Pillar of Yita

Although the giant monster could use Earth System Spells, they weren’t very effective at close range. Of course, that was only in terms of offense; in terms of defense, the Big Catfolk felt it was just as troublesome, as the opponent protected its remaining claw very well, not allowing him to get close easily at all.

He was just planning to think of a way and take one more risk when—he heard a voice coming from the Communication Crystal:

”Mr. Reed, please fall back a bit.”

That was Fang Hong’s voice—

The Lion Paladin raised his head and happened to see the jagged rock spur jutting out from the top of the cliff. During the previous exchanges, that Construct Giant Crab had already come beneath the rock spur. He froze for a moment, then understood Fang Hong’s intent, so he sheathed his Longsword and stepped back.

What shocked him was that as soon as he retreated, that Construct giant monster, which he had thought had extremely low intelligence, actually raised its head with great alertness.

Then it too saw the jutting rock spur at the edge of the cliff.

No one knew what kind of thought prompted it to act as it did, but when it saw that rock spur, it instinctively took a step back.

At that moment, a Flash burst from the top of the cliff, followed by a deafening boom as torrents of sand and stone fell from the cliff edge. After the blast, that rock spur slowly tilted, and with a second thunderous crash, it came crashing down.

The people of the Holy White Stone Guild couldn’t help letting out a long breath when they saw this scene.

Although they couldn’t clearly see whether the falling boulder had crushed the Monster, it at least blocked the entrance of the gorge, cutting those Crystal creatures off on the other side.

They were safe for the moment.

Short Beard also paused when he saw this scene and lowered the hand pressed to his chest.

”Keep clearing the enemies!”

There were still some remaining opponents in the gorge. Amatoran was afraid his people would relax their vigilance because of this, so he hurriedly barked out an order.

But he himself lowered his axe blade and looked up, as if only then realizing there were other people on the cliff. In his line of sight, that person quickly appeared above the cliff edge.

The other party looked down from on high, then opened his mouth in a deliberately roughened voice and said:

”Listen up, everyone, we’re Mercenaries passing by. Do you need any help here?”

For a moment Amatoran felt as if he were having an absurd dream—so how exactly did you end up ’passing by’ hundreds of meters underground? He tilted his head to look at the figure on the cliff whose face he couldn’t see clearly. Suspicious as they were, they were at least humans, not Monsters.

”Friend,” he shouted, ”as you can see, we’ve run into trouble.”

”We saw,” Fang Hong replied. ”Where are you headed?”

Amatoran really wanted to say—we want to get back to the surface. But he wasn’t stupid; he understood that although the other side was full of nonsense, the fact that they had appeared here meant they were most likely trapped down here just like them.

He paused and glanced at the Short Beard behind him before saying, ”This Tree People gentleman says he’ll take us to a safe place.”

This was exactly the answer Fang Hong had been waiting for.

He looked at that Grey Treant; if his guess was right, the place they were heading would also be where the owner of that earlier voice was.

Fang Hong thought for a moment, then spoke in a pressed-down voice:

”We can escort you to that place—”

He forced his voice lower to avoid giving himself away, but since he didn’t really know how to do it, he sounded pretty much like he was coughing up phlegm.

Behind him, both Gita and Tianlan almost doubled over laughing. The Natural Historian was a bit better, but she nearly laughed herself breathless—what was this about Mercenaries ”passing by,” anyway?

And their Captain’s deliberately deepened voice sounded exactly like a Pigeon cooing.

Tianlan was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes, when suddenly her eyes widened and her face went paper-white, her open mouth unable to draw a breath. Gita was so startled she hurriedly smacked her on the back, and Miss Poet started coughing violently, gasping as she said:

”Cough, cough—scared me to death, Brother Ade almost killed me laughing, haha...”

But Xiesta shook her head, and at Hilveld’s signal, she walked over, grabbed each of the two little troublemakers by the back of the neck, and lifted them up.

Amatoran froze for a moment. Suddenly he understood what the other party meant, and realized why they’d called themselves Mercenaries—this was practically taking advantage of a crisis.

But they had shown the corresponding strength in the earlier Combat, especially that Lion Paladin who’d fought the Giant Crab; his individual strength was far above theirs.

If all of these people were at that level, hiring them as escorts wouldn’t exactly be a loss.

He paused, then said, ”I understand the rules of the mercenary trade; we’ll give you reasonable payment.”

With a clatter, he heard something fall to the ground behind him.

Amatoran turned around and saw that Miss Nightingale had failed to hold on to her blade. Alice gave him a somewhat nervous look, then quickly bent down to pick up the Dagger.

But Amatoran didn’t think much of it; earlier he himself had almost dropped his Combat Axe.

However, no sound came from the top of the cliff.

Amatoran frowned, thinking that he’d agreed too quickly, making the other side think they could squeeze even more out of him.

But he had already made up his mind that no matter what the other side said, even if they all died here, he absolutely wouldn’t keep letting them raise the price.

The Holy White Stone Guild had at least some name and standing in this region.

He was overthinking it, though—

Fang Hong didn’t answer. He just turned back and heard the Big Catfolk’s voice coming from the Communication Crystal:

”Ade, that higher-level Crystalysis Beast is nearby.”

”What?”

”They seem to have learned their lesson. The landslide you caused earlier didn’t bury them,” Reed’s voice sounded rather serious. He held the Crystal in one paw and looked around through the swirling dust. ”Remember what was written in that log? I suspect there’s a higher-tier Crystalysis Beast nearby commanding them.”

Fang Hong immediately grew alert.

He turned to look toward the other side of the gorge, and what he saw almost made him cry out.

More faint blue lights appeared in the distant darkness. Like scattered fireflies, they gradually merged into a flood, surging in this direction.

More importantly, he saw that under the loosening rock layers, many larger creatures were breaking through the earth. He couldn’t tell whether those were Crystalysis Beasts.

But clearly, they definitely weren’t here to welcome them.

According to Gita’s earlier analysis, that Crystal Giant Crab’s strength was already close to Level 33, and it was the troublesome type even within that Level range.

As for even higher-level Crystalysis Beasts, what Level would they be? Level 35? Level 40?

He drew in a quiet breath, picked up the Communication Crystal with a serious expression, and said:

”Mr. Reed, withdraw from that area first.”

...

After a brief silence.

Amatoran finally got an answer. He saw that person appear again at the top of the cliff, quietly looking down at them, then say:

”The situation may have changed a bit, everyone.”

As expected, Amatoran thought. These damned, insatiable types were like vultures on the wasteland, eager to peck off the last scrap of rot from a corpse.

He was already prepared to refuse.

No matter what, they would at least die with some dignity. He glanced back at the towering Tree People, thinking that he did feel a bit sorry for this Mr. Short Beard.

...