Born in apocalypse

As Dhruv heard the man’s shouting and the mention of ’another batch for the farm,’ a perplexing thought crossed his mind.

’What does he mean by workers for the farm? Are they creating some sort of farm? Do they truly see this situation as some kind of game? Humans are sure more fucked up than...’ Before he could fully contemplate these questions, the individual referred to as the boss and more members of the gang arrived before them.

Dhruv scanned the group and observed that each member was casually carrying an assault rifle on their shoulder, giving the vibes of a third-rate villain group. The smugness on there was the last nail to the coffin making it official. The boss, however, stood out from the rest as he was unarmed.

’Is he that confident in his hand-to-hand combat skills, or perhaps... he’s a magician,’ Dhruv surmised as he looked at the boss. He couldn’t help but wonder,

’And why are they still carrying those guns around? They’re practically useless against monsters beyond tier 2.’ Dhruv tried to make sense of their choice of weapons.

’Perhaps they find guns more efficient than learning how to wield historical weapons. That would mean they likely still have the rewards from both the first and second quests,’ Dhruv mused when he found out that there would be an additional reward he could get by looting their headquarters.

While Dhruv was happy with his plan, the gang’s boss approached him and began to closely inspect their small group. As expected, no one in the gang felt threatened by the crew. There wasn’t any reason to feel that way either as the the crew had already stashed their weapons away in Alaric’s shadow.

The boss looked at Dhruv with suspicion and asked, "I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys around here. Where are you from?"

Dhruv started thinking about what he should say when, before he could utter a word, Navi spoke up first, saying,

"W-We l..live there and came here just for some food. W-we mean no har...m to you, so let’s head back the way we came." Navi shuddered as he pointed toward their former tribe’s location. The boss glanced in that direction and then gave a nod. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Navi’s acting of being in fear was so genuine that even Dhruv was fooled for a second so how come the boss won’t get fooled?

As they listened to his voice which almost sounded like a pleading for mercy, an eerie smile appeared on the faces of all the gang members, with the boss’s smile being the most sinister of all.

"So, you’re our guest, and you know, a guest is like a god to us. How can we let you go without any ’C~a~re,’ right, everyone?" the boss said, shifting his gaze from Dhruv to Navi.

"Yes, boss, you’re very nice," everyone chimed in unison, and then their voices gradually turned into laughter.

Hahhahhah!

Ahhhaahahah!

The group searched everyone once again to be sure, but they couldn’t find any weapons or belongings on the crew once again, except for the sword that Vexar possessed. One of the members who had pointed his gun at Dhruv tried to snatch the sword from him, but he was physically incapable of doing so.

SLAP!

He delivered a sharp slap to Vexar’s cheek and forcefully snatched the sword from him as his grip loosened slightly due to the slap.

As soon as they had the sword in their possession, Vexar fixed an intense stare on the man, causing the man to tremble just from the gaze.

"B-Boss, s-should I...kill him?" he stammered, his voice betraying a sense of unease. However, the gang’s boss paid no heed to his voice and responded.

"No, don’t kill anyone. You know the process, yet you ask this foolish question."

"Yay! Why did I say that?" the man whispered to himself, lost in his thoughts as he realized he had just suggested killing their only source of income.

"There’s nothing dangerous on them, Boss. We can start the transportation," the other man who had been inspecting them reported.

"Okay!" The boss replied and got to the position of standing still.

Dhruv instantly recognized that the boss was about to cast an advanced-level spell. He quickly signaled to Alaric to be ready to cast a barrier if the spell appeared too dangerous.

Alaric nodded and began preparing his barrier, completing it before the boss had finished his casting.

’How inefficient,’ Alaric thought as he observed how much time the boss was taking to cast the spell.

A few seconds later, the boss opened his mouth, and from it, a pink-colored mist began to seep out, slowly advancing toward the group.

’What type of spell is this? Is it poison? No, they’re in the vicinity of the spell as well,’ Dhruv thought, but before he could finish his thought, the gas reached him.

As the gas touched him, his eyelids grew heavy, and an overwhelming sense of tiredness washed over him. He desperately wanted to fall asleep.

’Sleep magic?’ Dhruv instantly realized the purpose of the spell. It was cast to make them fall asleep and prevent them from knowing the route the gang would take to reach their hideout.

’Impressive for a gang,’ Dhruv thought, reassured that the spell wasn’t harmful. He stopped fighting against his drowsiness and succumbed to sleep.

Trrtrtrtrrt

Before Dhruv could fully succumb to sleep, he heard someone in the group already snoring loudly, deeply asleep.

’Someone sure...’ he thought, but before he could complete his thought, slumber overtook him as well.

When the boss noticed that everyone was asleep, he awakened some of his gang members who had also been affected by the sleep spell. After rousing them, he instructed them to load the group into the waiting vans.

The gang swiftly followed their boss’s orders, packing the group into the vans parked a few meters away from the market. This was done to prevent anyone in the vicinity from fleeing upon hearing the sound of the approaching vehicles.

Once they had loaded everyone into the vans, the gang started the engines and began the journey towards their hideout.

Two minutes into the drive and suddenly Dhruv’s eyes began to twitch as if they were on the verge of opening.