Chapter 64: Calm Before the Emerald Storm (1/2)
Chapter 64: Calm Before the Emerald Storle with Valera behind hi anyone froe or photos of him
Valera tentatively wrapped her arms around his waist and nodded her head from side to side in happiness Meanwhile, he looked down to witness the chaos below
There were thin, packed streets lined with hastily built shacks, shops, and stalls littered with fire, s slime creatures Here, people whimpered and screamed as they ran away from slimes or cowered in homes that were broken down from disrepair far before this recent disaster variant attack
These were the Projects Ghettos where Dud populations were corralled to live in under governlect across all sectors of society
At the top, the city governments barely provided for theraraa-aparthly subsidized or even free rent
This sounded good in practice, but because theseter co money to build them abandoned them once they were done
Not to mention that these apartments were built with zero care Their rooether to try and shove in as many Duds in as s had no thought for decoration; they were just concrete and steel, dull grey, featureless spires that looked like prisons villains would get locked up in
Over the years, these a-apartments, already built with less than stellar standards, fell to increasing amounts of disrepair
On top of this, Duds in the Projects faced high crime rates from low life Alters anted to steal what little powerless Duds already had To put insult to injury, Project neighborhoods also faced discri to help Duds
The only people that helped keep these neighborhoods even rehborhoods, the patrol pay, and subsequently the quality of the supers patrolling, was low
Most of these supers were either highly idealistic first timers fresh out of some mid to low tier acaderuntled older supers that cared less and less about protecting the neighborhood as the years passed
Either way, any heroes patrolling here eak E rank, mostly, D rank at best
More screa of sli close to a farandchild
Aldrich shook his head Since the manta disappeared, the sli that thetheir numbers out with the aid of arave a sht about the Projects Here, slimes still ran rampant
"Get le flapped its wings and dove down When Aldrich o dozen meters above the ramen shack, he jumped off with Valera He landed on solid, cracked concrete sideith a roll to disperse impact while Valera aimed her fall so that she landed with a solid doard punch on a sli the concrete below
Eight blue slimes started to extend tendrils towards Aldrich and Valera
Aldrich casted eight [Chill Bolts] in rapid fire succession froht slimes were completely frozen over, suspended in icy still motion
[-32 Mana]
[Mana: 183/183 ] 151/183]
[8x Manta Slimes defeated]
[+40 EXP]
[EXP Bar: 400/2000 ] 440/2000]
'Not a bad rate of EXP gain,' thought Aldrich as he looked at his status screen But regardless, he was not here to efficiently farm He was here to hborhood out of slimes with the Ghast attached to prevent surveillance
The owner of the raed man with far too e, came out and bowed his head several times "Thank you! Thank you so h his [Phantase and si their child, a little boy of about five, bow
"Monster!" shrieked the child as he looked at Aldrich's mask and equipment
Theto offend Aldrich Aldrich was not offended, but Valera -
"You would dare to insult him as a monster!? After he has saved your short and unworthy lives!?" began Valera
"It's alright," said Aldrich "He's a child, and he's scared"
Valera cal intent down He had forgotten the lack of value she placed on huainst hus
"You ees from the fukushi+ to diffuse the tre fear that Valera had instilled in the fao, a S-ranked Disaster Variant struck fukushi+y The ensuing destruction it causeda ees
"Yes, very, very hard, but that doesn't h his pockets, scrapping up a few credit chips "Here, this isn't ood-,"
Aldrich shook his head "No I' to clear this street of sli anymore, it should be safe Stay in here AA reinforce Where's the hero that's supposed to be patrolling the Projects?"
"Cowboy?" Thefor us Probably already ran away!"
"I see Stay safe" Aldrich nodded and made a mental note to address this 'Cowboy' later
He syht of the innocent Especially the Duds that had suffered just like him He knew he had to place his own safety and survival above all else, but that did not mean he could use his power to alleviate so
At the very least, it hat Adam and Elaine would have wanted
Aldrich left with Valera He headed north, towards the Red Circle He hovered above at a casual pace on his alloywing eagle and gave Valera a single command
"Destroy the slimes you see Make it quick"
"My pleasure," said Valera She then turned into a blur as she sped forwards
Whenever Valera encountered a sliht red aura of blood that imparted explosive effects to her punches, and these destroyed the gooey bodies of the slimes instantly
Aldrich did not try extensively to clear the entirety of the projects
Only the few neighborhoods he walked through
These ones were the most exposed as they housed the Duds that were too poor even to live in h shacks exposed to h a-co those within relatively safe
Plus, there were not that many slimes Almost all of them were concentrated in the Eastside
The ones this far south in Haven were stragglers dropped by odd chance
For the next twenty le as he watched Valera blitz through the neighborhoods at super speed She zipped fro sli civilian Duds confused at how they had been saved
By the end of this, Valera had killed a total of seventy slimes
[70 Manta Slimes defeated!]
[+350 EXP]
[EXP Bar: 440/2000 ] 790/2000]
Of course, the blocks around the Red Circle were cohtclub was basically a uarded with 'valets' that acted as sentry toith a small army of villains and mercenaries to boot
Near the Red Circle, Aldrich had the eagle fly off while he changed into his suit while Valera dematerialized her armor and into her dress set
The Ghast, too, he sent away, tethering to the eagle to keep the undead variant a secret
Aldrich passed by the valet guard with no issue for they recognized him now At the entrance of the Red Circle, he met a familiar face