Chapter 60: The Distress Signal
The night passed in relative peace.
Silas woke in the middle of the night, just in time for the next monster wave. Soon enough, he noticed the change his teammates had mentioned. The wave was so small that Lara’s babies alone could hold the frontline without difficulty.
If they simply remained behind the shield, allowed the tamed monsters to form a defensive line, and let the arrow launchers do the rest, the entire wave could be wiped out without much effort.
However, Silas disliked such a passive approach.
He reorganised the team into shifts, ensuring that everyone received several hours of proper rest while he remained awake throughout the night. Darius and Cher were assigned to one shift, while Alfred and Lara took the other.
This arrangement allowed Cher’s lethal ability to compensate for the reduced number of tamed monsters available whenever Lara was resting. Even though Lara had instructed her babies to defend the outpost, Silas preferred not to leave anything to chance.
More importantly, he still did not know what had caused this sudden change. Although he suspected it was somehow connected to the dragon and what the Shadowheart had done, he could not be certain. Nor could he tell whether the phenomenon was temporary or permanent.
The following days provided the answer.
For four consecutive days, the team faced the same pattern of attacks. Waves arrived every two or even three hours, their numbers never exceeding two hundred. The bears never appeared again.
The only remaining nuisance came from the squirrels. Yet after fighting them repeatedly, the team gradually learned how to deal with them efficiently. Even better, on the second day, Lara managed to tame several of them.
By the fifth day, the number of her tamed monsters had surpassed one hundred. At that point, she could practically handle any incoming wave on her own. The only drawback was the enormous consumption of Mana Crystals, but with Cher around, that was hardly a problem.
Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly.
The only concern was that they were collecting far fewer monster cores than they had on the first day. If things continued at this pace, Silas intended to visit the valley before the mission ended and collect the cores scattered among the thousands of monster corpses the dragon killed. He also planned to return to the hill where he had set his trap and gather whatever cores around it.
Unfortunately, those plans changed on the fifth day.
The morning began like any other. The team shared breakfast, exchanged jokes about funny moments from their previous day’s battles, and dealt with the few monster waves that arrived without much pressure.
Then, while they were eating lunch, a sharp buzzing sound suddenly filled the air. Everyone immediately looked at their wristwatches as a flashing red light blinked across every screen.
It was a distress signal. And the meaning was unmistakable; another team was requesting help. It was the first time such an incident had happened since the mission had begun.
"This..." Darius stared at his watch in disbelief. "All these outposts are requesting help at once?!"
A holographic map projected into the air above his wrist. It was the same map Silas had obtained from the academy, showing the mine and the network of outposts surrounding it.
At least ten outposts had turned into large red circles. The sight was shocking as everyone had expected a single distress call, not ten.
"And they’re all close to each other," Lara added, glancing at the others. "What’s going on?"
The map showed the outposts arranged in a rough line, clustered unusually close together. To the others, it was suspicious; to Silas, it meant something far worse.
A fleeting expression of panic crossed his face when he spotted that map. And Cher noticed it immediately.
’It can’t be...’
The moment Silas saw the map, the blood drained from his face. The shocking part was not that the outposts were close together, as Darius and Lara noticed, but where they were located.
They formed an almost straight line with his own outpost, positioned slightly to the northeast. It was in the same direction as the valley. Realising this drove a terrifying possibility through his mind.
He recalled the terrifying dragon, the massive body and the humanoid form. He remembered how the Shadowheart teased the dragon, stole the flower, and kept the chase running. Recalling all this made his body tremble faintly, beyond his control.
For a moment, panic gripped him. Then he forced himself to calm down and clenched his fists.
’Impossible.’
Yet he couldn’t convince himself.
In his opinion, there was no way a single dragon could survive a battle against thousands of Enhancers. Yet the memory of the long battle noises between the dragon and the Enhancers that echoed for long hours made him question this logic.
’And even if it somehow survived, why would it abandon the valley, travel all the way toward the mine, and attack multiple outposts?’
The more he thought about it, the less reasonable the idea seemed. Yet the unease remained like a stubborn knot that refused to leave his chest.
"I think we should go and help."
Cher’s voice suddenly cut through his thoughts, and everyone turned towards her. Yet, she was looking directly at Silas.
"We’ve had an easy few days, but we’re falling behind in the mission itself. If we want to improve our team ranking, we need more merit points."
Although her words were directed at the entire group, her eyes never left him.
"I think other teams will do the same," Darius said after a moment.
"At the very least, Leopard and Rachel’s teams will," Lara added.
At that point, the outcome was obvious. Even if Alfred said nothing, his nod spoke for itself.
"Fine," Silas said reluctantly.
Logic was on their side. If they wanted to climb the rankings, sitting safely behind the shield and farming weak monster waves would accomplish nothing. Under other circumstances, he would have suggested the same thing himself.
"Then why don’t you seem happy about it?" Cher asked. Tilting her head slightly, she continued to watch him with unsettling intensity.
"We still need to balance it with our mission," Silas replied, clearing his throat. "We can’t leave the outpost undefended. We don’t know how long we’ll be gone."
"I can handle the defences myself," Lara said eagerly. "My babies can easily..."
"Not enough."
Silas cut her off. Despite knowing how capable her tamed monsters had become, he remained unconvinced.
"We still don’t know what caused those distress signals and if it could hit our place or not."
The warning hidden in his words was obvious; ambition was one thing, carelessness was another.
"I’ll stay behind," Darius volunteered. "You can take Alfred with you."
"Alfred stays."
Cher’s response left no room for discussion.
"I’ll go with Silas. The two of us can handle any threat we encounter. The three of you are more than capable of defending the outpost, even against the bears."
Before anyone could object, she pointed toward the sky.
"I’ll leave the shuttle here. If something serious happens, send it to our location so we can be fetched quickly. If the situation becomes truly desperate, board it and come find us."
Her proposal was difficult to argue against, and the others quickly accepted it. Still, Cher never looked away from Silas, not even once.
The attention made him increasingly uncomfortable.
’Why do I feel like she’s planning something?’
Meeting her gaze, he finally nodded.
"It’s settled. Cher and I will leave."
He turned toward the others.
"I’ll leave enough Mana Crystals to keep the outpost shield and arrow launchers running until the mission ends."
Then he glanced back at Cher.
"And she’ll leave enough crystals to cover any combat expenses while we’re gone."
"Not a problem."
Cher answered with a calm smile and immediate approval.
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