The next day, Yusa called both Krune and Ao Sulian through video. She wanted to discuss Shinja's situation once more as she asked them, "I don't think she would give us any problem, so how about we go to Raskie Danger Zone as we've planned before? I believe that if necessary, she would sign a blood contract to keep things secret. Not to mention that she probably has become bored of staying in the city all the time, don't you think?"
Krune simply followed logic. He didn't know Shinja as well as Yusa, so he just replied, "Well, if she does sign the blood contract, I have no problems with that. Finding out that I'm a wisp is my main concern, after all. If you can convince her to do that, then be my guest."
Ao also told them his thoughts. "It's also good since if things really go south, she could help us out as well."
Yusa nodded and accepted the task once their conversation was over. She was the one who would talk to Shinja.
---
On the same day, Krune and the others gathered together again. Yusa had convinced Shinja to sign the blood contract after telling her that she and Ao had also done it. Although she had some misgivings, she read the terms and concluded that it would not put her at risk. Yusa believed that Shinja wouldn't do anything wrong, but they had to be careful.
After that, Krune looked at everyone and told them, "Alright, it's still morning, and I'm getting tired of staying put, so let's head to the mission hall and take a mission. Our objective this time is to beat down an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment beast without me using my real form. I believe that we have more than enough power and coordination to do that. As for Shinja, she'll stay far away and only intervene if something wrong happens."
Shinja's eyes almost popped out of their sockets after hearing that! 8th Stage Foundation Establishment? As far as she could see, Krune was at the 4th Stage while Yusa and Ao were at the 5th. It should be impossible for them to threaten an 8th Stage demon beast.
'Could it be that they really just wanted to use me?'
She couldn't be blamed. She had never joined and team before, so after hearing that they would confront a higher-leveled demon beast, she thought that they were only doing that to force her hand. Unfortunately, it was already too late since she had already signed the blood contract and couldn't change it.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Krune asked them, to which Ao and Yusa didn't say anything in response.
"Okay, we leave tomorrow morning. Take the rest of the day to prepare whatever you need."
---
The next day, Krune's group was back at the Solie Clan to use their teleportation formation. Zu Solie had already become numb to this. Since he was bound by contract, then he'll just forget about the costs and wait for the day that they left once and for all. With their cultivation progress, it wouldn't take that long anyway.
The City of Harta was the closest one to the Raskie Danger Zone. The danger zone was just a week away with the speed of Krune's group. The Raskie Danger Zone was a foggy forest, and there was fog all year round. Such an environment gave birth to quite a few weird beasts that had stronger Divine Senses. Of course, it's only reasonable that the local life evolved like that due to the circumstances.
Krune's group was walking in the city until they arrived at the Formation Guild where their employer was. After talking to the receptionist, they were guided inside until they arrived in an enormous room. From the outside, the place didn't look like that at all. It was evident that a space-expanding formation was in place here. Inside, their employer was already waiting for them. He was a Three Star Formation Master and quite a famous one in the city.
"Hello, I'm Jorei. I believe you're the mercenary group that accepted the mission request, right? Thanks for your help."
Yusa came forward to start the conversation as she replied, "Yes, that would be us. According to the information on the mission, you need us to capture an 8th Stage Fog Leopard, is that right? Could you give us more information about that?"
Jorei nodded as he explained, "That's correct. Although the description is short, the mission will probably be quite hard. Fog Leopards have evolved into their forms after living in the Raskie Danger Zone for a very long time. Their bodies can fuse together with the fog, making them very hard to detect. I will need one of those to help with my research on a new concealing formation."
Yusa understood what Jorei wanted to do, so she asked, "Do you have the location so that we know where to go?"
Jorei then transferred the information to everyone's communicators. They opened it, and sure enough, it was very deep into the Danger Zone.
"This is everything you need to know about them. As to how to deal with the situation, I will leave it up to you."
Ao then asked, "Do they have human forms at that level? We need to know to be ready in case they transform in order to escape."
Jorei shook his head as he answered, "No need to worry. Fog Leopards are quite a strong race, so they shouldn't be able to change into human form at the 8th Stage. However, be careful of the other leopards. Their groups usually have someone at the Core Formation Realm overseeing it."
Ao nodded in response. He then looked at Krune, who agreed that everything should be okay, and then said, "Okay, Ao and I are going to buy some supplies while Yusa and Shinja go buy some better concealing runestones. The ones sold in this city should work better in that fog forest. This time, don't just buy cheap ones. Remember that even Core Formation Realm beasts might scan the area we're in."
Yusa said in response, "Of course I will buy good ones. I'm not crazy." However, after hearing Yusa's words, Krune, Ao, and even Shinja, who already understood Yusa a bit, looked at her with doubtful eyes. Yusa immediately became upset.
"Why are you even looking at me? At least I always have some concealing runestones! What about Ao? He doesn't even have one!"
In fact, the price didn't matter much. All the expenses, while they were in the mission, would always be shared between the three. But Yusa still believed that the less she spent, the better.
Ao just replied, "I didn't need one before because, as a Wind element user, I could just run away. But don't compare me today to my old self."
Yusa smiled and struck back while the iron was hot. "Oh yeah? Then where is it, mister 'I am always prepared'? Where is your concealing formation runestone?"
Ao's back started to sweat after hearing that. In the end, he could only reply, "That's your job, so I didn't bring any."
Yusa's smile became even bigger after hearing Ao's response. "In case I forget to buy the runestone, you wouldn't have any either, while I would still have the cheap ones at least, right?"
Ao was starting to feel helpless. Why were they even talking about this? The problem was Yusa's love for money, wasn't it?
