章 29: Army Scouts
Earlier, I had no idea why Rahul had told me to go and find the fourth 2nd tier abnormal before we started.
But now I did.
Even with all the preparations that we'd done, it was not easy to kill a 2nd tier abnormal without making any noise.
Before we could even start, we had empty the area around the 2nd tier abnormal by luring the 1st tier abnormals to another place.
The whole thing was so time consuming that I was starting to wonder if we would even be able to kill a single 2nd tier abnormal by the morning.
But the wait was worth it. By the end, there were only 5 abnormals left in the group. 4 were of the 1st tier was the last one was the 2nd tier.
It was a foot taller than the others beside it.
I looked at it from above and then I looked at Rahul who was also looking down with intense concentration.
I had to kill a single 2nd tier abnormal. But he had to kill four 1st tier abnormals.
I didn't knew which task was harder. But if I messed up, then all out preparation will go to waste.
"You ready." He whispered.
"Yes." I replied back in a low voice.
"At three then."
"1… 2… 3… Go."
We both jumped at our targets simultaneously.
I brandished my sword and looked at the 2nd tier abnormal as I feel toward it.
At the last moment, it suddenly jerked it's head to look in my direction and it's expression distorted instantly.
It had probably heard us when we jumped from the roof. Or maybe the sound we made when passing through air, but it knew about my attack.
But it was too late by then. By the time it's turned it's head to look at me, I had already swung my sword at it's head.
And by the time it's expression distorted, my had already split it in half from top to bottom.
A thin line of red appeared on it's face, after which, it's whole body split apart and fell in different directions.
I looked around and saw Rahul dealing with the second 1st tier abnormal. I quickly turned around and killed the remaining two 1st tier abnormals who had yet to realize what happened.
The night breeze blew past my body as I looked at the corpses in silence. Rahul took out the five crystals and then whispered softy "One down. Three more to go."
"Yes." I replied and we climbed back on top of the roof and went to our next destination.
After dealing with the next three 2nd tier abnormals, I realized that killing them was not as hard as I had earlier thought.
In fact, aside from the first one who came felt our presence immediately, the other three didn't even realize what had happened until the moment they died.
I could only think that the first one had exceptional perception or that we made some kind of mistake when attacking it.
Nevertheless, isolating and killing 2nd tier abnormals was still a time consuming process.
We were able to kill four 2nd tier and 17 1st tier abnormals by 4:00 am, when the first rays of sun started to show itself and turned the horizon red.
"Let's leave." Rahul said. "If we attack them now, then there's a chance that we'll be detected."
"No wait…" I said as I suddenly realized that I had still not utilized my Agility Booster skill until this moment. "I still has yet to use my skill. If I use it right now, then I'll be able to harvest a few more crystals."
I knew I was being a bit too greedy but after waiting for so long, I wanted some rewards for myself.
Rahul thought about it for a while before he consented to this attack.
Using Agility Booster skill allowed my agility to increase from 4.0 to 9.0 points for 60 seconds.
A 1st tier abnormals with 2.0 agility won't know what hit them even when they died.
"I'll also use my skill in that case." Rahul said as looked at my enthusiastic face.
'His Skill? Now that I think about it, I don't even know what kind of skill he has in his first slot.'
"Very well then." I said and after we looked for a few minutes, we found our perfect target.
It was 4 groups of abnormals at a distance of about 10 meters from each other. Every group had around 10-30 abnormals.
"Let's start with the largest group first. Then the smaller groups beside it and we'll end it with the smallest group." Rahul said and then he activated his own skill.
Every thing remained the same and I didn't knew what the skill was used for until I realized something important.
Rahul was standing right in front of me yet I could not see him clearly until I focused solely on him.
It was not invisibility. Not was it camouflage.
It seemed like the skill had erased his presence altogether.
All in all, it was a really weird skill.
But I knew that it would prove useful the moment I saw it.
I was able to focus on him thus I was able to see him. But what about the abnormals.
