Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 261: Distracted By A School of Milkfish

After manually using Butcher, the Destroyers body separated itself into three different piles; the bones, the flesh, and the essence shard together with a low tier energy stone.

From Jun's experience, energy stones have a low chance to drop from regular carriers while having a good chance of dropping from evolved carriers. On the other hand, mid-tier energy stones have a low chance of dropping from evolved carriers.

Jun already learned that energy stones can form once a carrier arrives at the energy tipping point. For regular carriers, it takes them around ten days to evolve to their desirable paths if they don't absorb any kind of external energy aside from the energy of the sun.

He thought those who wanted to learn the new way of "looting" the bodies. Although everyone was surprised to learn that the heart contains the essence shard while the brain is the place where energy stones form, they were able to easily accept it and absorb more information like a sponge along the way.

The process of manually learning Butcher was quite simple. The only problem was its high requirement for energy. If one had the base max energy pool of one hundred, it would take them around fifty energy to envelop a Rank 1 Destroyer while twenty for a regular carrier and twenty-five for a Rank 1 Hunter.

Basically, energy consumption depends on the target's size.

Everyone learned of the skill but Errol took a liking towards it. Since he liked trapping, getting a common skill of a hunter was convenient for him. He then registered Butcher as one of his personal skills.

Both Errol and King were level nine and were saving their skill slots for a later time. It was the logical thing to do since they don't know if any suitable skills could be developed later on.

Both people knew what they want to specialize in. Errol wanted to be an excellent trapper, while King wanted to become a durable damage dealer; basically a fighter.

Everyone excitedly tested out their newly learned skill. Carcasses left and right was getting enveloped with different colors of energy. Still, one thing was the samethe loot.

After clearing the yard, everyone decided that it was time to enter the mansion. Before they could even enter the front door, Matt already informed them of the incoming danger.

"There are two monsters in the eastern part of the mansion. Both of them are on the second floor, repeatedly circling an area as if looking for something. Also, they move very fast and would sit idly around the corridor corners."

"Oh?" Jun exclaimed, then added while sighing deeply. "We have experienced ones. Based on your description, there's a high chance that they're even Hunters. Now, this is troublesome."

Adrian turned to Jun and asked, "Experienced ones? What do you mean?"

"Experienced ones are carriers that escaped from a near-death experience. They become more careful and cunning the longer they stay alive. They're different from natural evolving carriers who only know about eating and absorbing energy. If I guess correctly, instead of hiding, they are actually setting an ambush and waiting for us to step into their trap. Experienced Hunters liked to set an ambush from above, and if it fails to kill its target, it quickly flees and runs away."

Sheila couldn't help her curiosity and asked Jun, "Did you encounter one?"

Jun answered. "I encountered them twice after getting sent for a week of community service after challenging the army. They're not that strong, but when they decide to run away, it's quite troublesome to catch them."

He began plotting a plan inside his head, and could only come up with a direct approach to kill the targets.

Jun said. "All of you would surround the eastern part of the mansion. Just wait around on the possible exit points. I'll head inside and deal with them."

"Can't we help?" Adrian asked feeling down.

After all his hard work, does his skill really can't catch up with Jun?

Was he really a burden?

Adrian was the first to learn of Jun's splendor. He takes pride on being able to be the first to work under such an influential boss when the apocalypse came.

He already knew of him a long time ago, and envied him for having such a strong group protecting the town. 

And now, he was already standing by his side but still can't help him...

"These experienced Hunters require a bit of cunning to hunt. I'm going alone, so they will think I'm vulnerable and is unknowingly entering their trap. I can kill them with ease if they fight me, but its a different topic if they choose to run away. I can pin one down, but the other will surely escape. I'll leave that one to everyone, make sure to kill it or it would become more cunning. "

Everyone felt nervous but still answered in unison.

"Okay."

Jun ate an energy fruit to be on the safe side. He used a lot of energy staying alive "dancing" with the evolved carriers from earlier.

After feeling his energy replenish itself, he wasted no time and ran up the wide stairway found at the center of the hall.

The mansion had a modern artistic design despite being built on a poor fishing town. This is probably the home of some middle-class people who managed to get lucky in life.

The whole first and second floor was filled with smooth white tiles. The whole theme of the mansion was a clear and fresh vacation house for the summer. 

