A technomancer’s journey in an apocalyptic world - Chapter 101

“Please stop arguing, if what I know about any Apostle they are not known for their patience, if you argue she will kill you so please stop.”

Eleanora looked at Angela with disbelief on her face as she spoke, “Surely she will not.”

Only for Angela to speak with a frown as she spoke, “I have spent more time with them than both of you as such I can hazard a guess on their next course of action and now how can I help you?”

But before they could speak they were interrupted by Angela who spoke with a frown, “Upon saying that I will have to warn you that, Ryan is sleeping and he needs his rest, currently there is a large amount of tension between Ryan and your group and aggravating him when he is sick will cause problems, so you may not visit him.”

Eleanora looked at Marcel who bit his lips before he began to speak, “Why? Why did he have to go, he is sick so why did he have to go out instead of resting, and being brought back in a stretcher indicates that he is not well so why is he overstraining himself.”

Angela was silent trying to gather her thoughts while she witnessed a good chunk of people paying undivided attention to them waiting for her to speak, as such with a tired sigh she began, “Ryan had received a quest from his patron God that required for him to leave.”

“Quest?”

“Yes, quest or task or whatever you wish to say, he has received one and it is currently an ongoing task but, unfortunately, his current condition is too much for him to handle the strain as such he fell asleep, when he will wake up he will venture forth again.”

Both Marcel and Eleanora were aghast upon hearing that as Marcel spoke in a frustrated voice, “Why? Why would he do such a thing? You yourself said he is not well so why is he pushing so hard and what about the God who gave him the quest? Why is He forcing Ryan so much?”

Angela looked at them directly into his eyes as she spoke, “That is no need for you to know, but know this that Ryan has a rather large heart, so large that he would walk on lava if it means helping someone as such even with such curse wreaking havoc he is still walking, he is still pushing himself hard so that this fellow humans can have a much better and safe life, so please do not insult his sacrifice and dedication.”

Marcel balled his fist as he spoke, “Then, please let one of us accompany you, so that…”

“What can you give him that we cannot, we have terrifying drivers who can skedaddle fast if require, we have healers who can close any wounds within seconds, but most importantly we have soldiers who have fought in the war, what do you have to offer?”

As the duo was stunned to silence Angela pressed forward, “That is the truth you have nothing to offer, in no way you can help us except becoming an unwanted luggage that we will have to haul around, even when he is having a problem standing Ryan is pushing himself to walk, jump, and climb for the rest of us do not add yourself to his burden, now if there is nothing left you may leave as we need our rest.”, her eyes softened as she spoke, “I know you are worried for him and as I have told you before if you need any news on him to feel free to approach me though this offer would expire if you barge in or cause a ruckus or try to harass Ryan.”

Marcel gave a small before he spoke, “I understand.”, that he caught his wife’s hand as the couple left slowly disappearing from her side.

As soon as the duo had made themselves scarce Angela let out a huff before she returned back to and walked inside the compartment.

‘Why could I not get a calm and undisturbed meal, and why do I have to deal with them upon returning? It is so annoying.’

Nikita looked at the annoyed Angela as she forwarded her a bowl before she spoke with a smile, “Here have some.”

Angela flashed her small smile as she spoke, “Thank you, so how did the water collection go?”

Nikita took a sip from her bowl as she spoke, “It went well I hope.”

“Yeah right that Xuelong threatened them and I had to run damage control with a few lies here and there.”

“Like?”

“How Ryan is doing this because of his self-sacrificing attitude, how he is selfless, something on the likes I did not say anything about the source of his dreadful curse though, there was plenty of eavesdroppers and I thought I might make Ryan look like a Hero, in their eyes.”

Nikita nodded as she spoke, “You did a good work out there.”

Angela took a sip of her soup before she spoke with a sigh, “We need a good load of peppers and salt.”

“I agree though it would be difficult, please try to keep an eye open when you go out.”

A few more minutes later Ryan opened his eyes as he looked around, and found himself staring at a familiar ceiling.

“Ah, Brother you are awake.”

His attention was brought towards the speaker who was none other than Michalina, who then helped him to sit up by placing her hand under his back, before helping him with his bowl.

“Here is your soup.”

Ryan took a sip of the soup as he let out a sigh of content as he spoke, “It tastes nice.”

Michalina smiled at him while inwardly she frowned hard at his words, ‘A few weeks ago he would grimace and would be thrilled to even touch it but he has managed to adapt to such conditions I wish he did not need to feed on such filth.’

As Ryan finished his lunch he spoke with a yawn, “So is everyone ready?”

