Belize cursed as he realized the man was dying. He carried the man on his back, disgusted by his state, but didn't use his ability to hasten his speed. He couldn't risk it—not when there were bigger fights coming.
Before, he told the lord he only needed to keep his strength, when in reality… he discovered that his mana recovered too slowly.
He only noticed it recently when he tried taking down the first batch of monsters that attacked the walls.
[Mana Recovery: Temporarily Reduced]
He had no idea when it happened and the only time he had ever encountered such a thing was when a strong city-level monster poisoned him.
His eyes darkened when he thought of anything odd that had happened and couldn't immediately pinpoint it.
When he thought more deeply about anything even slightly a bit atypical in his recent days, the first memory to appear was Juni.
At the time, she brought the goods from Vismont, a territory similar to Bright, which happened to be her old territory.
She was beautiful and seductive and his mind may have been a bit blurred, but it was delicious and he didn't feel anything wrong as he consumed them. Could there be something else in it?
He remembered her words then. "Master Belize," she said with that velvety tone of hers. "These are special goods I managed to procure. It's the only one I have. As someone who hadn't eaten our food before, I'd like to give it to you. Would you like it?"
And, like a fool, he took it.
In any case, by the time he had dragged the disgusting body to the interior wall, the man had already bled too much and had taken his last breath.
"It's too late, milord," Belize said and Fargo only looked at him before looking at the maimed corpse on the ground.
Fargo turned Sen who immediately kneeled in front of the corpse to study him closely, checking for any signs of life. He shook his head in the end.
"Call a doctor," Fargo said and a few guards went to get a doctor and set up torches to light up the area. Belize was the one to take a doctor—who was in the outer wall at the moment—and he also recovered two more corpses by the way.
They were all mangled up and filled with blood, but who knew if they could find more clues about what happened to them.
The doctor dragged here was Dr. Lu. He shakily inspected the corpses, hoping to find something that'd ease the obvious dark atmosphere around the lord.
Dr. Lu studied them for a while, rubbing his fingers when he felt a sticky substance. He smelled and tilted his head. He made a face at the acerbic quality of it and thought it was piss, but not only was it far stronger than humans' they shouldn't be present in the hair and shoulders either.
"They all have a common substance doused on them," He said, looking a little curious, recalling the mens' situation not too long ago. "Could these have attracted monsters?"
Looking at the doctor, Fargo's eyes shone with light, and so did everyone else.
Not to mention: he wouldn't be surprised if the gates were doused by the same substance!
And who else would be able to douse the gates with so much of this mysterious substance but those people!
"Where's Vanessa? Check the soldiers!" He yelled, "I prepared a torture chamber just for them! Heh, it looks like it's going to be used soon!"
"Yes, milord!" The guards said, immediately scattering to look for more clues. Although she disappeared with Victor and the others, they now had more reason to find them than ask them to be willing cannon fodders!
As several guards left the area, Fargo couldn't help but look up at one of the moons that lit up the night.
Was Garan and the others finally coming?
But… what could he do at his level?
…
At this time, Drake and the others were inside very good hiding spaces. It was located underground, somewhere they wouldn't be able to find any time soon.
They were very lucky that, unlike Altera, Fargo didn't have a rule against such construction.
Altera had a rule of not allowing the building of anything outside the property they owned. This meant what they were doing right now in Fargo was not possible in Altera.
Similarly, squatting wasn't possible there either. Back home, the stalls along the streets or plazas always had the necessary permits.
This was proposed and organized by Mathilda's group, and turned into formal regulation within a day of the proposal. It worked without a hitch in Altera because of the dormitory system and cheap visitor rates.
Simply put, there was absolutely no need to squat. Why would people become informal settlers when they could have a better choice, anyway?
"How fun to create something like this literally under their noses," Santos said with a smile. He was the main person to have created this as the best earth user in the party. He also had some assistance to the newly awakened Benny as well.
"Well, people can't think of everything. Not arrogant men like Fargo and his men who believe they've instilled fear into everyone's hearts."
Even if Fargo decided to hunt them down, they would spend too much resources and time—which they didn't have with the mob and the war. If they decided to give up, then good for them. Either way, there was no loss hiding at this time.
They only had to hide… for several hours, which was just enough for a good rest.
"Fourteen hours of sleeplessness…" Jona giggled as she laid down with the others. It was a little cramped, but otherwise comfortable enough considering they were underground.
"The elders are geniuses for choosing this time to declare war," Leon said. After all, this meant that the enemies would not have a few hours of rest!
"Hmn, the elders are very reliable, indeed."
The accepted knowledge about the territory decisions was that the elders made the decisions together.
Some even assumed that there was a special panel for them to communicate and make decisions—something that the elders neither confirmed nor denied—adding another haze to the profession.
Anyway, unlike the people of Fargo above ground, the soldiers (and Jona) were all sleeping very well underground.
…
While the Alterans were hiding away safely in enemy territory, the aforementioned enemy territory was fighting off the mobs.
It had somehow even gotten bigger (because someone from Altera threw a spray bomb with the potion on a small mob, attracting an even bigger mob).
It had to be said: It was easier to attract the devil than to shoo them away.
The Beast Attracting Potion could only attract level 10s and below—but it so happened they were villages, and these were the monsters predominant around them.
To think such a good thing had a very special, but accessible, ingredient!
This was a secret ingredient only Gochi could provide but fortunately provided in pints. They just had to supply him with loads of juice.
Either way, right now, it's causing Fargo a lot of trouble.
And a little chaos… goes a long way.