Whoosh!
Immediately after Lori jumped out of the window, Luke grabbed her hand and rushed away.
Grawr! Crack! Thud!
A few seconds later, zombies started pouring out of the window. However, their target had already disappeared from their sight, so they could only walk around aimlessly.
…
Behind the residential area, there were many half-constructed buildings and houses. The city authorities were making another residential area to accommodate the city's growing population.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
In one of the semi-constructed houses, Luke and Lori were hiding right now. Lori was panting crazily, and Luke's breathing was also strained.
[Stamina: 9 (16)]
Seeing how exhausted she was, and he had also exhausted 7 stamina points, Luke said, "Let's rest here for a few minutes before moving."
"Hah! No… we can't waste any time. My daughter, she is in danger." Lori shook her head and staggeringly stood up. Her expression was full of worry and dread.
"Just stay put for a moment. You can't run in your condition." Luke motioned her to sit down.
"No." Lori shook her head, her eyes becoming teary as she said, "You don't understand. My daughter… she really is in danger and maybe… she is already…" She couldn't finish her sentence and broke down in tears.
Luke looked at her in confusion. Just a while ago, she was sure her daughter would be safe if she didn't become a zombie already, but now she was saying she might've already died.
Suddenly, he realised something and asked, "Your house… is it a small one, same as the one we were in just now?"
Hearing this, Lori's body trembled, and her face turned pale. She bit her lip and heavily nodded.
Thud!
She then fell to her knees and continued sobbing silently. She had lost all her hopes.
Sigh!
Luke sighed a long sigh and felt sad for her.
He then squatted down in front of her, held her face, looked into her eyes and encouragingly said, "Don't lose hope just yet. Perhaps there aren't too many zombies in your neighbourhood and she is still safe and is waiting for her mother. We should at least check it out, right?"
Hearing his words, she slowly stopped crying and nodded. "Mm. Thank you."
Although she knew he was saying just so she won't be depressed, she regained some hope and felt grateful to him.
Luke smiled lightly and wiped her tears. "Alright. Now let's rest for a while and recover your stamina." Saying this, he took out two chocolate bars from his pocket and gave one to her.
After eating it, he opened the small bag hanging from his waist and took out 15 red treasure boxes he collected along the way. Unfortunately, he didn't get any skillbook, which made him slightly disappointed.
"What are these?" Lori asked. She had seen Alice and him collect these boxes from the dead zombies, but she still didn't know what these were.
"These are treasure boxes. When you kill an evolved creature, it randomly drops these boxes or some other things. I got my vest and sword from these boxes." Luke explained while opening one box.
Whoosh!
The box vanished, leaving behind… nothing.
"You didn't get anything?" Lori asked.
Luke's lips twitched, and he cursed his bad luck. "Well, you don't always get some treasure."
"Can I open one?" Lori carefully asked.
"No. Only evolvers can open them." Luke shook his head and continued to open the boxes one by one.
Second box, empty!
Third box, empty!
…
The first five boxes gave nothing.
'Damn. Why is my luck so bad? At least give me a protection vest.' He thought and then continued the sixth box.
Light flashed, and light blue gem appeared in his hand.
'Finally, I got something.' He sighed in relief. He then closed his eyes to check what it was.
[Stamina gem (level 1): Recover 1 point of stamina upon consumption.]
'Amazing! This is what I needed.' Reading the information, he almost shouted out in excitement.
Seeing his excited look, Lori was curious to know what he got, but didn't want to intrude too much just because he showed her some kindness.
Luke Immediately threw it in his mouth, chewed it a few times before gulping it down.
[Stamina: 10 (16)]
When he checked his stamina, it had indeed increased by 1 point.
Seeing this, he looked at the remaining 9 boxes with shining eyes and crossed his fingers in prayer, 'Please let there be some more stamina gems.'
He then injected a unit of mana into the box.
Whoosh!
Light flashed, and the box vanished, leaving behind nothing.
Seeing this, his expression darkened, and he cursed in anger, "Damn it!"
Putting his hands on all the boxes at the same time, he injected his mana into them.
Whoosh!
A bright light flashed
When he glanced down, he saw five gems, three light blue and two green, and a pair of velocity boots.
'Green gem?'
[Mana gem (level 1): Recover 1 unit of mana upon consumption.]
Tsk!
He clicked his tongue in disappointment when he read its information.
'Still, these are better than nothing." He murmured before throwing all three of them into his mouth.
Looking at the three stamina gems, he hesitated. Thinking for a moment, he ate two and gave one to Lori. "Here, eat it. It'll help you recover some of your stamina."
"Oh?" Lori was pleasantly surprised to hear that it could help recover her stamina. However, she didn't take it and shook her head, "No, you eat it. You need to cover your stamina more than me since you are going to fight."
"Don't worry about me. I've more than enough stamina. Just eat it. The sooner you recover, the sooner we can move." Luke said, placing the gem in her hand.
Hearing this, Lori didn't refuse anymore and threw it into her mouth. Immediately, she felt her fatigue lessen quite a bit.
"This is really magical." She murmured.
Luke smiled faintly at her surprise and asked, "Can you move now? We should hurry."
"Yes. I can move." Lori distractedly nodded. Then suddenly she asked, "Luke, can you help me become an evolver too?"