To think that I could bring a person from the dead. The cost was ridiculous, but if the possibility exists. No. I can’t be too greedy; I don’t know even If will be alive next week, how can I plan to obtain so much evolution coins?

“Better forget about this… and bring them to my side as soon as possible, who knows what will happen in ninety-two days.”

When I finished my business with the statue, Harry appeared again.

“It seems that you are ready to leave,” Harry said, looking at the bottles of lemonade. “I forgot to say this, but you should return here every night.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s safer,” Harry answered as a matter of fact. “To enter in this hotel, we have to pay ten evolution coins, but the monsters can’t approach, besides, this place can make you heal faster.”

“Seriously?”

That was amazing! If it were safer and could heal wounds faster, it would be a perfect base of operations.

“Yeah,” Harry added. “When we found you, you were already beyond Sarah healing abilities. But fortunately, we found this place. Sarah only stopped your bleeding; this place did the rest of the work. If I had a camera, I would have taken a picture of your almost destroyed head only to show to you now. If you are alive now, it’s thanks to a miracle. Do don’t anything unreasonable again.”

With a serious face, Harry said those words and then left. He almost seemed an entirely different person. Well, maybe he will return to his usual self once he sees his mother and sister again.

I returned to that room and lunched before packing the few things that I had. Before leaving, I thought about saying goodbye to Sarah and Rose, but I dismissed the idea. The last thing they would want was to talk with someone who couldn’t understand their pain.

When I left the hotel, the sun was high in the sky, it was noon, and I could see that I was near that bridge. Just like Harry said, there were no monsters nearby. So I used that chance to understand how my new crossbow worked.

“Let’s see… Do I have to think about creating the bolts? I want to create wooden bolts!”

And just like that, the arrows appeared inside that cylinder, since it was mechanical, I couldn't understand how it would function only by looking at it. But that crossbow was closer to a rifle than a regular crossbow. After all, what kind of crossbow could shot fifty bolts without the need of being reloaded?

The process of creating bolts was simple, but it had a price: a wave of dizziness. Spending that much MP made me felt like I stayed in a roller-coaster for half an hour. But that feeling disappeared after thirty seconds.

“Better not do this near any monster.”

Now, I only had two things to do, test the crossbow in action, and find an excellent place to obtain evolution coins as much as possible. The safest method would be to keep killing the rats in ST Louis Street, but that probably would take a lot of time. And time wasn’t something that I could waste. I had to find some strong monster like that fat rat, it was dangerous, but the reward would be more significant.

“Monster like those will be hard to find… come to think of it; we didn’t kill the monsters nearby the river, I have to see if they can give me a decent amount of evolution coins.”

I didn’t even have to get nearby the river. In that side of the river, the frogs were already everywhere. Maybe we didn’t find a single one before because the fat rat scared or ate them.

Before I could even see them, I felt their jumps and their landing. Breaking the sensorial limit so many times it had been a good idea; now I could sense the presences of any living creature in a radius of seventy meters, the chances of me being ambushed had fallen a lot. I could double the effectiveness of my senses if I focused in a single direction, but I would only do that on rare occasions. The frogs weren’t as big as the rats, but they were larger. Probably their weight was more than one hundred kilograms, even though they were that fat, they could easily jump ten meters upwards. Their jump could turn me in meat paste. But what worried was their purple tongue, it was poisonous, there was no mistake.

“If I get too close, I’ll be smashed, and frogs have long tongues. So an oversized frog should have an even bigger tongue. I have to kill them from very afar, but will the crossbow be powerful enough? It’s time to find out.”

The first frog was fifty meters away from me and began to shot as soon as the monster landed, but even so, I wasn’t able to hit them. The creature was quick on its feet and was in midair again, thanks to that; I had been noticed.

“Damn it!”

While the creature was in midair, I pulled the trigger, and the crossbow shot three bolts in a single second. The shooting speed was excellent, but the attack power was lacking. Two bolts had bounced on the frog’s stomach, only one managed to his the monster’s face and pierce, but that wasn’t enough to kill it.

I tried to predict the frog’s landing point, but I failed, and again, the bolts hit the ground. When the creature was only thirty meters away from me, instead of its usual vertical jump, the frog launched itself towards me. It was faster than the rats, but with my improved reflexes and speed, I managed to avoid the attack by walking three steps to the right.

‘Perfect, now I can kill it.’

Predict the landing point in that situation would be easy, besides the frog’s back would be exposed. However, before I could aim, the frog looked at me as soon as I avoided the attack and then launched its purple tongue towards me.

‘Holy …’

Awkwardly, I crouched down and avoided the attack. The frog landed ten meters away from me, but its tongue was even longer than that.

‘Tsk, annoying monster. Just give your evolution coins already!’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Even though I was in an awkward position, I used the crossbow and shot two times. The two bolts managed to hit the frog’s back, and the creature stopped moving even before its tongue could return.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Coins.

“That was close, but always the first battle against a new type of enemy is hard. Without information, any attack can surprise me. Nevertheless, it was pretty obvious, but this creature was less dangerous than the mutant cats, that’s why it gave me only this much. Ugh, this monster tongue it stinks.”

Since I didn’t know if I could get poisoned by feeling that smell, I decided to get away from that place. It would be a little hard, but I also had to kill one fish of the river. Perhaps they would give me more evolution coins.

To my surprise, I received a warm welcome as soon as I was ten meters away from the river. A two-meter long fish jumped from the water, and when it reached ten meters high, the fish spat a head-sized water ball towards me.

I already had heard their movements in the water, but even so, that action surprised me. You can’t escape from an attack that you aren’t waiting, so I got hit. Luckily, it was just a water ball; if it were a stone of the same size, I would have died. The water ball hit my left side, I was knocked on the ground, and I rolled a few times.

