Bait Again?

An hour later the gentle rays of the rising sun shone through the window, warming the patient dwellers with its soft light

A figure took it upon itself to block that sunlight however, allowing the two to notice the arrival

When Ellis and Anput turned to look at him he was raising a brow at Ellis

"Have you taken a liking to blood or are you too good for the showers"

Hearing him Ellis swallowed her greeting down, her face revealed an uncomfortable expression as she recalled the reason she wasn't in the mood to shower

"Il go take one now"

"Don't bother, we're about to fight anyway, first let me explain the attack plan"

He headed for the kitchen with those words

The two followed along, when they entered they saw him wave his hand over the table allowing various delicious-looking dishes to fall on the table neatly arranged, it made Anput salivate at the smell and Ellis amazed at the precision

After she had fiddled a bit with the storage function of the spatial feather she learned that taking an item out was similar to taking one out of the bag where you had to use your hands to hold it or it would fall off as if you dropped it out, seeing him make use of that function to neatly arrange the dishes on the table opened new doors for her

They sat down at the table and started eating, but while Ellis and Anput dug in like no tomorrow YuJu merely took a few bites and leaned back

"Since we are tight on time I will explain as you eat"

Ellis was just about to put her spoon down but when she heard him, so she scooped some more broth instead while listing attentively

"Its five in the morning now, five hours later we will head out to the border or else we won't make it there in time, we must be finished levelling up to fifty by then"

"Master"

"Hmm?"

"Why do we have to level up to fifty so fast? I understand that you want to make use of the buff of the first week but I feel that it should be easy to level up like at a fast pace when we are outside, were already slaughtering beasts with ease"

Anput nodded by the side, but she was more inclined to being curious than questioning it since she felt he always seemed to know what to do best

"Well, for starters, your entire perspective of levelling is wrong"

She was ready for a baffling explanation or a few more new secrets he somehow knew but didn't think he would first start by denying her knowledge of levelling first

"If you think that what you just experienced is the routine of levelling up then you couldn't be farther from the truth, this type of easy grind can only be done on one occasion and that is just before the walls the separate the worlds go down, because once the walls go down..."

He leaned into the chair and faced the ceiling, his eyes seemed to glaze as he dove into memories for a bit

"...Once the walls go down this peaceful strife for territory and levelling would be decimated, the world would turn into ruins as we are plunged into true danger, you won't be able to fight beasts wantonly for there might be enemies nearby that you could not handle, if you fight till you are tired then you can be certain that someone will take that opportunity to get rid of you, a moment of carelessness, a moment of fatigue, that's all it takes for your struggle of a life to be over"

Melancholy could be heard in his voice, it was clear to the two he had some bitter memories, now more than ever Ellis suspected he had lived the life in the Infidome, it was the first time she saw him a little emotional but that's all it took for her to realize whatever she imagined it to be was far worse than she thought, if this blood-filled battlefield is peaceful then god knows how much more blood will be shed once the dreaded moment of the walls going down came

The few seconds she spent thinking and Anput took to gently rub against his leg was enough for him to regain his previous state of mind, after a quick glance at the two he continued

"Furthermore, these beasts of which we've fought so far are different from the normal populace of the Infidome, they have been crazed by this lust for newly gained power, coupled with their previous lack of intelligence they make easy targets as they have nothing but instincts"

He looked at Anput while he continued to speak

"The ones outside are all used to the power they have, they gained a lot of combat experience and have great wariness for they know to fear stronger enemies, any beast who lived long enough to stay in the Infidome is cunning enough to do so, you would be lucky if you meet a weaker group of beasts that won't run away, as for rampages like yesterday then you can forget about them, at least in the short term"

He withdrew his gaze from Anput and took out a map, spreading it across the empty part of the table

"Listen carefully now since I will only explain once"

The two nodded while they continued to eat, their new deep thoughts were thrown to the back of their mind temporarily

"This is where we are right now"

He pointed at one of the small roads that were adjacent to a residential looking area that was closer to the edge of the city than the centre

"The centre of the city which should be where all the buzz is at has been shifted away from the port as the beasts are scared of the sea at the moment"

He moved his finger and circled an area with many buildings packed together

"This is the new centre, it used to be a shopping district which means a lot of human presence, that makes it the best place to hunt and get stronger for the beasts, after killing all the humans it became a battlefield for the strong"

That place was to the east of their current location, if it was at normal human speed it might have taken them a couple of hours to reach

"We will be avoiding that area, going around it toward this factory right here"

He tapped the scarcely populated edge of the map where only one huge square that represented the factory stood

"Were not fighting the stronger beasts?"

"Even if you fight something stronger than you you won't get any extra benefits for killing it, it would be the same if you killed it or a being stronger than it did, since the number of beasts you need to kill among the level thirty beasts isn't much less than the ones in level forty you might as well fight the weaker beasts"

"And that factory has a lot of those beasts"

He smirked at her question

"Plenty of them"

His words seemed to carry an ominous vibe that made her guess at their numbers, but since she would see them soon anyway she didn't dwell on it any further

"Killing those beasts won't be too hard, the problem is the way to get to the factory as we must avoid almost all the ones on the way since the slightest problem could send a hoard straight to us, and that would waste too much time"

"Cant you scout ahead Master?"

"That would take time as well, the only way to solve this is for someone to be the bait and lure the beasts intentionally away from us, while we are creating a hoard as well this time we will be in control of it"

With that said the two turned their eyes toward the happily munching Anput

"Awu?"

........

"Awuuuuuu!!"

Twenty minutes later the indigent cries of Anput could be heard as she sped across the messy streets with a bunch of beasts on her tail, clearly wanting nothing but to take a bite out of her small figure which invaded their territory

Watching this scene were two people on the roof od a nearby building

"Don't you think it's weird that she has a knack for angering beasts Master?"

Ellis asked after noticing this weird trait of Anput

"Well she has a very noticeable presence among normal beasts"

"She does?"

"Yes, it's like when you are put among a crowed you would stick out with your firm disposition and your unique looks"

Ellis nodded at his words, indeed she noticed her own difference from others caused popularity among her peers, her looks as well... never mind, with her current naked blood-stained body she would stick out anywhere

Oblivious to her thought derailing YuJu continued his assumptions

"Anput is the same, she is clearly much more intelligent from other beasts and her body has a unique vibe even among evolved beasts, furthermore her queen bloodline that came from the beetle egg gave her a domineering presence, normally that would scare the beasts or make them submit but since her hound race has no royal presence it only made the beasts irritated instead"

"royal presence?"

Ellis was intrigued by his explanation and wanted to know more, but he only nodded his head and spoke no more, turning toward their destination and leaving hastily

Seeing him leave she cast one last glance at the fleeting figure of Anput before following along

Agility was YuJu's main stat while Ellis had her aura to support her speed, coupled with the fact they didn't take normal roads and jumped off buildings they managed to shorten the trip all around the battle area to merely twenty minutes

Those twenty minutes though felt like an eternity to the poor Anput who had been running along the streets in a zig-zag manner in the same direction as them, she managed to attract all the beasts away from their area to herself

Now with hundreds of beasts behind it looked like doomsday all over again, except humans weren't the target this time

"You continue on to the factory, Il extract her from this mess and be right after you"

She nodded and ran toward the distant huge building

'Il spare her from the battle ahead while she rests'

He thought, disappearing from his place