Chapter 11
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"There eight of them outside." I said as I counted the number of Abnormals roaming outside the building.
"No shit Sherlock. I can see that as well." Rahul replied from beside me.
"There must be a few more inside." I said.
"That's obvious. Come on. Use your head. Give me more details." He said.
I knew that he was forcing me think more about the situation at hand so that I could gain better analytical thinking. This was his own way of teaching me so I tried my best.
After all, scouting was one of the most important skills that one can have in an Apocalypse.
If you are not good at your job and make even a small mistake somewhere, then not only you but your whole team will most likely end up in a very dangerous situation.
I looked at the number of the cars outside the retreat, the clothes of the Abnormals, The size of the house, etc to guess the maximum number of the Abnormals that might be hiding in that house.
"Judging by the number of cars and the size of rooms in the building, there must have been a staff of around 4 people and a maximum of 36 customers in the whole compound."
"Good. That's reasonable. Tell me more."
"Going by the 80/20 rule, only 32 of the 40 would turn into Abnormals. The rest would either have run away, become their food or turned into Abnormals after dying."
"All in all, since there was 8 Abnormals outside, there should not be more than 24 abnormals inside house." I said.
"So what's your conclusion?" Rahul asked "What should we do from here on out?"
"Well, In conclusion, we should attack the Abnormals outside the building after luring them away at a safe distance. And after we kill the 8 Abnormals roaming outside we should leave."
Rahul listened to everything patiently and then said "Hmm. Not bad. But you missed one important detail in your report."
"What's that?" I asked in confusion.
I thought that I had covered everything when I made my conclusion. Being told that I missed an important detail hurt my pride but I knew that Rahul would not joke about such an important thing and listened with full concentration to what he was about to say next.
"Look at their ages and their genders. Does it help you understand something." He asked.
I looked at those Abnormals once again but couldn't find anything that stood out. Everyone looked young and healthy.
"What's wrong with their age and gender?" I asked.
Rahul face palmed himself and said "Fool. Do you see any kid in there. This is a place for young couples and lovers.
"Such young couples usually like to travel alone. That means that all the vehicles you see out there would only have two passengers each."
"Going by that analysis, you can cut the number of customers in this place by half which will leave you with only 10 people inside building at most."
"Ah! Now I understand." I nodded my head in understanding. 'Seems like I still need to learn a lot before I could become as good as Rahul.'
"So what do we do after we deal with the 8 outside. Should we go after the 10 inside as well?" I asked.
"Hmm…" he thought for a while before replying. "If I make a few traps and lure them into it then 10 is still doable."
"But wouldn't making traps for so many of them take a long time?" I asked.
"It will. But that's a good thing." He said with a crafty smile. "After all, the best time to attack them is at night."
—————
By the time we finished setting up the traps it was already night time.
After eating two more yellow crystals I had already reached the point where I could defeat an Abnormal in a one-on-one fight. But when Rahul was setting up the traps, I paid it all my attention so that I would be able to learn to set up such traps as well.
After 4 hours, I had gained some basic understanding of traps and could set up basic traps easily.
Such a skill would allow me to defeat numerous Abnormals without increasing any of my stats, or putting my life in danger. So I wanted to learn as much about it as I possibly could.
Actually I would consider any skill that would allow me to gain more crystals and increase my fighting power as extremely important.
After setting up all the traps, we rested for an hour to replenish some energy since the upcoming battle would be the toughest one we've fought so far.
During such a fight, a lot of things could go wrong so it would be best if we were in our best condition before starting the fight.
After resting for an hour we started our plan.
The plan was simple.
Lure the Abnormals away from the building. It would be best if only a few came at a time. But if a group of more than 4 comes our way then we would lead them into the traps where it would be easier for us to trap them one by one before we could finish them off.
But our traps were limited in numbers so it would be best to use as few of them as possible.
Rahul wanted me to learn the few necessary skills for surviving in the Apocalypse thus this time I was the one who threw the rocks and lured them away from the building.
Though throwing rocks could not be considered a skill by itself. Luring Abnormals was something that I must learn.
So I picked up some rocks and started the plan.
But I did not do a very good job of luring them away and about five of the eight Abnormals were lured away from the group.
After listening to the sound of the rocks time and time again, Abnormals usually become a bit more alert and it becomes difficult to separate the group.
But this was all within Rahul's expectation who had already made all the necessary preparations.
After the first Abnormal was trapped, it's comrades didn't pay it any heed and continue to chase after the 'mysterious' sound.
Being left alone by the group, it was sneak attacked by Rahul and died without knowing anything.
But I didn't paid any attention to what he was doing and continued to focus on my own task.
Although such a thing might seem easy, it was actually very nerve wreaking.
Especially since I could not make any noise myself while walking side by side to the Abnormals. If I did and they're attention turned to me, then that would spell some serious trouble.
After the first one died, the same thing happened with the second one. Followed by the third one. Before long all of them had died under our blades.
"You did good." Rahul said as he took out the crystals from the back of their heads.
It was a genuine compliment but when it reached my ears, it felt like sarcasm.
The best case situation would have been if I had lured one Abnormal away from the group or even two.
So that undeserved compliment didn't brought me any happiness.
"I know that I did not do a good job." I said. "If it had not been for these traps, we would not have been able to kill those five Abnormals."
Rahul looked at me and smiled. "You've always been too hard on yourself. When I said 'You did good', I meant you did good as someone who had never done this before. I don't think anyone else in your shoes could have done it any better. So don't criticize yourself for such a thing."
