Kill The Old Ones!

--

A few days passed, and the camp did its best to fall into a routine.

Knowing that there will be weekly crises that will test them, they worked hard to ensure that they’d be ready for it.

The good news is that most of them are armed now. They’ve earned enough merit points from the monster horde to buy their own weapons. Said weapons might not be as good as the ones they had, but in their current situation, it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

This allowed their hunting efficiency to skyrocket.

Furthermore, the vibes of the team were great. Facing the crisis together brought them closer to each other, and with lots of things to do each day, the chances of conflicts occurring were minimized.

The routine was interrupted this morning, though...

It wasn’t because of an emergency. It’s because there was an announcement to be made.

"We’re switching locations."

It was Ren who announced this. Diana was next to him, and from her looks, she clearly supported the idea.

"Diana and I had a discussion," he told them. "After some deliberation, we decided that we’re moving to another location to build a base. Not a camp, a base—one that is defensible and could endure whatever challenges this realm could throw at us."

Ren then unfurled a large map—one that was newly drawn. He updates the map every day along with his expanding sensory network, unlocking more of the realm for everybody to see.

This one was like that, but there is an emphasis on a specific location. It is encircled with a red marker, which indicates its importance.

"This is where we’ll go." Ren pointed at the location marked on the map. "We’ll go south for about a thousand miles until we see the river. Then, we follow that river to the east, which will allow us to skirt the perimeter of the eastern rainforest. That way, our journey will be safer."

"We’ll have to travel a long distance, but it’s going to be worth the effort because this location is special."

He unfurled another roll of paper; this one has the details of the location of their new base.

"This is where we’ll build our base. You saw from the previous map that it’s an isolated land—almost an island really. It’s surrounded by a river, which acts as a natural moat."

"It’s also elevated, more than a hill, less than a mountain. Although it looks like a giant boulder surrounded by water, in truth, there are several entrances inside."

"The most important part is that I saw traces of previous usage inside, meaning that this rock had been used as a shelter or a base in the past."

"Somebody already paved the way for us. We don’t need to start from scratch. All we need to do is to clean it up and make it functional again, and we’ll have a solid base which we can use for the remainder of our stay here."

"How about it? Does anybody have a different opinion or another suggestion? Don’t be afraid to speak up."

Nobody raised a hand or spoke up. They looked at each other and shook their heads. No one was against this move, mostly because they had no clue on how to pick a good base. They don’t have that kind of skill, so instead of arguing, they might as well agree so that they could move as soon as possible.

"Alright, since everybody agrees, let’s start packing up. We don’t have to take everything with us, just the essentials. We’ll move fast and silent. I want us to be there before the sun rises tomorrow so we can immediately start working on the new base before the next weekly crisis occurs."

Ren’s urging was effective, and everybody started packing things that they deem important. Because no argument was made, the packing was quick and efficient.

They didn’t even take down the walls or the palisades. They just took everything they deem essential before making their way out of the camp.

"Stick together and try not to make too much noise. We don’t want to pull the aggro of the monsters since that’ll slow us down. I’ll set the pace for us, and you manage your chakra expenditure to keep up."

Ren then took out something from his bag of holding. It was a talisman with strange characters written on its surface. He wrapped it on his Lily’s wrist, and when he did, a semi-transparent dome covered the whole group.

"This is an Aura-Isolating Talisman," he declared. "It does exactly as its name suggests. However, it doesn’t make us invisible or silent. We’re using this to make our journey easier and smoother, but it only lasts for 24 hours, and once it’s used, it can’t be turned off. I’ll have my girlfriend be in the middle of the group to maximize coverage while I lead us to the location of our new base."

"If nobody has any questions or concerns, we start moving now."

Ren swept them a glance and confirmed that nobody has any disagreements. He turned around, nodded at Lily—who was already standing in the middle of the group—and then he started running.

Like he said, he led the pace. He could’ve run much faster than this, and if he were travelling alone, he could’ve gone much, much faster. He could’ve arrived at the new location within a few hours.

Alas, he’s travelling with everybody, and not all of them are as quick or have as much stamina as he does. Therefore, he had to pace everybody so as to not exhaust everybody right away and get them there before the allotted time.

There was a better option than having everybody travel there by foot.

The system sells a portal that is user-friendly. However, it is damn expensive. It costs 250,000 merit points, and the portal will only last for an hour before disappearing.

It’s a scam, if you ask him. And although Ren had a lot of points, he’s not going to use it in such a wasteful manner.

**

They travelled for a long time, barely resting in between.

Because of Ren’s precautions, they didn’t meet with an accident or anything that slowed them down. However, some people’s stamina was really bad, which somewhat affected their speed.

Despite that, though, they arrived at the new place on the next day pretty early.

They had to cross the river to get to the massive rock, which will be their new base, but that was no problem since they could walk on the surface of the water.

And just as Ren told them, the rock indeed had some signs of usage. People had been here and used this place as their shelter. There were traces everywhere.

The rock had a couple of entrances they could use, and there were ruins and remains inside, which further proved that some people had indeed lived here once upon a time.

"You guys eat, rest, and recuperate for a bit. Set up a temporary camp here while I and the others inspect the interior to make sure that it is really safe."

"There are some strong monsters down in the river. Don’t go swimming unless you want to be eaten whole."

Ren left them a warning before he entered the rock with the others to check the interior of the rock.

Their tour took them about an hour before they converged at, what seemed to be, the core of this rock.

There was something here. An altar that looked old yet still emanating some profound aura.

The energy readings here were weird, and Ren had no doubt that it had something to do with this altar.

He inspected it closely for a bit, and soon he identified it.

"It’s a natural formation node," he said. "Well, as natural as it could be. The previous team who occupied this place used this altar as a core to power formations to form defenses all around the rock."

This was good, because this altar wasn’t broken. It just hasn’t been used for a long while; that’s why it appears to be old and dirty. But in Ren’s eyes, this was still functional, and it most definitely increased the value of this rock as their new base.

"It’s spacious enough for all of us to use without cramming. The room divisions are well thought-out; all we really need to do is to clean it up, and it would already be much better than our previous camp."

"Since that’s the case, let’s begin immediately. The sooner we get this done, the longer we could be secure, and sooner we could prepare for whatever the next crisis would be. It’s only three days away, after all."

Ren relayed his orders, and people started moving.

Despite the place being a bit dirty and ruined, it wasn’t too bad. Cleaning the whole interior only took four to five hours of work.

While they were doing that, Ren was working with Diana to lay the formations on this rock to improve its state.

The work was slow at the start, but before the day ended, the Heavenly Bronze Team had a new base, one that was much better and stronger than their previous camp.