Leveling Up My Bow In The Apocalypse

I kept my promise to keep an eye out for the rest of the night. It ended up being just a few hours without incident until the artificial sun rose once again. As I watched the group get up and pack their things, I seriously doubted they had actually slept.

The camp we were at was compromised, and we didn't know if more enemies would come. We needed to find a new place. The whole initial plan of finding water, food, and all that survival nonsense turned out to be a damn waste of time. Although we still needed food and water, that wasn't the most urgent thing. We needed more, much more. So, staying in one place was simply stupid.

We got ready, and I was surprised to see even Abigail standing, walking with an improvised wooden leg. It was basically a large piece of wood tied to her thigh and what was left of her leg. It looked uncomfortable and certainly not suitable for big movements, but I saw determination and courage on her face. I felt respect for her, as she refused help, and then we started walking.

We moved away from the huge wall in the distance. I had a theory based on the position of the pillars, and since the wall was only visible behind us, I believed this entire place had a spherical design. The fake celestial bodies also suggested a dome shape. Moving inward, towards the center of the dome, would hopefully allow us to find more beasts. After all, they were very scarce in the outer area.

It didn't take long before we found another group of beasts. This time, it was a group of deer-like creatures, the same ones the badgers had been eating on the first day. There were seven in total, and after using Identify, I discovered they ranged from levels 2 to 4, with the largest one at level 5.

I decided not to interfere, first because I wasn't sure how much experience killing lower-level enemies would give, and because the goal of this exercise was for everyone to build fighting experience. They started yet again to come up with a long and elaborate plan, but I silenced them firmly, telling them to get it together and move.

We had three spellcasters and one Fatal Shot; plenty of long-range firepower to take down some of them before the fight even truly began. I had given everyone the potions I looted the day before, so they were more than covered in that department. However, I kept the resistance potions, as they were quite unnecessary for my teammates at the moment, and I had a theory I wanted to test. Something for a more opportune time.

The fight was pretty easy, as I had already predicted. Xavier easily took down the largest deer and even an extra one, while Evan, Lucas, and Bruno each faced one. The last two deer-like creatures had already been killed or disabled by the initial barrage, effectively making the fight five against nine, with me not participating.

I saw Evan easily kill his deer, as it was only level 2, landing a precise blow to its neck and cutting it. His style was a bit reserved and defensive, but he had a good constitution and lacked no confidence. Moreover, he was very good at detecting openings, and I'm sure I saw him feint during the fight.

Bruno took a bit longer, with his two daggers cutting the beast. He was by far the fastest in the group, aside from me, and used his active skill, which allowed him to have small bursts of speed here and there. He hesitated a bit and clearly didn't enjoy fighting, but still got the job done.

In my honest opinion, Lucas was the worst fighter in the group by a considerable margin. He panicked almost instantly when the beast approached and just swung his sword back and forth, without focus. The spellcasters did well, with Abigail having the worst accuracy, but I couldn't blame her given her circumstances. Henrry was by far the best, with plenty of precision and always aiming for vital points. Gabriela was somewhere in the middle, decent, but nothing impressive.

Beatrice had little to do during the fight itself, as her healing ability was touch-based, but she was quick to call out potential dangers and even healed Lucas in the middle of the combat at one point. To my surprise, she was quite good.

Wyatt was also decent, but I'm a bit biased when it comes to archery. My results spoke for themselves, as I landed some good shots, even taking down one of the deer on my own when we faced them for the first time.

The entire ordeal lasted only a few minutes, with the last opponents to die being the big deer, which was slowly brought down by Xavier, who absorbed the blows with his shield, while the spellcasters and Wyatt shot at it until its death.

I didn't receive any credit for the kills, since I didn't participate actively, confirming my suspicions that you needed to deal damage or contribute in some way to gain experience. My moral support and oversight didn't seem to count as actual help.

The gains were decent as well. Discounting TP, we had some level-ups, which also resulted in increases in race levels. This also confirmed, in fact, the hypothesis that the race leveled up every second level in the class.

Without further ado, we moved on and encountered a few smaller groups of beasts in the following hours. I only needed to intervene once, when a large level 7 badger ran past Xavier, heading straight for Gabriela. However, it was easily killed by me with an arrow to one of its legs, followed by another that struck the creature's right eye, likely penetrating the brain, as the beast dropped dead immediately.

We suffered some injuries, with the most dangerous one being when Evan took a nasty bite to the arm and had to drink a healing potion. The minor injuries, like scratches and things like that, were treated by Beatrice after each fight. Although she couldn't do much in combat, her healing ability was invaluable, as it allowed us to always stay in great condition and removed any chance of infection in the wound. Assuming that was still a thing. Oh God... can bacteria level up? That thought I quickly pushed to the back of my mind. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

Although a healing potion could also heal wounds and worked much faster, it seemed to have some kind of cooldown. If you drank one, you couldn't drink another for the next hour. Why this happened, we didn't know. Hell, we didn't even know how we knew. Evan just said he'd known right after drinking one. System magic or something like that. We had no idea if there were adverse effects to drinking another or if it simply wouldn't work, and frankly, no one wanted to test it either.

After another tough fight and a round of healing, everyone was getting tired, as we had already surpassed the fourth hour since we left in the morning. The last group we killed was yet another small group of deer-like creatures, so we decided to camp and roast some things over the fire. We also found another small stream nearby, allowing everyone to rehydrate. I, deliberately, didn't eat or drink anything during this time.

I wanted to test exactly how health and endurance resources worked and their relation to daily needs. I wanted to see if potions, especially resistance potions, could neutralize the need for sleep and sustenance. But that was for a time when I felt any real hunger or need to sleep.

We sat around a small campfire, eating the roasted deer, which, it's worth mentioning, was much better than badger meat. However, it didn't last long, as our peaceful break was interrupted when I heard what sounded like metal scraping against metal. I stood up from the log I was sitting on and gestured for the rest of the group to prepare for a potential conflict.

The source of the sounds soon became clear, as a large man emerged from the bushes, wearing full metal armor identical to Xavier's, also carrying a shield and a sword. He was older, somewhere in his late forties to early fifties, but his presence showed no signs of weakness due to his age.

A considerable group followed him. I counted fifteen, with likely more hiding in the dense foliage behind them. There were mostly warriors, which made sense, as half of the basic classes were variants of this class. The rest were spellcasters, with only one Fatal Shot from what I could see, and no healers in my line of sight.

I made quick eye contact with Lucas, and he instantly understood what I wanted, stepping forward shortly after. While I was certainly the strongest in the group when it came to combat, I was probably the weakest when it came to negotiation. And, while Lucas was terrible in combat, he was the best when it came to social interactions.

The first to speak wasn't Jacob, but the middle-aged warrior.

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