The Hunt for Blood Ores (1)

"Goodness! The leader is wasted! Looks like we'll have to go without him."

A light-hearted voice came from behind her. Riize turned around, watching questioningly as Ethan closed in with a small smile to his lips.

Trailing behind the young man were two fellow hunters who had rushed to place themselves on each side of the drunk Gerald, holding onto the sluggish man's arm and carrying him away without any word.

Before Riize could open her mouth to raise her questions, Ethan had voiced out his explanation the instant he took the seat before her.

"Please don't worry for Sir Gerald. We'll be settling him in a nearby inn for convenience's sake. As for the expedition, you don't have to worry as it'll be going according to the plan."

Ethan assured, before asking her, "Before that, has the leader informed you of the expedition's purpose?"

Riize shook her head. Though she might have had a gist of what it was from the information she had gathered beforehand, Gerald hadn't exactly told her of their purpose himself. Prior to this, they had only discussed the ideal routes they might be taking for the trip.

Due to the constant changes applied to the Demon Realm's topography, which was caused by the many natural disasters and supposedly, some mystic guesses, they would have to constantly make on spot improvisations later on.

"Well then, have you ever heard of Blood Ores?"

Riize paused, as if caught off guard by his sudden inquiry.

'Blood ores? As if, stones that are extracted from the Abyssal Spawns?'

The precious ore the Zephirres were looking for… Were they perhaps blood ores? But, what would Kairos be needing them for?

The lines between her eyebrows wrinkled to form a frown. As far as she knew, blood ores were similar to mana stones, a typical kind of precious stones that contain powerful energies. However, unlike manastones and the magical energy derived from it, the energy contained within blood ores were deadly toxic to humanity.

This was because those ores were generated from the abyss' demonic miasma, therefore carrying similar toxic traits with a much greater effect due to the difference of concentration. In short, blood ores were akin to the highly-concentrated condensation of the poisonous demonic mist.

Staring back at the young man who eyed her with twinkling interest, Riize feigned her indifference, shaking her head as she waited for the man to fill her in.

"Blood Ores are stones that grew out of the backs of Abyssal Spawns. They are usually shaped like tall jagged crystals, bearing dark red colors akin to that of dirtied blood."

Ethan explained with his hands flailing in the air, as if struggling to give her a clear depiction of what the stones look like.

"Now, you must be wondering why we're talking about these ores." Ethan winked at her, sending chills to the flabbergasted demon. "You guessed right! The blood ores were exactly our target for the trip!"

Riize was rendered speechless by the young man's over-the-top performance. Nevertheless, she let the overly-excited him spew out whatever's in his mind, having no intention to interrupt his fun.

"The job wouldn't be easily done as the stones should be extracted when the abyssal spawns still held a breath within them. Whatsmore, the spawns should be handled with extra care as any defect on the stones might cause the energy within to leak out, draining all value from the stones."

"Now then, why don't I continue as we make our way to the designated spot?" Ethan suggested with a smile. Seeing her nod, he snapped his head to the squad and signaled for them to finish their preparations, before turning back to her, "Let's go. Our steeds have been prepared."

Riize watched their movements in pensive silence. Just as Ethan was about to leave his seat, Riize stopped him with the tug of his sleeve whilst eyeing at his reaction.

"Before that, I will be bringing my companion along, will that be okay?"

She pointed at her pocket, where the slime supportively peeked out with a decent part of its lime green jiggly head exposed to the air.

Ethan blinked and blinked, a strange wide grin surfacing on his face.

"A slime? Sure. Why not?"

===

They were traveling by Phantom Sand Lizards, a type of lesser monsters who were both easy to tame and resistant to the Red Sea's extreme weather. With strong limbs and thick-skinned sturdy builts, they were often one of the best choices one could get to travel across such extreme regions.

After crossing the last line of the borders, they would be welcomed to a vast wasteland with little vegetation. The Red Sea, often dubbed as the hunters' heavenly hunting grounds, was a neutral area that didn't fall under the jurisdiction of any demon kingdoms, therefore safer for outsiders to explore to a certain degree.

Before officially entering the Red Sea, Riize had given each member a rough sketch of the wasteland's topography and the route they would be taking. After a short discussion, the group had agreed to target only mid-sized abyssal cracks to limit the expected number of abyssal spawns within the area.

The squad was undoubtedly trained. Along the way, they had met with numerous abyssal spawns who had roamed around either by group or alone, and not once had they failed to bring them down.

Unfortunately, the extraction of their blood ores were incredibly inefficient. From almost a number of 50 spawns, they had successfully extracted not even a tenth of the ores, failing either from breaking the ores on the process or accidentally killing the spawns, prompting all signs of life and energy to disperse out of the dim blood ores.

"We can't go on like this."

Ethan stated the obvious, to which everyone agreed with grunted voices.

"Yes, our stamina and energy are gradually being chipped out by these aggressive monsters."

"Moreover, these monsters attack us like crazy the moment they lay their sight on us while we, for the sake of not damaging the ores, can only hold back and deal with them lightly and carefully, which is nearly impossible as our lives are literally on the line!"

Another took out their pocket watch and expressed his worry about the time.

"2 hours have passed, we have only 6 hours left before the end of the Hunting Hour!"

And amongst all their mumbles of depression…

"Ize, I'm hungry."

The slime sheepishly said as it rubbed its jiggly stomach.

"..."