Last time I had a hard time against three evolved mutant hawks, but now I wasn’t alone, and this time, I was inside a sturdy vehicle. What could go wrong? Well, many things, I noticed that when the first hawk used its beak to attack the truck. I couldn’t see the outside, but all of us felt a powerful vibration. We were safe inside the truck. However, the hawks still could knock down the truck. So we had to act as fast as possible.

Aside from me, only Rose and Claire could attack inside the vehicle. Harry was driving, and Sabrina wouldn’t do much with her whip. They were another two survivors with us, but they didn't have any ranged skills. Before I could use my new crossbow, Rose already put her two glaives outside the vehicle and began to attack; on the other hand, Claire was having a hard time aiming at the monsters. After all, we only had six holes to make our projectiles run through. But sooner than I expected, a mutant hawk surpassed us and began to fly ahead of the truck.

“All right, let’s try the explosive bo… no, it’ll be less risky if I use the electric bolt.”

The explosive bow would do precisely that, explode, after draining the target’s MP for a few seconds. I couldn’t risk using such a thing so close to us. I tested the crossbow before, but only against small fries. So I had no idea how much damage those monsters would suffer.

To outspeed the truck, the mutant hawk had to fly in a straight line and that I gave me a perfect chance. I pulled the trigger, and I hit the monster’s right-wing. To my surprise, it took more than a few seconds to the effect activate. However, the output of the electric discharge had been higher than I thought. I could even see the massive electricity spreading around the huge bird’s body. Like it had hit an invisible wall, the creature stopped in midair and began to scream and soon after it fell on the ground.

“I didn’t manage to kill it, but if I hit the head…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Claire killed the fallen mutant hawk with a single arrow in the monster forehead.

You have obtained 50 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 50 Evolution Coins.

“Hey!”

“What?” Claire asked with a serious face.

“No, it’s nothing…”

Why did I get upset? She did the right thing finishing the monster before it could cause more trouble for us. Involuntarily I thought that she did that to mess with me, but that wasn’t time for that. I looked for the next target, and then I saw a huge hawk falling from the sky, and after a few seconds, I saw the monster head falling too. Soon after that, I saw three red glaives in midair, looking for another monster to kill.

‘Holy crap… Rose already killed one?’

Telekinesis was really convenient, but Rose was also awesome to reach that level of mastery using her skill. Her glaives could fly around faster than the truck; she didn’t look that awesome a few days ago. She was probably holding back, against small fries she didn’t have to use all her power… and I thought that I was doing well with my crossbows.

‘No point in getting jealous, focus on the battle.’

Although I was ready to shoot, I couldn’t do much until the monsters gave me the chance to do it. Before I had another opportunity, Rose killed another mutant hawk almost without even seeing the creature.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Coins.

I welcomed that message, but soon I ignored it because another mutant hawk appeared on our left side. Claire already was aiming at the creature, but she needed a few more time to make her skill genuinely shine.

‘This time I should try the freezing bolt.’

A bolt with a light blue tip appeared on the crossbow, and I shot, this time I hit the monster’s chest, and this time the bolt worked faster than I thought. After two seconds an ice layer began to form around the creature’s body, only the wings, and the head didn’t get covered with ice and the beast began to fell, but before that, Claire shot another arrow and again she hit the monster’s forehead.

You have obtained 40 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 40 Evolution Coins.

For some reason, since I began to hunt in earnest with the others, the number of orbs and coins that I obtain are impossible to predict. Even when I kill a monster alone, I earn less if they are close to me. In some aspects that’s good, but in the others it is bad, but I decided to ignore this fact. After all, every single action of them would benefit me at some point.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 10 Evolution Coins.

Rose killed the last mutant hawk; the battle had been easier than I thought it would be, thanks to Rose and Claire. Although I didn’t help all that much, I was satisfied because of the result of my test. My new crossbow would make the fights against the evolved monsters easier as long as I don’t have to fight against a bunch of them alone. Those bolts were useful, but I could only create a single one of them ten seconds after using the previous one. But that was fine, as long as I hit and the bolt causes enough damage to paralyze the monsters for a few seconds, I can finish the targets with the vampire hunter’s crossbow.

“Your new weapon surprised me,” Rose said while cleaning the glaives. “I don’t think that you made a bad choice, but why didn’t you focus on a single type of attack? Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”

“Yeah, but I think it’s better to have an all-purpose weapon, even if it’s weaker. That way, I can escape and survive most of the situations.”

