?The team turned around and went back into the valley, after which they continued towards the east.
They had left Crimson City via the south, which was where the bridge was located.
To the south of the city was the big valley that they had entered earlier, which was about two kilometers wide and about 200 meters deep.
The valley extended towards the south for about two kilometers before it veered off towards the left, which was the east in this case.
The Infester had been to the southern side of the valley, and in terms of distance, it was around three to four kilometers away from Crimson City's entrance.
The valley would continue towards the east for another two kilometers before it bent to the south again and then again to the east.
At that point, the valley would end.
All in all, the valley was around seven kilometers long.
As the team continued traveling along the valley, the amount of dust increased.
From time to time, Jason and Petra coughed while Clayton tried his best to suppress coughs.
Jenny also felt uncomfortable, but she didn't need to cough.
"Don't activate your Barriers for the dust," Nick said after he heard another cough. "We're only going to be this close to the Dust Zone for a couple of minutes."
Nick's Extractors didn't answer but continued following him.
The Dust Zone was a humongous zone filled with corrosive dust to the south of the city.
The Dust Zone started about ten kilometers away from the city and had a round shape with a diameter of a whopping 60 kilometers.
It was by far the biggest landmark near Crimson City.
However, even though the Dust Zone only officially started ten kilometers to the city's south, some of the dust still reached the valley's end, which was about five kilometers away from the Dust Zone.
Naturally, the corrosive dust was produced by a Specter, which was fittingly called the Corrosive Dust.
The Corrosive Dust resided in the middle of the Dust Zone.
The appearance of the actual Specter was kept highly confidential, but it was known that the Specter was a Physical Specter, not a Force Specter.
This meant that it had an actual body that could be touched and moved with one's bare hands.
Only Veterans could survive at the edge of the Dust Zone with their Barriers active for a couple of minutes.
Johns would probably collapse when they were just about to reach the border due to the residual dust in the surroundings of the Dust Zone.
The closer one got to the center, the stronger and thicker the corrosive dust became.
About ten kilometers away from the center, even Specialists would only survive for a couple of minutes with their Barriers.
The Corrosive Dust was a Demon, and since it was also a Physical Specter, it was highly sought after…
By more than one city.
The nearest neighboring city of Crimson City was Darksky City, and it was about 30 kilometers south of the southern border of the Dust Zone.
On a map, Crimson City was about 100 kilometers away from Darksky City, and the Dust Zone covered over 60% of the path between the two cities.
Both cities had more than one Hero, and both of them wanted to claim the Corrosive Dust for themselves.
However, there were several issues.
First of all, the Specter was apparently pretty big, and capturing it had no point if the cities didn't have fitting Containment Units.
Additionally, the Corrosive Dust was definitely not an Initial or Early Demon due to its power.
It was, at least, a Mid Demon or maybe even a Late Demon.
Trying to suppress and capture it would be a huge and risky undertaking since it might even be able to kill some or all of the Heroes.
On top of that, warfare between the cities was basically the same as warfare between Manufacturers.
Aegis made it technically illegal to fight another city, but the cities often did it in secret anyway.
If Crimson City decided to send their Heroes to capture the Corrosive Dust, a Hero from Darksky City might show up and help the Specter out.
And if Aegis asked what happened, Darksky City could just say that they didn't know what happened. The Heroes of Crimson City must have died trying to suppress the Corrosive Dust.
The residual dust near the end of the valley had the same effect on Initial Johns as inhaling some smoke had on normal people.
It was bad, but it wouldn't be dangerous if the exposure wasn't very long.
As the team reached the edge of the valley, they slowly climbed out.
The residual dust was concentrated at the end of the valley due to the lower elevation, and when the team walked out of the valley, their coughing also reduced.
After they left the valley, Nick took note of a couple of hills around them.
The terrain here was rather hilly, and these hills were the reason why Nick had chosen to leave the city in this way.
About two kilometers south of the end of the valley was another Infester, and this one belonged to Anatomy.
While Nick could tell that nobody was following them, he didn't want to be seen by Anatomy's researchers.
They might not plan to kill Nick right now, but if they coincidentally found Nick in the outside world with nobody around…
Walking close to the Infester to be seen was like walking around with one's wallet held in one's hands.
Stealing was illegal, but some people might not be able to help themselves when such a good opportunity presented itself.
Nick had no interest in going further to the south anyway.
The closer one got to the Dust Zone, the more Infesters one would meet.
There were over 15 Infesters located within a three-kilometer radius.
Half of them were inside the Dust Zone, while the other half were outside.
The Infestation had to be located somewhere within that Zone, but no one had ever found it.
And Nick didn't want to be the first one to find the Fanatic.