'Matthew? That's his name?' Kimsung thought, shocked that his name was something so… disappointing.
Achilles sighed, his head lowering in what looked to also be disappointment.
"Maria, you got my name wrong again. For the hundredth time…" He shook his head and looked at Kimsung.
"She knows everyone from our senior class by heart, but I'm the only one she forgets. One time, she called me Sasha. Deadass, she genuinely called me Sasha in front of our whole class. I don't know how she forgets it at this point."
Kimsung's eyebrow rose. So Matthew wasn't Achilles' true name at all. It was just something she thought could be his name. It didn't help at all that, quite possibly, one of the very rare people from Achilles' past completely forgot his name. But, since she seemed to know him, perhaps she'd be of use.
Kimsung helped her to her feet as they chatted, and it turned out Eliza was quite a talkative person, or rather a very chatty one. He was beginning to understand why Maria was annoying to Achilles. Nonetheless, he was quite curious about the bear that was with her.
Had she been at the Bronx Zoo before the First Disaster hit? It'd be next to impossible for anyone to survive there, but since she did, perhaps it was a part of her skill.
"So, Maria, right?" He asked, catching her attention.
"Yeah, what's up?" She asked in a cheery voice, with a small smile on her face.
"You've got a sort of… taming skill, don't you?"
She thought for a moment, a bit nervous to talk about her own skill, but if James (Achilles) trusted them, then she could too.
"Uh, yeah. It lets me tame animals. I used up all of my energy, or whatever it's called, to tame this bear. It's strong, and keeps me safe, so it's a good skill." She explained, petting the bear. Achilles was doing the same, petting its head, chin, face, and cheeks in wonder and excitement.
One thing she knew about Ryan (Achilles), was that he liked animals, so it was kind of funny for her to see him like this. When they were still seniors, he rarely spoke to anyone, had few friends, and everybody liked to joke around at his own expense.
Of course, it's because he was quite easy to mess with, not that anyone actually hated him. Except for when they started calling him a school shooter.
During the Covid era, many had worn masks, but rarely did he ever take off his, from what she remembered. In fact, many students thought he was a woman because he always wore a gaiter mask covering most of his face, a hoodie, and quite long hair under it.
Of course, after he took it off, they started to talk to him, but Donald (Achilles) wasn't very social, nor did he do much. He wasn't like the rest of them. He never smoked, did weed, vaped, partied, or did anything they considered normal. He was a boring person to her and most others.
"So… do we still challenge the dungeon or not?" Asked Heidi, feeling quite impatient at the moment. They were just about to enter when this random woman appeared, and she felt annoyed. A whole week was spent planning for this dungeon alone, and she wasn't going to hold off on closing the already enormous distance between them and Achilles.
It was unsettling to her how he was able to calmly deal with entire groups of monsters, not to mention letting him have the advantage over them wasn't something they could allow in the case of betrayal.
Keido sighed and nodded. Heidi had always been like this, and it seems she was acting as if she was because of the interruption. She had patience, but when something completely random interrupted her, she would become mad and quite petty.
"Yes, of course we will. In fact, why don't we bring her with us? Since she has a taming ability, Maria could be a really big help to us, right?" He explained, trying to appease his little sister. It was difficult to get her to let go of something, but if he used the right words, she'd agree with him.
For a few minutes, he tried and succeeded in convincing Heidi that Maria would be of great help. After all, most of the dungeons in the city were actually forestry areas, so it'd be of great use to tame an animal that could scout the dungeon for them.
So, along with Maria, the trio went into the dungeon, leaving Achilles to guard the entrance.
Now that they were gone, he felt a bit bored. Perhaps he could practice building his hand again, since he had full reserves.
After a couple of minutes, having wasted much less mana to do it (Only about 700 less than before), he made his full hand and wrist, alongside half of his forearm. Practice makes perfect, and Achilles has been extremely diligent.
Having a sort of copy of his own arm was a greater fortune than most could imagine it to be. Imagine your sword arm being torn off, and being able to literally make another one out of a stronger material? Theoretically, with enough mana, he could last extremely long in a fight against something of a higher rank with an F-ranked arm as a replacement.
After practicing twice more, he moved on to a different project: Creating a new weapon. In most of the dungeons he'd been in, Achilles always took either armor or items like potions, but never a weapon. Why? It's because his skill could literally make one suited for him.
Sure, it was a bit arrogant of him to do such things, especially since his mana had a limit, but one eight times higher than an F-rank. 8530 mana was hard to expend in a fight against an Unranked, but it wasn't impossible.
So first, he created a drill as a projectile. Using physics and some ideas from a certain manga, he formed a spiral flute drill. Luckily, he had found a certain construction warehouse and many drill bits that he could use as a reference. By making the drill more of a spiral, it could move through the air much faster and dig deeper into its target.
First, he formed six-pointed boards of his barriers and slowly made them spiral together into the drill he had in mind. Soon, it really did look like a projectile.
He repeated, spiraling six sharp-ended lengths into a drill multiple times until the expenditure was less than the initial model. After that, he tried doing it faster. The process took several hours, and by the time he was confident in making a spiral the size of a soda can, he had created a small room to sleep in.
In the morning, he woke up from his bed and got out of it to continue practicing. He made the spiral in seconds, condensing it to a strong drill. After that, he aimed it at one of the buildings near the Square Garden and fired.
Once he heard and saw the impact, he temporarily left his post, inspecting the damage done by the spiral on hard concrete.
It was to say, much more than he had expected, but he was extremely happy it was working as intended. Sure, it shattered after digging only a third of a meter in, but he was fine with that. All that meant was that it needed to be made stronger and stronger, until it could pierce through entire buildings.
The time was 9:12