24 Ghouls aren't enough!

The gigantic ghoul fell to the ground, with its head blown to pieces. Then, the ghoul turned into ashes and disappeared.

[ +100 XP earned ]

"I finished my work here... All of you! Dig in!" said Claus as he stepped back.

Suddenly, Draco and Reno covered Claus from the behind and the front. 

"Gather around newbies! Or I'll slaughter them with a single blow!" said Claus as he lowered his gun. 

Without thinking twice Danny, Conor and Hannah jumped in front of Claus just like Draco and Reno did.  

Now they were circling around Claus, as the ghouls surrounded them. 

*SHRREEEEKK!!*

A ghoul leapt towards Hannah trying to smash her with the club in its hands. 

Hannah quickly parried the attack with her sword and kicked it's stomach. The ghoul bent as the pain ran through its body. 

Hannah didn't wait for the ghoul to make a move, she heavily brought down her sword on the skinny and short ghoul, piercing it into halves.

[ +50 XP ]

The boys didn't wait for her to do all the work. All of them charged at the tribe of ghouls.

[ Tribe of Ghouls : A group of ghouls living inside underground holes, caves etc. But to create a tribe, the group of ghouls requires a Ghoul elder, to create a tribe. ]

[ Ghouls : Skinny and short Veil Lurkers with long ears. Could be seen commonly in forests. But has been threatened to extinct because the constant hunting of the players ]

The ghouls jumped at the players as they charged at the creatures. Unlike the one Danny met at the watchtower, these ghouls had weapons. 

One ghoul charged at Danny with a large club. Danny's claymore was too heavy to parry the attack. 

The only way was to attack it straight away. Danny lifted the heavy claymore and it lit up with a red fire. 

*Take this punk!* 

Without thinking twice, Danny slashed the ghoul, with the heavy and long claymore.

The two weapons clashed and the power of the claymore was too much. The claymore destroyed the ghoul's club in an instance. 

The club shattered to pieces and the blade slashed the ghoul into halves. A green blood spattered out of the ghoul's body as it fell down in halves.

Suddenly, another ghoul jumped at him, in the instant he killed the ghoul. 

"Ahhhhh!"

Danny instantly pulled the claymore back and brought it down on the head of the ghoul. 

The blade ran down from the head to the chest cutting it to halves. 

[ +100 XP ]

Danny suddenly felt a strong force running through his body. He felt stronger than ever. The aura coming through him increased.

[ A new level 2 reached ]

[ Player's guide unlocked ]

[ Events unlocked ]

[ HP : 100/100 ]

[ Mana : 100/100 ]

His eyes gave off a blue fire. Inside his mind, the words displayed. He knew that he levelled up.

Suddenly, another ghoul charged at him with a club.

"Look out Danny!" Draco jumped towards the ghoul and slashed it's head with the two blades. Like a pair of scissors the blades slashed its head clean off.

[ +50 XP ]

Still there were 11 more ghouls left to cut down. Another ghoul leapt at Draco. He slashed the useless ghoul  into halves in a split second.

[ +50 XP ]

No player could go against the speed of a vampire. 

Suddenly, Reno placed his hands together and pulled his right hand back with a great speed. A magical whip appeared in his hands. 

[ Mana : 250/300 ]

The powerful spell took a lot of his mana. 

He pulled back the whip and spinned it in the air like a cowboy. 

"YEEE HAWWW" 

Reno whipped the set of ghouls with the long whip. 

The whip lashed 8 of the goblins slashing them into halves. The whip was deadly. The attack was worth the 50 mana units. 

[ +400 XP ]

*WHAT THE FUCK!! Leave something for me!!!* 

Conor cursed the team rushing to kill the 3 remaining ghouls.

His eyes lit up with a purple light. 

"GET THIS LOSERS!!"

Conor had no experience with the spear but he tested some moves out in the room inside his house.

He rushed towards the 3 ghouls at a great speed, spinning his spear round and round. With one leap in a great speed, he closed up to the 3 ghouls and ducked in the middle of the 3 ghouls.

Conor quickly spinned the spear in the middle of the 3 and the 2 blades of the ends of the spear slashed all the ghouls.

[ +150 XP ]

All the ghouls have been cleared. The dead bodies lying on the ground turned into ashes. Leaving nothing behind. Not even the clubs.

Claus made the gun disappear from his hands and clapped.

"Hahahaha! Nice moves! Conor and Danny! Very nice moves!" praised Claus giving them an applause. 

"This was easy!" said Danny looking at the team. Everyone made their weapons disappear and breathed freely. 

"Yep I agree! This shit is too easy!" said Conor.

"Heh! Easy?? We're freaking lucky to find a tribe of ghouls hanging out in these woods.. Ghouls have threatened to become extinct!" said Reno. 

All of them looked up. 