'He's right. Why the hell are you even comparing yourself with your Elder Brother. Don't you know that he's a Second timer.' Lily's voice ran in my mind as well.
'What? What does the Second timer title had to do with anything.' I asked in my mind.
'Nothing. Just a slip of tongue.' She said and then everything went silent. It seems like she wasn't intent on explaining anything.
"Alright." I said to both Rahul and Lily and shook my head.
"Cheer up." He smiled and took out the crystal from the last Abnormal. "We still have more Abnormals to… WATCH OUT." He shouted all of a sudden.
But I had already heard the 'whoosing' sound of the air behind me.
'Who is attacking?' I thought but didn't slow down at all.
Because of my high perception, I reacted quickly as I tried to dodge the attack coming my way while also moving the Axe behind my back for protection in case I failed to dodge the attack.
CRACK.
I didn't knew if it was the Axe or my bones but something broke as I felt a large amount of pain in my side and was blown away.
My body fell to the ground weakly like a rag doll and skipped two times before it finally came to a stop. I coughed up blood and felt the pain in my side abdomen. My axe had broken in the last contact and a few wooden splinter had pierced my skin leaving behind a trail of blood.
My clothes were torn when I feel to the ground. My hair looked disheveled and my whole body was covered with dirt and blood.
In my present condition, I looked more like a beggar than anything else.
I looked at the broken handle in my hand as my head spun a bit.
'What attacked me.' I thought and threw the handle away. It was of no use anymore.
Although Abnormals were powerful. They were not powerful to this extent.
'Was it a mutant beast?' I thought in my mind.
I looked at the distance and although it was dark I could see the large figure chasing after a short figure.
It was no doubt the attacker who was chasing after Rahul. And that it was an Abnormal
'But what the hell was up with that Abnormal. Wasn't it a bit too tall. And strong.'
'Of course it was strong.' Lily's voice rang in my ears. 'It was a 2nd tier Abnormal after all.'
'A 2nd tier Abnormal?' I asked as I took out the largest wooded splinter from the body. It was too dark to see anything clearly, but from the immense pain, I could already tell that the place where I was struck must have turned purple-black.
'The Abnormals you've fought so far are all 1st tier Abnormals.' She said. 'A 2nd tier Abnormal is two times faster and stronger than a 1st tier one.'
'2 times' I sucked in a cold breath of air. A normal 1st tier Abnormal was already 2 times stronger than an average human being. If a 2nd tier is 2 times stronger than a 1st tier Abnormal then doesn't that mean…
'Will Rahul be alright?' I asked in a hurry.
'Well…' Lily paused for a moment before saying. 'He should be.' But that slight pause was enough to make me anxious.
I clutched my side and got with with difficulty. 'Damn That hurt. I hope my rib is not broken or something.'
'Your ribs are alright. But you muscles have taken quite a bit of damage. You should not get up under such conditions.' Lily said.
I was relieved when I heard her because I had heard that broken ribs take two or three months to heal.
A broken rib was essentially a dead sentence in an Apocalyptic environment.
"Regardless, I cannot leave him alone to fight that monster." I said. "If something happens to him then I'll never…" before I could finish my words, I heard footsteps coming from the direction where Rahul had left.
I looked and was surprised to find Rahul coming out from behind the trees. He had his usual nonchalant smile in his face, and a large head in his left hand.
The head was still dripping blood which indicated that it belonged to the 2nd tier Abnormal but… wasn't that guy supposed to be very strong. I felt a bit weird when I thought about that.
'Oi. Isn't your brother a bit too OP.' I heard Lily's voice in my head.
'Yeah.' I agreed with her. It had not even been half a minute since the fight started and he had already killed a monster four times stronger than himself.
If this is not OP then I don't know what else is.
"What's with that foolish expression." Rahul said with a laugh and threw the head at my feet. "Didn't expect your big bro to be so awesome did ya?"
I was tongue tied when I heard his shameless boasting. But before I could say any thing, he clarified the situation.
"Actually when I first started to run I didn't have to intention to fight against it. I only wanted to run and hide somewhere safe. I had even planned to drop this hunt altogether, and leave this place with you after coming back." Then he laughed loudly.
"But who would have known that this fool would go and get himself tangled in the traps. Although those traps were not made for it and were not able to stop it's movements for even two seconds, that much time was already enough for me to take it's head." He said proudly.
Although he explained it in such simple terms, I doubted that the fight went as smoothly as he just described.
I sighed in my heart and sat back down as my side was still hurting quite a bit.
Rahul quickly came and started checking my wounds.
After looking at my condition, he sighed and opened up his hologram.
After some scrolling he bought some kind of spray from the interface and used it in my wounds.
The spray must have contained some sort of magic, as I felt a cold sensation in my wound and the pain seemed to have instantly vanished.
"This is one of the cheapest medicine out there." He said with a laugh. "But it should work just fine for us misers. What do you say."
'Cheapest? Who are you fooling. This already the best thing that I could possibly ask for' I thought in my mind and rolled my eyes at his words.
"It's good." I said and tried to get up but was stopped by him.
"Don't get up. That medicine is effective. But it's not so effective that it'll heal your wounds instantly. Wait a few hours here. Don't move. After resting for a while, you should be fine."
"Um." I nodded and asked the thing that was weighing heavily on my mind. "What is it's price?"
"Oh! This. Don't worry about it. It's worth 5 white coins."
I took a breath of relief when I heard that this miraculous medicine was not very expensive.
Earlier, I had a feeling that this medicine would be very expensive. Thankfully, it was not.
