(Robin's POV):
A day has passed since I showed my face on Denzel's room. He was there sitting down emotionlessly but we can't particularly dwell about it now.
We're currently in a carriage heading towards the far east volcano in the entire map. It is a hostile place with an entire faction residing in it. They had attempted various things such as kidnapping and has a terrible reputation for most players.
"So we're gonna pass by Praetorian huh... I guess we could take them on actually." - Jay
"Don't even think about reckless crap right now. We have one purpose there, and it's to collect magma ore." - Lester
The two seem to have more and more disputes while Gayle just sits in between them peacefully and preventing any issues. Ridley and Rylle are swapping on handling the horses at the front. Grace and Terrence are chatting normally in the back. Seeing Grace happily smile is somewhat refreshing but it is pretty much nullified with Lester and Jay arguing in front of me.
Yesterday, I had a short private talk with Jay who brought me some answers from what Gayle saw inside Denzel's mind.
His mind is filled with despair, pain, loss of desire to live, wishing for a certain person to come back... Wait, a certain person to come back?
I started thinking even deeper due to some leads that could get me some answers regarding other people's lives here. Denzel for example hasn't told us anything because he doesn't show up on lunch for a whole year in middle school. That was before he was experimented upon harshly.
"Well, no use thinking about it right now. I have this trip after all..."
I murmured a few words of exasperation while waiting to arrive to a suitable place. After enduring the constant aggression between Lester and Jay, we had finally arrived on the volcanic biome.
"A harsh atmosphere as always..." - Rylle
"Not just the atmosphere, it's also the people around here. So let's get a formation set up in combat."
Everyone responded well into the thinking of a new formation in battle. They immediately lined up and I had prepared something my mind. I gave them instructions for multiple formations so we could immediately improvise just in case we get attacked in various positions. I had prepared for situations like surround, pincer attack, breakthrough, and defensive.
So we pretty much have no problem when it comes to setting up for battles. The only problem we have is to find a decent place to stay or we camp in a dangerous place due to two factors.
"Well, let's advance for now. We should try to find a cave entrance as soon as possible since it will be deadly to camp outside."
"Yeah, I think I could sense some troubles ahead since Praetorian are a tenacious bunch. They are hyper-aggressive and will try to aim for kidnapping female members." - Jay
"They tried to aim for me but we managed to prevent something like that occur." - Grace
"Wait what?!" - Terrence
Terrence shouted unnecessarily so we had to immediately silence him without hesitation.
"Dude, we're in enemy territory so spare us from trouble alright?" - Jay
"Yeah, we don't want to get swarmed by a thousand powerful and arrogant members here." - Rylle
With the look of things, the two female members here are pretty much guarded by Lester, Jay, and Terrence. Even if an attack happens I know well how to deal with them due to Seymour's information.
"Anyways, we should start moving faster since we blew our cover right now."
"Got it!" - Everyone
Everyone followed after me dashing through the pathway and looked for a cave entrance much sooner. However, we pretty much ended up exhausted while scaling a little bit of the volcano itself. We're currently sitting down and trying to rest up.
"We should limit our noise here. We cannot allow Praetorian to notice us in this state where everyone has to rest."
Surprisingly, most members here are pretty exhausted except for Grace, and Gayle so we pretty much have to stand down for a while. It's weird since these two girls still have some energy left unlike the male camp excluding me.
They started resting up while I kept watch along with Grace who wants a few more lessons when it comes to handling party members.
"Well, there is one essential piece when it comes to exploring as a party. That piece is having all members keeping their eyes peeled for anything. There are also sub-pieces that will further push the abilities of the party. In combat wise, everyone should be equally threatening to the hostile enemies."
"I see... Then what do we do about the formation if we try to make everyone a threat to the enemy party?" - Grace
"Well, I think you should begin with setting up a formation where Lester takes the front line and try to handle most attacks nicely. You could then try to deal the most damage just constantly switching places with him. If one strays off, it's not the end of the world since Ridley and Rylle can swap there immediately and take the attacker line."
