Chapter 78: Appraisal Skill
The words hung heavy in the air. It felt as though they had suddenly gained a ton of weight and had been pushed onto my shoulders aiming for nothing else than to crush me beneath their pressure.
"W-What do you mean I-impossible?" I stuttered the words almost refusing to come out of my mouth.
Mayor Bennet sighed.
"Its as I've said. Its currently impossible to get to London" he said as he stood and walked around his desk.
I was out of it. I didn't even pay attention to him, only noticing him as he passed by me. I turned my head to look at him. He was walking towards the table that resembled the pool table behind me.
"Come let me show you exactly what I mean" he said and gestured for me to come over.
I paused for a moment before deciding to follow him. Stepping over to the pool-like table I noticed that it was a pool table at all. In fact I would say that this was maybe the most important thing in this room. There at the top of the table there was a large square-shaped map indicating the area around Camp White.
I didn't know the full scale of it but it wasn't difficult to actually follow.
Thank god for geography.
Mayor Bennet pointed his finger in a certain spot on the map that I could only presume to be the direction towards London. There were many features and symbols on the map. Camp White was represented by a castle symbol, water bodies were represented by blue colors there were even zones that were colored green for vegetation and then there were areas colored gray for what used to be man-made structures.
Where the mayor's finger was pointing at was filled with a dense amount of green that was a shade darker as well as spanned a larger radius than the other places with vegetation.
"This area right here used to be the woodland reserves where the National Wildlife Protection Agency helped to keep the wildlife alive" Mayor Bennet explained.
I remembered the place well. Last year it was the place we visited for our class trip after all. I remembered me and Jordan debating on who would be the first to be eaten if the animals somehow got into our camp. I smiled lightly, we had unanimously agreed that Billy would probably be the first to go but that would at least buy us some time to escape.
'Its really ironic huh?'
"Now however the woodland reserves that had once been no more than a span of half a kilometer seems to have bloomed and it now covers close to two kilometers and that's not even counting the number of mutated beasts that now live there…" he sighed again. "Currently the exploration and scouting teams have taken note of about 80 wild beasts and the number seems to be getting larger and larger and not only that but the woodland reserves…we should now call it the forest seems to keep expanding"
That was shocking. It had only been about two weeks since the arrival of the Spirit Record brought about the apocalypse but for the changes to be this significant already it was almost unbelievable. Still as unbelievable as it was, it wasn't completely out of the question yet. And this new information I had gotten was going to drive a massive wrench in my plans to move forward.
Even worse there were over 80 beasts?
"Wait…if there are that many beasts does that mean animal attacks happen frequently here?" I couldn't help but ask. If that truly was the case then Camp White wasn't nearly as safe as I thought it was.
"Surprisingly there haven't been a lot of attacks. Just a few of them hear and there. In fact we often use the forest as a field to level up" he said.
"And what about the strength of these beasts have you come across any particularly strong ones?" I asked. However the mayor's answer left me stunned too.
"Uh…the highest ranked beasts we've encountered is a peak First Star Order and that had given us a great deal of trouble. We lost seven warriors in that battle and I even almost lost my life many times"
This didn't make any sense. How could the highest level of beasts in that large area possibly be a peak First Star Order? If on the first day of the apocalypse our group had to face a level 21 Second Star Order existence just a few hours after it had begun how could such a large forest possibly not have any beast in the Second Star Order? If anything there should have been more than one of them even.
My gut instinct was telling me that something was up but I wasn't going to get any answers from just the mayor alone.
'I'll have to take some time to check it out later'
After giving it some more thought I finally looked up at the gaunt mayor.
"Alright I guess I'll have to put that plan on hold for now then" I said
And with that my meeting with the mayor came to a close. I exited from his office carrying a small bundle of papers with me.
If I was going to check out the forest it was going to have to be tonight. For now though…
I yawned
A nap would be very much appreciated.
…
Mayor Bennet returned to his seat behind his office desk. He leaned back against the back rest of the chair and without looking back he spoke.
"Tell me Thorne. Did you get anything?"
There was a moment of silence before the man in the brown suit wearing framed glasses, who had stood silently through out the entire conversation between Huey and Bennet, finally replied.
"I couldn't see through all his stats" Thorne said with an uneasy expression on his.
Bennet almost jerked in his seat. This was news to him.
"Are you sure?" Bennet asked just to be sure
"Yes" Thorne replied. A sore expression on his face as well as a certain level of doubt. This would be the second time he had actually failed to get a gauge on another's strength level. "I-I don't understand how can this be possible?"
Thorne muttered the last part to himself. His skill allowed him to take a peak at a target's stats and level. It was an invaluable resource when it came to analyzing the strength of an enemy, it was also part of the reason Bennet White appointed him as his right man or as people saw him…his secretary.
In fact Thorne's skill was the main reason the camp's teams of evolvers were able to pick eligible targets for hunting and leveling up. However seeing his skill had completely failed to reveal most of Huey's stats only revealing the latter's Stamina and Agility as well as his level.
Thorne knew what this meant. The mayor did too but they both still found it hard to believe.
Thorne's skill
Gods his level was high…higher than his own.
"Tell me about the stats you see" Mayor Bennet said
"…Stamina 81. Agility 94…" Thorne said trailing of at the end. The mayor must have picked up on this because later he said.
"And his level?"
Thorne hesitated for a moment. He did know whether to start doubting his skill or not but still he decided to reveal the information that he saw.
"Level 15"
Bennet sat silently for a moment. Then he spoke
"That's quite high for a youngster in fact most of those youngsters have levels that are higher than most of our evolvers…it truly surprising really" he said with a contemplative look on his face. "…it makes me wonder how well their team is going to perform"
Bennet sunk into his thoughts. 'If things continue like this then there is still hope'
Bennet couldn't explain it but every time he thought about the ever growing forest he couldn't help but have a bad feeling. He just hoped he was wrong.