Advance Toward the Main Settlement

I was awoken by the sound of Mayuri's voice—however, she was nowhere to be seen.

Is this something related to the loss of my memories?

Slowly, I stretched my back and climbed out of bed. I had gotten quite used to the bed that I made a few days ago with whatever random materials I had. Honestly, I've practically forgotten what a 'normal' bed feels like.

I made my way to Chloe's hut and knocked on the door.

The moment my knuckles hit the wood, she opened the door.

"Hey~"

"Are you ready to fight the boss of the Cloaks?"

"Yep. I've been thinking about it all night~"

"You're a psychopath."

"Hehe~"

There was nothing else for us to prepare so alongside my Minions, we began trekking into the forest. The ground was still wet from the early morning dew.

The previous days, I had sent several Scout Minions to explore the area. We managed to find the main Cloak hideout as it was pretty close to the other settlements they had taken over. There was a good chance that they knew we were coming since they likely saw my Scouts and noticed that a few of their settlements had been overrun.

On the way to their base, we made a quick pit stop at Camp B. As we made our way out of the forest, we were greeted by the travelling merchant, Jean. He had been patiently waiting for us. As he saw the giant army of Minions behind me, he appeared physically taken aback.

"H-holy moly, why do you have such a big army?"

"It's my system, anyways, I'll be initiating the trade now."

-

<Trading>

{x1} Recovery Potion - 5 Tokens

{x1} Enhanced Fertiliser - 4 Tokens

{x1} Music Player + 2 Disks - 24 Tokens

-

I looked at the items.

"Alright, I'll buy all of them."

"All of them? Are you sure?"

"It is what I said I'd do, are you going to level up soon?"

"I should level up in two days if I sell out every day."

"What do you gain?"

"I get an extra item in my shop."

"That'll be useful, well, I'll be seeing you again tomorrow then."

Suddenly, I received another notification.

-

<Trade>

{+1} Recovery Potion

{+1} Enhanced Fertiliser

{+1} Music Player + 2 Disks

...

{-33} Tokens

-

After the items were transferred to my inventory, I called my Minions and we began walking back into the forest. Jean was also leaving for wherever he stayed. Chloe and I trudged through slippery vegetation and soft dirt. It was slightly wet, likely from the rain last night as we slept.

The main settlement was quite a distance away from our Camp A. The settlement was much closer to Camp C, so the trek would take at least an hour or so. It was especially hard since I needed to manoeuvre several hundred Minions through the forest.

Based on the information that my Scout Minions gave me, their settlement was quite big, it looked as if it housed several hundred people. It was going to be quite a battle. In total, I only had around 300 hundred Minions in total and around 60% of them were combat-oriented. I had no idea if I was underestimating our enemy or not, however, I assumed that one of my Combat Minions would be strong enough to take out a standard, non-combative human.

Chloe and my three Elite Minions were the main force that was going to be going against their strongest soldiers. I didn't have much choice so I'd likely have to fight their strongest weapon.

I managed to deduce that this 'weapon' of theirs was likely the person named Callum Ffrench. He was the only person who used to be on the Global Rankings and is no longer there. I had no idea what his strength was or what his system was, but with our limited resources, I'd have to face him alone.

I was going to need to get as much power as I could from Mayuri.

Normally, I'd like to fight with only my Minions if possible, but I heard that Callum had some sort of ability which is able to kill big groups of enemies. It was annoying but I had to deal with it if I wanted to take them out for good.

Time was also of the essence, as much as I'd like to sit back and build up my forces, they, with over a hundred people, would likely scale at a much faster rate than I could. It was necessary that I defeat them now and take everything they have. In this world, if you fall behind, you'll simply become food for bigger tribes and stronger people.

We continued travelling through the difficult terrain. I had a few of my Scout Minions lead me but there was still the risk of getting lost. We needed to move at a slow enough rate so that everyone would be able to keep up and stay as a group. The last thing I want is to be identified by some Cloaks and have my Minions picked off in the forest.

After almost forty minutes, we arrived at Camp C. I already had a few Minions situated here just to take care of the camp since otherwise it would be completely abandoned. I brought a few more Warrior and Scout Minions into my main force and organised them so that they fit into the army.

Chloe and I took a quick rest break and I made sure that all of my Minions were still here.

"This is cool, it's like we're marching into war~"

"I mean, that's basically what we're doing."

After a short pit stop to rest our legs, we got up again and continued the march towards the main Cloak settlement. I decided to use my Standard Flux so I could speed up the travel time. It increased the speed of all of my Minions by 20% so we were quickly on our way. Ideally, I would've liked to have upgraded it to a Power Flux but I didn't have enough resources and it'd likely take a couple of days minimum.

{Standard Flux ACTIVATED - Duration: 30 seconds}

With [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] clattering on my hips, I moved forward, step by step.

This was going to be the biggest challenge yet.