Supplies

Supplies.

[Ace POV],

After a while of running, we finally came to a halt when Anna said we were getting close to where she had seen the survivors in her crow vision.

When I heard this, I motioned to the others to be cautious as we approached the group of survivors mentioned by Anna.

When we got close enough to the survivors that we could see them, they noticed us and became tense, raising their guard.

Three individuals in the group pointed their weapons at us as well.

Am guessing these three are the people Anna said to seem to have some strength,

The total number of people in front of me was seven.

Three of them were armed, while the rest were not.

The three with weapons are a middle-aged man and two males in their early twenties, while the four without weapons are a late-middle-aged man, a middle-aged woman, and two teens who may have just reached adulthood.

A boy and a girl.

They were observing us as I was observing them.

Nobody said anything as silence reigned.

Perhaps tired of the silence that hung in the air, the middle-aged man armed with a weapon spoke first.

"Hello there," the man began his speech before continuing;

"Do you guys need anything?" the man asked, but even though he fronted to appear calm, I could hear the caution in his voice.

And, while his question may appear polite, the way he phrased it gave it a different meaning.

To put it another way, he meant "Do you have a reason to be here? If not, please leave ".

His very expression conveyed caution.

Though I've been cautious since I awoke, he was far too cautious.

He seemed to be hiding something and wanted us to leave as well.

Even the two males behind him, who were also armed, had a look of impatience on their faces.

I was about to respond to the previous question from the middle-aged man when I heard a screech from above.

Raising my head to see what was causing the noise, I noticed a massive eagle flying above our heads, glaring at us with cold eyes as if it saw us as prey.

It looks similar to the first eagle I saw.

However, they only shared similarities.

Looking at the survivors in front of me, I noticed they all had fearful expressions on their faces, unlike the calm us.

The reason we were calm was due to its level.

It was at level 13.

A higher level than the previous one.

Kind of weak.

Though that could be because I can tank it.

With another screech, the eagle dove down, its claws extended as if about to grab something.

The females in front of me scream in fear as they see this.

Noisy.

However, the noise didn't last long and was cut short when they noticed a dense swarm of crows gathered around the eagle.

They were dense to the point where they appeared to be the eagle's body, and under the stunned gaze of the people in front of Mr, the crows suddenly exploded as the eagle's body fell.

It came to a halt after hitting the ground and twitching for a while.

It is undeniably dead.

'Anna's crow must have leveled up to easily deal with this level,' I thought as I saw Anna's crow fly around the eagle's corpse for a while before returning to Anna's side.

Perhaps it didn't find what it was looking for.

When I returned my attention to the survivors, I noticed that they were all staring at Anna and her crow.

The reason I refer to them as survivors is simple.

To me, you are considered a survivor as long as you got through stage one, or rather, survived stage one.

I realized something when I noticed the survivors looking at us nervously.

I could tell from the performance of those in front of me right now that they weren't as strong as our group as a whole.

At the very least, their level may not be higher than 13.

When I realized this, my guard against them relaxed slightly, and I spoke to them calmly, saying;

"We were just passing through and came across you guys," I explained, looking at them with curiosity before asking;

"Are you people going somewhere?" I inquired.

Though I knew the answer because anyone standing in the middle of the road in this situation would be asking for a death sentence, I asked the question to start a conversation.

Sincerely, I would have just asked them if they were going somewhere and, upon getting a reply, left rather than attempting to start a conversation.

'Conversation is really not my thing,' I thought as I waited for a response.

Except for the armed men who appear to be hesitating, the four without weapons had little reaction to what I said.

After a while, the middle-aged man looked at his companions, then at me, before saying;

"Yes, we're going somewhere, or rather, we're looking for supplies," the man replied.

"Supplies?"

"Yes. Clothing, food, canned food, mineral water, and so on ", the middle-aged man explained.

I was surprised after hearing what the man had to say because I had never considered looking for supplies, especially food.

After all, we were fighting a monster the entire time.

It occurred to me just now that Anna and I had not eaten since yesterday.

Perhaps the effect of leveling up caused us to ignore this since leveling up brings us to our peak state.

We also have kids on our team.

Particularly Mia.

Given that she is the only member of the group who doesn't level up, it is surprising that she hasn't brought up food before now.

With these thoughts racing through my head, I couldn't help but embrace the idea of looking for supplies.

I've noticed that the higher your level is, the slower you level up unless you kill creatures with a higher level than you.

This is also one of the reasons for my current growth.

The Asmodeus Serpent, the mutated eagle, and the last zombified zombie I just fought.

These creatures were all stronger than me, and when killed, they gave me at least two level-ups, proving my point.

So there will undoubtedly come a time when I won't be able to level up quickly and will need to eat.

Looking at the people in front of me again, I asked another question.

"How are you going to manage supplies if you find them?" I asked because, looking at them, the only thing they had in their hands were sacks, and carrying a large load would be a burden, so I was curious as to what they would do.

This was simply my curiosity.

When the middle-aged man heard this, he relied immediately, unlike before when he hesitated.

"We're bringing supplies back to camp," he explained.

"Camp?" I asked, perplexed.

When he saw this, he did not appear surprised and explained.

"It's normal you don't know because it was just formed, but it's generally safe," the man explained.

When I heard this, I asked another question.

"If it's a camp, it must have a lot of people, right?" I questioned.

Understanding what I meant, the man smiled a little and said;

"It's not really a problem," the man continued.

"After all, our leader is powerful and smart so everything is still running."

Leader huh?

Interesting.

Looking around, I told the middle-aged man I'd been talking to, who appeared to be the leader of this small group, that we should find a place to go and have a better discussion because staying here would just make us easy targets.

Perhaps after seeing that we had no ill intentions, the man gave it some thought and agreed.

But I could still feel the other party's guard was still up, which didn't bother me because I knew they weren't a threat and we weren't aiming to fight in the first place.

After deciding, we head out with the other party.