Chapter 64: Surprise Attack
Shortly after Leo and the others left Fairwood City, Lilith hovered in front of him and said with a stern expression on her face, “Leo, listen to me and remember what I am about to say.”
“What’s the matter? Why are you so serious?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
“You will understand later, but for now, listen to me. When I give you the signal, I want you to use Dark Shield. Do not even think about anything else— just use it.”
“Mind explaining to me what is going on?” He asked.
“I would love to, but due to circumstances, I cannot. You might blame me later for this, but I don’t care. I am doing this for your own good.”
“…”
Leo was speechless, and an uneasy feeling appeared in his guts.
“What did I just tell you?” Lilith asked him a moment later.
“When you give me the signal, I will use Dark Shield.”
“Good.”
However, Lilith would continue to remind him throughout the day. Besides that, she barely spoke a word, almost as though she was focused on something else.
This made Leo even more suspicious of her, but there was nothing he could do, as she would just refuse to tell him anything.
Once it was getting dark, Leo and the others prepared to be swarmed by monsters.
The moment the sun disappeared into the horizon, David’s voice resounded from the lookout spot right before the vehicle came to a full stop, “We have monsters!”
Once the vehicle stopped, Leo and the others went outside to deal with the monsters.
Just like before, Leo started off with a powerful attack that would wipe out a majority of the monsters before the fight even began.
When the monsters were close, he would use Black Flame, but when the monsters were too far away for Black Flame to hit, he would multicast Black Bullet and snipe them from a distance.
Trista and the others would finish off the monsters during their disarray.
After harvesting all of the mana cores, they all returned to the vehicle.
They would encounter two more packs of monsters during that night.
<You have completed a Quest>
[+100 Magic Points]
Leo checked the Quest Shop after finishing the quest to see if there were any changes after doing the maximum amount of the monster quest.
Sure enough, there was a change.
{Quest Shop}
[Kill 500 monsters: 75 MP]
[Reward: 1,000 Magic Points]
‘1,000 Magic Points at the cost of 75 Magic Points?! This is a no-brainer!’ Leo immediately purchased the quest after seeing it.
Even though he does not get any Magic Experience from doing these quests, he was more than satisfied by the amount of Magic Points he could get from it.
“I’m going to sleep.” Leo said to them when it was finally sunrise.
“Alright. Good work, Leon.” Dean said to him.
Once he was inside the cramped bedroom, Lilith said to him, “I wouldn’t go to sleep if I were you.”
“Huh? Why not?” He asked with raised eyebrows.
“I have a feeling that there’s going to be another pack of monsters blocking the way very soon,” she said.
“If you had such a strong sense for monsters, why didn’t you warn me before we were attacked for the last few days?” He frowned.
She shrugged, “You never asked.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, “You’re acting so suspicious today. Just what is going on with you?”
“Trust me, I am doing this for you.”
“Whatever. I’m too tired to deal with your nonsense. I’m going to sleep.”
Leo ignored her and closed his eyes to go to sleep.
Lilith didn’t say anything else and went back outside to see what the others were doing.
Trista and David were casually sitting there while Dean was on the lookout. As for Jeff, he’d disappeared somewhere, but it didn’t take long before Lilith found him in the front of the vehicle speaking with the two drivers there.
“Here, look at this…” Jeff showed them something on his phone.
When the drivers saw what was on his phone, their eyes widened with shock.
“Seriously?” They asked him.
“Seriously.” He nodded with a serious expression on his face.
“And we’re going to do it during the next stop. If you help us, you’ll get a share of the reward.”
The drivers swallowed nervously before looking at each other.
“W-What do you want us to do?” One of them asked.
“It’s simple. All you need to do is—”
“Alright, I’ll do it.” The drivers agreed to his plans.
“Good.” Jeff smiled upon hearing their answers.
A few hours later, the vehicle came to a sudden halt.
“Leon! We’re under attack!” Trista busted into the bedroom and shook Leo awake.
