Chapter 11: You Got Talent
“Alright, we’ll let them come with us…”
You always have a choice. Sometimes, the best of the choices isn’t entirely yours to make. Oh, I do have another choice: I can go solo and leave them. The problem with that option? I’m a mage; a glass cannon. Even if I go full heavy armor, just one shit hitting the fan and my ass is going to the grinder.
“The question is: what do we do now?” I asked.
“…”
This is the trick I learned from experience whenever someone chooses a problematic option that I didn’t like. Let those idiots solve the problem.
“Uhhh… I guess we should plan a formation or something?” Melissa replied.
“What kind of formation?” I asked.
“I don’t know… you’re the leader. Isn’t that your job?”
It’s only been four days since we met Melissa and her attitude was starting to show its true colors. I guess every person has their skeletons hidden in their closet. Every guy is an asshole and every girl is a bitch. All the ‘nice guys’ and ‘shy girls’ that I knew were hidden douchebags and bitches
“Yes, it is my job. Do you expect me solve everything? I mean, this is what you want – To protect them. But that’s the problem, how can we protect them if we couldn’t even protect ourselves properly? Newsflash: we barely made it out alive. Seriously, even I don’t know what to do.”
There was a long pause.
“We should talk to them and ask them about their abilities. Maybe we won’t need to keep an eye for them 24/7.” Eric suggested.
“Hmmm… That’s a good idea.” I rubbed my beard as I nodded.
See? It’s not easy coming up with a plan if you’re not enthusiastic with the idea but when you let the others who are interested, they’ll come up with a plan instantly like grabbing a plot magic device out of their pocket. It’s very convenient.
“Alright, meeting’s over. Let’s go talk to them, shall we?”
The meeting came to an end as we finished our breakfast and went to the other room where the other survivors hang out. As I scanned each and every one of them, they didn’t look like a party material. They looked like slackers, lazy, weak and useless. I’m starting to sense a bad future for them.
Of course, I may be wrong. I’m not saying that I’m a good judge of character and I don’t think anyone can say that they absolutely won't judge a book by its cover. Heck, even the cover of this web novel is shitty. That’s why some readers didn’t even bother to read this damn good story.
Anyway, I told George our decision about letting them join us to Camp Aguinaldo. He looked like he’s about to cry his tears of joy. Before I could even say to him our conditions, he hugged me as he said his thanks.
I told him our plan to interview each and every one of them about their skills. I also told him the truth that we couldn’t protect them all the time. He agreed to our plan.
“Listen up guys. Miguel has something to say.”
“Uhmm… Ehemm…”
I gulped. The people were looking at me in the same way that the audience did at the graduation. Some of you may think, I have more than average Charisma so why do I have this problem? The answer is fear.
I wasn’t much of a public speaker. The one time I had to speak in public was when I graduated as salutatorian in highschool. Why didn’t I become the valedictorian? It’s a long story. Anyway, my heart was beating fast and I was so nervous when I faced the audience. I had a speech prepared and written on paper but my speech was so unnatural and my voice sounded like robot.
“Uhhhmmm….”
The audience laughed at me and I almost cried on stage. It was the single most embarrassing moment of my life. After that incident, I had a phobia of speaking in a large group of people. I had no problems speaking with small groups of people but if there are more than 20 people, I’ll become nervous.
“Okay. Uhmmm… so uhmmm… uhmmm…”
I killed a lot of goblins, killed two ogres and incinerated hundreds of zombies. Why do I have to be afraid of them? I have power and they are powerless. A lion does not concern himself with opinions of the sheep. This played in my mind again and again.
“George asked me if you could tag along with us. I discussed this with my group and we agreed…”
The audience were listening to me intently. It looks like I’m doing it right.
“But we have conditions: First, we need to know about your abilities that can help us survive out there. Second, you will follow us and do exactly as we say. Any questions?”
“…”
There were soft whispers and murmurs and from their tone, I can already tell they’re disagreeing.
“Why should we follow you?”
The man looked at me with his eyes going up and down as if he’s trying to measure me. His looks were average and not too conspicuous. I’d say he’s in his forties and he’s probably an asshole professor judging from the atmosphere he’s giving off.
Player: Professor Asshole
Race: Human
Level: 1
Party: AlphaPhiOmega3
“Who are you to tell us what to do?” He continued.
