Chapter 832 Chapter 831: Base Of Operations
Taking the carriages back out of the outpost, we moved away from the shroud of decay and death and watched as those that could wield Fire Magic remained back, their mana channeling into Leone and Ammit as the two women prepared to cleanse the area of those terrible undead corpses.
"Hopefully that makes this area usable. I know we said that we were going to transport things back to Custodia once or twice, but..."
"There is no reason to trust them around such valuable ores, herbs and other materials, yes... Who knows what they might try to do if they saw a mountain of gold ore? To them, it's just gold, but in reality it's even more expensive then just normal gold... Or any of the gemstones that we retrieve? Crystals? I might - just maybe, not entirely - trust Mary to not touch our loot, but the rest of them?"
I shook my head as I watched the Demons and Leone begin to cleanse the area, pouring their flames over the land and burning away everything inside the outpost, ridding the world of some filth in rapid fashion.
"Yes, greed is a rather interesting thing, especially in those of weak will. The thought to steal from the pile of loot would be overwhelming for some; the idea that we won't notice one or two gemstones missing, or a few chunks of ore... It's something I don't want to deal with at all. And I truly have little trust in any of them..."
Jahi let out a sigh as she watched alongside me, only glancing at me briefly as I added "It's a shame too, since I imagine these could be capable citizens if they could just remember what civilization was like, and learn from the way their city was demolished that there is always something stronger waiting for them... perhaps they could prove to be valuable members of society."
She just raised a brow at that, before chuckling as she asked "Is it perhaps thanks to the way their diluted blood makes it easier to procreate? Maybe we'll have a bunch of thin blooded Beastkin and Demons running around in a years time?"
That made me roll my eyes, though I didn't disagree since that was a rather obvious benefit to having a large group of humans; they were able to mix with any race thanks to their - as Jahi so eloquently put it - diluted blood, which came from the 'weaker' of any race procreating with another 'weak' member, which caused the unique traits found in Beastkin to be taken out of the gene pool and create the first humans.
With that stronger blood reintroduced, they would return to the race they once were and procreate with others as well, creating more 'half bloods' due to their higher reproductivity.
"Well, if we do or if we don't, all that matters is if they can hold themselves in check if we do decide to go back to Custodia. Otherwise, we're going to need to rebuild some of this outpost for ourselves."
"We were going to rebuild it anyways to act as our base going forwards. Somewhere outside of the Grottos to regroup and rearm. Though the real plan was to find a serviceable area within the Grottos to act as our base. Only if the monster level was manageable, anyways. Ah, they're done. That was quick..."
We approached the outpost again, this time with the smell of ash and smoke filling the air instead of decay, whilst the area around us had been charred black thanks to the fiery cleansing that we had enacted, the controlled flames doing their job to keep everything contained.
"That was refreshing. Letting loose. Unrestrained... Pleasant."
Ammit was smiling happily by the side as she looked over the burnt outpost, her Ritual Circle eyes losing their reddish luster as they returned to a 'blank slate', displaying her neutral mana at this moment; the longer we were around her, the more interesting I found her eyes to be.
Satanya on the other hand was frowning, the red skinned Demoness letting out a sigh as she said "Well, let's get this repaired and smelling of something besides char... We need sleeping quarters, a forge, a kitchen, and walls! If you don't have Earth Magic, start identifying the faults in the walls and mark them out, before pairing off and scouting the surrounding area! Let's make this quick and work efficiently!"
Anput made her way to the center instantly, joined by the other Earth Mages inside our group as they began to work on restoring some of the camp, leaving the rest of us to make ourselves useful in any other way.
I started by summoning a gentle breeze inside the outpost, billowing the ashy scent up into the air and away from us, hastening the ventilation of the area before joining the other Water Mages in washing away the worst of the char with a light drizzle, which was dried out afterwords thanks to Wind Magic.
After we marked the portion of the walls that needed the most repair, Leone, Jahi and I grabbed our gear and made our way out of the outpost, heading east into the forest and looking around, searching for tracks and other signs of monster activity, as well as any other potential entrances to the Grottos.
We found traces of a few monsters, and we also came across a rather large boar monster as well, which we killed swiftly and butchered before carrying it back to the outpost, securing the first meal for everyone - on the way back, Leone pointed out some herbs to us that were hiding around the forest that we could use for seasoning or for basic medicines should we need them.
No new entrance to the Grottos were found by us, but there were three that the others had found, which brought up the discussion of whether or not we should take the main entrance and work from there, or if we should explore the other entrances we found...
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