Fortunately, any corpse had a chance to drop a stat card, even if the victim wasn't killed by Wolfram.
Three of the goblins were immobilized in an instant, as for the remaining ones, they managed to approach the soldiers and slash with their swords and daggers.
The soldiers weren't amateurs, they counter-attacked with their firearms, using them as powerful blunt weapons that were quite effective against the frail bodies of goblins.
They were experts, so the fight wasn't particularly difficult. They finished off the attacking goblins and then proceeded to eliminate the other ones, which were immobilized a few seconds earlier and were trying to escape with blood leaking from their fresh wounds.
As the two of them walked towards the ugly goblins, Wolfram showed himself, surprising both the soldiers and the crawling green-skinned abominations.
The soldiers were alerted at first but they relaxed when they saw it was just a comrade, still, they didn't drop their cautiousness as they gazed at him with curiosity.
"I've heard gunshots from afar so I hurried here, I'm glad I finally managed to find living people!"
Wolfram expressed his thoughts with a helpless smile. He showed an expression of relief, making his words sound a bit more believable.
One of the two soldiers walked up to him while still keeping his guard up,
"It is fortunate for us too. It's been a rough day here with all those goblin attacks. Plus, our rations have been running low so we were forced to venture into 'unknown' territories', for want of a better word."
After the earthquake, this floor became infested with goblins, therefore, any room could have numerous hidden goblins prepared to launch a sneak attack. Wolfram sensed some truthfulness from the soldier's words but they didn't seem to say everything about their situation back at whatever camp they might have estabilished.
Naturally, as they didn't recognize him based on his face, there were still lingering suspicions plastered on their frowning faces.
Wolfram gazed at the goblins with bewilderment, he inspected them thoroughly with a wide-open mouth as if it was the first time he had seeing them.
"I've been unconscious till recently... the room I had been in had collapsed and everyone else died."
Although they didn't totally believe Wolfram, it was still good to stumble upon a human rather than a monster. One of the soldiers patted Wolfram's shoulder and responded,
"A new comrade is always a good thing! We have a small base not far from here where there are a few other survivors. We should get out of here before more goblins arrive."
A cold glint flashed across Wolfram's eyes, it was quickly hidden and went unnoticed by the soldier. Wolfram was no fool, he knew that he wasn't trusted or else the soldier would have told him where their base was.
Soldiers guarding this floor were, more or less, familiar with each other but there were still special cases where an unfamiliar soldier would randomly appear, this was what Wolfram was betting on, however, it didn't seem to work as he had expected.
'Anyway, it doesn't matter much, I just need to know where their base is.'
"I'm Tachi and he's Baldwin."
Wolfram nodded and said
"I'm Wolfgang"
Wolfram spat a fake name without a care in the world, after all, it was not like they were going to remain together for long, from the looks of it. After he introduced himself, he crouched next to the goblin corpses and fiddled with them as if he was inspecting him, he hid his actions skilfully as he successfully retrieved four stat cards, which he swiftly crushed on the spot.
The soldiers didn't find his action weird, they just stuffed their bags with water bottles and snacks, and by the time they finished, Wolfram was already done 'inspecting the corpses'.
In total, he gained 0.2 Vitality, 0.1 Magic Control and 0.5 Perception. It was a pleasant gain, especially the Perception, which strengthened his senses, including his hearing, which was very beneficial in such a place.
Thereafter, Wolfram's ears caught the sound of light footsteps coming from the opposite corridor.
"We should go, they are coming."
The group of goblins coming was greater in number than the previous, and from their footsteps, Wolfram guessed that they were at least twenty marching together. A
Both soldiers frowned as they couldn't hear anything but they still complied and left the intersection.
*[Sensor Hearing] Lv1 acquired! +0.1 Card Points.*
As he stared at the red card in front of him, Wolfram began to understand this card system. He speculated that the 'skills' he was proficient at before the earthquake would be easier to obtain.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He easily obtained [Sneak] and [Lightsteps] thanks to his past experience, as for his hearing, it was 'trained' when he was an assassin and though it wasn't drastically enhanced to a superhuman degree, it was still better than the average person.
The three of took a line formation, in which one was walking behind the other. Wolfram was in the middle with Baldwin at the front and Tachi at the rear.
"You should have noticed the appearance of this strange system, right, Wolfgang?"
Tachi spoke with a low voice as they proceeded down the wide corridor which was half-destroyed. Tachi focused on Wolfram's expression as he said that but was unable to notice anything out of the norm.
"Yeah, about that, it came as a huge surprise. I still don't know how it works, though."
Hearing this, Tachi's eyes turned cold as he questioned
"Then how were you able to hear the goblins from far away? I'm already Lv3 yet I heard no sound."
Although Baldwin didn't say anything from the moment they met, he was interested to hear Wolfram's answer.
Wolfram spread his hands innocently and replied
"I think it's a skill, it's called [Sensor Hearing], I've had it since the start."
"Oh so it's like that. A few of the survivors in our base obtained special skills, but they vary a lot."
