Surviving the Apocalypse While Being Tempted by an Elf and a Dark Elf

            It seemed that Rina was wary and jealous of Nambra. Although she was a former enemy, she said what she wanted and didn't give up on it even after Luke's refusal. Not to mention, she didn't show any hesitation or regret. Rina could tell that she was serious about her mission to not let her people die, though. Whatever her goals were or what she was willing to do to achieve them, at the very least, she was someone who deserved respect and admiration. For the sake of her species, she was doing something that few people would be willing to do. Also, Rina could only imagine what someone would feel when they were the last of their species... it was a feeling that would make anyone feel shivers.

"We can't exactly banish her from your home planet now that we destroyed her fortress, as for her goal, I don't plan to help her, that would be too irresponsible," Luke said. "Even though it seems that her people have another notion of familyhood. Still, I wish I were as laidback as before... saying yes would be so simple and I wouldn't lose anything by doing it."

"She has some useful skills… so I suppose we can let her tag along for the time being," Rina said after a long sigh. 

            Speaking of skills, Luke wondered if he should ask about those to Nambra, but he was afraid if she was the pushy type and would bring back the topic of her goal whenever possible. It was hard to tell with that straight-laced expression of hers. Putting aside the goal, it seemed that Nambra and the night elves didn't think much of the how, even though the name of her species was quite misleading.

              In any case, once they returned home, the sun began to rise, and then Luke and the others came to realize that they had only lost twenty or so elves. Thanks to that, the elves felt quite confident, but those close to the ones who had fallen naturally felt pretty sad about it.

"They are all over level 220… I suppose it would be too much to expect that they would keep the same pace as us," Luke said.

"The morons are over 230, so they are catching up with you," Shalia said.

              By morons, she was probably talking about Richter's party. It was no surprise since they faced and defeated many overlords with levels two times higher. Thanks to all that hard work, they all were sleeping right now. Even Danielle was with them.

"I suppose I should check things back home," Luke thought. 

              That was Luke's plan, but then he saw Rina busy helping the wounded and talking with some others. It was a pain, but that will have to wait. In the end, Luke took a nap for a few hours, and he woke up when a wary Rina approached. For some reason, she looked exhausted, and Nambra was with her.

"What is wrong?" Luke asked. 

"She followed me all day and asked a lot of things… That was tiring," Rina replied.

"I was trying to see what are the differences between the elves of this world and my species," Nambra replied. "Your people show a lot of negative emotions, such as sadness, anger, and they lack motivation."

"That is because we just fought a hard battle…" Rina said.

"Shalia didn't show any of that and she looked quite happy," Nambra said.

"That is because her people have a screw loose," Rina said.

"We are battle hardened, your people are just a bunch of wuss," Shalia said.

"Putting that aside, I want to check things back home," Luke said. "You'd better not do anything funny. Richter and the others will stay behind and they just need one reason to attack you."

"Can't I go with you?" Nambra asked.

"... No, too much mana would be necessary and I will return soon," Luke replied after realizing how much of a pain it would be to explain about Nambra to his parents.

                It was almost noon, so Luke arrived just when his parents were having lunch. They asked him what had happened in the last few days, and he told them while he checked the mana in the red crystal. It had more than five million points now, but Luke couldn't summon and sacrifice any monster at that moment. 

"If things go well, we should be back in one week," Luke said. "So, we should start thinking about how to improve this fortress. We don't have to worry about flying monsters that much, but we should out some defenses since we can't let this fly all the time."

"While you increase the territory, will you be able to increase and move the buildings?" Mark asked.

"Yes, why?" Luke nodded.

"Then we should make some watchtowers and put some crossbows in them," Mark replied. "They will work well like cannons of old ships. It will be even better if they can turn."

            Luke wasn't so sure he could make something so versatile, but he should try to make some bases for those crossbows. For that to work well, he should learn Earth Manipulation… while he could make it with ice, it would melt, eventually.

"We have been avoiding that until now, but I suppose we can't stay on the same place, we need to keep looking for survivors and other groups that might become allies," Mark said.

"I wonder if they will show themselves while we approach something like this…" Julia said after she tilted her head.

            That would be a problem indeed. Still, Luke had other worries.. He will have to come later to keep improving the mana recovery of the red crystal, probably in the middle of the night since the number of battles it will face while moving will greatly increase, and that will need a lot more mana for the mana shield and to move around fast enough to escape the most troublesome flying enemies.