Chapter 042 - Party (3)

"If you have anything else to take care of, please do so now. As this is a temporary party, we will take care of our own potion needs. We will help you using our own potion if you can't move, but you have to compensate us later. Let's meet at this place again in an hour."

After Bassel's speech, they go their separate ways to take care of their own business. Alex moves towards the market district pointed by Bassel earlier. He plans to buy some potions as he is now left with only one {Mana Potion}. He has used up everything else in his fight against the <Giant Poisonous Frogs>.

Soon, Alex finds himself in the market district of Gaia Town. He finds a stall that sells potions and starts haggling. After spending 250 credits to get 3 {Health Potions}, 2 {Mana Potions}, and 1 {Antidote Potion}, he left the market district with an empty pocket. He's now left with only 8 credits to his name.

He started with almost 4,000 credits to his name and now he's broke. He hasn't even changed any of his F-ranked equipment to E-ranked ones. This rank is truly an abyss hole that swallows credits.

Alex finds himself in the promised meeting area once again. The other members are not there yet as it's still 30 minutes to the promised time. After waiting for 15 minutes, one member shows up at the meeting place. It is Carina, the South American woman. They chat for a bit while waiting for the other three members.

He finds out that Carina became a Defender around 7 months ago when she was just 19 years old. She just turned 20 a few months ago. The calluses and cutting marks on her hand showed that she spent a long time training her throwing dagger skill. From their short conversation, Alex can conclude one thing: this woman is too naive and innocent. She told him almost everything she could tell him in that short conversation. She even told him about her family and hometown in Brazil.

The other members arrive on time after they have talked for 15 minutes. Seeing that everyone has gathered, they immediately set out to the eastern side of Gaia City towards the Irriburn Forest. After they arrive on the edge of the forest, Bassel starts giving out instructions.

"From here on out we have to be careful. Since we have two members with {Detection} skill, the two of you will alternate in using them in order to save mana. If a creature is detected, Alia as our scout will go out and lure the creature to our spot and we will work together to finish it off. Listen to my instruction when we are in a fight, otherwise, I will not be responsible for your demise," Bassel warns them.

"But, remember, if more than two creatures are detected, we are not to engage them immediately. We will have to find a safe spot that will enable us to lure one creature without alerting the other creature(s) with the sound of fighting," Alia interrupts to remind them of an important rule.

"She's right. We should try to avoid engaging more than one creature at a time. These E-ranked creatures are different than the F-ranked creatures. If we're unlucky and have to face two creatures at once, then one or two of us will have to distract one of them while the other members finish off the other one," Bassel finishes his instruction.

"Understood?" he looks at the two newbies and asks for their confirmation.

"Yes," Alex replies.

"Yeah, I understand," Carina replies.

"Okay, let's head in. Alex, use {Detection} when I tell you to," Bassel commands them to start moving.

"Okay."

After they have walked for around 50 meters into the Irriburn Forest, Bassel tells Alex to use his {Detection} skill. Alex complies and starts chanting the rune-words for {Detection}. As he starts chanting, he can feel his spirit moves on its own to bind his mana and starts spreading it in a dome shape around his body. After he finishes chanting the last rune-word, the mana around him blasts outside to a 35m radius around him. If a part of it meets a large clump of mana, that part of his mana will form roughly the same clump and bounces back towards his original location. His spirit will automatically detect this clump of mana and the location it originated from, which will tell him the location of an enemy or other Defenders.

Alex still feels weird at how his own spirit and mana move outside of his will when he casts a skill. He has tried to replicate those process on his own, but he failed. The way these skills get executed still left him in wonder every time he casts them. Especially, when his spirit has been transformed by the ring now. He can feel the way his skills execute much more clearly.

The party keeps walking forward as they didn't find anything with Alex's {Detection}. They move another 50 meters forward to where the trees start to appear bigger in size. This time it's Alia's turn to use the {Detection} skill. She still doesn't find anything.

This is still near the edge of the forest, so it's normal for them to not find any creature loitering around this area. But, they still have to be careful and keep using {Detection} every 50 meters.

The area they are in right now is surrounded by dense trees. The rays from the orange sun have more difficulty in penetrating the dense leaves of those trees. It causes this part of the forest to look dimmer than the earlier area, but there is still enough sunlight for the Defenders to see around them. Although, it is difficult for them to see too far into the distance as their views are being blocked by those trees and the minimum lighting.

This is Alia's 5th time casting the {Detection} skill, which means they have walked for 500 meters inside this Irriburn Forest.

"Oh... I found a creature around 30 meters northeast from here. Seems to be an E-ranked 1-star creature. I will go and lure it here. You guys should get into position," Alia tells them a good news that they've finally found their first prey.