Not wanting to run into the golems they had "defeated" before again, the group decided to head for another of the stairways Erik had pointed out on the map. After dodging a few groups of hunters, they finally reached the exit, where—after passing through a narrow tunnel—they could once again see the fading sunlight.

"I'll try to find the others."

After inhaling a lungful of fresh air, Erik announced calmly, and the others nodded, so Erik closed his eyes. Extending his perception to the limit with the help of the Myst, Erik was soon able to sense Frank approaching from afar with another group of youths. At that moment, Erik opened his eyes, looked at the others, and spoke in a steady voice.

"One of my companions is on his way back; the others shouldn't take long."

"How about we make the most of the time and continue with our business, Disciple Erik?" Christine remarked with a small smile. Erik nodded with a calm expression and picked his notebook back up, while Ethan and Chen started a discussion about formations for the base.

…

"I see everyone's here already!"

After a while—once they had all gathered, bringing with them at least a hundred carcasses of magical creatures of different sizes—Tomás landed and spoke in a powerful voice. Erik, who was making a small inventory along with a rationing plan, turned to look at Tomás and commented as he watched the nearly twenty-meter boar falling from the sky.

"We set up formations for a temporary base, but for something more lasting we'll need formation flags, so we want to see what we have and what we're missing to try to make them."

While creating a Myst platform with a magic circle to catch the giant boar, Erik spoke evenly. Tomás eyed the Myst platform with a hint of curiosity as he answered with energetic confidence.

"Good thinking. I brought the most important things from the base, so we can do a quick joint inventory while we start processing the meat for preserves."

"Sounds good. Let's do that."

Erik replied calmly; at that moment a magic circle appeared on the ground a few meters from the group, making the earth move as if it had a will of its own. Soon, several crates emerged from the ground, which were quickly enclosed in Myst barriers that flew toward Frank and Elara. Erik then spoke evenly.

"Frank, Elara, I'm counting on you."

"Understood."

Elara nodded quickly, her tone serious, and Frank nodded as well. For his part, Tomás glanced at the crates with a touch of curiosity, but he quickly loosened the pouch at his waist and tossed it to Ethan while ordering calmly.

"Ethan, Christine, I'm leaving it in your hands."

"Got it!" Ethan answered with a small, triumphant grin, while Christine turned to look at Elara, flashing her a mocking smile, which made the beautiful mage snort in annoyance.

Erik, meanwhile, approached Tomás and spoke quietly as he surveyed the large number of corpses around them.

"Although there's no one nearby for now, that could change at any moment, so we need to hurry. How do you want to handle this? Do we split the food among the groups that hunted it, or do we come to an agreement?"

"Let's work on everything at once and then divide the meat and different materials into equal shares. That would be the fairest and most efficient."

Tomás spoke in an even tone, fully aware of the implications of Erik's words. They weren't a single team yet—they were two separate teams working closely together to survive, but they still had independent chains of command. Unless one group submitted to the other, there would be two leaders, and they had to treat each other with due respect in order to cooperate effectively.

"Sounds good to me. It's a deal." Erik said calmly as he extended his hand to Tomás, who quickly took it and replied with a confident smile.

"Then let's get to work."

"I'm already on it."

Erik spoke with a smile, which made Tomás turn to look around with a flicker of alarm. At that very instant, at least a dozen carcasses rose into the air headfirst, as if invisible hands were holding them by the legs. Tomás raised an eyebrow at the sight, then looked at Erik with a composed expression, finding only a kindly smile on the young man's face.

(You're anything but simple, Erik… and you even have a certain elegance to your displays of power.)

Tomás reflected without changing his expression, once again understanding the young man's implicit message. He was basically warning him, subtly, that although he was weaker, catching him off guard wouldn't be difficult—so assassination was always on the table. They were on similar footing, and it wasn't a good idea to underestimate them.

Smiling, Tomás nodded to Erik and, after releasing his hand, turned to look at the youths in his group and commanded in a firm, resonant voice.

"Family! Time to work—we have to finish this in under two hours."

""Os!!""

The group of six youths shouted in unison, then split up and began taking on a beast in pairs, while Tomás drew his sword and headed for the giant boar he had brought. Erik looked at his own team—Zoe, Chen, and his two companions—and began to assign tasks while reeling in the corpses he had grabbed with his ghost hand.

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"Zoe will handle the butchering with me. Chen and Hiyori, you'll take care of the smoking. Haoran Leng will handle the smoke and storing the blood, and Dalai Lin will cut bamboo to make containers for the blood and boxes to store whatever doesn't fit in the storage bags."

""Understood!!""

The group answered in unison and each got to work, so Erik fashioned some temporary containers out of nearby rocks, then slit the corpses' throats and began draining the blood with the help of a small liquid-control magic circle. This greatly sped up the work without affecting the blood's properties, as it would be needed for formations and for crafting artifacts and potions.

Though a bit surprised at how the fox spirit obeyed Erik's orders, Tomás quickly focused on his task, as did his team. While Erik's group worked like an orderly assembly line, Tomás's group performed like seasoned butchers, managing to break down the beasts in pairs at great speed.

Moreover, unlike Erik's group, they had an ice mage who moved from pair to pair, freezing the meat, blood, and more, which spared them the need to smoke or prepare containers.

Even though their methods differed, the efficiency of the two groups was quite similar, and they managed to finish half the corpses in just under an hour. At that point, Elara announced in a calm voice that could distract anyone from their work.

