Chapter 8: To Survive, be Strong

"Did you hear that?" She asked.

I was just setting up the fire. However, I did hear the noise.

It wasn't even really nighttime.

"Yeah."

My Warrior Minion and Woodcutter Minion had returned. I recalled my Builder Minion but it was still on its way back. We all watched the opening in the forest where the sound came from. The growl was distinctly un-human, to be specific, it sounded like a zombie.

All the Minions I could gather were standing around us, forming a little semi-circle. My Warrior Minion and Woodcutter Minion stood at the very front with my Scout Minions on our sides. We all stood and waited as the noise slowly got louder and louder.

Suddenly, out of the woods, came another zombie. However, this one was different to the one we fought before. Instead of running, it crawled on the ground on all fours, like some sort of animal. It was also incredibly fast, instantly dashing to us and attacking. All of my Minions rushed to it and began fighting at my order.

The movements of the zombie were incredibly erratic, like a feral cat. It screeched and screamed as it slashed violently at my Minions. My Warrior Minion lead the attack, swinging down at it with its sword. It managed to connect a few times with the zombie's flesh but none of the attacks was fatal to it.

Suddenly, I heard another noise coming from the other direction. I quickly recalled my Woodcutter Minion and two Scout Minions to watch the flank. Out of the woods, another zombie appeared. This one was standing upright and significantly slower, however, right behind it were two other zombies.

My Woodcutter Minion and Scout Minion began fighting the zombies which were coming from the side. Rosie tucked herself closer to my side as I observed the fights that were occurring. After a few strikes, I realised that the crawling zombie was slowing down, it was significantly less sturdy than the upright variants.

Before long, the crawling zombie was defeated and I quickly reassigned all of the free Minions to help my Woodcutter Minion on the other side. The Scout Minions didn't do much aside from distracting the zombie and kicking and punching it every once in a while, even so, they effectively supported my Warrior and Woodcutter Minions who were my main combat force.

The Warrior Minion slew the zombies, one by one, they were no match for its sword. After a few moments, the corpses of the zombies disappeared into the ground as I opened my Minion menu.

All of my Minions had sustained quite a large amount of damage.

I realised that the zombies were gradually getting stronger and stronger, and I would need to rapidly strengthen as well in order to keep up and overtake them. It would also be a good idea to search the area with my Scout Minions.

Several of my Minions managed to level up, increasing in health and other various stats.

My Builder Minion also returned a few moments later.

"Shit, that was close," I said.

"Yeah, that was really scary."

"I should get some more Minions to watch over as we sleep."

I opened my inventory.

<Inventory> 584/900

{213x} wood

{11x} apples

{291x} leaves

{16x} meat

{53x} rocks

I had enough materials to craft two more Scout Minions, bringing my total up to eight. The two new Scout Minions appeared in front of me and I had to make a choice. I originally wanted to get as many resource-gathering Minions as I could, but from the looks of it, I was going to need more combat-oriented Minions.

I decided to write a separate code for these two new Minions.

OFF.

[Learn] -> {Combat}

then,

[Stand by]

I still had no idea what the second stage of combat learning was so I couldn't write the next line of code, I would wait until they learned {Combat} and then see what came next. It was annoying that I couldn't keep exponentially increasing my resource collection but staying alive was still the main priority.

With the new Scout Minions, I would wait until the next morning to get them to learn, at the moment, I included them in the garrison force so I could get some sleep safely. I turned on their night-time code.

ON.

[Rest] (1 hour) -> [Stand by] {Repeat}

- if {Entity Detected}

[Alert]

- if {Health < 30%}

[Alert Me]

I set them all to alert me if they were under 30% health as I didn't want to unexpectedly lose Minions again. With that, the two of us called it night and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I was awoken by one of my Scout Minions. I got out of my {Instant Temporary Shelter} to the darkness and heard the sound of fighting. I made my way to the fireplace and lit it to get some light.

I saw quite a few zombies and quite a few zombie corpses strewn all over the ground. It looked like my Minion had been in quite a large fight while I was asleep. From the looks of it, the battle was almost over and only a few zombies remained. I checked my Minion menu to look at the health of my Warrior Minion.

< [Level 4] Warrior Minion {1}>

Experience: 21/40

[Health] 44%

[Stamina] 34%

It had taken quite a decent amount of damage but it looked like they had it under control. The only Minion that was under 30% health was one of my Scout Minions so I set it to {Rest} whilst I let the other Minions take care of the rest. I had no idea what time it was but it was pitch black outside, I hoped that there wouldn't be another wave of zombies otherwise we might be in trouble.

I made my way back into my {Instant Temporary Shelter} and tried to get some more sleep. I was a little anxious as I rolled around on the leaves trying to get to sleep. The best I could do was to hope that my Minions were strong enough to take care of the zombies for the night. The more sleep I miss out on, the less time I would have the next day to make preparations.

Slowly, I forced my eyes closed and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up the next morning uninterrupted.

I made my way outside into the light and walked over to the other {Instant Temporary Shelter}. I saw that Rosie hadn't woken up so I decided to just let her sleep for a little longer. Judging by how bright it was outside, I guessed that it was around 10 am. I instantly activated the code on all of my Scout Minions and then begin learning.

I also sent my Warrior and Woodcutter Minions out on expeditions to gather more resources. Now that I knew that the nights were going to get rougher and rougher, I needed to rapidly increase my supply of Minions in order to protect myself.

This was going to be my life for the time being.

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