25 Exploration Team

Right outside the gate to the human settlement, a crowd of people had gathered. These were the ones who volunteered to investigate the location formerly dubbed as 'dog town', which was now labelled 'the massive freaking crater'.

Among them were the trio who had already been to and from the designated location multiple times and they were signed into the team that was charged with directly entering the crater to see if they could find anything.

"Everyone seems to be ready and the supplies are packed, so we'll be heading off in another 10 minutes." Stated John to his companions as he walked back to them after getting some information from the expedition leader. "We should probably check everything one last time as well, not that we have much."

"We have the new equipment that was made for us, so we better make sure that's there." Responded Joey, right after which Michael replied in a sarcastic tone.

"We definitely have our equipment, I think he was referring to provisions such as food and water, you know, the stuff that we need to live?"

"Yeah whatever."

The trio did one last check of everything and upon seeing that they didn't forget anything they hopped into their car and waited for the expedition to move out.

Not long after, they got the ok from the expedition leader so everyone participating hopped into a vehicle and the convoy started moving in the direction of 'the massive freaking crater'.

There were multiple different styles of vehicles all carrying different personnel or equipment which was going to be used to set up a forward base at the site so they could more easily defend the area and investigate the occurrence. There were also some guard vehicles around the perimeter of the convoy with open tops so the high level passengers in charge of fending off attacks could deal with any situation that occurred.

The trio weren't the strongest combatants by far, with some of the people having classed up 3 times already, however, they were not required to fight as they signed up for the exploration and reconnaissance team. The lack of personnel for the job and the small, but acceptable amount of knowledge John possessed allowed them to be permitted.

Because of the size of the convoy, the human expedition couldn't remain hidden and were attacked a few times by some monsters, however, the local monsters were quite weak and they were all either killed or scared away by the high level combatants in charge of defending everyone with a few being taken down by the members of the trio so they gained a bit of experience.

At nightfall the humans set up a defensive perimeter and assembled a camp where everyone rested for the night as some of them took turns on watch to make sure nothing came near the non-combatants. In the morning they headed out again and repeated these actions for the next 4 days as a large convoy took longer to arrive then a single vehicle.

It was on the fifth day of travelling, when they were approximately an hour or so away, that the trio, along with the rest of the convoy, began to notice the massive changes brought on by whatever it was that happened here.

"Look at this place. What Happened?" Inquired Michael as he looked across what once was lush, beautiful fields filled with grass and roaming gazelle but now was barren land covered with small tufts of hard grass with no animals in sight.

"Did the explosion cause this as well?" Asked Joey with wide eyes as he shifted where he was sitting in order to better view the surrounding area.

"If this is how bad it looks all the way out here, just imagine what it will be like closer to the site." Said John in an even tone as he continued to drive their vehicle, following the path of the vehicles in front of them.

John was right. As they got closer to the crater, the land went from starting to look like it was poisoned, to looking like it was withering and dying.

After travelling for a while longer they finally came to the designated location for the camp. By this point there were no signs of life around them with the trees and plants having withered and died and the edge of the crater only being about a half hours walk from their location.

The trio parked their vehicle out of the way and then disembarked in order to help everyone set up the camp.

The fighting members immediately went and secured a perimeter while placing some barricades before they started patrolling. The rest, including the trio, started setting up some tents and work stations for the various members to start doing their work. By the time night fell, they had done all the preliminary work for their camp.

The trio had brought their own tent so, when the work was finished for the night, so as to not waste fuel on light sources if it wasn't necessary, they went to their tent to sleep. The only people left awake were the combatants working night shift which were each equipped with an electric flashlight and their respective gear. Magic knowledge hadn't progressed enough to make magic lighting possible but with continuing research at the base it was only a matter of time before basic appliances such as flashlights were replaced with magic counterparts.

The night ended with not even the slightest of sightings of any living creatures let alone being attacked by anything. The trio woke up with the rising sun along with everyone else and immediately set out to complete all the tasks that needed to be done.

As they were helping set up various facilities such as the forge and infirmary, Michael couldn't help but voice his thoughts.

"I don't like how eerily quiet this place is, there isn't even any noise from a breeze blowing through."

"There isn't any breeze, so how would a breeze make noise?" Asked John.

"I know, don't you think it's eerie? This place would be dead silent if it wasn't for the noise we were making."

"It does give a bit of a creepy atmosphere, but silence means there's nothing around, so it then indirectly states that we're safe." Replied John as he picked up a box of tools.

"You've got a point." Finished Michael as he too picked up a box and started following John to deliver it.

As they were working they came across a familiar face who was setting up his forge.

"Hi Alfred," John greeted as he placed the box of tools down next to Alfred's work area. "Didn't know that you also signed up for this job."

"How could I not sign up? I might not be a fighter, but I still like discovering new things. Maybe there is some super valuable ore that appeared down in the crater after all that mana gathered." Alfred replied with a wide grin, as he stopped what he was doing and greeted the trio.

"That would be pretty cool, and you don't need to worry. Us three are in the exploration team so, if we find anything like that, you'll be the first to know." Said Joey in a happy tone.

"Haha, I can't wait, but you three should be careful. Unexplored lands are always filled with dangers. Keep your guards up."

"We always do." Responded John with a light smile on his face.

After talking for another 10 or so minutes on various topics, the trio said goodbye to their friend and left to finish helping to set up the camp.

The rest of the day was spent making sure everything was perfect in preparation for the exploration team to head out and, by the end of the day, everything was ready. There were no more jobs that needed doing so the expedition leader called the exploration group for a meeting.

Arriving at the leaders tent the trio entered and were greeted by the slightly smiling faces of 4 other people, one of which was the leader.

The group then waited for a few more minutes and another 11 people arrived which made up the 14 people who were on the exploration team, not including the few stronger combatants that were also going, so the leader started the meeting.

"Now that everyone is here, let me go over a few simple formalities before all of you head out tomorrow. Firstly, I take it everyone here is smart enough to not fight with each other right? Good. All of you know this already but I'll say it again, you 14 people are heading out to explore something that we have not recorded before and have no knowledge of, which makes sense considering the world went to sh*t only 12 months ago but whatever, any discovery you make, no matter how small, must be recorded. We need as much knowledge as we can get. If you get into significant trouble or hit some sort of road block then it is fine to turn around and then we'll discuss an appropriate strategy to get around it, under no circumstances should you be running to your deaths if it can be avoided, we need information, but if you all die, then we won't get anything, so prioritise safety. Any questions?"

After the leader finished his small speech, John spoke up with an inquiry. "Sir, how will we survive if there is any dark mana down there, as I have personally experienced the effects that exposure to it can cause."

"We have prepared specially designed suits, sort of like hazard suits, that have mystic ore sewn into them which has been blessed by priests so it'll shield you from the dark contamination. However the protection isn't indefinite and the more strain you put on it, the faster it will run out so be careful about how long you stay down there. Just to be safe, try not to stay down there for any more than 2 days maximum and, when you come back, the priests that came along on our journey can then recharge the blessings, so to speak. Any more questions?"

This time no one spoke out so the leader then concluded the meeting and told everyone to get a good night's sleep and to meet outside his tent at dawn so the trio left the tent and proceeded back to there own tent before going to sleep in order to be in there best condition for when they explored the crater tomorrow.