My friends frowned, and I also fell into thought. Removing the Mark and letting the Market handle our enemies was the easiest way to deal with a larger force. It didn’t risk any of my friends, and it allowed us to remain mostly safe. The only real point of danger was when we were fleeing from the people we had stolen from - but since my portals allowed us such a massive range for ‘pickpocketing,’ we had still been very safe.
However, now the enemy knew exactly what we might try, I was worried. Opening a portal where one end was right in front of us, and the other end was right next to a guy with a laser pistol and heroic-grade {Shooting} just seemed like a poor decision. I had a sneaking suspicion that no matter what kind of portal I tried to use to remove the marks, the heroic-grade gunner would have a way to deal with it. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novelFɪre.net
On the other hand, we couldn’t give up, either. The splinter of tree bark was too important to us. If it was a high enough grade of crafting material, than even if Felix could barely make use of it, it would provide us with a real chance. We hadn’t seen very many members of the Market during our time here, and I was willing to bet that a big part of that was due to the power of whatever guardian protected the ability to purchase more lives. An overwhelmingly powerful item could single-handed give us a chance to succeed - or if we were lucky, it might completely turn the situation around, turning the impossible into the possible and directly crushing the guardian.
We needed this material. I had no idea whether we would get a second chance at this, so we had to take the opportunity in front of us. However, with a heroic grade shooter barring our path, I couldn’t see an easy way forward.
Finally, after several seconds, Felix was the one to break the silence in our communication bracelet conversation.
said Felix. far beyond heroic grade. We don’t even have a reference point for what might work against this guy, and what might get us counterattacked and killed. I doubt the traps will really accomplish anything - but at the very least, it’ll help us test the abilities of the strongest scavenger. That’s valuable in and of itself.>
said Sallia, after a few more seconds of contemplation.
I smiled. Sallia’s words made sense. It really did seem like among heroic-grade enemies, this one was the least threatening type we could face. Heroic-grade shooting was still terrifying, but if our enemy had access to some sort of heroic version of my extinguish spell and soul-sight, our group would have already been wiped out.
Once we had a solid plan, we got to work. Felix decided to trap the hallway that led from the ball room to the dorms. The scavengers, for their part, moved into the dorms, disappearing from my view. I was a bit uneasy about the fact that I had totally lost sight of our enemies, but at the very least, it meant that they should have a harder time noticing us, too.
We spent the next two hours setting up traps. Anise and Sallia constantly moved through some of the corridors and rooms connected to the ball room. They scavenged old classrooms, labs, kitchens, and other long-defunct chunks of the school for any part that Felix could use. With more time and resources at his disposal, Felix actually managed to whip up several decent traps. Each one targeted different weaknesses. Even more importantly, I couldn’t detect most of Felix’s traps, despite my Skill that specifically helped me locate traps.
An hour and a half later, we finished setting up our trap field. After that, we fled to the ball room, and positioned ourselves right next to one of the other hallways. If need be, we could play a game of hide and seek with the scavengers, since Sallia and Anise had mapped out at least a few of the hallways in most directions during their scavenging.
Two hours later, true to our earlier assumptions, the Heroic grade cultivator and the other scavengers stepped out of the dorms and back into the hallways. I held my breath as I watched them move around… but luckily, the began walking towards the hallway Felix had just spent the last hour trapping.
Soon, the scavengers approached our trap area, and I started to smile.
It was time to see what made Heroic grade so special.