Chapter 10: The Aberra Horde

  Uhe blood moon, the terrifying moonlight grew increasingly bright.

  Matthew could clearly feel the corrupting and dist power being stronger.

  Correspondingly, the frequend number of aberrant creatures appearing were increasing.

  It wasn’t just aberrant bck wolves attag the voy; soon, the infamous s murlocs of the Misty S began to emerge.

  S murlocs, along with simirly diminutive goblins and kobolds, were often called the cockroach species of the material pne.

  Individually, they weren’t strong; even an ordinary adult woman could easily bully them.

  Many children who underwent training had their first real bat missions against murlocs, goblins, and kobolds.

  However, despite being weak individually, these three species sistently ranked among the top three in the yearly rankings of creatures that killed the most humans and adventurers in the wild!

  The main reason for this was their rge numbers aremely high reproductive rates.

  If nurly culled, within three years, they could i sy areas and rivers like the Misty S.

  Murlocs, too, could be corrupted by the crimson moon and undergo terrifying mutations.

  Their oer-tall bodies would swell to nearly 1.2 meters, and their short limbs would elongate, being muscur and bone-spiked cws.

  *Ssh!*

  A sharp sword cleaved through the gaping maw of a murlod its blood-streaked body wobbled before colpsing.

  Ange didn’t pause to collect loot but quickly retreated to the front of the carriage, warily eyeing the aberrant murlo either side of the voy while skillfully direg:

  "Murloc heads are fragile; aim for a killing blow when you get the ce."

  "They may be small and agile, but they ck jumping ability. Use shields in tandem for defense, and pair up spearmen to take them down."

  Despite her limited bat experience, Ange’s extensive formal military training made her well-suited to and, particurly against such straightforward enemies as aberrant murlocs.

  Although the Searle family soldiers might not be the most outstanding individually, their obediend coordination were exceptional.

  Seven ht aberrant murlocs lu six shield-bearers, mindlessly filing their cws against the shields, leaving bloody marks before being skewered by spears thrust from behind the shields.

  The guttural growls of the murlocs soon fell silent.

  From the initial excitement to the quiet up, the soldiers who participated itle were being increasingly seasoned.

  Any stray aberrant creatures were swiftly dispatched by the now battle-hardened soldiers.

  If too many aberrant creatures appeared, Ange and Steward Ralph would step in to quickly eliminate a few before returning to their positions.

  "…earned 30 experience points."

  "…earned 20 experience points."

  "…"

  Listening to the series of notifications, Matthew took the opportunity to analyze the differences behind each experience point gain.

  "The size doesn’t seem to differ much…"

  "The level of aberration is simir…"

  "The identity doesn’t matter much either…"

  "The most likely expnation is the differen css levels…"

  "How iing… Are there really that many murlocs with css levels in the Misty S?"

  "If a murlo bee a css-level aberrant creature, it means their inal numbers were at least in the hundreds…"

  "So, these few murloc css-level aberrant creatures might be the st 'essence' of a thousand murlocs!"

  "Even in such circumstahe number of murlocs tio grow…"

  "..."

  Matthew had a hunch that in this real world, even the creatures he used to dismiss and ignore might bring ued trouble…

  While the soldiers were getting increasingly excited, the nervous cart drivers were also beginning to rex.

  They occasionally gnced enviously at the soldiers sharing gold s, their minds full of thoughts as they quietly versed with one another.

  "Another pieagical material, that’s the fifth one, right?"

  "No, it’s the sixth already. All four squads have shared some gold…"

  "But not everyo gold s…"

  "Even so, the shield-bearers have each earned over 90 silver s!"

  "90 silver s? It used to take us four months to earn that much…"

  "That depends on the harvest…"

  "Do you think we should…?"

  "Fet it. Most css-level fighters don’t end well. Better to live a quiet life farming."

  "That’s just talk. If you really wanted a quiet life, you wouldn’t have e here with us, would you?"

  "Well…"

  It must be said that while the cart drivers might have limited vision, they didn’t ck ce or the desire for a better life.

  This was, in fact, one of Matthew’s goals!

  To ighe desire for ge in more people, to provide them with some assistao disrupt the old order, and to naturally support this transformation, thus driving the eerritory forward.

  This was Matthew’s true iion!

  Simply farming wouldn’t ge the world!

  The e would be to die quietly, without a sound!

  Because the earth-shattering ge was ing!

  After traveling for another half hour, the voy showed little fatigue.

  Adequate food supplies, the retively rexed atmosphere, and occasioing rewards kept everyone in good spirits.

  *Roar!*

  *Croak! Croak!*

  *Hiss! Hiss!*

  The sound of roars echoed all around, drawing closer.

  The voy was moving further away from the Misty S, allowing them to see the approag aberrant creatures from a greater distance.

  This time, the number of aberrant creatures was overwhelming. Matthew quickly ted, estimating there were at least thirty or forty.

  This was an arming number!

  It wasn’t just more bck wolves and murlocs; there was also a terrifying new creature.

  S Crocodiles!

  Ordinary s crocodiles already had a challeing of 5.

  In sy terrain, even mid-level css fighters would hesitate to challehem.

  After the aberration, while they no longer relied on ambushes, they became even more dangerous.

  These creatures were seveers long, with toothy maws that made up a third of their body length.

  Their gray-bck scales gleamed eerily, and occasionally split open to reveal thin, twisted tendrils of flesh.

  Their limbs had grown stronger and longer, allowing them to craidly forward.

  The sound of them spping through the mud was terrifying.

  Their challeing had now reached 7+!

  And there were two of them!

  The other aberrant creatures weren’t easy to deal with either.

  Any aberrant creature that survived the initial eant it possessed the bat power of a css fighter.

  Over time, as they devoured more flesh and their iion deepeheir mutated limbs became more terrifying, and their strength increased.

  Handling seven ht at a time was already the voy’s limit.

  Now, with three or four dozen appearing at ohe situation could easily lead to signifit casualties, or even break up the voy entirely.

  The soldiers, now battle-hardened, were well aware of this, and their faces turned pale.

  The cart drivers were also panig as the howls grew closer.

  Seeing morale plummet, Steward Ralph stood tall, ready to give an inspiring speech, unwilling to let things spiral out of trol.

  But Matthew was faster. He stood up, looking at the ten-plus bck wolves charging from behind, and raised his staff.

  Drawing on his mental strength, mana gathered within him, flowing through the spell model, ducted through the staff's structure, transf into a bright red fireball that flew toward the distant enemies with a roar!

  "Fireball!"