I tried to explode those skeletons, but the explosive bolts didn’t work. Those fucking bags of bones could throw fireballs, but the explosive bolts couldn’t drain their MP. But not everything was bad news; Silver could easily smash them with his massive weight and powerful fangs. That said, they were too many skeletons around the hotel, If I didn’t know better, I would say the tower send them here because it was the only part of the city which had survivors. As if that wasn’t enough, at night I found another kind of enemy.
Mutant Hyena (Shadow) – HP: 750 MP: 250 STA: 750
Physical Limit Lv 10, Mental Limit Lv 05, Sensorial Limit Lv 15.
Skill: Bite Lv06, Dark Mist Lv 05.
Those hyenas were relatively weaker, but they always walked in packs of five. Since I didn’t like their last skill. I decided to create one of those heat vision googles and put it on Silver. It felt out of place on him, but I couldn’t care less about such things.
“All right, Silver, you know the drill. Go hunt weak monsters until dawn, if things get dicey retreat immediately.”
Silver barked and then left, although there was a chance that he could find an evolved mutant worm, he was a real predator and was fast enough. I was sure that he would be able to sense the presence of that thing and retreat before suffering any major wounds. That said, I was still pissed that I couldn’t do much against those skeletons. I tried to destroy the core of their bodies which was their spine, but that didn't change a thing. I could destroy them by freezing or exploding them with the magic arrows, but that was too inefficient. The magic arrows could be better used against the big guns.
“Don’t worry too much about it,” Harry said. “The mutant lizards are still there, and you are the only one who can find them before they can attack us.”
He had a point. Besides, it wasn’t like I always had to kill the monsters on the most efficient way possible. It doesn’t matter how much I fight and break my limits; I would always have a few weakness. I just had to accept that fact and learn from my weakness and those troublesome situations. After I accepted that fact, I decided to meditate and create new magic arrows through the night. Oddly enough, when I returned to my room, I saw Claire there meditating. She learned that skill soon after we returned, it seems she intended to upgrade her bow, but since Claire only broke her physical and sensorial limits, she didn’t have enough MP.
‘I guess she is quite competitive.’
I heard that a few other survivors also had decided to learn that skill, although only a handful of them had the necessary amount of evolution coins. Anyway, I just got rid of those thoughts and decided to meditate and create new magic arrows for the rest of the night.
When morning came, I headed toward the entrance gate and there I found Silver still fighting against a few skeletons.
Silver – HP: 432/1300 MP: 311/1900 STA: 154/600
Physical Limit Lv 09, Mental Limit Lv 12, Sensorial Limit Lv 13.
Skill: Lightning Lv 03 02%, Bite Lv04 11%.
Evolution Orbs: 3652/6600
The survivors who would take the first turn of the day helped and then Silver finally had the chance to rest. Until that moment, I had never seen him so wounded, his blood was dripping, and he looked quite grumpy. After he sat down to rest, I patted his head.
You have received 4871 Evolution Coins.
It was a new record, although I was pleased, the cost had been too high. The problem were the skeletons; they didn’t have flesh, so Silver couldn’t eat them to regenerate his wounds.
‘I guess I will bring the corpses of the mutant lizards which I will kill today to him.’
It wasn’t a sight most people would like to see, but it was necessary. Besides, everyone already got used to Silver. When I was too busy, Frank would silently approach and then climb on Silver’s head while he was sleeping. That brat was really brave; even the adults didn't dare to pat Silver, much less climb on his back.
After I finished my business with Silver, I returned to the lobby, and there I found all the survivors listening to Sandra.
“Today we will enter and investigate the interior of that tower,” Sandra declared. “But since innumerous skeletons appeared, I intend to take with us fifty members of the first group and fifty of the third group. The skeletons have only a single weakness, so the survivors of the second and fourth group won’t participate. But don’t slack off, all the fighters will have to fight inside the tower, I’m sure of it. So, hunt while we investigate the tower.”
Sandra chose the strongest survivors of the first and third group, and even though they didn’t much experience working together, they already knew what their job was. The first group would stop the normal skeletons and block the magic and arrows from the others; the members of the third group would just make magic rain over those creatures. The special team will join the mission only to kill any big monster which may appear, and I was the sole exception, I would try to find the mutant lizards and kill them as soon as possible. My job was also to predict any attacks coming from below us, although that was close to impossible. I will have to focus a lot to be able to do it, and that hellish hot weather would only make things difficult.
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‘I guess this will be a good training for me.’
Surprisingly, as soon as we left the hotel, our tanks formed two perfect lines and began to move forward while stomping and smashing the heads and the skeleton’s spines with their spears.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Orbs.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Coins.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Orbs.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Coins.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Orbs.
You have obtained 01 Evolution Coins.
…
Even though fifty survivors were destroying those skeletons, I was still receiving that message a lot. I thought those skeletons wouldn’t give more than ten orbs and coins per death, but I was wrong.
