Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 14: The serpent's lair raid (1)

'Ding!'

[You have completed your quest]

[Acquired poor enhancement stone, 2 stat points]

[Quest: kill 10 monsters]

[Reward: Grade-D skill book, 2 stat points]

I smiled as I stroked my newly-bought rifle. It turned out that adding a silencer to my rifle was all I needed for the system to recognize it as mine. Should I name my gun Bob or something?

I sat with Jeanne and general Zhang around a map on one of the benches in the training ground. He brought us here to explain to us about tomorrow's plan.

"Alright, planning time!" General Zhang clapped his hands together.

"Let's make this simple, yeah? I'm more of a spontaneous guy," he started explaining, "tomorrow we will depart at the same time as Owen's squad."

We both nodded, carefully listening to his explanation.

"We will head north to where the lair is located, and according to our scouts, at this point we will encounter the serpent's army, the water alligators," he said as he pointed a place on the map, "for this first wave, we will work with Owen's team to exterminate them."

He slid his finger upwards a bit, "and this here, will be the second wave. There will be water bats. And this is where we will separate from their group."

"Any plans on how to defeat the alligators?" I asked.

"Even though they have water elements, they still live on the ground, so we will use our usual ground formation. Y'know, the tanks on the front, mages behind, yada-yada." General Zhang replied.

"The scouts said they're way bigger than normal alligators, though. We should still be on our guard." Jeanne added.

That was comforting, but... My quest wanted me to kill 10 monsters. There's no way I could kill 10 huge fancy lizards alone, could I? I need to sneak some kills.

"Do we know their attack pattern, behavior, weakness, or anything?" I inquired, hoping to get some insight.

"Unfortunately, none." General Zhang answered me.

Too bad.

"Alright. Where do we go after splitting?" I asked again.

"We will hide near the entrance of the cave," Zhang answered, "the scouts observed that the bats can send distress signals. When Owen's group engage with the bats, we're hoping that some of the serpent's guard would get mobilized."

"And that's when we sneak in and kill the serpent." Jeanne finished.

"Exactly. Jean-jean, you're so smart~" General Zhang clapped.

"How are we going to kill the serpent?" Jeanne asked.

General Zhang smirked. Seeing his smirk sent chills down my spine.

"No plans. We just kill." He said while grinning wide, but his eyes were full of bloodlust.

I was going to protest, but that was probably a bad idea, considering he's nuts.

A lot of things were still vague. Like, what about the supplies? How were the terrain and the weather? We didn't even have a healer on our team... But well, the battlefield was always full of surprises, anyway.

"Okay then, is that all?" I asked to make sure.

"Yeap. Now go and pack your bags, little cub, I'll pick you up tomorrow~" General Zhang replied.

"Jeanne, tomorrow morning, could you and Dmitri come with me for a bit?" I ignored him and asked Jeanne instead.

"Sure, I'll tell him. What's the matter?" She asked.

"I, uh... I would like to report a missing child?"

--------

That night, I returned to my room after I took a long-awaited bath. As usual, I checked my system for anything that might help me tomorrow.

"Inventory."

I took out the enhancement stones I got earlier as rewards for completing my quest. They're small, and their red aura glowed rather faintly.

'Ding!'

[Would you like to use the item 'Poor Enhancement Stone'?]

"...Yes, please."

[Please select a piece of equipment to use it for:]

I was presented with two options, my gun and my necklace. Of course, I chose the former without much thought.

[Item: 'Grand Blacksmith's Assault Rifle' has been enhanced to +2]

[Increased damage]

[Increased firing range]

[Reduced mana consumption by 5%]

I smiled. Those were promising messages. I noticed that the only countable thing is mana consumption. That reminded me, I need to manage my mana well if I were to use this gun. Koji said it needed lots of mana...

"Store? Market? Mall? Shop?"

'Ding!'

A new window appeared in front of me. It says 'shop'. As I thought, there was a shop system where I could use my gold. It was pretty neat, it had options such as equips, consumables, materials, and boxes. Although, most of the items were too expensive for my measly 600 gold.

I sighed, "money sure is hard to obtain everywhere. That slippery eel better pays up."

My eyes shifted towards my rifle. It was similar to an M4, true, but I still needed to get used to it. It had been long since I last fired a gun, and I needed to know how much mana it needed to fire.

"...Let's go hunting."

--------

I originally wanted to go to the forest where I can probably hunt some rabbits or boars, but there was no way they would let me go outside at midnight, and with no one to keep tabs on me, too. So here I was, standing on the barren rooftop area that was supposed to be where we hang our clothes to dry.

"All around me are unfamiliar clothes..." I gazed at my surroundings before shifting my gaze towards the sky.

"Perfect. The sky is way clearer than in Korea," I held the rifle and aimed towards the sky for a while, trying to steady my aim, "I'm sorry, bird."

'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

I used the three-round burst firing mode to shoot down a bird. It fell down nearby, probably at the back of the dormitory.

"I dislike hunting, but the best target practice is a moving target practice," I sighed, "I'll make sure to cook you well, bird."

Anyway, surprisingly, it didn't feel like a lot of my mana was used. I guess mana was different from the intelligence stat. Does it mean I had a lot of mana reserve? How come?

While I pondered over these questions, I lifted my rifle once more and tried to shoot another bird.

"Tch. I missed. It sure is hard to get used to a new weapon."

I spent the next hour just waiting for birds to pass by and shooting them. In the end, I shot a total of 5 birds and missed 2 of them.

'Ding!'

[Intelligence: 10 (+5) --> 11 (+5)]

Interesting. So as long as I use my magic, that could be considered as training. I could snowball my intelligence stat. Exciting.

