it a cat instead.

"Darn it!" Viktor shook his head. "Enough thinking about this!"

Luckily, he has a lot of things to look forward to today. The fact he was about to be busy strangely put his racing mind at ease.

Thanks to the chaos from last night, Viktor felt extremely restless, but as a consequence he also had a lot of time to think and organize his thoughts that were crammed with much information he needed to digest.

From what he heard yesterday, it was safe to say that the Romanov family was still very much in power, and that his father was still very much alive.

But then, this information only led to a bigger question. If the Romanov family still survives and even somewhat thrive in this apocalyptic world, how come no one has tried to contact him or came get him.

Thinking of the worst case scenario made Viktor feel as if he went back in time, to that day when he was abandoned in the snowy mountains and told to find his way back alone.

Knowing how his father's nature was, this might once again be a trial for him to overcome just like back then. Unless he could survive in this apocalypse on his own, his father probably won't want anything to do with him.

Assuming his hypotheses to be true, it means that at this moment, Viktor shouldn't bring up his family's name unless it was really necessary. Hence, he would gather everyone together later and tell all of them to start keeping his true identity a secret.

Now, it was time to think about his next destination. Considering the available loot, the magic, and the amount of metal he could extract, Viktor was tempted to go straight to the nearest alien construct rather than continuing to his first destination, the bunker in the Arkangel's northern city.

In order to let everyone know his final decision, Viktor called the entire group after he got up from the bed.

First, he checked their progress after they consumed the 15 stones last night.

Every single one of the boys said that they were having a little bit of trouble in consuming the stones, hence they took a bit more time than usual because they have to take it little by little. Fortunately, they had consumed all of the stones when the morning arrived.

[Torri Helsinki - Battle Power: 20 (22) - Mortal Realm - high stage]

[Boris Oslo - Battle Power: 21 (23) - Mortal Realm - high stage]

? [Barry Pennyworth - Battle Power: 17 (20) - Mortal Realm - high stage]

It seems that a portion of 15 stones each person was not enough to help all of them reach the peak stage of the mortal realm. Viktor then tried to ask Eva, but her answer was just a seductive smile while winking.

She after all didn't get the chance to eat any of hers at all due to a certain reason.

A reminder about the embarrassment that unfolded last night made Viktor decide to stop the question and distract himself. He told Eva that the boys needed to practice their newly obtained strength, hence, she needed to prepare breakfast on her own.

For a moment, Eva's face turned pale. But it disappeared as quickly as it appeared before he saw her nodding her head, deciding to follow his wishes.

"Of course, dear, I will do anything for you."

The four of them stood in front of the abandoned monastery atop the hills, and while the other four watched, Viktor took out all the weapons he had collected and dropped them on the ground.

Unfortunately, most of the melee weapons he has have already been extracted to level up his spirit core. So other than various kinds of firearms, Viktor only has the tier 2 ax, a sword, and a dagger.

Of course, he plans to keep the strongest tier 2 ax for himself while the group discussed among themselves who got each of the remaining weapons.

Torri was a better marksman compared to Boris, hence he decided to keep on using firearms. He chose a sniper rifle and a modified scope assault rifle that comes with a custom silencer. Besides, considering his proficiency in first aid, it would be better for Torri to stay in the backline.

As for Boris, he was an ex Spetsnaz, part of the Russian special forces. He was fully trained in the use of dagger in close combat, so he picked up the tier 1 dagger and began to flip it around, familiarizing himself with it while also showing off a deadly proficiency in hand to hand dagger skill.

From this display alone, it was obvious that those 22 points of battle power shone brilliantly in this man.

"Good, this leaves you with the sword, Barry!"

The 15-year old naturally has zero knowledge in how to use a sword, as he was educated by his father to be a family butler. Therefore, Viktor asked Torri to teach the basics to the kid.

After that, Viktor decided to have a little practice with Boris, as seeing the man waving around the dagger like it was an extension of his body made Viktor regret giving the dagger away. However, it was time to try something new, and besides, the one-handed ax seems to be a cool weapon to use.

The special forces bodyguard started showing him a few tricks on using an ax before breakfast was ready.

After everyone returned inside with their body drenched with sweat, their eyes were immediately welcomed with a sight that completely dumbfounded them.

Viktor turned his gaze to the food that was laid out and neatly arranged on the table.. All of them without exception looked more like a slop than anything edible, and once again, Viktor regretted his decision to let the princess take care of the food.