Chapter 10: Joining a party(1)
The sounds from the battle between players and enraged players had completely stopped, leaving only the sound of the fire spreading.
Since most of the village was made of wood, it was crucial to put out the fire as quickly as possible.
"Is there an evolved cultivator in this village!?" The demoness was surprised when she realized that the chaos she had caused with the [Charm] spell had ceased inside.
"Seems like the humans on this planet aren't as stupid as I thought." Normally, in a demonic invasion, the invading world focuses its defense forces on a single point. This point is exactly where the demons begin to invade: the rifts.
But it seemed that the original inhabitants of this world had been smarter and placed an evolved cultivator in each of the villages filled with beginner cultivators.
'Not only that, but it also seems like they've gathered some information about us.' The demoness reflected on this as she observed the large wooden walls.
"Let's retreat. Bring the human bodies to the cave. Once you've fed enough, we'll have bodies available for [possession]." Hearing the command from the only demon with a body, the others obeyed and began retreating to a secluded spot.
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"The sun is almost up. The demons that haven't managed to secure a physical form can't materialize until night engulfs the world, but now that one of them has a body... I imagine the rest aren't far behind in doing the same." Zwirius left these words behind as he retreated into the tent.
Seeing this, a player from the small crowd of survivors hurried to ask the question that most hadn't even thought of yet.
"Hey, what should we do with the statues?"
"Hm, isn't that obvious?" Zwrius didn't even bother to turn around, simply continuing to walk until he entered the tent.
"Just break all the statues. Not even an advanced cultivator has enough MANA to hold multiple people for very long." Right after saying that, the old man disappeared back into the tent.
'What?' Even after the fight ended, Julius was still covered in blood and quite confused. In his current state, he would probably end up dying from blood loss.
"Ahh..." He was breathing heavily and was only staying upright thanks to the [Star Devourer].
The sword was planted in the ground, serving as a support for Julius. '
Really an impressive sword.' With his mind extremely confused, Julius's thoughts drifted back to the fight.
More precisely when he defeated the second enemy. The force behind that explosion was truly terrifying.
'I could have done that differently...'
'No, here I think I could have taken a step to the left.'
'Here I think I could have counterattacked.'
'Idiot, why didn't I dodge that attack!?' At that moment, Julius's confused mind was forcing him to relive the fight over and over. Unconsciously, he was reliving only the most important moments and reviewing what he could have done in that situation
. Without even realizing it, a small, fragile white flame was forming within Julius's mind. What he had tried so hard to do during the fight was happening at that very moment. And the worst part was that it was all happening completely unconsciously;
he was so confused that he didn't even realize he was doing it.
'...Why is everything going dark?'
Julius was confused when he realized that the peripheral parts of his vision were gradually darkening.
"[Heal]"
'Hm?' Just as he was about to completely lose consciousness and was on the verge of passing out, Julius felt a sudden surge of energy within him.
With the sudden increase in energy, he was no longer in danger of fainting.
'Who?' Julius looked around, searching for whoever had healed him. It was only when his gaze stopped on a group of 3 people a few meters away from him that he stopped searching.
1 man and 2 women were just a few meters from Julius, causing the latter to analyze the group.
'Was it her who healed me?' Julius observed the girl with long dark hair, brown eyes, and fair skin.
Her beauty couldn't be described in any other way than extraordinary; she was certainly one of the most beautiful women Julius had ever seen.
'Is she some kind of model in real life?' He couldn't help but wonder as he watched her. The other girl looked almost exactly like the first, the only noticeable difference being age. The second woman was clearly older, but by no means did she look worse than the first. In fact, maturity gave her an even sexier air. Finally, the last member of the group was a middle-aged man with a robust build and a face that gave the man a stern appearance.
'Are they a family?' The way the three of them behaved and their appearance made them seem like a family.
"We saw your fight earlier, young man. While the three of us were dealing with only one target, you managed to handle 2 of those crazies alone. I'm quite impressed." The first to speak of the family was the oldest woman, who seemed to be the mother of the younger girl.
"Yeah, yeah; Are you perhaps some kind of pro player?" The younger girl, who was more familiar with the world of virtual reality, couldn't help but ask.
And, from her point of view, it made perfect sense. Only someone with vast experience in virtual reality games should be able to handle two people at once in a confrontation. But she couldn't have been more wrong.
[The Gates] wasn't even similar to the rest of the virtual reality games, the immersion was so realistic that most professional players were suffering at the beginning. At the same time, fighters and military personnel were having a certain ease.
In the case of Julius, he had military experience, in fighting, and was lucky enough to have an overwhelming physique right from the start of the game.
"Not exactly. I did some martial arts when I was a kid, I think that's what helped me so much to be honest." Julius was honest with the girl, as he saw no reason to lie to her.
"Hmm, I see." The girl looked slightly disappointed, but quickly hid her look of disappointment. Not that it changed anything, even with the sudden increase in energy, Julius was still quite tired to pay attention to all the smallest details.
"Anyway, what you did was quite impressive. Being on the front line I saw better than anyone how strong the enraged ones were." This time it was the man who seemed to be the girl's father who spoke up.
"Good job, kid" Upon hearing that, Julius felt slightly moved. Unfortunately, Julius's father had died from one of the multiple incurable diseases that were emerging.
At first, some said that some viruses trapped in the deepest layers of ice had escaped from the frozen continent and that global warming had been the culprit. But it didn't take long for some scientists to start finding cellular organisms that did not belong to planet Earth among these viruses, causing various theories to become stronger.
It was precisely because of losing his father to one of these unknown organisms that Julius entered this world of conspiracy and discovered about [The Gates].
Julius was slightly moved precisely because what the man in front of him said was something his father used to say frequently.
"Hm, are you okay?" The beautiful girl questioned upon noticing Julius being silent and looking at her father.
"Hm? It's nothing, I'm just a little tired. This game is too realistic, those bastards' blows hurt a lot." Julius quickly found an excuse, as he didn't want to open up emotionally to a family he had just met.
"That's not good, you should probably get out of the game and rest. Even if it's just virtual reality, you lost a lot of blood." The older woman's words were filled with care.
'As expected of a caring mother.' For some reason, Julius felt that this family was just the opposite of his.
"No. I'll recover in a few moments, just give me some time. I'll go back to hunting as soon as I'm fully recovered." Julius didn't intend to waste even an hour of the free time he had. As soon as Julius entered [The Gates] for the first time, the sun had just risen.
So, 24 hours had already passed since he was there in the digital world. Then, only 6 hours had passed in the real world
. Julius had gone to bed very early that night, so he imagined he still had 4-5 hours of sleep left. That was practically another day for Julius in that world, and he intended to take advantage of it.
'Damn capitalist society. Even in these moments, work gets in the way!' Julius couldn't help but curse the capitalist world in his own head.
But, he finally realize something.
'Wait, isn't this my chance to stop being poor!?' It was only at that moment that Julius had realized that at that moment he had hit the jackpot!
'A firmament-level physique (even without knowing how incredible this level is) and an epic sword.' It seemed like luck was smiling on Julius.
'Blessed be the capitalist society with its incredible opportunities!' Julius couldn't help but hide the small goofy smile as he imagined himself as a rich man.
"That's good. My parents and I intend to continue the hunt as well, we just found out a little while ago about how to level up in this game, the feeling of getting stronger is so incredible! How about you join us. Our group so far has a guardian, assassin, and me as a healer"