It’s only natural that they’d disagree. I mean, I said my conditions straight to the point. I have no time to fuck around for some Aye and Nay and I wasted enough time playing democracy with my idiotic party.
“What’s your name again?” I asked.
“Gerry… and I am a professor in this college.”
I used [Observe] on him as I learned this asshole’s name.
Player: Professor Gerry
Race: Human
Level: 1
Party: AlphaPhiOmega3
I noticed that whenever I used [Observe] on another person, their names would be written as ‘???’. It’s only natural since you can only know what you can see. You cannot see the name if you don’t know their name and if you give them a name then that name will be displayed. My conclusion: you can give a fake name to another and that’s what they will see on their [Observe].
“So Professor Gerry…” I slowly stepped forward and smiled. “How many monsters did you kill?”
His eyebrows joined together as he heard the question. “None but I don’t see why that’s relevant.”
“You think so?”
“You think that because you killed monsters, you have the right to tell us what to do? You’re just a kid. I bet you don’t even know what you’re doing. It’s true that we owed Dianne for the food but I don’t see the reason why we should take orders from you.”
I couldn’t suppress a snicker.
“Well, first of all, I agree with what you said. It’s true that I’m a kid; I’m 20 years old and you don’t owe me anything. Second, it’s true that I don’t know what I’m doing but the truth is none of us have an idea what to do. Third, while the rest of you were here since the beginning, we’ve been out there. We killed goblins, ogres and zombies. We know what’s out there and we’re more experienced than any of you. Lastly, that was an offer and if you accept my offer, you have to take orders. If not, then I’m afraid you can’t come with us.”
“…”
“I cannot guarantee that all of you will survive. We couldn’t even guarantee ours. As far as I’m concerned, I think you should all stay here. But for how long? I don’t know. You have a week’s supply of food and you can wait for the police or the army to sort these things out. That is if they will come. I’m not even sure if there’s a functional government anymore.”
After a few seconds of silence, the crowd murmured as they discussed what I’ve said. If you ask me, I’ll just take George and his son with us and leave them. I really wanted to discourage them to go with us but I should stick with the decision of my party if I had to keep them too.
The group finally agreed with our terms. It wasn’t that hard of a decision but I think this Professor Asshole just wanted to try to question my authority. Whatever he’s thinking, I don’t really care unless it involves my safety.
We started the interview with the five of us as judges like an audition for a Got Talent. One by one, we started to ask questions like: “What is your Skill?”, “What are your stats?”, “What is your profession/job?” and “Can you demonstrate to us your Skill?”
I wanted to add “Why should we hire you?” or maybe a “You got a Yes” at the end but we won’t be taken seriously. I wanted to give off the vibe that we mean business.
As the interview went on, we found out that most of these clowns are useless as fuck. They’re perfect cannon fodders rather than party members. [Fast Writing] which makes the user write faster, [Appraise] which allows the user to know the market price of the item, [Sketch] and other skills that were inappropriate for adventuring.
The most notable and useful skills we’ve seen were:
1. [Repair] – Instantly repairs equipment, the one who has this skill was a TV repairman. He said that he could also repair other things like PCs, electric fans, saws and etc. He was one of the five guys who greeted us yesterday in the entrance.
2. [Track] –It lets the user track a creature by using trails and to identify the said creature without needing to see it. Although the one who has this skill was a student, her hobby was photography and liked to take pictures of endangered animals in the wild. How she finds these endangered animals? I have no idea.
3. [Encourage] – Raises morale and battle capabilities of the user and allies. This was Professor Asshole’s skill.
4. [Sprint] – Self-explanatory. A varsity student’s skill. He’s a track-and-fielder.
5. [Fire Manipulation] – Same as my skill and it belonged to Robert Palomares, the guy who can summon a flame in his hand. He’s a student and didn’t say much about his hobby.
6. [Power Attack] – Same as Eric’s first skill. The one who owns this skill was a student and her hobby was badminton.
There were 2 others: Indian Boy and the girl with mango shaped face were level 3 because they killed zombies on the way. Although their skills were useless, they can still be an asset because of their combat experience. As I read the list I made of the persons with the most useful skills, I was starting to doubt that the skills have something to do with the initial stats. I knew that the help menu mentioned it but my guts were telling that there was something more about it.
