"It’s strange." Marcus suddenly said.
Everyone looked at him.
"What is it?"
"Too thin." He pointed at the corpse.
A few people moved closer. He was right. The monster’s bones were visible under its skin, as if it had not eaten for a long time.
"This is not normal." The group’s priest, Claire, also examined the corpse.
"It’s true that we evacuated the humans, but the city should still be full of meat, chicken, animals, and even other types of food. Besides, don’t monsters also feed on mana? ... Why should they be hungry?" Cassian frowned.
No one had an answer, but a bad feeling formed in everyone’s hearts.
Monsters, especially level 8 monsters, should not experience hunger. They are omnivorous and can even control their hunger to some extent by absorbing mana.
And in the worst case scenario, they would go after eating other monsters.
So why should they be hungry?
Lian examined the monster in his own way, and he was also surprised. Even with all the knowledge he had, he had never heard of monsters feeling hunger.
By nature, the physical structure of monsters is very different and incomparable to humans. They have no need for food at all. Their cores, which act like their stomachs, are filled with mana, and as long as they are full, they have no hunger.
The reason they hunt and eat humans is because each human naturally has a certain amount of mana in their body.
By eating humans, monsters can fill and upgrade their cores faster.
So now the question is, why do these monsters look like they are hungry? Could it just be their body structure? Or could it be related to that unknown monster...?
"I say it’s probably just because of their structure." Sarah also did not believe that monsters could get hungry at all.
"Maybe." Cassian nodded. Such a possibility seemed more likely.
"Don’t you want to take the corpses?" Claire looked at them and asked.
"These corpses are mostly skin and bones. I doubt they have any buyers." Andreas answered, and the rest agreed.
The skin of these Cornegons was very thin and had no use for making armor. And their bones alone were not valuable enough to bother with.
"Our first hunt was just a waste of time." Sarah grumbled. One of the reasons she had come was to make money.
"I’m sure we will find better monsters." Lian smiled.
"We hope so." That was everyone’s opinion. Who doesn’t like money?
Then they continued on their way.
Nearly an hour later, the group reached the commercial sector, and there... the situation was much worse. They had not encountered any other monsters along the way.
Signs of war were everywhere. Burned tank hulls, destroyed bunkers, massive explosion craters.
Dried blood on the walls, bullet marks, and traces of a brutal battle.
But something was missing. No corpses. No human or monster bodies. Nothing. As if someone had collected all the bodies in the city.
Not even a bone remained.
"Isn’t this too strange?" Sarah said quietly.
"Yes, it shouldn’t be this clean." Marcus also nodded.
Cassian said nothing, but his hand tightened around the handle of his sword.
Lian also looked around. If the monsters were only between levels 7 and 15, then what were these traces of brutal battles for?
These looked more like traces of a battle with a large group of monsters above level ten.
Did that mean most monsters in this city were above that level? Such a possibility could not be ruled out, especially since Commander Gareth had not told them anything about this.
The sun was slowly setting. The sky had turned a dark red.
Cassian ordered the return.
"Enough for today."
Everyone agreed. No one wanted to stay in the city overnight.
"Too bad, we only hunted five monsters." Andreas grumbled.
Their main goal was to clear the monsters from the city, but those bastards were nowhere to be found, and no one knew where they were.
"It’s possible they all went to the city center." Lian added after thinking for a moment.
With his senses, he could not feel any monsters nearby either.
And what was strange was that the monsters had not attacked them at all. Monsters are naturally drawn to humans and attack them without thinking.
So it did not make sense for them to want to stay away from humans and hide.
From this perspective, only one possibility remained. The monsters were in the city center and were keeping their distance from them. It was not strange that they would want to be near their leader.
"But if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean we will eventually have to go to the center?" Sarah asked with some concern.
"If most of the monsters are really in the center, I guess we have no choice."
The group looked at each other.
"As Commander Gareth said, we are not going to the center." Cassian said seriously, and the rest just nodded.
For him, keeping the team members alive was more important than killing monsters and making money.
But Lian had other thoughts. Maybe not now, but perhaps soon... He preferred not to say anything for now.
Anyway, they headed toward the city exit. On the way back, they passed by where they had killed the Cornegons... but they did not notice that the corpses of those monsters were no longer there...
They were moving toward the base when Lian suddenly stopped.
He had a strange feeling. As if someone was watching him. He raised his head.
A few hundred meters away, on the rooftop of a tall building, a shadow stood. The distance was so great that details could not be seen.
But he could see two round red things that looked like eyes.
The shadow remained motionless for a moment and then... disappeared. As if it had never existed.
"Did anyone see that?"
The group members looked at each other. They did not understand what he meant or what he was talking about, and just said no.
Lian was still staring at the rooftop, thinking he might have hallucinated. But suddenly, a voice came from beside him.
"I saw it too." Cassian said quietly without taking his gaze off the rooftop.
As they were leaving the city, they did not know that they had already been in sights...