"I see, what about the back line members?" - Grace
"Gayle should stay as a support for the first few minutes, she can do her assistance as a powerful assassin after some time where you guys get a little tired. Make her act like a powerful trump card that will be released a little later."
"I see... Jay would be worried and try to support her with his best." - Grace
"Yep, when we fought against Arcturus last time, he was really doing his job as a back liner. The only problem he had is that he holds position despite entering danger. So I pretty much hope he'd learn from there."
"Terrence would be supporting me then?" - Grace
"Yep, both of you could overwhelm almost any enemy without much effort so I have to give you two a chance to try and fight in duos."
While discussing even deeper, Gayle was eating some snacks and flinched by a little bit. She also noticed huh...
"I would like to tell more but I think we have some action about to happen."
"Eh?" - Grace
"Get everyone up quickly! I'm sensing multiple snipers and magicians aiming for us in the higher ground!"
"Got it!" - Grace
"Gayle, go with Grace and have everyone follow me!"
The two girls immediately dashed to bug the other members up.
"Heh, I knew they would notice us sooner or later..."
One group slowly marched towards us so I immediately scanned their possible attributes or so.
Most of them have a high speed and strength status so they might be empowered to some extent. Two guardians, two shielders, and semi-long range weapon users. Behind them are backup that will attack from an extremely long range.
"Ready cast, Pinnacle Skill..."
I prepared a silent cast for a pinnacle skill just in case they would try something funny. One person is in front of the group walking like he's a higher up or something. I brought out Mana Breaker and Heaven's Beacon for the time being while being completely aware of things.
After some time walking, Grace and the others had returned to the position in a defensive formation with Lester in the front and Grace right behind him. Gayle stands behind Jay with his sniper rifle ready. Terrence stood behind Grace while Ridley and Rylle are prepared to intercept any flanking tricks.
"Greetings mortal, state your purpose in Praetorian's territory." - ???
"Just some magma ore."
"I see, I know well all the areas around this volcano so for the information and possible extra compensation. Surrender your female members." - ???
My smile disappeared since they actually don't learn to never mess around. They only increased the number of people trying to kidnap so they pretty much had failed for their attempt of negotiation and kidnapping.
"I refuse."
"Hah? I didn't hear. Do you mind repeating!" - ???
While he was about to finish his sentence, he swung out his sword which I dodged by simply leaning back a little bit.
"Chih! Missed." - ???
"Sword Graveyard."
Multiple swords erected from below and pierced through most of the enemies in the group in front of me. I then kicked the guy trying to negotiate backwards and have him pass through the blade effectively slicing him in half.
"Pfft, is that all Praetorian?"
When I noticed, multiple magic attacks and arrows start falling from the sky.
"Mystic Barrier!" - Gayle
"Searing Blades!"
We brought out our defensive magic and protected ourselves from any attacks from above. Multiple assassins moved out from behind their formation to try and surround us but I had everyone completely surrounded by my searing blades.
"Where are you going?"
They had already taken substantial damage from Sword Graveyard so I should finish them off with the second cast of this pinnacle skill.
"Hero's fall."
Multiple swords rained down towards all the enemies in front of everyone without much effort. The only ones that remained in front of us are the guardians and shielders. No more attackers.
Jay and Terrence are making sharp work against the enemies higher up on the mountain. Gayle is having everyone's mana extracted and equalizing each other so we won't have any unnecessary mana expenses.
I dashed forward and started clashing against the enemies in front of me and delivered fatal strikes using the searing blades around. Armor and shields aren't gonna work here chumps.
More magic and arrows start dropping down from above us but Grace pretty much blew most of it away. Good work there.
The enemies started retreating back pretty quickly without any retaliation attacks towards us. They seem to be thinking about reporting the situation so we have to change up our plans a lot after this point.
"Aight, shall we continue looking for a cave?"
"Alright!"
Everyone agreed in unison so we pretty much started walking around again. After about a few hours, we had finally entered a cave somewhere in the volcano. The volcano entrance felt pretty empty but I did see a bunch of solidified magma ore a little deeper into the cave.
"Well, here we are."