14 New Weapon and New Enemies
The notification together with Adrian's words shocked everyone, they thought that by bringing the cockatrice to the blacksmith they would get some rewards, maybe coins or items, they never expected that they would suddenly get and finish a hidden quest.
"I'll leave you boys to figure out what weapon you want me to make, and remember, I'm only making one."
Adrian gets back in his smithy and lights a cigarette, the little cigarette looked out of proportion and comical in his giant hands.
"Guys, I'd like to get the weapon if you don't mind."
Wolf calmly said to everyone.
"I'm fine with it."
"Same"
"I-I agree."
"I guess I do too?"
Everyone agrees to Wolf's request right away, he was the best fighter in their team, and the only one still using the knives they took from the university, making him fight with that would only lower his strength.
"R-Really, I thought I would have to persuade you guys a bit more." Wolf was genuinely surprised to see everyone agreeing so quickly, he already formulated a plan to persuade everyone in his head, and seeing that was not needed made him a bit happy, and confused.
"Well it's kind of embarrassing to see you use those bent knives, to be honest, plus even if I hate to admit it, you're fucking strong even with them."
Shadow told him seriously. From their first meeting, Shadow always disliked Wolf, he was the usual stuck-up rich kid he hated. His joining their team was something he didn't oppose due to the sole fact of him being a pioneer, but, that changed when they went to the forest. Wolf's combat skills were amazing, he never hesitated or panicked, he was always calm and collected, he was simply a perfect teammate.
"Yeah, not to mention your proficiency is B, I really want to see what else you can do with daggers." (Reign)
"I'm not going to pick a dagger." Wolf's words were like bombshells in everyone's head.
"W-What will you pick then?" Beast asked.
"There was always one weapon I wanted to use before, you'll see it later."
Wolf said while going inside the smithy, he went to the blacksmith and told them about their decision.
Both of them sat down and talked about the weapon, how heavy it should be, how long, and how sharp, Adrian listened to Wolf until he finished and finally hit him in the head and said:
"You think I'm going to do all of that from a goddamn chicken boy, get out and wait until tomorrow, you'll get MY WEAPON then."
He picked him up with one hand and threw him at Reign and the others who manage to catch him, falling down to the ground together.
"For god's sake Wolf, what in the world did you tell him to make?!" (Shadow)
"I guess I was a bit overzealous when describing it, well it's already late, we should probably go to sleep, the mana thing really made me tired."
Before they could realize it was already nighttime, they actually spent hours standing outside the castle and training their mana, even if only a couple of moments had passed for them.
"What, I didn't even check out my weapons, let's just go and fight some things in the forest a bit, we can go back then." Tank pouted and said, he was feeling incredibly happy when he got his mace and couldn't wait to use it, alas he spent all day trying to feel mana and now felt a big sense of remorse.
"We did talk about the forest at night, I do wonder if anything changes, I guess nothing bad can happen to us if we stay at the beginning parts." Reign puts his hand on his chin and says.
"Yeah, let's go check it out, we'll go in and out quickly," Shadow said while jumping around.
"You guys just have a death wish don't you," Wolf said while facepalming.
"Beastie, you think you can use the bow at night time?"
"I-I think so, I might miss a few times though."
"That's alright, we're going to see if there are any weak monsters to fight anyway."
"Come on guys, what are you waiting for, let's go, let's go!" Tank ran at the gate while yelling loudly.
At the gate ...
"Are you guys sure about this, the forest will be more dangerous now you know?" A soldier asks everyone.
"Yes" Everyone nodded and said simultaneously.
"Alright, just be careful." The soldier said and started opening the gate.
Everyone waited and left the walls through the open gate, they enter the forest and moved slowly.
"That's weird, we moved quite a bit so far and there's nothing here yet."
"Do you think they're asleep now?"
"It's possible, but there's bound to be some predators, just continue carefully as we have so far."
It's been about 20 minutes since everyone entered the forest and they have not seen a single enemy yet. The forest was eerie at night, the slightest sound made everyone tense up and alert, only for it to be nothing in the end.
"Wait," Wolf told everyone and stopped.
"What is it?"
"I think I hear something, the same thing as before, I'm going to scout a bit ahead, you guys just stay alert and wait for me here, I'll be back right away."
"Got it."
Wolf moved ahead while everyone put their backs against each other. This was one of the tactics that they previously agreed on. Wolf was very good at sneaking so he would go to check the area while everyone kept the formation until he returned. This way they could cover all sides and be left with no weak points except below and above. After a while, they hear silent footsteps and saw Wolf coming back with a weird expression on his face.
"What is it, did you find anything?"
"I did, we were right, this forest changes a lot at night, follow me and be quiet ok?"
Everyone noded and followed after Wolf. They moved slowly, trying their best not to create any loud sounds. After following him for a couple of minutes Wolf raised his hand and everyone stopped.
