Kei was walking to the easternmost part of the city, the wall here up close looked gigantic it stretched far north and south enveloping the whole city, it was truly an engineering marvel, the road lead to a hole in the wall big enough for humans and cargo to slip through but small enough to stop hordes of creatures.
There were guards present at the gate, these were the people who protected the city from creatures that attacked from the outside if they got too close, these pro hunters kept the city a safe place to live, and now Kei and his friends were going on a mission to do so too.
Kei waited for a few minutes and waited for everyone to arrive, he was a leather vest and had a scabbard on his waist that sheathed the Culling Jian, the scabbard and vest was lent to him buy his grandpa, which was why the leather vest was quite bigger than he would like, but it didn't matter too much because he finally looked like a real hunter.
Not too long after the rest of the party finally gathered, Chrome arrived second after Kei, surprisingly he was kitted out with decent chain armour, a buckler and straight sword he looking surprisingly good.
'Well, he's also the son of a hunter, but why does his equipment looks better than me, come on gramps you are embarrassing me'
Ayumi arrived some time later, she was now wearing a lustrous steel breastplate on top of her dress with beautifully engraved patterns, it also emitted a faint aura, it singlehandedly overshadowed bot Kei's and Chrome's gears, she had the bow that saved Kei's life and a quiver on her back with multiple different arrows, Kei even recognized one of them, it was the one she used against the Aberrant stalker.
Kei couldn't help but steal glances at her,
Finally Donnes and his party arrived, there was Yuna, the scary healer lady, the man who welcomed them into the estate and all the people they say in the first battle. They were ready to leave.
Donnes spoke to everyone "Alright everyone's gathered here, so here's the plan, we will go to the edge of our green zone about 2-3 kilometers out the gate and camp out the night there, the creatures will be arriving by tomorrow, let's head out then"
After that they left the City gates and stepped into the wilderness, the surrounding areas of Liburn were plains, with a dense forest to the west and great mountains in the distant north, they moved through the plains on foot, it wasn't too hard considering it was a short journey, there was a carriage containing all the supplied for the hunt being pulled by two horses, horses became really popular after the cataclysm as they replaced most cars as the primary source of transport, there were other mounts too like creatures tamed by people with special skills, or attributes, but it was a rare sight to see.
The march was pretty uneventful, on the way to the camp site they passed by many ruins of human civilization abandoned and forgotten, carrying a past of struggle and death, it was a somber sight to see.
'will all of earth look like this one day' Kei wondered
but he didn't know for sure, humanity is persistent, it resisted the cataclysm, it didn't back down in front of the gates and it's creatures and it survived and became stronger so surely humanity would be fine in the future too.
About a half an hour walk later they finally arrived at the edge of the green zone, from here there was the were patches of red zone littering the plains which was too dangerous for them to venture into.
They found a small hill and set up camp there the camp itself was huge, it was something you would see set up in a military base, it could easily house up to five or six people, there were two such tents build, to accommodate all of them, by the time it was already built, the moon was shining in the sky dousing the plains in its faint light.
There was a bonfire lit and everyone gathered around to enjoy a hearty dinner, the pro hunters chatted about their experience about their latest hunt, Donnes and the men were bragging about how many creatures they killed, apparently they made a bet to see who could kill the most
"I killed the most I'm telling you" the greataxe wielding guy said
"Ron, you weren't even counting, I killed around sixty of them" the sword wielding guy said
"oh please, Filas, you were in the front line, I was using a bow so I should get extra points y'know" the archer exclaimed
"Gord, what kind of a logic is that, if that's the case I should win, I went to help our boy Kei here, so i get extra points for that" Donnes said in a lighthearted manner
"Guys, guys you all are missing Ella, my girl here she killed around a hundred you know" the healer said while patting the timid looking sorcerer in the back
"Hilda, stop embarrassing me" Ella the sorcerer looked away blushing
They told the young members their past fights and stories about their hunts and adventures, Kei and Chrome listened in earnest while Ayumi kept a reserved look on her face but also showed hints of curiousness and excitement.
"So, there was this one time a humanoid creature like 10 meters tall, grabbed me and chewed on my side, ahh it was so painful, but not so painful as what came next, the next horrifying part was getting healed by Hilda" Gord was speaking jokingly and noticed Hilda looking at him, she was playing with the needles dancing around her fingers.
"Horrifying, huh, say you want me to heal you right here"
"no, no wait I was joking" Gord cried out but was hit with a needle "aaaaaahhhh"
Kei chuckled while watching the scene
'so her painful healing is universal huh, good to know I'm not eh only one that experienced it'