Chapter 3 The Night Is Cold

The frantic sounds in the vegetation grew in ferocity.

It became louder and louder, until finally, through the trees, someone charged out.

"Help!"

It was a young-looking girl, around the same age as me. I quickly observed her to see if she was a person who could be trusted. Based on her body language, she seemed to be genuinely afraid. There didn't appear to be any signs showing that she held any malicious intent.

She was covered in dirt and leaves, her hair was filled with debris.

"T-there's a zombie!"

"What?"

Even once she stopped running and hid behind me, the loud rustling noises in the distance didn't subside. Sensing the danger, I ordered my Warrior Minion to stand in front of me and my Woodcutter Minion to stand beside me. The noises continued getting louder and louder until finally, a disgusting horrifying creature appeared in front of me.

From the blood dripping down its chin to the pale yet soiled skin. From the rustic dirty clothing to the wounds all over its body—it was definitely a zombie.

Instantly, my Warrior Minion charged forwards to confront it, it appeared that it was automatically programmed to defend me.

It swung its sword at the repulsive creature and sliced into its flesh. The zombie changed its attention to focus completely on my Warrior Minion. I quickly opened up my Minion menu as the two of them fought.

-

< [Level 2] Warrior Minion [1]>

Experience: 6/20

[Health] 73%

[Stamina] 60%

Actions:

- [Scout]

- [Hunt]

- [Fight]

~

It was obvious that my Warrior Minion was struggling to keep up with the zombie. I selected the [Fight] option on my Woodcutter Minion and it too rushed in to fight the zombie. The two Minion fought together and slashed at the zombie with their respective weapons. The zombie swiped at the Minions and tried to bite them.

Suddenly, the zombie managed to get its jaws on the head of my Warrior Minion. Just as it was about to bite off my Minion's head, the Woodcutter Minion slashed at the zombie with its axe and cleanly sliced off its head—barely saving my Warrior Minion.

I called the Minions back and they stood beside me.

I checked the Minion menu.

-

< [Level 2] Woodcutter Minion [1]>

Experience: 19/20

[Health] 42%

[Stamina] 5%

-

< [Level 2] Warrior Minion [1]>

Experience: 48/20 [READY!]

[Health] 4%

[Stamina] 14%

-

I noticed that my Warrior Minion had gained quite a large amount of experience from the fight, it was already level two after its expedition but now it had gained enough experience to level up again.

-

<Minion Level Up!>

+15% Strength

+25% Health

[New Weapon!] - Lesser Steel Sword

-

It had managed to get a stronger weapon from its level-up.

"T-thank you for saving me..."

The two of us took a seat beside my [Instant Temporary Shelter] and took a few deep breaths to recover from the traumatising situation which just occurred. At first, I couldn't recognize her in the midst of all the chaos, however, now as I looked at her more closely, I could tell who she was. She was Ashley, one of the students who went to school with me—she used to be neither nice nor mean to me; the two of us never really spoke to each other.

She looked at me suspiciously.

"A-anyways, I was with a group of classmates but we ended up getting split up in the chaos of the night. T-they'll probably find me." She spoke so fast I could hardly understand her.

I assumed that she was likely still recovering from all the shock.

I gave up trying to talk to her. There were probably lots of people here that had lots to gain from enslaving each other. Her caution was understandable.

In the distance, I could hear someone calling out for her.

"...Ashley! Where are you?"

? I quickly recalled my Minions to me.

I couldn't trust anyone in this place, having them find my settlement would be extremely risky; it would probably be a good idea to move the next day.

"Go back to your group and don't come back here, I will kill anyone I feel is a danger to me."

"O-okay!" She quickly got up and rushed into the forest towards the person who was calling out to her.

I stayed on high alert for a few more hours before deciding to get some sleep. It seemed that her group wasn't going to come and raid me.

*

I was awoken by the bright sun peeking its head through the dense leaves of the tall trees which inhabited the forest. As I slowly crawled my way out of the [Instant Temporary Shelter], I noticed that nothing big had happened.

My Minions were still standing outside, they had fully recovered from their injuries and tiredness from the previous night.

Now that the new day had come, I knew what would be here at night. Only one single zombie attacked me during the previous night but I assumed that there would be stronger and a greater number of zombies as the days go on.

I opened the Minion menu and sent my Woodcutter Minion out on another logging expedition. I also sent my Warrior Minion out to hunt some animals. I wanted to craft the Scout Minion as soon as I could as numbers were the best thing to protect me from the zombies that were to come.

A few moments after I left my little shelter, it disappeared and poofed out of existence—it wasn't lying when it said it only lasted a single day.

The main thing at the moment was that I wanted to get more minions. At the moment, I wasn't getting a lot of resources. Just the amount required to craft the [Instant Temporary Shelter] would take up most of my resources for the day.

I wasn't sure what time it was so I made my way to the sundial which was a few metres away from where I set up camp for the night. Looking at the stone structure, I estimated that it was around midday, I guess I really slept in. Considering that night came around 7 pm last night, I had around seven hours to prepare.

I needed to increase the efficiency of my resource gathering as much as I could, preferably, I would also like to start building a base of operations, so I didn't have to migrate around every night.

The seven-hour countdown began.