18 Mistakenly identified as Poachers (1/2)
”This will leave a nasty scar.” Rahul said as he used the healing spray at the large gaping wound on my left shoulder and the deep claw mark in my left cheek which came dangerously close to my left eye.
”I don't mind a few scars. It'll add to my dignity.” I smiled as I tried to get up. Even after using the highly efficient medicine, I still felt a lot of pain when I moved.
”Take out their Cores.” I said ”We should leave this place as soon as possible.”
”You're not wrong. Stay here while I'll go and take out their cores.” Rahul said and went to crack open a few skulls.
I tried to move my left hand and realized that it was still just as numb as before.
'Well. Who needs a left hand anyway.' I grumbled and picked up my sword which had been knocked flying during the intense fight. I shivered a bit when I realized how close I had come to dying when I lost my sword.
'Thankfully, I have a responsible elder brother.' I shook my head and smiled bitterly.
Although I wanted to become powerful, and not simply remain as a burden for him, it seems like I've implicated him once again.
'You don't need to be hard on yourself. Have you forgotten how you protected him when Gaurav was pointing his gun at both of you. And how you led the Abnormals away from them during that dangerous time. You're not as useless as you think you are. So cheer up a bit.' Lily said in my mind.
'Yeah. I… I understand. Thank you Lily. For cheering me up whenever I feel down.' I smiled and had the sudden urge to rub Lily's head. Unfortunately she was an AI in my Black watch and didn't have a physical body.
'Don't mention it.' She said.
After a few moments Rahul came back with five shining Cores. The were spherical in shape and blood red in color, just like always.
”Here's your reward.” Rahul said and passed on two of the Cores to me.
”But I didn't kill even one of them.” I replied without taking them.
”But… you did heavily injure one of them. And distracted the last one long enough for me to kill it. So take these two as your share of contribution to the fight.”
I thought for a while before taking one of the Cores. ”This is enough. Don't say anything anymore.”
Rahul who was planning to say something shut his mouth and then dejectedly kept the four cores in his pocket.
I opened the hologram and quickly sold the Core at 20 white coins which meant that they were prized at 25 white coins. It seems like these mutant dogs were indeed more powerful than the ones we saw at the abandoned building.
After that we quickly left the scene.
”Rahul, do you think that Pakhal town has fallen to the Mutant beasts.” I asked as we walked forward. Although I was injured and our speed had decreased significantly, it still didn't brought any changes to our plans since we'd almost reached our destination.
But if Pakhal town had already become a domain of Mutant beasts like Pali Village then that would really force us to take some drastic measures. But when I looked at the calm expression of Rahul, I felt that such was not the case.
”No. Pakhal town is called a town and not a village because of a reason. There are a lot of people living there. Plus they don't raise animals in there so there's no chance of that place falling to the Mutant beasts.”
”And that attacked back there just confirmed this fact.”
”How so?” I asked in bafflement.
”Simple. If Pakhal town had fallen to Mutant beasts then we won't 'only' be attacked by five mutant dogs. Those mutant dogs were probably the stray dogs living in that town and were chased out by the Abnormals.”
”From this point on, we're really close to the Pakhal town and most likely won't be attacked by any more Mutant beasts.” He explain patiently.
”Is that so.” I heaved sigh of relief after hearing that we won't suffer any more attacks.
”Let's move a bit more to the west. I feel like we've deviated a bit to the east.” Rahul said as we continued on our way.
—————
I swung my sword and cut off the head of the third Abnormal inside the house. After fighting against those Mutant beasts, a simple fight against 1st tier Abnormals seemed to be rather easy and I was able to deal with them easily even though I was not able to use my left hand for the time being.
”That's the last of them?” I asked.
”Should be” Rahul said and we remained silent for a while to listen to any noise.
1st tier Abnormals don't have much intelligence and made a particular guttural sound from time to time which gives away their presence.
So if you stay silent and listen closely then you can tell if a place is free of Abnormals or not.
After waiting in silence for a while, we heard nothing.
”You should rest for a bit longer this time. The faster your wounds heal, the better it is for both of us.” Rahul said and left to check the house once more anyway.
Although he might seem a bit too cautious, I knew that it was this quality of his that saved our lives back in the Pali village and when the Mutant dogs ambushed us.
Before sleeping, I had one more thing to do.
I took the three red crystals in my hand and gulped them down with some water.
After the warmth faded away I opened the the hologram and looked at the interface.
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 1.4 (1.1)
Agility - 1.0 (2.0)
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 2.0
Mana - 0.0
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier)- Skill recuperation time left= 6 hours 48 minutes 35 seconds
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (1st tier)
Wealth:-
22 White Coins
I looked the room filled with blood and brains and realized that I was too lazy to care about the strong stench and jumped into the bed and before I even realized it I had already fallen asleep.
—————
”There is no road that detours around this town.” Rahul said as he looked at the town in the distance. It was filled with Abnormals to the brim. Just looking at the sheer amount of Abnormals in there gave me chills.
”Well, it's not like we can go through the town.” I said and looked at the forest. ”I suppose we have to go through the deeper part of the forest from here on out.”
”We have no other choice.” Rahul sighed and kept the map back in his bag. ”Hopefully we'll find some sort of track there.”
”Hopefully.” I said.
”Don't complain anymore. Let's get going.” Rahul said and opened the back door leading to the dense forest.
”Well. That's a track if I've ever seen one.” I said as I pointed at the beaten path that was formed by someone walking repeatedly on it. ”The problem is, it's going even deeper into the forest and not where we want to go.”
”Then why are you studying it with such interest.” Rahul said.