Chapter 22: A New One.

After cleaning the primary school of monsters and getting Evan to 50 crystals for his ranking up, Kennen and his friends continued their expedition toward the park that was just opposite of the school.

Kennen thought that the park would be filled with monsters just like the previous park they visited that was filled with wolves and even had a boss wolf but nope, just four wolves in the entire park.

And that park was even bigger than the previous one they visited.

He was also pretty confident in killing a giant wolf with the current strength of their team.

Everyone was stronger now and Evan even more so with new skill.

Evan could probably take care of an armored orc by himself now with Shockwave that could bypass armor.

The giant wolf would probably get knocked out or even one shot if the wolf ate that skill to the head, let alone an armored orc.

Sadly, there was no gian wolf boss to test Evan's new skills or even enough monsters to rank someone else to F+.

The next person to rank up in their team was Rafael.

They held a little rock, paper, scissors tourney and Rafael won that with Kennen coming up second. Frank was third with Amelia right behind and Brandi being second last. Enzo was obviously the guy who got eliminated first in the tourney.

After the park, they went to another primary school.

Kennen had no idea why there were two primary schools so close to each other but that didn't stop them from going in and checking if there were any monsters to hunt.

Weirdly, there were no monsters in that school.

"It's me or are there fewer and fewer monsters around?" Evan asked after searching the whole school.

"Yeah… we used to have at least a group of monsters per street, now there's barely any of them in a whole neighborhood." Enzo also noticed the dwindling monsters.

"I mean we have killed quite many around here so it's normal there are less monsters now. Moreover, there's a second team hunting too." Kennen said.

He also didn't see any dimensional gate recently so he guessed that no more monsters were coming to bolster the numbers either.

Maybe, they would be able to clean up all the monsters of the island this month at this rhythm.

"The other monsters are probably in other areas where there's also survivors. We can't possibly be the only survivor group in the whole island and also the only group that can hunt monsters, right?" Frank said.

Kennen also didn't believe they were the only surviving group as Nassau was quite a large island and they couldn't be the only lucky ones who had working brains.

It didn't sound possible to not have other groups who also knew how to use powers to hunt more monsters.

"I also think there must be survivors out there but we haven't seen any sign of human activity." Enzo noted.

"It's statistically impossible for us to be the only surviving group in the entire island." Rafael.

"I don't think an attack from monsters coming off dimensional gates can be put into statistics." Kennen gave a dry chuckle.

He had no idea how to calculate survival rates on the human species after being invaded by otherworldly monsters and put it into stats.

However, he was certain it wouldn't take long before they met another group of survivors.

His only wish was that the people they met weren't degenerates that let go of all morals and actively took actions that would go against the survival of the human race.

In other words, he didn't want to meet crazy people that wanted to kill people for fun, cannibals or even fanatics that believed this was god's will.

They left the school and continued their expedition.

Nearby the school, there was a clinic, apparently, it was for intensive care.

There were also monsters in here. Couple pig orcs and mini cyclops, which they dispatched quickly.

Kennen could see some blood and bits of corpses here and there but it seemed that nobody came here after the first apparition of the monsters.

"Too bad, there's no doctor alive. We really could use one." Kennen muttered.

Any health personnel were worth their own weight in diamond during apocalyptic times.

"Nah, it would be too good to be true. We ain't some MCs." Enzo laughed.

"We didn't find any doctor but there's plenty of medical supplies we can take here." Frank said.

Kennen and his friends started to ransack the hospital like looters as they searched for medical supplies.

These type of goods were those that kept increasing in value as the time passed during apocalyptic time so they didn't spare any of it.

"Omeprazol, Simvastin…" Evan muttered a few more names, "What do these even do? There's just the name and quantity, how do we even know what it's for?"

Evan held a few little small containers that held white liquid.

"It doesn't matter, it all goes to the bag." Kennen said to him, "We take everything."

"Who knows, maybe we'll meet a doctor down the line and we will need it." Frank added.

It didn't matter that they were taking drugs that they didn't know how to use.

Everything went to the bag.

Kennen also went looking for some books to see if any of them could tell what those names meant.

Not that it helped as the knowledge in the books was too advanced for him to learn anything from it and none of them told what was the effect of some of the drugs they took.

After ransacking the hospital, they first made a trip back to the hotel to deposit the heavy loot and also let Jordan use his skill on it, even though those medicines had high shelf life, it wouldn't be bad to ensure further.

They went back to where the clinic was and continued to explore the surroundings.

