Moving quickly over the soggy earth I advanced towards the corner intersection of the city, plateau, marsh, and savannah zones. Any monsters in my way were taken care of before they had the time to react. Interestingly enough as I approached the corner, I could tell there was a distinct scarcity of monsters. While there were still some around it was maybe 10% of what I considered normal density. This trend continued, even dropping further as the outer edges of the city came into range of my energy sense. It wasn't until I reached the city zone that I felt what I assumed were humans. It was hard for me to tell, but their energy signature felt slightly different than monsters. Though, thinking about it know there are even differences between monsters. All of the zone monsters had the same type of energy signature, but for example the Relaigs, Earth animals, and the mouth all had slightly different types of energy signatures. It's subtle compared to the difference between humans and monsters but it was there.
Shaking my head and bringing my thoughts back to the moment I appraised these humans' strength. There were six of them and each was maybe level 11? I didn't have much practice gauging human levels, but I felt my guess was accurate within a level or two either way. Unfortunately, they could also be something like level 5 with a higher tier class or level 2 with a class the same tier as mine. Regardless it was an accurate assessment of their power if not their level.
I did not fear these six people, I could take them all on at once, but how did I want to play this? Looking down at myself, I figured someone roughing it out here maybe looking for food was a good cover. I also remembered then to pull out my knife from my backpack and attach it to my belt once again. It would be odd for someone to survive monsters without having a weapon, and I had no intention of revealing my true strength, at least not this early when I was so unaware of what was going on. I felt extremely confident that I was probably one of the strongest people in these zones, but flaunting my strength just to find out I was wrong would not go over well.
I placed myself in the path of these six people and waited. It was only two minutes later when they finally arrived.
"Hey, you what are you doing out here all alone?" A gruff voice called out, though not unkindly.
I had kept my back to these people so that they thought they had the element of surprise. I was pleasantly surprised that their reaction was simply to call out for my attention rather than anything immediately murderous. Keeping up the act I snapped around like I was surprised by these people. Getting my first look at the six I could tell which one had called for me, he was holding a hand up in greeting. The man was short and stocky with what I considered a wrestlers build.
"Hello?" I said keeping my voice even but adding in a hint of surprise, like I was trying but failing to keep my voice flat.
"Hello there, why are you out here alone?" The man asked again, stopping 15 paces away, giving me ample room.
"I'm out here looking for food, and you?" I replied with my planned story and then tried to move the conversation towards them.
"Ah, we're out here hunting monsters too." He said, sounding like everything made sense again, but then he frowned and added.
"Why aren't you hunting with a group, high chance of dying out here alone." He remarked, sounding not quite concerned, but almost exhausted at the prospect of more people dying.
His added comment gave me the opportunity I needed to consider the information he just gave me. I had considered it but wasn't sure, the zone monsters could be used as a source of food. It was something I thought about after figuring out I could eat the Realiag I killed, but to me the monsters outside of the zones were different on a fundamental level than the ones inside. I was glad it was possible though, otherwise people would have run out of food by now or at least had a much harder time gathering it, having to go out into the wilderness and hunt much smarter creatures.
"Thank you, I'm aware of the risk, but I'm still here aren't I?" I gave them what I hoped was a grateful but amused smile.
"True enough, it seems like you haven't collected your prey yet, would you be interested in joining with us?" By the end he was glancing towards his group and watching for their reactions to his invitation, which were shrugs or nods all around.
I was Internally pleased with the situation but decided to pretend like I had to consider my options before agreeing or disagreeing. If I was only as strong as I was attempting to portray It wouldn't be an easy decision to join up with a large group like this. Fortunately for these people, it seemed like they were more worried about gathering food than betrayal. It's not like they were opening their wallets and then turning their back to me, but it was still a risk for them. Having known my answer from the start, I gave it 10 seconds before responding.
"I can agree to that, as long as I get enough food from our hunt." I finally gave an affirmative.
"That's good! My name is Kal, what's your name?" Kal asked with a smile.
"You can call me Reaper." I said with the same smile.
"Alright, this is Reyla, Bernard, Jasmine, Alvin, and Leith." He introduced his group pointing to each in turn.
Reyla was a petite thing with long brown hair woven into an extremely elaborate braid that seemed to part and reconnect in several places as it twined around her head and hung down at the back. Bernard was a clean-cut man a head taller than Kal with surprisingly clean and put together clothes, let's just say he wasn't what someone in an apocalypse should look like. Next was Jasmine with shoulder length black hair standing a few inches taller than Reyla. Alvin wore glasses and a tie, though the tie was not clean or whole anymore. He was slight in his build but not quite skinny, and he was around the same height as me, maybe slightly shorter. Finally, Leith looked like some kind of bodybuilder or at least close to it. His muscles didn't quite have muscles of their own yet, but it was a near thing. He was a few inches shorter than Alvin but made the man look small.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Introductions were made and we made some small talk before moving out. I noted that we were moving towards the savannah, which was probably the easiest place to find monsters, as spotting them wouldn't be difficult.
"So, where have you been hunting?" Kal asked me as we were walking.
Unsure if Kal noted my interest in the direction or if he just asked out of curiosity I answered smoothly.
"I was hunting in the Marsh." I told him a technical truth; some might call those the best kind.
"Oh, really? I guess I could see your reasoning, didn't want anyone to take your kills or ambush you huh?" He said making his distaste of the practice apparent in his voice.
"Yeah, being on my own I didn't want anyone to spot me." I responded.
