Chapter 42: Compensation (3)

When Luke relaxed, he could feel the exhaustion taking over his body. Given that he was in a race against time, he decided to keep hunting, even at night. The odds weren't in his favor since the crows would return, but he couldn't care less about that. He will obtain the power to crush the damn crystal before morning… even though his original plan was to do it before midnight when the shop opens.

"I am starting to think that I will have to do this the hard way," Luke said while playing with a bowling ball and watching the crows flying around the area.

"Are you planning to face the wolves in a direct fight?" Rina asked. "It is not impossible, but… you will have to approach their spawning point to fight as many as possible before midnight. If you do that, then you will be able to upgrade your gear and buy all the basic items that you can equip. However…"

"The crows will follow me because many corpses will end up piling up around me," Luke said. "That will, without a doubt, put the starving wolves on guard and that perhaps will alert them of my presence."

"If you use the potions you obtained, I think you will be fine," Shalia said. "With my support, the chances of losing are close to none."

Luke wished that he could be that confident, but he couldn't get all that excited since he was pretty tired. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop to rest either. He wouldn't feel comfortable until he clearly took a step toward his goal.

Around the time Luke's right arm was starting to hurt for throwing bowling balls so many times, he checked that his left one was more or less in line. He could tell that the wound hadn't been completely closed, but he could swing his broadsword with both arms and not feel too much pain. With that in mind, he approached the park where the crystal was located. Once that happened, the fights got even more frequent, and while Luke couldn't use the bowling balls, he managed to pull it off by increasing his focus and intelligence. Thanks to that, he was able to paralyze the wolves for quite a while by using Spark Ball several times.

Congratulations! The skill Spark Ball has leveled up.

You obtained 05 status points.

"Hmm… I used Stinger a lot more than I used Spark Ball and yet…" Luke muttered and then sighed.

When Luke dropped his guard for a moment, four giant crows flew toward him. Although they tried to attack him from four different directions, he easily Dodged by jumping. With a single swing of his sword, he beheaded one of the crows, and then he hit the head of the others with Spark Balls. Two of them ended up falling on the ground, and Luke dashed to finish them off, but the last one still escaped. The beasts tried to bite Luke, but he repelled their mouths with his sword, and with a swift moment, he cut their throats.

You obtained 18 experience points.

You obtained 18 gold coins.

"Is it just me or zombies aren't approaching this area?" Luke asked after looking around and noticing that there was no enemy nearby. "And they were always heading toward me when I was just five hundred meters from here…"

"They probably found targets that are closer," Rina said. "You don't smell like blood anymore either."

Luke wondered if the zombies were heading toward Amanda's group. Considering what he knew, it made sense that they would target larger groups, but… Nevertheless, Luke was starting to get bored since the fights were far too in between, and that is never good when one is tired. So, he decided to test the third level of weapon Augmentation with the spear. However, the skill didn't work…

"I guess it needs a proper target…" Luke said.

It was a bit dangerous, but Luke made sure to keep some needles on his left hand in case something happened. When the next wolf appeared, he activated the skill, and then his body moved toward the monster, almost like when he used Stinger. Still, in the last moment, he swung his spear upward, and he jumped while he almost pierced the head of the creature. The momentum had been so powerful that Luke's jump made him reach five meters of height, and the power of the attack only annoyed the beast. However, at the moment he began to fall, Luke used the needles and Weapon Augmentation again, making the projectiles pierce the left eye of the monster over and over again.

You obtained 15 experience points.

You obtained 15 gold coins.

"This skill of yours is weird… it has too many possibilities in its uses," Rina said.

"Good for me," Luke said.

Luke wanted to think that luck is also part of the skill. After all, Weapon Augmentation needed to be used widely due to its cost. Still, he had a hard time thinking of that… the exhaustion was draining his willpower and, thus, his confidence as well.

LV 16 - 88%

HP: 84/132

MP: 40/72

SP: 50/68

STR: 33 + 5 + 2

SPE: 19 - 2

INT: 18

END: 11 + 04 + 04 + 02

RES: 09

FOC: 20

Free points: 20

Gold Coins: 987

Active Skills: Weapon Augmentation Lv 03, Stinger Lv 03

Spells: Appraisal Lv 02, Spark Ball Lv 02

Passive: Fire Resistance Lv 01

Despite the situation where Luke had to be wary of enemies on the ground and in the sky, the next few hours passed without anything happening. When the shop finally opened, his exhaustion left him alone for a while, but Luke had a lot fewer coins than he had planned. All because the spawning rate of the wolves decreased, and the zombies weren't heading toward that region. It was a bit inconvenient and dreadful, but it seemed that hunting zombies still was, by far, the best option when it comes to experience and gold coins… no wonder the other monsters were targeting them.