It took quite some time, but the next quest quickly arrived, reminding us once more of the dire reality we were in.
[Create/Find a shelter
Goal: Create your own shelter, and be the leader of the people joining you, or find a shelter to survive the next storm.
Difficulty: E
Time limit: 1 week
Compensation: None
Failure: None]
At first glance, the quest looked quite simple. After all, there wasn't any penalty if we were to fail the quest. However, if such a thing did happen, then we will still die. After all, it was said in the quest goal that a storm will happen in more or less one week.
And if we didn't find or make a place since then, it will be hard for us to survive.
"August, do you have any idea of what we should do?" Roselle asked as we poured food into bags. We managed to find a convenience store earlier, and its door wasn't blocked by ice. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible to enter because of all the ice.
"I- I'm not really sure. O-on the o-one hand, we don't h-have any resources t-to build a shelter, b-but on the other h-hand, we can't really t-trust people either." I said with a sigh.
"Why can't we trust people?" Julius asked. "On the contrary, isn't it better if we were to find more companions? We would increase our chances of survival like this."
"I agree with him, to be honest," Roselle added. "We almost died because we were only three earlier, so wouldn't it be better to be with a bigger team?"
I looked at those innocent faces. They still didn't know the reality of an apocalypse such as this. Though, I couldn't say anything to them as I was sure they had more important matters to take care of than reading some fantasy novels. "It is i-indeed true that b-being with a larger g-group will guarantee a-a higher chance of s-survival, and I-I won't stop you i-if you want to join o-one." I do agree with them. It was an undeniable truth, after all. The more we were, the higher the chance to survive. Nonetheless, it wasn't as simple as that. "However, t-the r-real question you need to answer is if y-you guys will be able t-to trust people in a lawless world."
Despite what I said, they didn't seem to understand. "A lawless world? In which type of fantasy world was I living?" They must surely think along the lines after hearing what I said.
"What are you talking about? A lawless world?" Roselle started speaking and Julius finished her words.
"We aren't in a fantasy book, August, you know?" See? What did I say? "I'm sure the police will soon enough find us and rescue all of us. It's only a question of time."
I didn't say anything and only looked at them.
Their naivety was both admirable and dangerous. They didn't realize the gravity of the situation we were in. We were living in a world where laws didn't exist anymore. There was no one to turn to for help, and the only ones we could rely on were ourselves.
"It's not t-that s-simple," I finally said, breaking the silence. "The p-police might not e-even be f-functioning right now. And even if t-they were, they might not b-be able to reach us in t-time." I tried to convince them. I grew fond of them during this little time we stayed together. They were both strong, alas it seemed that they weren't ready to face reality yet.
"I disagree with you," Julius said once again. "Why would the police, or even better, the military would be dysfunctioning in times of crisis like this? They are trained to face dangerous scenarios, so if people were to survive, they would be the ones surviving and saving us."
I could see Roselle nodding furiously on the side.
One might say that I was stubborn, but I knew very well what would happen soon. Even though I read it a long time ago, I still remembered it clearly. The passages of 'Chilling Embers'.
/The second quest might seem easy, yet it was one of the hardest quests humans might have to face. Humans were sly by nature and only lived together under the pressure of the law. Then what will happen if those enforcing the law disappeared? What if people weren't facing any more backlash after doing a bad deed? Then what would happen?/
/The answer is simple. The strong will rule while the weak will obey. Those enforcing the law will be those who were the most distant from the concept of virtue and will live like fake kings without caring about their subjects./
Those two paragraphs were simple proof of what will happen. Some optimistic people might deny that but until where?
"Sigh, a-anyway. Let's find a s-shelter then."
I said, giving up on trying to convince them. They would eventually learn the hard way, but for now, we had to focus on surviving.
We packed our bags with the necessary supplies and started walking through the frozen streets. We had to find shelter before the storm hit. The wind was already getting stronger, and the temperature was dropping rapidly.
We walked for hours, searching for any sign of shelter. The buildings were all frozen and abandoned. We couldn't find anything that could provide us with protection from the storm.
As the night started to fall, we were all tired and hungry. We decided to rest in an alleyway and eat some of the food we had gathered earlier.
We continued our search the next day. Even though we were freezing, we couldn't stop searching as it will be disastrous if we were to stay outside for too long.
However, as if lady luck wasn't on our side, a loud sound was heard in the distance.
We suddenly heard a howl in the distance. It was a howl that we never heard before, and it sent chills down our spines. We all stood up and looked around, trying to see where it came from.
"What was that?" Roselle asked, holding onto Julius's arm.
"I d-don't know, but we n-need to be c-careful." I replied, quickly making a nano-ice gun
Just as I finished speaking, a pack of monster wolves appeared from the horizon. They were huge, and their eyes were glowing red. They were unlike any wolves we have ever seen before. Their fur was snow white and their teeth were razor sharp.
"We n-need to get out of here." I said, starting to run with Roselle and Julius. We might be able to fight against ice-goblins as they were fragile, but the wolves weren't the same.
Alas, it was too late. The pack of monster wolves had already surrounded us. We were trapped, and there was no way out.
Indeed, wolves were known for their high speed, after all.
I tried to remember anything I knew about fighting wolves. They were known to be territorial, and they would attack anyone who enters their territory. But these monster wolves were different. They seemed to be more aggressive and violent than regular wolves.
One of the monster wolves stepped forward and bared its teeth, ready to attack. I stood in front of Roselle and Julius, preparing to defend them.
I was confident about handling a few of them, but killing the 10 of them was as impossible as me meeting the protagonist of 'Chilling Embers' here.