Paul and the rest of the strike team were slowly making their way to Asan and Alice. Their faces were neutral, but Asan noticed that they weren't carrying food sacks or any bags at all. This surprised Asan and caused a frown on his face.
Could it really be that everything they found was right with Alice and Asan? If that's true, then things are bad.
"Looks like you guys have a pretty good haul" Paul said, looking at the four sacks stuffed full. This caused a mixed reaction in Asan, but before he could speak, Alice spoke up.
"What about yours? Did you lose it on the way, or were we just lucky to find some junk while you found nothing?" the girl asked, clearly displeased with the outcome.
Asan sensed that something was off. Usually, if they found too little junk or items, Laszlo's face would immediately reveal such moments. But now, there was no sign of negative emotions or disappointment on his face. Paul looked Asan in the eyes, and a small smile appeared on his face.
"Looks like you got something figured out, huh, Asan?" Paul couldn't help but ask, continuing to look into the boy's eyes.
Alice, puzzled, looked at Asan and his thoughtful expression, but said nothing. Instead of words, Paul ordered them to follow him, taking the food sacks with him. They passed by ruined buildings and moved further away from the fort. At the beginning of their inspection of the city, Asan hadn't noticed too many large groups of Ronnie, but that didn't mean they hadn't encountered any of them. Right now, they were passing through the very spot where he and Alice had fought almost immediately after separating from the rest of the strike team. Four corpses of creatures lay on the ground. Two of them had knife wounds and a few burns. It didn't take long to figure out whose work this was—Asan's.
The level did indeed matter, for during the battle, he didn't feel any particular weight fighting against these monsters. This was completely incomparable to when he fought one-on-one on the first level, or alone against nearly a dozen on the second. Of course, the situation was different back then, but still... The guy was getting stronger. During the battle, he could now actively use his dark magic, which had become even stronger and more dangerous after being leveled up.
If previously Ronnie simply tried to avoid such attacks from his side, now during the battle, they jumped back from him like scalded cats at the mere sight of a small flame in his palm. This led him to many new theories about his fire, suggesting that it had much greater power. He already knew that darkness had toxic properties, acting not by burning but rather by withering.
For example, one could recall the incident with the metal pipe that he exposed to flames, and instead of melting, it quickly began to rust and fall apart. When darkness affected flesh or skin, it started to wither and soon rot. But on Ronnie, it acted several times stronger than on Asan himself, whose hand Bridgite constantly treated after using dangerous power.
Besides the two corpses with fatal burns, there were also two others nearby that were... In worse condition than Asan's. This was Alice's work. The girl, aside from her foul, frenzied character outside of battle, turned into a true beast during combat. Asan found it horrifying to watch her grab Ronnie's hand during an attack on him and literally tear it out, using it afterward as a weapon against the creature itself.
Moreover, her knife skills were indeed intimidating and respectable, if not for the fact that it was thanks to the system. But one shouldn't think that way, since the girl had repeatedly said that when playing virtual games in capsules, she was among the best fighters in her clan, if not the best.
This might have given her certain advantages as a fighter.
After passing through a small group of corpses, the assault team stopped at a half-ruined house, or more precisely, at a small basement behind the house.
"What the hell are we doing here?" Alice asked, looking at the rotten wooden shutters that served as the entrance to the basement.
Paul turned around and looked at Crane, who was standing with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, he opened them and nodded at Paul.
"Guys, what's going on?" Asan asked in surprise, finding the whole situation very strange.
Still, both Laszlo and Bridgite were silent as partisans during the journey, not saying a word. But to Alice and Asan's delight, Paul finally started explaining what was going on.
"Alright, I think it's time to tell you what's happening. Fortunately, we have Crane, who can sense if anyone is following us. So, let me explain our plan, which has been proposed and agreed upon with the Geographer regarding the seventy percent tax" said Paul, opening the shutters and beginning to descend into the basement.