I had doubts that anyone of them will have enough intelligence to understand the situation when he attacks them.
This skill really is a bane for the Abnormals.
I licked my lips and said 'Agility Booster Skill. Activate.'
Instantly, my Agility increased by 125% as we both rushed toward the abnormals in front of us.
—————
"…Twenty two, Twenty three, Twenty four, Twenty five. Here. Twenty five 1st tier crystals and Two 2nd tier crystals." Rahul said as he handed me my share after which he went ahead and handed Neha, Raka and another person beside him five 1st tier crystals each.
It was their reward for the contribution they made as whistlers.
"Twenty crystals will go to the group treasury for emergencies. While I will keep the rest of the crystals for myself. Does anybody has any objection to this arrangement."
"No." I said and kept the crystals in my pocket. The other didn't have anything against this arrangement either.
After the distribution, we left the room. Only Neha remained inside to talk with Rahul.
Outside, I could see smoke rising in the distance.
It was rising from the corpses of the abnormals that we had killed and then burned.
If we left left those corpses like that then the other abnormals will come and eat them.
If that happens then by the next morning, we'll have to face 10 or even 20 more 2nd tier abnormals in the town.
So after we had collected the crystals from their bodies, we sprinkled some petrol on them and put them to fire.
The abnormals who saw the fire, decided to stay away from it. Maybe they had a innate fear of fire in them. Or maybe they just didn't like the heat.
I looked at the abnormals roaming in the streets down below.
Since they had spread throughout the whole town, we had to live on the roofs of the buildings now.
I looked at the group of survivors who were not eating their breakfast together.
Raka and his goons were walking to and fro with guns in their hands to maintain order.
'I still don't understand why Big bro allowed that guy to continue holding on to that rifle. Isn't it dangerous for us.' I complained in my heart.
'Your brother is not a fool you know. He had probably taken their bullets or something.' Lily replied.
'Is that so.' I thought and looked at the confident face of Raka as he carried his rifle.
The way he carried his rifle made him seem like a veteran who would shoot at the slightest grievances. And not like someone who didn't have any bullets in the rifle.
'If brother had taken their bullets then I can only say that they are excellent actors.' I sighed in my heart.
A few seconds later Neha came out of the room and walked up to me with a pouting face.
"What happened?" I asked with a smile.
"Brother. Do you think I am useless?" she asked.
"What?" I was a bit shocked by this question. "Why do you ask?"
"I… I was not of any help to both of you even though I have already raised all of my stats to 2.0 points and above." She said. "I wanted to fight with you next time, but he declined my proposal. Brother, why don't you talk with big bro."
"Of course not. It's not safe down there. Even if he wanted you to fight down there, I would not allow it." I refused at once when I realized that my little sister had such a wish.
I knew that allowing her to stay up here under our protection might not work out very well in the long term. But even though I understood it logically, my emotions won over my logic and I was not able to do the right thing.
"Fighting against Abnormals is dangerous." I said "I would not put your life in any danger."
"But… you guys go down there all the time. Aren't you putting your lives in danger as well."
"Well… that's… That's different."
"How is that different?" she almost shouted.
'You should allow her to fight as well. You can't always protect her you know.' Lily's voice rang in my mind.
"You shut up!" I shouted but then immediately realized my mistake. I had meant to say that in my mind but had mistakenly said that out loud.
'Shit! Neha will think that I'm angry at her now.' I thought and what happened next proved my point.
"Huh!" Neha was a bit shocked when she heard my shout. Her eyes turned red and she ran back to the room she had just came from.
'It seems like she's going to complain to your big bro.' Lily said with a gloating smile 'Serves you right for telling me to shut up.'
'Argh…' I held my head and sat down on the floor.
'Why do I get the feeling that fighting against the 2nd tier abnormals was easier than talking with you girls.'
'You're stupid. That's why.' Lily snorted.
'Yes. Fighting against abnormals is definitely easier.' I thought and ignored any more comments from her.