The tanks only stopped when they saw more than five skeletons wizards and skeletons archers ahead of them. When that happened, they stopped and raised their shields, the first line used their shields to protect their front and the second line use their shields to protect them from projectiles coming from above. It was the famous tortoise formation.
‘I guess they trained when I wasn’t looking.’
It was almost perfect; the only problem was that they couldn’t advance fast enough. Some skeletons archers and wizards ignored them and tried to attack the survivors of the third group, but Rose was there to protect them, she controlled Harry’s shield to block those magic attacks.
“Move faster!” Sandra shouted. “The other groups will be targeted if you guys don’t move faster!”
But that was easy said than done, the survivors have been training, but it wasn’t simple to ignore the pain and move forward when fireballs and lightning bolts were hitting them almost directly. In any case, I had better things to do than observing them.
‘Focus and concentrate, ignore the survivors’ presence, and feel the monsters’ movements…’
I quickly heard the sound of three hearts beating in places where I couldn’t see anything, and I killed the mutant lizards. Finding them was easy, although they were relatively far away, there wasn’t anything blocking my senses. The problem was the monsters coming from the ground; I killed every single salamander before those could attack. But it was impossible to detect the mutant ants’ presence, the best I could do was to feel them destroying the ground when they were three meters away from us, and that also meant that we only had three seconds to prepare. Unfortunately, those fuckers always appeared right below the first group, destroying their entire formation for a few seconds.
We got attacked by ants three times, and we just walked two hundred meters, although we didn’t suffer any losses, a few of our tanks were moaning in pain while being healed by Sarah.
‘There’s no other choice; I will have to use the search skill.’
Although my stock of potions would suffer because I would have to use that skill almost every twenty seconds, it was better than losing our frontline. Thanks to that, we managed to reach the tower without suffering any more wounds. Although some survivors looked weirdly at me. As if I wasn’t trying to do my job at the beginning. I just ignored them.
Exactly as we had expected, the skeletons were coming out from the tower. A new skeleton appeared ten seconds after the last one had left the tower. The entrance door was open, but we couldn’t see anything inside the tower, even the sunlight wasn’t able to enter in that place.
“What are we going to do, mom?” Harry asked, facing the tower.
“We will have to enter,” Sandra answered. “We need as much information as possible before trying to reach the last floor of this tower.”
“Should we send a small team first?” Rose asked.
“No,” Sandra crossed her arms. “We will all enter together, whatever happens, we will all face it together. We will rest for fifteen minutes; after that, we will enter.”
Rest in that place wasn’t an easy task thanks to the skeletons appearing and the hot weather. Even though we were about to enter in a dangerous place, I was thankful when Sandra gave the order to enter the tower. That hot weather was even more annoying the life and death situations.
When I put my feet inside that tower, I immediately noticed that something was off. That place wasn’t hot at all, and I didn’t saw any skeletons. It looked like I was in the hotel, but I couldn’t feel the fatigue leaving my body. Besides, that place made me remember that place where Ann used to see my memories; I couldn’t see anything. It was just me and the darkness, even Claire, who was right beside me disappeared.
“What the hell…”
“Welcome survivor, to the doomsday tower’s first challenge.”
It was that annoying voice again, something bad was about to happen, and I knew it. Every time I heard that voice without breaking my limit, something troublesome happened.
“First challenge? How many challenges will we have to face?”
“Ten challenges, do you wish to start the first challenge?”
“Wait a minute, will happen after we succeed?”
“I cannot answer that question, do you wish to start the first challenge?”
It seems that I finally could get some answers, although not all of them. But I decided to continue asking.
“What will happen if we fail in this challenge?”
“All survivors who fail will die, do you wish to start the first challenge?”
“Who can we win this challenge?”
“To win, fifty-five of those one hundred nine survivors currently inside this tower have to answer five questions currently. Do you wish to start the first challenge?”
I was speechless, I entered the tower hoping to fight against thousands of monsters, but instead, I had to answer a quiz correctly. But then I realized something.
“Wait a minute; if I don’t answer those five questions correctly, I will die. But what will happen if I answer those five questions correctly and most of the survivors don’t?”
“If you answer incorrectly any question, you will die. But, if fifty percent of the survivors inside this tower doesn’t answer all the questions correctly, all survivors inside this tower will die. Do you wish to start the challenge?”
Me and my rotten luck… I thought that I would only need strength to live in this new chaotic world. But I was wrong, as usual. I would also need some intelligence and some luck. In any case, I was in trouble.
“If we succeed, what will happen to the survivors who aren’t in this tower right now? Will they have to answer those questions?”
“No, if the survivors who are in this tower right now succeed, all the other survivors will only face the other challenges. Do you wish to start the first challenge?”
At least, not everything wasn't bad news. If we succeed, the kids and other survivors won’t have to take those risks although I had no idea if the next challenges would be any less crazy.