29 Night Approaches
The two of them had seen the other variants of the goblins and it was orange in color, its stats one step above the yellow ones except in the agility category. But it was only when they were close to the tower did they see something that made their hair stand on end.
Larcen had climbed to the top of a building along with Betty and all they saw were different monsters doing different things. There were humans too but they were mostly kept there as a reserve food source or to increase their population.
{
Race: Goblin (Shaman)
Stats:
Strength: 0.8
Stamina: 0.8
Agility: 0.5
Mana: 0.3
Talents:
Group Confidence: Stats increase temporarily when there are 9 or more of the same kind within a radius of 20 meters.
Active skills:
None
Passive Skills:
None
}
{
Race: Hobgoblin
Stats:
Strength: 0.9
Stamina: 0.9
Agility: 0.7
Mana: 0
Talents:
Group Confidence: Stats increase temporarily when there are 9 or more of the same kind within a radius of 20 meters.
Active skills:
None
Passive Skills:
None
}
Larcen sighed when he saw those stats but there was more. He had never expected mutated humans to co-operate with the spawned monsters but after seeing the stuff happening below, he forgot his earlier preconceptions.
Goblins and mutated monsters weren't the only ones on the ground below them as he could see a few other foreign-looking things.
{
Race: Lizardmen
Stats:
Strength: 0.9
Stamina: 0.9
Agility: 0.9
Mana: 0
Talents:
None
Active skills:
Strong Bite: A powerful bite that can crush stone
Passive Skills:
Scale armor: A protective layer over their body that can nullify most blade attacks.
}
{
Race: Banshee
Stats:
Strength: 0.8
Stamina: 0.8
Agility: 0.8
Mana: 0.6
Talents:
None
Active skills:
Screech: A wail-like screech that can strike fear into weaker creatures
Passive Skills:
None
}
"Hey Betty, do you have plans of beating them?", he asked as his heart pounded heavily at the thought of it happening.
"No! Are you mad?", she whispered, "Just look at those things, they're so weird looking and I have a feeling that they're not as weak as the goblins."
Larcen nodded, "I feel the same but imagine, if we simply walk back now, they will reach the mall some day or the other so isn't it better to kill as many as we can right now? We are already here and it's almost night time. They will get a debuff soon so we should be able to fight them properly."
Betty said nothing and simply stared at him, trying to make a decision. A few moments of silence later, she nodded, "You take care of the shooting. You have enough bullets to waste too and unlike mine, you have a smaller weapon so it'll be easier to shoot while on a bike.
I will do the driving but I want a share. You can pay me with SP or bullets."
Larcen nodded and took a deep breath. His heart was pounding a bit too hard and he wanted to get the the front of their faces before ripping their heads off but he knew that it wasn't possible at his current strength.
He opened up his system while climbing down to get to their bike and bought a bunch of stat pills to increase the chances of surviving. He first tossed three stamina pills into his mouth to get it to 1 and then put in strength pills, only to see an error message in front of him.
{Weekly stat increase limit reached. Time remaining until next safe reset : 4d: 6h: 4m: 12s}
'And there had to be a weekly limit too huh... fucking hell...'
He stared at his new stats while making up a fighting strategy that could be flexible as anything could happen during a fight and against so many monsters, he wasn't sure he could return alive but something inside him had awakened, pushing him to take extreme risks.
Once Betty changed gears and accelerated towards the center, Larcen pulled out two guns out of his inventory before speaking to her.
"Hey, Larcen loaned me two guns that are the same as mine so here you go. He also wants to give us more ammo but we are supposed to pay him before two hours."
Betty applied breaks and stopped the bike before turning to look back at him.
"Are you sure that this Larcen person is a guy? I feel like it's a girl with an alias who's infatuated with you. Imagine giving someone so many things at such a low price and now they're loaning you weapons and ammo too?"
Larcen stayed silent as he did not know what to say and acted like he was texting someone instead. He gave her one of the guns before bringing out 15 more magazines and giving them to her.
"Here you go. He is asking for 10 SP once all of this is done. You have to give the gun back by the way.", he said as he opened her bag and tossed the magazines into it.
Betty sighed but she knew that the pistol and the bullets would increase their survival chances so she stayed silent. She was about to change gears again but Larcen stopped her.
"Wait. The sun hasn't set yet. They are still at their full strength.", he said and saw her nod before leaning back to use him as a support.
"I feel so powerless but also very excited. I don't even know if I will be able to see my father again but I still feel like going along with your plan. Did you use some kind of mind control skill or something?"
"..... I only have one skill and that helps me focus. That's it. Even I was surprised when you agreed to it so I really just want to know why."
"Maybe it's because this plan has a high chance of saving a lot of lives. I just want people to not die so easily and to save the lives of fellow humans, I am willing to put my life on the line."
As she spoke, notifications appeared on their screens.
{Mana levels are receding and stabilizing in the atmosphere}
{Tower of Death's spawning is paused.}
{Creatures from the tower of destruction will receive a debuff due to the lack of sufficient mana in the atmosphere}
{Weak native mutated creatures will lose their ability to function due to the lack of mana}