I think the reason why Eric got [Power Attack] was because of his hobby or perhaps it was something he’s very good at or maybe his dream. Ah, yes. Tennis was his sport. If you ask Eric about tennis, you’ll spend the whole day listening about his favorite tennis player.
How about Claire with her skill [Charm]? Was her hobby fishing for boys? She didn’t give off the “I like sex” vibe and I didn’t see her flirt with our classmates except with Eric. She’s the opposite of a flirt and more likely to bite your cock off. She didn’t mention anything about her past because she wasn’t that talkative to me and I didn’t really care.
I understood why Melissa got [Aimed Shot]. She mentioned that her hobby was to shoot down monkeys with her slingshot and as far as I can tell, she’s very good at it. It doesn’t make any sense but it was the only reason I could think of.
What I didn’t understand was Dianne. I remembered that Dianne was very good at playing hide-and-seek back when we were little. No matter how hard I try to find her hiding place, I just couldn’t. Was that the only reason why Dianne got [Sneak]? Or maybe she’s a spy or something. That would be unlikely because she didn’t have military background. If she had military background then she wouldn’t be my classmate in highschool.
Why was I given [Heal] instead of other magic like [Fire Manipulation]? I had 22 INT as my initial stats but according to Robert, his INT was 14 when he was level 1. I guess I’ll find out soon.
After the interview and the ‘review’ of the applicants, we gathered all of them as I gave them the weapons that our group looted from the goblins. Iron daggers, Iron swords, short bows and some arrows. The non-essentials will be on the rear as archers and they will fire at the enemy on my signal while the others with combat potential and experience will fight alongside with us. Eric and the girls were shocked as I gave the others our hard earned loot.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Eric asked.
“Go on, talk.” I answered.
“In private…”
Eric and the girls looked somewhat pissed at me. They could have used our party communication system but they chose to drag me in another room to have our private chat.
“What the hell was that?” Claire asked.
“What?”
“You gave them our loot!” Melissa burst out.
“So?” I asked as I crossed my arms.
“You said we’re going to trade those weapons to other survivors but now, you’re giving it for free...” Eric said as he gritted his teeth.
I was rolling my eyes as they ranted non-stop about the junk goblin weapons. I noticed that Dianne was silent and her eyes gazed on an empty space. I didn’t know if she’s pissed or not but I couldn’t get a good read on her facial expression.
“How about you, Dianne? Any complaints?” I asked.
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Dianne snapped back to reality and shook her head as she looked down. I wanted to say something so I raised my hand to stop the ranting from my party. It took a few seconds before they shut up.
“As to why I gave them our precious loot, how do you expect them to fight without weapons?”
“But we earned it... You can’t just give it away!” Melissa complained.
“Isn’t this what you wanted? To help them?”
“Yeah, but we’re already helping them by letting them to come with us and we already gave them food!” Eric said.
“Look...” I raised my voice as I was getting irritated.
”It’s easy to say that you wanted to help but if you really wanted to help them then don’t do it half-assed. I mean, if I saw a starving person, should I give him a pinch of bread when I have a loaf? It’s either you help or you don’t. Never do it half-assed. If you help someone, you make sure to see it through the end!”
“...”
They shut up as they realized my point. I wanted them to see the consequences of their actions and to take responsibility for it. We’re not children anymore.
Wow, what a self-righteous prick...
Shut it, I didn’t ask for Your comment.
Anyway, most people like to “help others in need” but in fact, instead of helping, they put more burden to those who they wanted to help. Whenever a storm sweeps down a place and people were affected, there’s always a food or clothes drive. The people who donate food or old clothes didn’t realize that they’re not helping at all. The help they give is what I call half-assed.Imagine the volunteers who have to sort out expired canned goods and unusable clothing. That’s why I donate money instead of goods so I wouldn’t add more problems to these charitable organizations.
Heck, if only we had enough money to equip the others with better weapons but sadly, we have to work with what we have for the moment.
The Nobel peace prize for bullshitting goes to Miguel Arevalo. *Clap! Clap! Clap!*
As a prize for your bullshit, the SYSTEM rewards you the following:
Reward(s):
+1 Wisdom
I let out a deep sigh as I shook my head. I try my best to ignore Him but He’s so annoying sometimes.