"The inventory is ready."

"If we combine what both teams have, we've got more or less the ingredients to make some basic flags, though I'm a little worried about the cores—we might come up a bit short." Christine interjected in a sensual, melodious voice. Erik nodded calmly and replied.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, let's focus on preparing as best we can."

"I agree. I think it's better to start taking the supplies inside to make the most of our time." Tomás added evenly. Erik turned to nod and asked in a serious tone.

"Works for me—who leads?"

"I do. I want to go in and take the chance to get a few more storage bags. They'll make our lives much easier." Tomás said, resting his hand casually on the hilt of the sword at his waist. Erik nodded, understanding the implications.

"Fine by me. Same price for the modifications?"

"Same is fine. You can take your cut once we're set up." Tomás nodded, and so did Erik, who shortly after turned to Frank to give a firm order.

"Frank, you'll be in charge of carrying our stuff."

Frank nodded firmly, but in that instant he noticed Erik shoot a subtle glance at Lirio above his head, then shift his eyes to his feet, which left him a bit confused. After a few moments, though, Frank grasped the implications. Lirio and his shadow were key. Clenching a fist tightly, Frank replied in a serious voice.

"Understood, boss."

Meanwhile, Tomás's gaze narrowed ever so slightly when he saw the subtle change in the young air mage's expression. Although they had hidden it well, it became fairly obvious to Tomás that a message had been passed somehow, though it wasn't a sound transmission. And judging by Frank's subtle micro-expressions, the message had to do with him.

But though it seemed to involve him, instead of hostility or something like that, Tomás noticed Frank was concealing a subtle caution. So, if he had to guess, he'd say that rather than wanting to do something to him, it was more like Erik had told him not to let his guard down.

(Erik is pretty two-faced. Firm and full of confidence when he speaks and negotiates, but incredibly cautious and distrustful underneath… Although I don't much like that attitude, it really is what a leader needs in this situation. Plus, if he's that cautious, what he's shown is probably far from his true full capability… Interesting.)

After analyzing the whole situation in a matter of milliseconds, Tomás reached a conclusion that let him understand Erik a little better. But the blue-haired youth quickly dismissed his train of thought and looked at Ethan, then ordered in a calm voice that seemed inherently charismatic.

"Ethan, you're coming with us. Christine and the others will focus entirely on processing the rest of the hunt."

""Os!!"" the group of six announced in unison. Christine, for her part, smiled seductively and commented while looking at Erik.

"Then I'll help Disciple Erik. With my ice magic, it'll be faster to preserve the ingredients."

Tomás simply nodded, then turned to look at Erik, only to find him holding a pair of vines. At the same time, several magic circles materialized in front of the wooden crates and blocks of ice, conjuring Myst barriers to surround them. Erik handed the vines to Tomás and spoke in a steady tone.

"The barriers' relative position is linked to these vines, and they'll last a couple of hours, so you can carry things more easily."

"Your magic is quite convenient…" Tomás said, somewhat surprised as he took the vines, causing the barriers to move along with them. Erik smiled and replied.

"Only in this odd situation—a storage ring is much better."

"That's true." Tomás agreed; after all, outside of a ruin, running out of storage artifacts would be pretty unlikely.

After handing the vines to Ethan and Frank—who quickly tied them around their wrists—Tomás took his leave and headed into the strange mountain. At that moment, Zoe spoke calmly while shooting Christine a venomous look; Christine made no effort to hide her obvious intentions toward Erik, sidling up to him like a cat in heat.

"Let's continue; we can't waste time."

"Chen, let me help you with the smoking." Elara approached Chen and said evenly, and he nodded.

"That'll be a great help, Disciple Belmonte."

"Let's begin; we need to finish this as quickly as possible."

Erik looked at his teammates and commented calmly, fully assuming the role of his team's overall leader. Everyone nodded back, and soon the group started working again. With the addition of Christine and Elara, however, efficiency increased, allowing them to be even faster than the six youngsters in Tomás's group.

But after a while, just as everyone was growing accustomed to their tasks, a sharp sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the place. Erik's eyes widened in disbelief as he turned to look far off to his left. The others did the same, while an inexplicable chill spread through their bodies.

[The barrier collapsed.]

At the same time, Erik heard Ebonique's heavy voice in his mind, confirming his fears. With a solemn expression, Erik turned to the others and ordered in an incredibly serious voice, even as magic circles sprang up to surround all the crates, carcasses, and ice blocks.

"Inside, now!"

Erik's shout snapped everyone out of their momentary daze, and they quickly pushed their mana to the limit. In that instant, a brutal roar—accompanied by a terrifying shockwave and what seemed like an apocalyptic gale—hit them.

Simultaneously, magic circles and runes formed out of nowhere, preceding the appearance of layer upon layer of barriers that tried to interpose themselves in the shockwave's path. But as if they were made of paper, the barriers were torn to pieces, and several crates and beast carcasses were sent flying through the air. At that moment, Erik's voice rang in everyone's ears.

"Down!"

Almost instinctively, they all threw themselves to the ground, at which point the earth deformed as if it were a living liquid, covering them completely. This created an aerodynamic geometry of solid rock that deflected the hurricane-force winds, which were tearing down trees hundreds of meters tall, long enough for them to sink deep enough into the ground to avoid being blown away.

With an incredibly dark expression, Elara turned her head and saw Erik with his machetes driven into the ground and a massive magic circle glowing over the earth, wearing an expression not so different from her own.

***

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