Chapter 36: Another Group (3)

"I am not sure if you are brave or stupid, but I guess you need to be both to pull that off," Rina said.

"With the right support, you could become even more effective," Shalia said while smiling in satisfaction. "That was well done, Luke."

Luke didn't do anything complicated. He just swung his sword around while making sure not to lose the momentum of each strike. In fact, he was using it to build speed while his sword moved while forming the symbol of the infinite. Against most enemies, such a tactic would be deadly with the right power and speed. However, it also would be hard to find opponents that would keep charging toward him while he splits their allies in two. Against brain dead zombies, though, it was the perfect technique…

"Let's keep moving," Luke said after he picked a stamina potion from the ground.

The group moved forward once again, but they had to stop after two hundred meters… those wolves appeared more often. While they were targeting the zombies, they were also getting in their way since, apparently, their base was near the northern part of the city.

"This isn't good, Luke," Amanda said. "If we keep advancing, we are bound to find more of those."

"We might be able to fight them, but the exhaustion will pile up, and eventually… we are bound to make mistakes," Celia added.

Luke was aware of that. Ignoring them was a bad idea since their numbers would only keep increasing. If they attacked them from behind with a large pack… only extermination would be waiting for Luke's group.

"It is time for you two explain to me how these monsters are appearing," Luke said.

"Just like us, they came to this world by using a portal, but in our case, the portal only stayed open for a moment since our allies didn't have much resources and because we aren't here to fight against your people," Rina explained. "However, there are some people that have the resources and the skills to invade other worlds and use them as hunting grounds. They usually come from large tribes of monsters and their leaders are mutant creatures that obtained a high level of intelligence…"

"Such a roundabout way to explain things," Shaila said and then sighed. "All in all, those monsters belong to a tribe and they can come to this world because they had crystals that can connect worlds, destroy the crystal on this side and you will close the link for a while and the wolves will stop spawning."

"Only for a while, huh," Luke rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Yes, because the crystal on this side is only a reflection created by mana," Shalia said. "Once the enemies on the other side put enough mana in it, another one will appear."

"On the same spot?" Luke asked.

"That is unlikely," Shalia replied.

It made sense… the enemies on the other side would make the spawning point appear somewhere else in order to avoid the enemies that destroyed the crystal. Nevertheless, it seemed like a roundabout way to solve things, but it would be better if those creatures gave them a break for a while. Besides, Luke imagined that he would gain a quest to destroy a crystal, and those rewards were always pretty sweet.

"Before you decide to head directly to one of the most dangerous places in the city right now, we should focus on leveling up at least two times," Amanda said.

"I agree, we can only do so much by relying on magic alone," Celia nodded. "This is also a good chance to upgrade our gear."

There were plenty of zombies around, so some items were bound to fall, even more so when everyone in that group could hunt them by themselves. However, Luke was also aware that it would give the wolves the chance to increase in numbers and also get stronger.

"I suppose It can't be helped…" Luke crossed his arms and then said it.

Luke wanted to get used to fighting large groups of zombies, and he also wanted to practice Spark Ball more, and zombies were the perfect targets for that. In any case, the wolves were always coming from the East, so Luke gave the order for them to move to the west side of the city. After driving just a few blocks, they couldn't see any more wolves. However, the group found something else… a pretty large group of humans hunting zombies.

Luke also found hundreds of corpses of zombies around, so it was clear that the people of that area were hunting for a while. The group had around twenty members, and while around fifteen of them were pretty clumsy, Luke found four tall men and a redhead woman leading them, and they were fighting with smiles on their faces… More importantly than that, two of them had dark elves on their shoulders.

"Let's move to another area," Luke said.

"Why? If we work with them, we can make the city safer again faster," Amanda said.

"I am not sure if this is a good idea…" Celia said while showing a complicated expression.

As expected, Celia knew the requirements one had to have in order to become a partner of the elves and dark elves. The dark elves valued individualism above everything else… The strong decide the rules. Someone chosen by them could be a good person, but it didn't make any sense that they would be helping other people. Hence, Luke wanted to move away from them. He didn't have time to worry about troublesome humans. Monsters were already troublesome enough. Unfortunately, before they could move away, that group finished their current battle and noticed that Luke and the others had been staring at them for a while.

"I guess our cooperation will end here," Lule declared.