The Hoard Is Coming

The trio continued on their journey toward the borders of the city, it took them less than the estimated day to finish the rest of the way, this was attributed to the new power Ellis had as she bulldozed her way through any and all obstacles that were met in their way

Thus they completed they reached finally reached the outskirts a day and sixteen hours after the apocalypse began

'I'm glad her new resolve wasn't shaken'

YuJu thought to himself as he looked at the silent Ellis, she hadn't diverged from their path to help anyone along the way, though she seemed shaken a few times she still held on to her new convictions till the end

"Are you tired?"

He asked and she shook her head

"Then we will travel a bit more, I have a place in mind for our resting area"

Neither of his slaves objected, thus they took a new road toward the countryside

"Hmm? Master, there is something up ahead"

Ellis informed YuJu who engrossed inspecting the heart of the beast

Lifting his head he gazed at the far end of the road, his eyes squinted seeing the thing she was pointing at

"I guess they finished destroying the countryside, then the horde is forming soon"

He mumbled, Ellis who heard him didn't understand at first, but when they walked further ahead she knew what he meant

Walking toward them was a huge group of beasts of all types, there were felines, hounds, rats, boars, even rabbits, they totalled more than a hundred and were closely walking together without any conflict occurring

"What is happening Master"

"They are forming a hoard, they plan to incase the city from all directions before going in, killing everything on the way, that's the beasts way of fighting against us sentient creatures, this means the humans must have started getting their classes and they sensed danger from us"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

He shook his head at her naiveness

"The faster the beasts group the worst it is for us, the reason being that those who would die before the horde would be useless during it, only by giving the strong ones enough time to grow would the city last against them or even win"

Ellis understood his point and looked at the incoming group with caution

"This must be their first wave, soon we will probably see more and more of them, in larger numbers, in order to cut down on the wasted time and the useless fighting we will diverge from the main path, that way we will meet only stragglers"

"But Master, won't it help us level up faster if we were to attack the main groups"

He turned around and saw Ellis's resolute eyes, it was apparent she wanted to give humans a chance by lessening the numbers that are coming, but her point was still valid so it wasn't like she was wasting her time on useless chivalry

"I understand your thoughts but fighting these beasts won't help you level up"

She was surprised by his words

"These beasts have levels under ten, only some have their levels above ten and they are far too few of them currently, you must know that levelling up becomes extremely hard when fighting low-level monsters, one reason being the amount of them needed being too big, the second is that you don't get anything when you kill something twenty levels under you"

Ellis now understood why after fighting for so long her level remained at twenty-six, the level she was at after killing the horrid beast

"There is another reason of course, and that is the fact the levelling speed is slowed down every twenty-five levels, and with the fact that you need to kill more the more you level up you can see why it would take time to level up using such a low-level horde"

All this made levelling seem like a very hard task, and it was, she wouldn't have levelled up this fast if not for him guiding her along the way

She looked at the incoming group of monsters that were now charging at them reluctantly, she thought she could at least kill them and save her fellow humans some trouble

"I guess we have to take care of this group though anyway, Anput needs a little push to get to level twenty-five anyway, so lets put this opportunity to good use"

Her eyes brightened as she looked at him, clearly happy that she could finally do some help, thus she took out one of the swords they got along the way and transfers power into it, making it shine with a purple hue, then she plunged into the first pack of beasts like a hungry lioness

Whimpers and roars were heard along the now bloody road as she made a path of blood along the way, allowing Anput to get in as many kills as possible, while YuJu was already nowhere to be seen, leaving the battle to the two alone

Half an hour later Ellis disabled the last surviving beast apart from the ones that ran away and let Anput finish it off

"Good job, but you need to have more control over your new power"

YuJu advised as he appeared silently behind them, this brought Ellis's attention to the scrapped sword in her hand, which was already the second one this battle

"I'm not sure how to limit it from damaging the sword while I enhance it, if I use enough power that it won't hurt the sword then there is little to no enhancement, only when I exceed it would there be a clear effect"

Her answer was more of a question, she wanted to ask him but didn't know if he knew or not and didn't want to embarrass him if he didn't

"Your wrong, the power that you put into the sword when it doesn't damage it is more than capable of enhancing it, your just not capable of bringing out the true potential of that power"

He explained, then walked away from the main road before she could ask anything else, promoting the two to follow him

'Too many answers might lead to confusion, let her focus on one thing at a time, as for the rest she will naturally figure out on her own, if not it won't be too late for me to intervene'

YuJu always felt like those who learned on their own would excel over those that were taught rigorously, he believed that as long as he showed them the way his followers would eventually see the light

....

