While You Were Gone Part 2

Setoha City was the general term the residents used to refer to the large metropolitan area located at the center of the main island. In actuality, the Setoha islands was a collective term used to allude to the bodies of land that existed about a hundred or so miles away from the coast of Okinawa. The Setoha islands consisted of one main island surrounded by six smaller uninhabited islands.

The main island was a large landmass that, in addition to Setoha City, contained three small rural villages, two of which were inland, and one of which was a fishing village. To the north was a large aeronautic and space research facility, while to the east was a joint military base. The western side of the island that pointed towards the east china sea contained a large harbor and airport. Finally, to the south was a dense region of forestry, beyond which was a small mountain with an old shinto shrine nestled atop.

In total, Setoha island was a rather large body of land approximately 3/4ths the size of Tokyo. Within this area, the apartment building that the group had holed themselves up in was located on the western side of the island, in a previously populated suburban district.

Oakwood high school, the torturous hellhole that they had been stuck in for three months, as well as the manticore’s new home, was somewhere close to the center of this suburban area. In contrast, Cielle’s apartment was located on the eastern side of the suburban district, about 3 miles away from their old school.

Going by how empty, and void of life the surrounding area was, the President deduced that the manticore’s influence covered close to if not all of the suburban district. This frightening level of authority not only increased his innate fear over the creature, but it also solidified his decision to completely abandon the western wing of the neighborhood.

He decided beforehand not to explore the region they had originally come from and instead, he focused the majority of his attention to the east, away from the previously identified danger.

In comparison with the suburban district, the urban landscape of the island, where the real city started, was a mere 4 miles east from their current location. While this distance didn’t seem all that grand, in between were rows upon rows of houses and apartment buildings, as well as a maze of intertwining streets and back alleys.

In addition, to the President’s eyes, the inner city wasn’t exactly a ball of sunshine and happiness that just anybody could waltz right into.

On the first day of the apocalypse, he had seen the flashing green light that hovered over the city, and had personally witnessed the things that fell from it. 3 months later, he could not even begin to imagine the city’s current state.

He felt very mixed feelings from this. In one hand, he had subconsciously developed a sort of fearful apprehension to anything he lacked concrete information about, which just so happened to include Setoha City. On the other hand, his old house was somewhere deep within the inner city. His parents too, were somewhere inside, as they had been working in the city prior to the start of the apocalypse.

The moral dilemma he faced over guaranteeing the safety of the others in the group, versus finding out what exactly happened to his loved ones, caused him no small amount of stress and worry. Eventually though, his fears won out, and he ultimately decided to set a limit to how far the group could venture out.

He decided to make the end of the neighboring neighborhood, and the start of the freeway to the metropolitan area of the city, the limit to their patrols.

For the overall process, the group decided to split into two parties, each consisting of two members each. Both groups would start at the entrance of the apartment building and move out to investigate a specified area. After a pre assigned amount of time passed, they would convene back at the apartment building and share any and all information they discovered. As per the President’s advice, the two parties would switch around their members every time they met back up. This was in order to help familiarize themselves with each other’s strengths, and habits.

There were many limitations to this sort of format. The most noticeable limitation was their lack of numbers. They only had four active members, not only limiting their man power, but also the scope they could explore.

In order to combat this limitation, the President decided to forgo detail, in favor of a more broad spectrum.

Instead of thoroughly searching through all the nearby houses, they decided to do a more precursory search, limiting themselves to exploring the streets and weaving through the back alleys. Of course, this alone was a lot of work, considering how broad and substantial the suburban district was. Previously, the suburban district housed around 75% of the student population, along with their respective families, and other third party residents. In all, this made up a good 7 to 10% of Setoha City’s total population.

The land space needed to accumulate that many people was massive. Just navigating through the concrete maze of one residential neighborhood took up a considerable amount of time. Luckily, in order to avoid running into the manticore, the President had closed off about 60% of the suburban district. The area available to them had been restricted greatly, but it was still a staggering amount for four people to cover alone.

****

At the start, things were relatively calm.

They first explored a radius of around 500 meters away from the apartment building. As they familiarized themselves with the area, they gradually expanded the scope of their exploration, slowly increasing from 1 mile to 2 miles, and so on.

By early noon on the 5th day, they were exploring as far as 3 miles away from the apartment building. Unfortunately, this distance brought them across the neighboring neighborhood, and into the edges of the metropolitan area. Crossing a short freeway would place them directly into the heart of the city. This just so happened to be the self imposed border that the President had set beforehand.

