LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24: Hospitals and Lizards
I walked through the remains of my campus in a fog. It was like I was in a bizarro land where everything only kind of resembled the real world. Creatures that resembled wolves with six legs and three eyes stalked the skeleton of the university. They stopped attacking after the fifth or sixth had its mind crushed. The minuscule amount of energy did nothing for my mood. I walked for nearly twenty minutes not sure where I was going until I ended up in front of room 207. It felt like a lifetime ago that I was seated here going over case precedent. The door had been turned to splinters and the desks were scattered. Several of my classmates were dead, discarded like trash on the ground. Some of them were so maimed I couldn't tell who they were. I wasn't sure if I was happy or sad about not seeing my professor among the bodies.
Professor Terrel was a hard man and worked out regularly so even if he wasn't a cultivator he might have survived. I ignored the voice in my head that said he wouldn't have abandoned his students. My logic and reason became a specter that whispered and fought with the hope I was desperate to hold. I wanted to give the people here a burial but there was nowhere to do it and far too many corpses. None of my spells would let me dig up the earth and doing it with my fingers wasn't practical. I made a mental note to come back and deal with it later. Once things weren't so chaotic. I was just about to leave when I heard a voice call out to me.
"We know you're in there. Come out nice and easy. No one needs to get hurt." I stared at the wall between me and the voice as if it would open up and reveal them to me. The shock of there being another person here was enough to stop me from speaking. It wasn't until the second voice started that my brain began working again.
"Last chance. We don't want to hurt you but we will if we have to. We just want your supplies." Both speakers were men and they sounded around my age. The second speaker's tone didn't convince me about them not wanting to hurt me but for some reason, I felt nothing. My danger sense didn't go off and I wasn't sure if it would in this situation or if it would only help me with direct attacks. Either way, I didn't care. I stepped out of the classroom and back outside where a group of five people waited for me. There were three men and two women. They had created armor for themselves out of old football equipment. Three of them had long rifles and the other two handguns. They all looked haggard as if they hadn't slept properly in days.
Before I could decide what to do the taller of the two women pointed her gun at me. "Take off the bag real slow like and we will all get to go home." I raised an eyebrow at her. Her hands trembled but she managed to keep the weapon aimed at me.
"Look I don't know who you are but I am not in the mood for this. How about you all leave and I will act like I never met you." The calmness in my voice had a different effect on each of the quintets. The two women looked even more uncomfortable. The closest man leveled his rifle with my chest while the biggest of the group stepped forward with a machete in his hand. His rifle was slung over his shoulder. The last man rolled his eyes as if he was already bored of the situation.
I considered blasting them all with either of my attack spells but quickly decided against it. There was no reason to kill any of them and I didn't want to. Instead, I pushed energy into Psychic Aegis. The indigo shield surrounded me before the machete wielder crossed half the distance. The surprise that passed over their faces made the situation more than worth it. When they opened fire it was suddenly much less fun. The bullets slammed into the shield before I had a chance to infuse it with my tao. My heart pounded in my chest as I imagined myself being filled with bullet holes. Thankfully my panic was very much misplaced. They would have been better off throwing stones at me at least those wouldn't eventually run out.
The group realized that the guns wouldn't work and splintered. Everyone except for the leader split off and sprinted back down the street. The leader looked like he wanted to try me with his machete. I raised an eyebrow as if waiting for him to make a move. He slowly turned and sprinted off after his friends. "That was a bit disappointing." I waited a few minutes to be sure that they weren't going to come back before I left. Their arrival had ended the melancholy and it was time that I pushed forward.
I was just about to leave the campus when I caught sight of a familiar building. I turned and sprinted across the grass until I reached the stone stairs of the library. The two statues that usually stood sentry next to the doorway were broken. One had smashed with the other looked like it was burned with some kind of acid. I still remember my first day here. The statues were like giant guardians over the truth. Now they were defeated. It was as if the System determined it was all worthless. I shook it off and pushed my way into the library. The rows and rows of books were in disarray. Entire bookcases were broken and there was blood.
