As soon as that fireballs appeared, I aimed the vampire hunter’s crossbow toward them. Not precisely toward them, I aimed at the point where those fireballs appeared. Three bolts hit one fireball, and other three bolts hit the other. The fireballs were one meter wide, but the flames weren’t powerful enough to destroy or change the course of steel bolts.

You have obtained 30 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 30 Evolution Coins.

While I had good reflexes thanks to the sensorial limit, Sarah though fast enough to create a water ball and shot it toward one fireball and destroy it, Harry did the same, but instead of attacking, he used his massive shield to block the second fireball. However, even though the fireball didn’t have enough power to make him struggle against it, he suffered some damage thanks to the heat.

Soon after that, I saw the body of an oversized lizard with three steel bolts on its heads hand I saw another lizard with a single steel bolt in its stomach.

Mutant Lizard (Fire)– HP: 300/450 MP: 1120/1500 STA: 450/450

Physical Limit Lv 06, Mental Limit Lv 22, Sensorial Limit Lv 06.

Skills: Fireball Lv 04, Tongue whip Lv02, Invisibility Lv 06.

Finally, one of my best weapons was being used against me. Although that was annoying, I had already prepared myself for that day. No wonder I couldn’t see any monsters on the radar.

Before I couldn’t finish the second beast, Claire and Rose attacked the lizard at the same time. The creature didn’t even have the time to think about running away. While Sarah was healing Harry’s small burns, Sandra decided to start a strategic meeting.

“Invisible enemies,” Claire said, showing a fed-up expression. “What a pain.”

“They didn’t appear on your radar, right, Ethan?” Sandra asked.

“You are correct.”

“Can you still detect them, if you focus your senses?” Sandra asked.

“Yes, but I can’t do it inside a car. I can’t feel their body heat thanks to this weather. My best option would hear their heartbeat, but if we must use the jeeps, I can use the search skill to find them. We can use that skill to evade them, but the effective range is limited, and I don’t have that much MP.”

Sandra thought for a few moments, and then she decided to leave the jeeps behind. That would make our job slower, but at least I would be able to feel the monsters' presence and kill them before they could attack us. While the lizards could attack and stay invisible, it was pretty weak physically.

Trying to ignore the heat as much as possible, we left the hotel behind and toward the tower. Now that we couldn’t use the jeeps, our best would be: only go to the tower, obtain as much information as possible and then retreat. But before we could even walk one hundred meters, we faced another problem. I could sense the ground in front of us trembling slightly.

“More enemies are coming.”

As soon as I said that, they also felt the ground trembling. Some cracks began to appear on the street, and soon we saw something erupting from the hard rock asphalt: ants.

Mutant Ant – HP: 150 MP: 250/300 STA: 450

Physical Limit Lv 05, Mental Limit Lv 07, Sensorial Limit Lv 09.

Skill: Bite Lv06.

The enemies were weak, but I could see hundreds of them coming from the hole they created. They had fangs powerful enough to destroy asphalt; they shouldn’t be underestimated. Using the vampire Hunter’s crossbow, I began to kill them at a fast pace. But they never stopped coming.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Coins.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Coins.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 05 Evolution Coins.

…

Just one steel bolt was enough to kill them, but our mission wasn’t to obtain coins and orbs. That was why everyone was getting impatient. Aside from me, only Rose could kill weak monsters efficiently. Claire strength was to kill powerful monsters with few arrows, and since she didn’t have a lot of MP, weak enemies like ants were a waste of time for her.

Harry focused only on stopping the ants, but even his massive shield couldn’t do much against so many monsters. After ten minutes, I already was starting to get annoyed. But Rose had an idea.

“Sarah! Fill that hole with water!” Rose shouted. “Harry! Use your electric sword!”

They nodded and obeyed. Sarah had to concentrate for a few moments, but she created a small waterfall out of the thin air and made it pour inside the hole. Before she could finish, Harry activated his sword’s effect and threw toward the hole. For twenty seconds, the water and the sword electrocuted the ants. After that, not a single ant moved, and we received lots of coins and orbs.

“Good job.” Sandra while patting the tired Harry and Sarah.

They used a lot of MP, but at least we discovered fast a method to kill this kind of enemy although only a few handfuls of survivors could emulate that.

I didn’t notice since I was too busy, but Harry suffered a lot of damage since he was very close to the ants. His legs were bleeding because the ants were strong enough to rip some flesh off his body, and he was by far our sturdiest survivor.

‘Invisible lizards and underground ants… things aren’t looking good to make Silver hunt at night.’

With luck, Silver would be able to feel the smell of the mutant lizards. But even with his lightning, he wouldn’t be able to kill so many ants. While he could regenerate his body by eating monster’s meat, if the ants cause too much damage to his legs, he would die.

After Sarah drunk some potions and healed Harry, we resumed our mission. I closed my eyes and focused on hearing anything around me, the heat was turning the job of concentrating incredibly hard, but that was something that I would eventually get used to it. While Claire could concentrate faster than me, the range her senses were smaller than the attack range of the mutant lizards.

Ignoring the sound of steps and ignoring the sound of the heartbeats of those around me, I expanded my hearing to all directions. Eventually, I found the other two mutant lizards, one in the middle of the road and other near a tree. I opened my eyes, and I looked toward the three, and without any ceremony, I shot. After that, the dead body of a lizard appeared.

