The general and Jay promptly regrouped with their men before descending slowly.
He hadn't expected to meet another group here already, as for another group with multiple Tier 1 experts? They shouldn't exist. Even having a single Tier 1 expert at this point would make them at the very least part of the top 100 Lords in the region. While in reality, he estimated there should be no more than 20. For a group to have multiple wasn't something that should be possible.
Jay cursed as he ran everything through his mind. Right now the only thing that mattered was that they were probably part of the troops of a Lord in another area.
This was a bit of a problem. He still had the Iceborne to worry about, soon he would even have to move a bunch of his troops to Icy City in order to fend off their next attack. He also wanted to focus on them since he had the personal event which wanted him to beat as many as he could in the coming couple of weeks.
And if the Iceborne weren't a large enough problem, there were still the other Lords within his own region. His general location was known to everyone and this would certainly mean trouble.
Yet now he had encountered another group of enemies with an equal amount of experts he had himself. He knew that peace was very unlikely. The other exit of the ruin was probably close to their capital, putting him in a similar position he was in himself. They could both bring their troops within attacking-distance of the other Lord's capital which was a massive problem.
If possible, Jay wanted to take care of them right now. He had about double the strength of a regular Tier 1 expert while General Green had an extreme amount of loyalty towards him. The 30 troops they had with them were also very strong, they would be able to take out 1 or 2 experts as well.
Of course they probably also had an army similar to his own, but for now, he had to get information about them. Had they blocked off the other exit? How many were there? What was their strength like?
Each of these questions needed an answer. He was hoping he could take control of the ruins itself. It was probable that the enemies also had a big stairway to traverse in order to enter or exit. If they could locate this they might find a way to stop them from coming.
This time around they didn't have any problems with the rats, they seemed to have been thoroughly exterminated. The room was full of signs a huge battle had occurred, the blood of both rats and humans were covering the floor. When he looked more closely a few corpses could even be seen, each of which was still wearing the F grade armor they died with.
The battle was certainly freshly fought. It was likely the reason for their retreat just now was that they were nearly out of mana and stamina.
The next room had a crossroads, last time they had gone to the right where they had found the legacy trial, but the dust on the floor clearly showed that the enemy group had headed to the left into, for them, unexplored territory.
Once he entered that room his heart immediately sunk. The room they were in now was nearly identical to the adjacent room. A dark stone was standing in the middle of a big formation. It seemed that a legacy was left here as well. And this one was taken by his enemies.
Cursing his own stupidity, Jay kept following the footsteps that littered the ground. The next room seemed to have been another room of loot. It had empty crates and shelves, looking at the lack of dust at some places it was clear this room had been emptied just a few days prior.
Jay got more and more nervous, it seemed that the enemy had gained as much from these ruins as he had. It was possible they also had a C+ grade weapon and a great legacy.
The door to leave this room had been destroyed, some Tier 1 spells had been used to destroy it. This once more unnerved Jay. It seemed like about a week had passed, if the enemies had been Tier 1 for that long there was certainly something wrong with it. Furthermore, this should have happened before they got the legacy.
He could see from where he was standing that that room was filled with corpses of bats. Large ones with a wingspan of 3 meters.
When he inspected further he saw this room was roughly 3 times the size of the room with the rats in, the bats must have hung on the ceiling until they got disturbed.
So far every room he went through made him more and more nervous. There was absolutely no way he would underestimate his enemies now. If this place mirrored the other side he should arrive at the stairway as soon as he opened the next door.
Once he had prepared a powerful spell, Jay ordered one of his soldiers to open the door. The door slowly creaked open, a long tunnel leading upwards could be seen now, there were no places to hide as the tunnel went straight for multiple miles, going upwards.
He could see a tiny light very far away, that seemed to be the exit.
After looking at General Green, the 2 of them ran forward at top speed, the soldier with them were soon left in the dust.
The duo took a single break in between when they were almost at the exit, so they would be ready for a fight.
When they finally arrived at the exit, everything was totally different compared to what he had expected. Before them was an endless desert with sand and large formations of sandstone everywhere.
About 100 meters east of him, was a group of people about 10 men strong. It seemed that they were previously resting and they had been awaiting them. Guiding them was the trio from earlier.
Jay's mind was in disarray, how the hell had they arrived in a desert? The region east of them was similar to their own, there should be no deserts for many thousands of kilometers away from him.
Jay cursed inwardly as he tried to make sense of the situation. In the end, he gave up, focussing on the people before them. He saw a larger group of people approaching from the east as well, still being multiple miles away at this point. It seemed that the enemies had sent reinforcements, they would have to take care of this quickly.