Unfortunately for him, he had Krune as a friend.
"Yusa is right on this point. Being unprepared is not good. I myself have a few common concealing formation runestones with me, just in case. It's just like when you told me that when dealing with women, sometimes you need to be prepared to force your way in! The key is preparation."
Ao was speechless! This was about a conversation that they had a few weeks ago when Krune asked Ao to help him understand women better. After several turns, the conversation went all the way to that part. The problem was, what he said was to force their way in…side their hearts! Brother, where's the rest of what I said?
Yusa and Shinja looked strangely at him, which made Ao sweat even more! With that, Ao hastily told Krune, "Heart! I told you back then to force our way inside their heart!"
Krune looked at him in confusion as he replied, "But in that case, she won't get pregnant."
Ao vomited blood after that! Krune was cutting down the important parts of their conversation while bringing out the unnecessary ones. It's evident that Krune misunderstood the meaning of 'inside' for a certain reproductive situation. Right now, he was talking about the time when he had mentioned having children of their own.
Yusa and Shinja's strange expressions had now turned grim. With that, Yusa looked at him and then said, "So, this is how you think about women? That has opened my eyes."
In fact, Yusa knew very well that Ao definitely hadn't said those words in that way. It was probably Krune turning everything what Ao said upside down. But now Krune, Shinja and even Jorei, who was only listening by the side, finally forgot about her. Not to mention that she was feeling very happy to see Ao in that situation. Usually, he would disappear anytime Krune did something weird. But the best thing was that Shinja and Jorei didn't know about that...how funny! She wanted to lie down and laugh, but she had to keep up her ploy.
Krune then put one of his hands on Ao's shoulder, and he looked completely serious. In fact, he really was! There was no way that the zero EQ Krune would be able to joke like that. "Brother, don't worry, I will be on your side. Just be sure to buy protection next time."
Ao finally became desperate. Little did he know that the protection Krune mentioned was about the concealing formation runestone. Nevertheless, by putting it that way, it felt like Ao had already forced his way on some women.
Shinja finally couldn't take it anymore! She also took 'protection' in the same way that Ao did. Shinja thought that she had to free the women from the world from this guy! Not to mention that she started to think that Krune's weird ideas were, in fact, coming from him.
Jorei watched all of that with his jaw completely open, thinking to himself, 'Just what kind of team is this? Is it really okay to send them?'
Ao, who had been wronged, finally got a chance to explain the whole story. Still, not before a few purple bruises appeared around his body. Just as expected, Yusa was laughing by the side while Krune still had a confused expression.
On the other hand, Shinja was feeling embarrassed. She had beaten up Ao because of the wrong reason. She was helpless since the group's leader, Krune, was simply a lost case for common sense. Worst of all was Yusa, who should have told her about what was really happening, but just kept laughing on the ground.
'How can they even accept someone like him as the leader?'
Ao was feeling helpless as well. He then made a decision! Next time, he would make sure that Krune understood his intentions through and through. Otherwise, he wouldn't say anything to start with.
Eventually, the group decided to leave for the Raskie Danger Zone. After signing the agreement at the gate, they rushed forward in the direction of the deeper zones.
---
During the last two days, Shinja started to become scared of this group of three! It didn't matter which one of them. Their control over the elements that they used was at the same level as her own. One must remember that Shinja had a Pure Yin Body, so her affinity with the Water element was not something that could be achieved that easily. Let alone unnamed cultivators like Yusa and Ao!
Yusa's Water element control even had some different aspects that she had never thought about before. Shinja couldn't understand how she got to that point. She didn't know much about the Wind element. Still, she was experienced enough to tell that Ao's Wind element control wasn't any bit weaker than Yusa's control. To find one genius was already hard, but for two to appear in the same group and no one noticed them, that was almost impossible!
But that wasn't the worst of all. The real monster here was obviously Krune! She had heard that he could control more than one element while still being a low-level Foundation Establishment cultivator. Still, the problem was that every single one of the elements he had shown so far was at a higher level than her control over water. She even felt depressed when she saw Krune using the Water element to train against a beast he found on the way.
She lost! She didn't say it out loud, but she knew! Krune's Water element control was definitely above hers.
At first, she just decided to protect them while they were on their mission. But now, she was again struggling against her pride! She wanted to ask Krune for a few pointers, but at the same time, she didn't. The only comfort she had was the fact that she still had the highest combat prowess.
But that didn't last long, though. On the fourth day, they encountered a 7th Stage Foundation Establishment demon beast. She thought that she would have to already come forward to control the situation, which made her feel good about herself. It was finally her time to show her good side to them! Unfortunately for Shinja, Krune just asked a question.
"Alright, who between the three of us will fight?"
Yusa and Ao immediately raised their voices. The weird thing was that Krune, who had the lowest cultivation, also wanted to battle it! It was evident that none of the three thought much of that 7th Stage beast at all! They just considered it a good target for training.
Yusa finally lost her patience with all their discussion and said, "Since everyone wants to fight it, we'll resolve it with rock, paper, scissors!"
Both Shinja and the beast that was waiting were taken aback! Did they even notice the difference in cultivation? They wanted to battle it alone? Have they gone mad?
The reason the demon beast hadn't acted yet was that he couldn't see through Shinja, so he was afraid of her being stronger than it. But it was almost losing its patience after seeing how Krune's group was acting.
In the end, it turned out that Yusa won with stone! Ao and Krune looked gloomily at their hands since luck wasn't on their side today. After that, Yusa went forward and said, "You're very lucky. This lady will be your opponent."
And just like that, the battle started!