It was important that their group didn’t split up for every batch of survivors they found. The three steps of their plan could only be completed with as many people as possible. Therefore the group of 10 shouldn’t split up more than once.
Once the number of new survivors they’d rescued reached ten, they would send them back home with two hunters acting as escorts. Their mission was to take the survivors home through the most secure route and rush back afterward to continue with the mission. The path leading through the staircase bordering the forest would take up to 15-20 minutes to and fro.
Even if they had to slow down to not tire out the weakened and haggard survivors and make them collapse on the way to the hideout, it wouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes to reach their destination. The village was not that big, after all.
Finding a dozen survivors wasn’t that difficult either. In the lengthy street they’d cleared, their group found four small families hiding from the threats on the street. They were escorted out of the danger zone by two hunters, whereas their group continued to head to the next street.
They reached a small elevation where streets connected at a crossroads. The roads were linked near a large football field and a small kindergarten – two of the few special structures in the small village.
The rescue team slowly paved their way through the abandoned streets. They didn’t shy away from attracting monsters’ attention and lured everything in their direction. Their declarations that the survivors could leave with them reverberated through the streets, pulling dozens of Goblins and Infected to their location.
From the looks of it, Xavier could tell that they would eventually encounter more Goblins. Their prowess was not that high, but their numbers were fearsome. After the first hordes of dozens of Goblins appeared in front of them, Xavier detected the next batch, in addition to a few Goblin Warriors.
There were also more than enough Infected with several Insightful Infected leading the way.
Following that, Mark and the old hunters retrieved their rifles. Since they wanted to make sure that they could easily deal with the Insightful Infected and Goblin Warriors without losing any of their people, it was better to kill some of the pesky monsters using the hunting rifles – even if they wouldn’t receive any Soul Essences of Card Shards as a reward.
Xavier used Taunt to control the crowd of enemies approaching them and lured them to the side, creating enough openings for the hunters to strike. Once the Goblin Warriors were struck, their heads jerked to the side with gaping holes in them.
Blood gushed out of their bodies like fountains, splattering the ground in no time, yet the Goblin Warriors didn’t die. Two Goblin Warriors could hardly control their arms and legs after the rifle bullets struck them with great force, but only their mobility was restricted. They didn’t seem to be on the verge of death.
That was something they expected, to a certain degree. Everyone’s Vitality was increasing. Therefore, the same applied to the Goblin Warriors. Their Vitality was quite high, and it would be weird if they died that easily.
Their skulls absorbed the biggest impact of the rifle bullets as they smashed into them, leaving only a little force that penetrated their skull. It was not enough to deliver a finishing blow, but it did a good job of weakening the enemy.
Xavier used Dash, Air Bullets, Taunt, and Sharpness to dance through his enemies. While Taunt was not that important after the hunters’ first attack ended with mild success, it was great to have a Card that enraged the enemy, taking away its rationality and replacing it with immense anger.
Angry enemies were easier to deal with than smart enemies. It might not look like this at first because enraged folks made a bigger commotion and attacked fearlessly, but smart enemies were a much bigger threat in the long run.
That was also why Xavier found it relatively easy to deal with the Goblin Warriors and a bunch of Insightful Infected. Glut and Leyla aided him from a distance, whereas the ruby katana glowed brightly as it cut through the skin, flesh, and bones of the enemies with great ease.
Sharpness ended up much better than he expected. That might be because the ruby katana was a lot more precious than Xavier could imagine, or because Sharpness was a rather unique Common Card with great potential. Or it might have been both.
One way or another, Xavier’s Deck was slowly taking shape. He could see the results of his hard work and feel the power coursing through his body.
In less than 15 minutes, the masses of dozens of Infected, several Insightful Infected, a handful of Goblin Warriors, and more than 100 Goblins had fallen down to the earth to never rise again. The monsters’ souls had been reaped. Their bodies were still there though.
The hunters, Glut, and Leyla were all exhausted and even Xavier could tell that his Stamina and Energy had decreased considerably. Fortunately, everyone procured enough Soul Essences to increase their Foundation and integrate some Soul Essences into their Star of Energy.
Insightful Infected has been slain. +1 Soul Essence
Insightful Infected has been slain. +1 Soul Essence + 1 Common Card Shard
Insightful Infected has been slain.
Goblin has been slain
Inferior Infected has been slain +1 Soul Essence
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Goblin has been slain
Goblin has been slain
Inferior Infected has been slain. +1 Common Card Shard
…
…
Goblin Warrior has been slain +2 Soul Essences +1 Common Card Shard
Goblin Warrior has been slain +3 Soul Essences +1 Common Card Shard
Goblin Warrior has been slain +1 Soul Essences +1 Common Card
Too many notifications popped up in front of Xavier. He discarded most of them and started to pick up the Common Card Shards and the Common Card that dropped.