I exchanged 20 crystals to yellow crystals and ate them after which I opened the hologram and checked the interface.
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 2.0
Agility - 2.0 (4.0) - Skill Recuperation penalty
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 4.0 (3.0)
Mana - 1.2 (4.0) - Skill being used.
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier)- Skill recuperation time left= 9 hours 21 minutes 42 seconds, Advanced Vision (2nd tier)
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (2nd tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier), Basic Defensive Suit (2nd tier), Basic Helmet (2nd tier)
Wealth:-
5 crystals (1st tier), 2 crystals (2nd tier)
'After 80 more crystals, I will reach the next threshold. And after that, increasing the stats will become even more difficult' I thought and sighed in my heart.
Although I could use the two 2nd tier crystals right now to increase my stats by 0.2 points, I had decided to save them instead since getting a 2nd tier crystal is far harder than getting a 1st tier one.
'But with a 4.0 perception, even if my Agility had been decreased, I would still be able to hold my own against a single 2nd tier abnormal.' I thought and looked at the town filled with abnormals.
'I only need to kill 80 more of these guys. That should not be very difficult. If we go all out, then we might even be able to wipe out half of them by tomorrow morning.' I thought. 'But after I reached the next threshold, I'll only be able to use the 1st tier crystals for purchasing items from the Black Watch. Eating them would be useless at that point.'
'Hey Lily. Why don't you guys sell 2nd tier crystals in the store?' I asked. If they did then my life would become much easier for me.
'I don't know. It's just not in the store yet.' Lily dispassionately replied.
'Sigh! This seems so wrong. As if someone is forcing us to fight against the stronger opponents or something.' I sighed.
Then suddenly some commotion started happening in the breakfast area. I looked back and found that Rahul was standing in front of the survivors and explaining something to them.
'Isn't he explaining the black watch and it's uses to them?' I thought.
'Should be.' Lily said
'Why? Is he going to help them become stronger and then take them in the group or something.' I said.
'Perhaps, he wants to form a team of strong people.' Lily guessed.
After Rahul finished his speech, two people stood up and went with Rahul to the room.
I wondered what he said to them for only two to come with him.
'If those guys knew about the crystals and it's benefits, then more people would have tried to join our group.' I said 'For some reason, I don't think that he told them the benefits of the crystals.'
'Maybe no. Your brother probably told them that they would have to fight the abnormals as well, so the others probably chicken out.' Lily said.
'Well, this has nothing to do with me. I just want my family to stay safe and sound. If I continue to grow strong while doing that, then other things don't really matter to me.' I thought and was planning to go back to my room when I suddenly saw something shining from my peripheral vision.
I instantly turned my head to look in the direction and used the Advanced Vision skill to 'zoom in' in that direction.
There, far away in the distance I saw a Military Jeep standing behind some trees. Three soldiers where standing beside the vehicle and one of them was holding a binoculars and looking in my direction.
When I turned to look at him, he almost dropped the binoculars in fright.
It could be said that the distance between us was about 200-300 meters and they were standing beside dense trees so no normal person would be able to see them from here.
But I was not a normal person. At least not anymore.
Judging from how the people from the army usually just leave all the crystals to rot, we had assumed that they didn't know about them.
And if they don't know about the crystals, then they won't know about Skills.
And no knowledge of Skills meant they didn't knew about Advanced vision skill, or anything other skill that will enhance my senses so much.
Thus, me looking at his direction had shocked those men greatly.
After that incident, they were frightened and quickly fled in their jeep.
Maybe they had already seen what they came to see.
'They must be the scouts that come here regularly to check on the town.' Lily said.
'Hmm…' I nodded 'Now that the whole town is once again filled with abnormals, they can't enter anymore and can only observe the situation from such a distance.
I looked in the distant forest where a faint trail of dust could now be seen rising in the air and said in a solemn tone 'I don't think they're going to leave us just like this.'
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