“Noah, I think it’s time that we begin looking at restocking our supply of traps. A lot of them were used up or just destroyed in the last attack, but we still have several that we simply didn’t have time to deploy. Since Jaco saved us a lot of time by rebuilding the wall by himself, I think this should be our current priority,” Sam said.
There were currently three people inside of Noah’s tent for this discussion. It normally would have just been a meeting between Noah and herself, with them calling in people later for opinions after they put together the initial plans. Though today, things were a bit different.
At Noah’s behest, the third person currently present had been invited. The person in question was Evelyn. However, over the course of time that had already passed, the redhead had chosen not to say much. Instead she’d spent the time so far a bit off to the side and quietly watching their discussion.
“Mmm, I agree. The Chosen Few didn’t exactly give us a date for when they would attack again, but it’ll likely be sooner than later. I would prefer if we had more time to study the artifacts they left behind and see if we could somehow replicate their effects,” Noah said as he looked at the pair of daggers on the table. He then pulled out a pair of metal vials and placed them down too.
“Right, but as far as we know, they could come back at any point. Whether that be tomorrow, the day after, or even just later today. So it’d be better to just rebuild the ones we already know how to make, rather than try to make new designs from scratch.” Sam then glanced down at the artifacts now placed together on Noah’s table.
The Twin Daggers of Blinking had been given to them by Jaco. As far as their limited knowledge of these artifacts went, the ability to teleport around seemed rather powerful. But as of the current moment, they were still deciding who’d actually have the privilege and responsibility of wielding the daggers.
Additionally they were given a pair of Potions, one of Healing and another of Mana. Before the attack, Noah had actually been the one to already find a single Potion of Healing.
Though that one in particular was quickly used up. As part of it had gone to Evelyn for an internal injury that she’d apparently been dealing with beforehand. While the rest was spread to others who had needed it the most during the battle.
“At the same time,” Sam started. “Maybe we could have at least one person try to replicate the effects of the Potion of Healing? Our own healing gel can only do so much and hasn’t seen much improvement recently.”
Noah rubbed his chin. “Even just sparing one of our stronger Mages would mean that many less traps that can be made, however. Especially considering that a few of them are either still missing or lost their lives.”
“I think it could be worth it, though. If we could replicate even a fraction of this Potion of Healing’s effect, it has the potential to save many lives in the fighting to come. Plus I don’t think our numbers are that bad when it comes to Mages. Like how many do you think got quite a bit stronger just from fighting off the horde?” Sam asked.
“Hmm, we still don’t have exact numbers for everyone’s updated Levels. And we probably won’t for a little while since that’s not our biggest priority right now. But let’s see here, if I had to make a guess? I imagine that those who started at Level 15 and continually fought on the frontlines are likely around Level 20 by now.”
“That sounds about right. At least from what I’ve seen so far,” Sam agreed.
It just made sense that the horde brought a boost of Levels to the non-elites that had done the most the most fighting. Especially the Warriors and Mages, since their Abilities were capable of hitting multiple targets at a time. So for those that had kept fighting at the front as much as their Mana allowed it, they had seen a spike in strength as a result.
Unfortunately, such a boon was countered by the numbers of those that had fallen. That went for their regular fighters that had simply been overwhelmed. But also for their elites, like the members in Alex’s team that were killed by the trio of Chosen upon their arrival.
“Well… alright then,” Noah said after a few moments of consideration. “First, let’s make a quick list of every Mage that’s now Level 20 or higher. We’ll then group the majority of them with those that made the traps before, and have them take a crash course on learning how to make it. Then take the few left, however many you think is fair, and have them work on experimenting with the healing gel and this Potion of Healing.”
Noah pushed the vial forward, which Sam then grabbed and pocketed. “I can do that. In the meantime, I think those with high Strength could do some work on the wall. Jaco left us a good base, but I believe it could be improved upon further. Perhaps we fortify it in a similar way that a medieval city would to fend off sieges?”
“I’m not entirely familiar with how to actually apply that sort of thing. But I can ask around to see if any of our members happen to have more in-depth knowledge on the subject. So I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Noah replied.
With that, the two of them continued to talk strategy. They discussed other potential ideas for improving the camp’s defenses. Their primary focus was on methods for countering the sheer numbers of another large horde of undead. Though in addition, another larger concern was for how to deal with smaller but far more potent numbers. Specifically, the high Level individuals of the Chosen Few.
The problem was that there was so much they could actually think of. Just what do you do to defend against someone that could either leap over any obstacle or simply just bust right through it? At the present time, their only real idea was to utilize a concentrated amount of traps in key locations.
If they could lure a member of the Chosen Few to a spot with several hidden traps stacked right on top of each other, then it could prove effective. However, then the question went to how they should actually lure them over in a way that would actually work. Yet as they tried to brainstorm the answer to that question, a voice came from directly outside the front of the tent.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Noah? Sam? Heard that you guys are in here. Hopefully not interrupting anything important, but Jaco and I are back,” Alex called out.
Oh, they’re back already? That was faster than expected, Sam thought to herself. A moment later, the flap of the tent was pulled open for two men to step inside.
“Welcome back. No worries, you guys aren’t inter-” Sam stopped mid-sentence as her eyes widened.
The first one to step inside was Jaco. His armor was stained with some kind of strange, dark substance. But more importantly was his face, as it was covered by numerous lacerations in the pattern of chains. Then behind him was Alex. While the teen didn’t seem injured, he was visibly slick with sweat and his own armor was covered in dirt.
“Wh- what happened out there!?” she asked.