With no other option, the group could do nothing but turn back and re-check some of the earlier routes that they had previously explored.

Beforehand, for the past couple of days, the patrol groups had yet to run into any living creature, save for a few stray birds that frolicked across the rooftops and power lines. Be it monster, or otherwise, for the past two days, the interweaving residential streets that covered the three mile radius they previously explored, were all relatively empty.

The President had rather mixed feelings about this situation. On one hand, there was the feeling of relief that came from not running into anything dangerous. If this were the normal world, back before everything went to hell, then it would be natural to revel in such a feeling. On the other hand though, he felt as if his body was getting rusty. Just remembering the manticore was enough to send shivers down the President’s spine, but the feeling that his current condition was gradually getting worse due to lack of practice, was something that he found surprisingly more uncomfortable.

He did not know what the others had thought about this situation, but to him, it was enough to cause an odd sort of misaligned vexation to form. In desperation, he even began to wonder whether the empty houses he had previously put off from searching had any monsters hiding within.

It was indeed a likely possibility, but this thought was immediately pushed to the back of his mind the moment he encountered a lone monster stalking the streets.

It was during late afternoon of the fifth day.

The one’s who were out on patrol at the moment were the President and Cher. The two had arrived near the end of the neighborhood, and had spent about 25 minutes briefly patrolling the surrounding area. As they were preparing to head back, from the distance, Cher had spotted something moving.

It was walking on the freeway with an odd limping gait, and was slowly making its way to the neighborhood. Considering the direction it was walking from, it had probably originated from within the metropolitan area. As it continued to walk forward, the President and Cher hid within a nearby house, and observed from a distance, patiently waiting for it to get closer.

By the time it had gotten within 50 meters of the neighborhood, the two could see the monster more clearly in its entirety. The monster was slightly larger than an average male. It’s body was somewhat thin, and its posture was slouched. It had a pair of short, and stubby legs, while its two arms hung down almost all the way to the ground.

Looking closely, they could see that the creature had no visible eyes on its head. Instead, it had a pointed pair of large ears that were about a third the size of its head, and a large, slightly red, angled nose. Its whole body was covered in a thick layer of brown fur-like hair, that congregated mostly on its back and forearms. In its exaggeratedly large hands was a steel pipe.

At first, seeing the monster, the duo experienced a slight sense of nervousness. Even though they had experience fighting monsters within the dungeon, not including the manticore, this was their first encounter with a monster from the outside world. It was natural to feel nervous, but within that mess of agitation, a slight sense of excitement had illuminated deep within the President’s heart.

The nervousness and anxiety somewhat lessened as they noticed that the monster’s level was only around the early 20s. Compared to the flood of late game monsters that frequented the school dungeon, not only was this one lower leveled, it didn’t appear to be nearly as violent.

The biggest difference though, had to be the fact that this monster, tactfully labeled as a [Shrew Troll] by the world system, was all alone. When compared to facing off against a horde of seemingly endless monsters, the pressure emitted from a single creature wielding a rusted steel pipe was considerably less domineering.

Without much effort, or tension, the duo killed it before they returned back to the apartment building. It hadn’t dropped anything, so aside from increasing the non combatants’ nervousness, the existence of the first creature did not rouse much action or suspicion.

It was only during the next day did they realize the severity of the situation.

On the sixth day, not even an hour after they had started patrolling for the day, and already, they ran into another monster.

It was the same type of creature, a [Shrew Troll], and again, it was alone. The only considerable difference was that this time, when they had found it, it was a lot further into the neighborhood than the previous one.

Upon hearing this new development, a tinge of worry entered the President’s heart, but with no other options, he could do nothing, but continue patrolling the area. The others followed suit, but this time, they went about their business with a heightened amount of caution and alertness.

Two hours in, and once more, one of the patrol groups ran into more monsters. This time, it was a group of three Shrew Trolls. The only consolation to this encounter was that because of where the patrol group was positioned, they ran into the assaulting group of monsters considerably early, just right before they could enter the neighborhood.

As the sixth day progressed, the frequency and the number of monsters they encountered gradually increased.

The monsters would come in varying groups, ranging from lone encounters, to a group of up to six monsters at a time. In addition, aside from the Shrew Troll, they began encountering different species of monsters. So far, they had ran into three other types; A reptilian humanoid with a neck of a cobra called a [Frilled Lizard], a species of larger, grey skinned goblins called [Hobgoblins], and finally, what was probably the strongest out of the invading bunch, a race of rock skinned mini giants called a [Cliff Ogre].

