It had already been a bit more than an hour since the group slew the tiger underground. During that time, they had already discussed several things, but most of what they talked about were the questions they had been meaning to ask.
The first thing in question was, why was Merell abducted instead of being eaten? Did he have some kind of value to the creatures that they didn't know about? That event was truly quite strange. The most that the group could make out of it was that the monkey was selling him to the tiger, which leads to the second question.
Second, what was the red fruit that the tiger randomly spat out? Why was the monkey so obsessed with it? After the tiger dropped it, the monkey didn't bother with Merell anymore. Again, the group could only shrug at it. They didn't have enough details to arrive at a conclusion.
Third, why did the gorilla save the monkey? For some reason, they could only think that the answer would ultimately go back to their second question. Magical beasts had no reason to cooperate with each other. Even the colossal tiger had to pay a price for the puny monkey to bring him something. So the only possibility was that it didn't save the monkey. It merely wanted the fruit. In the end, they didn't have enough proof, so it could only be considered as speculation.
For the fourth question, they finally got an answer backed by proof. Moreover, it came from both Levi and Aeon.
The gorilla that attacked them came from underground, so was it the one who built it? Aeon and Levi immediately reassured them that it was not. The gorilla had nothing to do about the tunnel. It was just using it to move around. Something else made it for some other reason.
The proof was extremely simple.
The gorilla had no attributes that suggested that it had the ability to dig. At first, they thought about this possibility. They thought that it was just not visible to them. However, as Aeon fought with the gorilla, he realized that the only attribute it gained after evolving was its extremely tough body. It was a single attribute, but it was more enhanced. Probably, it was more than twice as strong as another colossal gorilla with the same size. Even with their group, they didn't think they could beat it.
The fifth and final question was formulated when the group arrived at the camp. Where were they supposed to go now? The group had successfully retrieved Merell and was able to safely go back to the camp.
The problem was… nobody was there anymore.
The group could, however, deduce that the other students left in a hurry. The fire at the center of the camp was still burning and the tents were still standing.
Dan had no other Tracers in him except Merell's and the others. He had absolutely no idea where Klaus was heading towards.
At the moment, their group was already outside the forest, where only a vast of empty plains could be seen as far as the eye could see.
They were heading straight towards the nearest town called Melrand, hoping that Klaus was also staying there. Soon, a large number of beasts would also be streaming out of Grey Forest so they needed as many people as possible. Klaus had probably sent a call for reinforcements already, so their only concern is if they arrive on time.
Even after night fell, the group continuously ran. The beasts were fully capable of moving through the night because most of them had better visions than humans. The night would not hinder their movements. Due to this, they couldn't camp out. They could only proceed forward no matter how tired they got.
After an hour, the group finally arrived in town. They walked right in without even being checked on. It only just showed how lax the security was when they were not entering a large city.
The group expected the inns to be packed full of people. After all, there were 45 other students aside from them. Shouldn't they be heading there too? Strangely, when they arrived at an inn, there were several free rooms. Everyone was surprised about this, but they couldn't just bring it up to the innkeeper randomly.
The others were still thinking about this when Dan already had his own conclusion. Klaus and the students weren't there.
He had been in the town a couple of times already and knew that there were only two inns there. If all 46 of them wanted to stay in that particular town, some of the students would be forced to go to the inn they were currently at. In his head, he shrugged. He was again at a loss.
Dan booked the three most expensive rooms with three beds each. Dan, Merell, and Samuel would be staying in one room, Aeon, Suri and Levi on the other, and Korona and Selena on the last one.
After putting Merell in his room, the first thing that the men did was to take a decent bath.
At last, no more bathing with lake water, Aeon and Suri thought. It had always given them a weird feeling that they could only put up with.
Just before they entered the inn, Dan gave each of them a few gold coins to spend. So after taking a bath, they all went down to the lobby. Surprisingly, the girls also thought the same. The two also took a quick bath and were now looking for something to eat.
They discussed around one large table about the fight that was about to come. At first, they were all tense, but as Aeon and Samuel joked around, the mood lightened up a bit.
After a few hours, they went to bed. They wanted to get as much rest as possible.
….
The town was quite peaceful. Only a few people roamed the streets at night, making it look quite gloomy.
In a certain part of the town...
"Hey you, stop slacking around and do your job," an old man with a beard scolded the young man who was lying on the ground.
The young man immediately got up and resumed his lookout duty. He grumbled under his breath, but when the old man turned around and gave him a stern look, he immediately shut his mouth.
For the young man, there wasn't really much to do, so sleeping on the job shouldn't get him punished. He was currently standing on a watchtower with a pair of binoculars in his hands. He pretended to look around by using the binoculars he was holding on to, just for show.
Seeing this, the old man finally left.
The young man sighed with relief. Again, he thought that him being scolded was unjust. Heck, he only took the job because no one supported him. His father, who used to be a hunter, died in the forest, leaving him alone in Melrand Town.
At first, he felt like it was only proper for him to follow his father to death because he was not capable of protecting him. But when he thought about how he was the only family his father had left when he was still alive, he felt reluctant. He felt that he should cherish his life more and live in his father's stead. He overcame his depression and planned his new life.
However, after he went out into the world, when his food supply finally ran out, he felt lost. He had no experience in doing a job. He had only hunted for a living. The Grey Forest was too dangerous for him, so he couldn't hunt there. Was he going to die just like that? With nothing to eat.
Thankfully, he suddenly found a job opening.
The town lookout suddenly quit!
Thinking about how easy the job was, he applied without a second thought. But just after a short week, he immediately felt like it was the worst decision he made.
Sure, he had food to eat. There were even free snacks.
But it was extremely, extremely boring! There was absolutely nothing to do until his shift ends. There weren't even any beasts coming to attack the town.
The young man sighed.
He casually leaned on the watchtower's window, trying to get a good view on the plain before he falls asleep again in a few minutes.
He yawned as his eyes started to feel heavy. As he watched the plains, he realized that he was starting to black out. Black dots were starting to cover his vision. He immediately rubbed on his eyes trying to get rid of the black dots. Strangely, they wouldn't go away.
He blinked a couple of times, but it was still there.
When he looked at the watchtower's wall, he realized that nothing was wrong with his eyes.
Once again, he looked at the plains. Black dots were everywhere.
He slowly lifted the binoculars towards his eyes and peeked through it.
The young man suddenly froze.
His hands suddenly started shaking as the binoculars slipped through his grasp. After he overcame his panic, he ran straight towards the center of the watchtower and started ringing on the emergency bell.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The bell continuously rang.
The old man who had just gone down immediately went back up again. He eyed the boy who kept on ringing the bell.
"What's wrong?!" the old man yelled through the sound of the bell.
The young man looked at him, panic was written all over his face. "B-Beasts! Magical Beasts!"
The old man was filled with shock. Subconsciously, he ran towards the tower's window.
He eyed the plains filled with hundreds of magical beasts.
….