Leo didn’t ask any questions and immediately rushed outside.
Sure enough, there was a group of monsters surrounding the vehicle.
However, there was an abnormal amount of monsters there. Compared to what they normally encounter, this pack of monsters was at least twice if not three times as large.
‘What the hell? Why are there so many monsters?!’ He cried inwardly after seeing the scene.
But he was not in any situation to ponder, so he immediately used Black Flames, roasting every monster that was unfortunate enough to be touched by it.
Almost like an exterminator with a flamethrower, Leo walked around while spewing a long line of black flames from his palms.
When the monsters saw this, they instinctively avoided his black flames.
Some of the monsters tried to attack him from behind, but he would Void Step away to safety.
As for the others, they were also trying their best to fight the monsters, but that’s not what Lilith saw.
In her eyes, these Adventurers were looking for an opportunity.
Once most of the monsters were defeated, Trista and the others turned to look at Leo, who was finishing off the last few monsters around him.
They exchanged gazes with each other.
“Let’s finish this.” Jeff said in a cold voice.
The others nodded.
They proceeded to raise their palms and pointed it towards Leo and the monsters.
When Lilith saw this, she shouted out loud, “Leo! Use Dark Shield now!”
“Use Dark Shield! NOW!” She repeated.
Although he was on the verge of finishing the last monster with his sword, Leo immediately activated his Dark Shield when he heard Lilith’s voice.
Since they were in the Wilderness and it was still daytime, there were almost no shadows in that area beside Leo’s own shadow and the shadows from the corpses.
Still, it was more than enough for him to create a powerful barrier around his body.
Literally a second after Leo used Dark Shield, a barrage of magic spells struck his location and his barrier, knocking him and the monster a few meters away.
The magic spells were strong enough to crack the Dark Shield, but it was not enough to completely destroy it.
Leo quickly stood back up after being knocked down with a puzzled expression on his face. Everything happened so quickly that he was still trying to comprehend the situation.
He subconsciously turned to look at Trista and the others.
His face froze when he saw the expression on their faces.
Shock, fear, surprise, regret— they all looked as though they had committed something bad and were regretting it.
And then he saw their trembling hands that were still pointed in his direction.
“W-What the hell are you guys doing? That attack just now could’ve killed me if I didn’t protect myself in time!” He asked them in a dazed voice, not willing to believe that they had just tried to kill him with a surprise attack.
“S-Sorry, Leon! We wanted to help you with that monster! Are you okay?!” Trista said to him in a trembling voice.
“She’s lying, Leo. They wanted to kill you just now. In fact, they had planned on killing you since last night. I wanted to tell you earlier, but you wouldn’t have believed me, so I had no choice but to let you see it for yourself— their betrayal.” Lilith finally told him the truth.
‘They planned on killing me since yesterday…? Why?’ Leo was in disbelief.
Why would they suddenly want to kill him when they were so friendly with each other? He was even beginning to see them as his real friends! Did he do anything to offend them?
“Is it because I have been hogging all of the kills? Is that why you want to kill me? No… That doesn’t make any sense… Nothing about this makes any sense!” He cried out loud.
“Calm down! This is just a huge misunderstand, Leon!” Jeff suddenly stepped forward and began approaching him.
“Stay back!” Leo subconsciously pointed his palms at them.
Jeff and the others immediately raised their hands and froze their bodies when they saw this, as they knew what Leo was capable of, and they have seen him doing the same gesture multiple times by now. They feared that if they moved even a little, their bodies would immediately be riddled with holes like the monsters Leo had killed before this using Black Bullet.
Furthermore, they had lost their chance to kill him when he survived their surprise attack. They were at his mercy now.
“Tell me! Why are you all trying to kill me?! Did I do something to offend you guys?! Tell me why I should not kill all of you right now for stabbing me in the back!” Leo gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with anger and anguish after being betrayed by these people that he thought he could trust and call companions.