Not only was this increase in monsters worrying, what made it even worse was the fact that their encounters were gradually getting deeper and deeper into the suburban district. The farthest they encountered a monster pack, was about one and a half miles away from Cielle’s apartment complex.

By the end of the sixth day, just as the sun was setting, the encounters had started waning down. For the group, this was a huge weight of their shoulders. Fighting in the dark, versus fighting out in the day were two completely different concepts. It didn’t take a genius to guess which situation was more dangerous.

Unfortunately, by the time the group had managed to stop their 13th encounter, they were all practically drained of energy and stamina. Such feeling of fatigue, was rather reminiscent of their days in the dungeon. They had expended a lot of energy in order to just barely stop the incoming packs of monsters. The situation had gotten so out of hand, that halfway through, the two patrol groups were forced to join together to form a 4 man party because the size of the monster packs that started popping up were gradually getting larger and larger.

At the end, their last encounter was with a group of 8 shrew trolls. Now, compared to earlier in the day, this number wasn’t anything special, the only problem was that this group had one elite monster within their midst. Luckily, like the others from its race, the Elite Shrew Troll was also low leveled, so it wasn’t that difficult for them to kill it.

Now, if it were a group of Cliff Ogres being accompanied by an elite, then the situation would have been totally different. A Cliff Ogre had an average level of late 30s, and they were particularly difficult to kill. It wasn’t that a Cliff Ogre had overwhelming strength or speed, it's just that its defenses were incredibly difficult to break through. With their current weapons and strength, only Hina’s elemental attacks could bypass their rock like exterior.

Regardless, come nightfall, the continuous flow of monsters had subsided, and the group was able to return back to the apartment building. A faint feeling of defeat, and an aura of dreary tiredness was apparent upon their return.

****

“And earlier today, the others left to go patrol.” Cielle spoke with some form of finality within her tone, as she finished up her story.

“....” I slightly nodded my head, as I looked down in contemplation. Cielle who saw this, did not react much, and instead also turned silent while her eyes remained fixated on me. Going by the brief change on her face which lasted not even 2 seconds long, I knew that she too had been worried about this problem, and had stayed up for quite a while thinking about it.

In actuality, I bet she was more bothered by the fact that the continuous wave of monsters would have pushed her out of the suburban district before I could return, than the actual threat of the monsters itself.

Letting out a loose sigh, I wryly smiled as I ignored Cielle and slumped into the foam of the mattress beneath me.

Right now, the primary problem was the surge in monsters.

There were plenty of reasons for the gradual increase in monsters around the neighborhood, which could range from lack of resources, to infighting, but the most likely one in my opinion, was that they were entering the suburban district because I had killed the manticore.

I don’t know how the manticore was able to lord over this much land, or how it kept the other monsters away, but it was obvious that its influence was gradually declining as the days of its death passed by. The monsters from other locations somehow either discovered that the manticore had died, or realized that its influence or whatever was decreasing, so they sent some scouts to assess the manticore’s territory.

This theory was backed by the amount of monsters invading. If whatever force that was behind these invading monsters knew for certain that the manticore had died, they wouldn’t be sending so few monsters to inspect the area.

In order to seize a territory for their own, they would have sent a lot more than a measly group of eight.

While it is a good thing that the hordes of monsters haven’t streamed in yet, in my mind, that reality was an eventuality. It would happen sooner or later, the only difference was how long it took for them to realize that the manticore they feared was dead.

Going by how rapid the increase was, I’m certain that it probably wouldn’t even take a few days before this barren place gets overrun with monsters.

The only saving grace that I can find from this whole mess of a situation, is that there were more than one type of species eyeing the suburban district. Going by my experience from the dungeon, different monster groups generally didn’t intermingle with each other unless they were under the command of a considerably stronger boss class monster, or some other sort of special circumstance. Due to the fact that, in Cielle’s story, Cher and the others didn’t run into a pack with more than one species, I was certain that the groups invading the suburban district were all different.

Different groups were coming together, and this would obviously result in varying degrees of conflict. For us, that meant an opportunity. Now all that’s left to do was monopolizing on that opportunity, and either use it to escape or use it to seize some form of benefit.

As I began to churn through the numerous ideas and possibilities that rapidly popped through my head, from out in the living room, I could hear the door to the apartment building open.