NOVEL WEB Chapter 34: Forest Shooting
The forest was filled with lush green leaves. The cold breeze of the wind brought upon a deeply familiar scent of something similar to sandalwood. Its deep floral and woody scent permeated the surroundings. The singing of the birds and the rocking trees as they dance with the wind releases a profound satisfaction for whoever experiences it.
With the scenery before him, Quagmire made great strides effortlessly as he took in the beauty whilst the Pathfinder hummed its engine, definitely making great efforts to stay floating from the ground. Its golden body reflects the light from the sun, turning it into a blinking light as the rays shine over it as he walks by.
Unfortunately, it all came to an end when suddenly the surrounding trees swayed with frenzied movements, and the ground vibrated up and down. He glanced from left to right, trying to track unusual movements around him, but he found nothing. Only the swaying of the trees and the vibration of the ground.
Confused and anxiety ran around every fiber of his being. Fortunately, he was already getting used to this kind of situation; whenever he was facing ghouls, he was calm, but if he did not know what kind of ghoul it was or if it was a new type of ghoul he had never encountered before, his anxiety would spike up a little bit.
With that understanding in his mind, he breathed deep down and made his nerves calm down so he would be able to calmly assess the situation. Concurrently, the Pathfinder stopped, as he also stopped moving forward. The Pathfinder is not a living being, so he is sure that thing will not be attacked in the meantime.
Certain of his decision, he began to assess the situation. The world he was in seemed to not only have a deadly disease or virus that turned people into ghouls, but as to what happened to their past personality, he had no answer for it. Fortunately, one thing is for sure: these ghouls possess intelligence, and the higher their rank, the smarter they are.
It would all be good if that was all there is to it. Unfortunately, no, these ghouls have adapted to their surroundings and evolved with them, just like living beings. However, living beings evolve through their generations, but these ghouls seemed to have evolved right after infection and death, but then again, that much is not yet confirmed nor studied.
Unfortunately, it seemed that he would have to find the answer to his own question. After all, much of the world is controlled by the ghouls, and the forces of the myriad races were getting smaller and smaller as time passed by. With each year, their living spaces continued to get smaller and smaller. Moreover, the cost of raising a warrior is substantial.
There was also the matter of resources; as the living spaces got smaller and smaller, the amount of resources they could harvest dwindled much further. It is also hard to expect a civilization that has fallen to acquire the means of sustainable harvesting or eco-friendliness. That is, if they even had the technology or the right knowledge and technique to apply to.
Anyway, the ghouls of this world possess evolutionary and strong adaptability to its environment. Which means, anywhere could be a dangerous place, and anytime a new type of ghouls could rise. Which means that the ghouls are constantly changing over time.
Possessing strong evolutionary traits and adaptability, it also possess a remarkable intelligence, which means it would get worse the longer things go on.
With those things on mind, Quagmire once again looked over into the surroundings. Nothing was suspicious, but the ground was moving with its intensity increasing two-fold by the minutes passes by. That's when it suddenly dawned in him.
"!!!" With great strides he made all the while he glanced downward.
In just a nick of time, he was able to leap through the sides as his face contorted into realization. A hand came out of the ground he was standing on earlier. The hand reached out and was not able to grasp anything. So the ghoul moved upwards and glanced from side to side.
Unfortunately, bewilderment was evidently present in the face of the ghoul. It found itself staring directly into the Mark 1 Pistol of Quagmire. He sneered at the ghouls before him. He sneered at the ghoul and pressed the trigger.
The silencer sparked in a light as white smoke moved out of the barrel of the silencer. The recoil pushed the gun upwards, which he controlled and forced back down with swift dexterity and efficiency.
The ghoul was shot in point blank as the bullet crashed into its head. The ghoul fell down to the ground, half of its body slumped and the other half still deep into the ground.
Delighted, he felt, but there was still more danger. The ground was still moving, so he moved from left to right, and once he was tired, climbed up a tree so that he would have the advantage. He glanced from left to right. Thankfully when the shaking ended, only two more ghouls came out of the ground.
Thus, with that, he silently aimed his firearm and consecutively pulled the triggers. Two muzzle flashes came from the canopy of the trees, as two crimson flowers were implanted behind the now dead ghouls. In total, he killed about three ghouls that came from the ground, which means it was a new type of infected, so he brought up the tab of notification.
[Three Lower Bank Ghoul Diggers Were Slain, Granting Six Hundred Gold Coins]
With the name of the ghoul now present, it is no exaggeration that there would be countless types of ghouls. After all, there was a flying ghoul, a tanky ghoul, a soldier ghoul, or an infantry; now they had an underground ghoul? Now what is next? A Battleship ghoul? He would not be surprised if he saw a city of ghouls in the future.