Bab 52: Chapter 52 - Tragic Incident
The next day came and before the sky got a little brighter, Zach woke up from his slumber seeing not just him but also Eun Ae inside what looked like a cradle net that was properly installed on the branches of the tree. Looking closely, there were several unmoving Undead below them together with some Evolution Coins all over the place.
"Eun Ae, wake up." Zach softly called on Eun Ae seeing her still sleeping peacefully on his chest. Looking at her innocent face, he couldn't help but smile upon remembering what they did last night. Though there was a little disturbance, they both handled it as they continued afterward.
Hearing Zach, Eun Ae woke up and the first thing she did was to look at Zach with a smile on her face. She remembered how she passed out last night but at least she was sure that she gave Zach a pleasurable time. She then just moved closer to his face and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips.
"We need to get back before everyone else would get up." Zach said while caressing Eun Ae's face. Though he didn't care if they would see them together, he felt like he needed to be more neutral as it might bring them satisfaction thinking that he was giving Eun Ae items so he could get something out of it.
"Hehe. Let's stay like this for a little while." Eun Ae, however, just smiled before leaning on Zach's chest wanting to feel more of his warmth as the memories of what they did was night were still so fresh that it was making her hot when she tried to thinking the feeling of it.
Hearing this, Zach then just caressed her head thinking that everyone might still be asleep at the moment so it would not hurt a little to stay a little longer. With that, both of them just stayed like that for a couple of minutes before finally heading back to their camp so they could plan on the things that they needed to do for the day.
After getting everyone to wake up, they greeted the morning with a simple breakfast while talking from time to time, and not before long, they then finally adjusted themselves as it was not time again to head out and find some Undead in order to level up.
With Maria's help, everyone keeps on moving from time to time all the while killing several Undead along the way. They were already used to their presence seeing them no longer feel overwhelmed even if there were a number of them after Zach told them to treat them nothing but as experience points for them to get stronger.
Hours passed by and it finally was time for lunch, everyone found a good spot to camp on while they cleared the place not wanting to be disturbed while they were having their break. Buying the food that they want to eat in the store, everyone has their own preferences as they cook their own lunch.
"We might reach level 15 by tomorrow or the day after." Patrick said after thinking that if they would continue moving at this pace, then sooner or later, they would finally reach the requirement that Zach had told them.
"I probably still take more time than that." Eun Ae said that she still has a long way to go because aside from being the lowest level among them, there was just a difference in strength and agility between men and women added by the fact that she was just new to fights.
"Don't worry, sister Eun Ae, we will give you all the Undead we will find after we reach level 15 so it will boost your leveling progress." Maria replied while looking at Eun Ae with a smile since she could understand her as fellow woman among the group. She knew that she was just lucky and adapted well to their current situation because if not then she might also be in the same situation as her.
"Yeah. It's also getting hard to level up unless you killed a lot on your own." Kazuya commented after he had observed such a thing after reaching level 10 back then. Just like in a game, he knew that it would be better to farm alone if you wanted to progress faster, but he still didn't have the courage knowing that they were still not familiar with the place.
Suddenly, an Undead disturbed their lunch seeing it moving toward their location. All of them looked at it pitifully seeing how it wanted to die badly and as it was closer to Nikolai, he took the initiative to stand up to deal with it while everyone continued to eat lunch knowing that it wouldn't be a problem.
….Thud….
The Undead fell seeing its head was cut by Nikolai's Steel Sword. Seeing the Evolution Coin that dropped from it, Nikolai then just reached them out however, at that very exact moment, he suddenly felt something coming from the trees, and before he could react, a very fast monster came at him.
Nikolai's eyes widened as he looked at the monster that came at him before coughing up blood upon seeing its hand pierce through his stomach. Losing strength, he dropped his Steel Sword on the ground before he also fell down after the monster took out its arm. He couldn't believe just how fast it happened and was still in disbelief that this is now the end of his life.
"N-Nikolai?" Kazuya called however, it was already too late seeing the monster running in their direction and as he was too shocked at what he had seen, he put his guard too late. Looking at the arm that was coming at him, he felt like all his memories flashed through his eyes but that was when he saw Zach's legs hit the monster and make it fly away.
"Leave this thing to me!! Immediately help Nikolai!!" Zach shouted as he looked at the monster in the distance. He never would have thought that he didn't even notice its sudden appearance until he saw Nikolai being attacked by it. Looking at the monster's appearance, it has a distinctive feature from the rest of the Undead seeing it more savage-looking all the while having sharpened and long fingers or more like claws.
[Monster: Reaper
Monster Tier: 1
Monster Level: ???
Monster Classification: ???
Monster Skills: ???]
Using appraisal on the monster, Zach thought that it must be another variant of Undead, however, there seemed to be a bit of difference because aside from also being a Tier 1 monster, its level, classification, and skills were in question marks instead which meant that it was a completely a different monster from the ones that they were dealing all this time.
