Proficiency, Prowess

Bosun showed her a drawn image of his daughter, it was well drawn. Mira said while looking at the drawing "To be honest, I'm surprised that you're still a Rank 1 after all this time, I'm sure if you went on a Rank 2 raid you could have been at Rank 2 already, you haven't even evolved yet"

Bosun answered with a sad expression "This apocalypse is too different from my normal life style. I used to be in the military but I only did the training, I never fought, with my connections I got a job as an in land security officer and got promoted quickly to a job where I just had to do paperwork. Now I have to fight monsters? I have to risk my life? And if I evolve and keep getting stronger won't that mean one day I'll have to eat undead? I don't disapprove of your eating choices I just can't see myself doing it. The life of a ranker is not for me"

Mira nodded as she thought 'He can't adapt to his changing world. There's still a place for him to work since technology hasn't gone back to what it was, but soon it will all change, especially with the discovery of Magic, technology is going to advance far beyond what it was. I wonder what he will do then?'

She got up and said her goodbyes to Bosun and the people who helped her get him. She went back to her room, wore her armor and ordered some food for her journey.

When the food arrived she packed up, went out of the sanctuary and she headed west toward Victoria Island.

A few kilometers from the sanctuary's borderline was free of undead but beyond that Mira encountered undead.

In front of her she saw 26 Rank 1 undead mixed with 5 Rank 2 undead; she was at the edge of an undead territory.

She weighed the pros and cons of engaging the undead 'If I attack them more I'll be able to get some training in and some extra En-code along the way. But if I just avoid them I get nothing but the assurance of safety...' she pondered for a while and then decided 'I'll scout for minds first before attacking them'

Mira stealthily climbed a tall building and found that unlike the previous horde, which she raided about a month ago, this one had undead in the buildings and undead on top of the buildings strategically placed.

This was a proper undead territory, not the half dead one that she had raided. She stuck her fingers in the walls as she climbed, moving under windows to bypass the undead watching through them and occasionally jumped from building to building in search for a mind.

She later found one after 47 minutes of searching. It was a Rank 3 Hive Baron Mind; it was guarded by 3 Rank 4 Hive Brutes.

Mira thought 'I've only ever seen this kind of formation; where a higher ranking undead protects a mind, when a mind is the ruler of the Hive' her experience came from the time she spent with Jade. She understood why it was probably harder for the sanctuary to raid this place; Hive mind monsters were very smart and had the ability to directly control their horde from anywhere within their territory, facing a Hive mind's horde would be like facing one organism with many bodies.

Mira decided that it would be foolish of her to attack a horde that had a Hive mind for a boss and Rank 4s as well when she was alone, even with her armor. She went past the horde territory, avoiding the center, sticking to the sides.

Mira continued with the same vigilance and avoided all the hordes it took her a day but she eventually reached the bridge that led to the island. The bridge was filled with Rank 2 and some Rank 3 undead no Rank 1s. Mira had noticed the lack of Rank ones as she went westward, the hordes around here barely had Rank 1s.

She remembered Bosun who remained Rank 1 even thought he could have increased. She thought 'Even the undead will leave him behind if he doesn't improve'.

Mira armed Havoc, jumped out of her hiding place in a big trash bin on the side of the street and started killing the undead as she made her way to and across the bridge.

She could have attempted to climb under the bridge but she had no experience doing such a task so she wasn't confident she could do it stealthily adding the high sensitivity of Rank 2 and 3 undead she was sure they would notice her digging her fingers into the bridge's concrete.

The undead rushed at her from all angles but she made good progress. Toward the end of the bridge a Rank 4 Hive Prowler, which looked like a Predator except smaller and lacking a tail. It was just a 5 foot tall purple humanoid creature covered in light jagged exoskeleton with long claws at the end of its fingers covered in red aura.

The Prowler jumped over the other undead to get to her. Mira singled it out and while it was in the air, sent an aura slash toward the Prowler. It swiftly curled up in and blocked the strike the best it could while its aura was still on its claws.

The Prowler got away with a shallow scratch but by the time it landed, Mira was already in the air, the Rank 2 and Rank 3 undead all around had jumped with her in an effort to reach her.

She sent another aura slash to the Prowler; it dodged the attack by jumping backwards, but doing that had put more distance between it and Mira. Mira fought while running away from the Prowler. But the Prowler not being smart enough; just filled with killing instinct, jumped into the air again over the other undead in an attempt to shorten the distance quickly.

Mira seeing a second chance thought 'I won't miss this time' and sent an aura slash toward the Prowler. The Prowler curled up again and took the hit worsening its wound as the slash hit it at the exact spot where it had a shallow cut from the previous slash.

Mira jumped up away from it just as it began to fall, she was now in the air with the other undead that were still trying to reach her in the air while it was a few meters above the ground, the Rank 2s and 3s couldn't jump as high as she could since agility and strength were one of her highest stats and them being lower rank meant they would have to be agility focused to match her.

She sent an aura slash aimed for the back of the Prowlers neck when it was about to land. The Prowler only sensed the slash when it entered its energy zone since its eyes were focused on the ground when it was landing. It landed on all fours as it did before which let the slash hit its neck, fatally injuring it. It fell forward and its head rolled away from its neck. Mira smiled as her IP notified her and she continued killing till she reached the end of the bridge.

Mira thought "When I was with Jade I could only kill a Rank 4 if it was isolated but now I can kill one while fighting Rank 2s and 3s, I've grown but this isn't due to the increase in my strength stat, it's because of my ability to judge the movements of the Predator and predict its next move… Proficiency, prowess".

At the end of the bridge only Rank 3 undead remained. She switched Havoc Night for Tranquil day and began a melee. The poison of Tranquil was far too potent; the undead bodies would melt moments after a strike and they would die. 'For melee fights where the corpses of the undead weren't going to be stored Tranquil was perfect' Mira thought as she proceeded deeper into the island.