399 Death and taxes
‘What the…’ Mathew stood in place, baffled by the sight. ‘The horde I saw was way bigger!’
Maybe it was thanks to the latest development of the fortress but its early ability to scan the surroundings grew more potent.
And it allowed the young man to see far further into the unknown of the city. That was also when he noticed the horde for the first time.
“Ah…” Mathew sighed when the realization struck him. He then glanced over his shoulder to where his wives stood.
Carol was just surprised. Daria didn’t really care. Leila was equally as taken aback as Mathew and Nadia…
She was looking down and away, her cheeks covered in a hint of red.
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm ‘Well, whatever,’ Mathew rolled his eyes and looked back at the hunters.
“A job,” Mathew spoke, only for his face to freeze when he noticed the total toll the battle took on the hunters. “A job well done.”
The casualty list started with the wannabe leader of the hunters. Then there was Kasper’s wife… And then two hunters and three newbies.
From the force of a total of twenty-two when excluding Mathew and his wives, only fifteen people in total remained.
And it was their very first real fight with a horde that Mathew’s wives already thinned out to a mere fraction of what it used to be!
‘This will serve as a good baptism,’ Mathew thought, taking a moment to look at the five corpses remaining at the place of the battle.
Two hunters and three newbies. Five people in total laid their lives down.
It was an inevitability that I managed to prepare for.
With the growing number of people under my management, I had no other choice but to accept the necessary losses.
“I want to know if they were with someone,” Mathew spoke.
As the leader of the group of human survivors, taking care of those left behind was one of his solemn duties.
“I will have it arranged,” Daria muttered, the solemn mood of the moment filling her voice.
“Congratulations,” Mathew didn’t allow the sorrow to last for more than just a few seconds. “You’ve survived your first battle!”
‘We need this moment to be joyous, not one full of regret!’
Maintaining the morale of the group was just another of Mathew’s duties as the leader.
The thinned-out crowd of the surviving members of the expedition rustled.
Every last hunter and newbie that made it through took the news in a different way.
“But sir,” Pavel stepped up, talking to Mathew properly for the very first time. “There are still some left!” he mentioned with a tense look on his face while pointing his hand at the few stragglers.
Those zombies had their limbs either heavily wounded, rotted, or outright missing. That’s why, while still a part of the horde, they were taking considerably longer to reach the chokepoint. In fact, the twenty or so of the stragglers were only now reaching it!
Mathew sighed.
“There are some left indeed,” he admitted before glancing over to where his wives stood. “Carol, would you be so kind?”
Carol turned her head up a bit and looked right into Mathew’s eyes.
“For real?” she asked, sparks of excitement appearing in her eyes. “Can I?”
She was the one most interested in thinning out the horde. And from the looks of it, she, save for Daria, was the only one who didn’t actually do so.
“Just don’t waste your mana,” Mathew pointed out. “Just your saber should suffice for this, I believe.”
Carol grinned and lowered her hand to her hip.
Even though her system was centered around magic, the bunch of maimed zombies that were now pouring through the chokepoint were far from being a challenge for her blade.
“Go,” Mathew urged the girl while beckoning at her with his hand.
Carol grinned even harder before stepping forth.
She wasn’t in a hurry, as there was no need for her to be. She casually walked over to the nearest zombie and slashed its head off in passing. Then, with no change to her demeanor, she moved over to the next one.
With no sign of worry, fear, or even anxiety, she casually reaped all the remaining zombies in just a few moments while taking a thoughtful stroll.
The joyous atmosphere of the survivors dimmed when they were faced with this display of relatively limited might. Carol wasn’t anywhere close to being the strongest member of Mathew’s group, after all. And yet, with the tiny bit of strength that she had, she could already do so much and so damn easily!
“Right, I think this is a good moment to mention it,” Mathew didn’t wait to seize the moment. “But right now it’s time to clean all the cores from those corpses,” the young man put on a huge smile before looking at now returning Carol.
“And I think Carol would be the right person to take those cores back to the fortress and pick what system seeds you guys will receive.”
This, not the mere celebration of the victory, was the key point for the expedition.
The reward that they all risked their lives for.
“I think I saw a huge field with corpses while scouting nearby,” Nadia mentioned offhandedly, turning her face to the side while an even bigger blush appeared on her cheeks.
Mathew sighed heavily.
“Fine, let’s add those cores to the pool too,” he ‘reluctantly’ agreed.
Then, he turned his eyes to the battlefield.
‘Judging from Nadia’s stance, she killed quite a lot of them,’ Mathew thought, looking closer at the pile of corpses left at the chokepoint.
‘And with about two hundred here, there could be slightly over a thousand in total.’
Mathew took a deep breath and hung his head to the back.
‘With fifty cores per seed, and with all of them only bearing basic cores…’ he took a moment to calculate.
“Carol, once all the cores are harvested, you will bring them back to the fortress and purchase fourteen basic system seeds for fifty cores each!” Mathew announced out loud, quite interested in letting every hunter and newbie hear the news.
“I want you to also use a hundred cores to buy a slightly better system seed and pick who you will grant it to,” Mathew added with a small smile.
Now was the time for the sour part of the news.
“The two hundred left will contribute towards the upkeep of the fortress and the supplies we need to keep it going,” Mathew announced.
Then, he grinned.
“What, did you guys forget?” he laughed. “There are only two things certain in this world. Death…” he paused for a short moment only to let his grin grow even wider. “Death and taxes!”