“That hurt like hell and that damn thing aimed to my heart!”

That attack wasn’t simple; it was almost at the same level as Rose’s telekinesis and Sarah’s healing Prowers. I didn’t like to describe that way, but it was a magic attack. Before I could even get up, again, the left side of my field vision became red, and that damn fish jumped again.

“My wound. Ah, fuck!”

I couldn’t counter-attack in that condition, but I could avoid it. While looking at the mutant fish and analyzing its features, I threw myself to the side. The mouth was big, and the teeth looked sharp, it was almost like a shark. A bite in the wrong place and I would die, but I didn’t have any intentions in swimming in the river. I avoided the blow and waited for the next attack; after five seconds, the mutant fish was back and did the same previous actions. Jumped, it reached the same height and then shot the water ball.

“I guess it can only bite and use those water balls.”

Since it was an aquatic creature, the things the mutant fish could do outside the water were limited. I could counter-attack easily, and so I did. When the mutant fish jumped for the fourth time, I was already aiming at the exact point the creature would stop and shot. The mutant fish opened its mouth, but it didn’t have time to attack. My bolt pierced the inside of its mouth and caused a lot of damage. The mutant fish fell on the river, but soon came to the surface and it wasn’t moving.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Coins.

“The same amount of evolution coins, huh. But, I used only a single bolt. Guess I will hunt some salmon and tuna, from now on. Too bad that I can’t eat them... or maybe I can.”

After the battle, I cleaned the blood in my face, while I was doing that, I had a really dangerous idea, it would be a little troublesome, but I had to try it. Using some curtains that I found in the nearby buildings, I made a rope and tied in one bolt of Martin’s crossbow. Then I aimed and shot towards the body of the mutant fish. Fortunately, I managed to hit the body, even though the roped changed a little the trajectory of the bolt; after that, I began to pull the rope.

“Damn it, so heavy!”

Since it was big, it took quite a while to pull the body. To make matters worse, some fish and frogs tried to attack me, but they got what they deserved for making my job harder.

“Let’s see if that blue screen will appear.”

I touched the mutant fish’s body, and just like I was hoping, that blue screen appeared. But that was strange; I touched that rat before I met Martin. Why didn’t the screen appeared at that moment? I guess it was because I still didn’t believe in the info those blue screens offered or maybe because I wasn’t curious about the rat’s body info.

Mutant Fish (DEAD): An aquatic mutant creature, it’s able to use aquatic attacks.

HP: 0/50

MP: 10/50

STA: 40/50

“As I thought, but I already knew that it could use water attacks. Even though this creature has a high attack and can use magic, we have the same amount of HP, MP, and STA. But, since there’s no info about be poisonous or nor, I can´t eat it.”

But when I was about to leave the corpse, I had another idea. I took one of the kitchen knives of my backpack and cut some of the meat.

Mutant Fish’s Meat (2Kg): low-quality meat, it can be safely consumed. After cooked, can restore 05 HP, 02 MP and 10 STA.

‘Guess that I won’t have to spend evolution coins on some packed lunch anymore, too bad that I don’t have a refrigerator. Maybe, I can also use this meat as a bait to lure some monsters; I have to create a bonfire. But that will probably take some time, besides who knows how many monsters will appear.’

After thinking about those things, I began to cross downtown following the river downstream. Since the river wasn’t vast, I had no choice but do that to find more fish to kill. Their actions were mechanical, but they were excellent targets for me to train my perception and reaction time. I had become faster, but that wasn’t enough, I also had to train my movements, after all, good reflexes wouldn’t do a thing if I trip on stones or put myself in awkward stances.

On the other hand, the frogs which I could find near the river were very annoying. Those monsters were also useful to train me, but they made me lose too many bolts. My goal wasn’t to become a super-soldier; it was was to reunite with my parents and siblings. Training would make things more efficient in the long run, but had I the leisure to worry about the long run? No, I had to reunite with my family. Only after that, things would work out, eventually.

After stopping two times to rest a little, the night finally came. But, I didn't have time to return to that hotel. I moved too far away from the hotel while I was focused on killing the fish and the frogs. But all that concentration paid off, in a single afternoon, I managed to recover half of the evolution coins that I had spent. Besides, I also broke the limit again.

‘If I increase my pace just a little bit I’ll be able to transport one of them to this area. And after that, everything will become easier, after all, two people will do the work. Maybe, in two weeks, we will all be together again.’

I was thinking that while admiring the full moon in the sky. Since I was in downtown, I could use any building as a shelter. But then, I realized that I didn’t have any reason to stop that night. My sight was a lot better than before, and the full moon was illuminating all the city.

“Why am I wasting my time here?”

I had slept for an entire day; I wasn’t tired. I only had to stop do recover my MP. I couldn’t pinpoint the fish localization in the darkness of the water, but there were plenty of frogs jumping around that I could kill.

Another mistake that I did, when you focus too much of one thing, you always forget about others. Since was I too focused on reuniting with my family. I forgot about the incident that happened when I killed too many monsters in a small area. After killing ten mutant frogs near a single block, the smell of blood and the frogs’ tongue small had become too strong. The sound of the wind changed and became ominous, something massive but fast was approaching. Those things weren’t the bats, I could hear the sound of enormous wings flapping, but it was only a few. Besides, they didn’t emit the same sound. It was an even more terrifying squeal. And just like the first night, the smell had attracted another predator.

In the middle of the night and alone, I was surrounded by three huge birds, their height was the same of the fat rat, but thanks to the massive size of the wings those creatures looked even more dangerous than the fat rat.

‘I hope that they did come to eat those frogs; otherwise, I’m in trouble.’