"What? You thought it would be very expensive?" he asked with a laugh. "Don't forget that we get only 8 white coins after selling a crystal. If the medicines become very expensive then there won't be many people left to buy it."
"Yeah. I guess you're right." I said. "Brother. Where did that 2nd tier Abnormal come from."
"Oh that. It most likely came from inside the building." He said. "The hearing of a 2nd tier Abnormal is slightly better so it must have heard it when we were luring the 1st tier Abnormals."
"But I was too focused on the 1st tier Abnormals and didn't notice it's presence until it attacked." he smiled bitterly and said "It was my mistake. I had not thought that there would be a 2nd tier Abnormal in there. I should have considered such a possibility when we attacked."
"It's not your fault." I said.
"You don't need to say anything." He shook his head. "Since that guy attacked you, you can have his head. Wait here and don't move, I'll come back in a few minutes."
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm angry." He said in a calm manner "Angry and frustrated that you were attacked under my nose. So I'm going to take out my frustration on those Abnormals."
'Is that so. You don't seem to be that angry. But… whatever.'
"Be careful." I said.
He came back after half an hour with 9 more crystals in his pocket.
He threw his bloodied Axe at me and said. "Your Axe broke right. You can use mine."
After that, he started distributing the crystals
After the distribution, I gained one 2nd tier crystal and three 1st tier crystals while he had eleven 1st tier crystals.
A single 2nd tier crystal can be exchanged for three 1st tier crystals, so in a sense, I got six crystals even though I should have only got two crystals.
I sighed and excepted the crystals with a heavy heart and then asked "Oi Rahul. If I take your Axe then what are you going to use?"
"Me? Of course I'm going to buy a new sword for myself." He said happily.
Although I still felt that buying a sword was not a very good idea since the crystals were such a rare commodity, I kept my thoughts to myself.
Rahul sold 9 of his crystals for a total of 72 white coins.
After that, he bought two of the 'Basic Sword', that were worth 30 white coins each.
Then he went into the 'Upgrade' panel and selected the 'Upgrade sword via merging' section.
A new window opened up in which two empty slots could be seen. He put both the swords in one slot each and pressed the 'Merge' button. 10 white coins were deducted from the Merging process and after the bright light died down, there was a simple iron sword in his hands.
It was still the 'Basic Sword' but after the merging it had become a 2nd tier sword.
It's looks were not all that great. It looked the sword that a 3rd rate character would get to carry in a hollywood movie. But looking at the sword somehow gave me a sense of danger.
Ever since I increased my Perception, I gained the ability to faintly sense if something was dangerous or not. And that thing seemed to be really dangerous.
'But is it really dangerous. Doesn't really look like it.'
'You should not judge a book by it's cover you know.' Lily said, but I still had my doubts.
Rahul looked at the sword in his hands as if he was looking at his long lost lover. After gazing at it for a very long time, he suddenly started to swing it around.
Those movements were simple, not very beautiful at all. If someone was performing those moves in the roadside then I wouldn't even give it a second glance, let alone give him a tip.
But what surprised me more was how easily he was able to control his sword through all those movements. It was almost as if the sword was a part of his own body.
His control over the sword could only be described as extremely remarkable.
Even a sword novice could tell that he was a skilled sword user.
He continued to move for a long time and finally stopped in front of a tree.
"You wanted to know why I bought this sword didn't you. Then look carefully." He turned to look at me and said in a nonchalant manner and then, he swung the sword toward the tree and…
Nothing happened.
Until it happened.
The waist thick trunk of the tree slid to the side slightly and then the whole tree came crashing down.
'Gulp.' I stared in awe at the part where the trunk was cut. The surface where it was cut was as smooth as a mirror.
'Oi! Did that really just happened.' I asked in my mind but Lily only gave a short snort as a reply.
I looked at the sword in Rahul's hands and then at the Axe in my own hand.
Suddenly, the blood soaked Axe that had taken many lives, didn't seem to be as imposing anymore.
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"There eight of them outside." I said as I counted the number of Abnormals roaming outside the building.
"No shit Sherlock. I can see that as well." Rahul replied from beside me.
"There must be a few more inside." I said.
"That's obvious. Come on. Use your head. Give me more details." He said.
I knew that he was forcing me think more about the situation at hand so that I could gain better analytical thinking. This was his own way of teaching me so I tried my best.
After all, scouting was one of the most important skills that one can have in an Apocalypse.
If you are not good at your job and make even a small mistake somewhere, then not only you but your whole team will most likely end up in a very dangerous situation.
I looked at the number of the cars outside the retreat, the clothes of the Abnormals, The size of the house, etc to guess the maximum number of the Abnormals that might be hiding in that house.
"Judging by the number of cars and the size of rooms in the building, there must have been a staff of around 4 people and a maximum of 36 customers in the whole compound."
"Good. That's reasonable. Tell me more."
"Going by the 80/20 rule, only 32 of the 40 would turn into Abnormals. The rest would either have run away, become their food or turned into Abnormals after dying."
"All in all, since there was 8 Abnormals outside, there should not be more than 24 abnormals inside house." I said.
"So what's your conclusion?" Rahul asked "What should we do from here on out?"
"Well, In conclusion, we should attack the Abnormals outside the building after luring them away at a safe distance. And after we kill the 8 Abnormals roaming outside we should leave."
Rahul listened to everything patiently and then said "Hmm. Not bad. But you missed one important detail in your report."
"What's that?" I asked in confusion.
I thought that I had covered everything when I made my conclusion. Being told that I missed an important detail hurt my pride but I knew that Rahul would not joke about such an important thing and listened with full concentration to what he was about to say next.
"Look at their ages and their genders. Does it help you understand something." He asked.
I looked at those Abnormals once again but couldn't find anything that stood out. Everyone looked young and healthy.
"What's wrong with their age and gender?" I asked.
Rahul face palmed himself and said "Fool. Do you see any kid in there. This is a place for young couples and lovers.
"Such young couples usually like to travel alone. That means that all the vehicles you see out there would only have two passengers each."
"Going by that analysis, you can cut the number of customers in this place by half which will leave you with only 10 people inside building at most."
"Ah! Now I understand." I nodded my head in understanding. 'Seems like I still need to learn a lot before I could become as good as Rahul.'
"So what do we do after we deal with the 8 outside. Should we go after the 10 inside as well?" I asked.
"Hmm…" he thought for a while before replying. "If I make a few traps and lure them into it then 10 is still doable."
"But wouldn't making traps for so many of them take a long time?" I asked.
"It will. But that's a good thing." He said with a crafty smile. "After all, the best time to attack them is at night."
—————
By the time we finished setting up the traps it was already night time.
After eating two more yellow crystals I had already reached the point where I could defeat an Abnormal in a one-on-one fight. But when Rahul was setting up the traps, I paid it all my attention so that I would be able to learn to set up such traps as well.
After 4 hours, I had gained some basic understanding of traps and could set up basic traps easily.
Such a skill would allow me to defeat numerous Abnormals without increasing any of my stats, or putting my life in danger. So I wanted to learn as much about it as I possibly could.
Actually I would consider any skill that would allow me to gain more crystals and increase my fighting power as extremely important.
After setting up all the traps, we rested for an hour to replenish some energy since the upcoming battle would be the toughest one we've fought so far.
During such a fight, a lot of things could go wrong so it would be best if we were in our best condition before starting the fight.
After resting for an hour we started our plan.
The plan was simple.
Lure the Abnormals away from the building. It would be best if only a few came at a time. But if a group of more than 4 comes our way then we would lead them into the traps where it would be easier for us to trap them one by one before we could finish them off.
But our traps were limited in numbers so it would be best to use as few of them as possible.
Rahul wanted me to learn the few necessary skills for surviving in the Apocalypse thus this time I was the one who threw the rocks and lured them away from the building.
Though throwing rocks could not be considered a skill by itself. Luring Abnormals was something that I must learn.
So I picked up some rocks and started the plan.
But I did not do a very good job of luring them away and about five of the eight Abnormals were lured away from the group.
After listening to the sound of the rocks time and time again, Abnormals usually become a bit more alert and it becomes difficult to separate the group.
But this was all within Rahul's expectation who had already made all the necessary preparations.
After the first Abnormal was trapped, it's comrades didn't pay it any heed and continue to chase after the 'mysterious' sound.
Being left alone by the group, it was sneak attacked by Rahul and died without knowing anything.
But I didn't paid any attention to what he was doing and continued to focus on my own task.
Although such a thing might seem easy, it was actually very nerve wreaking.
Especially since I could not make any noise myself while walking side by side to the Abnormals. If I did and they're attention turned to me, then that would spell some serious trouble.
After the first one died, the same thing happened with the second one. Followed by the third one. Before long all of them had died under our blades.
"You did good." Rahul said as he took out the crystals from the back of their heads.
It was a genuine compliment but when it reached my ears, it felt like sarcasm.
The best case situation would have been if I had lured one Abnormal away from the group or even two.
So that undeserved compliment didn't brought me any happiness.
"I know that I did not do a good job." I said. "If it had not been for these traps, we would not have been able to kill those five Abnormals."
Rahul looked at me and smiled. "You've always been too hard on yourself. When I said 'You did good', I meant you did good as someone who had never done this before. I don't think anyone else in your shoes could have done it any better. So don't criticize yourself for such a thing."
'He's right. Why the hell are you even comparing yourself with your Elder Brother. Don't you know that he's a Second timer.' Lily's voice ran in my mind as well.
'What? What does the Second timer title had to do with anything.' I asked in my mind.
'Nothing. Just a slip of tongue.' She said and then everything went silent. It seems like she wasn't intent on explaining anything.
"Alright." I said to both Rahul and Lily and shook my head.
"Cheer up." He smiled and took out the crystal from the last Abnormal. "We still have more Abnormals to… WATCH OUT." He shouted all of a sudden.
But I had already heard the 'whoosing' sound of the air behind me.
'Who is attacking?' I thought but didn't slow down at all.
Because of my high perception, I reacted quickly as I tried to dodge the attack coming my way while also moving the Axe behind my back for protection in case I failed to dodge the attack.
CRACK.
I didn't knew if it was the Axe or my bones but something broke as I felt a large amount of pain in my side and was blown away.
My body fell to the ground weakly like a rag doll and skipped two times before it finally came to a stop. I coughed up blood and felt the pain in my side abdomen. My axe had broken in the last contact and a few wooden splinter had pierced my skin leaving behind a trail of blood.
My clothes were torn when I feel to the ground. My hair looked disheveled and my whole body was covered with dirt and blood.
In my present condition, I looked more like a beggar than anything else.
I looked at the broken handle in my hand as my head spun a bit.
'What attacked me.' I thought and threw the handle away. It was of no use anymore.
Although Abnormals were powerful. They were not powerful to this extent.
'Was it a mutant beast?' I thought in my mind.
I looked at the distance and although it was dark I could see the large figure chasing after a short figure.
It was no doubt the attacker who was chasing after Rahul. And that it was an Abnormal
'But what the hell was up with that Abnormal. Wasn't it a bit too tall. And strong.'
'Of course it was strong.' Lily's voice rang in my ears. 'It was a 2nd tier Abnormal after all.'
'A 2nd tier Abnormal?' I asked as I took out the largest wooded splinter from the body. It was too dark to see anything clearly, but from the immense pain, I could already tell that the place where I was struck must have turned purple-black.
'The Abnormals you've fought so far are all 1st tier Abnormals.' She said. 'A 2nd tier Abnormal is two times faster and stronger than a 1st tier one.'
'2 times' I sucked in a cold breath of air. A normal 1st tier Abnormal was already 2 times stronger than an average human being. If a 2nd tier is 2 times stronger than a 1st tier Abnormal then doesn't that mean…
'Will Rahul be alright?' I asked in a hurry.
'Well…' Lily paused for a moment before saying. 'He should be.' But that slight pause was enough to make me anxious.
I clutched my side and got with with difficulty. 'Damn That hurt. I hope my rib is not broken or something.'
'Your ribs are alright. But you muscles have taken quite a bit of damage. You should not get up under such conditions.' Lily said.
I was relieved when I heard her because I had heard that broken ribs take two or three months to heal.
A broken rib was essentially a dead sentence in an Apocalyptic environment.
"Regardless, I cannot leave him alone to fight that monster." I said. "If something happens to him then I'll never…" before I could finish my words, I heard footsteps coming from the direction where Rahul had left.
I looked and was surprised to find Rahul coming out from behind the trees. He had his usual nonchalant smile in his face, and a large head in his left hand.
The head was still dripping blood which indicated that it belonged to the 2nd tier Abnormal but… wasn't that guy supposed to be very strong. I felt a bit weird when I thought about that.
'Oi. Isn't your brother a bit too OP.' I heard Lily's voice in my head.
'Yeah.' I agreed with her. It had not even been half a minute since the fight started and he had already killed a monster four times stronger than himself.
If this is not OP then I don't know what else is.
"What's with that foolish expression." Rahul said with a laugh and threw the head at my feet. "Didn't expect your big bro to be so awesome did ya?"
I was tongue tied when I heard his shameless boasting. But before I could say any thing, he clarified the situation.
"Actually when I first started to run I didn't have to intention to fight against it. I only wanted to run and hide somewhere safe. I had even planned to drop this hunt altogether, and leave this place with you after coming back." Then he laughed loudly.
"But who would have known that this fool would go and get himself tangled in the traps. Although those traps were not made for it and were not able to stop it's movements for even two seconds, that much time was already enough for me to take it's head." He said proudly.
Although he explained it in such simple terms, I doubted that the fight went as smoothly as he just described.
I sighed in my heart and sat back down as my side was still hurting quite a bit.
Rahul quickly came and started checking my wounds.
After looking at my condition, he sighed and opened up his hologram.
After some scrolling he bought some kind of spray from the interface and used it in my wounds.
The spray must have contained some sort of magic, as I felt a cold sensation in my wound and the pain seemed to have instantly vanished.
"This is one of the cheapest medicine out there." He said with a laugh. "But it should work just fine for us misers. What do you say."
'Cheapest? Who are you fooling. This already the best thing that I could possibly ask for' I thought in my mind and rolled my eyes at his words.
"It's good." I said and tried to get up but was stopped by him.
"Don't get up. That medicine is effective. But it's not so effective that it'll heal your wounds instantly. Wait a few hours here. Don't move. After resting for a while, you should be fine."
"Um." I nodded and asked the thing that was weighing heavily on my mind. "What is it's price?"
"Oh! This. Don't worry about it. It's worth 5 white coins."
I took a breath of relief when I heard that this miraculous medicine was not very expensive.
Earlier, I had a feeling that this medicine would be very expensive. Thankfully, it was not.
"What? You thought it would be very expensive?" he asked with a laugh. "Don't forget that we get only 8 white coins after selling a crystal. If the medicines become very expensive then there won't be many people left to buy it."
"Yeah. I guess you're right." I said. "Brother. Where did that 2nd tier Abnormal come from."
"Oh that. It most likely came from inside the building." He said. "The hearing of a 2nd tier Abnormal is slightly better so it must have heard it when we were luring the 1st tier Abnormals."
"But I was too focused on the 1st tier Abnormals and didn't notice it's presence until it attacked." he smiled bitterly and said "It was my mistake. I had not thought that there would be a 2nd tier Abnormal in there. I should have considered such a possibility when we attacked."
"It's not your fault." I said.
"You don't need to say anything." He shook his head. "Since that guy attacked you, you can have his head. Wait here and don't move, I'll come back in a few minutes."
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm angry." He said in a calm manner "Angry and frustrated that you were attacked under my nose. So I'm going to take out my frustration on those Abnormals."
'Is that so. You don't seem to be that angry. But… whatever.'
"Be careful." I said.
He came back after half an hour with 9 more crystals in his pocket.
He threw his bloodied Axe at me and said. "Your Axe broke right. You can use mine."
After that, he started distributing the crystals
After the distribution, I gained one 2nd tier crystal and three 1st tier crystals while he had eleven 1st tier crystals.
A single 2nd tier crystal can be exchanged for three 1st tier crystals, so in a sense, I got six crystals even though I should have only got two crystals.
I sighed and excepted the crystals with a heavy heart and then asked "Oi Rahul. If I take your Axe then what are you going to use?"
"Me? Of course I'm going to buy a new sword for myself." He said happily.
Although I still felt that buying a sword was not a very good idea since the crystals were such a rare commodity, I kept my thoughts to myself.
Rahul sold 9 of his crystals for a total of 72 white coins.
After that, he bought two of the 'Basic Sword', that were worth 30 white coins each.
Then he went into the 'Upgrade' panel and selected the 'Upgrade sword via merging' section.
A new window opened up in which two empty slots could be seen. He put both the swords in one slot each and pressed the 'Merge' button. 10 white coins were deducted from the Merging process and after the bright light died down, there was a simple iron sword in his hands.
It was still the 'Basic Sword' but after the merging it had become a 2nd tier sword.
It's looks were not all that great. It looked the sword that a 3rd rate character would get to carry in a hollywood movie. But looking at the sword somehow gave me a sense of danger.
Ever since I increased my Perception, I gained the ability to faintly sense if something was dangerous or not. And that thing seemed to be really dangerous.
'But is it really dangerous. Doesn't really look like it.'
'You should not judge a book by it's cover you know.' Lily said, but I still had my doubts.
Rahul looked at the sword in his hands as if he was looking at his long lost lover. After gazing at it for a very long time, he suddenly started to swing it around.
Those movements were simple, not very beautiful at all. If someone was performing those moves in the roadside then I wouldn't even give it a second glance, let alone give him a tip.
But what surprised me more was how easily he was able to control his sword through all those movements. It was almost as if the sword was a part of his own body.
His control over the sword could only be described as extremely remarkable.
Even a sword novice could tell that he was a skilled sword user.
He continued to move for a long time and finally stopped in front of a tree.
"You wanted to know why I bought this sword didn't you. Then look carefully." He turned to look at me and said in a nonchalant manner and then, he swung the sword toward the tree and…
Nothing happened.
Until it happened.
The waist thick trunk of the tree slid to the side slightly and then the whole tree came crashing down.
'Gulp.' I stared in awe at the part where the trunk was cut. The surface where it was cut was as smooth as a mirror.
'Oi! Did that really just happened.' I asked in my mind but Lily only gave a short snort as a reply.
I looked at the sword in Rahul's hands and then at the Axe in my own hand.
Suddenly, the blood soaked Axe that had taken many lives, didn't seem to be as imposing anymore.
"There eight of them outside." I said as I counted the number of Abnormals roaming outside the building."No shit Sherlock. I can see that as well." Rahul replied from beside me."There must be a few more inside." I said."That's obvious. Come on. Use your head. Give me more details." He said.I knew that he was forcing me think more about the situation at hand so that I could gain better analytical thinking. This was his own way of teaching me so I tried my best.After all, scouting was one of the most important skills that one can have in an Apocalypse.If you are not good at your job and make even a small mistake somewhere, then not only you but your whole team will most likely end up in a very dangerous situation.I looked at the number of the cars outside the retreat, the clothes of the Abnormals, The size of the house, etc to guess the maximum number of the Abnormals that might be hiding in that house."Judging by the number of cars and the size of rooms in the building, there must have been a staff of around 4 people and a maximum of 36 customers in the whole compound.""Good. That's reasonable. Tell me more.""Going by the 80/20 rule, only 32 of the 40 would turn into Abnormals. The rest would either have run away, become their food or turned into Abnormals after dying.""All in all, since there was 8 Abnormals outside, there should not be more than 24 abnormals inside house." I said."So what's your conclusion?" Rahul asked "What should we do from here on out?""Well, In conclusion, we should attack the Abnormals outside the building after luring them away at a safe distance. And after we kill the 8 Abnormals roaming outside we should leave."Rahul listened to everything patiently and then said "Hmm. Not bad. But you missed one important detail in your report.""What's that?" I asked in confusion.I thought that I had covered everything when I made my conclusion. Being told that I missed an important detail hurt my pride but I knew that Rahul would not joke about such an important thing and listened with full concentration to what he was about to say next."Look at their ages and their genders. Does it help you understand something." He asked.I looked at those Abnormals once again but couldn't find anything that stood out. Everyone looked young and healthy."What's wrong with their age and gender?" I asked.Rahul face palmed himself and said "Fool. Do you see any kid in there. This is a place for young couples and lovers."Such young couples usually like to travel alone. That means that all the vehicles you see out there would only have two passengers each.""Going by that analysis, you can cut the number of customers in this place by half which will leave you with only 10 people inside building at most.""Ah! Now I understand." I nodded my head in understanding. 'Seems like I still need to learn a lot before I could become as good as Rahul.'"So what do we do after we deal with the 8 outside. Should we go after the 10 inside as well?" I asked."Hmm" he thought for a while before replying. "If I make a few traps and lure them into it then 10 is still doable.""But wouldn't making traps for so many of them take a long time?" I asked."It will. But that's a good thing." He said with a crafty smile. "After all, the best time to attack them is at night."By the time we finished setting up the traps it was already night time.After eating two more yellow crystals I had already reached the point where I could defeat an Abnormal in a one-on-one fight. But when Rahul was setting up the traps, I paid it all my attention so that I would be able to learn to set up such traps as well.After 4 hours, I had gained some basic understanding of traps and could set up basic traps easily.Such a skill would allow me to defeat numerous Abnormals without increasing any of my stats, or putting my life in danger. So I wanted to learn as much about it as I possibly could.Actually I would consider any skill that would allow me to gain more crystals and increase my fighting power as extremely important.After setting up all the traps, we rested for an hour to replenish some energy since the upcoming battle would be the toughest one we've fought so far.During such a fight, a lot of things could go wrong so it would be best