Chapter 36: The Voice

He understood now what she meant. This was quite a boon for her then. "That is impressive. Well, what are you waiting for?" He asked her.

"Oh, I was waiting for what you wanted to do with it. I mean, I want to take it so I can breakthrough, but an herb like this can set you for life, you know?" She said, hesitating to take the herb.

"We're fine with money, so go ahead. I don't mind if you take it. In fact, it will be better if you get stronger," he said. As soon as he did, she didn't hesitate. Plucking it off the ground and ate the thing in one gulp.

"Whoa, don't you usually take this to, like, an alchemist or magi-craftsman to make it into a pill or something?" He asked, surprised by her actions. "At least make a tea out of it."

She shook her head, "We could, but an herb this rare would raise questions. This way, we will keep it a secret, and it will be enough to help me with my cultivatchaenuss..." she finished her words a little slurred as she wobbled side to side. Realizing what was happening, she sat down and began to meditate. Watching this happen, he held off on activating the medium factory for now until she finished what she was doing.

In the meantime, he had already sent a company of 100 commandos to arrive at their location. It would take them a day to get here, so for the time being, he got the already available commando sentries to take the wyvern eggs back to the fortress.

He gave three of them the small factory cubes to go activate them and stay there until enough sentries were produced to build the underground bunker projects.

Seeing the grass and moss area where the silver grade herb grew, he got an idea.

Using his sentries to help, they dug up the patches of dirt around it and then placed it inside his storage. If he could regrow the herbs back at the fortress, then maybe he could sell them later and give some to Jess or Jason later. Either way, it was a valuable resource, so it was worth keeping and cultivating it.

Like this, a day passed, and Jess was still meditating. In the meantime, the extra commando sentries arrived, and with their help, he was able to gather the corpses from the wyverns, including the Alpha's corpse. Learning from the ant colony raid, he had sent some of his sentries that were still undercover to ask one of the village butchers that also used to be a veteran adventurer on how to dismantle beast corpses. With pride, the man showed him how to handle different types of beasts.

He properly taught him the technique to dismantle reptile, avian, mammal, and fish corpses. At the end, Vulcan left the Alpha's head alone. He would imagine that when they got back to Krestfall, Marchioness Valeria would need proof of their mission being completed. Everything else like blood, bones, organs, scales, and even excrement was collected in case he could sell it to someone who could process the materials and maybe get something for it.

Putting it all away in his storage proved to be very convenient except for the eggs, and maybe that was because they were still living organisms. The dismantling took half a day to do, and Jess still hadn't moved. No matter, he sent the Commando sentries to survey the land now that they could cover more ground this way.

Something interesting came up; a commando had found a cliff that had ore showing on its side, but there was a problem. A caravan transporting people and guarded by a group of bronze rank adventurers was being attacked close to it inside a thin gorge that had a dirt road running through it. The front carriage was completely destroyed, a large boulder had fallen on top of it.

Surrounding the caravan were bandits that had used the boulder as a way to block their escape while they blocked the back escape with a large group of their people.

The front Carriage didn't have any people inside of it that died since there wasn't a pool of blood leaking from underneath, but the driver of the carriage was pinned under the debris. More bandits were posted on the top of the gorge raining arrows at the adventurers. He cursed his luck with this event happening out of nowhere.

"Fine, I guess I'll do it myself." Commandos set up positions around the groups; they each picked their target and fired. One by one, the bandits at the top of the gorge had their heads exploded. Bandits began to panic upon seeing their comrades die so suddenly. Some panicked and got shell-shocked, while others tried running away, but it didn't matter; they all perished.

"Boss, someone is taking us out from somewhere, we need t-" as his head also burst open from the powerful shot. Brain and blood matter sprayed on the bandit leader's face as his second-in-command died like that. He was a peak bronze fighter too; how could someone like that die so easily? Just as the bandit boss was going to order a retreat, his own head was blown away. Like all the bandits, he suffered the same fate in the end.

"W-what the hell is happening!?" Yelled one of the adventurers, stunned by the deaths of all the bandits.

"Ben, we need to help him get out of the wreckage. Come on!" Another said as they ran towards the first carriage that had the driver stuck underneath.

"NOBODY MOVE!!" Yelled a booming voice all around. Vulcan used all the commandos to make it seem like he was everywhere so it would be harder to pinpoint the origin of the voice. He even gave this voice an ancient, deep tone. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Little kids inside the carriages squirmed in fear from the voice, clutching onto their parents.

Finally, one of the braver veteran adventurers called out. "Who goes there!? Was it you who killed the bandits, uh sir!? Please, we are just a simple caravan trying to make it home if you cou-" said the adventurer as he was cut off from the loud voice again.

"SILENCE!" ordered the voice, "YOU SPEAK ANOTHER WORD, BOY, AND YOU'LL BE JOINING THE BANDITS TO THE GRAVE AS WELL!" Threatened the voice. This made everyone go stiff and some even started soiling themselves. Have they stumbled upon a powerful, cranky hermit? He must be at the gold stage to be able to kill so many without them seeing how he had done it.

"NOW LISTEN WELL IF YOU WISH TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY!" The voice commanded. "YOU WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND FORGET TO EVER USE THIS ROAD AS PASSAGE EVER AGAIN AS WELL AS WARNING ANYONE THAT IF THEY DARE CROSS HERE AGAIN, I WILL PERSONALLY TAKE THEIR HEADS MYSELF!" Just as the voice finished, the large boulder that was on top of the man underneath was sent flying as if someone had kicked it out of the way, but in reality, it was a commando sentry that was still invisible that moved it away.

"NOW GO!!!" Yelled the ancient voice.

That was enough to have the entire caravan scrambling with all their energy and leaving. Quickly picking up the wounded, they left immediately. The last adventurer who was at the end stopped himself and with trembling hands took out a bunch of coins from his belt and placed them on the dirt road and left sprinting after the caravan.

Vulcan watched them disappear into the horizon as he picked up the coin bag. It wasn't bad, a few silver coins were what was inside as he placed it into his storage. He then collected the bodies of the bandits and their belongings. Can't have this place attracting beasts. Hopefully, he scared the humans enough to have them spread the word to not use this road ever again so they wouldn't find the entrance to his small factory nearby.

Just as his focus was on activating the small factory, a large spike in energy distracted him, forcing him to focus back on his sentry body at the big cave. He rushed inside and saw that Jess had begun to release what looked like steam off her body, but it had a tinge of silver coloring in it. As he stared at the spectacle, her eyes slowly opened, and she fixed her gaze on him with the largest grin he had ever seen her wear. But it was her eyes that caught him by surprise. Before, they were a light green color.

Now, they were glowing silver. That, along with her olive oil tanned skin and blonde hair, made her seem like an unreal beauty. To make things even more unreal, she extended her left hand, and the SVSS that was leaning against the cave wall a few meters away flew towards her outstretched hand and caught it while she continued to gaze at him. If he had human eyes, they would be wide open and shocked right now.

"How is that possible?" He asked, his voice a mixture of shock and confusion.

"I'm a low silver stage fighter now, but that's not all. I got an affinity," she said to him, are she looked down at the SVSS and running her hand along the long barrel of the sniper rifle.

He had a feeling, but he asked anyway, "What is it?"

She slowly looked back up at him, "Metal."