A layer of gray fog had wrapped around the massive walls of the Base and had given a cold and heavy view to the surroundings.
However, unlike the apparent calm of the weather, the inside of the base had been awake for hours.
The sound of armors hitting each other, the closing of metal boxes, the shouts of officers coordinating the forces, and the quiet roar of pack monsters were echoing throughout the central square.
The large carts were being loaded one after another.
Barrels of water, boxes of food, ammunition crates, emergency medicine, camping equipment, and dozens of other items were being placed inside the caravan in an orderly manner.
Every soldier had a specific duty, no one was wandering aimlessly.
Everyone knew their destination was one of the farthest known bases in the Ruined Realm, and the smallest mistake could endanger the lives of dozens of people.
This was no longer a simple training mission, this was the beginning of a journey that might take weeks.
Of course, it was not just the ten selected people who were going to Base #9, a whole caravan was supposed to come with them, and all these preparations were being made for this caravan.
A few minutes later, the selected students also entered the central square one by one.
The first person was Lian.
Shortly after, Seraphina arrived in the student council’s formal uniform, after her, Cassian, Liana, Selina, and Marcus also entered the square.
Everyone had prepared their new equipment, some had upgraded their armors, and some had brought new weapons.
Three people were still absent from the group, but before anyone could say anything, a tall young man approached from among the crowd.
His dark brown hair was short and neat, and he was carrying a long spear on his back.
Unlike many spearmen, his armor was designed to be light; suitable for speed and maneuver.
He had a calm face, and his gaze showed he was more about action than words.
He stood in front of the group and bowed his head slightly with respect.
"I am Nathan," his voice was calm but firm.
"One of the members of the student council and one of the people who received the quota, I am glad we finally have a chance to get to know each other."
He shook hands with each member of the group without any arrogance, his behavior was formal, polite, and completely controlled.
"Lian." Lian also said after shaking hands.
Nathan gave a short smile.
"I have heard your name a lot more than before these past few days."
Lian just shrugged, Marcus laughed under his breath at that moment.
"The missing member has finally arrived." Everyone smiled and for a moment the group’s atmosphere became more friendly.
Fortunately, the personalities of all the group members were respectful and polite, there was no arrogant, proud, or self-satisfied person among them to ruin the atmosphere and cause trouble.
But this closeness soon gave way to silence.
Liana looked around.
"We are still missing two people."
Everyone noticed at almost the same time.
Roderick and Elena, there was no news of those two.
Rindo, who had been monitoring the situation from the beginning, said: "We will wait for them until the last moment." Although his tone was calm, it was clear from his gaze that he himself did not have much hope of those two coming.
A brief silence fell among the group, it was truly strange, almost no student would be willing to miss the opportunity to enter a Special Area.
Unless... they were really involved in something more important, but no one knew the answer to this question, and more importantly, it did not matter to any of them.
If they did not come, then they did not come, these eight people were not going to lose anything, and it was those two who would be making the biggest loss.
At that same time, Kain came toward them from among the crowd, he was wearing simple combat clothes, there was no change in his equipment, and he had his same previous armor and weapon.
He and Lian had returned to the base this morning along with the other selected members and had helped with the caravan preparations.
Unlike the others, his destination was not Base #9, his gaze paused for a moment on Lian’s new equipment and then scanned each member of the group.
In these few days, many things had changed, he himself was no longer the weak awakened one of the past, and his class had been upgraded to four stars.
He had gained new abilities but still... he was far from the position he wanted.
For this reason, he had decided to stay around the Base during this time, explore the newly liberated areas, get familiar with his new skills, hunt alone, and never put himself in a position again where he would have to wait for others to save him to survive.
His goal was simple, when Lian and Seraphina returned from this mission... he wanted to be able to truly fight alongside his friend, not behind him.
Kain smiled.
"Take care of yourselves." His gaze fixed on Lian.
"When you come back, I hope you haven’t fallen behind me."
"You better be more worried about yourself falling behind." Lian laughed quietly.
"You too, don’t be careless, next time we see each other, I expect you to be safe." Seraphina stepped forward and said.
"Don’t worry." Kain nodded confidently.
A few minutes later, a heavy silence fell over the central square, Commander Elizabeth entered, her silver armor shining under the morning light.
Although the marks of the recent battle could still be seen on part of her armor, her posture remained firm and her gaze held the same authority as always.
All her own wounds and injuries had been treated and she had no problems, she stood in front of the caravan and her gaze passed over everyone.
This caravan was not made up of only students, several experienced officers, two healers, three specialist scouts, and about fifteen awakened ones between levels twenty and twenty-eight were also accompanying the caravan.
Their duty was clear, to protect the route, deal with possible threats, and safely deliver the students to Base #9.
The route was unfortunately unknown and could be very unsafe, and this caravan contained some of the country’s greatest talents.
They had to be protected no matter what, especially Lian, who was expected to be one of the country’s future pillars.
"From the moment you leave this gate, anything can happen." Elizabeth said with a firm voice.
"No one is allowed to leave the caravan column, not even one step, without the permission of the officer in charge." Everyone nodded seriously.
"I wish you success, take care of yourselves, Special Areas can be very dangerous."
The quiet roar of the monsters that were going to pull the caravan was heard, the massive gate of the Base slowly began to open.
The golden light of the sun poured into the square through the gap in the gate, and the caravan started moving.
The pack monsters took the first steps, the heavy carts moved behind them, the country’s flag waved in the morning breeze.
The soldiers moved on both sides of the column.
The students also took their places inside the caravan.
Before leaving, Lian turned back for the last time, Kain was still standing there, both nodded calmly, and then his friend turned and left.
Lian was also thinking about his riding monster, of course he had not forgotten it and it was in its special stable, he had paid the accommodation staff to take care of it.
And then the caravan passed through the gate.
A few hours passed.
Contrary to expectations, the route was calm, the semi-ruined forests were being left behind one after another.
Sometimes a few weak monsters could be seen from a distance, but upon seeing the large military column, they did not dare to approach.
"If the whole trip is this calm, I won’t complain." Marcus even said with a laugh.
A few people laughed, the past few hours had really passed calmly and there was no problem.
They joked with each other occasionally and tried to get to know each other better and become closer.
But right at that moment... a shadow quickly came down from the top of the hill.
It was one of the level 25 scouts, his breathing was a little short, without wasting time he went straight to the caravan’s security commander.
He said a few short and quiet sentences in his ear, those few words were enough, the commander’s face immediately changed.
"Caravan, stop!"
His command echoed across the plain, in less than a few seconds, all the carts stopped.
The guards drew their weapons, the mages activated their mana circles.
The calm atmosphere of a few moments ago turned into full alert in the blink of an eye.
Lian fixed his gaze on the direction the scout had pointed.
On the horizon... a massive column of black smoke was rising into the sky, this smoke was not from a fire, but the result of an intense battle.
"That direction... is the direct route to Base #2."
A few seconds of silence followed.
"Commander... I think another caravan was attacked before us." Then the scout said with a serious voice.