(Next day, 7:00 AM)
Or not so much, actually.
When you think of nights in apocalypses, it's normal to think of a constant danger that wakes you up with every crack of night. If you don't wake up, you'll probably never see daylight again.
And that's exactly what happened today, or yesterday, in this case, but... it wasn't quite what I expected.
I thought that with nightfall, the streets would fill with nocturnal hunters like those shadow wolves and undead (zombies and skeletons) that Mari said she encountered. And they did appear, but nowhere near the numbers I expected.
Mostly, they appeared alone or in small groups of three that were as easy to kill as goblins.
There were also three groups of five wolves (six counting the leader, who was usually the largest) around the perimeter of the house during the early morning hours.
It was unexpectedly easy to deal with them once I attacked the lead wolf, I had to endure some cuts from claws and bites, and some shadow strikes (these were quite dangerous).
But nothing that a little blood afterwards couldn't solve, interesting detail, their blood had a gelatinous consistency and was kind of cold, tasting like cold mint tea with blackberries.
And as I said before, besides them, there also appeared to be some undead, mostly zombies. But they were easy to deal with; there wasn't really any need to do anything, as long as we stayed still (me, in this case, since the other guard was a plant), they would just stagger along.
That's what I preferred to do, so I wouldn't have to touch them and risk getting their rotten blood splashed in my mouth... again.
Yes, that happened in one of the fights, and I can assure you with all my heart that the goblin blood here was a thousand times worse.
Okay, this is something people think: obviously it's horrible, it's the blood of a corpse that's been decomposing for who knows how long.
And I obviously agree, even before this unfortunate incident.
The point is, the level of revulsion that thing caused was so strong that I literally went into a temporary state of shock. I was in the fetal position for 20 minutes after it went into my mouth.
Anything was better than that, I even licked the roof while I was in the fetal position to try to relieve the sensation on my tongue and mouth. As soon as "plant network" indicated a goblin appearing, I zoomed down from the roof to him and drained his veins to get that putrid taste out of my mouth.
Uuuuurrrrrfffff, I swear I'll never complain about goblin blood again if the option is undead blood... not that the second one should even be an option, right? But in desperation...
And finally, since I mentioned them, two groups of goblins also appeared. But unlike the ones that appeared during the day, these were dark green, almost black, and according to the death notice, they were [night goblins].
Aside from being darker and much quieter than the usual green ones, there weren't any major differences. And they were easier to deal with than the wolves using my aerial ambushes (yes, that's just my fancy way of saying it: I'd throw myself off the roof on top of them and try to land on the leaders first).
Aside from these small fights, nothing else appeared. It was so quiet during the night that I dozed off several times.
But I still fought and gained experience, which increased my level by one and elevated my skills. Mainly:
[Skill: Body Reinforcement 2 -> Body Reinforcement 4]
[Skill: Enhanced Senses 2 -> Enhanced Senses 4]
[Skill: Night Vision 1 -> Night Vision 3]
[Skill Acquired: Ambush 0]
[Skill: Ambush 0 -> Ambush 1]
[Skill: Unarmed Combat 3 -> Unarmed Combat 4]
[Skill: Bloodsucker 2 -> Bloodsucker 4]
[Skill: Obsidian Claws 3 -> Obsidian Claws 5]
And of course, my stats have also increased, now they're like this.
[Name: Fernando Martins
Level: 6
Race: Dhampir (half-vampire)
Job: Fighter Lv. 4
SP: 0 (-20)
AP: 8 (-2)
HP: 70/70
MP: 18/48
STR: 13 (+4)
DEF: 10 (+2)
AGI: 16 (+4)
INT: 11 (+3)
MAG: 9 (+4)
RES: 7
• Unique Ability: Endurance
• Skills: Swordsmanship 2, Cleansing 2, Reading 3, Herbalism 1, Ice Magic 0, Shadow Magic 1, Unarmed Combat 4, Ambush 1 (New), Sloth 1, Item Box 2.
• Racial Abilities: Blood Magic 0, Night Vision 3, Body Enhancement 4, Senses Enhanced 4, Obsidian Claws 5, Bloodsuck 4, Weakness to Light 2, Vulnerable to Heat 2.]
Yeah... it wasn't as peaceful as I made it seem at first, but it was also much better than it could have been. I even managed to take several naps during the night, and thanks to my sister's "spell," I wasn't caught off guard once.
One thing I found strange during my vigil is that so far I haven't seen any flying monsters, or rather, any of the flying monsters I saw during the night, come near my house. I wonder why?
Oh, interesting fact: this "spell," despite constantly draining my mana (1 mana per 1 minute), also had an "alarm clock" function when an enemy appeared, so... yeah, it's pretty useful (if that had existed before all this mess, security companies would have gone bankrupt in no time).
"~Uh-huh~"
*Creak, creak*
Well, even if I had dozed off, it was in a very uncomfortable position on the roof, so several joints needed a crack.
*Cococoooo-coc-cccuuuuu*
Looks like the chickens are awake too. I think I can trade shifts with them and get some real sleep now, right?.
I headed toward Impeto for a shift change. He did so reluctantly, though he was a bit wobbly. Do roosters and hens have bad mornings too?
Two jumps later, he was already on the neighbor's roof, perched in the "nest" I'd made for him with most of the clothes from the neighbor's closet. Although maybe I should call it the chicken coop now?
Whatever.
With him in position, and the other hens watching over their chicks, ready to help and alert us if anything happened,
I returned to the second floor of our house and went to the bedroom to see if, by some miracle, my sister was awake. As expected, she was still curled up in the bed at the back, with Lumi and Nawa beside her.
Well, Nawa's head, her body, was resting partly on the other bed and partly on the beanbag. Even at her smallest size, she was still almost 2 meters tall.
Using [stealth], I entered and opened the first closet door with as little noise as possible. I grabbed one of the "emergency" blankets and got into bed closest to the door.
Ah!
First, it's best to shake the blanket. It hasn't been washed in... I think 5 years. But it's still quite thick and protects against the freezing cold. I can't say for sure, but I'd say the temperature hasn't dropped below 15 degrees during the day and around 7 degrees at night since yesterday.
Cold, but not unbearable.
Well, it doesn't matter now. I'm going to get some sleep, and maybe when I wake up, things will be back to normal.
......
......
Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen either.