The Reaper stood up after being kicked by Zach, it looked at him fiercely as he growled at him angrily before moving very fast all the while swinging its sharpened claws wanting to shred him to pieces.
Meanwhile, Zach carefully observed the Reaper. It was a completely stupid thing seeing him evading and parrying its attacks, but he wasn't scared as he had confidence in his stats. He was just surprised to see that it was a lot stronger than the Undead that he had been killing before added to the fact that it was very agile as the only thing that made it possible for him to parry its attack was through the help of the Survival Lines that the system was giving him.
Not before long, Zach decided to spend 30 of his Free Attributable Stat Points and put them all to his Agility since there was no way he could outspeed the Reaper as he could not also able to overpower it after his attention was solely focused on parrying its attack.
Following that, Zach's Agility finally reached a hundred, and added to the additional five from the equipment that he was wearing, he felt like he could now follow the Reaper's movement without the help of the system. Though it was still fast, he felt like it was now manageable.
Holding the Steel Sword very tightly in his hand, Zach watches the Reaper carefully trying to find an opportunity, however, that was when the Steel Sword in his hand broke which completely caught him off guard and so he saw how its claws slashed his body making five visible cuts that started to bleed.
"Fuck." Zach cursed before taking out another enhanced Steel Sword again in his inventory after seeing the Reaper still did not have enough and had only become fiercer after seeing him bleeding.
Swinging the Steel Sword with all his might, Zach parried the incoming claws of the Reaper and it even cut two of its five claws, however, it also made the sword in his hand break, but it was a good start seeing the Reaper shriek in pain which gave him the opportunity he was looking for.
Taking another enhanced Steel Sword, Zach thrust it into its body, but it didn't go through as planned and was only buried a little. He then just let it go upon seeing the Reapers' other hand's claws coming at him which he moved back to evade it before taking another enhanced Steel Sword and tried cutting its hand but found it hard and was also buried a little.
After that, Zach decided to change his weapon to Heavy Axe which was also enhanced. Seeing the Reaper shrieking in pain, he immediately swung it hard on its shoulder and there he saw that it got buried deeper than the sword but he knew that it wasn't enough to end it so he summoned out a Long Spear, and this time he targeted its head.
….Thud….
The Reaper fell with its lifeless body which a sword, an axe, and a spear could be found buried on its body. At the same time, three shining items were dropped with it and Zach immediately picked them all up as it was his reward and spoils of war.
Following that, Zach then immediately headed straight to where are the others and there he saw them looking at Nikolai's cold dead body on the ground. He looked at him and felt sad as they had already built a bond together despite just knowing for weeks.
"Do you know the name of Nikolai's wife and daughter?" Zach then just asked since there was a time that Nikolai had shared with him that he still had a family to return to so he needed to survive to see them again however, all of that was now irrelevant seeing that he was dead.
"Yes. His wife's name was Natasya, and her daughter's name was Natalia. His last wish before dying was hoping for us to look after them when we returned to Earth." Maria replied since she knew very well how he loved them, especially his daughter.
"Good. Remember them well. Let's survive this place and look for them after the tutorial." Zach said since it was the only thing that they could help to honor Nikolai's wish to get back to his family.
"A-Are you alright?" Eun Ae immediately stood up and asked worriedly after seeing visible five cuts on Zach's body which continued to bleed. She then just looked at the monster and there she saw it dead but what surprised her was the fact that it had injured Zach knowing how strong he was.
"I'm good. It's just five small cuts. Let me take the body and get out of here. There's no way of knowing if there were other monsters like that lurking in the surroundings." Zach answered before immediately having them move on knowing that the longer they stayed here the more dangerous it would get.
With that, everyone saw Zach take Nikolai's body seeing it disappeared on the ground and was probably put into his inventory since it was possible to put anything inside as long as it was dead and the same goes for the Undead. They knew too well the feeling of losing someone, but their situation wouldn't allow them the luxury to mourn for the dead. So, they could only accept that he was now gone and move on.
With that, Zach also didn't forget about the Reaper's body before finally heading towards another place where they had already gone before. He also had everyone stop hunting for the day knowing that their condition wasn't great so he then just took the time to process everything while he looked at the surroundings to make sure that they hadn't missed anything.
Hours passed by and night came to everyone, Patrick and the others could be found eating quietly together as if they had no appetite. Nikolai's death was just too shocking to them and that's when they thought that they had gone too laid back lately and forgot about the dangers of this place after killing ordinary Undead for the past month.
On the other hand, Zach just let them be as he was too focused on the items that the Reaper had dropped. Two of which were completely beyond his expectations, and it made him think that it must be a monster above ordinary class. They were strong, yes, but they also dropped good items which is a fair trade.
With that, Zach then just looked at them for a while before telling the others to rest for the night as he put the fire to stop and told them to find a place to sleep. Nothing happened afterward as all of them were just too tired from what happened today and so hoping that they would get over with it tomorrow.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone