Path of Evolution - Chapter 35

Chapter 35






I stood on top of a tall tree and looked down at the dense forest with my Night Vision and searched for something to hunt.

But the forest gave me nothing.

'Looks like most of them have gone to the highway to eat the corpses there.' I thought and jumped down from the tree.

I landed gently on the ground and smiled at how sturdy my body had become now.

After evolving, all of my bones, muscles and organs have become far more stronger than before. Even my skin had become so sturdy that normal kitchen knives had no chance of cutting through it.

I felt the intense energy in my body and my smile became even broader.

At this point, I knew that I would be able to defeat a 1st tier abnormal without batting an eyelid. Even 2nd tier abnormals would not pose much danger unless they came to me in large numbers.

'Don't be so over confident Ashok.' Lily said 'You may have become strong right now but if you face a 3rd tier abnormal then you would die easily. You understand that right.'

I frowned a bit when I heard her words 'Yeah sure.' I said and ignored her warning. After all, I had never even seen a 3rd tier abnormal. Why worry about something that doesn't even exist.

I ran in the direction where I had guessed all the abnormals must have been.

The highway. Where the corpses of the 300 abnormals were waiting to be eaten.

And I soon realized that I was right.

Because, before I even reached the highway, I could already hear the sounds of thousands of Abnormals.

Hearing the sounds made by so many abnormals gave me chills even though I was so confident just a moment ago.

All the excitement I was feeling calmed down instantly as I looked at the large horde in fear. Although I might be able to deal with a few dozen 1st tier abnormals easily, if I was surrounded by thousands of them, then I would still lose my dear life.

I looked at them in fear but then I gave myself a few slaps and calmed down.

I took out the four 2nd tier crystals from the Black watch and ate them to increase my Agility.

Although they would only increase my agility by 0.2 points, that was still something.

'Lily, are you selling any 2nd tier crystals in the store?' I asked to confirm once again. 'I still have some white coins left you know'

'No.' Lily replied in a monotone voice.

'Well, I guess I'll have to hunt 2nd tier abnormals to raise my stats from here on out.

But before that.

'Show me the interface.' I thought and the interface was shown in my helmet.

User name:- Ashok Singh Rana (Enhanced Human I )

Stats:-

Strength - 4.4

Agility - 4.6

Endurance - 4.4

Perception - 4.4

Mana - 3.4 (4.4) - Skill being used.

Skills:-

Agility Booster (2nd tier), Advanced Vision (2nd tier), None

Equipments:-

Basic Sword (2nd tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier), Basic Defensive Suit (2nd tier), Basic Helmet (2nd tier), Spatial ring (1st tier)

Wealth:-

34 white coins

I looked at the 'Enhanced Human I' beside my name and asked

'Oi Lily is there a Enhanced Human II, III, IV and V after this or what.'

'You'll know when you get there.' She said with a snort.

'Well… You're being helpful today.' I thought and then looked for any other changes in the interface.

Except for the 10% increase in all my stats and the 0.2 agility points I got from the 4 2nd tier crystals, there was nothing else that seemed to have changed.

'Oh wait! There is something else that changed.' I thought and looked at the 'None' in the 'Skills' section.

'Oi Lily. I use one more skill now, right?' I asked in elation.

What does one more skill slot meant. It meant that I would be able to use my mana to do even more awesome stuff now. I was burning with anticipation as I waited for Lily to answer, even though I already knew the answer.

'Yes. And why are you asking me if you already knew the answer.' Lily rebuked but I was already too excited to care about her scolding.

'Should I buy some awesome skill book now?' I thought but then I realized that I did not have enough white coins to buy even the cheapest skill book.

I sighed in my mind. Even if I had a lot of white coins, I would still take Rahul's suggestions before buying a skill book.

After all, blindly buying a skill book just because it's description sounds cool is something that only a fool would do.

I looked at the thousands of Abnormals in front of me and took out my sword from the Spatial ring.

After Rahul emptied the guns and ammunition in the spatial ring, I filled it up with food, water and other supplies which might help me live out in the forest for a few days in case something happened to me and I became injured.

There was also a Walkie talkie in there which would prove to be useful at emergencies.

I held my sword and scanned the dense group of abnormals in front of me.

All of the abnormals in the vicinity had gathered around the place which was once filled with corpses.

By now, all of the corpses had become food for the horde.

'300 corpses. That must meat would definitely have given rise to a few more 2nd tier abnormals in their horde. Right?'

'Yeah. No doubt about that.'

'Would there be any 3rd tier abnormal in that group.' I asked solemnly. If there was, then I have to be very cautious with my actions.

Because against a 3rd tier abnormal, I could only use the Agility Booster skill and hope that I would be able to escape in the 60 seconds that it'll give me.

'Might be. But it's highly unlikely.' Lily said.

'Well… I can only hope that there is no 3rd tier in the horde and that my hunt would not be disturbed.'

Or so I thought but when I studied the horde closely, I realized that the abnormals were standing in a densely packed group.

At this point, if I try to attack one of them, then the others will definitely come to know of presence. That would lead to them shrieking like madmen, and awake the horde

If I awaken the horde, then I won't be able to hunt anything for a few hours until they calm down.

'Need to lure them out and disband this tightly knit group.' I thought and searched for a few decent sized stone on the ground.

After I had collected enough stones, I started throwing them in different directions.

Although the sound was not loud, it was still loud enough to be heard be a few abnormals.

I could see a few groups of abnormals going after the sound. But after they walked a few steps in that direction, they stopped.

'Well… this is annoying.' I cursed in my heart and started to search for a few more stones.

It was not easy to find the right sized stone in the forest where the ground was filled with grass.

After a few minutes, I had once again collected a few dozen stones. But this time, instead of throwing the stones in different direction, I focused on luring out a single group.

And so started the test of my patience.

After half an hour.

'Oi Lily. Do you think this far I good enough.' I said as I looked at the 20 something group of abnormals that I've lured away from the large horde.

'I don't know. 1st tier abnormals will not be able to hear us from this distance, but the 2nd tier ones might.'

'If that's the case then I should be safe.' I thought 'The 2nd tier abnormals are all in the middle of the horde. And judging by how much noise the abnormals constantly make, they would not hear their shrieks from this distance. Probably.' I thought.

'Still. Doesn't hurt to do this quietly right?' Lily asked.

'Yeah. You're right.' I said and went behind the group as I tossed a stone for distraction.

I decapitated the first abnormal with a single swing. It's head fell down along with it's body. But before it could fell down, I caught it's body and head at once.

If it's body fell down just like this then the noise will attract their attention.

I took out the crystal from it's head and then kept it down silently.

Then I moved on to the second one. Then the third. And the fourth.

In a similar fashion, I killed eighteen from the group of twenty three.

When only five were left, I let myself loose and killed them all at once.

'Mission successful.' I thought as I put the 23 1st tier crystals in the Spatial ring.

'This is mentally draining.' I complained to Lily.

'Well, if you want the rewards then you need to put in the effort.' She replied back.

'I'll bring a comic book the next time I came to hunt these abnormals.' I thought 'That way, I can read something while I wait for the abnormals to be lured out.'

'That's not a bad idea, but you should know that your mana is not enough to sustain the Night Vision for a long time right.' Lily said. 'I don't think that you'll be able to finish even a single comic book.'

'But this is so time consuming… and boring.' I complained in my mind 'If I had fought against such smaller groups one by one then I would have already killed more than 300 abnormals by now.'

But before I could kill them, I had to lure them out which takes a lot of time and effort. Not to mention that even a single mistake might destroy the whole plan, so it's mentally straining as well.

'Well… if you want the reward then you have to put in some efforts.'

'I know but… I was just thinking if there is some better way to do this.' I thought and then started to brainstorm for an idea that would make this job easy for me.

After thinking extensively for a few minutes, I finally had an idea.

I did not knew if it would work. But I was willing to give it a try.

'Oi Lily. How about I awaken the horde and give them a target to attack.' I suddenly asked.

'What target? And how would that help you?' she asked.

'Well, have you forgotten. This afternoon, when I fired my gun and attracted the abnormal horde, except for the 2nd tier abnormals, most of the 1st tier abnormals arrived in a large horde and went ahead in the forest to search for the sound.'

'Yes. Such a thing happened but what of it.'

'Well… Did you forget that there were also the 300 1st tier abnormals who were left behind and separated from the large group.'

