The warm and delicious food the statue created for us was important for the survivors’ everyday life. So, we headed toward St Louis Street as soon as possible. But first, we created a heat vision goggles. However, thanks to the hot weather, that thing was useless. It would probably work at night, but the survivors wouldn’t hunt at night. I could use it, but I decided to spend my nights increasing my MP.

We wouldn’t be able to use the jeeps. So, we used the reinforced truck. The fireballs of those lizards would make the interior of the vehicle even hotter, but we had to endure. In any case, we headed toward St Louis Street while trying to ignore all the monsters on the way. Thanks to it, at noon, we were almost there. But we had to stop and move on foot because there were too many blocking our way.

Mutant Rat (Fire) – HP: 150 MP: 150 STA: 150

Physical Limit Lv 05, Mental Limit Lv 05, Sensorial Limit Lv 05.

Skill: Bite Lv04, Flamethrower Lv 02.

Mutant Rat (Ice) – HP: 150 MP: 150 STA: 150

Physical Limit Lv 05, Mental Limit Lv 05, Sensorial Limit Lv 05.

Skill: Bite Lv04, Ice Spike Lv 03.

Mutant Rat (Thunder) – HP: 150 MP: 150 STA: 150

Physical Limit Lv 05, Mental Limit Lv 05, Sensorial Limit Lv 05.

Skill: Bite Lv04, Electric Prison Lv 02.

Mutant Rat (Poison)– HP: 150 MP: 150 STA: 150

Physical Limit Lv 05, Mental Limit Lv 05, Sensorial Limit Lv 05.

Skill: Bite Lv04, Poison Enchantment Lv 4.

“It looks like a rainbow of rats.”

“Yeah, this is creeping me out,” Harry said, showing a complicated expression.

Although we had a lot of women in our group, only Sabrina seemed nervous after seeing those rats.

“Let’s proceed with caution from here onward,” Sandra said.

The rats were so numerous in that part of the city that we didn’t find any other monster. I was thankful for that, I didn’t have to waste time using all my focus to look for enemies, and I could obtain vast amounts of evolution orbs and coins quickly. Although those rats could use magic and they were five times stronger than the rats that I found on the first day, they died quickly with a single bolt in their heads. The steel bolts were that powerful, not to mention, I also had the bonus damage thanks to the skill concentration.

You have obtained 3 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 3 Evolution Coins.

You have obtained 2 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 2 Evolution Coins.

Although it was quite refreshing to kill so many of those things which almost killed me so many times a month ago, the smell of blood and the pile of corpses we were leaving behind was making me dizzy. Despite those minor problems, we were progressing very fast thanks Claire, Rose and me. While Claire couldn’t create many arrows, the survivors have been doing that for her. Rose could keep killing those small fries for hours since she was using the bare minimum MP to control her glaives. I didn’t have an infinite amount of bolts, but thanks to the meditation skill, I could create three steel bolts every minute.

“You guys look quite relaxed,” Charles said frowning and killing a mutant rat with his spear.

“Do you want my crossbow? Then, give me your spear.”

“No, thanks,” Charles answered, and then he beheaded three rats at the same time.

Charles knew the pros of a rapid-fire crossbow, a weapon like mine couldn’t make him feel thrilled and powerful like that spear could. Charles’ spear was at the same level as those rings I obtained from Ann, after all.

“The youngsters these days sure adapt quickly,” Lucius said, using his nunchaku.

For the first time, I could see the old man Lucius fighting, since I had never teamed up with him in the previous week and I was too busy concentrating on finding the invisible lizards. Just like Sandra said, he really was a martial artist; perhaps he was already a master. At least he looked like one using those nunchakus.

Sometimes I thought that he was using a whip instead of a nunchaku, he could kill enemies five meters away from him, and with just a single twist of his hands, he could make the nunchaku hit two monsters in a rapid sequence. It looked like magic.

Speaking of whips and magic, Sarah and Sabrina got a lot better in using their whips. The members of the council always tried to help the survivors. So we didn’t have many chances to hunt together. In any case, they looked pretty elegant while moving around and using the whips, but the result was a bit gruesome. Those two could easily snare a target with the whips and then torn apart the monster’s flesh while retracting the weapon. Whenever Harry saw those two doing that, I could see him trembling a little.

Although she was our commander, Sandra wasn’t much impressive against monsters. But she didn’t seem fazed by that, you can’t have everything you want, after all. In any case, after walking for five hundred meters, we finally reached St Louis Street. But we didn’t have many reasons to celebrate, from that point onward, we had to fight non-stop, and we also found some nuisances along the way.

Evolved Mutant Rat (Ice) – HP: 750 MP: 750 STA: 750

Physical Limit Lv 12, Mental Limit Lv 12, Sensorial Limit Lv 12.

Skill: Bite Lv07, Ice Dart Lv 05.

Evolved Mutant Rat (Fire) – HP: 750 MP: 750 STA: 750

Physical Limit Lv 12, Mental Limit Lv 12, Sensorial Limit Lv 12.

Skill: Bite Lv06, Fire Pillar Lv 06.

Evolved Mutant Rat (Earth) – HP: 750 MP: 750 STA: 750

Physical Limit Lv 12, Mental Limit Lv 12, Sensorial Limit Lv 12.

Skill: Bite Lv04, Earthquake Lv 05.

Now I was pretty sure that we were on the right path to find the dark orb. These monsters were there to do something, and since they many of them didn’t move, they were protecting something.

When we were one kilometer away, I could finally see it. It wasn’t a shadow, nor was it a massive amount of rats moving around without reason, it was a dark aura. And that aura made me feel exactly the same thing when I found those magic plants using the search skill. Something which had vast amounts of energy was emitting that dark aura.