Even with the Goblin Hunter privilege, I hardly get Soul Essences from hunting ordinary Goblins. Even the Insightful Infected don’t give me much anymore. That’s wild..and rather unpleasant…
Xavier slowly realized that Goblins and Insightful Infected were not too dangerous for him anymore. His Foundation was quite strong at this point. Therefore, Xavier decided to upgrade Wisdom to the Novice rank before he would stop integrating Soul Essences into his Foundation for the time being.
Once all of his Foundations reached the Novice rank, he could invest his Soul Essences freely before charging into the Goblin Community. But before that, he would have to focus on harvesting more Soul Essences.
Integrate one Soul Essence into the Star of Wisdom. Y/N?
Yes.
Requirements to upgrade the Star of Wisdom have been met. Please seek a safe place before the upgrade will commence.
Star of Wisdom [Inferior] has advanced to the [Novice] rank. Congratulations.
Xavier expected to be tortured for the next half an hour. He was certain that upgrading his Star of Wisdom would hurt. However, it was not like that at all. If anything, Xavier’s head felt like it turned into liquid.
His pain sensors stopped working and his mind felt numb for a while. His mind was blank, yet not. It was a truly confusing feeling that swept through his head.
His brain felt like mush for the next half an hour. Xavier didn’t even know what he had been doing in these 30 minutes. All he could tell was that the old hunters who’d escorted the survivors earlier returned and that two other hunters were missing.
He also realized that the number of Soul Essences stored inside his Classless Deck had increased a little. It looked like they had continued to hunt the remaining monsters in the streets.
They’d reached the kindergarten and moved through it to make sure that no child was left behind. Afterward, they managed to find a large family, who had unfortunately gathered on the day of the apocalypse for a large family dinner. The father died in an attempt to leave the house and kill some Infected, leaving the rest of the family to fend for themselves.
Once the family was rescued, two hunters split up again to escort the survivors safely back home. Xavier and the others continued to hunt monsters while calling out more survivors.
They finally reached the other side of the village after hunting and searching for survivors for an hour. They were a little bit behind time, but it was a good thing that they had only three streets to breeze through.
They’d cleared most parts of the main street, the hill where the Vador family lived and the small elevation close to which the football field and the kindergarten were located. Now all that was left was one small street that connected to a much larger street and a mid-sized street that connected to the left side of the hill they’d cleared already.
Half an hour was more than enough to rescue the survivors in the three streets and to use the Infected of the remaining streets for the second step of their plan. They decided to gather the Infected in the three barns located near Oakwood Street, the mid-sized street they would head to at last.
To be precise, Xavier would spend the next 30 minutes using Taunt on all Infected he could find to lead them into the barns. They would be imprisoned in the barns and let loose only after the Goblins in the streets had been killed. And after the remaining survivors had been moved to safety, of course.
Once the first part of the second step was completed, Xavier had something far crucial to do. He would leave the barns to his father and Leyla, who would break open the doors and lead the Infected to the Monster Gate by the time Xavier returned after completing his task. His task was actually pretty simple.
Once the survivors were rescued and brought to his grandmother’s house, Xavier would move the Infected and then return to Miller’s Alley, the lengthy street that ended up connecting to the forest.
Xavier hoped to find some dangerous mutated animals in the forest. He would taunt the mutated animals and lure them straight to the Monster Gate from the opposite direction. Hopefully, a few hundred Infected from one side and an otherworldly powerful mutated animal from the other side.
After that, the survivors could harvest the surviving Goblins and charge toward the Monster Gate.
That was as far as every step in their plan worked out. It was unlikely that everything would go according to plan, but the success of their plan was something they hoped for desperately.
Once they returned to the main street on the other side of the village, they encountered a batch of Goblins. At this point, everyone could fight more than a dozen Goblins on their own. Xavier had given his father the Common Card he’d obtained earlier, allowing Mark to sweep through the enemies with ease.
Xavier was not the only one with great power at this point. Everyone had improved their Foundation and it wouldn’t be long before all of their Foundation Stars reached the Novice rank.
Once the Goblins had been defeated, everyone moved through the main street to look through the last few houses. They hoped to find some survivors. Unfortunately, there was nobody.
Xavier then descended a small slope that led to the other streets. He found some Goblins but decided to ignore them. Xavier merely focused on the Goblin Warriors to kill them and procure some Soul Essences and the Infected to gather and lure them away.
Glut was still by his side. The Ember Sparrow released several embers in the necks and faces of the Goblin Warriors to distract them and inflict tremendous pain.
The Embers were small but searing hot. They splattered upon impact and burned the Goblin Warriors’ faces and their backs. Once hit by Glut’s ember it was not difficult for Xavier to deal with them.
The only difficulty was to manage to kill the Goblin Warriors while an ever-increasing group of Infected pursued him.