Chapter 32. Rescue

The next day he woke up early in the morning. When he set out from the Trigitech building, the sun had yet to rise. The cold morning air was piercing and he could feel some morning dew on his face. He turned and gave the Trigitech building one last look. It all began from this building, and it seemed like he would not be coming back again, at least not in this game world.

He turned and looked at the road ahead, the light beam that was their target was even more glaring under the dark sky. There was a pack of Goblins crossing the street not far away.

"Should we find another route?" Peniel was floating beside him.

"You kidding? That's free experience points right there," he replied.

"Just don't take too much time. The main priority is to get to the designated point."

"Don't worry; it will just take a minute."

He then rushed towards the Goblins.

*

Jack spent the whole day walking towards the light beam. Unless there was a building right in front of him, he took a straight route. Any monsters he met he just barreled through, leaving none alive while collecting the spoils. He collected a few more coins and another piece of equipment.

*

Cloth Belt, level 10/20 (common cloth armor)

Physical Defense: 5

Magical Defense: 8

Durability: 20/20

*

The belt's defense sucked for level 10 armor. Nevertheless, it was an armor piece that he had not possessed. Now he only needed two more to complete his armor set: a headpiece, and a cloak. He hoped he could find those before he reached the light beam place.

"You should switch your weapon skill to the one that increases your movement speed. That way you can travel faster. In terms of movement speed, the 10% speed boost provides more than the boost from the 2 dexterity points," Peniel informed him.

Jack stared at her, "You're only mentioning this now? After we have walked almost the whole day!"

Peniel shrugged and said, "Try to think for yourself, okay. Can't expect me to keep on giving you hints."

"Hmm, you are right. I apologize."

He then followed the suggestion and used the weapon interface to swap out the skills. He could immediately see himself walking faster.

He met a few more groups of monsters on the way and proceeded to eliminate them. When the sun was about to set, his Magician class finally reached level 13. He had a bunch of free attribute points and skill points but decided to keep them for later.

When the last of the sunlight drowned in the horizon, he checked his radar and started to look for a place with a lower frequency of monsters. He traveled a bit further before arriving at a business district that looked devoid of monsters. He looked around and decided to spend the night in one of the five-story office buildings.

He went inside and climbed the highest floor, then looked for a room that was next to a window that faced the main road. He took out his camping tent and set it in the middle of the room. He then took out his Apprentice Cooking Stove and started cooking Egg Fried Rice.

He was bored of eating Egg Fried Rice, but he only knew two cooking recipes; this and Chicken Soup. And he had found more ingredients for the Egg Fried Rice. He could also cook other things for which he had no official recipe, but the resulting food was only normal food to fill up the stomach. It didn't provide him any buff, nor did it give him proficiency points for his Cooking skill. So he just bore with the Egg Fried Rice.

As he was eating the meal, he noticed a blue dot appear on his radar.

"Another player?"

He went to the window and peered outside. The blue dot was still a distance away so he could not yet see the person it represented.

"What is it?" Peniel asked as she came to the window as well.

The blue dot was moving rather fast. Given the scale of the radar, the person was most likely running. This proved true when he saw a group of four red dots appearing behind the blue one. They were moving in the same direction as the blue dot. The player was being chased by four monsters!

Jack pondered for a bit if he should go to the rescue.

"Hey! I asked you what is it?" He felt a little tap on his head. The Fairy didn't like being ignored.

"There is a guy not far from here, he is being chased by four monsters," he said.

"How do you know?" Peniel asked.

Jack pointed to his God-eye monocle and said, "This thing has built-in radar that can show the position of other people or monsters in a certain range."

"So that's what it does!" Peniel said. "I always wondered what that thing does. You always ran into monsters so easily, I thought at first that you just simply have terrible luck. So it was because you already knew where they were."

"You didn't know about this thing's function?"

"No, I already mentioned before that it was one of the unknown weird things you possessed, right? How could I know if you don't tell me?"

"Well, anyway, so what should we do about this other person? Should we give a hand?"

"That's your call. I can't give a hand even if I want to. I am just here as a support," Peniel said with a face that said she had no opinion about the matter.

He considered a bit more before deciding. "Let's go."

Jack stored his tent and stove back in his bag and ran downstairs. He could see in the radar that the red dots were gaining on the blue one. At this pace, they would reach the blue dot before Jack could arrive. There was also a lone red dot in the direction that the blue dot was heading, but the blue dot didn't realize it yet. Looking at the situation, the blue dot would most likely get surrounded soon. Jack shrugged. The blue dot would have to survive on his own until Jack could get there.

---------------

A man in a white robe was running down an empty street of the city. He weaved through the deserted cars hoping to throw his pursuers off his scent, but the little green critters chasing him were quite tenacious. They spread out into a wide formation, making sure to cover every angle. He found no opportunity to find a dead angle in which he could hide from those Goblins. He was already gasping for breath, but he kept on running as fast as he could.

He saw an alley ahead and was preparing to turn into it when a Skeleton Thug appeared from the alley. It was holding a long axe. When the monster saw the man running towards him, it lifted its ax and charged forward.

"Oh no!" The man hastily changed direction to avoid the Skeleton Thug, but that created an opportunity for the closest Goblin to get to him. The Goblin ran up to the roof of a car and jumped at him with its dagger lifted high. The man immediately used his staff and cast Magic Shield. The dagger slammed hard into the bright shield and caused the man to fall back, while the Goblin flew back from the recoil. It crashed onto the car's door, leaving a deep dent.

The man turned to continue running, but found that his path was blocked by another goblin. The other two goblins flanked him. The practiced cooperation of these monsters' denied him a way out. As the Goblins cut off his path of retreat, the Skeleton Thug came at him. The man could only continue defending using his Magic Shield. Each hack from the axe caused him to take another step back.

He felt a pain in his left leg. He turned and saw a goblin slicing his leg. Then he felt another pain. He could see his health bar decreasing. The man tried to block the assaults as best as he could, but he was being attacked from two directions at once which made it difficult to block all the attacks. The other three goblins stayed in their positions to prevent him from making a desperate attempt to break through their blockade.

He took out a green bottle while continuing to block the attacks. He downed the liquid inside and his HP bar instantly filled up by a significant amount. It was the last bottle he had. One of his rare finds; an uncommon potion that healed his HP. That was his last defiance. He saw no more chance of surviving his current ordeal.

As he started to give up, he heard a loud crashing sound and suddenly a figure slammed onto the Skeleton Thug that was about to attack him. It stumbled into a Goblin and they both fell to the ground some distance away. He turned and saw a man garbed in leather armor holding a long black sword standing in the place where one of the goblins used to be.