Michalina nodded as she spoke, “Yes, they are, and we are now planning to hit the fifth spot that you have marked on the map, while the third and fourth will have to wait their turn till tomorrow morning.”

“Fair enough so how should we proceed?”

“We will move as close as possible towards the fifth spot on a car then we would do a grab and dash kind of deal.”

Ryan nodded as he spoke, “Okay, then help me to stand up and then we will leave.”

A few minutes later the group had once again left the confines of the Alpha Raven as they made their way towards the fifth spot, on the way their Ryan noticed a shopping mall and from the vibes, he was getting from it, one of the hidden stashes was located within it, but he also knew that the shopping mall would be the fourth place where they would venture into the very next day.

They came across another cluster of houses before his pull towards the stash intensified to a new level while the search radius decreased by quite a large number.

“Stop, stop that large building over there is the one we have to enter.”

Angela looked towards the building as she read out loud the name written on top of it, “Natural Swimming Center, huh, what a weird name.”

The car came to a halt as the Elves went on to check the building from outside, trying to see if they could spot any undead.

Once again an Elven scout came forward as she spoke with a bow, “Your Holiness, there is a couple of undead on the top floor may we have permission to engage.”

Ylerias waved off her hand as she spoke in a bored tone, “Granted.”, and as the Elf left she then turned towards Rayn as she spoke, “Since they are dealing with them let us leave.”

Ryan nodded and with the help of his crutch they made inside the building, the swimming pool was a large one easily reaching over seventy meters mark and was equipped with various modern amenities.

Ryan’s eyes roamed around as he took into the sight searching for anything unusual he could spot and within a few minutes he had managed to get the general location of the stash, and it was sadly located in a place where neither he would like to venture into nor has he approached it yet.

“The pool, the stash is inside the pool.”

His words made Michalina scowl as she spoke, “Pool water must be crystal clear, but it is so murky black in colour that we cannot see anything, something must be the cause of its unnatural colour.”

Ryan nodded as he spoke, “My thoughts exactly though even if something is not lurking around I have no wish to venture into such dark and dirty water at all.”

Ylerias grunted as she spoke, “Me neither, just looking at the pool water makes me feel sick, and if we dive in it we would surely get a few deadly diseases.”

Ryan nodded as he spoke, “Exactly but here is where we stumble upon a corundum.”, he paused for a moment before continuing, “It would be great if we could drain it, but how? Most pools have an either manual or automatic drainage system and since the disaster electronics are useless as such latter option is not available through manual would cause us to jump into the pool something not advisable so what should we do?”

Xuelong stroked her chin as she spoke, “We need water to be drained right?”

“Yes, we do Your Holiness.”

“Hmm, then leave the draining part to me.”

With that she left the building swiftly making her way towards the back where the pool was nearest to it, she then willed her sword to appear in her hand before she closed her eyes focusing on the task ahead.

As she opened her eyes she started invoking her spells, ‘Draconic Strength’.

A bright red light flashed through her body while a bloodthirsty grin appeared n her face, she then raised her weapon before sending a strike as she bellowed out loud, “Land Cleaver.”

True to its name the attacked cleaved through the ground as it made its way breaking through the wall before hitting the pool on the other side of the wall with a loud bang, while the others retreated trying to prevent themselves accidentally getting drenched in foul murky water.

The crack was loud enough and now finding its path the water flowed out with tremendous pressure, while the cause of the crack dashed towards Ryan to meet up with him.

It took them a few minutes but the contents of the pool became clear for inside the deepest part laid two abominations, the two creatures were looking at them snarling in anger while it barely managed to control the flow of drool that dripped from its mouth.

Ryan looked towards the abomination as he let a low whistle of appreciation before he spoke, “They look bigger than any I have seen so far.”

Ylerias nodded knocking an arrow into her bow as she spoke, “More work and less talking please.”

Ryan brought out his gun as did Michalina, while Ryan spoke in an authoritative tone, “With the count of three we drop them.”

A couple of nods came towards his direction as he began to count out loud, “Three… Two… One… Fire!”

As he bellowed out loud, a rain of arrows accompanied by gunshots followed after it as it collided with the creature that was on the left, it faltered upon being hit, and then it became angry as it tried to carve its way towards Ryan and his group, but was unable to reach them as such it along with its brethren was stuck in the deepest part of the pool with no way out it in their sight.

“Fire! Fire! Keep on firing on the one that is located at the left side, only after its fault we would deal with the other.”

Soon after they had managed to clear both the undead that were present before he climbed down into the pool as he picked up the third stash, while the notification once again chimed in.

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Quest Update: (3/5) Hidden stashes acquired

Time Remaining: 30.5 Hrs…

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