"I'm getting rusty..." I let down my rifle and sighed. Time to go down and pick up those poor birds.

I walked downstairs all the way to the first floor and exited through the front door. Even though it was almost midnight, everyone was still bustling around and I could even hear the commotion coming from the training ground. I guess everyone was working hard for tomorrow, huh?

After I picked up the birds behind the dorm, I headed back inside towards the kitchen and began looking around the pantries. Thankfully, they had enough ingredients for me to cook.

I spent the night cooking and packaging them inside the paper bag they provided. I planned to bring one bag for our trip, and give the other two for Wolf tomorrow.

"I wonder if he'll like fried chicken? ...Or fried bird, actually..."

--------

'Chirp. Chirp.'

Ugh. It was already morning? I felt like I had just closed my eyes.

"Hngg--" I stretched out my arms, and like any other person, I stared into nothingness for a solid 5 minutes before I start my day.

After getting ready and packing my bags, I went down to find Jeanne and Dmitri waiting for me at the dormitory's gate.

"Jeanne, Dmitri! Sorry, did I make you wait?" I approached them.

"No, I've only arrived, too." She smiled sweetly at me.

"Haha! So did I!" Dmitri cheerfully replied.

"Let's go, then." I smiled at them.

We chatted as we walked all the way from the dormitory to the marketplace where I once got lost. Surprisingly, I felt relaxed when talking to Jeanne. Even though she had always appeared to be strict and dignified, she was still just a woman, like me.

"Oh, right, Chaerin. You said we're going to visit a kid, right?" Jeanne asked.

"Is it the kid from yesterday, Chae?" Dmitri chimed in.

"Ah, yes... Well, I wouldn't really call it visiting, too..." I rubbed the back of my head, trying to think of a better word to use.

"I was so shocked when you said that you wanted to report a missing kid. It would've been an urgent matter." She said.

"Well... He's kind of missing but also not missing... Anyway, he's got a home, at least." I responded awkwardly.

"It's good that he's not lost. We would certainly be glad to help if he needs financial help." Jeanne said earnestly.

"Yes! I'm also really good with kids!" Dmitri beamed with confidence.

"Um... I don't even know where we should start helping, but..." I sighed, "anyway, we're here."

I stopped at the border between the forest and the marketplace.

"Here?" Jeanne asked.

"Yeah... This is, uh... This is his home." I replied.

"Chaerin, this is a forest." She stared at me with a deadpan look.

"Well, a home is not always a house with a door you could knock on, right?" I answered.

"...That's true." She said. I could've sworn I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes, just like last time.

"Let's go inside." I led them to the place where I met Wolf before. This time, I didn't get lost because I had come to notice that the wolf-like markings were actually Wolf's. Like, the kid's. After that, it was just a matter of finding the mark.

Once we got into his territory, I patiently waited until he himself appeared. He should be able to smell me now... Or smell the food I brought him, rather.

'Rustle!'

A familiar dark brown hair popped up from the bush.

"Oh, Wolf, there you are!" I turned around towards the bush, and saw the same skinny boy I saw yesterday.

"Food smell. You." He approached me without hesitation this time, and circled around me on all fours.

"Hehe. I brought food for you! Did you miss me?" I crouched down and stroked his head.

"Chaerin... Is this the boy you were referring to?" Jeanne asked, completely frozen at the sight in front of her.

"This is... Wolf?" Dmitri had an equally shocked look on his face, although it was quickly replaced with a worried look.

"Yes... His name is Wolf and, uh... As you can see, I'm pretty sure he was raised by wolves, and had been away from human society for a while." I explained as I took out the fried bird I made yesterday and gave it to him.

"Thank you." He started eating while cuddling up next to me.

"I don't know how he learned a few human words and manners, but... Well..." I patted his head.

"We... We could ask the Vanguard to search for his family?" Jeanne suggested.

"He said he has no family."

The two said nothing and bit their lips.

I took this chance to explain my meeting with Wolf yesterday, especially to Jeanne, since she knew nothing about it.

"...And that's why I wanted you to let Dmitri go here every few days to give him food, only until we come back from the raid." I concluded.

Jeanne thought for a moment before saying, "I understand. It's quite a lot to take in, but I do agree with your view. I will arrange a permit for him."

She bent down and stroked Wolf's fluffy hair, "I'm sorry you had to go through this..."

It was sad. I wonder what really happened to him in the past. At this moment, we could only do what we could do to make his future less painful.

"Alright, we should get back to the Vanguard. It's almost time to depart," I stood up after patting him for the last time, "Dmitri, I'll leave him to you. I made some fried bird for him already, but I'm afraid it won't last long."

Dmitri smiled and held Wolf's hand, "don't worry. I'll take good care of him."

"Thank you, Dmitri." I smiled.

Jeanne and I said our goodbyes to Wolf and walked away, back to the Vanguard's base.

--------

Dmitri sat with Wolf as he watched the kid ate his food slowly.

'He looks just a bit older than Anna and Yakov... I wonder how hard his life must've been.' He thought.

Wolf finished his meal and stared at Dmitri without saying anything.

"Ah, you've finished? Good boy, you should always finish your meal so you could grow up big and strong!" He picked up the boy with ease, and felt the boy's bony figure against his chest.

Suddenly, he felt a pang in his heart, and his brotherly instinct kicked in, "do you want more food? Big bro can buy you some, yeah?" He asked the boy.

"That food lady." Wolf muttered.

"Hm? You mean Chae? Do you miss her? I'm sorry, but she has somewhere to go for a while... Big bro will play with you in the meantime!" Dmitri cheerfully replied.

"Food lady will die."

"Eh?"