Chapter 81 Discover The World

Our group continued to explore the area. We didn't travel too far from the settlement but we were still going pretty deep into the dangerous forest. The formation meant that movement was pretty safe, but I still kept an eye out for anything suspicious.

The tall lanky zombie had been stalking us for a while now. I've noticed its head appearing from behind the trees, only to go back into hiding. I decided that I'd had enough and I sent Rook over to fight it. The next time I saw it pop its head out from behind a tree, Rook rushed over with its sword out.

The zombie screamed and lashed out at Rook, smacking it with its large, rotten hands. However, it was no match for the offensive capability of my Elite Minion and was swiftly cut down. It wasn't too hard to kill but it was definitely quite uncomfortable to know that there are probably lots of them hiding within the forest.

"How far out are we going to go?" asked Chloe.

"I think we'll explore around the border of the settlement."

We could have gone further but I didn't really want to go too far out. Eventually, I might send a few Scouts with some escorts to explore further away. We might even be able to find other survivors, for good or bad.

As a collective, we moved along, killing any zombies in our way. Every few moments, a zombie would jump out at us from the ground, only to be instantly cut down by one of my Minions.

I wasn't sure how often zombies spawned around here. There was a chance that if we culled this area, I might be able to send out resource-gathering Minions, but I couldn't be sure. The best strategy would probably be to send out lots of combat Minions in order to escort my resource-gathering Minions.

After a few hours of exploring and slaying zombies, I decided to make my way back to the settlement. For some reason, there were no other settlements in the general area. Either everyone else died or maybe there were big human populations in another area.

Whatever the case, I'd probably hunker down a little until the end of Killer Winter.

We walked back through the forest, going the way we came.

It wasn't long before we arrived back at the settlement. I took a few moments to have a look at some of the Minions which had finished learning.

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<Advanced System Controls>

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[Resource Division] (115 Minions)

- 3x Woodcutter Minion

- 11x Miner Minion

- 35x Scout Minion (Farming)

- 26x Scout Minion (Mining)

- 34x Scout Minion (Woodcutting)

- 6x Scout Minion (Hunting)

~

[Combat Division - Standard] (102 Minions)

- 1x Advanced Warrior Minion

- 1x Warrior Minion

- 43x Scout Minions (Swordplay)

- 57x Scout Minions (Archery)

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[Combat Divison - Magic] (41 Minions)

- 2x Scout Minion (Fire Magic - Residential Heater)

- 1x Scout Minion (Water Magic - Ice Warrior)

- 1x Scout Minion (Water Magic - Arctic Wind)

- 2x Scout Minion (Wind Magic - Defensive Wind)

- 2x Scout Minion (Earth Magic - Brute)

- 6x Scout Minion (Fire Magic)

- 5x Scout Minion (Water Magic)

- 5x Scout Minion (Wind Magic)

- 5x Scout Minion (Earth Magic)

- 12x Scout Minion (Magic)

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[Utility Division] (26 Minions)

- 13x Builder Minion

- 12x Scout Minion (Utility)

- 1x Minion Manager

!

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I now had a lot more elemental magic Minions which I could further specialise into their respective types. I made sure to make a wide spread of the different types, getting a few of each. I decided to have a look at the Global Rankings, now that I'd made some pretty decent progress.

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[GLOBAL RANKINGS]

New-Gen Humans

1. Mackenzie Franklin - 2980

2. Noah Gait - 1981

3. Oliver Moran - 1732

4. Maia Keller - 1309

5. Robbie Solly - 1307

~

[Your rank] #13

[Your Estimated Progression Score] - 1138

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I had gone up two ranks since the last time I checked, the top 10 was now in sight. For some reason, everyone's growth was relatively stable aside from Mackenzie Franklin's. She seemed to be able to progress at an insane pace, standing far above everyone else. I wonder what her system was.

Nevertheless, I would be increasing the rate of my progression now that I had plans to send out resource-gathering Minions back into the forest. With a larger variety of resources to work with, I try to find some better items to craft.

I decided to make my way back into the hut. The expedition was a little tiring so I took a seat on the bed.

"Oh yeah, Chloe, do you want your own bed?"

"Ah, that'd be nice."

I opened my crafting menu and made another bed, it didn't really take too many resources. There wasn't much room but I could still relatively comfortably fit another bed inside. After placing it down, Chloe took a seat.

"Thanks~"

"I should've made one for you earlier, I kept forgetting."

"Aha, it's fine, I'm pretty used to sleeping on the ground."

Pretty used to sleeping on the ground?

I walked over to the brick fireplace and stoked the fire with a little more wood. It had been dying down since I hadn't added any fuel since this morning. After I placed a few pieces of wood on top, the fire roared once again, rapidly heating up the hut.

It was starting to get late so I decided to start making dinner. I still had the ingredients for the previous day so I made the same stew. It tasted pretty good and most importantly, it was very easy to make. I wasn't exactly a culinary genius.

As I set up the pot and poured some water inside, I added the meat, vegetables and spices, letting all the flavours marinate together as it was cooked by the fire. After that, I took a seat on the bed and lay down, while I waited for the food to cook.

For a few minutes, I looked up at the roof silently, listening to the sizzling of the fire and the bubbling of the stew.

Maybe this wasn't even that bad.

The night was slowly coming and I'd need to reorganise my army in preparation for it. But, at the moment, I just wanted to have some peace and quiet.