You have obtained 30 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 30 Evolution Coins.

“There’s another one in front of us in the middle of the street.”

Everyone nodded and prepared themselves. Sarah created another massive water ball and shot when the fireball appeared. After that, Rose and Claire finished the creature.

“I wonder if heat vision goggles can make us see these monsters,” Sabrina said while rubbing her chin.

It was a good idea, but if it worked, the, it would work on me too. If that were the case, other monsters would be able to find me too, like snakes. As soon as I thought about that, the earth began to tremble. And when I saw some cracks under me, I jumped backward using all my strength. Thank god, I increased the sensorial limit so many times, because I was almost got eaten alive by a massive earthworm.

Evolved Mutant Worm (Earth) – HP: 4500 MP: 750/1000 STA: 2000

Physical Limit Lv 35, Mental Limit Lv 07, Sensorial Limit Lv 13.

Skill: Earth manipulation Lv 05, Bite Lv 08.

Before I could even land, I opened my backpack, and I made two ice arrows fly toward the beast eyeless face. Such a monster made me feel disgusted beyond reason, so, I used my most powerful attack. Even though the creature was two meters wide, the arrows easily pierced the monsters head all the way through to the other side. The arrows also caused frostbites, but I didn’t hit any vital spots inside the monster’s body.

The creature screamed and trembled before it tried to escape, and that gave me the chance to continue my attack. I aimed and pulled the trigger of my crossbow; the others also recovered from the surprise and began to attack. However, before we could finish it, the monster tried to escape using the same hole.

‘Like I hell, I will let you escape.’

I opened my backpack again, and I made other two fire arrows fly toward the monster's mouth. The heat of the arrow’s flames was strong enough to raise the temperature around me a little, but that only showed how much those arrows were powerful. Instead of piercing, the arrows exploded as soon as they touched the monster's skin, explosions which were three times more powerful than the explosions my metal crossbow explosive bolts could cause.

Half of the monsters head had been destroyed, blood and small pieces of flesh began to fall near us and. Thanks to the heat, soon we began to feel the smell of meat and blood being toasted.

You have obtained 400 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 400 Evolution Coins.

‘What a disgusting smell…’

Putting my feelings aside, even though we killed in a few seconds that monster, it would cause a lot of problems if the survivors fight them. The beast would be able to devour a human alive before anyone could notice. All of us knew that, so they were showing tense expressions.

“Let’s move on.” Sandra declared.

We could think of a plan to deal with such a beast later, right now we had to check the tower. Fortunately, we didn’t found other evolved worms and finally arrived at the entrance gate of that tower. It was even more ominous close by; however, what surprised us was that we found a dark altar in front of the tower’s gate. For some time, we just looked at each other waiting for something to happen. But only when Sandra approached the altar, we heard a voice coming from nowhere.

“To enter the doomsday tower, the survivors must offer the dark orb. The one who protects the dark orb is also the one who brings pestilence. Until the tower obtains the dark orb, the survivors won’t be able to eat.”

“What?”

That surprised me, but the content of the message puzzled me even more. We needed something to enter the tower, come to think of it, I could see half of a hole in the altar, and it was probably there where we had to put the dark orb. I tried to touch the tower’s gate, but an invisible wall stopped me.

“Let’s return,” Sandra declared. “It seems that we can’t investigate the tower further until we find this orb.”

As fast as possible we walked back to the hotel, although I want to think more about what that voice said, I decided to focus on my job of finding the invisible lizards. When we returned, Sandra shared with the other our discoveries; we would probably find other monsters. But that could be done later; we had to analyze that message. But it wasn’t that difficult, I tried to drink some lemonade, but it tasted so horrible that I vomited. The lemonade tasted exactly like my vomit.

“So, that voice told the truth, huh.”

A few other survivors tried to create food and water, but everything tasted horrible. Although the lemonade still recovered my MP, I couldn’t force myself to drink it anymore, because that would only make me sick.

All the survivors looked astonished; the members of the council were no different. That was by far the most troublesome thing that we had ever faced. Without eating, we couldn’t recover our energies properly. Without eating would get weaker, and without drinking water, we would die in just a few days.

I could already imagine some survivors fighting against each other if we don’t solve this situation on a single day. Hungry people can become angry people; angry people don’t care about things like companionship or teamwork. The more time we take to solve that situation, the harder it will be to solve.

“Let’s just focus on the things that we can do right now,” Sandra said. “We don’t have to worry about things which haven’t happened yet.”

“Yes,” Rose said. “But where we can find this dark orb? And who is this who brings pestilence?”

“Until now, our only enemies were the monsters,” Harry said. “So, probably a monster has this orb. And that monster is probably strong too, very strong. Anyone has any clues?”

That message and their talk triggered an unpleasant memory. When someone thinks about pestilence, the first thing which comes to mind is rats. Besides, when I heard about that dark orb, I remembered about that weird shadow that I saw on the second day after the monsters appeared. It was worth a try.

“I think I know where we will find this dark orb.”

“Where is it?” Claire asked.

“ST Louis Street. It’s time to exterminate all the rats of this city.”