Yaka nodded, tightening his grip on his iron staff, while Ruminas held her knife firmly. The first stage parasites were slowly approaching, their empty eyes and jerky movements making one feel uneasy.
Not giving them a chance to attack first, Ruminas was the first to charge in.
She dodged a pounce from one monster, then quickly drove her knife straight into its heart. As the monster collapsed, she immediately spun around and kicked away another one that was charging from behind.
Yaka did not delay either. With his strong body, he swung his iron rod strongly, crushing the head of a monster instantly. He did not have a sharp weapon to aim for the heart, but with his strength, he could crush their heads enough to finish them off.
But no matter how strong both are, the number 14 is still not a small number.
A parasite suddenly jumped up from the side, its claws almost scratching Ruminas' face. She tilted her head to avoid it, but another one rushed in from the opposite direction, forcing her to back away to keep her distance.
"Damn, there are too many of them!" Yaka exclaimed. He had just taken down another one, but his breathing was starting to become labored.
"Must escape the encirclement first" Ruminas thought to himself.
She quickly glanced around, searching for an alternative. She noticed a fallen shelf nearby with a few bottles of wine left on it.
"Flammable"
An idea flashed through her mind.
"Yaka, hold them off for a bit!" She shouted and quickly rushed towards the pile of bottles.
Yaka didn't understand what she was going to do but still swung his stick to hold out.
Ruminas grabbed a bottle of wine, uncorked it, and threw it hard on the ground right in the middle of the parasites. Next, she pulled out a lighter from her pocket, which she always kept in her pocket.
The fire flared up immediately, spreading across the ground thanks to the spilled wine.
"Back off!" she said.
Yaka jumped out of the line of fire before the flames could reach him. The parasites were not so lucky. Some were caught in the flames, screaming inhumanly as their bodies burned to ash. Others backed away in panic, creating a gap between themselves and the two men.
"Smart!" Yaka breathed heavily, giving a small smile.
"Let's just clean up," Ruminas replied coldly.
The two took this opportunity to rush in and take down the remaining monsters, now significantly weakened by the fire. In just a few minutes, the entire area became quiet.
Ruminas stood among the pile of monster corpses, breathing a bit fast and also had wounds on his body, Yaka was not much better but luckily neither of them had any serious injuries.
[Receive: 160 EXP, 8 monster skins]
"I'm starting to understand why you've survived so long," Yaka said, looking at her with admiration.
Ruminas did not reply, only bent down to check the monsters' corpses.
If there are monsters here, then there must be something worth exploring on this floor. There's still a long way to go inside.
"Shall we continue?" she asked.
Yaka chuckled, tightening his grip on the iron rod.
"Of course"
The two continued to move forward, the atmosphere becoming eerily quiet. The flames from the battle earlier still smoldered in the ruins, giving off a faint light in the darkness.
Ruminas and Yaka walked slowly, alert for any signs of remaining monsters. But instead of encountering more enemies, they discovered a strange sight at the end of the hallway.
A giant egg.
It was in the middle of a large room, surrounded by the remains of previously dead monsters. The outer shell of the egg was a matte black, with red veins that flickered slightly like the pulse of a living creature.
Yaka swallowed. "What the hell…?"
Ruminas did not answer immediately. She slowed down, observing more closely.
Monsters weren't egg-laying creatures, at least not the parasites she'd encountered. If they were protecting this thing, then it was most likely a different kind of monster entirely—or worse, a boss.
"Appraisal!" Ruminas said nothing and silently used her skill.
Developing fetus ]
[Description: Even monsters have to go through a long process before they can evolve further. This is the result of their efforts. When the embryo hatches, a higher-level monster will be born]
[Characteristics: Inherits their previous powers and will gain additional special abilities depending on the species. Physical abilities will also be much stronger]
[Weakness: Fire]
"So that's how it is…" Ruminas said softly.
"Do you know anything?" Yaka asked.
Ruminas shook his head.
"I guess it's the egg of some creature, when it hatches it might be another, even stronger monster," Ruminas said.
Yaka nodded.
"I think so too, then maybe we should destroy it"
Ruminas didn't say anything more but she took out her lighter, poured the remaining wine from earlier on it and lit a match to burn the fetus.
Immediately, a miserable scream came from inside the fetus. A monster arm reached out, but Ruminas used his knife to cut it off before it could do anything.
The monster inside still tried to crawl out but as soon as it stuck its head out, Yaka hit it with a stick several times.
"It's really hard… if we let it fully expand, who knows what would have happened. Luckily we discovered it in time, we've been living on fire all this time."
The two of them stood there for a moment, only after making sure that the fetus was completely burned and the monster inside was dead did they feel relieved.
[Received: 1 Kozak Crystal]
"Hm? What is this item?" Ruminas took out the randomly shaped stone, it was white and glowing slightly.
"Appraisal"
[Kozak Crystal: The crystallization of a monster, it contains a certain power. Can be used to restore magic power or craft equipment]
"Oh, that's useful."
Ruminas immediately put it back, if only evolved monsters had it then she would have to hunt them more.
"There's probably nothing left in here, do you want to go outside for a walk?" Yaka asked.
Ruminas nodded.
The two quickly returned to the first floor. They stopped by the supermarket and saw no signs of intrusion, so they were a little relieved.
When he got outside, it was already noon but the sky was gloomy, not a single ray of sunlight. Ruminas stood still and began to sense his surroundings, there were some small noises from afar that indicated it was a monster.
"Go check it out," said Yaka.
The two then followed the ruins to cover themselves, when they got close to the area where the noise came from, they stopped. Ruminas tried to poke her head out to take a look and was surprised by what was in front of her.
Yaka was no less, in front of the two of them were a lot of monsters. There were even more monsters than what Yaka's group saw yesterday.
Ruminas then tried to use appraisal to check their numbers.
[Low-level Chaos Monster x15]
[Parasite Stage One x23]
[Canine Parasite Stage One x14]
"Hmm? A new species?" Ruminas noticed a four-legged creature with a relatively large body, four tails behind it, and a layer of thorns covering its body.
"Appraisal"
[Canine parasite stage one]
[Description: A type of creature parasitized by a chaos monster, but the difference is that it is a dog, so when it transforms, there will be some differences compared to normal]
[Characteristics: Fast and agile, four flexible tails that can stretch up to 5m, the spiked armor on its body has extremely high defense and the spikes can also be fired, in addition, the spikes contain poison that will paralyze the target. Its sharp teeth are also a great danger]
[Weak points: right eye and left leg]
"Looks like this one isn't easy to deal with… It's good at both ranged and close combat, so if you want to kill it, you'll have to choose between a sneak attack or a one-hit kill. But why are its weak points its right eye and left leg??"
"Let's retreat," Yaka spoke up.
Ruminas didn't object, with that number of monsters fighting each other would only lead to death, but they also had to quickly think of a way because these guys kept wandering around here and would most likely head to the shopping mall at some point.
Right now the best way is to quickly leave this place, Ruminas has had this intention since seeing those monsters, the problem now is to bring food for this trip to be meaningful.
When they arrived at the supermarket, they encountered a strange scene. The atmosphere among the other people seemed to have changed, it looked much more tense.
Ruminas paid attention to the expressions of the others, Kazin looked smug while the woman Sousei had disheveled clothes and a slightly red face, the two people accompanying her, the middle-aged man and his son Akira stood there with angry faces.
Ruminas had already guessed a little bit but this wasn't her problem, one less problem was better than one so she went straight to a corner and sat down to rest.
Yaka just sighed. It seemed like he had already guessed this would happen but there was nothing he could do since he couldn't do anything to Kazin since their strength was quite equal.