'Yes… Ah! I understand what you want to do now.' Lily said 'You want to give the horde a target to chase and while they are chasing after the target, you'll kill the ones who are left behind. Isn't that right.'

'Yes. That's exactly what I was thinking.' I said with pride.

'But then… who will be the target?'

'Of course it will be me. Just like how I fired the gun in the afternoon, I'll made a lot of noise and when the horde comes after me, I'll run and hide in some safer place. After that, I'll go behind the horde and attack the ones who were left behind. Isn't that a great idea.'

'Well… it's not a bad idea.' Lily said after thinking for a while. 'But where are you gonna lead the abnormals?'

'Of course it will be toward the Army camp.' I said with a smirk. 'If somehow I'm able to draw the horde all the way to the camp, then I'll be able to deal with two foes at once.'

'That's a… smart move. But aren't you worried about the civilians in the army camp?'

Hearing about the civilians, my expression died down at once and I sighed in my heart 'I'll not let the soldiers up there fight these thousands of abnormals. But I would still take the horde closer to them. That way, their focus will change from the town to the abnormals.'

'Do as you wish.' Lily said.

'Hmm…' I nodded and went in the direction of the army camp.

After I had gained a sufficient distance from the horde, I aimed at the horde but just as I was about to fire, I thought of something.

Why waste these precious bullets when there are so many cars lying around in the vicinity.

I opened the door of a car and started to use the car horn to attract the attention of the Abnormals.

After a few seconds, I heard the loud shrieks of the abnormals coming from the distance.

'They're coming.' Lily said.

'I can hear them. To be lured out so easily, those guys are really stupid, aren't…' before I could finish my words, I saw a tall abnormals coming from the distance. It was an abnormal as well, but it was fast. Faster than any other abnormal I had ever seen. So fast that even the 2nd tier abnormals were left far behind by it.

'Hide. It was a 3rd tier abnormal.' Lily's urgent voice rang in my ears and I could feel my heart racing in fear.

Without her telling me anything, I already knew that it was a 3rd tier abnormal. After all, what kind of abnormal is 9 feet tall.

That's right. It was a fucking 9 feet tall abnormal.

It's body was extremely thin, and it's muscles seemed to be non existent. It seemed to be so weak that looking at it gave the feeling that it would die any minute now.

But I knew that this was the most dangerous abnormal I've ever faced. It's mere existence frightened me to no end.

I quickly dashed beside the car and hid behind it before the 3rd tier abnormal could arrive.

Soon after it came close to the car which I had honked just now, and just as I was thinking that it would pass by the car, it jumped up ten feet in the air and landed on top of the SUV beside the car.

As it landed on the SUV, all the windows in the car broke at once and the roof of the car was dented inward because of it's weight.

'Why the hell did it stop here. Shouldn't it continue running ahead in search for the source of the loud sound.' I thought in horror 'Is it so intelligent that it can roughly guess the location of the sound.'

I gulped in fear as the 3rd tier abnormal looked around vigilantly for it's pray but after not finding anything for a while, it started sniffing the air.

I looked at the horde coming from the distance. If they arrived and I'm still hiding in this place, then that would not end well for me.

After sniffing around for a while, the Abnormal jumped down from the SUV and went down on all four of it's limbs and started sniffing the ground like a dog.

It's actions sent chills down my spine but I knew that time was limited so I held back my fears and hoped that it would not find me.

'Oi Lily. What should I do now?' I asked. Fear had clouded my mind and I knew that I would not be able to come up with a good plan under such a condition.

'You should kill it. Or you can use the Agility booster skill to run away.' She said. 'Those are your only choices. Otherwise, if the horde arrives and you're still here then you'll definitely die.'

I heard her words and fell in deep thought.

If I had not seen this guy running, then I would have definitely use the agility booster skill without a second thought. But after I've seen it's speed I was not so sure anymore.

I could use the skill and try to run away from it. If I'm able to run away from it, then I'll live, but if I'm still not able to escape from it after the 60 seconds are over, then I would definitely die.

'It's too risky.' I thought and looked at the sword in my hand. I can try to attack it with a surprise attack, but I was sure that the risk in doing so would be even higher.

'Both of the choices were risky.'

'Fight or run. What to do…'