Chapter 63: Boss (4)

"What is with those guys?" Luke asked while frowning. "Now I feel like an asshole… more than usual. Ugh... this is so annoying."

"At least you don't have anyone holding you back now," Shalia said.

"Or more than two people watching his back," Rina said.

"What did you say?" Shalia asked. "Do you think that because this is another day, what happened yesterday doesn't matter anymore?"

"I don't owe you any explanations," Rina looked away and then replied. "I don't have time to stay depressed forever. Anyway, I have a feeling that you will meet them soon enough."

"That certainly wasn't something that I wanted to hear now of all times..." Luke said.

Luke turned around, and he saw some zombies taking that part of the street again. Two hours had passed since the last time the military had come to clean the city, so something like that was to be expected. Nevertheless, the number of zombies was pretty low.

Luke didn't have time to deal with them, so he jumped on the pickup, and then he turned the engine, while he didn't have much experience driving. It shouldn't be hard without other vehicles around.

"Shalia, you will defeat the lonely monsters that we find along the way, make sure not to let them get too close," Luke said. "If we find a larger group, I will deal with them and Rina will use my mana to help."

"That sounds like fun," Shalia smirked.

"Understood," Rina nodded.

Luke broke the car's windshield and then put one of his crossbows on his side just in case. Without wasting any more time, he began to drive. Much to his surprise, Luke didn't find any zombie in an entire hour, but when he reached a small city called La Belle, he met a new group of enemies…

Frozen Wasp - Lv 18

HP: 120/120

MP: 150/150

HP: 65/65

Active Skill:

Spell: Frozen Whisper Lv 05, 

Luke couldn't help but feel shivers while looking at those. Even though he hadn't truly entered the city, all the surroundings were filled with those creatures. They like extra-large wasps that have blue fur and wings. Their eyes were also like ice crystals, and their sting seemed more like a one-meter-long ice spear. Luke immediately realized that dashing toward a horde of those enemies would he suicide despite his strength. They were fast and had a long reach, after all.

"You have got to be kidding me… why would a crystal appear here? This city isn't big enough to have even ten thousand inhabitants," Luke said.

"Monsters can also level up by living in areas with high concentrations of mana," Rina explained. "That is why zombies can level up by themselves. They are here because they found an environment for that. While it isn't that efficient, they will have the chance to grow in numbers safely."

Luke could understand that, but it wasn't enough to calm him down. He wanted to reach Orland following the shortest route, and he didn't expect an obstacle there. At least one thousand wasps were blocking his path by the look of things. Defeating them wasn't impossible, but the issue was the fact that they were too close to each other. Once Luke reveals his position, dozens of them will attack him at the same time.

"I can enhance your INT to increase the power of your bolts and your STR to do the same if you decide to use the needles," Rina said. "Shalia isn't suited for fighting against them, her specialist is ice magic, after all."

"Against small fries, my fire magic is good enough," Shalia said while glaring at Rina.

"That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that Luke still needs to level up his skills," Rina said.

Shalia couldn't say anything against that, Luke let her handle things while he was driving, but his skills would stay stagnant while he was getting experience and gold coins. He couldn't let that happen all the time, even more so considering that individuals were getting stronger using convenient tools like firearms and bombs. 

Luke considered those options, but in the end, it was hard to imagine himself having the chance to fight and kill all the Frozen Wasps without giving them the chance to get close. Since Luke didn't have potions left, failure would be mortal. Besides, it wasn't like the monsters could only attack him with their sting, he used Appraisal on them, and he confirmed that they could use magic, probably an area of effect one. Nevertheless, Luke didn't have time to waste, so he equipped one of his wind crossbows. While he had one that could shoot fire bolts, that would be too flashy.

After leaving the car behind, Luke moved to the side and began to approach the enemy's territory using the vegetation around slowly. The grass was relatively tall, and there were many trees outside the city, so Luke could use that in his favor, and once he deals with the first groups, he can use the residences as a cover. Naturally, once he recovered enough mana to fight.

After slowly approaching, Luke didn't feel satisfied with his distance. The enemies were thirty meters away, and even though he could hit the enemies from there, he just didn't want to hit them. He wanted to headshot them. Despite being wasps, they had a considerable HP, after all. Without headshots, he couldn't take them in a single attack. Without taking them down in a single attack, he couldn't keep his presence hidden. So, Luke lowered his stance and began to crawl. If he aims like a sniper, he will have better chances of reaching his goal.

"I think you are wasting time here," Shalia said.

Luke was also thinking along those lines, but he wanted to treat that situation like training. Once he gets used to it, he will obtain valuable experiences. One that couldn't help him level up but that could save his ass someday.