if we were in our best condition before starting the fight.After resting for an hour we started our plan.The plan was simple.Lure the Abnormals away from the building. It would be best if only a few came at a time. But if a group of more than 4 comes our way then we would lead them into the traps where it would be easier for us to trap them one by one before we could finish them off.But our traps were limited in numbers so it would be best to use as few of them as possible.Rahul wanted me to learn the few necessary skills for surviving in the Apocalypse thus this time I was the one who threw the rocks and lured them away from the building.Though throwing rocks could not be considered a skill by itself. Luring Abnormals was something that I must learn.So I picked up some rocks and started the plan.But I did not do a very good job of luring them away and about five of the eight Abnormals were lured away from the group.After listening to the sound of the rocks time and time again, Abnormals usually become a bit more alert and it becomes difficult to separate the group.But this was all within Rahul's expectation who had already made all the necessary preparations.After the first Abnormal was trapped, it's comrades didn't pay it any heed and continue to chase after the 'mysterious' sound.Being left alone by the group, it was sneak attacked by Rahul and died without knowing anything.But I didn't paid any attention to what he was doing and continued to focus on my own task.Although such a thing might seem easy, it was actually very nerve wreaking.Especially since I could not make any noise myself while walking side by side to the Abnormals. If I did and they're attention turned to me, then that would spell some serious trouble.After the first one died, the same thing happened with the second one. Followed by the third one. Before long all of them had died under our blades."You did good." Rahul said as he took out the crystals from the back of their heads.It was a genuine compliment but when it reached my ears, it felt like sarcasm.The best case situation would have been if I had lured one Abnormal away from the group or even two.So that undeserved compliment didn't brought me any happiness."I know that I did not do a good job." I said. "If it had not been for these traps, we would not have been able to kill those five Abnormals."Rahul looked at me and smiled. "You've always been too hard on yourself. When I said 'You did good', I meant you did good as someone who had never done this before. I don't think anyone else in your shoes could have done it any better. So don't criticize yourself for such a thing."'He's right. Why the hell are you even comparing yourself with your Elder Brother. Don't you know that he's a Second timer.' Lily's voice ran in my mind as well.'What? What does the Second timer title had to do with anything.' I asked in my mind.'Nothing. Just a slip of tongue.' She said and then everything went silent. It seems like she wasn't intent on explaining anything."Alright." I said to both Rahul and Lily and shook my head."Cheer up." He smiled and took out the crystal from the last Abnormal. "We still have more Abnormals to WATCH OUT." He shouted all of a sudden.But I had already heard the 'whoosing' sound of the air behind me.'Who is attacking?' I thought but didn't slow down at all.Because of my high perception, I reacted quickly as I tried to dodge the attack coming my way while also moving the Axe behind my back for protection in case I failed to dodge the attack.CRACK.I didn't knew if it was the Axe or my bones but something broke as I felt a large amount of pain in my side and was blown away.My body fell to the ground weakly like a rag doll and skipped two times before it finally came to a stop. I coughed up blood and felt the pain in my side abdomen. My axe had broken in the last contact and a few wooden splinter had pierced my skin leaving behind a trail of blood.My clothes were torn when I feel to the ground. My hair looked disheveled and my whole body was covered with dirt and blood.In my present condition, I looked more like a beggar than anything else.I looked at the broken handle in my hand as my head spun a bit.'What attacked me.' I thought and threw the handle away. It was of no use anymore.Although Abnormals were powerful. They were not powerful to this extent.'Was it a mutant beast?' I thought in my mind.I looked at the distance and although it was dark I could see the large figure chasing after a short figure.It was no doubt the attacker who was chasing after Rahul. And that it was an Abnormal'But what the hell was up with that Abnormal. Wasn't it a bit too tall. And strong.''Of course it was strong.' Lily's voice rang in my ears. 'It was a 2nd tier Abnormal after all.''A 2nd tier Abnormal?' I asked as I took out the largest wooded splinter from the body. It was too dark to see anything clearly, but from the immense pain, I could already tell that the place where I was struck must have turned purple-black.'The Abnormals you've fought so far are all 1st tier Abnormals.' She said. 'A 2nd tier Abnormal is two times faster and stronger than a 1st tier one.''2 times' I sucked in a cold breath of air. A normal 1st tier Abnormal was already 2 times stronger than an average human being. If a 2nd tier is 2 times stronger than a 1st tier Abnormal then doesn't that mean'Will Rahul be alright?' I asked in a hurry.'Well' Lily paused for a moment before saying. 'He should be.' But that slight pause was enough to make me anxious.I clutched my side and got with with difficulty. 'Damn That hurt. I hope my rib is not broken or something.''Your ribs are alright. But you muscles have taken quite a bit of damage. You should not get up under such conditions.' Lily said.I was relieved when I heard her because I had heard that broken ribs take two or three months to heal.A broken rib was essentially a dead sentence in an Apocalyptic environment."Regardless, I cannot leave him alone to fight that monster." I said. "If something happens to him then I'll never" before I could finish my words, I heard footsteps coming from the direction where Rahul had left.I looked and was surprised to find Rahul coming out from behind the trees. He had his usual nonchalant smile in his face, and a large head in his left hand.The head was still dripping blood which indicated that it belonged to the 2nd tier Abnormal but wasn't that guy supposed to be very strong. I felt a bit weird when I thought about that.'Oi. Isn't your brother a bit too OP.' I heard Lily's voice in my head.'Yeah.' I agreed with her. It had not even been half a minute since the fight started and he had already killed a monster four times stronger than himself.If this is not OP then I don't know what