"By the way, do we get EXPs if we kill wild animals?" Jonathan suddenly asked.
'Why is he asking me? Is he testing me whether I know something about what's happening?' I almost fell into his trap.
"I don't know. I haven't tried it yet." I shook my head calmly.
"I see. Let's find out then."
Jonathan led the fighters into battle. Most of them had already received the five bonus stat points from their first kill reward so their physical abilities were already stronger than the average humans. The lions might be scary, but compared to the Devourers, they were like kittens.
I joined the battle this time since the wild beasts didn't give out EXP or Chaos Coins.
With my presence, we quickly eliminated the lion pride.
"We should take as many lion corpses as we can." I reminded Jonathan.
"You're right. We can smoke the meat and we can make use of the hide as well." Jonathan agreed. He then told the survivors to collect the lion corpses.
We wasted a bit of time collecting the lion corpses, but it was worth it since we needed to stock more food. Although we can buy food in the chaos shop, it would cost us plenty of chaos coins. Hunting wild animals was more cost-effective since there were more important things that we could buy using the chaos coins.
As soon as we filled everyone's storage spaces, we headed straight to the abandoned building.
I knew about this place since it was once featured by a famous travel vlogger.
Soon, we finally arrived at our destination.
In front of us was the abandoned building. According to the travel vlogger, this building was supposed to be made into a residential apartment, but the construction was canceled because the area was prone to earthquakes.
The unfinished building had seven floors. The various cracks on the surface of the structure also made it look like it would collapse at any time.
[You have entered a safe zone.]
[Mission complete!]
[You received 5 stat points!]
[Due to the effects of your trait 'Triple Feast, the reward you received will be adjusted.]
[10 stat points have been added.]
I received the notifications from the system as soon as I entered the safe zone. The whole building was part of the safe zone as well as a large portion of land outside of it.
"We made it!"
"Thank god we made it in time!"
While everyone was celebrating, I wasn't feeling good. From my experience with the game, the Devourers should have caught up with the group.
'There were some instances where all my characters survived the second stage of level 1, but every time that happened, the third stage was always much harder than usual. This must have happened because many in our group had increased their stats.'
"Why do you look so gloomy? Aren't you happy that everyone made it safely here?" Kevin chuckled as he handed him a cigarette.
"I got this from someone in exchange for some smoked monster meat." He explained.
I took the cigarette and responded in a serious voice. "I just feel like it was too easy. Many of us died in the first stage so it's quite perplexing that the second stage ended smoothly."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Kevin stared at him with an eyebrow raised upward.
"I don't know if it's just me, but I think the next stage would be terrible." I shook my head.
"Come on, dude! Stop saying something so ominous. That's bad luck!" Kevin clicked his tongue as he handed me a lighter.
I lit up my cigarette and returned the lighter to him.
"Where's the guy I asked you to carry?"
"I gave him to the nurse. She's the professional so it would be better to leave the guy in her care."
I nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, we heard the roars of multiple beasts from the distance.
"They are here," I muttered.
Hearing my words, Kevin's expression turned grim. "What should we do about them?"
"Call all the fighters. We will discuss it as a group."
"Alright."
A moment later, Kevin returned with the other fighters. A few of them were injured so only fifteen came this time.
Everyone stared at me with serious gazes. By now, they must have already guessed what was on my mind.
At this moment, the Devourers finally appeared!
Seeing them in large numbers, everyone's faces turned grave.
The Devourers charged at us, but they were unable to pass through the invisible barrier. They bounced back and fell over after crushing into the barrier.
"Everyone, may I have your attention please?" I cleared my throat.
I scanned their faces and noticed their tense expression.
"Don't worry, I'm not sending you guys outside the safe zone. Even with the increase in your stats, you won't be able to kill those beasts no matter what strategy you use. There are fifty of them out there, hungry for human flesh. Fighting them with only sixteen of us would be dangerous. We can't afford any casualties."
"So how are we going to deal with them?" Someone asked.
"How? It's actually very easy." I took out my sword and walked to the edge of the safe zone. Without stepping outside the safe zone, I stabbed one of the Devourers, penetrating its head deeply with my sword.
[You killed a 1-star Devourer.]
[You received 1 EXP.]
[You received 5 Chaos Coins.]
[Due to the effects of your trait 'Triple Feast', the rewards you received will be adjusted.]
[2 EXP have been added.]
[10 Chaos Coins have been added.]
When they saw how I killed the Devourer without stepping out of the safe zone, they were dumbfounded.
"We can do that?"
"If we can do that, why did you ask us to fight them outside the safe zone during the first stage?" The woman called Rose asked with a cold voice.
"Didn't I tell you already? It's to train you guys and let you gain battle experience." I calmly replied.
She looked dissatisfied by my response, but she didn't say anything.