"Fair enough, so should we talk about our skillset, not your actual skills of course, but a general overview of our capabilities? I'll go first. I'm a frontline fighter. I generally try to trade blows with monsters and keep their attention on me while others finish them off." Kal explained his preferred fighting style.
I could get a general feel for their combat styles just from what they were each carrying or not carrying. Kal carried what amounted to a sharpened metal stick, a piece of rebar filed down into a point on one end. He also had a metal garbage can lid in his other hand. Reyla was a surprise, carrying about the exact same kit as Kal. I was surprised, the girl couldn't have the mass to take a hit without being run over, but whatever she was doing evidently was working out for her. I could tell Bernard was some sort of rogue, he had a very impressive knife sheathed at his back that I wouldn't have noticed unless I was looking for it. The knife was tucked into the inside of his belt on his right hip and the top was under his shirt, though his clothes were tight enough I could faintly see the outline. Honestly, I couldn't tell what Jasmine or Alvin were, as I was unable to find a weapon on either of them. Maybe they were mages or were very good at concealing their weapons, I wasn't sure. Finally, there was Leith, who was holding on to a half rusted broken piece of corrugated steel like it was a shield, and that was it.
"I use a knife and like to get in close without taking any hits." I said giving the same type of general overview he did.
Kal nodded before motioning to the rest of his group to give the same type of overview. It was exactly what I expected except for Jasmine and Alvin who were a cleric and a mage respectively. That was a surprise, and I was interested to see them both up close. Reyla was a warrior type same as Kal, Bernard was a rogue like I was pretending to be, and then Leith was a tank. Again, it was only as much as I could figure out by looking at them except for the two casters, but the real information would come when we fought.
Speaking of fighting, it was time to do so. Our group had just ventured into the savannah, and I could actually spot a few other groups in the distance fighting monsters. It wasn't long before we found ourselves a group of monsters, unfortunately they were the flesh hyenas and there was no way in hell I was eating them or even getting close enough to kill them with a knife. Luckily Kal and his group shared the sentiment, and we gave them a wide berth. Leith was the first besides me to spot one of the mammalian beetle headed monsters. This was a suitable monster and something that I could see myself eating unlike the flesh hyenas or the bug things.
"Alright, you're a rogue why don't you circle around and watch for an opening to get a good hit in while we do our usual formation." Kal said to me.
I acknowledged with a nod before leaving to circle around. On the other side of me Bernard was doing the same. Leith took the center with Kal and Reyla on either side of him and Jasmine and Alvin standing behind them. It was a pretty standard formation, but it should work well for these types of monsters. When Bernard and I were in position Leith advanced on the monster bashing his hand into his shield and getting its attention. As soon as the monster was focused on Leith, Bernard and I started closing the distance. At the same time Kal and Reyla flanked left and right preparing to strike as soon as it was engaged with Leith. I was curious as to why Alvin didn't take a few shots before it reached Leith, but maybe the wanted to be sure of the monsters "agro" before dealing any damage.
When Leith and the monster finally did clash it was quite the spectacle, Leith wasn't exactly pushed to his limits, but he certainly had to dig in to not be trampled by the beast's charge. After the initial clash everyone moved to strike. Reyla was on its right flank and stabbed her metal spear in-between the chitin plates covering its shoulders. Kal attacked the same way on the left flank, they had obviously done this before. Next came a blast of energy from Alvin, hitting the creature square on its plated head. I was ... disappointed with the strike to say the least. I couldn't remember the last time I had such little energy in one of my attacks. If I had it surely would have been dispelled by the atmosphere before it reached its target. The bolt of energy seemed more like my initial tries at using my energy, though he could probably throw out multiple bolts before he ran out of mana.
This was quickly proven true as he simply fired again, fortunately he was at an angle to Leith and able to get clean shots with how well the man was restricting the beast. I couldn't quite tell how it happened, but I could see the cause and effect, Jasmine waved her hand towards Leith and suddenly he was able to handle the creature easier. Some sort of boosting spell perhaps? I mused to myself. Finally, Bernard and I closed the distance and struck. Bernards knife was something like a Bowie knife, and it was the most well cared for weapon I had ever seen. It was mirror clean and I could tell it was sharp enough cut through flesh without hitching.
I had gauged my speed based on Bernard and set myself to arrive right after he did, so he got the first strike and took the opportunity to strike the monsters back right leg stabbing upward from below and bypassing the protective plating. It was a clean strike and well executed, the monster would be in pain if it was able to use that leg at all. All the others had timed their attacks to give us a chance to attack without the possibility of friendly fire. Seeing this I decided to simply step forward, grab one of its head spikes and reach around to slit its throat. I cut deep and pulled my knife from one side to the other, cutting into any arteries supplying blood to the brain and cutting into its windpipe. I felt the tip of my knife graze by its spinal cord halfway through and simply allowed the blade to follow the bone around to the other side before pulling back.
There was a shocked silence as I took a few steps back and allowed the creature to die from massive blood loss.
"How did you do that?" Kal asked a bit of wonder in his usually gruff and no-nonsense voice.
"Well, you just have to go for their vitals. You guys had it distracted, it was easy." I shrugged, not knowing how else to explain it.
I knew I was above their level, but I didn't expect them to react this strangely to my actions. Perhaps I had overdone it a bit? I wasn't dumb I knew that move was a little above their level, but I didn't think it would cause this kind of reaction. Maybe it was just that they didn't expect much from me? Regardless we had our first kill of the day and there was more to do, and more information to be gained.