The thick fog, like a gray curtain, had swallowed the entire road.
The caravan was moving at a much slower speed than before, no one even dared to speak anymore.
The only sounds heard in the heavy silence of the plain were the quiet clinking of the cart chains, the heavy steps of the pack monsters, and the sound of metal armor hitting each other with every movement of the soldiers.
All the guards had drawn their weapons from their sheaths.
The mages had gathered their mana in their palms and were ready to release their spells at any moment.
Even the students no longer had any trace of their initial excitement, everyone felt they had entered a place that death had not yet left.
A few meters... a few dozen meters... and suddenly... the first cart emerged from the fog.
But it bore no resemblance to a simple broken cart, its massive wooden body had been split in half from the middle.
The cut was so clean that it seemed as if a skilled carpenter had cut it with the largest saw in the world, no trace of explosion or burning could be seen.
Only... one cut and one strike.
"...Everyone be ready." The caravan commander said in a quiet voice without taking his gaze off the cart.
They had entered the danger zone and had to raise their guard to the highest level, the smallest mistake could end in their death.
The guards tightened the defensive ring, the caravan started moving again.
A few moments later... the massive body of one of the pack monsters became visible.
A gigantic creature over ten meters long that was responsible for carrying heavy equipment, its body lay on the ground.
But its head... was about twenty meters away, lying among the tall grass.
Even after death, its yellow eyes remained open.
"That... was at least level twenty-six..." one of the guards whispered quietly under his breath.
No other wounds could be seen on the monster’s body, only... one strike and death.
A tamed level 26 pack monster, even though it was a normal monster, in any case, it was not something anyone could kill with just one strike.
The defense of such a creature is very powerful, and to be able to kill it so easily, the attacker must be at least level 40.
The further the caravan went... the more the real battlefield revealed itself.
Giant trees, some with a diameter of two meters, had been cut in half.
Massive rocks that had been in the same place for decades had been cracked with unbelievable force.
Several large craters could be seen on the ground; as if small meteors had struck that point.
A little further away... the ground surface was completely black.
Fire magic.
A few meters away, a layer of thick ice had still not melted.
Ice magic.
On the trunk of one of the trees, a perfectly round hole could be seen, showing that a spear had passed through it at terrifying speed.
Several bodies, with clean and deep wounds, screamed the power of a master swordsman.
And on the bodies of some others... several precise arrows, lodged right between the eyes or in the heart.
Five fighting styles.
Five people, but the destruction was on the scale of an army.
Lian looked around in silence, his eyes moving over every trace of the battle, putting the attack marks together.
He measured the distances, examined the angles of the strikes, and only one question repeated in his mind.
"...Was this really done by five people?" Even for him, it was hard to believe.
If it was only five people, then they had to be at least level 40, meaning even more powerful than Commander Elizabeth.
Most base commanders are between levels 35 and 40, and now they were witnessing an attack carried out by awakened ones with that level of power on a caravan from an official base.
And it was clear that those responsible for these scenes were extremely ruthless.
Suddenly... a weak sound broke the silence.
"...Help..."
Everyone turned toward the sound at the same time, several guards ran without delay, behind one of the overturned carts... a group of survivors had taken shelter.
About fifteen people.
Most were covered in blood, some were unconscious, and others were only still sitting by leaning on their spears or swords.
Two of the caravan’s Healers immediately stepped forward, the green light of mana lit up the surrounding space.
The wounds were closing one by one, the bleeding was stopping, and among those people... a man with half-broken golden armor was leaning against the cart’s wall.
The entire left part of his armor was soaked in blood, and where his left hand should have been... there was only a bloody piece of cloth tied.
His hand had been severed from the elbow, despite the severe paleness of his face, he was still conscious.
His eyes calmly fixed on the caravan commander, the escort commander knelt down, expecting this survivor to ask whether the attackers had left or about the number of survivors.
But the wounded man did not even look at him, and his dry lips moved with difficulty.
"...Beacon..."
The commander frowned, what was this man trying to say?
The man breathed with difficulty.
"Ancient Beacon..."
It took a few moments for him to speak again.
"...Is it here...? Did you find it?"
Everyone around fell silent.
"No. What is it?" The commander answered calmly, he also did not understand what this man was talking about.
A few seconds... no sound was heard, and then... the face of the Base #2 escort commander completely collapsed.
As if his last hope had been destroyed at that very moment, he quietly closed his eyes, a bitter smile settling on his lips.