Jun cautiously made his way to the eastern part of the mansion and passed several toppled porcelain vases printed with green nature design.

Since he doesn't have Echolocation like Matt, Jun used Detection and sent pulses of thin energy waves every five seconds to search for his targets.

In a sense, what he did was kind of stupid and at the same time, a brilliant move.

Jun detected four presence in his immediate surrounding. All four of them inside the furthest room on the eastern hallway.

He could sense two erratic movements from the same floor and two still people on a higher floor. There were two sets of question marks above and without the need to think, he knew that those two were the ones they were looking for.

The energy pulse that spreads out from his body irritated the Hunters in the room. The two were becoming troubled whether to charge in Jun's direction or to escape quickly.

In the end, Jun made the decision for them.

He crashed through the front door and greeted: "Why hello there, cute little things. Are you ready for some beating?"

Jun did a quick scan of the room. There are two Hunters in the room but with different ranks. The Rank 1 Hunter panicked and abandoned the treasure it was looking for since last night. It ran towards the nearest window and break the glass to get out of the room.

Although surprised, the Rank 2 Hunter remained calm. It sniffed the air cautiously and learned that Jun was alone. Its hands made cracking sounds as it readied to hunt its prey.

The Hunter prowled on the floor back and forth observing Jun. It was a test of patience and Jun has a lot of it. Unfortunately, the one he doesn't have a lot was time.

Jun charged forward and used Howling Rage, then used Threaten to make the Hunter flinch. Usually, he would activate Threaten without prior notice, but if paired with Howling Rage, he doesn't have to do anything else and just receive the benefits.

After immobilizing the Hunter for a few seconds, Jun pounced forward bare-handed. If he knew that the other Hunter would escape, he would have entered with a shotgun in hand. Even if he's not that good of a shooter, there's still a slim chance of hitting the target due to scattershot.

Regrettably, he had to make do with what he has.

The Hunter regained its calm before Jun could land, however, it was too late to attack or run away since Jun was basically two feet away from him.

Jun clasped the Hunter's hand tightly causing himself to received continuous damage as the Hunter's nails dug deeper into the back of his hands.

The two of them struggled but Jun gained the upper hand due to superior power stat. He managed to push the Hunter to the floor and sat on top, overpowering it.

His hands bled but a smile was forming on his face.

"Let's see who has a harder head."

Jun activated Empower with three energy per second, together with Block and Reinforce, then started headbutting the Hunter.

His energy rapidly dwindled but the results were there for him to see. The Hunter squealed and struggled under him wanting to break free. Whatever screaming and biting it did, it couldn't do anything to Jun's current amount of energy.

When Jun felt no resistance on the hands grasping his hands, he canceled all the skills and activated Butcher.

However, something strange happened. The skill failed to envelop the Hunter's hand and only gathered at his hand.

Then, realization dawned upon Jun.

"What a sly sh*thead," Jun said then stood up.

He stared at the Hunter the whole time, waiting for it to move, but it didn't. After getting bored of waiting, he killed it with a short sword he took from his dimensional storage.

After stabbing the Hunter in the head, the Butcher skill worked fine and netted him some good materials.

He then went towards the window and peeked outside.

Sheila was tending to Matt, who had several claw marks on his arms while the others were watching the river.

Jun was puzzled at the situation outside.

It's just some Rank 1 Hunter. Why did someone get injured?

"What happened?" he shouted.

Everyone turned to him and a visible sign of relief appeared on their faces.

Adrian stepped forward and explained. "The Hunter jumped out when we're distracted by milkfishes jumping out of the water. It will never happen again."

"So it escaped?"

Adrian pondered of what to say, and answered, "...Yes, and no? The Hunter caught us in surprise and jumped into the water, wanting to swim away. It got attacked by a school of milkfish and pulled underwater... We're still waiting for it come up but it seems like it would never happen."

"Is he okay?" Jun asked pertaining to the wounded Matt.

Adrian replied, "Thanks to his fast reaction, we were at least able to defend ourselves. Unfortunately, the Hunter managed to claw at him before running away."

"Secure the first floor, we'll be there in a minute."

Jun turned back after giving the order. He took the Warhammer from his dimensional storage and used it to tap on the ceiling.

"Can you hear me? Please come down. We're here to help."