I wake up and get my equipment in order, and see adventurers fighting monsters when I go outside.
Are those goblins?
I hear noises from all directions, and angry roars flying all over.
There are some trying to destroy buildings far from here, probably because the monsters outnumber the adventurers. Do they know there are people inside?
Normally monsters only attack people they see, so that can’t be right.
“Let’s clean this place up first. There are a lot of people who can’t fight. Let’s split up.”
Says Argo, and we split into three groups.
I go with Hikari, Mia, and Rick.
“Master, it’s weird.”
Says Hikari after taking down a goblin in one hit, and seeing the corpse disappear.
It’s like when people take down monsters in a dungeon and leave them. The difference is that it happened right away.
Something else that grabs my attention is the reactions of the goblins.
I’m using Presence Detection and Magic Energy Detection, but I can’t detect the goblins that are going down. And they don’t appear on Map.
It’s thanks to Hikari that we’ve been finding them.
As I hear the violent sounds of metal clashing, Hikari listens and guides us to our targets.
It’s easy to take them down as we find them, but that’s because of our levels. These are at a level where a newbie adventurer would have trouble taking them on one on one if they found them in the wild.
“Where to next, Hikari?”
“…Hn, none close.”
“Then let’s meet up with Argo. We’ve come pretty far.”
Rick is right, we’re pretty far from the house.
“Yes…”
We’re not lagging behind, but something feels weird.
We follow Rick’s suggestion and go towards Argo and the others, and hear a voice.
“O-orcs! Are those… Tigerwolves!?”
We hear that as we run through the main street.
Sure enough, there are multiple orcs and tigerwolves. And we see…
“M-magic!?”
A tigerwolf howls, and someone wearing a military uniform is blown away.
But it’s not the only one. All six tigerwolves in my line of sight do that. They hit not just soldiers, but orcs fighting them too.
Adventurers try to take them down, but the howls won’t let them let them get close.
That means the best option is to fire magic from a distance, but the orcs block with their shields.
Some orcs are hit directly by magic and go down, but like the goblins, they disappear like they were never even there.
“What’s going on?”
“Dunno. But don’t stop attacking!”
“I know. But I have to hold back on the magic or I’m going to cause a lot of damage.”
We hear that back and forth as we join them.
Hikari uses a Projectile Slash and Mia casts support magic. I start using magic while being careful not to damage the town, and Rick protects us by keeping an eye on our surroundings.
“Dammit. We keep taking them down but their numbers stay the same.”
“What’s going on!?”
Our support means we keep taking down orcs and tigerwolves, but they appear again behind us as if mocking us.
And apparently this is happening everywhere.
I can hear wailing.
“I don’t think we’re going to meet up with Argo and the others.”
Says Rick, as we block attacks from tigerwolves that draw closer, and we’re pushed back.
Yes, if we leave, it would be difficult for the adventurers here to hold their ground.
Monsters keep coming no matter how many go down, and they always appear again in perfect condition. We on the other hand are losing stamina and magic energy.
Magic users are drinking mana potions when they have time, but that’s not going to work forever. Eventually, they’re going to run out of magic energy and the magic will stop.
The soldiers and guards are putting up a good fight against the orcs, but they’re put in a bad spot because of the tigerwolves’ attacks.
They’re being toyed with, most likely because they’re not used to fighting four-legged opponents.
We aren’t going to escape this chaos unless we do something about the infinite monster respawning.
What’s causing it? Is it man-made? I feel like it’s going to go on forever if we don’t stop it.
But what clues… As I think that, I realize a clue is right in front of me.
Yes, the monsters themselves might be clues.
I cast Provoke to attract monsters, and cast Appraisal when they get in range.
Thanks.