The assault team immediately followed him. As Asan descended into the basement, the smell of dampness and mustiness hit him right away. The very staircase they were descending was covered with some strange substance, which made Asan immediately start wiping his hands after the descent. Around them was darkness, illuminated only by light from above.
But soon the situation changed when Laszlo, without any orders, lit up the room with his bright fire, which had not been just a small flame for a long time. But what was surprising was not the flame.
It was what opened before Asan's eyes after it was lit.
The basement was rather empty, except for trash scattered all over the floor. In the far corner of the room, in the light of Laszlo's fire, Asan noticed nothing other than a large number of sacks. Sacks similar to the ones he and Alice had.
"What kind of place is this? And aren't these-", Asan began to say, but he was interrupted by Paul.
"You don't need to ask, the answer is yes. Now take your sacks to that pile, but leave one, the skinniest and least noticeable, then come back to me" Paul ordered, and the two immediately followed the command, returning shortly after.
"So, allow me to enlighten you about the Geographer's plan."
"On the first night when we arrived at the fort, he called me for an interesting conversation that no one should have heard. In this conversation Geographer gave me several orders. The first was clear and not difficult – to gather as much food, water, and clothing as possible. The second order, however, was about the amount of loot. " - Paul took a short break to think things over and then continued.
"That's when our leader revealed himself, telling us that we needed to find a special place where we would store almost all of the loot obtained from the half-destroyed city. We would only bring a tiny portion of the loot to the camp, which the military would take as our entire haul, got it? »— Said Paul, gesturing with his hands.
So that was the Geographer's plan. This was quite…
Obviously? Asan had anticipated such an outcome on the back of his mind, for without a similar plan, they would hardly have been able to gather the necessary resources within a week to advance further towards the Alps. However, even this plan had a significant flaw.
"What if they suspect us? What will we do then?" Laszlo asked, his gaze unusually serious for the boy.
"This shouldn't happen. Based on the information we've gathered from people at the fort, who spread the word for a small bribe in the form of extra rations, the military found whole trucks filled with various canned goods and water bottles during the first days. They shouldn't know about the state of the city or how much food there is here."
That's exactly why we managed to find so much, although this will decrease over time since the most untouched houses are running out, and not every house has canned food. But even if they suspect something, there will be two possible scenarios."
"The first scenario is surveillance. Nelson, as the fort leader, will order his lackeys to follow us throughout the day to make sure we really are finding as much as we bring back. In this case, the Geographer already has a countermove in the form of a false location where we can check if they are actually following us or not. The second scenario is that they will attach specific individuals to us who will directly follow us. In this case, we won't have any choice but to bring all our loot back to the camp, but this is extremely unlikely. I learned that there are very few soldiers in this camp, around ten people."
"If most of them suddenly join us, the fort itself will be in danger if it gets attacked by the creatures. And considering that there are 10 people in the fort, aside from the soldiers, who have some combat skills, the fort will likely be even more at risk from us. In general, that's how it is. This is the task that the Geographer gave us, but that's not all."
Before the questions, Paul said everyone should take a couple of minutes to clearly think everything through so that the plan would settle properly in their heads. Five minutes later, the first question finally came from Crane.
"Alright, then what will Geographer be doing during this time?" the burly man asked, leaning his back against the damp wall. It seemed like he didn't care at all about the cold and dampness coming from it.
"And here comes the interesting part. When I asked him what exactly he had in his plans, he was not very talkative. Rather, he only said a couple of phrases, but overall, I understood what he wanted. Recruitment. Our camp lost 3 people along the way. Even though one of them wasn't the most useful, two people were still a loss for our camp, a loss of working hands. To safely reach the Alps, we need more people who can handle daily work. And in the Alps themselves, we will definitely need people to help rebuild our new home. Get the Geographer's task, m? »
There was no response, but each member of the strike team understood the kind of war Geographer intended to wage.
He wanted to win the war of minds, killing two birds with one stone.