Dawn had not fully settled over Base #9 when the base’s massive bells began to ring one after another.
Their heavy resonance passed through the hundred-meter walls and echoed throughout the military city; a sound that had a very clear meaning for the residents of this base.
The day of the operation had arrived.
The streets, which had not been quiet last night either, were now even busier than before.
Hundreds of caravans were loading their final equipment, and pack monsters were carrying carts full of ammunition, supplies, and magical equipment toward the southern gate.
In the blacksmiths’ zone, the sound of hammers did not stop for a moment.
Blacksmiths were repairing the last cracks on armors, sharpening sword edges again, and placing mana crystals into weapons.
In the market, long lines had formed in front of the Potion shops.
Some were buying dozens of healing potions, some were choosing their last Skill Books.
A few were standing in front of Artifact stalls and looking at the prices in disappointment.
No one was laughing loudly, no one was talking about the future, the atmosphere of the city was heavy, and everyone knew one truth.
Today, a large number of people would enter the Special Area, but a large part of them were not going to return alive.
The caravan commander took Lian’s group to a building near their quarters.
It was not a large room, just a simple stone hall with a long wooden table in the center and a few benches around it.
He closed the door and then turned to the group and said.
"We move in one hour, before that... final preparations." Everyone sat around the table, and without any extra words, each person opened their storage space.
One after another, items were placed on the table.
Bottles of healing potions, mana recovery potions, consumable Skill Scrolls.
Magic traps, dried food, mana crystals, throwing knives, and even a few small anti-poison pills.
A few minutes later, almost the entire table surface was covered with equipment.
Marcus looked at the items and gave a short laugh.
"If people outside saw this many potions on a table..." He pointed at the bottles with his finger.
"They would think we are starting a world war."
A small smile appeared on the faces of a few people, the heavy tension that had cast a shadow over the group for the past few days faded away.
Just by looking at all the items they had bought and prepared for this trip, it showed how ready they were.
With all this equipment, they could survive for months even in the harshest conditions and stay alive without problems.
Apart from this, they had all learned the necessary lessons for the conditions they were about to enter, and during the past few days of travel, the commanders had passed on all their experience to them.
The commander placed both his hands on the table.
"Well, let’s see if you learned anything or not." His gaze moved over each member of the group.
"If you are surrounded by flying monsters, what do you do?"
"Attack, before they fully surround us, we break through one direction." Marcus answered almost without thinking.
The commander nodded, neither confirming nor rejecting, it was definitely not a bad strategy and could work, if of course all the flying monsters did not surround them at the same time, but it had its weaknesses too.
"You?" Then he looked at Nathan.
"Form a defensive formation, mages in the center, close-range fighters around, first we have to repel their first attack." Nathan thought for a few seconds.
The commander said nothing again and his gaze fell on Seraphina.
"If one of the group members is wounded?"
"First the wounded, if we don’t treat them, the group’s power decreases." Cassian answered without hesitation.
Their group, although strong offensively, had many shortcomings, they did not have a healer, and there was no news of two of their members, and they seemed to have decided not to participate.
So each member was of high importance and had to be treated immediately.
"Correct." The commander said quietly, and then... his gaze fixed on Lian.
"If the group gets separated from the very beginning?"
"First, we don’t waste all our attention and mindset searching for each other." Lian answered without rushing.
A few people looked at him in surprise, but he continued.
"First we get out of the danger zone, we try to choose the most eye-catching point that draws attention, and everyone moves toward that point, this way we can find each other."
"If someone faces a threat they cannot handle, it is better to just run toward that point with all their power."
The commander gave a very faint smile.
"Correct." Then he asked the last question.
"If you see a powerful intelligent species monster, what do you do?"
This time no one answered, and a few seconds of silence followed.
"Flee." Then Lian said quietly.
"That’s it?" Nathan frowned, as if he had seen this answer as cowardly.
Lian looked at him.
"A powerful intelligent species has the ability to think and reason and can plan, if you have no information about it, the best way is to flee, unless you are sure you can overpower it with pure power."
"If you fight an enemy you have no chance against, that is not courage, it is stupidity, the best thing is that if we are together, we first get information about that species, and if we are separated, we just find each other and then deal with it."
Of course, all the words he was saying were only for the others, he himself, if he saw an intelligent species, would definitely do the same as long as he was sure he could handle it.
By killing it, he could also gain a lot of information from it, and also his strategy in the Special Area was not going to be about finding the others.
The commander stared at him for a few moments, deep down, he involuntarily accepted something. Among all these students, Lian was the only one whose answers did not smell of books, but smelled of survival.
At that same time, Lian took something out of his storage space, everyone thought he was going to take out an item.
But... six small and transparent crystals were placed on the table.
The crystals were the size of a fingertip, and in the center of each, a calm blue light was pulsing.
All eyes were fixed on them, Marcus was the first to whisper.
"...Emergency Beacon?"
Even the commander raised his eyebrow, this device... was one of the most expensive rescue Artifacts.
Lian pushed them toward the group members one by one.
"Everyone take one."
No one reached out, and a few seconds of silence followed.
Finally, Marcus picked up the crystal, he still could not believe it.
"...Where did you get it?" Aside from their price, these were extremely rare, he had wanted to buy a few but had not found any in the market.
"From the market." Lian answered without even raising his head.
That was it.
He did not give more explanation, nor did he allow another question, and when everyone took their Beacon, Lian said quietly.
"Listen to my words carefully."
Everyone fell silent.
"Only activate it when you are sure you are about to die, not when you are scared, and not when the mission gets hard, only... when you are sure there is no other way."
"When they are activated, they make a lot of noise and can attract the attention of all the monsters."
He paused for a few moments, and then his gaze passed over each member of the group.
"If someone activates the Beacon, we abandon the entire mission."
No one said anything, and Lian continued.
"No one is left alone, and we must make sure everyone returns alive."
This time even Nathan could not say anything.
A few minutes later, the base’s bells rang again.
All participants moved toward the outside of the base and the location of the rift, the closer the group got to the rift, the larger the crowd became.
Thousands of awakened ones, tens of thousands of people, commanders, famous Guilds.
Military squads, exploration groups, and flags of different countries were waving in the wind, and a massive stone platform had been built in the center of the square.
A few minutes later, the head of Base #9 stepped forward, he was a middle-aged man in black armor with the golden emblem of the World Alliance shining on his chest.
He did not smile, did not give a speech, and just said directly.
"In the last Special Area discovered in the previous Ruined Realm..." His voice, with the help of sound-amplifying Artifacts, echoed across the entire square.
"Fifty-four percent of the participants never returned, if anyone still wants to withdraw, now is the time."
A few seconds passed, but not even one person stepped back.
The head just nodded.
"Very well, then you may enter."
Finally... everyone stood in front of a massive rift.
As if a part of the world had been cut away.
The mist that was calmly spinning seemed to lead to another world.
Anyone who stared at it felt that the darkness was also staring back at them.
Suddenly... the entire rift trembled with a blinding blue light, and a massive wave of mana spread in the air, everyone’s hair moved from the intensity of the energy.
"Move!"
At that same moment, the first groups entered the rift, one after another, Guilds, military squads, exploration caravans, all those who had entry quotas.
The commander looked at Lian’s group.
"It is our turn."
Lian took a deep breath, stepped forward, and then, together with the group members, moved toward the ancient rift.
The moment his foot passed the rift’s border... the blue light swallowed everything.