Chapter 52: Heading towards the centre
When the next day came, the world looked no different than any other day inside the Spike Beast gate. Only the aurora lighting up the sky had shifted a little.
In the night, Rohan spent most of his time practising with his spear and patrolling the surrounding area of their campsite. Despite receiving no formal training with the spear yet, Rohan could feel some slight improvements in his technique and efficiency compared to the first time he took the weapon up.
His movements felt different from back then and struck much heavier with every thrust. ’The increased strength thanks to my Firestone Gene and Origin Energy cultivation are the main reasons for that.’
Occasionally, he’d spot a few Spike Beasts and even groups of Awakened in the distance, but one thing he noticed was the reduction in sightings over time. His first round of scouting, he caught sight of some distant movement every 20 minutes or so, but on his last before the others woke up, he only spotted a single Spike Beast once, not another Awakened in sight past that point.
’That’s odd? Have they all started to converge somewhere?’
By this point the groups inside this gate should have realised what was happening, so the chances that they had the same idea as him weren’t that low. If they encountered any destroyed waystones, then they’d know the next best step was to head for the Elite at the centre.
’Hopefully that’s the case.’
Elane appeared by his side after a short few moments, completing her own scouting of the area. Since she had much better senses than him as an archer, Rohan decided to ask her if she’d seen any activity.
"No, not in the last few hours at least."
"Hmm, that aligns with what I saw.’
Norm and his group came over from behind. Liam and Gerty were standing on their own two feet without any supports now, though they still had to limp.
"Is everything taken care of?" Rohan asked.
Everyone nodded.
Rohan turned around, ready to set off with everyone’s answer. However, he stood there for a dozen seconds in silence before turning back.
"...Which way is the centre?" He glanced at Norm and asked.
"Follow the angle of the dead trees and shrubbery. All of the vegetation in this place acts like sunflowers, always facing the sun. Except that in here, they always face toward the centre — even now in their desolated state."
...Norm took charge in leading the group onwards.
***
"On your left!"
Elane called out to the group. She summoned her newly acquired Spike Beast Bow, formed a spike arrow at the tips of her fingers and launched it at the Spike Beast trying to conceal itself behind a jagged rock, failing to stalk their group from a distance.
Between alerting the group and letting her arrow loose, not even a second had gone by.
For a group of F rank awakened like them, they could cross the entire diameter of the gate’s dimension in a day — but with members who slowed the group down due to their injuries, their speed was comparable to an ordinary human’s pace at best.
After scurrying over to collect the loot from her kill, Elane shook her head at Rohan.
"No luck."
For every beast the group killed, they took the time to dissect every corpse to collect the loot dropped. It slowed them down by a few minutes every time they encountered a Spike Beast, but it was always worth it to check.
Yes, their main goal was currently to make their way towards the centre of the gate’s dimension, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t keep up with their routines along the way.
So far Elane’s Spike Beast Bow is the only Genetic Armament that has been dropped. No genes had been dropped yet, and only Origin Crystals had been collected.
’At least we won’t have to worry about Origin Crystals for a while if we make it out of this place.’
The group had collected well over 30 Origin crystals so far.
This time they were not travelling blindly, just seeing wherever their feet took them. With a destination in mind, the ground they covered was much higher than the previous day.
Even so, the atmosphere continued to grow heavier the deeper in they travelled.
The dead landscape of the gate aside, there were subtle changes that nobody could ignore.
Past a certain point, they didn’t encounter any signs of life. Not a Spike Beast, nor a single Awakened.
Not seeing any Awakened was normal, as everyone should have realised what to do and where to head by now, but the lack of any Spike Beasts at all was of real concern to everyone present.
’Where did they all go?’
The situation eerily reminded Rohan of the time in the Ant Nest back in the Origin Realm — where the terrifying screech of the Elite E rank echoed throughout the whole nest and called back every Worker Ant. After that happened, he never caught sight of another Ant again until he came face to face with the monstrous Elite itself.
’Is something really controlling all of these Spike Beasts? But how? And the level of control seems much more complex than that E rank was capable of. Just what is going on in here...’
There had to be a reason for all of the weird happenings. Why would something, or someone, go out of their way to destroy all the waystones and then gather all of the Spike Beasts somewhere?
It all reeked of something malicious going on. The waystones wouldn’t have been destroyed if there hadn’t been malicious intent involved. Clearly something didn’t want any Awakened to leave this gate.
"There, I can see the Elite’s lair up ahead!"
Norm suddenly shouted in excitement from the front of the group, immediately dragging everyone’s attention to the end of his finger, where he pointed at a huge rock formation taking up a large amount of space ahead.
"The Elite is supposedly inside that rock formation somewhere, but where exactly? I have no clue."
Elane walked to the side of Norm, and her eye glinted when she spotted something down at the bottom, in front of the rock formation.
"Look! Dozens of Awakened have gathered near the lair already!"
Everyone felt joy at Elane’s words. The lack of any Awakened in their path on the way over had been an issue of some concern for a few of them, but now that had been settled. After all, unlike Rohan, their imagination took them in a different direction than assuming they had the same idea as them...
However, Rohan’s face scrunched up, looking nowhere near as excited as all the others to spot the large gathering of Awakened.
"What’s wrong?"
Norm frowned, asking him curiously.
"It looks like you were right about the government reinforcing the entrances so that nobody could enter. Do you see how all of them are just standing around, looking like they’re waiting for something to happen?"
Rohan gestured to the dozens of Awakened.
"Even with everyone gathered, nobody has enough power to blow through those enhancements the government placed."
The joyful atmosphere was snuffed out.
"Well, we’re only making assumptions, just observing them from up here. Let’s head over and join them so we can find out what’s really going on." Norm suggested before everyone’s motivation reached rock bottom.