Sounds of flesh cutting and dying screams could be heard. A goblin tried to get away from the bloodied sword painted with the blood of his comrades.
But soon a sharp object came flying like a projectile piercing his head making a hole in it as some black blood splashed by the impact and the dead body fell to the ground.
"Fuueh."
"That was nerve-racking," said Jenny as the shield in front of her dissipated.
"It sure was," said James who stood near her and also had sweat trickling down his forehead.
After agreeing to follow the Wolner family on their expedition for monster hunting and leveling. They all came down to the basement of the Mall. It was the only place left for them to clean up.
There were dozens of monsters. But most of them were goblins and gnolls.
As soon as they approached the monsters Reina and Alfred backed off and let Shin and Alice fight. They had smiles on their faces as they said. "Enjoy yourselves."
Alice and Shin just nodded at their words. James and Jenny were stupified they were worried and had a common thought in mind. 'What's wrong with these people? Was it a mistake to follow them?'
Seeing James and Jenny's expressions Alfred said
"Don't worry Mr. And Mrs. Felbert. We will support you guys from here. You can count on us.
So just go on and rampage to your heart's content. These weak monsters are perfect for you guys to level up." Alfred said with an encouraging smile.
James and Jenny looked at the goblins and then at gnolls.
'Weak? Aren't there more than 30 monsters here? What are they talking about? If only four of us fight. It will be tough or take a lot of time at the very least. So why are they so confident?'
At that moment they heard Alice's voice.
"Don't worry Mr. James and Mrs. Jenny. Everything will be fine." Alice said with her signature angelic smile.
Jenny smiled and nodded her head in enthusiasm.
"Okay. Let's do our best."
Seeing Jenny's sudden enthusiasm James got confused. Why the sudden change? He didn't expect Jenny to react like this. After all, he knows how cool-headed his wife is. She doesn't make any impulse decisions. James decided to ask her out of curiosity.
"Honey, why are you so enthusiastic all of a sudden? Do you have a plan to deal with those monsters?" He asked in a low voice that only Jenny could hear.
James expected Jenny to know something that he doesn't and that's why she is so confident.
But a moment later he regretted asking that question.
Jenny smiled at him. She held her chin high and said with a confident look and low voice that only James could hear.
"Of course, I'm confident because-" James perked up his ears. Just as he thought there was a reason for everyone to react like that.
"Because Miss Alice said everything will be fine. If she says it's fine then it fine."
It was obvious. Jenny had full confidence in Alice's words. She has already started believing Alice as a goddess in human disguise. So of course her words are true.
James was flabbergasted.
'What? What is she talking about? Is my Jenny brainwashed by these people? Why is she also acting weirdly?'
He was seriously worried now. But he didn't get time to question further. Soon he heard Shin's voice.
"Let's start, shall we."
Alice summoned her Silver Scythe and took a stance. She remembered Reina's tips from before and decided to follow them.
Shin took out his long sword and held it with his right hand.
The goblins and gnolls were near the parked cars. Soon they noticed a bunch of humans rushing toward them.
Shin slashed his sword at the incoming goblins. For him killing a goblin is not even worth much now. It's better to let Mr. James and Mrs. Jenny deal with them and level up.
Shin turned to Alice as he said.
"Alice, let's deal with gnolls first. Leave goblins for Mr. James and Mrs. Jenny to level up."
Alice nodded at his words and said.
"Ok Shin. Let's do that."
She said as she slashed at the nearby gnoll decapitating his head.
James and Jenny looked at the duo in front of them and gulped.
"They are strong," James muttered
"Yeah, they are." Jenny knew they were strong but this was on another level.
"We need to level up too," said Jenny.
"Let's deal with those goblins," James said as he conjured up stones above his hand.
Jenny nodded and manifested a transparent shield.
James started shooting his sharp stones like projectiles. It did heavy damage to goblins. He could take some gnolls but he wasn't sure about fighting with that numbers. So it was better to let Shin and Alice do their job.
As he said that Alice and Shin were busy cutting those monsters without much effort. They stopped with their one-hit kill and started practicing using them as practice dummies.
He bitterly smiled at that scene and again focused on killing goblins in front of him.
With her shield, Jenny didn't let a single monster come near James, and he shot them aiming at their vital spots. His accuracy was still not good but manageable. Slowly but surely there was some improvement in his accuracy.
Within a few minutes, they had already finished off all the monsters in the basement.
"Haha, we did it." James was still in disbelief that they managed to do that.
After the fight, they returned to the first floor.
Both James and Jenny had leveled up. James reached level 8 and Jenny reached level 5.
Shin and Alice didn't have much of a fight. They just did some practice as they slaughtered those monsters. They decided to leave enough for James and Jenny.
They had already finished checking the Mall and there weren't any other survivors and all the monsters were dealt with.
Reina suddenly looked at her watch and suggested to everyone.
"Guys, I know it's still a little early. But how about we have lunch now before we get busy fighting more monsters."
Everyone was silent.
They looked at their surroundings. The floor was bloodied red and black from the blood of humans and monsters. Some flesh and bones were scattered here and there.
The disgusting smell attacking their nose was unbearable and enough to make someone vomit.
And here we have someone who is talking about having lunch.
""" NO"""
Reina's suggestion was firmly rejected.