The entire room looked like a war zone no it looked like a slaughter zone. The people here stood no chance against whatever it was that attacked. Bodies were torn apart, the stench was enough to make me gag. I circulated the tao of lucidity through my body hoping it would help with the stench. I walked through the rows of books for a few minutes when a pang of danger passed through me. I turned just in time for a blur to slam into my shield. Psychic Aegis held but I was knocked backward and into the wall. I rolled to the side just as it stinger the size of my arm slammed into the ground where I had been.
The beast looked like a misshapen scorpion with one massive eye. Its claws looked big enough to snap the stone columns of the building. Its stinger dripped a green liquid that made the floor crackle and burn. I stared at the creature for a second before a fury built inside me like a tempest. This creature defiled my library. It had killed people who were just trying to live. It had killed people who couldn't defend themselves. I brought both hands together and Psionic Rain fell from the sky. I didn't even remember activating the skill. The scorpion barreled through a bookcase to avoid the attack and then rushed straight for me.
I watched the massive ugly thing come at me and grinned. The stinger shot for me like a javelin aimed at my heart. In a fury-blind fervor, I stepped forward instead of letting the aegis take the attack. My danger sense was a whisper as my hand shot forward. When the rational part of my mind caught up with what I just did I laughed. I wasn't sure who was more confused between me and the scorpion. I stood there with its stinger clutched in one hand laughing like a madman. I wasn't sure where the thought had come from and I didn't care. I gripped the stinger with my other hand and spun into an over-the-shoulder throw. The scorpion resisted for a second before it was in the air. My triumphant throw only sent it a few feet and hadn't made a dent in its exoskeleton but it did make me feel better. I unleashed Psychic Blast.
The indigo light washed over the ugly thing and I said a mental prayer that it wouldn't die. That I would get to extract a little more retribution for what it had done. The surge of kill energy only made me angrier. I roared in frustration and let my killing intent explode. The building around me trembled and the wooden bookcases groaned as if they found themselves trapped in a storm. The mental images of my classmate's bodies torn a part passed in front of me one by one. My fury built as I stared at the scorpion and I thought about the rats and every other forsaken beast on the planet. None of them were the real target of my fury. I bit back the curses out of fear. A fear that only reminded me of how weak I was. I wasn't sure how long I stood in the ruins before I stopped myself. I sealed my aura inside me and went through the rows of books. I grabbed anything I thought would be useful. Books on how to survive, build medicine, books on how to govern a country. Military strategy and every other thing I could think of. When I was done my bag had rows and rows of books. I looked down at the corpse of the scorpion and made a promise to come back and burn it. Once I was ready I opened a portal and stepped through.
I stepped into one of the old dorm buildings a short while later. My spiritual energy was low and now that my adrenaline had faded I was tired. My soul felt tired. I had imagined some kind of badass warrior return but instead, it was sad. I shook my head and kicked open a door on the first floor. The wood and metal practically exploded. I tried the light but wasn't surprised when it didn't work. So far none of the technology I found worked. I wasn't sure if the System had just turned everything off or if it was something with the planet but it didn't matter much. I placed the door back into place and then pushed a dresser in front of it. It probably wouldn't keep anyone or anything out of the room but it should give me a warning.
I sat on the bed in the lotus position. I summoned a spirit crystal and started to cultivate it. The pure energy was like a glass of fresh water when compared to the energy in the air. It made me want to drain all of my remaining crystals but I resisted the urge. I would need to build a proper cultivation chamber so I could reliably regain my power. Until then I had to ration it. After four hours had passed I decided to get some actual sleep.
The next day I sat out at sunrise. I had spent enough time in the university and I still wanted to check out the skyscraper. I took off at a full sprint as soon as I was outside. The air tore past me and once again I had to marvel at my body. I wasn't exactly a health nut but the tutorial had reforged me. I had an actual six-pack now which was just beautiful. I felt amazing. I decided to stop at a parking garage when an idea hit me. Was the size of what I could store in the bag determined by what could fit in the mouth of the bag or was it based on what I could put in the mouth of the bag?
