[19 days of Protection Period]
The pair of eyes belonged similar-looking men with tanned skin and light-colored hair. Quite handsome with their large builds and chiseled features.
At the moment though, the men's eyes were fixed upward, eyes locked on the gorgeous woman jumping from platform to platform. She was pulling her arrows, hitting the targets with grace and accuracy.
They couldn't help but admire how effortless she was moving across the small plateaus. As she shifted, her striking eyes were focused on the targets at hand, with her hands drawing a slender bow with a unique sheen.
With practiced movements, she notched an arrow and released it—sending it straight to the head of a level 2 monster, killing it with one shot.
It was a fascinating sight.
And then they realize—very belatedly—that the woman was PREGNANT!
Very, very, pregnant.
"Are you seeing this, uncle?" Helios, the younger one with slightly longer and wavy hair, whipped his head to his uncle, whose eyes never left the woman at all.
The duo had gone to this gate because they had wanted to assist the territory in a low-key way, away from most of the bustle at the other gate.
The two of them had entered the territory through the Eastern gate a few days prior. They were one of the few who had understood its existence, as most of the others didn't even know they had an Eastern gate.
They didn't expect that there was someone else so far in front of them. Even if they did, it was definitely not what they had expected to see when they got here.
"Hmn," Hugo, the taller man with a slightly larger build and crew-cut hair, nodded, eyes widening a little when the woman slipped a little but managed to regain her balance a second later.
"Very skilled." He said very succinctly, and his nephew nodded in agreement.
Hugo's parents had him very late in life, and instead of his brother, his nephew who was five years younger was more like his sibling.
Hugo had hit level 4 just before entering the territory and Helios was at the latter part of level 3.
They considered themselves pretty strong, and that they should be able to assist in the handling of the mob here with the help of the sentries, but they found out they could not compare to a pregnant woman.
It was both emasculating and amazing.
However, they weren't stupid enough to think the woman was invincible and did not need help.
Hugo nudged his nephew forward as he himself sauntered to the battlefield.
"Miss! Do you need help?" Helios asked and he couldn't help but gape at the beautiful woman when she turned her head to them, meeting her deep emerald eyes.
Hugo felt embarrassed and patted his shoulder. "Don't you see she's busy? Just do it."
The two of them took out their arrows, hitting the monsters with precision not much inferior to hers.
When their arrows were gone, they shifted to their close-range weapons. With Helios waving his wooden sword and Hugo with his spear.
They jumped to the mob of level 1s, as Althea had been taking care specifically of level 2s alone. They were valiant and skilled, obviously practiced.
Althea's eyebrows raised as she spared the two a look. She remembered them, as she had asked Harold to find out the owners of a couple of names that interested her.
These two were the strongest people other than herself, the NPCs, and Drake.
She had hoped they would join the guards and was a bit disappointed when she didn't see their applications.
If they didn't want to join the guards, she had wondered how to keep them to serve the territory… especially now when she saw them taking on a mob by themselves.
In any case, Althea assisted the duo with her shots—even if the monsters no longer gave her any experience—earning their appreciative nods many times.
This went on for about an hour and they soon felt their spirits reaching the red line. Even if the monsters were just level 2 at the worst, the three of them dealt with several hundreds of monsters after all.
Even with their level, it was extremely cumbersome. Not to mention, all the medicine they stocked up was now gone.
Althea noticed this as they had already begun getting relatively serious injuries without making any attempts to heal them. She took out two personalized bottles from the space.
"Here! Take it!" She said, throwing it to their palms with accuracy.
"T-Thanks!" Helios said, surprised, while Hugo looked at her deeply, before looking down at the bottle.
They didn't think any further as they were still surrounded, breaking the lid and consuming all the bottles' contents.
Almost immediately, their bleeding stopped and they could feel a good portion of their health and spirit had recovered.
The pair were amazed by the effects of the medicine. This was better than what they got from the new pharmacy, and they couldn't help but give the woman another look as they slashed away.
However, they were being mobbed by monsters and didn't have the time to dwell on her mysteries even for another second.
Another hour passed and the effects of the medicine had soon been used up.
Fortunately, one of the NPCs—the architect—arrived and spikes of metals appeared, skewering the monsters around them.
The handsome blonde's eyes never left the woman on the elevated platform, eyes filled with worry.
Judging by his sweat, he definitely rushed to get here.
"Milor—Ms. Althea, you're a pregnant woman, you should take a rest." He said, while sending out spikes to deal with the monsters nearby.
Althea, who was really starting to feel the pregnancy symptoms, nodded in agreement.
She jumped to the safety of the walls and watched Oslo deal with much of the remaining mobs.
From the corner of her eye she watched as Oslo dealt with the majority of the monsters. At the same time, giving the two other men the final kill, inspiring them to keep attacking even when their health and spirit had entered dangerous levels.
One of them, the younger one, even leveled up to level 4.
And Althea felt a little jealous. When would she be able to upgrade?