Riding on his land drone, Jordan raced through the forest at its top speed. There were a few close calls with trees, as he tried to keep it on as direct a path as possible toward his destination. Though even then, there was every possibility that he would still be too late.
Come on… can you go any faster?! Jordan tightened his grip on his drone as he applied a cast of Overcharge. He hadn’t actually tried using the Skill on his drones yet, but this was as good of a time as any.
But in what was an unexpected reaction, he felt a mental ping. One that was giving him a choice, though he knew that it’d have to be made quickly before the Skill automatically picked for him at random. He could either apply the use of Overcharge to the twin guns for an empowered shot, or…
The drone sped ever faster as it gained an immediate burst to its acceleration. The treads moved with new life as the Skill also temporarily raised the drone’s speed cap while it zoomed ahead. Jordan could sense from the mental connection that the new max was double the usual. However, his drone would only reach that point for just a second. For by the time it accelerated up that speed, the boosting effect from Overcharge had already begun to wear off.
Yet just as it was about to start slowing down, he cast the Skill once more. Again it sped up, now even faster than before as the new use of Overcharge stacked with the last. The engine, normally barely audible, could now be heard as a purr.
Clinging so tightly to it, Jordan could clearly feel the body of the drone as it was warmed. It was still accelerating up to the even newer max speed of 100 miles per hour. So only an increase of 50% as a drop-off in gains, rather than doubling yet again or adding another 40 to be triple from the original.
From the direction the young woman had pointed, Jordan had already known that the destination would be the river. It made perfect sense that they’d stayed there after he had told them about it. If you were going to make camp anywhere, after all, it might as well be next to a fresh source of flowing water. Had the System not clearly predesigned the clearing to act as the location of his Kingdom along with almost immediately prompting him to build the base there, he would probably have it placed by the river instead.
But it meant that they should be somewhere between four and five miles away from his Kingdom. At the drone’s base max speed, that’d be something like seven minutes until he arrived. If he could maintain the speed boost to be something like at least 80 miles per hour, however, then Jordan should get there in under four, maybe closer to three minutes.
From the way the uses of Overcharge seemed to already be pushing the drone to its limits, he didn’t want to risk taking it too far. If doing so caused the drone to shut down, or even worse, explode or something, then that obviously wouldn’t be desirable. Even the best case would still mean stopping to summon a new one, and wasting valuable time due to resetting his momentum from scratch.
Jordan zoomed past the giant trees of the woods. It was only now that he really considered just how large this forest was compared to the relatively tiny field his group had been dropped off in. Perhaps it just went to show how seemingly random and varied the biomes of this planet could be.
The metal body of the drone felt consistently warm under his clothing, as he paced the uses of Overcharge to be just enough to maintain the speed of 80 miles per hour. Thanks to the Skill only costing 1 TP per cast and his regen being nearly 9 TP per minute, he could use basically every seven seconds without worrying about actually cutting into his resource pool.
However, even at the optimized time of three minutes, that was still three whole minutes. Depending on the circumstances, that could either pass in the blink of an eye or seem to stretch on for an eternity. As Jordan’s initial rush of adrenaline and panic had begun to stabilize, it ended up starting to feel more like the latter. And in that time, a stray thought suddenly passed through his mind.
Would… wouldn’t I already be too late? Jordan didn’t like the thought, but it had to be considered. While he was rushing at freeway speeds, the lady must have been running to his base from there. Even if her physical Stats were high enough to allow her to sprint like a top athlete for a long period, that would still only be so fast, right?
He very quickly did the math in his head. Even if he were generous and said the distance was only four miles, that’d still be pretty far over uneven terrain. Though maybe she had sprinted fast enough to be superhuman at a consistent 30 miles per hour, through the use of Skills or just a high enough Dexterity. Which even so, would still have taken eight minutes to run. If she’d left the moment their group was attacked, then eight minutes already a long time.
A bit over ten minutes would have passed by the time he got there, which meant only one thing. When he arrived, they would either have settled it themselves, or it would simply be too late for him to do anything. At least not do more than avenge them, anyway, if the thing attacking them was still close by.
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Fuck, but if it’s bad enough that she ran off to get my help… God damn it. Should I have tried to find out more about what was happening before I left? But that would just be wasting more time, and she might not have been able to say much anyway if she kept panicking. Damn it, why can’t the right thing to do be an obvious choice to make? Jordan internally cursed as he questioned his rashness.