“You don’t have to do everything by yourself,” Rose said while looking me in the eye. “You can rely on us, you know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Although I said that, I didn’t intend to rely on them. Who knows until when it’ll be convenient for me to stay with them, also who knows when it’ll be suitable for them to keep me around? I didn’t want to admit it, but my family didn’t transport me to their area because they probably thought that I would slow them down. I wasn’t smart, and I wasn’t athletic, so after a single mistake, they send me away from their home. For two years, I worked and studied hard to deserve being part of that family, but what did I receive? During two years, they never visited me, God, they never even made a call to ask how I was. If my family treated me like this because I wasn’t amazing as them, what would a bunch of strangers do when they notice that I’m no longer necessary for them? The answer was obvious; I would be left to die at the first chance.

‘Ah, fuck those negative thoughts... Those five days locked in that hotel really depressed me.’

I didn’t even know what to think anymore. I had to keep my mind busy; I had to keep fighting monsters. Otherwise, those thoughts will turn me into an even more pathetic person.

“If you don’t want to rely on others, it’s fine,” Claire said with her arms crossed and showing anger in her eyes. “But at least don’t lie and treat us like fools.”

I wondered why she was so upset; it wasn’t like I intended or I offended her directly. Maybe she wanted to hear me say that I would never rely on them, but wouldn’t that make our situation awkward? Even though I wasn’t particularly close to them, I had no reason to say things that would get in the way of our teamwork.

Claire was probably one of those people who would rather hear something unpleasant than hear a lie. She was admirable in that aspect but too naïve. Even if I lied, I didn’t cause trouble to anyone, and I didn’t put in risk our teamwork, so what was the problem? At first, I decided to say that I would keep her words in my mind, but in the end, I changed my mind and decided to ignore her.

Since downtown became a nest for mutant birds and insects, many survivors died, and the others fled to other parts of the city, or at least they tried. The survivors who hide since the beginning didn’t have the strength to run away from the monsters. In the next three days, the population of the city decreased by one thousand, and we managed to bring to the hotel twenty survivors. Aside from the monsters and the survivors in the hotel, downtown was now empty.

Thanks to the truck, we could cover a lot more ground, and because of it, we found dozens of evolved mutant birds. We killed every single one of them, but the number of fights didn't decrease. I only understood why when my analyze skill became level two, and I decided to test it.

Mutant Rat – HP: 35 MP: 35

Even though they only could eat the corpses of other monsters, the creatures were becoming stronger and even evolving. When I shared this information with the others, I could see some resignation in their eyes. The new survivors were the most affected by the bad news; they could become stronger almost safely inside the truck. But their battle experience and willpower to try to overcome the bad news were lacking too much. Although their mental state was already weak because most of them lost their entire families, I couldn’t help but frown at them. I mean, Claire lost all her relatives, but she never gave up, and she never let the kids feel uneasy with her actions. The new survivors should learn at least a thing or two from her.

Ever since the hell broke loose in the city, I became a person who got depressed easily. I just had to stay idle for a few minutes, and negative thoughts would invade my mind. I became even worse when those birds appeared, and now I was at my limit thanks to the depressed faces of the new survivors.

‘I can’t stay here any longer; this place will drive me crazy. Time to change my approach.’

I never liked crowded places, to begin with, so I decided to use the hotel only to sleep from that moment onwards. However, I didn’t have the skills or the equipment necessary to stay outside for more than a few minutes, and I couldn’t use the truck, everyone helped every day to fill the vehicle’s tank. So I couldn’t just use it because I wanted to get out of the hotel.

‘Maybe I should modify the vampire hunter’s crossbow, instead of creating bolts using my MP I should create as much as possible using the statue.’

That was a good idea, using the statue, I could make it possible to reload the crossbow manually. I confirmed that I also could reload fifty bolts all at once, but then changed my mind. Every bolt weighed 100 grams; if I try to move around with two hundred bolts, it would be the same as me carrying a load of twenty kilograms. By doing that, I would lose one of my best weapons, my movement speed.

‘Damn it… I just got a new weapon, but my new crossbow was made to kill the big monsters, I need something else. How about some grenades?’

Grenade: Causes 100 points of damage in a five-meter radius.

Price: 10 Evolution Coins.

It was cheaper than I thought, I could probably use to kill a lot of bees inside those beehives. But, it wouldn’t kill all of them. Besides, the noise would attract too many monsters; it was impractical to use it on the streets.

‘Well, then. I guess I should buy some MP potions.’

Low-quality MP potion: it can recover 50 points of your MP.

Price: 200 Evolution Coins.

It was too damn expensive! I couldn’t spend so much evolution coins to buy a potion only because I was tired of being inside that hotel.

‘Damn it…’

My only option was to keep killing the monsters around the block and return after using all my MP. I had no choice but deal with my boredom and my depressing thoughts.

Congratulations, your HP and STA increased by 01 thanks to your recent actions.

‘At least not everything is trying to annoy me.’