Chapter 40: Outpost
By the time night descended, Ronan had bought and prepared everything he was going to bring with him to the apocalyptic world. A small pile of supplies had formed in the hall of his newly acquired house. Ronan had repackaged all the goods just like the previous time, carefully removing all kinds of brandings and markings from the food items. He arranged the items by packing everything in a couple of large plain cardboard boxes.
But there was one other thing gnawing at him. He was buying too much food from the supermarket.
Although it still was not a massive amount just yet, he was certainly going to increase the quantity in the future. He wondered if this would start to raise questions. Eyebrows would surely be raised about what exactly he was doing with so much food. Though, for now, he could diversify his sources by buying stuff from multiple places, it was not a viable solution in the long term. He needed to find a viable answer. A permanent solution for this.
But for now, he pushed everything to the back of his mind and mentally prepared himself for his journey to Acrolius. The clock hit 10:00 PM, and Ronan selected the TRAVEL prompt flashing on the cube. The next moment, he vanished from the house along with the two boxes.
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When Ronan appeared, he was standing in the exact same two story building. The environment was exactly as he remembered it. Oppressive, dull, and suffocating. There was something about Acrolius that made his skin tingle. And well, abominations were one such thing.
The sun was shining brightly, though a dull haziness was mixed into it. He wondered if the sun appeared dulled because of the Athar, or if it had always been this way since the very beginning.
There were still around two hours before Elicia would arrive, so Ronan took out the three books he had borrowed from her. Not having anything else to do, he satisfied himself by rereading a few sections in each of the books. Maybe, if he had missed anything. He had learned a lot from the books.
For example, he had learned that the building he was currently in was not just some random abandoned structure. It was an official outpost for the city of Kovliar.
There often arose scenarios when an abomination horde, a massive wave of the creatures, would try and attack the city. If the battle against the abominations happened too close to the city walls, it was inevitably going to cause some damage to the city itself, no matter how many precautions were taken. There was also the chance that the soldiers fighting them would make a single mistake, allowing the gates to be breached. There could be devastation and carnage in the city. Not that, it had not happened before.
To mitigate this possibility, these outposts had been constructed all around the city at a distance of twenty five kilometers from the main walls. There were thirty such outposts surrounding Kovliar.
Whenever a wave of abominations targeted Kovliar, these buildings were used as staging posts for the ensuing battle. It obviously did not remove all the pressure from the walls, but a major chunk of it was eased.
A large number of abominations were killed before they could even reach the city. And given their isolated locations, it gave the soldiers almost a free hand to launch as many devastating attacks as they could without getting worried about collateral damage. These buildings acted as the first defensive line against an abomination wave. Otherwise, they remained completely empty, just as this one was right now.
It was once again fifteen minutes before their designated time when Elicia arrived at the building.
"It seems you are quite early again," she remarked with a raised eyebrow, seeing him reading his books so casually. "And it also seems that you have made yourself quite comfortable."
"I like being early," Ronan responded as he stood up, dusting the dirt from his clothes.
Elicia’s eyes settled on the two large boxes placed next to Ronan, and they widened a bit in surprise.
"It seems you have brought a lot more stuff this time around," she said. "It is not going to be easy smuggling everything inside the city."
"How did you manage the previous time?" Ronan questioned. "Did the guards just let you go?"
As it has been told, selling items in the city without registering with the authorities and paying taxes was illegal. To bring goods into the city that were meant for sale and business, you needed proper papers. Otherwise, the guards would not allow it. Elicia shrugged her shoulders in response.
"The quantity was small last time," she replied. "It was easily accommodated in the storage of my motorbike. The guards do not really worry about the storage of a motorbike. They do not check it. Things in such small quantities are generally assumed to be for personal consumption."
Ronan nodded his head in understanding.
"You said that smuggling this much stuff inside the city is not going to be easy," he said. "So I assume there is a way, albeit a bit harder."
"Yes," she said with a smile. "There is always a way. But it comes with a price."
"I hope we still make some profit after paying that price," he said with a shrug.
"Of course we will," she replied.
"What have you brought this time around?" She questioned.
She did not wait for his response as she approached one of the boxes and flipped it open. It was filled with loaves of bread.
"Bread," she mumbled, tilting toward the second box. "What do we have here?"
She flipped the second box open and looked at its contents with deep curiosity. Half of the box was filled with bottled water. It was the other half that she did not recognize. She took one of the packages out. Packed inside a transparent zip-lock bag were instant noodles.
"Noodles," Ronan answered. "I am sure you are going to love them."
Elicia opened the bag and was just about to break off a portion of the raw instant noodles to put in her mouth when Ronan interjected.
"You do not eat it that way," he said. "Well, you could, but this has to be cooked."
"Cooked?" she asked. "How?"
"Just add boiling water to it," he replied.
Elicia raised her eyebrows, a frown of clear doubt plastered across her face.
"You will love it," Ronan said with a confident smile.
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