Cloak Hunting

There wasn't any need for me to stay up at night as my Minions were enough to take care of the zombies.

*

I was woken up by the sound of my hand smacking my sheath which I had placed next to me on the bed.

Ow.

Oh well, it was about time I got up for the day anyways. I pulled myself up and stretched out my arms, relieving some of the overnight soreness. After that, I made my way to the door of the hut, I had decided that I would be dealing with the Cloaks.

I opened the door and made my way to Chloe's hut. I knocked on the hard wood of the hut and a dense thump sound rippled inside.

A few footsteps later and the door was opened and I was greeted by a bright, smiling Chloe. She had changed into some different clothes which was quite surprising. I guess she might have some system shop or something else that gave her new clothes. She was wearing a concerningly large t-shirt and shorts which were hardly visible.

"You're dressed pretty casually," I said.

"Aw, thanks for the compliment~"

It wasn't a compliment.

"Anyways, get ready, we're going Cloak hunting today."

"Cloak hunting?"

"Ah yeah, that was the name I gave the attackers or kidnappers and stuff."

"That's a good name~"

"Thanks, anyways, are you ready?"

"Sure~ I'm ready now."

She made her way outside and the two of us walked towards the forest. I kept my three Elite Minions by my side and commanded my Minion Manager to take over whilst I was gone. I gave it permission to make decisions while I was away, I had already set up most of my Minions for their expeditions for the day but I worried that I might not be back by night.

My Minion Manager has full authority to maneuver and organise my Minions for the night so that they don't get killed by zombies while I'm gone.

With that, I was fully prepared to go out. With [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] on my hip, my group began making our way into the deep dark forest which still gathered hardly any light despite it being daytime. We trudged through bushes and vegetation, pulling out feet up with every step as we ripped them away from the greenery.

"Where are we going?" Chloe asked.

"We're going to the other settlement."

"Ah, the other one of the map?"

"Yes."

Based on the awkward scale on which the map was drawn, I guessed that the journey would be somewhat of a long one, however, it was pretty hard to tell since the map wasn't that precise. We continued trekking through the forest, walking through dirt and rocks and tree roots. We practically stepped on a different surface for every step we took.

We continued on the path for several minutes. Aside from countless different plants, we did not manage to find anything interesting. Following the map, we continued on our hike, pushing forwards through the rough terrain.

After almost half an hour, I finally saw something that looked like a settlement in the distance.

There were several wooden huts and a few people walking around. From this distance, I couldn't exactly tell what they were doing but just based on the number of people I could see, this was a relatively large settlement, much larger than mine.

The two of us hid under some bushes as we observed them from a distance. I kept my Elite Minions a few metres away as we tried to stay unnoticed. Based on a few seconds of observation, I could see a few people walking around building some structures, however, the majority of people appeared to be putting on some dark hoodies, emblematic of their group.

There was a very large container in the centre of their settlement where a plethora of weapons was stored and several people appeared to be picking their preferred weapons out. After a few moments, there was a person wearing a pure white hoodie, in contrast with the rest of the group. My assumption was that they were a leader of some sort.

I ordered Knight to come closer and try to shoot the white hooded person. It took aim and fired its arrow, zipping through the air. I should've expected though, that it would miss. The arrow alerted all of them of our presence and I decided that I'd just show myself at this point.

Chloe and I stood up and began making our way down the hill, toward their settlement. We were met by the scathing glares of a large group of dark-hooded people.

I drew [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] and prepared to fight. Chloe had also grabbed her [Platinum Sword] out of her inventory and got into a fighting stance as we continued down. I sent Rook ahead in order to clear some of their attention.

There was some shouting from their direction before we were flanked by another group. It seemed they already had a group of people who had begun trekking into the forest. We were now being engaged from two directions. None of us had actually engaged in combat however as we observed each other from a relatively short distance.

I tensed my body as I prepared to fight several humans at once. All of these humans likely had systems that I had no information on. I would need to stay cautious until I was able to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of everyone's system.

I kept an especially close eye on the white-hooded leader. They probably had the strongest system which would pose a threat to me.

"You ready?" Asked Chloe.

"Yep."

I sent Rook to charge into their pack. The Minion rushed down into their front line as they rapidly began pulling weapons out of their inventories. There were a variety of weapons from spears to scythes to swords, I also began noticing some weird phenomenons which I could attribute only to the use of systems.

Chloe and I looked at each other before we split up.

She would take care of the second force which was coming from the side.

I would go down into the settlement and fight their main forces. I left Knight with Chloe and took Bishop with me as we made our way towards Rook which was already in combat with several of the Cloaks.

This was going to be a grueling fight.