else is."What's with that foolish expression." Rahul said with a laugh and threw the head at my feet. "Didn't expect your big bro to be so awesome did ya?"I was tongue tied when I heard his shameless boasting. But before I could say any thing, he clarified the situation."Actually when I first started to run I didn't have to intention to fight against it. I only wanted to run and hide somewhere safe. I had even planned to drop this hunt altogether, and leave this place with you after coming back." Then he laughed loudly."But who would have known that this fool would go and get himself tangled in the traps. Although those traps were not made for it and were not able to stop it's movements for even two seconds, that much time was already enough for me to take it's head." He said proudly.Although he explained it in such simple terms, I doubted that the fight went as smoothly as he just described.I sighed in my heart and sat back down as my side was still hurting quite a bit.Rahul quickly came and started checking my wounds.After looking at my condition, he sighed and opened up his hologram.After some scrolling he bought some kind of spray from the interface and used it in my wounds.The spray must have contained some sort of magic, as I felt a cold sensation in my wound and the pain seemed to have instantly vanished."This is one of the cheapest medicine out there." He said with a laugh. "But it should work just fine for us misers. What do you say."'Cheapest? Who are you fooling. This already the best thing that I could possibly ask for' I thought in my mind and rolled my eyes at his words."It's good." I said and tried to get up but was stopped by him."Don't get up. That medicine is effective. But it's not so effective that it'll heal your wounds instantly. Wait a few hours here. Don't move. After resting for a while, you should be fine.""Um." I nodded and asked the thing that was weighing heavily on my mind. "What is it's price?""Oh! This. Don't worry about it. It's worth 5 white coins."I took a breath of relief when I heard that this miraculous medicine was not very expensive.Earlier, I had a feeling that this medicine would be very expensive. Thankfully, it was not."What? You thought it would be very expensive?" he asked with a laugh. "Don't forget that we get only 8 white coins after selling a crystal. If the medicines become very expensive then there won't be many people left to buy it.""Yeah. I guess you're right." I said. "Brother. Where did that 2nd tier Abnormal come from.""Oh that. It most likely came from inside the building." He said. "The hearing of a 2nd tier Abnormal is slightly better so it must have heard it when we were luring the 1st tier Abnormals.""But I was too focused on the 1st tier Abnormals and didn't notice it's presence until it attacked." he smiled bitterly and said "It was my mistake. I had not thought that there would be a 2nd tier Abnormal in there. I should have considered such a possibility when we attacked.""It's not your fault." I said."You don't need to say anything." He shook his head. "Since that guy attacked you, you can have his head. Wait here and don't move, I'll come back in a few minutes.""Where are you going?" I asked."I'm angry." He said in a calm manner "Angry and frustrated that you were attacked under my nose. So I'm going to take out my frustration on those Abnormals."'Is that so. You don't seem to be that angry. But whatever.'"Be careful." I said.He came back after half an hour with 9 more crystals in his pocket.He threw his bloodied Axe at me and said. "Your Axe broke right. You can use mine."After that, he started distributing the crystalsAfter the distribution, I gained one 2nd tier crystal and three 1st tier crystals while he had eleven 1st tier crystals.A single 2nd tier crystal can be exchanged for three 1st tier crystals, so in a sense, I got six crystals even though I should have only got two crystals.I sighed and excepted the crystals with a heavy heart and then asked "Oi Rahul. If I take your Axe then what are you going to use?""Me? Of course I'm going to buy a new sword for myself." He said happily.Although I still felt that buying a sword was not a very good idea since the crystals were such a rare commodity, I kept my thoughts to myself.Rahul sold 9 of his crystals for a total of 72 white coins.After that, he bought two of the 'Basic Sword', that were worth 30 white coins each.Then he went into the 'Upgrade' panel and selected the 'Upgrade sword via merging' section.A new window opened up in which two empty slots could be seen. He put both the swords in one slot each and pressed the 'Merge' button. 10 white coins were deducted from the Merging process and after the bright light died down, there was a simple iron sword in his hands.It was still the 'Basic Sword' but after the merging it had become a 2nd tier sword.It's looks were not all that great. It looked the sword that a 3rd rate character would get to carry in a hollywood movie. But looking at the sword somehow gave me a sense of danger.Ever since I increased my Perception, I gained the ability to faintly sense if something was dangerous or not. And that thing seemed to be really dangerous.'But is it really dangerous. Doesn't really look like it.''You should not judge a book by it's cover you know.' Lily said, but I still had my doubts.Rahul looked at the sword in his hands as if he was looking at his long lost lover. After gazing at it for a very long time, he suddenly started to swing it around.Those movements were simple, not very beautiful at all. If someone was performing those moves in the roadside then I wouldn't even give it a second glance, let alone give him a tip.But what surprised me more was how easily he was able to control his sword through all those movements. It was almost as if the sword was a part of his own body.His control over the sword could only be described as extremely remarkable.Even a sword novice could tell that he was a skilled sword user.He continued to move for a long time and finally stopped in front of a tree."You wanted to know why I bought this sword didn't you. Then look carefully." He turned to look at me and said in a nonchalant manner and then, he swung the sword toward the tree andNothing happened.Until it happened.The waist thick trunk of the tree slid to the side slightly and then the whole tree came crashing down.'Gulp.' I stared in awe at the part where the trunk was cut. The surface where it was cut was as smooth as a mirror.'Oi! Did that really just happened.' I asked in my mind but Lily only gave a short snort as a reply.I looked at the sword in Rahul's hands and then at the Axe in my own hand.Suddenly, the blood soaked Axe that had taken many lives, didn't seem to be as imposing anymore.
