LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 51 - Situation Normal
‘Pardon me asking you this, Lily,’ Caei said while caring for my wounds.’ ‘But to take a page from your book: what the fuck just happened?’
‘I have no idea,’ I smiled weakly. ‘There were soldiers stationed here and apparently some of them were turned undead… by something. Or. Someone.’
She walks.
‘Soldiers?’ Aki asked absentmindedly while examining the rifle. ‘This gun… I’ve never heard about anything like this. I’ve seen some caravan guards for rich traders carry… Moosekets? I think they were called. But… this…’
I extended my hand and gestured for her to pass the gun to me.
Item: Caiverhold Armouries M1107
Class: Weapon - Semi-automatic - Rifle
Rarity: Mass Produced - Thought Lost
Durability: 12/50
Ammo: 4/20
Ammunition: 7.92x57 mm CA
The fucking thing was heavy. I found the magazine release and checked what was inside. Yup… normal cartridges. I took one out, threw it towards Aki, and gave another to Caei.
‘As keepsakes… I guess,’ I shrugged and passed the gun over to the Sanguine to examine.
‘Will we be taking it?’ Aki asked.
‘It could fetch a pretty sum,’ I thought out loud. ‘Assuming we can find someone to buy it.’
‘Won’t you be using it?’ Caei asked. ‘Your sword broke. ‘
‘No… I don’t think so. I have no idea how to use or maintain it. I might shoot myself or one of you. Hard pass.’
I grabbed the knife.
‘For now, it’s this for me,’
Item: Standard-issue Combat Knife
Class: Weapon - Daggers - Combat Knife
Rarity: Mass Produced - Extremely Rare
Durability: 24/50
‘You sure?’ Caeileera began arguing, but I cut her off.
‘Yes,’ I answered curtly, but it was not enough.
Both Caei and Aki read to me the riot act about putting the team and myself in needless danger by doing “the sunlight” thing again, this time with weapons. I ended up accepting the Storm and ammo for it back. They were right. I asked Caei about “what she’d do”, and she shrugged and said she still had Blood Lances. She was close to level nine anyway, so once she levelled she could use the perk points to learn a new weapon skill… say semi-automatic rifles. I nodded.
I tried to hide the M1107 in my backpack, but it was too large. The carrying strap from the storm was also too short. Caei shrugged, put her glaive on its carrying strap, since it was nearly useless in the confined space, and decided to carry the rifle in her hands. We found an extra magazine in one of the carrying pouches the soldier had. I helped Caei change it, but chambering the round was outside of my capabilities. I did find the safety though and put it on. Caeileera agreed this was probably the best option as we really didn't want anyone to get hurt by accident. I also switched the crystal in my carbine to one with full charge and two recharges.
While we were going through the soldier’s belongings I discovered that they had a unit patch with what my brain read to be the local equivalent of the letter S, even though I could clearly see it as a different character. Normally, this was not an issue with written text as I saw it in the Latin Alphabet, but this was stylized, so the translator trait must have borked out.
This is probably where the “Sierra” stuff comes from.
In one of his pockets, there was also his military ID, identifying the deadder as one Corporal Iannis Tzerlin, formerly of a place called Vihrrin. It also confirmed we were dealing with the 273rd Royal Infantry Division here.
Interesting. I can't help but notice that Vihrrin doesn't follow the same name naming convention as the places here in Ror-Bhyk. Perhaps a different region of the Old Empire?
I yearned for a moment to look into all the linguistic mysteries of Dwynveia, but, alas, I had bigger issues. As a last action, I attached the knife to my belt.
Next, we moved to where the thrall came from. On the left, there was an open double door which led to a large hospital room with multiple beds and cots strewn around. All of them were empty, and some were covered in blood.
The opposite room presented similar findings. At the end of the span, there were wooden French doors leading to the other wing, but they were chained and padlocked. On the other side, there was just more of the same. Like, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting… a nice mansion lobby? It occurred to me we could probably break the lock easily, but I wasn’t that willing to do it just now, especially after I saw the tail of some large creature disappear into one of the side passages.
Nope.
Caei and Aki also saw it, so we quickly hid from sight. The corridor split two ways there. The left one led to a dead end, and one last room, the other way also held a single door and looped back onto the staircase.
Left it is.
The room there was a small office of some kind. With just a chair, a desk and your standard-issue skeleton in rotten remnants of clothes lying on its side under the wall. There was a hole in his forehead and a dried blood streak on the wall leading from say… his exact height to where his skull currently was.
I wonder what happened to him.
On the desk, there was a broken radio station, a lamp and a sheet of paper.
The paper was what looked to be a partial final report of one Lieutenant Argyv Kishin.
Date: 24/10/1127
Location: Akh’ret’s Mercy Hospital, Ror-Bhyk area
Reporting Officer: Lieutenant Argyv Kishin, 273rd Royal Infantry Division
Sergeant Gend is reporting that his men are complaining of an increase in the incidence of auditory hallucinations among his men. The only common theme among them is that it is always a woman calling to them. Sometimes she promises great boons, sometimes she issues threats. Doctor Vaan Lohren has no theories about the possible cause. Men are getting
…waffles at the store.
I gave the late Lieutenant a salute:
‘Message received, LT. At ease.’
Aki and Caei gave me confused looks but said nothing.
‘Apparently, more people were going crazy,’ I explained and added the document to the ledger. I don’t know why, it could have been video game brainwashing, but keeping those records felt important.
Just as we were turning to leave I heard… something from the outside. It was very quiet, very echoey… but still there. I raised my finger to ensure everyone stayed quiet, but there was no repeat sound.
‘What’s happening?’ Aki whispered.
