Chapter 93: From Retirement to Eternal Rest!
Daniel, Lia, and Ayra had found a sheltered spot near the base of the central mountain, a safe distance from the now placid, but still deeply menacing, Yang Lake.
Ayra was methodically sharpening her great-axe, the rhythmic scrape of stone on steel a strangely comforting sound in the quiet aftermath.
Lia, her A-Grade Staff of the World Ash leaning against a nearby rock, was cataloging the herbs she had managed to gather, her calm grey eyes occasionally flicking towards the distant, dormant teleportation array.
The team was flush with an absurd number of Yin Cards and a respectable starting collection of Yang Cards.
They were strong, rested, and ready. The path to the exit, and to their Class Transitions, seemed clear.
It was Daniel who felt it first.
His S-Grade [Aura Sense+], a passive skill that was always tasting the ambient energies of the world around him, suddenly tingled.
It wasn’t the chaotic, greedy signature of the thugs they had just dealt with, nor the primal, overwhelming power of a great beast.
This was different. It was a single, focused signature, moving with an unnerving stealth that was far more refined than any of the desperate recruits they had encountered so far.
It was approaching their position from the direction of the dormant teleportation array, as if it had been waiting there all along, a patient spider in the center of its web.
"Hold on," Daniel whispered, his voice a low command that instantly cut through the quiet.