I noticed that I always end up disagreeing with my party members. I’m worried that our relationship will deteriorate to the point that we don’t trust each other. I trust them a bit but not completely. If we continue develop trust issues with each other, we will be in big trouble.
“You were right, Miguel. If we’re going to help, we should give our best...” Dianne said.
The rest of them nodded and they finally deal with it. It looks like they’d rather agree with Dianne. What the fuck is wrong with them? *Sigh*
After the private chat and their pathetic whining, we went back to the other room and I discussed to the rest of them our formations and tactics. Melissa, the archers and the children will be on the rear while Repairman, Professor Asshole and George protect their flanks. Eric, Claire, Sprinter, Tracker, and two others: Indian Boy and Mango Girl will be in the frontline while Robert and I, the mages, between the frontline and rear.
Dianne will be our scout. Although it may sound like a good idea that Tracker should go and scout with Dianne, she will just be a burden. Unlike her, Dianne moves fast and can go into hiding if need be. Tracker will just have to look for trails of monsters in the frontline.
The other group decided to disband their party and joined our party. From original five members, our numbers increased to 31 including 3 children. I wanted to suggest that we shouldn’t include those who will not be active in combat because I hate leechers but the party communication system is vital to our survival as a group.
Eric made some improvised spears for the frontliners and the rear guards using mop handles, goblin iron dagger and duct tapes while Repairman took pieces of thick plywood from Eric to make improvised shields. I suggested that Eric should make the finishing touch for the shield so his Crafter perk will take effect. Eric’s Crafter perk was applied even if he just hammered the nails on the shields’ wooden handles.
Eric used WD40 and sandpaper to remove the rust from the goblin weapons. These rusted weapons transformed into normal quality weapons. Also, the poor quality goblin bows had their strings replaced with higher quality and much better strings. There wasn’t much that he can do about the bows themselves.
All of the weapons have 10% bonus after Eric was done with the tinkering. After that, Repairman used [Repair] to these weapons to restore their lost durability. I also discussed to them our planned route to Camp Aguinaldo while we’re eating our lunch.
Parties like these are often seen on dungeon raids in RPGs. There’s not much of a difference in tactics compared to a typical grinding party but like I said, real life isn’t a normal RPG. Only fools like Leeroy Jenkins would gladly dive in a hellish number of mobs.
Our tactics and formation were significantly changed as our numbers grew larger. Thankfully, I used to play Total War games when I was bored with RPGs. From vanilla Total War to Middle Earth mods, I was confident with my skills as a decent commander. Not to mention that I’ve lost so many times and learned the tactics used by my online opponents. I’ve watched documentaries on youtube to see the tactics and strategies used by historic figures and applied the said tactics in game.
For obvious reasons, I cannot do all of the micromanagement so I delegated tasks to be more effective similar to a commander appointing captains, sergeants and other officers to command their teams. As a leader of this group, I needed to focus on the bigger picture rather than every details of the battle. Most would think that our number was too small to start delegating tasks but that’s a common misconception.
Just like ordering a subordinate to do something, my only control was to give order but the one I’m ordering was in control of his movement. It was obvious that I cannot control the way he’s going to do it but what I can do is to give deadlines and expect results and if necessary to give specifics. Sounds similar? It’s the same as managing an office.
I put Eric and Claire on the command of the frontline. Eric will be focusing on defense and keeping the line intact and Claire will be our offense. Melissa will be the one to command the archers and the rear support while I will be in command of the midline and give general orders to my ‘captains’. I would put Dianne to command a scout party but she’s a one-man team; to put it correctly, one-woman team. She’ll be independent and will directly report to me.
As much as we wanted to show off our badassery to others, I decided to go with a much more conservative plan rather than aggressively taking on the zombies. I only briefed them of the standard formations and tactics but it doesn’t mean that we’ll use it on zombies. The problem with zombies wasn’t their strength individually but it’s their numbers. Our standard battle tactics wouldn’t be too effective against them and I planned to use it only if we have no choice but to fight.
Before we leave the building as a group, the frontliner group gathered fresh zombie corpses for our disguise while he rest of us looted all the cloth that we can find in the building. The others weren’t thrilled of our ways of surviving. I didn’t care since they agreed to do it our way.