Three long hours later the somewhat tired and sleepy group finally made it to the countryside where they found an eerily quiet town where they didn't see a single living being remaining

The windows of the various buildings were broken, the streets smeared with blood, many human parts were strewn across the streets while some animal parts could be seen as well, the wind occasionally wafted the nauseous smell of blood to their noses

Ellis frowned at the sight, covering her nose, but YuJu's smile remained as he headed toward one of the shops nearby

"Get used to the smell, you will be around it a lot"

He said as walked through the over the broken door of a convenience store

He took a few plastic bags and started to fill them with canned food, some sweets, water bottles, some more sweets, only a little bit of vegetables and fruits, and finally a little more sweets

By the time he walked out the door he was holding six large bags while munching on a chocolate bar

"...."

Ellis looked at him weirdly but didn't ask, she figured the sweets must serve some purpose, maybe even an essential part of a grand plan, her master never seemed to go by the book anyway

YuJu then dumped all the bags onto her hands and walked away, knowing that there weren't any beasts around as they had al left he was at ease making the main combatant a luggage carrier

He strolled in the streets, coming across many more shops and houses but he didn't go into any of them, he did memorise a few clothing shops though for a visit later, after all, they needed some new clothes and some extra sets

He kept walking until he was out of the town and into the woods, where he met a boar monster that seemed to have been left alone, but Anput made short work of the beast

"Hmm, Ellis can you cook?"

"Sadly no Master"

"Sigh, guess I will do it then"

He had Anput drag the boar's body as he contemplated contracting a servent that was solely used for cooking

A minute later they exited the short walk through the woods and saw a glistening lake in front of them, but what caught their attention was the rather large villa situated by the lake

"Looks better than I remember"

He said happily, the last time he saw this place it was fortified to the teeth, not a bird could enter or leave without permission

"It was difficult to sneak in here"

He mumbled under his breath approaching the double doors at the front of the villa

He gave the doors a push but didn't feel them budge

"?? Did someone barricaded this?"

He didn't remember anyone living here before that guild took over, but then again it could be that the original residents hadn't left within the first few days of the apocalypse

"Allow me, Master"

Ellis put the bags on the ground and crouched low, then with a single leap she made it to the second floors balcony

The sight wasn't surprising at all to YuJu but Anput seemed a little excited at this move

"Don't worry, you will have your time"

He patted her head assuringly, Anput was happy to receive his pats and promise, she also wanted to become really strong but he had put all her stats into insight so she was the same Anput two days ago, physically that it is

After happily comforting the simple to satisfy Anput he waited at the door quietly for Ellis

A minute passed by and he didn't hear anything

'Did she lose her way? It's a big villa after all'

To more minutes passed by and YuJu frowned, he could also jump up and search but he felt it was unnecessary, she should be able to achieve such a simple task thus he patiently waited

After another two minutes passed YuJu couldn't help but get worried and crouched down for a jump

Creak~

That's when he heard the sound of heavy objects moving beyond the door

He recognised it as the sound of furniture and guessed t was Ellis but let Anput stay at the back while he got ready to fight any unexpected thing that might come out

When everything seemed to be moved away and the door was finally opened revealing the redhead he wanted to see his worries were dashed, but a sense of confusion took over for a moment seeing a silver-haired woman standing behind her, bowing toward him in her maid uniform

"Sorry it took so late Master, I helped this one get rid of a few monsters on the way"

"I figured as much"

He nodded at Ellis's comment and turned to the silver-haired woman at the side

"Greetings Master"

She bowed lower as she said that, earning a nod from YuJu, who sauntered in like it was his own house, Ellis followed meanwhile the maid picked up the bags outside and let ANput in before she followed