The worst-case scenario had already begun to play through his mind. Everyone there already being dead by the time he arrived, and the creature that killed them was long gone. So he would have to just get a count of the those that had died, and report back to the lady about what happened. And if every other member were accounted for from nobody else being able to flee as well, then he’d have to bear the bad news about her being the lone survivor.
A knot in Jordan’s stomach tightened. Just one day. Would just one whole day without a tragedy occurring around him have been too much to ask for? He had hoped that today would be a peaceful one where he could at least try to forget about yesterday, and just throw himself into busy work instead to keep his mind occupied. But no, even that small amount of respite was apparently too great of an ask.
Jordan’s thoughts remained a jumbled mess as the next couple of minutes came and went. The shore of the wide river soon came into view, and his drone was ordered to slow down and then come to a halt. Hopping off, he approached the river and glanced both up and down its stream. The trees didn’t seem to grow too close to it, so he could see quite far along the area directly next to the river itself.
There weren’t any immediate signs of the group. But in retrospect, perhaps that should have been expected. As far as directions went, simply pointing could only be so accurate to bein with. Especially so if the pointer in question was exhausted and clearly not in the best state of mind.
I’ll just have to search the area until I find them, then. Don’t know which way to go, so can only search both. I can summon the air drone to check one direction, while I ride the opposite. Hopefully, I pick the right way from the start. Any second wasted just means more people that could be… dying…
Jordan’s thoughts trailed off as he took in the environment. There were the tranquil ripples of the water, and rustling of leaves being moved by the breeze carried over the river. The final bits of light from the sun were still just barely enough to illuminate the scene before him.
It was quiet. The ambient sounds could even be described as serene. Yet that was exactly the problem that he just now realized. Aside from the giant trees and thick canopy, one of the things he noticed most about the forest was just how much local noise it lacked.
Yet that shouldn’t have been the case right now, not at all. If people were being attacked and killed, they should have been screaming and yelling bloody murder. With little wind within the forest itself and a lack of ambient sounds to act as a wall of noise, the screams and such should have carried for miles. In fact, there was every chance that he might have been able to hear them from as far as next to his Kingdom, right?
And yet, this whole time, he hadn’t heard a single thing.
The hairs on the back of Jordan’s neck stood up as he glanced around, his gaze now filled with suspicion. Something about this was… wrong. He normally wasn’t someone who would put much stock into something like going with your gut, but he couldn’t shake the ominous feeling now coming to him.
Only meeting Joey without ever being able to see the other man. The woman who’d also come alone, running straight to his base as if knowing that he would still be there. Maybe it was out of desperation, and knowing that someone who’d been Level 4 might have stuck around after claiming the Mandate. And even after he claimed it, anyone close by would still reasonably remember the direction the Quest had pulled them.
His thoughts turned toward the one leaderboard he hadn’t checked this morning, due to not wanting to see the updated numbers. After his own group had died, he’d been happily willing to take Joey at his word, and believe that more people were out there and would live close by. And even if initially suspicious of his quickly gained Levels, they would eventually come around.
Maybe even move into his building and form the start of an actual community. That was something that most humans desired, especially in desperate times.
But if anyone could hypothetically have what it takes to join the Mightiest Slayer leaderboard, then shouldn’t he also have been inherently more suspicious? At least willing to ask questions first, rather than naively jump straight into action without finding out a damn thing beyond what he was initially told?
What the Hell is going on? Jordan asked himself. It just didn’t make any sense. With each moment that passed, the spiral of doubt and uncertainty only tunneled deeper into his mind.
If that woman had been able to run for help, it obviously meant the threat had been noticed. So it wasn’t like what happened with the Grass Panther, which had stealthily picked them off before an alarm could be raised. Even standing here where the water would be better at carrying noise, he really should have heard something by now. Anything, really.
At that moment, a chill ran up his spine. The now unmistakable feeling of being watched, or rather of someone using Appraise on him, immediately caught his attention.
“Excuse me, sir Human,” a loud voice with an oddly posh accent then said. When Jordan quickly spun toward the source of the words, his eyes widened. As the large figure approached, their several legs barely crunched against the bed of leaves.
“Do you have a moment to discuss being a willing sacrifice for the glory of our Golden Prince?” The newcomer asked with a quite polite tone.
Jordan couldn’t it as it took him a moment to process just what it was he was seeing. His mind had registered the voice as belonging to what sounded like a British man. But what was before him wasn’t even a man, but a Crab. A very, very large Crab.