On the next morning, as soon as I woke up, I headed to the lobby to my usual morning ritual: confirming the safety of my family. At that point in time, I was pretty sure nothing would stop them. But, I still wanted to confirm with my eyes. I confirmed that fact and sighed in relief, but then I began to felt uncomfortable, not because of my usual doubts, but because the lobby had too many people. Too many people were there, and many of them were talking happily among themselves, but to me, they were just making a lot of noise even though it was very early in the morning.
A few days without suffering wounds and without being mistreated changed the mood of the survivors. It was noisy, but the depressed atmosphere vanished. So, I couldn’t complain. Even the survivors who came from the north looked full of energy, many of them lost their parents and friends, but they finally were free again. Finally, they were able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“It’s a pretty good sight,” Charles said while he was approaching. “You did a good job here too.”
Charles was really looking the apart walking around with a spear which occasionally emitted electricity. Without the blood or the dirt covering his body, I could finally see his real appearance. He had blond hair and brown eyes; although I didn’t have any good memory about him, he looked to be a friendly guy. But since I needed evolution coins, I was thinking about taking that spear from that apparent friendly guy.
“I didn’t much here, the others did.”
“Yeah, you are the silent type who likes to work in the shadows,” Charles said while shrugging. “You didn’t change much since two years ago, always trying to stay alone and always trying to do everything by yourself.”
So, he remembered a few things of me, huh, aside from being beaten down of course. Anyway, talk about the past wasn’t something that I liked to do. So, I just kept my mouth shut.
“Anyway, what should I do in this place?” Charles asked. “Aside from pretending that I don’t know you.”
“Just don’t cause problems for me, and that will be more than enough.”
“I thought that you would demand a lot of things from me,” Charles said while frowning.
“He is the type who would rather do everything by himself,” Claire said after abruptly appearing. “His pride wouldn’t allow him to force others to do anything for him or in his place.”
Charles almost fell on the floor thanks to the surprise. Claire had heard our conversation, so, he began to sweat a lot.
“Don’t worry; she was the one who gave me the idea to deal with the troublemakers in the north. She knows everything that happened there too.”
Charles dropped his guard, but I kept an eye on the radar the entire time. So, Claire didn’t surprise me. Her presence was welcomed because of her presence, no one would suspect anything, even if I talk with Charles for more than a few minutes.
“Seriously?” Charles asked after cleaning the sweat on his forehead. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry about that,” Claire said. “So, did you notice something different among the survivors after Ethan left?”
“No, why do you ask?” Charles asked while frowning.
“If you didn’t notice anything, then it’s fine,” Claire explained. “I just considered the possibility of that woman might have infiltrated someone among your group.”
I froze on the spot, and so did Charles. We had never considered that possibility; I guess he wasn’t very smart either.
“I was just asking,” Claire said while frowning. “I don’t think this is something we should worry about. She didn’t look the type she would use her brain that much.”
Well, that much was obvious. But in any case, we still should be careful. We will suffer a lot of damage if someone among us attacks from behind in an eventual confrontation with the woman in the west.
“Did you mentioned that possibility to the others?”
“Yes,” Claire answered. “Before they left to escort the survivors, I told that to Sandra, Rose, and Sarah. So, while they were checking the survivors, they probably also looked for the most suspicious survivors. Although the most suspicious survivors are that group under your control.”
The best way to avoid that kind of problem was using the skill domination on everyone. But, Harry and the others wouldn’t even consider that option. We wouldn’t demand anything unreasonable from the survivors, but even I was aware of the dangers of putting a person under the absolute control of another person. They were a bit too idealistic, but because of that, they were good leaders.
“Can’t you check the survivors using one of your skills?” Claire asked. “We will help most of them, so, you will have plenty of chances to check them.”
“No, while I can see the information of other survivors, the skill is only at level four. Right now, I can only see the HP, MP, STA, and at what level the limits of the survivors and monsters are. I created a lot of ammo overnight, so I will use my MP today only to check the survivors and raise the skill’s level.”
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“Good idea,” Claire said. “The survivors who came from the north are stronger, and all the survivors here already obtained new skills. So, I don’t think you will need to keep an eye on them for the entire day, but just to make sure, I will try to help them more.
“You sure have a lot of useful skills, huh,” Charles said while frowning. “Your offensive skills must be pretty crazy.”
“I don’t have an offensive skill, not yet.”
While I could create the spiritual knife, it wasn’t per se an offensive attack. While the sensorial limits could make me aware of the presences nearby, it wasn’t that useful in terms of combat. After all, just knowing the position of the enemies wasn’t enough to hurt them.
“Are you serious?” Charles asked astonished. “And I wondered why you didn’t use offensive skills while you fought against Ken. I thought you didn’t have enough MP. You tried and succeeded in getting rid of Ken’s gang without possessing an offensive skill; you are more insane than I thought.”
No, I was just dumb. But I would never say that out loud. Even if everyone already knew that. As long as I was trying to improve and learn from my mistakes, there was no shame in that. No, it was a bit shameful. But I would never say that out loud too.
