NOVEL WEB Chapter 41: River Locusts
[Four Low Ranked Ghouls Were Slain, Four Hundred Gold Were Rewarded]
[Current Gold Coins: Five Thousand Eight Hundred Fifty Gold Coins]
With the final ghoul now lying dead on the ground, Quagmire was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. He could not believe how high the difficulty had jumped, its been a few days since he was able to feel such adrenaline except the first time he had arrived here a while ago.
He had just killed four ghouls, and so considering how difficult it was, it should be a little bit higher rank, is it not? Now looking over the message given to him, he was quite baffled and shocked by it.
"Those things that I have fought are still low ranked ghouls? The speed and intelligence are out of this world! Just how far difficult are these low-ranked ghouls going to be in the future?" Quagmire muttered in annoyance in an extremely low voice.
The reason for this was the fact that the ghouls he had killed were still, in fact, lower ranked; if these lower ranked are already this difficult, how difficult would the higher ranks be? He could not help but shudder at the thought of fighting thousands, if not millions, of higher rank, that would be the equivalent of fighting human armies with initiative embedded into their military doctrines.
Now realizing the situation he was in, and the possible things that could happen in the future sets uneasiness in his mind once again. With the thought of not being able to do anything about it crushes him, but then again, creating and making countermeasures are the only things he can do at this moment.
With that in mind, he decided to push the thoughts to the far corner of his mind, far out of reach by him or by anyone. There is no need to stress much further about things he has no control over, but prevention and countermeasures are what he could do temporarily so that when the time comes for an actual encounter comes by, a proper one would be made and attributed.
Now, with a firm resolute, he vowed to be more vigilant and to not spare anything when it comes to defenses and progress; after all, there is no telling if he would even have a chance of winning against millions of ghouls who are intelligent, but what more if they could use technology? A severe disadvantage that is what it is.
If it were millions of dumb ghouls, then he would easily win it with superior firepower, but what if the ghouls were like humans or sentient beings? Able to use technology? Not only do they have different classes, but different specializations, but they can also use technologies.
That sounds like a super soldier of some sort. You fight against numbers, against technology, against genetics, too, but they also have a way of increasing themselves through the death of biological systems. That is like fighting evolution itself.
Now, before all of those can be done, he first needs to take a bath, as he had repeatedly had to fight now and earlier. His once pristine uniform that was just bought a few days ago is now once again in tatters and filled with filth.
All the time he had to roll on the ground was evidently present in the uniform that he was currently wearing. The once clear red and white were now dark red and dirty white, with some spots of the uniform having numerous holes of different sizes where a finger could fit a fist in, which was rather shocking.
With a firm thought in mind and the second time being distracted, Quagmire once again forced such thoughts at the back of his head. With enough rest, he once again stood up and continued moving towards his destination, with firm determination to reach the end of it.
After a few moments of walking and thinking about the things that needed to be done, he was greeted by a swarm of insects in the river. Seeing the monstrosity before him, he glances at the situation behind a bush that he made up.
Quagmire racked up his brain about the things he could use to escape the predicament he was in. He could try shooting all of them, but then again, these were insects; they might be a little larger than ordinary insects from his world, but they were still small, which would be much harder.
Stick grenades would not work. He could use a flame thrower, but he does not have enough gold coins to buy and use it, and it would definitely cost a lot if he did take that route. Moreover, those insects were flying, so he was not sure that the fuel would even reach those insects.
Lastly, he was not sure about the effects of the fuel landing on the water, and it might make it inhospitable, because of the numerous chemicals mixing in with the water. This means he now only has a few things left on what he could do with the current situation.
That was to shoot the insects out in the sky. Thankfully, he had the power of firearms and range on his side. With that in mind, he brought out his pistol and cocked the firearms into a firing position. He could use the rifle but decided against it.
After all, a pistol could fire twice as fast as a Mark 1 Bolt-Action Rifle, one is a bolt action and one is a semi-automatic, just keep pressing the trigger, and for the other, you have to pull the trigger and have to eject the casing and reinsert the bullet and push it back just like how a bolt action is much safer.
With that, he realigned himself into a firing position, and as the Eagle's eyes were activated and he able to finally able to zoom in against his enemy. With swift, quick, precise movements, he pulled the trigger; a bullet came out at a blistering speed, and what followed was a beautiful rose that bloomed under the day sky.
Quagmire, seeing this, was initially baffled by what he was seeing. Fortunately, only confusion reigns a bit more than the others. The insect that he killed had blood, and that blood was red. Normally, their blood, or even if they have blood, is not going to be red like others. But this thing that he killed is clear as day and night; it was red, and even if he kills a bit more, it seems to be on point.
With a bullet coming out and the noise now reverberating a dozen meters squared out. The other insect now had set their sights on him. Almost immediately, once the insects came out and time momentarily stopped for him, he began to see the sheer number of deaths around him, as if suddenly he was hit by a car and just waking up now.
Concurrently before him, there were about twelve insects that were flying about toward him. With quick and swift movements he took, he immediately realigned his body and aim, and he fired two shots. It rang out and two carcasses of dead insects are now floating in the river.
Almost immediately, the ten remaining insects came charging at him; there were two that were near him. So, with a firm mind, he took and swerved the pistol and shot the two insects at point blank. The inside was now splattered with removal roses.
Now, there were only eight left, continuing on; the last five insects were a little bit far too behind the other three, which were now a mere few dozen meters out. Again repeating what he did earlier, he carefully aimed his pistol, aligned his firing line, and made himself more comfortable. To which he then took three rapid shots.
Three blistering bullets came out of the barrel and into the silencer and out of the gun and came crashing at the insects before him. Three insects were now killed. Now, there are only five insects left.
Not missing a beat, Quagmire fired shots one after another, continuously realigning his body and gun, making sure that he would be able to hit what he wanted to kill and being safe in handling firearms. Just like that, after a few grueling minutes of hell, he was finally able to kill twelve insects.
Now it was finally the time to know what the heck in the world he had just killed/
[Twelve Low-Rank River Locust Were Slain, Granting One Thousand Two Hundred Gold Coins]
[Current Gold Coins: Seven Thousand Fifty Gold Coins]
"I see, so I have encountered another critter of the river, it seems that the fauna and animals of this world are very dangerous, or they might have just evolved to be that way as there was the world's disease. It was a close call today; I better get my base up and running so I can finally have some company." Quagmire muttered as he sat down beside the river before taking a bath.