“The dark orb is up ahead; I'm sure of it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Claire asked. “We can only see a shadow from here.”

“It’s not a shadow, it’s an aura. Probably the monster which is protecting the dark orb is emitting that aura. When you look at a bonfire, sometimes it seems that the flames are distorting the space around it, right? That monster is doing the same thing, but without using flames or anything. The monster is emitting that aura because it is absurdly strong.”

While I said that in an uninterested voice, the others looked pretty tense, I wasn’t underestimating the enemy ahead; I was on thinking that was just another obstacle in my way. Again, if I die, it was because I didn’t deserve to live in this new world. I was nowhere strong to defeat a foe which could emit an aura like that, but I made a lot of preparations on the past week. So, I was confident that I would at least cause some problems to that monster.

“It seems that we won’t be able to fight and focus only on the monster which holds the dark orb,” Sandra said while piercing the head of a mutant rat. “In that case, some of us will focus on attacking these minor nuisances and the others will kill the monster which has the dark orb.”

“Are you sure we can do this with only nine people?” Charles asked, looking uneasy.

“We don’t have other options,” Sandra answered. “We can’t bring a lot of survivors inside the truck. Besides, we are the leaders of our camp, and all of you are the members of the special team. We have to show to the other survivors that we can solve this kind of problem. If we retreat or fail, they will lose the faith they have on us.”

She was right, although we helped those survivors, it was pretty much evident that we would obtain some benefits from them. Until now, they have left us to take the crucial decisions, but we have to prove that we deserved that right.

“If we solve this problem,” Sandra added. “They will know that it’s possible to survive, and we will be able to count on their help to solve future problems. So, let’s do our best.”

“All right, then,” Charles said after sighing.

“Harry,” Sandra said while looking at his son’s eyes with a serious expression.” You will be responsible for blocking the attacks of the monster which has the dark orb. Don’t try to attack, do you hear me? Only focus on blocking the monster’s attack. Sarah will be right behind you to heal your wounds; she will use her MP to do only that. So, if you make a mistake, we will lose all the chances to solve this problem. This is a great responsibility, but I know you can succeed.”

Sarah nodded, and Harry gulped showing a tense expression, but soon afterward, he also nodded. Harry could block some unbelievable attacks which could instantly kill any of us, so, even though it was a hard decision, Sandra gave that vital job to him, he was the only one who could do it.

“Rose, Claire, and Ethan will be the ones who will attack the monster,” Sandra said. “You three are by far our best attackers. So, your job is to kill the monster as fast as possible. The rest of us will kill the other enemies. We will protect Rose, Claire, and Ethan to give them room to attack the monster until we obtain the dark orb. We also can’t let the monsters attack Sarah and Harry.”

Sandra, Sabrina, and Lucius were excellent in middle range combat thanks to their weapons. So, they were the best option to do that kind of job. While Charles wasn’t as good as them in that aspect, he could kill most of the evolved mutant rats using the spear’s skill. So, he also would be able to protect the rest of us from the small fries.

“One more thing,” Sandra said after sighing. “Don’t die. We can’t afford to lose a single survivor, and you are our most powerful survivors. Every single one of you is irreplaceable; if you succeed, the survivors back on our base will understand that we can rebuild our society and eventually get rid of all the monsters. So, do everything in your power to stay alive.”

I wondered why she said that. Putting the cheesy lines aside, it seemed that she didn’t consider to be an essential member of the group. Yeah, she wasn’t amazing while fighting like the others, but she always knew what to do and what kind of risks to take. I looked at the others, and they also looked puzzled. The only exception was Lucius; he didn’t seem surprised at all.

“Let’s move on,” Sandra said. “And keep the formation.”

Even before we could see the monster which had the dark orb, we already decided to enter on that formation. Harry was ahead of us, his sword was on his back, and he was holding his massive shield with bolt hands. Sarah was right behind him, ready to heal him at any moment.

Claire, Rose and I were killing the monsters ahead, while Sandra, Sabrina, Lucius, and Charles were killing those who were left behind heavily damaged. After twenty minutes of fighting non-stop under that almost unbearable hot weather, we finally arrived at our destination.

Although thanks to that hot weather, the city was becoming arid like a desert at a fast pace. That part of the St Louis Street already was already a desert, all the vegetation, trees and water nearby had disappeared. Even the soil had lost all its life. All that we could see aside from the asphalt was useless sand.

Right in front of us was a grotesque twenty meters tall creature, it was undoubtedly a rat. But the beast was so big and fat the only thing it could move were its arms. Almost every part of the creature’s body was covered in fur, the creature’s claws weren’t sharp but were covered in dirt, blood and monsters’ flesh. The same could be seen on the monster’s head. Even though the beast was brown, half of the creature’s face was red thanks to blood and monsters meat. In fact, we could see right now that creature chewing a mutant cat like it was noodles.

Evolved Mutant Rat (Ice) (Fire) (Thunder) (Poison)– HP: 50000 MP: 20000 STA: 10000

Physical Limit Lv 60, Mental Limit Lv 20, Sensorial Limit Lv 10.

Skill: Bite Lv 10, Fire Rain Lv 05, Thunderstorm Lv 06, Blizzard Lv 06, Acid Rain Lv 08, Replication Lv 10, Magic Vampirism Lv ??.

When I saw the creature’s last skill, I became a little surprised. After that, I looked at my status, and I saw my MP slowly decreasing. We also had a time limit to fight against that monster. The situation couldn’t get any worse.