Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Romero's Change in Mentality
In another section of the Garden, a small group of four was running through the forest under the light of stars and the moon that hung in the night sky.
There were two males, one old and one young, with the last two members being young women. This group of people was Romero's party who had been captured by the Wolf King, or more accurately, what was left of it.
The group was currently panting heavily as they moved through the clearing with dirt and blood covering their clothes.
Romero was in the front, braving the path ahead. While he moved forward he turned his head to look back at the remaining members of his squad.
Besides the four of them here, the rest of the original party had died.
Around a day ago they were taken away by the Wolf King, who led them to the entrance of the Rift, hidden deep underground. When Romero and his party first saw the Rift they were deeply shocked. Everyone was wondering how and when had a rift formed so deep underground.
Even though they were curious, the Wolf King didn't give them an explanation before forcing them inside.
Romero and the rest were already long used to entering Rifts as professional hunters so they didn't feel the effects of the "rift sickness" that Lake experienced when he first went through. However, they were worried about entering a new rift with no prior information about the inside and their equipment taken away by the Wolf King and unfortunately, as if to prove their worries true, they really encountered a disaster as soon as they entered.
As they all fall through the rift, they encounter a large horde of beasts led by a peak rank two creature. Without any weapons or equipment to defend themselves with, the battle resulted in a tragedy.
Most of their squad had been slaughtered. If it wasn't for Romero using his Martial Warrior strength to clear a path through a weak point in the encirclement, all of them would have died.
Leading the remaining members out of the encirclement, Romero and the rest began to run for their lives. The horde of beasts behind them was prepared to give chase after Romero but suddenly the rift reappeared as the Wolf King and his minions entered the fray.
With a chilling howl, a battle erupted between the two factions. Romero and the rest didn't wish to stick around and see who emerged as the final victor as no matter which side won, it would only spell a bad end for them.
However, without any weapons or equipment to fight back against the dangers of the Garden, the party was left to fend for themselves with nothing but their bare fists and engage in hand to hand combat against whatever foe they faced.
Thankfully, all of them knew how to manipulate mana to strengthen their bodies which gave them a slight edge in battle, but without a weapon to unleash the martial arts they had trained in since their youths, the following battles could only be described as disastrous.
After traveling through a large forest filled with beasts for almost a day now, their numbers had dropped by a large margin once more. Now only the four of them remained.
Two of the remaining four were Romero's escort targets. There were originally three of them but the young man that had been traveling with the group had been torn to shreds during the battle with the horde. The remaining two were the old man, who went by Professor Sun, and his granddaughter, Harper. The other survivor was Eliza, the blonde beauty that had been with Romero since the start of the mission.
The reason they were able to survive so far was because of their strength. Among the original party, they were the strongest. There was no need to clarify Romero's strength who was classed as a High-Rank Martial Warrior. Eliza was a Mid-Rank Martial Warrior while Professor Sun was a Low-Rank Martial Warrior. The only person who could be described as weak in the group was Harper, who even then, was already a High-Rank Martial Apprentice, only a few steps away from breaking through to the Martial Warrior Realm.
With their group's current strength, although they may struggle if they were to encounter a Rank Two creature, escaping from it wouldn't be a problem and dealing with Rank one creatures would be even easier.
The only thing they had to look out for was being surrounded by a large group of creatures. Unfortunately, it seems that the population inside the rift could only be described as overflowing. Every corner they took and every tree they passed by, a beast was silently waiting with its maw wide open, ready to lunge at them.
When Romero and the others noticed the overflowing population they had already developed a theory as to what was going on. This rift was most likely about to break and all these beasts inside were about to rush into the ruins of Star City.
Usually, hunters would clear out the population inside a rift or even close it before something like this happens but in cases where a rift actually broke opened, it could only be described as disastrous as hundreds, if not thousands of creatures rushed out of the rift like a bloodthirsty horde that only knows how to kill and hunt.
"Romero!" Eliza called out to Romero at this point while gasping for air, "We can't go on much longer like this. We've been running for over a day straight… We need to rest… or the situation will only continue to worsen from here on out."
When Romero heard her, he stopped in his tracks as he turned around to observe everyone else. They were all gasping with visible looks of exhaustion plastered across their faces. It was true, they had been running around the rift for the last 24 hours with almost no rest. They've been constantly ambushed and attacked by dangerous beasts lurking in the forest forcing them to remain vigilant of their surroundings lest they be entrapped and can no longer escape.
