Chapter 44 - Compensation (5)

Luke sighed in relief when he confirmed that he could fight against monsters without using SP and MP. Still, he naturally would need it against a group fifteen times larger. Nevertheless, that wasn't his concern for the time being because one of the wolves dropped a green crossbow.

Wind Crossbow

Effect: at the cost of five points of mana, it grants you the power to fire a bolt of wind that moves twenty percent faster than ordinary bolts

INT + 3, SPE + 3

Durability: 13/13

"This will be useful… a crossbow is easier to aim than a proper bow, after all," Luke said.

"How will you proceed now that you confirmed that you can fight against more than one wolf at a time without relying on skills?" Rina asked. "By the way, even if you don't use skills, you still need to keep an eye on your SP. Moving at your top speed will consume one point of it per second."

When Luke checked his status screen, he confirmed what Rina said… that was a bit troublesome, but it should have been expected. Still, with Luke's current focus, he can recover one point of SP after three seconds, so things weren't exactly that bad. After doing some tests, Luke confirmed that he could run using half of his max speed without using any SP. Speaking of which, he could run at sixty kilometers per hour with his top speed. According to Rina, he should have been able to run at around eight kilometers per hour, but since he was clumsy, he couldn't achieve that speed yet.

"I won't do anything until morning…" Luke replied. "Attacking a large group while everything is completely dark isn't a good idea, even more so when I will be counting on my speed to defeat them. I might trip on something and that would be disastrous."

"So, you will keep grinding?" Rina asked. "It won't be that effective since the wolves are spawning slower than before."

"That is why I will head north and kill some zombies until morning," Luke explained as he ran toward that direction. "I will farm as many potions as possible and then return here."

"Farm you say…" Rina frowned since it looked like Luke had forgotten that zombies were once people like him.

"What an annoying woman…" Shalia said while imagining what Rina was thinking.

"Anyway, I will be counting on your support to prevent some accidents against them as well," Luke said. "I will be a bit reckless since I will focus on killing as many as possible, and that will definitely be dangerous."

Rina wanted to say something like telling Luke to find other people to watch his back. Still, in the end, she couldn't deny that fighting by himself would be more advantageous to Luke. He lacked the usual hesitation that ordinary people had, and that was a good trait someone could have to adapt to dangerous situations. It was as good as it was dangerous, though…

After running for a couple of minutes, Luke found some streets that were covered with zombies… mutated ones. While he could see many body parts of fallen zombies, he also could see the dead bodies of wolves. It seemed that despite their strength, they lost that battle. Thanks to that, they gave a chance to many zombies to mutate.

Heavy Zombie

LV 10

HP: 120/120

MP: 20/20

SP: 64/64

Fire Zombie

LV 10

HP: 72/72

MP: 98/98

SP: 85/85

After using Appraisal, Luke confirmed that the mutated monsters leveled up quite a bit since morning. The mutated ones already had reached level ten. As if that wasn't troublesome enough, most of the ordinary ones were at levels three and four. At that rate, in less than that two days, all the zombies in the city would have become mutated zombies… which will increase the difficulty of Luke's goal by manifold. That was indeed troublesome, but in the end, Luke could only smirk in the face of such a challenge.

"Bring it on, you freaks!" Luke said and then dashed toward the horde of zombies.

The mutated zombies were the first ones to react to Luke's approach, so they moved to intercept him. The fat ones tried to smash him with their body slam, but Luke just moved to the side a little and pointed his Blade toward their necks. The momentum of the zombies' attacks worked against them, making his sword behead them with ease. Since they came one after the other, Luke just had to take a few steps to the side and then slightly move his sword to kill them. The difference in strength and speed was that high. Even though the difference between their endurance was also high, it became nonexistent thanks to Luke's new sword.

You obtained 10 experience points.

You obtained 10 gold coins.

You obtained 10 experience points.

You obtained 10 gold coins.

Before Luke could even finish all of them, the fire zombies tried to hit him with Fireball, Luke didn't try to dodge them, but Shalia repelled them by using ice arrows.

"Ah, sorry… you can let them hit me," Luke said. "I want to level up my Fire Resistance."

"Ah, that is a good idea," Shalia nodded.

While Shalia nodded, Rina frowned since the idea to get hurt on purpose to increase his elemental resistance was too irrational… considering that hundreds of enemies were in front of him. Still, she could only hope that he wouldn't get hit in a bad spot by doing that…

Much to Rina's surprise, Luke only let a few fireballs hit him, and they only slightly scratched his legs and arms. Luke was a bit crazy, but he wasn't suicidal.