As soon as we started heading out, we realized that we had chosen the wrong mode of transport. With our attire, the eyes from the surroundings were literally gathered at us, making everyone feel like animals at a zoo, out for display.
To quickly get out of their prying eyes, we decided to increase our pace, literally running to the target location. Thanks to that, it didn't take us ten minutes to reach the target location.
"Gate A..." I muttered with a bit of nostalgia... Well, no. It wasn't that long since we came here, after all.
After setting our levels to public, the guard quickly let us in without many questions.
"Alright, from here on out, we'll be moving in formation. Our target is to reach the underground mall as fast and as safely as possible!"
Everyone nodded in accordance with my speech. After confirming that we were all on the same page, we started entering based on our positions. Hailey and I first, then Lily and Mina, and finally Toki and Kaede. Our formation was simple but effective.
However, after entering the gate, we immediately noticed an anomaly.
"There's too few monsters around," Hailey whispered with a frown.
Normally, monsters should be swarming around the entrance. As soon as we entered, it wouldn't be weird if we got attacked by one or two trolls immediately, like last time.
"Did the military hunt through this place earlier?" I muttered in doubt.
Hunting grounds that haven't been visited for a few days would usually be up for the military to clear, lowering the number of monsters around. This was to ensure that no monster flood or stampede would occur prematurely.
Toki, hearing my question, quickly shook her head. "Nope. As far as I'd heard, the military had been busy reclaiming the ruins of City D for the past few days, taking advantage of the lower number of monsters after the Witch of Ruin cleared up most of them."
The military only had two roles, after all. One is to make sure that monsters don't endanger more lives than they currently do, and the other is to slowly reclaim the lost lands.
"Then what's happening here? Did the monsters migrate or something?" Mina exclaimed sarcastically.
Whatever the reason, having fewer monsters means we can move onward much faster. With Hailey leading the way, we went in a straight line, heading for the underground mall. Monsters rarely appeared close by, but whenever they did, they ended up being a sacrifice to my new hammer for practice.
It was a bit of a bother to carry it around, so in the end, I just dragged the roughly 200-kilogram hammer across the ground, creating a pretty deep impression on the ground.
"Just how heavy is that hammer?" Toki couldn't help but ask, seeing how I was struggling just to swing it once.
Jokingly, I answered, "About twice as heavy as you," but then regretted the words immediately. Toki grabbed me from the back, a fireball burning in her hand, and pressed it close to my face.
"Did I hear you correctly? Are you saying that I'm an elephant or something?"
"It was a joke, a joke! C-Calm down!" I could tell how serious she was from the heat radiating from the fireball. "This hammer's about 175 kg, so it's much heavier than you are! You're as light as a feather compared to this hammer!"
After a few more words to appeal to her, the fireball vanished as she let go of my neck. Feeling relief, I quickly moved further away from her, just as a precaution.
This girl is definitely crazy! Well, I guess it was slightly my fault, but it was just a simple joke, so why take it so seriously?
After that small incident, the rest of the road was smooth. In just half an hour, we had already reached the boundary, the 1-kilometer mark from the barricades, and the start of the "encroached" lands.
"... When we passed here before, there were no monsters due to the Witch of Ruin's attack. Now, however, just standing here makes me have goosebumps."
Looking at the wide open space ahead, we could already see a few big monsters. From the way they walk and the aura they exude, they must be about second-class level 9 and above, meaning each of those monsters was above our average level.
"... From here on out, the true challenge will begin. Everyone, prepare for battle!"
Suddenly, Mina's voice echoed loudly. "Ruin! One monster is approaching!"
Just as we were about to trespass the metaphorical border between safe and unsafe zones, a monster rapidly closed the distance between us. It was a feline monster, more like a sabertooth tiger, that was roughly as big as a bus.
From the size alone, it was almost at the level of a boss monster. To add to that, the pressure it exuded was roughly the same as that of the Raging Bull Roaming boss. It was hard to imagine that this monster was a normal one and that there were a lot more of them a little distance away.
"Kuh! Everyone, prepare for battle!"
I quickly snapped out of my daze and rushed forward, raising the Raging Bull's Charge above my head and slamming it against the ground before me. "Tremor!"
The bonus skill of the weapon activated as I poured about 50 MP into it. The result was that the earth ahead of us, for about twenty meters onward, became a complete mess.
Of course, my allies were all safe and weren't affected by the skill. After all, after a few practice sessions, I managed to control the direction of the tremor by adjusting the impact angle against the ground.
The sabertooth tiger didn't expect its footing to be destroyed, so it stopped for a moment to regain its bearings. At that instant, Hailey had already appeared before it with her spear plunging forward, aiming for its face.
"Take this!"
Although her attack was close, the enemy still managed to dodge at the last instant. It wasn't a level 29 advanced monster if it fell to just that simple combo.
Toki's voice suddenly echoed from the back, a hint of joy in her voice. "Check!"
At the spot where the sabertooth tiger jumped, a large ball of fire was already waiting. As soon as the monster came into contact with it, a powerful explosion occurred, sending it flying back to Hailey and my area.
"Nice one, Toki!" I praised as I rushed forward, dragging my hammer along with all my strength. "Let's end this!"
I slammed the hammer at the monster's head, turning it into a mush before it even recovered from Toki's attack. With the hammer's damage, the monster's head literally turned into a red blot on the ground. Like a watermelon that popped, nothing that could tell us it was a head before remained.
In just under fifteen seconds, we killed the enemy. It may look like a simple achievement, but thinking that it wasn't a boss monster but a normal one means we're definitely not gonna make it through with our current strength.
"It's fortunate we managed to estimate our strength against the monsters ahead of us. However, that'll be too slow."
We might be able to reach our target location, but our return trip would be our doom. "So, from now on, we would be prioritizing stealth over battles."
Fortunately, there are a lot of dilapidated buildings, or piles of rubble, here and there. If we are careful, we can bypass most of the monsters by using those as hiding spots.
"It's too dangerous to do that," Kaede quickly rebutted, frowning hard. "If we bypassed a monster and ended up encountering one from ahead, from the noise of the battle, we'd end up encircled by the enemy."
"..." Her words were valid, so I could only keep my silence and let her continue.
"I suggest we take it slowly and move through the part with the least dense number of enemies. That way, we can limit our stamina and MP consumption without risking our safety."
We do have some supplies in my World Storage, which I have been carrying since forever. Things like emergency food and water, potions, and such were there and could be distributed to everyone as long as I had mana to use to open my storage.
During the fight with the octopus boss, it was the perfect time to use it, but I was so preoccupied with finishing the enemy off that I couldn't even spare a second to give the potions to others.
Seeing that nobody disagreed with Kaede's words, it was then decided that we'd take the slow and steady method. However, as a precaution, I took out a case of potions and distributed five recovery potions and three MP recovery potions to everyone.
Each potion was as thick as a thumb and about six inches (15 cm) long, encased in shockproof glass, so they could secure the potions in their belts or pockets. After making sure that everyone had theirs safely secured, we started walking forward, planning to fight with extreme care not to waste too much energy.
Soon enough, the first unavoidable fight started.