Seeing a human corpse being gutted wasn’t the best sight but I told them that it was necessary for our survival and it was the same thing that we did to make way through the zombie infested streets unharmed. There were questions and doubts about the plan but I guess, we’ll just have to demonstrate it later. It was already noon when we finished preparing our disguise and we left the PolSci Building.
As we moved through the streets, the others were surprised that the number of zombies were significantly reduced. They were nervous but when they saw ash and bone patches on the ground, the air around them seemed to get a bit lighter. I warned them to be cautious since I’ve only cleared the zombies near the building and not the whole university belt. There could be thousands more.
We moved at a normal walking pace as we avoid lone zombies in the corner. It’s best to conserve our energy for real emergencies. After a few minutes, we finally encountered groups of zombies. In my estimate, their numbers were at least 10-20 zombies per block. They still haven’t noticed us and continued to ignore us. I wasn’t entirely sure if my plan would work with these many people but so far, it was working.
The frontliners kept a tight formation as they hacked through the zombies that got in our way. I warned them to avoid making loud noises so I restrained Claire on using her new skill [Wail of Agony]. She tested her [Lacerating Strike] as she decapitates the zombies with quick and clean slash of her sword.
Eric and the other frontliners ploughed through the horde as Claire and the rest of us finished off the zombies who fell. Dianne kept on informing us of our direction and led us to way with lesser zombie density.
[Keep pressing forward. Dianne, are we near to Katipunan Avenue?] – Miguel
[Yes, just a few more blocks….] – Dianne
[Are we going to be safe now?] - ???
[No, of course not. As long as we’re outside we’re never safe.] - ???
This is the problem with party communication system. Once your party reaches a certain size, you can’t tell who’s talking unless you’re familiar with their voice. Not to mention, the random babblings of children. It’s irritating.
We could see Katipunan Avenue in the short distance. It’s just another road but with smaller amount of zombies. I didn’t know if the entire city was infested with zombies from what I observed, the horde was moving east and that’s the reason why we’re seeing less and less zombies as we go west. There was also lesser amount of corpses lying around the streets. To be sure, I advised them to avoid these corpses.
“Ahhhhhhhh!!! Fuck!” Claire screamed in pain as a corpse suddenly grabbed her leg and bit her.
-91 HP
Debuff: Severe Bleeding
I learned that in every battle, casualties are a guarantee. Whether a wound, injury or death, it was inevitable that you’ll suffer casualties. Sacrifices are needed to reach an objective but when your objective was to keep everyone alive, it’s almost impossible. Almost but not absolutely impossible.
Claire kept on screaming in agony as the zombie tore a small chunk of her flesh. She fell down to the ground and held her thigh as the zombie slowly crawled towards her. The rest of these clowns were shocked and they froze like statues as they saw blood gushing from Claire’s thigh. I rushed with my sword in hand and stabbed the zombie’s head.
-57 HP
Target Died
After I confirmed that the zombie was dead, they rushed towards Claire.
“Move away!” I swerved through the ‘concerned’ crowd and rushed to use [Heal] on Claire.
“Stay with me Claire... Come on...”
I focused my mind and used [Heal] as I tried to make her stay conscious. Thank God, I have [Heal]. The bleeding stopped and her wound slowly closed as my magic worked on her flesh.
91 HP
The zombie bit a chunk of her thigh where her femoral artery was located. That’s why the bleeding was severe and the damage was high. Dianne rushed towards us as she heard that Claire was injured.
“Claire! Are you okay?” She asked.
Claire nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m alright... No need to worry.”
“Jesus... That sucked...” Claire added.
Dianne let out a deep sigh of relief. I helped her get up but she looked weakened even after I healed her. I used [Observe] to check her status but it seemed that her status was tired. I felt that there’s still something wrong. Maybe it was just me and perhaps she’s just exhausted.
“We should rest for a while.” Eric said as he saw Claire’s condition.
“No, we should move on...” I responded.
I took off Claire’s armor and weapons. She didn’t complain as I stored her items to my inventory and lifted her to my back. I also stored my staff and my sword in my inventory.
“Hold on...” I said to her.
She nodded and she leaned on my back. I grabbed both of her legs with my arms and gave her a piggyback ride.
“Let’s go...”
I felt Claire leaned her head on my back and fell asleep.
We continued our journey as the sun was still up in the skies.
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Author's note: Thanks for reading everyone!