The team woke up before dawn, starting their travel further east even before the sun rose. If the monsters were level 7 and above, the team dealt with it fairly quickly, not wanting to delay their travels too much.
But when they encountered a mob of levels 3 through 4 they would kill most while retaining the weaker ones, whilst heavily injuring them.
Beanie blinked as he watched this. He flinched when Sammy walked next to him.
"Didn't you say you want to reach level 10 quickly?" He said as he wrapped his dark arms around the portly man, before pushing him forward, basically throwing him into the monsters' mouths.
The poor man squealed.
Luckily for him, the monsters were mostly discounted and fell down before they reached him.
"Hey! That was pathetic! I wish I had my camera to show your wife!"
Beanie gasped, but smiled smugly, "My wife happens to love me no matter what!"
"Hey! We don't have the whole day!"
Beanie shook his head and stood up immediately. Right! Everyone had family to look for, it was already very kind to give him these few minutes to level up!
And he was determined to work hard!
It was really not easy! He was sweaty and gasping and he barely did any damage to the monster!
"You need to try harder than that, Beany!" Sammy yelled when he saw Beany rolling around trying to avoid the monster's attack.
Even Sammy's teasing didn't get to him. Primarily because the dude was also a wind element and may or may not be his master in the future.
Gill got impatient though and burned the monsters' remaining legs with magma.
It roared and fluttered about, which gave Beany enough time to gather his bearing.
"Oh, yes, yes!" He said, seeing the heavily weakened level 4 monster in front of him.
Although Garan and the others helped carry his level, they tried not to coddle. There was always some life left on the monsters, albeit they were greatly weakened and had a disability of sorts.
At this time, the enemy was a monster called Kooi with sharp horns and flat face. Two of its legs were barely usable. It was humiliating to ask for more cheats!
Beany gathered himself and fought with it bravely, slash, parry, and pakpakpak! Eventually, he did earn a couple of nick.
"Don't focus too much strength on your arms. You'll get tired easily." Garan told him with that monotonous voice of his.
It was a good enough tip for Beany though, who changed things up a bit. "O-Oh!"
He had a preference for the axe (it looked cool) and swung it with all his might (i.e. all his weight).
His pacing improved and was soon able to make the killing shot.
[Killed Kooi (Lv4). +100 experience, +100 copper!]
The group continued to travel swiftly across the mountains, giving Beanie the occasional monster every few hours or so.
By the time he was on his 3rd mob many hours later and kilometers away from their camping site, he was at the peak of level 4. Of course, if they weren't in such a rush, Beanie would definitely be at least level 5 now.
It was just that by this time, he only had enough spirit and health to keep walking, so the succeeding monsters regardless of level had been dealt with by the soldiers.
They pretty much bulldozed their way East, and Beanie could only shake his head in wonder. "These monsters seem really weak in front of you guys," he said, and Garan gave him a pointed look.
"Weaker monsters are around weaker territories."
"I'm trying to say you are strong, not that they're weak!" Beany gasped. He couldn't let him have a moment of complacency?
It was Gill who couldn't help but express another snide remark. "Outside, these monsters are relatively weak. Level 4s like you are still playing at home with their mummies."
And Sammy, this jerk, laughed out loud.
"You'll see, if I get stron—"
Beany was ready to argue when he saw the soldiers halted and the light atmosphere changed somehow.
Everybody's steps paused as the scenery in front of them changed. "It's a wall?"
Several pairs of eyes looked at the sight in front of them in disbelief.
It was a low-level village, as shown by the level two walls and buildings. Except… there was no sign life.
There were only mountains of corpses, none of whom had complete body parts, with visible muscles and sinews attached. The beasts had a feast here not too long ago, they could tell.
Looking at how things were, there were thousands of bodies lying there, waiting to be consumed by maggots and buried in time.
The buildings had already begun to disintegrate as well, bit by bit, they disappeared into nothingness.
Each dust the wind carried was a hit on their hearts.
The territories of Terran were still so vulnerable.
"What…" Beany squeaked, almost falling down from the shock.
The soldiers, used to the sight of death, quickly gathered themselves, although one could tell with the shaking hands and pale faces that they were no less shocked.
Garan heaved a deep breath. "Help them," he ordered and everyone immediately went to the various corpses and arranged them together into a single place.
At the same time, they hoped not to see anyone familiar among the dead.
Each corpse carried to the center made everyone look in both apprehension and pain, praying that there was no one familiar to them.
Fortunately, except for Luis' classmate who he wasn't very close with, and Sammy with a neighbor he didn't like, no one else found anyone they knew.
Still, seeing someone you once knew alive and well dead in such a horrific manner made them feel depressed regardless.
"Let's… send them off," Garan said, voice in a lower, heavier register than usual.
On cue, all the fire users surrounded the corpses in the middle, using the ability to light them on fire.
They watched in silence as the corpses burned, returning to the ground.
It was a pity they had to stay in this foreign place forever, not even having the luxury of dying in their own land.