Day 20: Lavalrock Grove. Midnight time.
The Lavalrock trees would channel fire mana through the heart-shaped leaves they had sprouted from their branches as they breathed. As a result, they would emit eye-blinding bright yellow light during the nighttime.
For a moment, the region would be banished to the pit of nighttime darkness. In the next moment though, the Lavalrock trees would start exuding their yellow glow and lighting up the entire region.
? A team of rankers was traversing through this region which was full of Lavalrock trees. The natural phenomenon generated by the entire region’s trees irritated a few of them. Just when they thought that they had gotten used to the darkness, the trees would illuminate their path only to send them back to the pit of darkness once again.
“Becky, couldn’t we take a different route to reach Eren’s location? These damn trees hurt my eyes.”
Using his movement spell, Jake followed Becky along with the rest of his team. Bel was to his right and Ana was to his left. Ron and Dino were following right behind him while Becky was leading the entire group.
Becky got irritated by Jake’s complaints.
“I’m not the ranger of the group, Jake. I can hardly navigate my way using my spells. Bear with it for a while. We’ll be out of this damn region soon.”
The main group of the White Raven Crew was separated from Steve and Renita. The separation was done to avoid getting surrounded by multiple teams. The White Raven crew escaped the ambush and successfully took care of its opponents. They decided to remain apart, however, due to a variety of other circumstances.
The two groups stayed separated for a couple of days. And they would have remained separated for a few more days. However, the announcement they all received through their Sansara interface changed everything. The White Raven crew wasn’t the only one who changed its plans. The rest of the participants also had to revise their strategies because of this announcement.
The legacy of a Sage will appear in the Lama Ruins in the upcoming hours.
With the required number of flags in their possession, qualified teams could gain access to Nira Nightshade’s legacy. However, they would have to get inside the Lama Ruins to do that.
The teams still in the game let go of their safe zones and ambush points to reach the Lama Ruins from various directions. At this point, reaching the Lama Ruins was more critical for them than anything else.
The two groups of White Raven crew also decided to meet near the Lama Ruins once they received the notification. Eren had also contacted them after receiving the notification. He had told them that he was on the other side of the Lavalrock Grove, waiting for both groups to join him.
The Lama Ruins were only a couple of hours’ travel from where Eren was. So it made sense for both groups to use Eren’s location as a rendezvous point before commencing the journey towards the target location together.
Becky had taken the shortest route to Eren’s location through Lavalrock Grove. That’s because that’s how she read the map on the Sansara interface. The Mage decided to draw a straight line connecting two locations using her travel path.<.com>
Only now did she realize she could have done things better. After all, taking the shortest distance possible wasn’t the only thing that was expected of a pathfinder. It was also imperative to consider the environment and the potential disadvantages it might have for the rankers involved in the party.
“Something’s up ahead.”
Bel was using his historian-specific spells to support his team. He couldn’t fill the void of a ranger on his own. However, with his historian-specific spells along with Becky’s support magic, they had made it here. Bel picked up a few mixed mana signatures ahead which told him that a bloody battle had taken place at the location they were approaching.
Becky and the rest got tense. They drew their weapons and readied their spells, expecting another clash with the enemy team. When they got out of the Lavalrock Groove, their vision expanded to a lush prairie that was bathed in starlight.
However, all of them stopped in their tracks when they sensed something. They recognized the presence of a single live ranker standing amid the butchered corpses of his recent victims littered around him.
It looked like a particularly brutal battle had taken place between the two sides. One side contained the entire team of dead rankers whereas the other side only had one addict who refused to call himself one.
Lavalrock trees in the region served as breathing lights. Because of them, the single survivor ranker as well as the bodies he had butchered would be seen clearly for a brief moment before disappearing into the night’s darkness. The entire scene had a macabre touch to it as a result. Enough for Becky to have goosebumps on her skin.
“Took you long enough.”
Eren said while releasing a lungful of smoke into the air. He sounded casual… as if he was taking a night walk under the stars. He was looking in the direction of the Lama Ruins while his back was facing his incoming teammates.
The butcher had a lot of blood splattered on his clothes. However, the man himself didn’t have any serious injuries. And the minor injuries he did have were in the process of healing.
After getting out of the demonic altar, Eren had leveled up quite a lot despite sharing his Karma points with Steve and Renita. As a result, he gained access to his Adept rank powers. The butcher made up for the lost time by using them to the fullest.
He used various Perks to get as close to Lama Ruins as possible. The team of rankers he had killed for real at this point was members of Midnight Moon. Turns out, the infiltrators weren’t strictly related to the kingdom of Layos alone. The enemy kingdom had used outside help to get the job done.
Eren had the peculiar quality of staying impartial to his enemies.
He was impartial in doling out his attacks on them, no matter their gender, ranking status or any other distinguishing factors. After all, regardless of what was between their ears and legs, they all gave Karma points. And since they were all infiltrators in the first place, he didn’t have to worry about facing repercussions for killing them for real.
