Road rarely taken

"Holy shit that was scary!! Those were all Platinum Ranked Monsters and the one in the lead was almost close to Orichalcum rank. Even their cubs were gold rank, what the hell is this Continent with all of these strong beast living altogether?!" Ashea was huffing as soon as they finished speed running the lump of rocks for metal nuggets for about an hour. They didn't know when these beast would come back but they knew it would be hard to fight in this limited space in these caves.

They then ran back towards the cave home when their Bags were full. The storage bags were carried by Brad as they now weigh about three tonnes all together even with the weight reducing magic on the bags. The rest were carrying normal leather bags as they ran back but they still carefully looked around for signs of danger.

They were told by Brad that there is a possible colony of large Ants on the other side of the cave wall which Brad said was made by the Ants. They were not sure what the ants were but from the description of Brad they all seemed to be Iron ranked with some Silver rank soldier ants. Even if they are weaker than them by a lot, it still is dangerous to face a swarm of Ants all on their own.

This then explained why Brad placed some wooden logs soaked with oil, it is so he could light them on fire if the Ants decided to breach the walls. There was still the Glaring Eye that Brad said that could deterr the ants which they knew as the Nightmare Jabberwok's eye could still exude the intimidating aura of the beast.

When they reach the water wheel the four then dropeed down exhausted with all that hurried running and the weights they were carrying. They looked at Brad who was barely sweating carrying their storage bags that were almost filled by metal nuggets.

"This guy's a monster too, and he still has no mana signatures at all. He's like one of the Barbarian tribes, but they practice inner strength rather than magic there." Kent looked at the strong figure of Brad walking up the tunnel to go to the forge with all the newly gathered metal nuggets.

"We could still feel the strength of the Barbaian tribes through our senses, mine oculd only scream danger when in front of him." Brendel recovered first as she too picked up her Bag to bring it to Brad.

"And he's handsome not like those hairy barbarians, not the women though. But they are still hariy in their armpits hehehe..." Rhean giggled as she remembered her first encounter with a female barbarian.

"Okay, that's enough. We should close the large doors first then go watch what he wants to make with all these metals." Ashea stood up and brought her bag up with her.

"Let's go!" Rhean said as she and Kent stood up to follow.

Soon they stood outside the forge watching Brad sort out the various metals that they have gathered and put them on separate wooden crates marked with different letters. They too then helped him as he pointed out which crate to put the nugets in. They spent about three hours of identifying and sorting the metals.

They were in awe at the abundance of precious metals that they found in just one morning. There were-

twelve tonnes of black iron

five tonnes of steel

three tonnes of copper

one and a half tonnes of Tin

two tonnes of silver

two and a half tonnes of gold

800 kgs of Platinum

one ton of titanium

two tonnes of Tungsten

50kgs of Zinc

400 kgs of Orichalcum

90-100kgs of Mithril

3 kgs of adamantine

The four were literally rubbing their eyes seeing all these wealth was harvested on Worm poop. Even Kent felt less appalled at what he had done earlier as he looked at the three kilograms of Adamantine sitting there. The othe three also looked at it, out of all the metals they found they never would have thought that they were able to hold adamantine in their lifetime.

"Hey, if the guys hear about this would they believe us?" Rhean looked at the absent minded friends of her's which all simultaneosly shook their heads. She then looked at Brad who was looking at the various metals in a thoughtful manner. Just the mithril alone could buy ten Medium sized cities of all these metals and they just picked it up in worm poop.

They now understood why the various leaders of the various races wanted a piece of this land. The temptation was indeed so great that the leaders would probably ignore the deaths of their people just to get their hands on these. And all of the metals in front of her in now owned by a man with no knowledge of it's real value.

"Brad, do you know how rich you are in our eyes now?" Ashea said as she looked uncertain if she could keep herself sane weeing all these wealth.

"Huh?" Brad looked confusedly at the others.

[In a Forest far away]

"*Huff*Huff!! Keep moving, we must find shelter soon or else we would waste the freedom we just got! Help the weak and wounded, we must go far away form those terrible people!! We can do this!" The former slave now leader of this large group of escapees shouted as she watched over her shoulder to see the group of hundreds of slaves behind her.

Besides her were Former battle slaves acting as her guards as they have unanimously assigned her as their leader due to the bravery she showed in chosing to escape amidst the chaotic battlefield. Even the small girls she saved was following besides her, they all held weapons they picked up when they ran away. And because of the charisma she showed when she commanded the Battleslaves to fight and protect the group that led to others into joining their protection. She had shown a road taken by many before but rarely succeeds, yet they still followed willingly.

Her name was Lana Street, she was a aspiring soldier of a small kingdom that joined in the struggle for supremacy of the Beast Lords. She was just a poor farm girl ophaned and left with a cripple father who sustained injuries as a soldier. Even then her Father was able to raise her with dignity and honor. Which she thought she would earn as she start from the bottom of the army she had joined in.(Authors note: If you want a physical and facial description of Lana, you should think of a certain word to replace her last name. What can you find in streets that cars go through? *wink*wink*)

She wanted to become something her father would be proud of but her luck was abysmal when she met a large contigent of slavers in her patrol with her squad. She was captured along with others and thus became slaves but only for a short while because of the attack at the bay. But that was enough for her to realize the dark part of society wouldn't care for her dignity and honor.

So when she found the chance she took it as she escaped with the slaves who experienced worse than her. Now she's leading at least aobut two hundred and fifty people following her, thankfully there were at least various battle slaves who somehow followed her orders. Feeling the responsibilty she was given, she felt suffocated but her Father's words kept her moving.

'Lana, always keep your head held high. Even when the world seems to fall around you keep them held high.'