Chapter 70: Flamethrower (2)

After driving for five hours, Luke crossed some small communities along the way. Just as he had expected, he found only zombies there. However, their numbers were pretty small… less than one thousand. It was probably because he didn't find any other types of monsters or crystals. Still, he wasted some extra time moving the corpses away from the roads after defeating them. Thanks to that, he only arrived at a city called Sebring when the sun began to set. The place wasn't eerily silent like the others, but that only raised his guard.

"This is bad, moving at night will be a pain since it will be easy to spot me, but hard to spot the enemies," Luke said. "As if things weren't troublesome enough, I have to deal with a horde of zombies…"

Luke accumulated some weapons in the last few battles, but he didn't want experience and gold coins right now. He would get enough once he reaches Orlando since many hordes will probably be surrounding the place and slowly encircling the survivors. While he could get those now, it would only Increase his work later since all the zombies would have mutated by the time he arrived at it.

Luke had an idea… He left the pickup behind and then went to face the horde in front of him. However, instead of walking in the middle of the street, he walked on its left side and waited for the zombies to approach him. Only after that, he attacked them… by doing so, he would save time clearing one side of the street. The ordinary zombies didn't have any chance of getting close to Luke, but the mutated ones were causing him some trouble. Luke wondered why… he got a lot stronger than the last time he faced a horde of zombies, after all.

Congratulations! The skill Swordsmanship has leveled up.

You obtained 05 status points.

"It took longer than I expected… is it because I was relying too much on Weapon Augmentation?" Luke wondered.

Things started to get a bit complicated at night since it was hard to tell the number of zombies left. Still, much to Luke's surprise, he finished the order after half an hour.

"The number of zombies was surprisingly small," Rina said. "Maybe it is because I am picking some changes of mana in the air…"

"And would mean…" Luke said.

"There is a new species of monsters nearby," Rina said. "I can't imagine why they didn't reach this far with many zombies around to kill, though."

Luke understood what Rina meant by that. The owners of the crystals wanted to make their minions become stronger. So, hunting zombies was one of the best ways since they keep getting stronger naturally. Leaving them alone would be a waste and a risk. If Luke were in their position, he would clear the smaller cities and then head toward the bigger ones.

"Let's keep going and alert me if you notice anything odd," Luke said.

There was no other choice, so Luke turned on the lights of the pickup and began to drive. He kept his guard up, but he didn't find any signs of monsters and zombies for several kilometers. However, when he was a few kilometers away from Lake Jackson, a bigger and circular lake, he began to hear the sound of impacts…

"I guess that confirms it…" Luke said. "Is it possible for a crystal to appear inside a lake? If that is the case, then..." 

"Yeah… the creatures that come from those are a pain in their habitats, but they aren't that troublesome outside it," Shalia replied. "Ah… I feel some presence of dark elves ahead."

"Assuming that their partners are going to do something if they find us isn't something I want to do…" Luke said while rubbing his chin. However, I think it is better to avoid contact with all survivors of this city, just in case."

"Why not bait them?" Shalia asked. "If they pick up a fight with you, you will gain more skills."

Luke wanted to find some faults in Shalia's way of thinking, but he didn't find many aside from the ethical ones. The world was passing through some severe changes. Perhaps millions of people had died… wouldn't it be better if he were to get rid of all those who could become troublemakers in the future? That would save him from some headaches and also would increase his power… Luke wasn't an adept at the theory that power corrupts. Power only shows what people indeed are deep down. Still, why should he go out of his way to become the world's cleaner?

Regardless, Luke approached the area of the lake slowly to make sure that his vehicle wouldn't make too much noise. However, he had to stop to choose between two paths available that passed on the sides of the lake. The noise caused by monsters earlier had disappeared, so Luke couldn't tell which was the best option. 

"Can you feel the monsters' presence?" Luke asked.

"I can see ahead of time the places where a large concentration of monsters had been in a while, but I can't pinpoint their locations," Rina said. "I am sorry."

"I can tell where the dark elves are and you will meet their partners no matter which direction you choose," Shalia added. "No... it will depend on them since they can also feel us here."

Luke sighed, but then he shrugged, knowing his luck. He was bound to find trouble. Still, he didn't have to feel so bad about it, he might have ended up wasting some time, but he will gain a few things by dealing with those problems. Soon midnight would come, and Luke wanted more coins than he already had…

After driving for a while, Luke found some weird creatures blocking his path. Due to the darkness of the night, he could see their form entirely, and to make matters worse… they fired something toward Luke at a fearsome speed.