I looked down at the view of Emerald Bay, shrouded in thick dark clouds.
Today, the place we would go to secure food was the largest large store in the marketplace.
The various food ingredients were located in the basement of the large store.
Having listened to the stories of survivors, we had a rough understanding of the internal structure.
To prepare for departure, everyone packed an empty backpack.
At the entrance of the banquet hall, two combatants, also wearing backpacks like us, stood with anxious expressions.
Though only a day had passed since they’d started training, Maran had selected the two that seemed somewhat usable.
In a hurry to bring back as much food as possible, we added extra personnel.
“Make survival your top priority, and then securing food. Avoid combat if possible.”
As Maran spoke, the two responded with strained voices filled with determination.
Once outside the hotel, the two of them drew their weapons.
To prepare for any eventuality, we moved closely together.
The large store was a sizable building, easily recognizable from a distance.
“Get ready. There will be a cluster of them from here.”
After finishing our battle preparations in the narrow alley, we dashed out into the marketplace.
As Epiro pulled out his sword imbued with divine power, the undead hesitated to approach us.
“Gaaaah!”
The deeper we went into the marketplace, the less the undead retreated and the more they attacked us.
Crash!
The blue sword aura bursting forth from Maran engulfed the undead.
In an instant, dozens of undead were swept away by Maran’s attack, but new ones quickly filled in the gaps.
Whoosh!
Next, Jema’s sword aura swept through the undead, allowing us to move forward bit by bit.
By the time we arrived at the large store, Maran and Jema had unleashed their sword auras at least ten times.
Jema looked a bit fatigued, but Maran showed no signs of exhaustion.
To help Jema, I dropped a few lightning strikes around us.
Boom!
Melorna and Revelin, who could not use sword auras or wide-area magic, dealt with the approaching undead.
“I’ll clear a path, so run!”
As Maran unleashed a far larger sword aura than before, we began to sprint.
We finally reached the large store building.
Once inside, the undead followed us in rapidly.
The two people we had brought along to secure food headed straight for the basement.
“We should divide and hold them back, right?”
Considering Jema’s condition, it seemed she couldn’t use her sword aura indefinitely.
“For now, we’ll go first, and when we return, we’ll switch!”
“Try to hold on as long as you can.”
After leaving Maran, Melorna, and Revelin behind, the rest of us descended into the basement.
The stench of rotting food assaulted our noses in the food display area.
The only edible items were well-packaged canned goods.
We didn’t even glance at the other foods.
The two who had arrived first were frantically stuffing canned goods into their backpacks.
While they filled their bags, Epiro brought something over.
“Take this too.”
It was quite a hefty item but looked far more useful than the canned goods.
“But, it’s heavy. Can you carry it?”
“I’m fine.”
Jema was also packing other items alongside the canned goods.
It was a dire situation where only cans appeared to be visible, but upon a quick glance, there were various preserved foods.
I told the two combatants to grab more than just canned goods.
As soon as the once-empty backpacks were packed full, I quickly headed upstairs.
“Switch!”
The first floor was filled with undead that had entered through the entrance.
“Pack in more than just canned goods.”
“Got it.”
As Maran left and I took her place, undead swarmed in.
“I can’t deal with them one by one.”
Since we were indoors, I used a method of shooting compressed lightning.
In the meantime, Melorna and Revelin went down, while Jema and Epiro came up.
As the compressed lightning burst upon contact with the undead, small explosions occurred.
Crash!
As Epiro summoned a stag and gripped his sword, the movements of the undead froze.
Even without making contact, the undead retreated as Epiro slowly approached.
Thanks to that, we managed to block the entrance relatively easily.
The others who had secured food and returned were quite surprised to see this.
Leading the way, we safely made it outside the building and prepared to escape.
“I’ll carry those two.”
“Then what about this guy?”
Maran was way too heavy for Jema and Revelin to lift.
“We can’t help it…”
I expanded my tail, which I had usually kept small.
“Grab on when you’re ready.”
“Sorry.”
Jema lifted Epiro, while Revelin lifted Melorna, and they took flight.
I grabbed the backpacks of the two combatants and extended my tail to Maran as we took off.
“Let’s go!”
The undead below eyed us like a dog chasing a chicken.
“You’re surprisingly light, huh?”
Jema commented as she lifted Epiro.
It was probably the weight of the food packed in the backpack she felt.
We successfully landed on the roof of the hotel.
“Phew. If I’d known, I should have just flown there.”
“Right?”
Since the windows of the large store were only on the top floor, I hadn’t thought of that.
Hearing only that food was in the basement, I mistakenly thought we would go on foot.
If we had flown, we would have had to make several trips, but it would have been relatively easier.
Back in the banquet hall with our food, we entered another meeting.
Now we had to work on a proper escape route.
Currently, there were two undead commanders left in Emerald Bay.
The escape route we had in mind was the elven ruins.
For the survivors to reach there, we needed to take down one of the undead commanders that had positioned itself in between.
“How strong is the giant’s combat power?”
“Stronger than I thought. He uses sword auras just like you do.”
“To be at the level of using sword auras…”
It seemed Maran had not fought a giant before.
While she had a general idea of what type of enemy it was, she appeared unaware of much since she had not engaged in actual combat.
“The remaining one is a problem.”
“Do you think they might cooperate?”
“Such a thing has never happened so far.”
I had never witnessed undead commanders cooperating with each other.
However, we always had to think of unexpected situations.
At the end of the meeting, we decided to take down the undead commander that had settled near the escape route tonight.
During the brief respite given, I found a corner of the banquet hall to settle down.
Though it had been a short battle, I needed to replenish my spent mana.
As I focused on refining my mana, the bracelet began to faintly glow.
Wondering what was happening, I called forth Wizel, and she appeared significantly changed.
What used to be the size of a finger was now about the size of an adult’s forearm.
“What happened?”
“It seems to be the effect of refined mana. By the way, don’t you want to go treasure hunting?”
“Is it something left by dragons?”
“No, it’s just treasure. There’s a presence felt nearby.”
I didn’t know what kind of treasure it was, but I had things to do right now.
After telling Wizel that I would look for it later, she yawned sleepily and went back into the bracelet.
“Are you busy?”
“No, not really.”
Melorna quietly approached me from the side so that I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“Um, could you teach me some magic?”
“Don’t you already know how to use any?”
“I can create water, at least.”
Melorna demonstrated by conjuring water that spun on her palm.
“Nice job.”
“Really?”
Given the high purity of her mana, it seemed it would be quite powerful.
The next spell I taught her was the Wind Blade.
Whoosh! Bang!
The wind blade generated from Melorna’s hand dispersed before it could be completed.
Despite her attempts a few more times, she was unable to grasp the Wind Blade.
“This is hard.”
“Of course, object creation magic is quite challenging.”
Jema, who was watching from the side, chimed in.
While invoking magic using mana is a phenomenon, creating and maintaining an object simultaneously is a high-level skill.
Jema likened it to keeping the same shape of water in a shaking glass.