By saying half of the truth, Wolfram somehow won the trust of the soldier. Actually, Tachi wanted to test Wolfram and see if he would fabricate a lie or not, and coincidentally, Wolfram's words matched what Tachi had experienced beforehand.
'Special skills you say? I'd very much like to see them.'
Wolfram rejoiced inwardly as he imagined people unleashing powerful waves of flames or shooting magical copies of themselves at the enemy. From what he had seen earlier, the movements of the soldiers were slower than his which meant that their speed stat didn't increase like his or had a numerical value lower than his.
They were lv3 so they must have gained something upon leveling, unfortunately, he didn't know the details or else he would have finished them off sooner.
There was a high chance he would be discovered as soon as they reach their base, especially if the commander was there, hence, Wolfram guessed that their paths were about to separate sooner than later.
He could sense that they were more relaxed than a few minutes ago. They were in a more 'familiar' area, possibly safer than the rest and secured by their colleagues.
Soon, the trio reached another intersection that led to two different paths, one of them was barricaded using tables and chairs with only a small space in-between, barely enough for a human to pass through.
As for the other, there was no barricade, it actually reeked of blood as the walls were dyed with red liquid and several corpses were lying around; they belonged to both goblins and humans.
Apparently, they were no longer in the area where prisoners were held, this was indicated by the signs on the top of the wall, each one pointing in a direction with a word written on them.
To the right, where the barricade was, was written 'Research', to the direction they came from was 'Prison' and to the left was '5th floor'.
From the number of corpses and the gloomy feeling about that area, Wolfram could feel that the reason the soldiers were still holed up here despite the passing of two or more days was because of what was lurking in there. Alas, he didn't know the specifics but it was safe to assume that a strong monster was awaiting them there.
'Guess it's parting time.'
Wolfram thought to himself as he suddenly dashed straight at Baldwin and unhesitantly used his military knife to slit the throat of the unsuspecting victim, who dropped his guard a bit when they arrived here. His suspicions of Wolfram lessened by a lot but who would have thought that their new friend would attack out of the blue, especially when they were so close to their base.
Although he was a veteran soldier, Wolfram's sudden dash and his precise and fast actions were not something that could be resisted by the surprised and defenseless Baldwin.
The soldier couldn't cry for help as blood gushed out of his slit neck, his body stiffening for a second before it was grabbed by its killer.
Tachi, who was on the back, was momentarily startled before he raised his loaded rifle and prepared to shoot at the man.
Wolfram held up Baldwin's limp body and directed it toward Tachi, using it as a meatshield to defend against the bullets.
The rifle started shooting unceasingly as it littered the poor Baldwin's body with countless holes, causing a rather gory sight. Wolfram didn't care as he pushed the body of the dead soldier at his foe and appeared from behind the falling corpse, shooting Tachi with his rifle.
The soldier was already prepared, he didn't back away as he would be an open target for Wolfram, instead, he charged to the front, pushing the body of his dead comrade away and grabbing his handgun, trying to blow Wolfram's head off.
Unfortunately, there was a short time period where the corpse obstructed Tachi's view of Wolfram, and by the time he regained vision of that area, there were no signs of the enemy.
He hurriedly looked behind him, afraid that the enemy had already gotten behind to his rear, but it wasn't the case. Tachi tightly held the handgun and surveyed the area but even after a few seconds passed, there was no sign of the enemy. The soldier assumed that Wolfram had fled so he breathed a sigh of relief and hastily advanced forward, trying to go back to his base to notify the people there about what happened.
He warily approached the barricade and pushed away some tables to barely get through when, suddenly, his instincts alerted him: He hurriedly turned around only to see a flying chair coming right at him. The soldier clumsily rolled away and safely dodged the chair, however, the next thing he saw was Wolfram, who was three meters away from him with a rifle pointed right at the crouching Tachi
"What are your intentions? Do you think you can get away after what you did?"
Tachi wasn't scared despite being in such a difficult position, he coldly looked at Wolfram and declared confidently.
"My group will arrive shortly, they must have heard the gunshots. You'll have nowhere to run to."
Confused, Wolfram tilted his head and retorted
"Who said I'm running?"
Shocked, Tachi was about to speak again but wasn't able to as a bullet went right through his forehead, instantly killing him. Wolfram hummed happily as he retrieved the card that came out of the dead Tachi then went back the way he came from, wanting to loot the corpses that he saw earlier but couldn't inspect due to having some 'company'.
He didn't feel bad for killing these soldiers, whether they were good or bad people, it didn't matter. They were his enemies, people who wanted him dead, so killing them was the only option. Morality in such a godforsaken place like this facility was non-existent. Now that chaos reigned over, it was survival of the fittest. Societal ranks and wealth would avail you naught in a world infested with ungodly monstrosities.
In such a world where the strong would prevail and rule, you could only survive by becoming stronger and eliminating any potential problem that might hinder your progress.
It wasn't certain that they would kill him if they knew his real identity, however, they would surely not treat him kindly. In fact, there was strong chance that they would force him to become bait. He was a criminal... a murderer, and no one would feel sorry for treating him as something easily disposable.