The Race Detection Compass

I moved in steady steps while leaving behind a long trail of dead bodies. Unlike the wolves which made me constantly on alert, the hyenas looked more docile. I could expect their movement and evade them smoothly without exhausting my stamina.

My sudden appearance from their back made their lines crumble. If I had enough stamina I would rather kill them from the outside, like peeling an onion.

But against almost two thousand or more, I knew I would end up dead if I did so. I moved in a straight line while the hyenas coming near me were all killed in one hit.

I didn't even put any pressure there, just waved my sword and hit that weakness. Just as I got deeper, I started to notice a few movements of wolves at the front.

"They are coming for me," I narrowed my eyes while knowing that facing hyenas or wolves alone was totally different from facing them together.

"Let's pick the pace then," as they started to move towards me, I simply raised my speed and even left many monsters without hitting them.

My top priority now was to narrow the gap between me and the humans around the museum.

"Howl!"

"Howl!"

"Howl!"

They caught up to me when there was less than two hundred meters left. "Eager to die I see," I moved my sword and kept my movements changing while trying to cover the remaining distance.

"Roar!"

"Screw you!" Just as I covered one hundred meters, I saw a group of angry hyenas coming directly and blocking my path, adding more distance to reach.

"I can't drag this any longer," my main concern was my stamina. After all ten points there was nothing reassuring.

"Should I do it?" I hesitated while jumping to the side. A fierce claw just brandished near my face and then my sword stabbed its neck in return.

"I'm killing them fast, but they are gathering faster," I started to feel tired. During the past few minutes I kept fighting in the middle of a growing crowd of mixed monsters.

Just as I was about to use my hidden card, I heard a loud shout before a group of twenty youths came through. They all held swords or shields, even few wore armors that protected their bodies from these monsters.

Their appearance just came in time to save me the trouble. "This way," a youth who wore a helmet that covered most of his face said while the others cleared a way to the museum.

Without the need for him to ask, I already started running towards there. The monsters roared and howled in fierceness while I finally took a closer look at how this group of youths fought.

'They don't know how to properly fight at all!' Just seeing them waving their weapons at the thick fur of the hyenas made me frown.

They didn't know how to kill hyenas, and yet they managed to sustain the first quest so far. How was that possible?

The gap they created was getting pressured by more monsters at the moment. I looked around fast and saw the youths forming three lines of defenses and blocking the monsters from trespassing here.

"They won't be able to hold them," I knew this was inevitable. After all, charging with courage was much different than retreating against pressure.

I moved fast and without saying a single word, kept hitting the hyenas at their weak spots.

Seeing me fight so close made them realize what I was doing.

"These monsters… they already have a weakness?!!" the one with the helmet said and this time I managed to clearly hear its voice.

She was a girl without a doubt! A girl who acted like being the leader of the people here.

"The lower part of the neck is their deadly spot," I said, which was obvious while clearing five more hyenas and relieving the pressure over the retreating youths, "can you do it?"

"Don't look down on us," the girl's attitude shifted before adding in a very loud tone: "Those big hyenas have weak spots below their necks. Hit there and you'll be able to kill them smoothly."

I already retreated to the inside while panting. My body seemed tired and I needed around two to three minutes of rest before resuming the fight again.

"Who are you?" Just as I was looking at the youths around and trying to see how they survived, the girl came closer and asked in a tone that held a lot of suspicion.

'Smart girl,' I took note of her cautious attitude, "I came from the great lawn."

I pointed to the west while the girl didn't even turn her head away from me.

"I know where it lies, and I didn't ask where you are from."

Her face was mostly covered with this spartan like helmet. But I could see the gleam in her eyes, like she was ready to kill me here if I didn't give a proper answer.

"I'm Hye," I said with a smile as if we are two new friends hanging out for the first time.

"I didn't ask about your name," yet her cold attitude continued.

"You asked who I am," I shrugged as if I didn't care about her threatening gazes. In fact if I was worried over my safety, I wouldn't have ventured alone like this.

"Then let me be straight here, what business do you have with us?" she even raised her sword in my face while the group of twenty from earlier came to surround me as well.

In just a moment, I turned to be their enemy without knowing why.

"Don't give me that look," the girl said in a cold tone, "a youth like you walking alone in the middle of darkness without getting killed by monsters… How can this be possible?"

"I'm strong," I said in a light tone before pointing to my clothes, "and I wasn't actually walking peacefully out there."

"What says this is monster blood?"

"If it's not, then what's this?" I didn't like where this conversation was heading. But I was stalling to recover my stamina and also knew if they were traitors or not, my enemies or not.