At the end of the day, they were able to get Rafael up to 50 crystals after visiting multiple restaurants, supermarkets and other storefronts.

It was a new skill derived from his base power and called Five Binds.

From what Rafael said, it was his usual binding but on steroids. However, it was a single target spell.

And now, they were going to test the skill on a pig orc they found roaring in the street after they quickly dispatched the two other wolves accompanying it.

"Five Binds!" Rafael yelled his skill out loud, which was totally unnecessary.

Kennen saw so many anime where the characters yelled their skills out loud that he wasn't even fazed anymore when Rafael did so and was more concentrated what he new skill looked like.

Five Binds was impressive as five bright yellow ropes came out of the empty air around the target and binded the four limbs and head.

That pig orc couldn't move a single each as it was being pulled from five directions but the pull wasn't strong enough to tear anything.

The pig orc couldn't even roar in indignation as it was being choked.

Sadly, the skill didn't last long enough to actually choke the pig orc to death.

"Man, when can I get a skill that actually has any offensive power?" Rafael sighed in frustration after Enzo finished the pig orc with a headshot.

"Be happy with what you have, that binding is pretty OP." Enzo said.

"I don't think any of us will be able to get out of that in time before you can stab us to death." Frank added.

"Yeah, I know…"

"It's getting late, let's stop here for the day."

The sun was going down and they were losing sunlight so Kennen decided to wrap things up for the day.

They only got enough crystals to rank up Evan and Rafael today. Kennen was the next candidate for the rank up and he only needed seven more crystals.

Although he was close, it was preferable to go back since it was more dangerous to hunt without any semblance of light. Moreover, they weren't in a hurry.

***

Back at the hotel, Michael's group had already come back from their expedition.

However, they didn't present any crystals to Kennen's group when they came back.

None of them said anything to each other as they walked by.

Michael didn't give them any crystals yet but they still had three days left so Kennen and his friends didn't say anything to him yet.

None of them wanted to interact with each other.

Kennen just ate and went about his business as he and his friends relaxed before going to bed.

He would most likely hit 50 crystals tomorrow and he hoped he would get a new skill like everyone else did.

***

Kennen got woken up by his goblins the moment they saw sunlight and he went on his usual routine in the morning before his team prepared for the day's expedition.

Monsters were really hard to find recently for them as it took them a whole hour just to find seven monsters to kill.

But nonetheless, Kennen finally reached 50 crystals and ranked up.

He wished to say he felt power surge into him and felt stronger.

However, the reality was he didn't feel anything, his goblins didn't light up either this time and he received no new skill.

[Rank: F+]

He checked his rank and it did rank up.

[Summoning: The ability to summon a unit who will protect and listen to the summoners' every order. Only two units can currently be summoned.]

Kennen nearly thought that his power didn't change as only one word changed in his description.

It went from one to two.

He could summon another unit now.

"I can summon another familiar now!" Kennen told his friends.

"Nice!"

"Another one to the team!"

"Get a tank please! Get a tank please! I don't want to be the sole punching bag anymore!"

His friends were excited for him while Evan was jokingly praying to any god who was willing to listen to him.

"Go ahead and do the summons. No better time than now." Frank suggested.

Kennen was actually in an open space on the street right now after they finished two wolves in a Anglican Church.

With no monsters in the surrounding, it was safe to do the summon.

He started the summon and did it like the first time by calling something that he could feel at the corner of his mind.

It was a chant from an unknown language but only he could hear it. The chant went so fast that it only lasted for two seconds before a magic circle appeared in front of him.

A figure covered in light slowly emerged from the magic circle.

The figure grew taller until it reached 2 meter tall and as the light faded, a bipedal was revealed.

It wasn't human though.

If Kennen had to use an animal to describe, it would be an alligator.

Standing two meter tall with green leathery skin, except at the torso which was smooth white skin, with an alligator head and thick limbs.

The alligator's mouth wasn't that long or flat.

Its arms were longer than its feet and it was holding a trident.

In terms of equipment apart from the trident, the new summon only had pants covering his legs.

His goblins even started to make some sounds that seemed to be cheers when they saw a fellow summon.

Kennen inspected his new summon closer and hoped to see the description blue screen like for his goblins.

[Stealth Hunter Lizardman: Skilled Lizardman hunter that is capable of hiding from sight even in broad daylight, expert in ambush and quick attack.]

"OH! A fellow tank!" Evan yelled in excitement.

"It's not, it's a rogue…" Kennen instantly crushed his hope.