NOVEL NEXT Chapter 55 – Josh
“Follow me!” The young man shouted anxiously and turned around to run.
We looked at each other briefly before coming to a decision. To follow him.
Following him seemed like a better option than facing more than twenty bloodthirsty spiders.
The young man was very fast, at the point where Karime and Jessica barely could keep up. I noticed it and took the little girl from Jessica’s arms to reduce her burden.
Fortunately, the little girl seemed to know that this was not the moment to act up and she remained quiet even when I was the one carrying her.
“This way.” The young man said and guided us through several small alleyways. Finally, we arrived at a small store.
“Are we going to hide here?” Andrew asked the young man, making him shake his head.
“No. We have the smell of their pheromones in us. We won’t be able to escape unless we get rid of it.” The young man explained while he looked around as though searching for something.
As soon as we arrived at the section of cleaning products, the young man sighed in relief.
“Fortunately, there is bleach here.” He said and grabbed several bottles of bleach before passing them to us. “Take your clothes off and use the bleach to wipe your body. I’ll search for new clothes.”
Without waiting for us to reply, the young man left.
We were startled, but it didn’t take long for us to understand the young man’s intentions.
Without hesitating, I took off my clothes and used them to wipe up my body, stunning the rest of my companions.
I rolled my eyes.
“Hurry up before the spiders catch up to us.”
My friends snapped out of their daze and nodded, hurriedly taking off their clothes.
However, Karime and Jessica were too embarrassed to show their bodies to us, so they brought the little girl behind a shelf and took off their clothes there.
I rolled my eyes again and finished cleaning my body.
The pungent smell of bleach was very uncomfortable, so I got several water bottles and used them to clean off the bleach on my skin. I also got some water bottles for my friends in the way, making them look at me gratefully.
The young man returned just at that moment.
“Here.” He said while throwing us several sets of clothes.
The young man tried his best to find clothes of our sizes, but even so, they did not fit us perfectly. However, now was not the time to be picky. So we put them on quickly.
But before the girls could finish wearing their clothes, the spiders arrived at the store.
Fortunately, the ones leading the way were very big, so they had trouble entering, but it should not last long.
“I’ll distract them,” I said and the young man nodded.
“I’ll go with you. Remember, we can’t kill them.”
I indicated that I understood with a grunt as I fixed my gaze on the spiders trying to enter the store.
Looking around, I tried to think of a way to stall them, and finally, I looked at the shelf.
“This should work.”
Grabbing one of them, I threw it towards the entrance, obstructing the spider about to enter the mall.
The spider screeched in rage, but my plan was effective. With the shelf obstructing the entrance, it was having a harder time entering.
Seeing that my plan seemed to work, the young man grabbed another shelf and threw it towards the entrance as well.
I also grabbed another shelf and pushed it behind the other two shelves, obstructing the entrance even more. This way, the spiders should need a pair of minutes before managing to enter the store.
“We are done!” We heard the voice of the girls at that moment, and the young man sighed in relief.
“Come with me! I know another exit!”
We followed the young man and left the store. Then, taking advantage of the fact that the spiders were distracted trying to enter the store, we left the place while trying not to attract their attention.
Finally, after running for five minutes, we confirmed that the spiders were not following us.
“Sigh, that was close…” The young man sighed heavily with a tired expression.
“Who are you? How did you know about the spiders?” I asked at that moment.
“My name is Josh, and I’m an Awakened like you.” He replied while looking at us. “I formed a group with other Awakened and survived when we fell inside the dungeon. However, we soon started to be chased by the spiders, and several of us died. Eventually, we met an Awakened who had met this kind of monster before, and he told us about it.”
“A group?” My friends and I were surprised. “How many people does your group have?”
“Including me, six.” The young man said. “I was searching for supplies and survivors when I noticed you. By the way, you said that you had killed spiders before, right? Why were you not chased by them?”
We looked at each other in confusion as Andrew shook his head.
“We have no idea. Perhaps we were lucky?”
The young man frowned, but in the end, he could only accept that answer.
However, I knew the truth.
I’m sure that the reason the spiders had not chased us until now was due to the demon.
Am I right?
The demon did not reply.
However, it was enough to confirm my guess.
After we killed the first group of spiders, I remember that the demon used a bit of my mana for something.
He did not explain what for, but thinking about it now, it should have been to stop the pheromones of the spiders from acting.
Most likely, the demon was afraid that if we were attacked by a group of spiders, our group, me included, could die.
In fact, there is a high chance that the reason why the first group of spiders chased us was that I killed a spider in the mall.
‘However, why did the spiders chase us this time?’
I did not need to think long before reaching the answer.
Looking at the young man that called himself Josh, I understood.
The demon did not want to raise any suspicion.
… Or perhaps, he was confident that we could survive even if the spiders chased us this time.
Whatever the reason, it’s a fact that the demon helped me a lot this time.
I could not help but feel grateful to him.
For an instant, I wanted to believe that he was not that bad after all.
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