While Amanda and Celia were recovering their mana, Luke fought alone against the zombies that approached. Since their numbers had decreased, he didn't face any problem. Once he returned to the groups' side, he saw those two taking some gasoline from vehicles that hadn't been destroyed across the city.
"Ah… you want to use that to increase the efficiency of Fireball," Luke said.
"This is rather dangerous," Stanley said. "We need to be careful in order not to cause a disaster."
"Your wife can use healing magic, right?" Luke asked. "Unless any of us do something rather insane, I think we will be fine."
In fact, the one who had the highest chance of doing something insane was Luke himself, and he was fully aware of it. Regardless, Luke had planned to use his ammo and grenades once necessary to force a path, but it seemed that it was also helpful. The only problem was the fact that since the range of the spell would increase, its power would decrease.
In any case, after filling some bottles with gasoline, the girl's mana was already full. So, they decided to test if that tactic could actually work. They moved toward North again, and after defeating small groups of zombies here and there, they finally found ten or so ordinary zombies clustered together and moving toward them.
"You will have to hit when the bottle is about to hit the zombies," Luke said while he was carrying the bottle. "Can you do that? I think Amanda would do a better job here…"
"I can do it… don't think that what happened before was a common occurrence," Celia said, slightly angry after hearing Luke.
Luke had no idea what she was talking about, so he just shrugged and threw the bottle at the zombies in an arc to make her job easier. Even Luke's aim was fairly good, so the bottle hit the head of one of the zombies and in the next moment. A head-sized Fireball hit the bottle and then made it explode. It didn't really explode, but Luke called the fact that the gasoline spread across the area due to the flames an explosion. Nevertheless, almost eight of the zombies started to burn due to the combination, and while they ignored the pain, the flames melted their heads after a couple of seconds, making them fall. It wasn't that effective… if Celia aims right, the power of her Fireball alone could make five or even six zombies fall… as expected. That amount of gasoline wasn't enough.
You obtained 06 experience points.
You obtained 06 gold coins.
"Hmm? This is a lot more experience than I expected…" Luke frowned.
"All zombies are leveling up over time due to the mana level of the city increasing…" Rina said. "In less than one week, all zombies will mutate."
"You guys really like to hold back valuable information…" Luke furrowed his eyebrows.
"Well, it is better than overwhelming you with information and forcing you to worry about countless things," Rina said.
Rina had a point… still, Luke got worried anyway, and that was rare. If someone with access to some nukes learns about that… perhaps the government will wait until the last moment before nuking their cities, but the possibility still exists.
"Any thoughts on how we can fight more enemies aside from using brute strength?" Luke asked.
"Not for now," Rina replied. "If you get some gear to protect yourself from the virus, I would say that you are on the right path to finish hordes of them… considering your high strength, but then a single mistake will infect you. While I might be able to fight the virus with my magic, I won't be able to do anything else."
"Since you are focusing on physical strength, there is not much that I can do," Shalia said. "As for these girls… they might help with that once they get more spells."
Luke could say that Shalia was thinking about combining magic… it seemed like a possible mechanic, but not with weak spells. As for Rina, she could protect Luke from the virus and let him fight like a madman against hordes of zombies. While that sounded cool, not even he wanted to let the zombies scratch, never mention, bite him.
There were some gas stations around, but using them to destroy the massive hordes of zombies might cause more trouble than it's worth it. Not to mention, dealing with those was much more dangerous… and would made them draw the attention of zombies, other monsters, survivors, and even the military outside the city.
While Luke was thinking of what to do so, several hours passed, and the group was forced to retreat several times. The numerous fights were starting to make even him exhausted. Fortunately, he managed to level up once again and find a staff with no magical properties. Amanda decided to fight using that once she ran out of mana.
LV 12 - 33%
HP: 84/124
MP: 40/44
SP: 50/60
STR: 33 + 5 + 2
SPE: 19 - 2
INT: 08
END: 11 + 04 + 04 + 02
RES: 09
FOC: 15
Free points: 00
Gold Coins: 167
Active Skills: Weapon Augmentation Lv 03, Stinger Lv 03
Spells: Appraisal Lv 01
Passive: Fire Resistance Lv 01
"This isn't going to work, Luke… we will need another plan," Amanda said while Luke was checking his status points.
"I am all ears to hear about your ideas," Luke said. "Unfortunately, I have none… aside from continuously fighting zombies, level up and obtain gear that will increase our strength even more."
"You are a real muscle-head, Luke," Rina said, visibly troubled.
"You can complain once you offer a better solution," Luke said.
Unfortunately, no one had any idea. Their current goal was nearly impossible, after all. Since after fighting for six hours, they only crossed five kilometers and still were fifteen away from the airport.