After a few more minutes, Harry and the others appeared. Sandra, Rose, and Sarah looked pretty tired. But after using the statue to create some energy drinks, they looked a lot better. Since it had already become a habit, I just waited for Claire to select ten random survivors. And then we left the hotel to kill the nearby monsters, a few other groups left and headed toward different directions. But soon they return because they suffered many constant ambushes.
Since it would be too difficult to make sure that I would check all the survivors, I decided to do it only after we left the hotel. Luckily for me, Rose and Sara wrote down on a notebook the names of those who went with us, to make sure everyone would receive the same opportunities to hunt the monsters in relative safety.
Survivor A – HP: 245 MP: 121 STA: 225
Physical limit Lv 11, Mental limit Lv 06, Sensorial limit 01.
Survivor B – HP: 93 MP: 280 STA: 93
Physical limit Lv 4, Mental limit Lv 12, Sensorial limit 01.
Survivor C – HP: 201 MP: 80 STA: 201
Physical limit Lv 10, Mental limit Lv 03, Sensorial limit 01.
…
As I expected, I had to level up that skill more. I couldn’t see anything strange on them either. But I wondered why those survivors didn’t break their sensorial limits eve a single time. A few of them had long-ranged weapons, but they didn’t really try to kill or cause damage to the monsters from afar.
‘Are they thinking that I will help them forever? Or they really think the sensorial limit is useless?’
It was probably both options, and they couldn’t be more wrong in thinking that. While the sensorial limit was useless in terms of defense and attack, it saved my life many times. Also, because of it, I could outspeed most of the monsters. But it wasn’t like they were wrong either, it was a matter of preference, breaking the physical limit to become sturdier or break the mental limit to kill the monsters as fast as possible. I guess I was an anomaly; I only wanted to break the sensorial limit after all. I wanted to notice my enemies even before they could see me.
The vampire hunter’s crossbow improved a lot, as long as my bolts hit them, I could kill the small fries in a second. But, I couldn’t reload the crossbow instantly anymore. To take the empty cartridge and put a fully loaded one on the crossbow, I needed to use five seconds. Fortunately, Claire was there to cover me in the meantime.
At the end of that day, I managed to level up that skill, and now I could see a few of the survivors’ skills. It was very useful, but for some reason, I could only see their weakest skills. I will probably be able to see the others when the skill analyze reaches the next level. But, I didn’t notice any suspicious skills among the survivors.
On that day, Claire, the kids, and I helped one hundred survivors. At that pace, I wouldn’t be able to check every survivor. So, I decided to meditate near the statue and use the skill to analyze everyone. It wasn’t an ethical thing to do, but thanks to Claire, I was worried about the possibility of a spy being among us. And that feeling would only disappear after I make sure every single survivor in that place was clean.
Because I used that skill on almost everyone multiple times, the analyze skill had leveled up again. Now I finally could see all the survivors’ skills. However, only that wasn’t enough to confirm if a person wasn’t a spy or not. So, I kept using the skill. But soon, I stopped.
Survivor A – HP: 50 MP: 720 STA: 50
Physical limit Lv 01, Mental limit Lv 19, Sensorial limit 01.
Skill: Fireball Lv 03, Mana Cost Reduction Lv 05, Telepathy Lv 07
‘How in the hell didn’t I notice that guy?’
Aside from the council’s members and me, he was probably the strongest survivor. But only that wasn’t enough to make him a suspicious person. However, his last skill caught my attention. It wasn’t a combat skill, but the level of that skill was too high. Aside from me, I didn’t find any survivor who had leveled up a non-combat skill so much.
That guy didn’t look suspicious at all; he was an average guy who didn’t avoid the other survivors. In fact, he was cheerfully talking with other survivors while he was eating. He had black hair and eyes; he didn’t look strong nor weak. He wasn’t tall or short. Everything on him was average.
‘He doesn’t look like a spy at all, but, I have to make sure of it.’
After confirming that no one was looking at me, I activated the cape’s effect and headed toward Claire. She was having dinner with the kids, so, to not alarm any other survivors, I decided to whisper in her ears.
“Claire, I need a favor.”
My entire plan almost crumbled when Claire dropped on the floor, her plate full of food. But luckily, no one noticed it because the lobby was very noisy.
“What the hell are you doing?” Clair asked with a red face.
“Why are you blushing? Also, don’t look for me and just keep eating.”
“Because you whispered very close to my ears,” Claire said after resuming her dinner. “If you do that again I will make you regret it.”
“You are so weird. Anyway, I think I found someone suspicious when you finish eating go look for Rose and Sarah and help them to look at their notes if someone among the survivors has the skill telepathy.”
“Already? You sure work fast.” Claire said, showing surprise in her voice.
“Just do it, if you guys don’t find a person who has that skill, then that guy is a spy. I will wait here and keep my eyes on him.”
“Roger that,” Claire said and then she began to eat a little faster.
We were really in trouble if that guy was a spy, we didn’t decide many things. But we already decided how our survivors’ camp would work, and the woman in the west could use that against us. To make matters worse, that guy probably already observed us and reported about our skills. Maybe that woman wasn’t foolish after all.