Blanca and I continued moving forward and as we did, I began to feel the humidity in the atmosphere and there was a sort of vapors obstructing the view.
"It seems like this won't be easy after all," I said, examining the walls as I began to see changes in our surroundings as we advanced. "This smell alone is already unsupportable but the biggest problem is its source. Are you fine though?"
"Yeah…" Blanca said meekly. "Cough! Cough! My nose is just a little bit sensitive. This may be worse than the smell produced by that tentacle monster."
"You are right about that. The presence of those unidentified particles in the air is too strong around here," I said, feeling the need to reconsider if we couldn't gain anything by taking this risk; "Cristal, how is it?"
[It's worse than expected. I can't advance any further as it would expose my presence. I am waiting for further instructions.]
"I see, what can you see?"
[My angle of view is currently limited as the entrance leading to the area is obstructed by an unknown substance, but from what I can see, there is a creature similar to the tentacle monster but considerably bigger and…]
"And?"
[I can't determine the cause, but it seems like there are people who are infected.]
"This is not good. Can you see something similar to a spaceship?"
[Yes, but there's a problem. The monster is right above it, and also, the whole area seems to be covered by this unknown substance. The good news, if I can put it that way, is that the ship seems to be not in a bad state.]
"Okay, thanks Cristal, and continue to observe the situation," I said.
[Roger.]
"Okay, let's consider our options before we decide what we should do for here," I said, signaling Blanca to stop.
"Okay, but from the look of it, there aren't many options," Blanca said, looking like she was also thinking about the situation.
"I know, this may be the only ship that is still repairable, but we also need to think about what will happen if we decide to take the risk and fight the monsters. Even if we win, there may be some consequences that will make things more difficult," I said, but I knew that if we took into consideration the thirty or so minotaurs roaming around the area, along with a few hundreds of flying monsters that include lesser wyverns, and also the possibility that there was a high-level monster around, our options were indeed limited.
If we wanted to progress, we couldn't avoid fighting monsters, I knew that, but I was just thinking about how to minimize the possibility of losing against these monsters.
"But if we run every time, we wouldn't be able to do anything at the end of the day," Blanca said.
"You seem to be rather determined to fight these monsters, and at least, I don't dislike that attitude, but don't misunderstand me, I am not thinking about running, I am just making sure that we can manage to take full advantage of the options that we have," I said.
"I see, so what are we going to do?" Blanca asked.
After hearing Blanca's question, I began to think about the best course of action that we should take from there. However, I knew that my abilities were still lacking so I needed to take into consideration the risks that I might be wrong, but I didn't think too much about the things I couldn't do and focused on what I was capable of.
For example, I knew that I could beat that huge tentacle monster if I didn't think about anything else and just focused on extermination but to do that, I needed Blanca to take care of the zombies.
As Blanca said, being careful was a good thing but if nothing changes at the end of the day, we would die, so it was not always the best choice, depending on the circumstances.
'If we decide to turn back and search somewhere else, there is no telling that we won't have to fight other monsters, and the chance to find a repairable was even lower, so in the end, we are just trying to decide if we want to fight now or later. Yes, there's not much of an option.' I concluded and decided that it was time to think about a plan and deal with that disgusting monster. It seemed like I need to go all out.
"You take care of the zombies, and I take care of the tentacle guy," I said.
"What? I mean, didn't you say about being careful or something?" Blanca said, looking a little bit surprised.
"In any case, there will be consequences, so let's not complicate things. Don't let the tentacles damage the ship, and with your power, you should be able to do that while taking care of the zombies. As for me, I will make sure that we will get a ship today. So, can you do that?" I said.
"Yeah, I can manage," Blanca said.
I made this suggestion after thinking and analyzing how Blanca's power worked and the location where the fight would take place.
From what I could see, Blanca had excellent control over her power and she could cover a fairly large area, unlike me who had my range of attack greatly reduced when I used the antimatter. However, the difference between the destructive power between her blood and the antimatter was significant and it took a little bit longer for her to dissolve the monster's tentacle. Because of that, the monster would be able to regenerate and it would become a battle of endurance.
On the other hand, as long I could locate the core, I could take care of it, but the only problem was its size. 'Piercing the cores with my swords wouldn't destroy it completely. It seems like it's time to try my new ability and test its limit.' I thought.
*****
:::[Third Person POV]:::
'It's been a few hours but they are not back yet. Did something happen? Well, Cristal should be able to notify us if something happened.' Liu thought, looking like she couldn't help but think about how Adam and Blanca's exploration was going. 'So does that mean that they just forgot to keep us informed?'
She didn't look like she was the kind of person who could wait patiently while knowing it was mainly her fault that they were in this situation. She thought that all of this wouldn't have happened if she was a bit stronger, and because of that, it was even harder for her to stay put now that she was stronger.
However, what Adam said still stood despite those facts, but Liu felt as if Adam treated her as a weak person after what happened despite his valid arguments.
'Well, we can't let leave Zax here alone or bring her to the city.' Liu said, as she looked at Zax and saw her cobbling some electronic parts together for a while now.
"So, what are those?" Liu asked, looking curiously at what Zax was doing.
"Adam brought them yesterday, and he said that I could probably build something useful out of them. Now, I am trying to make this communicative device work so that we would be able to communicate with Timothy and the others using holograms," Zax said as she sat on the floor surrounded by electronic parts.
'It seems like he took Zax's feelings into consideration,' Liu thought, but then, something crossed her mind. 'But as for me… Well, it's not like we are close or anything.'
However, this train of thought leads her to remember what Zax said. Adam was in a very bad state because he went to save her with one giftless girl, so in a way, Liu could interpret Adam's action like this: 'I have already gone through all of that pain so it's out of the question that she gets hurts just after I saved her.'
'No, no, no. That's impossible,' Liu thought, feeling like she was having silly thoughts because of the situation. 'Why do I even think about something like that at times like this.'
It seemed like after thinking too much, Liu began to reach a weird conclusion, but no matter how it sounded, Liu was thinking about Adam constantly these last few days, and no one knew if it was a bad or good thing.
"I see. I think they also want to see us, but I wonder how Adam managed to contact them," Liu said, "he doesn't have an access to our private communication line, right?"
"Yeah, I've been wondering too, but it's Adam. He probably did something without us knowing. That's why I know that he is being considerate of me by bringing these parts because I am sure that he could use Cristal to do this." Zax said.
"You are the best after all. I am sure that we will be able to contact Timothy and the others soon." Liu said.
"Yeah, It's almost done."
Looking back at Liu's attitude just a few days ago, no one would think that she would be able to talk the way she did with Zax.
It seemed like some changes could only happen during difficult times.
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