They continued to explore the ruin, but what dominated it were those mushroom trees and the monsters with thick shells. Unlike before, Vale didn’t just burn them down and let them cook in their shells.
Instead, they had Slya construct chains that bound them to the ground, preventing them from escaping or shooting forward. This allowed them to target their heads, killing them with smaller fire spears or Slya’s arrows.
Those that hid in their shells and stubbornly refused to come out were roasted alive. It continued like this, and soon, the monsters became wary of them.
Then they made their way over to the core, the center of the ruin, which was dominated by the biggest mushroom tree and under which they found the biggest monster yet.
The one thing that set it apart was that it was faster than the others, though less tall than the Knights hunting it. Vale wanted to bring it back preserved, so he had Slya focus on binding it with chains while he fought it.
But the monster was far stronger than the others, and the chains broke around it, throwing Slya toward it before it gripped her with its spiny legs, drawing her toward its fangs.
Things took a dramatic turn then as Tiber flew up and warped around the creature’s left fang and right pincer, while its tentacles lashed at its eyes.
The monster shook its head but didn’t let go of Slya. Instead, it tried to rip Tiber away, while Vale stood there, thinking about what to do next.
He couldn’t randomly attack without hurting his team, so he just stood and waited for them to sort themselves. Tiber managed to rip out one of the creature’s eyes. The monster roared and used its other leg to hook the flat man, yanking him away, seemingly not minding that it ripped its own pincer off in the process.
It then turned its anger on Slya, fangs open wide to swallow her, but what it got instead was a fire spear that ripped into its head and blasted it away, spraying blood and bits of flesh on them.
The monster collapsed then, its fall shaking the ground and throwing Slya off.
After resting a bit, they debated what they should do. Vale searched for the ruin flake, destroyed it, and confirmed that the ruin had been completely cleared, ensuring no more monsters would spawn in it.
Then they dragged the body of the monster boss out and showed it to Xan, who exclaimed and told them about the value of the monsters they had killed. Apparently, they weren’t rare or common they only appeared now, but the difficulty in hunting them made their value high.
Their shells were used in various ways, to supplement armor and weapons but they were especially valued for cooking equipment. Apparently, they added certain flavors to food, flavors usually found in seafood.
Vale and Slya waited behind while the others went to call a merchant group to clear the spoils. They’d buy for less since they would handle transportation, but that was fine by Vale.
After that, they returned to the base, where he considered how they should spend the three thousand gold coins he had gotten. The biggest thing on his mind was buying enchanted clothing or an artifact that wouldn’t burn when he fought, but the money wasn’t nearly enough for that.
He ended up splitting it, one thousand for himself and the remaining for the others with a promise that they would buy the enchanted tools they needed once they made more money. And then they spent the rest of the day reflecting. They understood then they lacked experience fighting as Knights.
If the monsters had been intelligent, or if other Knights trained to fight as a group had been their opponents, they would have been in serious trouble. They accepted that, and all of them went down to the training ground to start training, to fight as an actual team.
They did that for the rest of the day, and the next, and the next. They spent a week, then another like this. Occasionally, they would go into ruins to put what they practiced into action. Sometimes, they would spend two to three days in the Veilwood, hunting monsters and training.
So it wasn’t strange to the spies and informants monitoring them when the team went deep into the Veilwood a day after two weeks of returning to Base 34.
They thought it normal and natural, after all, they had pretty much thrown themselves into training since they got back.
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Deep into the Veilwood, there was a place known as the Center. It once housed a powerful ruin that was suspected to have carried a growing Rift Seed, but it had since been wiped out. However, the structure still remained.
It stood like a tower, but one cut neatly in the middle, with the upper half lying down like a giant’s discarded toy. It was made of shiny glass and metal, now dusty and dull with rust.
Surrounding the ruined building were outlaws , hundreds of them, in different attire and armed with various weapons. The atmosphere around the place was tense and cold, with the outlaws standing in large groups.
It was expected, though. They weren’t from the same gang. Each group represented the most powerful outlaw gangs in the Veilwood. At a glance, one might think them the same with how they all dressed, the same consistency of clothing: brown or black trousers with even duller shirts, caps, or cloaks, with weapons placed where they could easily reach them.
The only difference was the distinct markings etched into the edges of their clothing, some kind of knots that differentiated them.
Blackened Blade, Ashfang Reapers, Shattered Vile, Ebonfang Collective, Pale Howl, and Vultures.
Six outlaw gangs that represented the might of the Veilwood outlaws.
They were all Knights, but none as outstanding as those inside, because inside were the leaders and officers of these outlaws.
They had come for an emergency meeting called by Blackened Blade.
The emergency meeting of the outlaws had begun!