Our Family Has Fallen

Lance was actually quite satisfied with acquiring the Meteorite. He just felt that the Limping Walker’s offerings should have been a bit more substantial. At the very least, Lance thought that as a Void Demon, the Limping Walker should have had more to offer. After all, he remembered that in the game, the Limping Walker dropped equipment quite generously. If not equipment, then some Extraordinary Materials would have sufficed.

Unfortunately, the traces of the Limping Walker’s existence in the world were erased. Its final Spiritual Essence was contributed, and even its flesh was squeezed clean, yet it still failed to satisfy someone’s greed.

Trash!

With a hint of disdain, Lance turned his attention to the dried corpses of the Heretics. He had no interest in the other ”rotten fish and shrimp”; they had already been drained into mummies and clearly couldn’t leave him with anything. However, the body of the cult’s Saintess should be another story.

It wasn’t that Lance had any strange predilections or an interest in a dry corpse. It was her identity that suggested she might be carrying treasures from the Ascension Sect. These female priests of the Ascension Sect liked to dress in such a way: draping a few pieces of cloth over their upper body and wearing a loose black skirt on their lower half. There wasn’t much cloth on top to begin with, and after a few slashes from Lance, it was all exposed, leaving nothing significant.

But there was something noteworthy beneath that skirt hem. Searching through it, Lance indeed found something familiar. It was a rolled-up leather scroll, its material showing considerable age. Upon opening it, he saw a Map drawn with simple lines, with many things marked on it. What interested Lance the most was that this Map had multiple routes marked on it, and there was more than one exit.

Having already harbored suspicions, Lance compared it with the Map in his mind and immediately understood. This was not entirely a Map of the Beast Lair. Part of it detailed tunnels excavated by the Ascension Sect to connect to the Beast Lair. Simply put, the Beast Lair did not originally extend that far and thus had no natural entrances or exits there. This changed when the Ascension Sect, or perhaps the Ancestors, compelled the Pigmen to dig tunnels right beneath this wilderness.

These marked exits also explained why the outpost’s soldiers could never find those Heretics, despite organizing regular sweeps and purges. As soon as the soldiers retreated, these Heretics would pop up in the wilderness like mushrooms after rain. They could take secret passages down to the Beast Lair to hide, circumventing the soldiers’ purges. These Heretics could also roam freely through the wilderness, using the Beast Lair’s routes to launch surprise attacks.

No wonder they attacked the outpost last time. I simply didn’t understand how they could gather so many people so quickly. Logically, concealing such a large-scale operation should have been difficult, yet it only became apparent when they were right in our faces.

But now that this Map has fallen into my hands... Lance’s smile grew even more brilliant.

If Spiritual Essence and the Meteorite Heavy Armor only concerned him personally, this Map affected the entire battle situation. With different focal points, their importance naturally differed. With this Map, he could launch targeted military operations, eradicate the Heretics causing trouble in the wilderness, and strike a heavy blow against the Ancestors. At the same time, completing part of the Beast Lair Map also saved him the trouble of exploring its routes bit by bit.

What are an army’s eyes? Intelligence.

And the Saintess, by sacrificing herself, gave me this piece of intelligence, filling in the final blind spots of the wilderness region.

She was worthy of being called a Saintess, truly too kind.

The gains from this trip far exceeded my expectations. The only pity is that the Map doesn’t mark any secret doors like last time; otherwise, I could have looted a bit more...

While Lance was still immersed in his pleasant fantasies, trouble struck elsewhere.

Boudica, who was sitting on a small stool resting with her Axe Spear propped up, suddenly collapsed without warning. Luckily, Amanda, who was beside her, reacted quickly and caught her before her head could hit the ground.

”Wake up! What’s wrong with you?”

Amanda’s shout seemed to bring Boudica somewhat back to her senses.

”I... I’m fine...” Boudica, not wanting to show weakness, tried to forcefully shrug off Amanda’s support.

But she obviously wasn’t alright, and Amanda was unsure whether she should let go.

As Amanda hesitated, Lance’s figure emerged from the darkness. He stepped into the light of the torches and took Boudica from Amanda.

”Don’t move, it’s me.” Lance steadied the uneasy Boudica and placed his hand on her forehead. Upon touching it, he immediately understood and blurted out, ”She’s running a fever!”

As he uttered these words, Amanda could see his brow slightly furrowed in the firelight.

”It must be from that previous injury caused by a Pigman. The wound wasn’t cleaned in time and was hastily treated, leading to an infected lesion.”

Lance quickly assessed Boudica’s condition. If it hadn’t been for the recent battle with the Limping Walker, this might not have flared up so soon, or she might have overcome it with her own constitution. But the heavy blow from the Limping Walker, followed by fighting in her injured state, weakened her system, making it more susceptible to infection. The tension from before had kept her going, but now that she’s relaxed, the condition has flared up.

”We can’t delay any longer. We must return as soon as possible for treatment.” Lance made his decision with little hesitation.

After all, the mission for this excursion was already complete: he’d harvested a good amount of Spiritual Essence and charted part of the Beast Lair Map.