There were a lot more holes leading into a tunnel. 

"Well! These tunnels were mostly made by the ghouls to trap their prey." 

Draco uttered looking at the large holes. He had just read a few paragraphs about the ghouls from the codex.

"Yes... These aren't safe.. We might get lost!" said Hannah. 

"Then... Do we have enough XP? Or do we hunt more?" asked Claus with a witty smile on his face. 

A player never runs out of their thirst to level up. They never stop until they are tired or dead. Conor knew this the best. He was an experienced player who was playing the game for more than 28 years.

And he knew out of all the people, that he only had less than 2 years to reach immortality.

"Let's go!" 

Claus moved out of the cave along the tunnel he came from. Danny and the others followed him.

When they got out of the cave, it was almost nightfall. The sun was setting on the far West lighting up the whole sky with a gloomy yellow. 

They could see the beautiful view of the sun setting down behind the group of pine trees. 

They walked along the woods trying to find something more to fight.

"If there's anything I love here... It's these woods!" said Hannah walking alongside Danny and Conor. 

*Wait what!* Danny thought feeling weird. *The only thing!* 

"Yes! There's nothing to love here! Absolutely nothing!" jumped in Conor. 

The words took Danny far away from the girl. *Fucking stop it idiot!* 

"This place is a hell hole!" ranted Conor once again.

"But there are some lovely people!" said Hannah, smiling kindly. 

*Crack* *Crack*

Each footstep they took, they could hear a stick or two breaking. Or the crunch of the sea of dead leaves covering the ground.

The words by Hannah made Danny breathe again. He was losing it for a moment there. 

"Can we take a picture here guys! I have to take one! It's so beautiful!" jabbered Hannah smiling at the two boys. 

"Yeah sure!" 

Danny beamed thinking about the first picture with his new found crush.

"Sure.." agreed Conor. 

"Ayeeee! Come here!!" said Hannah and got hold of the hands of the two boys. She dragged them to a place with a group of pine trees. 

The two boys blushed as the girl took them by their hands.

"All 3 of us can take a selfie here!" 

The three got near to get a selfie. The girl stood in the middle of the two boys as the 2 boys stood to her left and the right.

Hannah winked, smiling cutely. Danny grinned with a witty smile. Conor managed to make a little smile, although he looked like a pure villain.

Hannah snapped the shot and checked it out. 

"Aweeee! It's so cute!" Hannah beamed looking at the picture. The 3 stood in front of the tall pine trees as the sun set down in the West.

The 3 of the newbies were moving behind the group of seniors. 

In front of Danny and the other two, the 3 seniors moved along having their own talk. 

*System... Check if there are any more Veil Lurkers nearby* 

Claus talked to his system in his mind. As a high level player, they were used to the voice recognition.

[ Voice Recognition System : A skill unlocked after passing level 10. They could interact or talk with their system and learn more and more about the game without any help from others. ]

He looked around the place. 

The system detected nothing nearby. There was absolutely nothing living nearby.

As the time passed by, even the Veil Lurkers have gotten used to living in the city. So the city was the best choice for everything. 

But still... The higher ups always lurked in the city and the systems must be hidden from the humans. So some of the players searched the deep woods to find their next prey.

"ANDY!!!! WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO!!!!" 

Suddenly, a scream came from nearby. 

The whole team got startled. All the startled players summoned their weapons to their hands. 

The entire forest was silent for a moment. 

Suddenly 3 police officers appeared behind them. 

"Wha-" 

The police officers saw the team wandering around the woods. All the eyes of the officers were focused on the weapons of the players.

"Drop the weapons!!! Drop them right now!!" 

2 of the officers yelled pointing their pistols at the players. 

Claus didn't know what to do. They were spotted by humans. And every one of their faces were revealed to them. 

*Shit! What should we do!* Conor thought as he slowly bent down to drop his spear. 

"Drop the weapons!! I'll give you 3 seconds!!!" threatened the officers.

"3!!!" 

*What should I do? If we fall back, we're done for!* thought Danny as the officers counted. 

"2!!!"

Danny couldn't move. He was frozen but he had his tight grip on the claymore. *3 innocent lives! Survival quest!* the words echoed inside his mind.

"1!!!"

Danny slowly paced his dash and-

*ZWOOSH*

In a flash, Danny was right behind the officers. He swung his swords targeting the heads of the officers.

The officers were beheaded in an instant. 

[ Survival quest completed ]

The whole team stared at Danny frightened by his actions. 

"Oh fuck!" yelled Reno. "What the fuck have you done!!" 

"Barry!!!! I'm here!!"

Another scream came from the woods. 

"No shit! Another one!! Reno!!! Quick!!! Teleport!!!" Draco yelled at Reno. 

Reno's arms lit up with a curse fire. Suddenly he clapped his hands at a great speed. 

*SWOOSH!!*