Thanks to my small army of assholes on the north, I didn’t have hunt monsters so much anymore. So, I decided to raise the strength of the survivors in the hotel. If I try to focus on only finding the monsters, I could tell them the direction and what kind of monsters they would encounter. So I decided to do it first, with the kids and a group of other ten survivors. With Claire’s help, I could kill almost every monster before the creature could even think about attacking us, but better safe than sorry.

Besides, I could also use that chance to think about the offensive skill that I wanted to learn. Observing others would probably give me some insight about the skill.

“Since you are already familiar with them, select ten of those survivors. I will help them to hunt monsters.”

“That’s unexpectedly kind of you,” Claire said while frowning. “Or perhaps you are more sensitive than I thought.”

“Shut up; it’s better than do nothing inside of this place all day. Besides, I have my motives. I want to search around this place for more of those plants, might as well use my time more efficiently while I am at it.”

Claire already knew that I would obtain evolution orbs and coins every day without doing anything, but she was troublesome like Harry, she was always trying to tease me just because I couldn’t openly say it many times why I would help them. Anyway, Claire selected ten survivors who focused on breaking their physical limits. As expected of her, we didn’t need ranged attackers, me, her and the kids were more than enough to do that kind of job.

Although the survivors followed Claire without hesitation, they frowned while looking at me. My reputation as a troublesome guy had spread among them, or perhaps they didn’t really know me enough. Even though I frequently talked with Harry and the others.

“So, what’s the plan?” Claire asked.

“I will just give the position of the monsters around us, you and kids should offer them support with ranged attacks. I won’t attack, I will use all my MP to look for more of those plants.”

That was my idea, but if a mutant polar bear or a mutant dire wolf suddenly appear, I will have to help to avoid a disaster. The survivors already tried many times to fight these creatures, but they still didn’t have the strength or the experience to prevent major wounds, so, they were pretty cautious when we left the hotel.

‘Today I guess I should look for plants which can heal wounds. If I find a plant which can do the same thing as that blue spiritual plant, we may create a passive method of healing wounds.’

It would take a while to create a daily supply to heal so many survivors, but it was necessary, after all, the price of Sarah’s heal skill was astronomic. But I could think about it later.

“There are two mutant lemmings one hundred meters away at eleven o’clock and a mutant fox at three o’clock one hundred and fifty meters away.”

“So you can identify the enemies without even seeing them, huh,” Claire said thoughtfully.

“It’s easy; you just have to focus on the noise of their steps.”

“I see,” Claire said. “First, we will deal with the lemmings. After that, the kids will eliminate the fox.”

The mutant lemmings were small like the mutant rats, but they were far more powerful and fast. So, it took a while for the survivors to kill both. But at least, they managed to do it without suffering wounds. Their formation was pretty good, five of them had shields and short swords, and those focused on blocking the monsters attacks. The other five survivors had lances like the one Sandra had, and they concentrated on attacking as much as possible while the monsters tried to destroy the shields.

You have obtained 5 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 5 Evolution Coins.

It wasn’t my intention, but since I helped them by giving the monsters’ localization, I received part of the reward. Anyway, instead of lances, in my opinion, those five survivors responsible for attacking should use bows or crossbows. With those weapons, they could attack the monsters anytime, instead of just waiting for the chance. However, ranged weapons required some experience and natural skill to be used. I didn’t have any of those, but I managed to survive thanks to the crosshair.

You have obtained 11 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 11 Evolution Coins.

The kids killed the fox faster than I thought. But it was only natural, I guess. Most of them had already obtained new skills, and now their mini-helicopters were different from each other. For example, Frank received the skill: electric enchantment. With that skill, he could put electricity in many objects, including in his mini-helicopters' arrows. It wasn’t strong, but the monsters received an electric discharge when the arrows pierced their bodies. The other kids didn’t fall behind Frank; they became more useful than I had imagined.

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“Amazing, right?” Claire said, boastfully. “They are my pride and joy.”

“… There is a snow leopard two hundred meters away at six hours; you should kill it.”

“Aren’t you going to help?” Claire asked.

“I will conserve my MP to look for the plants.”

Because Claire was a monster in human form, she could kill most of the monsters without breaking a sweat. According to her, Rose was almost at her level, but Harry still couldn’t block the attack of a mutant polar bear of a mutant dire wolf without being knocked down. But it wouldn’t take long until they would be able to cross the city on foot. At least that was the theory, that day was the tenth day since it began to snow, and according to our experience, it was probably the last day we would be able to see those monsters. On the next day, we would probably find new monsters in the city.

While the survivors and the kids were fighting against the monsters, and when I didn’t felt the presence of the most powerful monsters, I used the search skill to find more plants. But, the plants were rare to find. In the entire morning, I helped two more groups of ten survivors, but I only found a single plant.