"In front of us, these seem to be the enemies at night."
They all come closer to him and look in front, the things they saw were rather unexpected.
{Lvl 3 Zombie}
{Lvl 4 Zombie}
{Lvl 2 Zombie}
{Lvl 3 Zombie}
…
In front of them, they could see a dozen or so zombies standing. The zombies didn't look as hideous as games and movies make them, they looked the same as any human except for their pale skin and some injuries here and there.
"Z-Zombies, t-they're real."
Beast almost screamed before managing to collect himself. He looked around and saw the faces of his teammates. 'I knew it.' He sighed as he confirmed his suspicion, they all wanted to fight.
"L-let me just find a good spot ok, the trees are a bit sparser here so I can see them a bit with the moonlight."
Beast moved around before finding a good spot for archery. He crouched and took his bow out, taking out an arrow he focused and poured mana on it.
"I-I want to check the strength of it with mana, you guys get ready, I'll shoot soon."
Everyone nodded and dispersed, Wolf and Reign went right while Shadow and Tank took the left. Tank found it quite hard to sneak, his large body and muscles giving him a lot of trouble with being quiet.
The arrow was notched on the bow and Beast was still pouring mana on it. Because he was afraid of what happened last time, he was only pouring a little bit at a time until, finally, the arrow changed a bit.
A dark green hue covered it and it gained weird inscriptions on the shaft, finally seeing some change, Beast decides it was enough and targeted the Lvl 4 zombie.
Swish
The arrow was released and it left a dark green line in the air, before anyone could react it had already hit the zombie's head. It entered through the front and exited from the back, only the back of the arrow can be seen stuck in his forehead, the mana-enhanced arrow managed to completely pierce through the zombie's skull and deliver fatal damage.
The zombie still wasn't dead, but it could barely move with his injury, right away the others jumped out and attacked the other zombies.
Wolf was first. With lightning-fast speed he closed up on the nearest zombie, with fire blazing from his knives he plunged them both at the zombie's neck, hoping to disconnect its spine. Unfortunately, that didn't work and the zombie tried attacking him. Wolf immediately let go of his daggers, took the zombie's arm, and used a judo throw, slamming it on its back. Taking out the knives he reignited his flames and stabbed the zombie straight through the eyes, that attack showed to be very effective as the zombie stopped moving right away.
Shadow and Reign were the ones to fight their targets next. Coming from the shadows, he pounced on the back of an unsuspecting zombie. Shadow tried to imitate Wolf and quickly slashed its neck open from behind, unfortunately for Shadow, he seemed to have forgotten that zombies are already dead, breathing is not needed and blood loss is also useless against them. Right away he swept the zombie's legs and threw him to the floor. Seeing what Wolf did, Shadow copied him. Plunging his knife and dagger deep into the eyes made him extremely uncomfortable but it worked.
Reign used his sword and slashed the zombie's arm. The sword went halfway in but got stopped by the bone. Pulling it back, he moved to decapitate it but had to abort because of the attack coming his way. Looking at the hand passing in front of his face, Reign attacked again, cutting off the hand. With one more slash, he managed to hit the zombie's neck, with a strong slash the head flew up in the air and rolled around.
Tank was last, with his giant shield and mace he took on 2 zombies at the same time. Charging at one with his shield he managed to deliver a strong push that made the zombie fall down fast, with a couple of its bones breaking.
Gripping his mace, he lifted it up in the air and smashed it down on the other zombie's head.
Break, Squish
The skull of the zombie simply couldn't handle such an attack and with relative ease, Tank managed to break it and destroy the zombie's brain, killing it right away. The other zombie tried getting up, only to face the same fate as his predecessor.
Swish
Another arrow hit the head of the fallen zombie, with 2 arrows deep inside its skull, it finally died.
Everyone attacked the other zombies, making quick work of them, they were tenacious and had great vitality but the slow speed of the zombies made them easy targets.
{Battle has been concluded, distributing experience...}
-3X Lvl2 Zombies killed – 60 exp points gained-
-4X Lvl3 Zombies killed – 120 exp points gained-
-2x Lvl4 Zombies killed – 80 exp points gained-
{The party has earned 260 exp points, distributing evenly to all}
"Well, that was easier than I expected, I guess fighting monsters below our level is not a problem at all," Reign said while cleaning his sword with one of the zombie's clothes.
"Yeah man, that was boring, let's go find some more."
"Hey guys, I just found this from one of the zombies."
{Item a mysterious diary found.}
"So, shall we read it?"
"Later, I think we should go back now, we know what to expect at night to a point, no need to stay here any longer while we're tired."
"Yeah, I agree with Wolf, it's better to leave now before anything bad happens." Reign nodded.
"Alright, let's go back, I want to see what Wolf gets tomorrow anyway." Said Shadow with a smile.
