"... Why so suddenly would you…" Amanda frowned, and then she noticed that the other group was approaching.
Luke used Appraisal on those five, and he confirmed that all of them had reached level ten. Which was pretty incredible considering that the more people they walked with, the less experience they would get. Nevertheless, the bigger group didn't seem odd in any way, and while all of them had weapons in their hands, Luke could see that they were pretty relaxed.
"Hello, my name is Andrew and I am the leader of this group," a tall man armed with a red spear asked. "You have been staring at us for a while… Do you need something from us?"
"Eh? No… we just stopped because… we didn't want to get in your way," Amanda replied nervously
Luke frowned when he saw Amanda getting flustered… it seemed that Andrew was her type, tall, relatively muscular, and with an air of confidence and reliability. He also had short black hair and green eyes, so not only did he look cool, but he also had good looks. Putting that aside, Luke was more interested in the red spear and the silver graves that he was wearing.
While he was looking toward him, Luke noticed that the redhead was looking at him. Appraisal informed him that her name was Lucy, and while she smiled when their eyes met, Luke didn't react in any way. Lucy also had green eyes, so maybe she and Andrew were related somehow. While she was pretty and also had quite a curvy body, Luke was more interested in the green bracers that she had on her arms.
"Are you looking for anyone on this side of the city?" Andrew asked. "I hate to say it, but… I don't think you will find anyone, we tried to look for others to increase the size of our group, but we only found this many."
Amanda looked at Luke, imagining what she should tell. At least she was smart enough not to tell everything without consulting the others. Luke just nodded at her. Even if others heard about his plans, he doubted that anyone would gain anything by getting in his way. Still, at the last moment, he changed his mind.
"They are looking for a group of survivors like yours, if you don't mind, they would like to follow your lead for a while," Luke said.
"Is that so… you were with them, but you have a different goal?" Andrew frowned.
"Something like that," Luke said. "Anyway, be nice to them."
After saying that, Luke turned around and left. Celia and Amanda's parents didn't know how to react since they didn't have time to consider if that was a good idea. Still, Luke knew how any talk would end. Amanda was the type who would put the safety of her family above everything else, so the more they head toward the north, the more obstacles she will raise. Besides, Luke also knew that their interactions hadn't been favorable. Luke acted with his goal in mind and didn't care about anything. So, their goals were starting to conflict with one another.
As for Celia, she was more cautious than Amanda since she knew how the dark elves and their partners acted. However, it was hard to imagine her leaving Amanda. While they didn't know each other for long, they had been getting along very well. As for Luke, from her perspective, he was someone who cared too little about the opinion and the goals of others.
"Are you fine with that?" Rina asked. "The radio transmitter is in that vehicle. Besidess, are you okay in leaving your allies behind like that?"
"Don't ask stupid things, they were slowing him down," Shalia said. "Complaining about the difficult ahead without even trying to fight… How pathetic."
"Speaking of pathetic, what those two friends of yours are plotting?" Rina asked. "I can't see why a dark elf would pick humans that could help others as their partners."
"That is not my problem," Shalia said.
Luke decided not to join that conversation because he already could see some zombies in the distance. In the end, instead of bringing safely against zombies, he decided to look for the crystal and face everything on his path without retreating.
Instead of attacking like usual, Luke used Spark Ball, and the projectile hit the head of one of the zombies, but it hadn't been enough to kill it. Fortunately, the effects of the spell also paralyzed the nearby zombies for a few seconds. Luke used that chance to make their heads roll.
You obtained 10 experience points.
You obtained 10 gold coins.
It didn't take long for Luke to find another group of zombies, and this time, he did some experiments. He used Spark Ball two times, and while the spell killed the zombie that was hit by it, the others that were paralyzed only lost half of their health…
"I see… by hitting a zombie with that spell, every zombie two meters away from it still suffers half of the original damage," Luke thought. "This isn't so bad…"
Luke was interested in how effective that spell could be against mutated zombies. Still, given its natural effects, Luke knew that it would be more useful against large groups of ordinary zombies. He searched for those again and again and used the spell, and since its area of effect nature made it damage many enemies, the skill leveled up pretty fast.
Congratulations! The skill Spark Ball has leveled up, and it was strengthened by twenty percent.
You obtained 05 status points.
Luke nodded to himself in satisfaction, but then he started to wonder… should he increase his INT and then increase the spell's power, or should he keep ignoring his magic damage? Such spells couldn't be compared with Weapon Augmentation. However, Luke knew that he would need more cards up his sleeve when he tried to leave the city.
"Luke, what are you going to do about the pilot you will need to use the airplane? if you find one airplane ready to be used…" Rina said.
"... I will find a way," Luke said. "Besides, Amanda's father would need the help of a co-pilot to pilot a big airplane, anyway. Maybe I should just borrow a hunter from the army for that… as compensation for what happened last night, I am someone who pays my taxes, after all."
Nevertheless, Luke decided to increase his INT since he also wanted to make good use of the paralyzing effect of Spark Ball, the more powerful the spell, the longer his enemies will stay paralyzed, after all. Luke confirmed that when he saw a wolf eating zombies. When the creature found Luke, it immediately dashed toward him. However, Luke quickly stopped it when the beast was about to bite him by hitting its head with two Spark Balls. The body of the beast was paralyzed, but the momentum still made it move toward him. However, Luke dodged to the side before he could get smashed, and the monster hit its head against an energy pole.