—--
Now sat down, Jaco dabbed his face with a bit of the camp’s stock of healing gel. On one hand, he appreciated the gesture of it quickly being brought over for him to use. Even though he knew that his Endurance would naturally fix things up soon enough anyway.
On the other hand, the minor injuries he had sustained from his fight with the Revenant hadn’t really been noticeable at first. But as the two of them were walking back to the camp, they had started to itch something fierce. So being able to rub the cool gel against his skin actually was quite nice and soothing.
But as he’d been doing so, Jaco had recounted what just happened. “So yeah. I don’t know if it was just some freak, one off occurrence. Or if really high Level undead just deciding to wander out the city entirely is something we’ll actually have to worry about now.”
Jaco looked as Noah and Sam appeared to be understandably stressed about the recounted event. The leader of the camp was massaging his temples, as Sam chewed on the nail of her thumb. After a few moments passed, Noah deeply sighed and leaned back into his seat.
“Well… shit. Any chance that you think this was just some weird fluke?” Noah asked.
“Maybe it was due to the Chosen?” Sam began to suggest. “Undead tend to get pulled toward hordes. So perhaps these undead happened to be close by as it was being gathered, and were just lagging behind and only reached us now?”
Slightly raising one hand up from her cross arms, Evelyn piped in. “Highly doubtful. I’ve only ever once encountered a Lesser Revenant in the inner city. A Level 40 Revenant would have to be so far in, that there’s no way it would be anywhere near where the weaker undead of that horde were located.”
Everyone glanced over to the redhead for the moment. With her being quiet and keeping close to the corner up until now, her actually saying something had come as a mild surprise. But they recovered quickly enough as they reconsidered the more pressing matter on hand.
“In that case,” Noah began as he worriedly rubbed his chin. “I think it’ll be prudent for us to assume the worst. Maybe we only got lucky until now that the truly powerful monsters only kept to the innermost section of the city. Or perhaps this is a result of the progressing stages of the apocalypse. We do not know— actually… Jaco?” he suddenly looked up and glanced over at the Druid.
“Yeah?”
“You said before that the Minotaur was the highest Level monster you’ve encountered. By a good margin too, right?” Noah asked.
Jaco nodded in affirment. “That’s right. The second highest were the Taurlings I saw right before I was teleported away. Though they were in the low 40s, so there was a pretty big gap between them and the Minotaur at Level 50, yeah.”
“Mhmm. In the first stage of the Apocalypse, there were several reports of the Minotaur being sighted all around the city. Where it was often leading groups of undead either directly toward the inner or outer areas. To the point where, at least initially, we assumed there was more than one Minotaur.”
Alex slightly tilted his head. “Wait, if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying there really was just the one this whole time?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Think about it. In the first stage, the strongest monsters congregated around the Gates of Hell in the crater. Which then became the foundation of the fortress after the second stage. Yet even between these two points, what kind of behavior did the Minotaur display?” Noah asked, addressing everyone in the room as he looked between them.
Jaco placed his hand under his chin. “The Minotaur acted as a leader to all the mindless undead. It raised the stronger ones, I’ve even seen it do so myself for some Lesser Revenants. But then it leads them around. And more than just blindly follow it around, the undead actually listen to it like when they were left behind as guards inside the fortress.”
“I think I get it.” Sam crossed her arms as she continued. “The Minotaur organized the rest of the monsters. To the point where, for one reason or another, it was keeping the strongest ones close to the fort. But now that it’s dead…”
“Those undead are now like rabid dogs with their leashes cut, so to speak,” Noah finished.
“But aren’t those Taurlings Jaco saw also Demidemons, just like the Minotaur? Wouldn’t they be able to exert control too?” Alex asked with a frown.
“Maybe. But if that was the case, you’d think they would have also been seen raising and leading the undead at least once. If they were capable of it, you’d think the Minotaur would have had them be like underlings that do all the groundwork. Instead it was the one doing it all on its own,” Jaco offered.
“Right,” Noah said with a small nod to the Druid. “Granted, I will admit that this is purely just speculation that could always be proven wrong. But for the time being, I believe it’s safer to assume that the Minotaur was the sole leader of the monsters within the city. And now that it’s dead, we should be prepared to see more instances of powerful undead wandering out and occasionally going toward our location.”
Sam chewed her lower lip. “That will be an extreme source of danger. Especially toward our scavengers that will effectively have to ditch the old guidelines of which areas are relatively safe. And there’s simply no way we can handle anything near Level 40 like that Revenant.”
“Well, you have me. Now that I’m Level 42, I’m basically just as strong as even those Taurlings. I don’t know if there’s anything between them and the Minotaur that would be in the mid or high 40s. But if there isn’t, I can confidently handle anything that the city throws at us,” Jaco tried to reassure her.
“I appreciate the thought, Jaco. But you won’t always be here or everywhere at once. Like if you head into the city, then the camp will effectively be undefended from these powerful monsters. But if you just stay here, we can’t confidently send people into the city knowing that you’ll be there to act as a safety net against the unexpected,” Noah said.
“I mean, fair enough. But even so…” Jaco trailed off as the camp’s leader started to shake his head.
“Before the Chosen attacked, we had only recently made an effort to raise the average Level of our people. Doing so likely saved many lives, yet it also clearly wasn’t enough. With greater threats appearing by the day, what needs to happen is clear.” Noah paused to take a breath. Everyone remained silent as they waited for him to continue.
“It’s simply not sustainable in the long run for people to just rely on the elite. As a collective, we should put a renewed focus on getting stronger. And that will apply to everyone within the camp that’s capable of fighting.”