Red Spiritual Plant: By eating it, you can recover 50 HP. While alive, this plant can produce every ten days a leaf which can recover 10 HP.

It was exactly like the blue spiritual plant, but like the name said it was red, even the price to create it was the same. Although I lost the entire morning to find a single plant, I didn’t feel that depressed. The lobby of the hotel was less depressive than usual, probably because those thirty survivors managed to break their limits a few times without suffering much damage.

“Pretty good for half a day of progress,” Claire said while she and the kids were having lunch. “At this rate, you won’t have any reason to stay away from this place.”

“As long as they eventually obtain the necessary strength, this will benefit all of us, so, I don’t care about helping them for the time being. But I still prefer to explore the city and find new things which can help us.”

“Why are you always trying to keep a distance from the others?” Clair asked after sighing. “Are you trying to look cool or something?”

“Of course, I walk around the city fighting monsters and getting wounded for the sole purpose of making myself cooler.”

My sarcasm really needed some work, but luckily, Harry and others returned, and that prevented Claire from trying to ask any more questions.

“This place looks strangely lively,” Sandra said while frowning. “I didn’t expect Ethan’s presence would improve the mood so much. Did you tell the survivors some joke?”

“Believe it or not, Ethan helped the survivors. “Clair explained while smiling mischievously. “Thanks to him, thirty survivors broke their limits at least two times. He is a really hard-working guy.”

“Hard work? I just told them the position of the monsters and avoided ambushes. Obviously, you guys suck at training the others and finding monsters. Just create a radar already.”

“We already created one and put it on the truck,” Claire said. “But that radar’s effective range is quite small and can’t tell us what kind of enemies are near us.”

“Then, try to create a better one. Seriously, we have only one tracker and one healer. Can’t you guys learn a few things aside killing monsters?”

“Anyway, you guys returned faster than I thought,” Claire said while faking her surprise. “What happened?”

So, was she going to ignore my question? Or perhaps Claire and others already agreed that they didn’t need another person who can do what I can do. For a group of eighty survivors, that was probably enough, but that was too troublesome for me.

“Well, the situation in the north improved a lot,” Sandra answered while suspiciously looking at me. “The leader of that place accepted all of our offers. He even said that he could move all the survivors there to this place. He even accepted being just a normal member of our council. He was strangely cooperative. Do you have anything to say about that, Ethan?”

“Good job, you have excellent diplomatic skills.”

“… Anyway,” Sandra after sighing.” They will come to this place in the next few days, so we should prepare ourselves. But I don’t think we will face many problems, even those who looked to be very troublesome were quite cooperative.”

I guess she was referring to my army of assholes. In any case, she was right. The survivors didn’t forget about the assholes previous actions, but Charles, with his new spear, was strong enough to convince the other survivors in the north not to cause problems. And making them moving from that hotel to this one was also the best course of action. After all, we were almost in the center of the city. At least for the time being, this hotel was the best place to create a big base of operations.

“To avoid any problems,” Sandra added. “We will use the truck to offer support while they are moving.”

“In that case,”

“There’s no need to offer your help,” Sandra interrupted me. “They have plenty of weapons, and our presence there will be only to guide them. You stay here and continue helping the other survivors; you are doing a good job.”

“Tsk.”

Although the hotel was big, we had to make some adaptations to accommodate so many survivors. So, for the rest of the day, Harry, Sandra, Sabrina, Rose, and Sarah organized the unused rooms. On the other hand, Claire, the kids, and I helped the other survivors to hunt the monsters. Since they didn’t fight from the beginning, they broke their limits quite fast, but it would take a few days for them to reach the same level as the survivors in the north.

When the survivors in the north arrive at the hotel, we would have to change a few things. We will have to create specialized teams instead of just dividing the survivors between the front line and backline. Besides, it was too much of waste using survivors just as batteries, while it was fine if they didn’t want to fight, we couldn’t just let half of the survivors do that kind of thing. That was just too inefficient.

‘I guess my days of wandering in the city alone were about to end.’

Until someone obtains some skills like mine, I won’t be able to walk freely. If I do, slowly those survivors will die in ambushes. Until they obtain the necessary strength to survive even the most dangerous ambushes, I will have to help them every day. Just thinking about that was making me feel tired, so I decided to meditate.

“You look tired,” Claire said. “But also look a bit relaxed. Are you proud of your recent good actions?”

“More or less, you should hurry up and learn some sensorial skills. It’s too bothersome to be the only one who can do an important thing.”

“I don’t think I will,” Claire said while smiling. “If I do it, you will start to disappear again; I will make understand that you are very necessary here. Even if I have to cause some trouble for you.”

Claire was a good conversation partner, but her usual mischievous smile and teasing were annoying. I guess she was trying to act like a big sister. Her intentions were good, but it was troublesome. Although I didn’t hate that part of her.