Under these conditions, everyone was exhausted, including Romero. However, Romero knew that he was the leader in this situation and needed to lead them all to safety. That's why he kept on marching on, even if he was just as exhausted as the rest.
It was at that point, Harper, who was gasping the most out of them, spoke up. She spoke in an irritated tone, "We've been running like this for over a day now, can't you fools do something useful already?"
Her ridicule was directed at Romero and Eliza who clearly understood her tone causing them to frown.
Professor Sun, who noticed the sudden tension between them, spoke up on behalf of his granddaughter, "I apologize if my granddaughter's words have offended you. She's exhausted from the constant running and has become quite irritable."
Before Romero or Eliza could even respond, Harper lashed out again, "Don't defend them grandpa! Brother is dead and they are the ones to blame for it! Aren't they our escorts? Shouldn't they be the one risking their lives to defend us? Why is brother dead and they get to live, huh? Tell me!"
As she spoke, her eyes started to well up with tears, as her mind and heart boiled in rage and sadness. However, she kept herself from letting those tears fall and focused on her tirade against Romero and Eliza for letting her brother die.
When Romero and Eliza heard the mention of Harper's brother, they couldn't help but sigh. The brother she was referring to was the young man that was with Harper and her grandfather since the start of the mission. When Romero and everyone else first entered the rift, her brother was one of the first to go.
Romero felt slightly guilty about this matter, as he was indeed responsible for their protection while on this mission. That's why, even though Harper's words were extremely harsh and offensive, he chose not to say anything at this moment.
After a bit, Harper started to calm down under the coaxing from her Grandfather. Romero could see his eyes had also started to turn slightly red. He was most likely suppressing his own heartache from the loss of his grandson.
"Let's continue moving. If we're lucky, we can find a place to rest by morning. I'll take first watch and give everyone a chance to rest." Romero said as he released another sigh.
This time Harper didn't say anything. She just silently got up and followed the rest of the group.
When Romero saw this, he could only grit his teeth and move forward. If only he had his spear with him, or any weapon that could resist the pressure applied on it by mana use, they wouldn't be in such a dire situation.
When Romero thought of this, he clenched his fist as he remembered something that Eliza once told him. It was words that she had overheard from a random passerby a while ago. At the time he ignored it and felt that it was completely baseless but right now it was all Romero could think about.
"Unsuitable for weapons arts and techniques that rely on mana. You should instead focus on body arts that either strengthen the body or allow you to use your high endurance to your advantage."
These words sounded like nonsense to Romero at the time. Don't they know who he was? He was Romero, one the most talented hunters of his generation and a master at his family's Nine Heaven Spear Technique. If he were to abandon his weapon and instead pick up boxing arts and body skills, wouldn't he be admitting that everything he had built up until now was a lie?
At the time, Romero couldn't have accepted that, but now that he was without a weapon he started to think. What would their current situation be like if I had instead learned body arts alongside his spear arts. Wouldn't he have been able to defeat every beast that he came across? Wouldn't he have been able to kill them with a punch instead of having to struggle to even damage them with my awkward punches? Wouldn't he have been able to keep more people alive like that?
"I swear that if I get out of this rift alive, I'm going to dedicate myself to studying body techniques from now on!" Romero silently promised to himself.
Romero wasn't aware of it, but at that time, the blue strand of fate above his head that no one could see was slowly starting to transform.
…
At the southside of the Garden, a new predator seemed to have appeared on the relatively peaceful grounds. This predator had sent all the existing beast factions and top predators on high alert.
A few hours ago word began to spread from the mouths of the flying type beasts that an unknown creature had been going around killing any living creature that passed its way including several high ranking creatures. In less than a day more than a third of the garden's southside population had been killed by this creature.
This had greatly worried the remaining beast population of the southside with most of them choosing to flee the area, looking for refuge in other areas. This had unintentionally caused a spike in the population of other zones while the southside's one only continued to decrease.
The strangest thing about this predator however, was his ability to completely disappear. In one instant, he would appear and quickly kill his prey before vanishing in the next second. This had left all the flying creatures who happened to see his work from a distance terrified.
Eventually, in less than a day, the rest of the Garden had already come up with a name for this strange new predator who could appear and vanish at will, Ghost.
Lake, the cause of all this sudden turmoil in the Garden was currently leisurely lying down on the branch of a tree. He was eating a piece of meat that he had stripped off of his latest kill and was completely unaware of the consequences of his actions.
At the moment, he was scrolling through the system interface, observing the points he had acquired in the last day since he entered the rift.
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