‘Heard something. No idea what.’
They nodded and we carefully exited the room, me first. There was nothing there though. I slowly approached the corner and looked around, but once more… nada. Still on our toes, we approached the final room of this section of the floor. With Aki covering my back, I pushed the door open. I was immediately hit by a faint smell of decay. Inside, well… I didn’t get a look as something jumped out at me and tackled me to the floor. The storm fell outside of my hands. It was a half-rotten man wearing a tattered steel blue uniform. His face was mostly gone, leaving an exposed skull and bits of flesh. It started to punch me in the face, but that was something that barely fazed me at this point. It grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the side of the head. To my shock this time this failed to disable the undead. I moved to strike him again, but there was a loud bang and a bullet tore through the monster's chest. I used the chance to imbue the knife with umbral energy and once more skewered its head.
Level 14 Rotting Thrall has been slain.
You have received 700 experience points (3082/4000 total experience points progress to level 8)
I pushed the monster’s dead body out of myself and got up. I saw Caeileera standing there holding the rifle, her hands a bit shaky.
‘Thanks,’ I simply said. ‘Not what you expected?’
‘T-the way it kicked…’ she stammered. ‘I could have hit you… again…’
‘You’ll get used to it, I guess.’
There must have been a round already chambered. No way she figured that out on the fly.
Suddenly, Caei has shown much-increased competence in using the rifle. She seemed much more at ease holding it and did a number of fast motions to ensure it was ready to fire.
And that would be the level-up. Hopefully, we can find enough bullets for her to be able to use it for a while… Then again, maybe someone will be able to manufacture them. Like… making bullets cannot be that hard, can it? Spare parts will be much worse to get.
I checked the room the monster was in, but there were only a few cots there.
Did they just lock this poor bastard in here and leave him to rot?
As I was turning around to leave I heard the distant indistinct sound again.
Is something stalking us? I thought after waiting for it to repeat.
We slowly walked past the corner and slowly went back to the main span. When we were back near the staircase, I noticed a floor list:
B1: Morgue
GF: General Ward, Nurse’s Station
F1: Doctor’s Offices, Lab
F2: Administration, Director’s Office.
Nurse’s station? There could be some supplies there. Where is it though? Probably the second section of the main corridor.
I hoped it wasn’t one of the rooms we’d already checked and was converted for military purposes.
No. It would be closer to the middle of the ward, wouldn’t it?
We did find the station, but it was empty. Our search of the rest of the floor also proved to be fruitless. On two occasions I’ve heard the distant noises again, but once again nothing came out of them. The entrance to the “East” Wing wasn’t locked, but for now, we’ve decided to skip it. With minor trepidation, we ascended to the floor above. It turned out to have a much simpler layout. Just a simple corridor forking at the end. The floor was covered in faded and half-rotten carpet, while the walls were once painted yellow I thought. There were two rooms on either side of the corridor. The first one on the right was labelled “Dr. A. Sainyr”, while the one on the left was “Dr. D. Brind”.
So they never found someone to replace poor Augustus, I guess.
His office was our first destination. And that’s where things went very wrong. As usual, I was leading the way. Just as I opened the simple wooden door I felt something behind us. The door to Doctor Brind’s office swung open and hit the wall with a loud thwap.
‘Ge-’ I started to shout, but it was too late.
I just saw the figure of another undead soldier standing at the door with a shotgun trained at us. Caeileera presented the biggest target so he fired at her. She took the full brunt of the strike on her back and wings. I heard her cry out in agony. I activated the Swiftness of the Wind and eschewing any form of subtlety just pushed through my comrades and charged the motherfucker, gathering wind around my right fist.
‘Caeeeei!’ I heard Aki shout, through a haze of rage.
Before the soldier had a chance to do anything else, I was upon him and punched him dead centre on the chest, sending him flying into the opposite wall. I unleashed far more wind energy than I expected, but at that time I did not care. Before he could even hit it I moved to draw the knife from his holster and just as he hit the wall with a loud crunch I pounced towards him and sank the knife deep into his skull.
Level 20 Sierra Squad Revenant has been slain.
You have received 2000 experience points (5082/4000 total experience points progress to level 8)
You are now Level 8 (1038/4500 total experience points progress to level 9)
Your total health has increased
Your total stamina has increased
Your total mana has increased
You have received 2 perk points (Current Number of Perk Points: 2)
I turned back to my companions and ran over to them with my backpack in my hands drawing out the Lesser Healing Potion from it. Caei was lying facedown on the floor, breathing raggedly, her back and wings an absolute mess of damaged flesh. Aki was kneeling by her side, tears streaking down her face. I could see some minor scratches on her, where some of the pellets hit her, but it was nothing to worry about right now.
I stopped dumbfounded. How were we supposed to give Caei the healing potion?
‘H-help me turn her head,’ Aki said, seeing my confusion.
My first aid training made me question the validity of the action, but well… healing potion. Any accidental damage would probably heal.
Very carefully, we turned Caei’s head towards us and slowly poured the potion down her mouth. Her breathing calmed down slightly, and the flesh on her back began to knit itself together. It wasn’t much but at least the bleeding stopped.
‘Let’s carry her inside,’ I said and, making sure we wouldn’t cause our fallen friend any more discomfort, we moved her into Sainyr’s office and put Caei on the floor there.
While we carried her, I could hear her mutter
‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…’
‘You won’t,’ I reassured her.
Not caring about anything I rummaged through the dead doctor’s office but there was nothing. It must have been cleaned out after his death.
‘Guard her with your life,’ I told Aki, realising what I had to do.
Aki simply nodded.
‘I can help you save her,’ I heard the Huntress say. ‘You just have to… let go.’