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

              While Rina and the others were helping the wounded, Luke was trying not to scream like a little girl due to the pain of the burns on his body, and he also analyzed that skill. The bonus seemed a bit too much… at level ten. He would gain 150 status points into in speed. However, it was high because of the rank of the skill, which was rare. The bonus would probably be ten and two or three if it was a normal skill. Nevertheless, that affected Luke's SP as well, so he didn't have any reason to complain.

              Once he was done with that, Luke checked where Cresta was, and as expected, she and her friends were talking together. Recently, Luke would say that he was more on Shalia's side. He wouldn't care much about the lives of others. However, he still was worried about those who he fought alongside. Aside from Billy and his allies, of course, he also worried about Amanda, even though she caused problems to him more than once. Still, he didn't want to reach the level of Cresta's group. Either they didn't care, or they thought of themselves as way above the others…

            In any case, several hours passed, and the burn marks on Luke's body were giving no sign that they were healing. Rina probably could do something about that, still… Luke never thought that he would have to deal with such a troublesome fire… it barely burned him for a few seconds.

"You are glaring too much at them," Shalia said.

"It can't be helped, I don't like their attitude," Luke said.

"It is because of that that I say to be more ruthless, by doing so, you won't need the help of such people," Shalia said. "With that kind of fame, only fools will try to take you lightly and you will always get more power."

"Do you want to check your home?" Luke asked. "Come to think of it, Danielle and that kid must be getting close to the power they need to return to your planet."

"As I keep saying, I am fine, there is no need to rush," Shalia said. "The dark elves of my world are pretty though, even though most of us are mages. Regardless, talking with those two to make sure that they won't be a pain in the ass might be the best course of action."

            Since the dumbasses came to help Celia, Luke was also curious about the situation with the Sahuagin, so maybe now it was time to take a break and let the elves rest for a while before the next battle. Even if, in theory, the next enemies shouldn't be that troublesome. 

            After a couple hours, Rina returned with the others, and while she was trying to keep her cool, it was clear that they suffered heavy casualties. They did their best, so there was no reason for them to feel guilty over it, but things weren't that simple.

"We lost around eleven thousand elves in this battle," Rina said and then sighed. "The enemies had many hidden cards up their sleeve, so we were caught off guard."

            Luke didn't say anything, but he got up before he approached Rina and hugged her. Seriously, he needed a bath, but Rina didn't push him away. Instead of that, she felt thankful for his warmth and feelings. There was nothing to say to make her feel less sad over the death of her people. Shalia knew that it wasn't time for her sarcasm, so she stayed silent as well. After trembling for a while due to her feelings, Rina recovered herself because they still had a lot of work ahead of them, but first, she began to heal Luke. 

"What are you guys going to do?" Cresta asked. "It is time to get our reward."

                Luke took a deep breath, they didn't even give time for them to bury the dead, and she still was at it. He couldn't complain, though, since that battle was also for resources, and they wanted half of it to prevent future gruesome situations like that.

"I am going with you, the others will bury the fallen," Luke declared. "Before that, what are you going to do about my fortress?"

"Do you want compensation? Even though I used to save those that you want to protect?" Cresta asked.

"That only saved those that I want to protect?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows.

"True, I suppose we also preserved half of our forces thanks to that," Cresta rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "We can't negotiate our half of the magic resources, so you can keep the loot of the battle."

            That seemed pretty cheap, even more so considering that Luke was planning to make bows for the elves. Nevertheless, he accepted the offer since he now could buy a red crystal, and those items were better than the ones spawning on Earth right now. Now that he thought about it, Luke also already had enough coins to buy the relic that would grant him the power to sell items to the system… Still, it seemed a bit too much to use so many gold coins and not get a new item.

              While thinking about that, Luke left the area to check the magic resources with Cresta's party. He had assumed that they wouldn't do anything to him. While they were insufferable in a sense, they didn't give the air of being backstabbers… Besides, they had their fortress, and Luke didn't have his anymore. They could just have stolen those if they wanted.

                Even from a distance, Luke easily spotted the grove. Despite its size and only having ten trees, those were colorful… weirdly colorful. Like a drawing. Cresta used wind magic to cut the trees a little above the ground without hesitation. Luke assumed that leaving the roots was a waste, but she had a reason for that.

"If you leave the roots behind, then might grow back in a decade, with some luck, even the number of trees will increase," Cresta explained.

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