Chapter 32 - 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 back 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 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 going towards the light beam. Unless the front was a solid building, he took a straight route. Any monsters he met, he just barreled through them, 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 a level 10 armor, nevertheless, it was an armor piece that he had not possessed. 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 can travel faster. In term of movement speed, the 10% boost provide more than the boost from the 2 dexterity points," Peniel informed.
Jack stared at her, "you only mentioning this now? After we have walked almost the whole day?"
Peniel shrugged and said, "try to think for yourself, ok. Can't expect me to keep on giving you hints."
"Hm, you are right. I apologize."
He then followed the suggestion and used the weapon interface to swap out the skill. He could immediately saw 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 looked at his radar and started to find some places with less frequency of monsters. He traveled a bit more distance before arriving at a business district that looked deserted from monsters. He looked around and decided to use one of the five-story office buildings to spend the night.
He went inside and climbed the highest floor, then looked for a room that was next to a window that faced out to 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 start cooking Egg Fried Rice.
He felt bored to keep on eating Egg Fried Rice but this was one of the two cooking recipes he knew other than Chicken Soup, while he found more ingredients available for the Egg Fried Rice. He could also cook other things of 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 enjoying the meal, he noticed a blue dot appearing 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 was representing.
"What is it?" Peniel asked as she came to the window as well.
The blue dot was moving rather fast. If he calculated the scale of the radar, the person was most likely running. This point was proven after he saw a group of four red dots appearing after the blue one. They were moving in the same direction as the blue dot. The fellow was being chased by four monsters.
He pondered for a bit if he should come to the rescue.
"Hey! I ask 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 got a built-in radar that can show the position of other person 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 know where they are."
"You don't know about this thing's function?"
"No, I already mentioned before it was one of the unknown weird things you possessed, right? How can I know if you don't tell me?"
"Well, anyway, so what should we do with 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 care about the matter.
He considered a bit more before deciding. "Let's go."
He stored his tent and stove back in his bag's space and ran down. 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 his arrival. There was also a lone red dot in the direction where the blue dot was heading, the blue dot didn't realize it yet. Looking at the situation, the blue dot would most likely get surrounded soon. The blue dot would need to depend on himself to survive long enough before he arrived.
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A man in a white robe was running on the neglected 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 get a dead angle in which he could hide from those Goblins. He was already gasping for breath while kept on running as fast as possible.
He saw an alley ahead and was preparing to turn around its corner when a Skeleton Thug came out from said corner. It was holding a long axe. When the monster saw a guy was running towards him, it lifted its ax and charged forward.
"Oh no!" The man hastily changed direction to avoid the Skeleton Thug, but it created an opportunity for one of the closest Goblins to get to him. The Goblin ran up a car and jumped at him with its dagger lifted high. He immediately used his staff and cast Magic Shield. The dagger slammed onto the bright shield and caused him to falter, while the Goblin fell back from the recoil. It crashed onto the car's door and created a dent.
He turned to continue running, but found that his path had been blocked by another goblin. The other two goblins flanked him. These monsters' cooperation denied him a way out. As they cut all his path of retreat, the Skeleton Thug came at him. He 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 make a slice on his leg, then he felt another pain. He could see his health bar continued to decrease. He tried to block the assaults as best as he could, but he was attacked from two directions which made it difficult to block all attacks. The other three goblins stayed at their position to prevent him from making a desperate attempt to break through their blockade.
He took out a green bottle while didn't stop blocking the attacks. He downed the liquid inside and had his HP bar instantly filled up by a significant amount. It was the last bottle he had, one of his rare findings, an uncommon potion that healed his health. That was his last struggle, he saw no chance to survive his current ordeal anymore.
As he started to give up, he heard a loud crashing sound and suddenly a green figure slammed onto the Skeleton Thug that was about to attack him. The monsters stumbled and fell to the ground some distance away. He turned and saw a man garbed in leather armor set holding a long black sword stood at the place where one of the goblins blocking his way used to be.