Turns out the answer was based on what could fit not whether or not I could physically put it inside. Even after emptying the entire bag, I couldn't fit any of the cars or motorcycles inside. I was able to put a few seats inside though without the cat that wasn't too helpful. It was a bit of a bummer that I couldn't carry around a car and just pop it out whenever but it wouldn't have been that useful anyway. The roads were covered in debris. After my detour, I set off down the street. I ran for another hour before something made me stop. I stared at the road in front of me not sure why I had the overwhelming urge to not continue. It wasn't quite the same as my danger sense but no matter what I did I couldn't make it go away. I activated Psychic Aegis just in case it was someone trying to ambush me but nothing happened.
I moved forward slowly and finally saw something. There was a thin wire that connected two cars that went straight through the middle of the road. Now that I knew what to look for I found three more sets one for each road out of the intersection. I wasn't sure if I could survive a car bomb let alone four of them so I decided to step back. I was just about to open a portal out of here when I heard a gun cock. I raised an eyebrow and looked up. Where I found a man holding a rifle on top of a building. "Hey there I am guessing that you live around here?"
"Yes now turn around and head back where you came from." The man looked to be in his early twenties with dirty blonde hair and bandages around his arms. He wore a leather jacket with a store logo on it. A logo I recognized from the mall.
"Would you be willing to have a conversation? I am not looking to cause any trouble but I would like to head to that building in the distance and would appreciate any information you have on it."
The man grabbed a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. I raised an eyebrow but decided to leave him be. He had a short conversation before hanging it up and turning back to me. "Do you have any medicine in that bag?"
I shook my head. "No do you all need medicine? Do you have a System Hub nearby?"
"No, the closest one is to the West of here? Listen if you go and get some antibiotics we can let you in for a bit of food in trade."
I opened my mouth to reply before shaking my head. Part of me seriously wanted to open a portal and just teleport to the guy but I decided against it. The last thing I wanted was to either have him shoot me and a bunch of people or kill him and piss off his friends. He was a mortal which meant he didn't know too much about how things worked. He was willing to trade and he could help me with everything that has happened since the start of the tutorial. Plus it made earn me some brownie points with the group. "Which way is the closest pharmacy? Do you know what kind of medicine you need?"
"There is a hospital to the west of here. There are a lot of monsters in that direction though including one of the big sons of bitches."
"Do you have any more information? Maybe the level of the beast? Approximately how strong it is?"
"We think the main lizards are around level five as for the big one somewhere between five and ten." He said with a slight grimace as if he had made this same request many times before.
A level-ten monster might make for a good hunt though. It might provide decent kill energy and it would clear out a section of the city which would be a win-win as far as I was concerned. I asked a few more questions to get a better lay of the land but when his facial expressions went from confused to irritated. I decided it was time to move on. I looked around and plotted a path around the car bombs and moved away. I waited until I was out of his line of sight before I broke out into a full sprint.
I reached the hospital in less than half an hour and two killed monsters later. These were large lizards that looked a bit like iguanas except for them being as big as cars. They weren't much of a threat and they avoided me once I let my killing intent leak out a bit. It was better to describe the hospital as a morgue. Everyone that had been on any kind of electronic for survival was gone. I wasn't sure if they had been left behind or not but it didn't matter. The lizards also hadn't gone beyond the first two floors so they were allowed to rest in some kind of peace. I grabbed a few things that might be useful later. Mostly bandages and other non-disposable options. I had to physically break into the room with the actual medicine and everything that needed refrigeration was useless.
I threw everything I could into the bag until I wasn't able to anymore. Once my looting was done I gave the hospital another pass just in case I missed something. I hadn't. I made my way back outside and started my search for the big lizard. After heading deeper into the city it started to change. The English signs were slowly replaced with Chinese ones until I came across a half-destroyed apartment building. The cluster of eggs and lizards nestled inside told me I had found my target. I summoned Psychic Aegis just in case the man was wrong. I double-checked the area just to be safe before I rolled my shoulders. I pushed energy and tao into what was quickly becoming my favorite sigil and less than a second later a rain of psionic energy fell on my targets.
The first lizards fell and I gained a new appreciation for mentalist classes. The eggs and buildings were unaffected by my attacks. I could cut loose without worry. Once the door greeters were gone a lizard the size of a bus crawled out from the hole. Its eyes were massive and glowed a soft green color. I then felt a light burn in my chest and my vision blurred. It took me a second to realize what just happened since the attack was so weak. This lizard used mental attacks. I grinned as I approached. This next part was going to be fun.