"It might be human blood," yet her answer surprised me. I looked at her like I was looking at a crazy person. "What? Will you fake it now?" she said as if she knew it all.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I was honestly trying to know what she meant. It couldn't be what I thought of now, right?

"A human walking in the turf of monsters like he is one of them, covered in human blood and can even see in the darkness. C'mon, you should have worked better to conceal your stinky breaths from me."

No f*cking way! I looked at her with one thought in mind… She knew about the traitors! How come someone here at this point knew about them?

That wasn't possible, unless…

"Don't give me that look, I hate it when you try to deceive my eyes!" she seemed angry but what I was going to say next would make her even angrier.

"How come you know about the traitors?" I brandished my sword and pointed it directly on her face, "are you a traitor or what?"

"Traitor? That's a cool name you have about yourselves," she chuckled as if I just said something funny. However I didn't like her, didn't like the atmosphere, didn't like anything here at all.

"Speak or die…" I didn't care about the fact I was surrounded. After all I had vast experience in battle, not like these newbies here.

"Stop or we'll kill you!" however a shout came from outside this ring. I noticed the hatred directed at me from almost everyone here.

That was weird. No human should know the true identity of traitors this early on unless he was himself a traitor.

But on the other hand, what the people around started to say in defense of this girl made me more confused.

"Angelica is really our hero. She stood alone and protected us from all the monsters."

"Without her, we won't be standing here now."

"She even found many human-like monsters and killed them all."

"Don't come near her or else we'll all kill you here."

I looked around while not knowing if there was such an illusion skill or something this early in the apocalypse. In my eyes, these people seemed brainwashed by this girl.

"Can you find traitors?" I looked at her while considering something that we both could work with.

"I'm the one asking questions here, traitor," yet she seemed too stubborn to explain anything. However unlike her, the people around seemed to really like her a lot and started to talk again in her stead.

"She is a real hero, one blessed by the power of the heavens."

"Even her name tells about her essence, an angel with the name Angelica!"

"She has psychic powers, ones that enabled her to fight against all monsters and win."

"She used it to detect those humanoid monsters back then and killed them for us."

'Psychic power… Interesting reason,' I scratched my head while thinking, 'why didn't I think about such a reason before? It would have saved me the trouble.'

"So, traitor, what do you want to say in your last moments?" she acted so arrogant and aggressive, as if she was able to hurt me in the first place.

Pathetic!

"How do you deem me one before testing it out?" I asked as if I didn't give a damn about her threats.

"I'm sure of my guess," she said, "or else how can you explain what you did earlier?"

"My reasons are mine alone," I firmly said, "now test me and let's bring this useless show to an end."

She seemed a bit hesitant. What? Did she really have powers to detect traitors? Don't tell me she did!

"Bring me a drop of your blood," she slowly said before I noticed a strange device in her hand. It was like a compass, something I saw a drawing of before.

'This… it's the race detection gear…' My look to her changed the moment I saw this fist sized compass. 'This gear is worth over ten thousand coins alone! Besides, every time she uses it, she has to pay around two thousand coins. How come someone like her has such wealth? No, it's how in the first place she knew about its existence? Suspicious!'

That compass told me a lot about her. Even I, the one who could get such coins in the past quest if I killed all the monsters alone, didn't put such gear in my mind.

It was a gear used to differentiate between the races. But I knew the terrifying ability of this gear. It wasn't just differentiating races based on their origins, but it could also determine the allegiance one held towards the camps of powers here.

And that explained how she could find out about the traitors. But the main question still remained, how could someone possibly know about such a thing?

"I need a drop of blood voluntarily or I'll behead you and take all the blood I need," she said in a threatening tone. She looked fierce, and at this moment I started to reassess her.

"Here," I extended my arm and cut a small wound in my palm. I looked at her eyes, trying to see through that helmet of hers.

She was the most equipped person here, as if she was afraid of being targeted. Her acquisition of that compass meant that she already planned to have it from the start, even from the beginning.

Was she like me? A person from the future or something?

I let a drop of blood fall over a small hole in the compass. The compass had many names written on the outer circle of it. There were all the known races here, including even the angels.

Just inside the outer circle of names there were three circles with different colors; red, green, and white. Red meant enemy, green meant ally, and white meant neutral.

The compass had movable arms only. The moment my blood fell there, the two arms moved fast in rotation before they finally stopped.

"Human and ally," I said while my comment made her dark face from being wrong to being shocked.

"H… How come you know that?!!" she seemed to not expect me to see through this compass. I shrugged while simply saying:

"I told you, my reasons are mine alone. Unless you want to share with me yours first."