TROA) Leveled Up! (Patreon)
Content
I let a week pass before I decided it was safe enough for me to take Jen out on her first scavenging trip. “Ai, is this going to be okay?” Jen asked nervously as we began walking down the mountain.
“You have a video feed from the drone next to you, right?” I asked back. When she nodded, I grinned at her and said: “Then everything is okay!”
“Okay…” Jen slowly let out a sigh of relief.
While she was feeling relieved because no spiders had shown up as of yet, I was feeling more excited for when they did show up. I wanted to kill one quickly and see if my assumption was true or not. If it wasn’t, then I could only say that my system was busted. But if it was, then I might go on a massacre, killing robot after robot.
I want to see how many spiders it took to level up. And how many would I need to kill to be able to raise my stats? If it was anything like a game system, then I should be able to continue to level up until I became so strong I could poke things to death.
We made it to the bottom of the mountain quite quickly and were now on the deserted road that still had many dead bodies strewn about. It had only been a week, so many bodies were still rotting away under the hot summer sun. I looked at Jen, who did not even flinch at the sight of these bodies, and felt a little relieved that she was adjusting so well. Even with the stench that would normally make one sick instantly, she was perfectly fine.
Some of the bodies looked as if they were running away. Many had abandoned their cars since they could not turn them around, so many car doors were opened leaving them easily accessible. “We should clean these cars out first. This is camping season, so many of these people may have been on their way to camps, so some things might still be of use.”
“Ai, I do not think anything will be good in this heat.” Jen did have beads of sweat forming on her brow.
“There could still be water. Out of everything we need to collect the most, water is the most important. You can go a while without eating, but no water will mean death.” I said firmly. Water is the most important resource, and you can never not have enough of it.
“Okay…” Jen nodded as we began rummaging through each car. I pulled the dead body of a man who had been stabbed in the head out of the driver’s seat of one car so I could get to the trunk leaver. Once it popped, I walked over to take a good look to see what I could find. Sadly, there were many containers but nothing of use.
“Got a twenty-four pack here!” Jen yelled out.
“Alright, I will be there in a sec.” I pursed my lips as I looked around the SUV I was at once more but still did not find anything. Of course, I did find a gun under the front seat, but it was useless to me. I mean, I had a phase pistol and a phase sword on my person, so I was much better equipped.
As I looked down the road that sizzled under the hot summer sun, I couldn’t help but remember my past life a bit. I used to do this often in hopes of finding water and food. Not many people were really willing to risk going to the main roads like this because it was so open. During the second wave, flying replicators would scan these areas all the time.
*Tink!*
A sound came from not too far away. I was just about to arrive next to Jen when I raised my hand and pointed one finger into the sky. This was a signal for her not to speak. I then motioned behind me, which caused her to squat down.
She was doing everything perfectly. We had trained for certain situations and what actions we should take so we would not end up harmed. Spiders were aggressive, but only when they spotted you. They could sense your body heat, but only if they were scanning. At this time, no replicator would be scanning, but they would be working on creating more of their kind with so many cars here.
At the start of the wave, replicators rarely stopped to make more of themselves except a few here and there. It seemed some had different higher-priority tasks. This made things simple for me. I quickly and silently made my way towards the noise.
Behind a large truck was a spider digging at the engine, pulling parts off of it with a claw-type arm that came out of a small opening within the spider. I took out my phase pistol, and while it still had not noticed me, I aimed just right and fired.
A blue beam of light flew out and pierced through the spider’s head. The red glowing eye on it slowly dimmed before finally going dark. Its six-legged body collapsed to the ground and fell off the truck with a loud thud.
[You Defeated A Hexa-Scavenger bot]
[Experience Points Gained….]
[Level Up!]
[+5 Skill Points.]
[+5 to all stats]