"...Then... everything is over..."
After the Healers stopped his bleeding, the commander looked at him and asked.
"Now can you tell us exactly what happened to you? What is this situation? Who carried out such a ruthless and brutal attack on you?"
"Inside one of the ancient Ruins in the eighth Ruined Realm, we found an Artifact." The man started speaking again, his voice was still weak, but each word sounded heavier than before.
"What does this have to do with anything?" Marcus grumbled.
But the commander signaled for him to let this man continue speaking.
"At first, no one knew what it was, but after numerous examinations, its name was determined... Ancient Beacon." He fixed his gaze on the sky.
"This Artifact was not meant to make anyone stronger, it didn’t give combat power, but, it gave a strategic advantage that was worth more than thousands of Skills." Everyone listened in silence.
But to some extent, everyone was curious to know what this item had to do with the current situation? Wouldn’t it be better to talk about the attackers and what had happened?
However, with the following sentences, they understood what the matter was...
"According to the information we got from the system, when the Ancient Beacon is activated inside a Special Area..."
"All monsters, even the strongest ones, will ignore the one carrying it."
A few people looked at each other in disbelief.
The commander continued.
"Not that they run away, not that they die or anything like that, they just don’t consider its presence a threat, meaning one could reach the depths of areas that exist in Special Areas without unnecessary conflicts and take the best treasures." He calmly let out his breath.
The members of Base #3’s caravan looked at each other, such an artifact was truly valuable.
It could practically protect them from monsters and give them freedom of action.
"We wanted our country’s expedition forces to the Special Area to use it... but those damn vultures attacked us and stole it."
A frown appeared on everyone’s faces.
Vultures? Only one group of awakened ones was called Vultures!
"How are you sure it was them?" one of the officers who had remained silent until then asked.
The Base #2 commander gave a bitter laugh.
"Because they told us themselves."
Everyone looked at him.
"Their leader didn’t even try to hide his identity." He said quietly.
A few minutes before the battle started... five people, standing right in the middle of the road.
They all wore matching black clothes, their faces hidden behind dark masks.
Their long cloaks were moving in the wind, but what caught everyone’s attention...
Was the emblem sewn on the back of their cloaks, a black vulture with fully spread wings, as if ready to land on a fresh corpse.
Their leader stepped forward, his voice calm, without anger, without threat, as if he was just stating a simple fact.
"Black Vultures."
A few of the guards lost their color at that same moment, and he continued.
"Hand over the chest, and continue on your way."
A few seconds of silence followed, then... he said his last sentence.
"Otherwise, all of you will die right here."
After remembering that scene, the Base #2 commander opened his eyes.
"We... thought we could resist." He gave a bitter smile.
"It was the biggest mistake of our lives." With his remaining hand, he pointed at the battlefield.
"All this destruction took less than ten minutes."
"Five people, only five people... took down more than dozens of awakened ones."
"The guards, the mages... the archers... even the pack monsters... none of them could stop them."
A few of the students unconsciously swallowed.
Marcus had clenched his fists, Seraphina was silently looking at the surrounding bodies.
And Lian... sighed.
Power.
Ruthlessness.
And humans who did not care the slightest about others’ lives to achieve their goals.
"Wait... wasn’t the existence of the Ancient Beacon a secret? Because we had no knowledge of such a thing." one of the officers suddenly said.
The Base #2 commander slowly raised his head, this time... only anger could be seen in his eyes.
"It was, only our country’s officials and the World Alliance central headquarters knew of its existence."
No one said anything, he struck the ground with his remaining strength.
"The Black Vultures went straight for that same chest, they didn’t even look at the rest of the cargo."
"No gold, no mana crystals, no equipment, only that same chest." His breathing had become heavy, the veins in his neck were bulging from the intensity of his anger.
"That means someone inside the World Alliance or among our country’s officials sold the information to the Black Vultures."
A heavy silence fell over the entire battlefield, no one was looking at the bodies on the ground anymore.
Even thinking about such a thing was terrifying.
The Black Vultures are one of the most notorious organizations in the world, an organization famous for murder and plunder, and practically their slogan was that wherever there is death, there will also be profit.
There have been times when they have slaughtered several small towns just to kill one person...
It is unknown where their central headquarters is, who their leader is, how many members they have.
But their power is completely known and recognized, a power that is not less than some powerful guilds...
Even thinking that such a dirty and terrorist organization has a spy in the World Alliance or a country is terrifying...