Chapter 61: Bonus Chapter for Egypt’s World Cup Ranking: Signs of a Catastrophe
Silas and Cher did not linger for long. After leaving enough crystals for their teammates, they set off toward the mine.
The moment they departed, Cher became noticeably more vigilant than usual. Her staff never left her hand, and she constantly kept a crystal ready, prepared to activate her ability at a moment’s notice.
Meanwhile, Silas was occupied by a different concern. The possibility that everything was connected to the dragon continued to weigh heavily on his mind.
Before leaving the outpost, he had checked the map and noticed several defensive lines standing between their position and the outposts that had issued distress signals. If the dragon truly was responsible, why had it ignored all the others?
"Do you remember what was most distinctive about the battle sounds we heard on the first day?"
The question struck like a bolt from the blue.
Almost half an hour had passed since their departure, yet Cher suddenly threw it at him without warning. When Silas turned to look at her, he found her watching him carefully.
’Shit.’
Any lingering doubt he had about her suspicions vanished.
"If you recall correctly, I was exhausted that day," he replied calmly. "I went to sleep almost immediately after returning."
He tried his best to keep his expression under control, though he knew that for a brief instant, surprise had flashed across his face when she asked the question.
Fortunately, he had recovered quickly.
"You know that roars can mean different things, right?"
Having noticed that fleeting reaction, Cher decided to press forward. Yet, Silas remained silent.
"Monsters roar. Intelligent races do too. The difference is obvious once you’ve heard enough of them. Those thunderous roars from that day didn’t belong to a monster. If anything, they sounded like they came from an intelligent being."
Silas felt his heart tighten.
’She knows.’
’Does she know about the dragon?’
Yet when he glanced at her, he noticed something unexpected. Beneath her confidence lurked hesitation and doubt. The moment she noticed his gaze, however, both disappeared.
"I can’t tell which race produced those roars," she continued, "but I’m certain it was one of the more terrifying races that inhabit our world."
"Why can’t it have been a high-grade monster?"
Silas immediately attacked the weakness in her reasoning, hammering a wedge of doubt there.
"At our current level, can either of us really tell the difference?"
Cher fell silent.
Her hesitation confirmed his suspicion; she was only guessing.
Not only that, but Silas himself wasn’t completely convinced that the dragon was responsible for the distress signals. If he were certain, he would have encouraged her theory rather than challenging it.
Before she could continue the discussion, Silas suddenly raised a hand.
"Stop."
In the distance stood the silhouette of something familiar. It was an outpost, one that looked identical to the one they had been defending.
"Should we check it?" Cher asked. "Maybe we’ll find a clue about what happened to the rear outposts."
After a brief hesitation, Silas nodded. Then the two headed toward it. The closer they came, the more wrong everything felt.
Their own team had prevented a single monster from slipping past their defences during the past few days. The outposts farther south should have enjoyed even longer periods of peace.
Instead, what greeted them was a scene neither had expected. The outpost was gone, utterly destroyed, and only ruins remained.
"This..." Cher stepped through the wreckage, her expression darkening. "How could this happen without a distress signal being sent?"
She looked toward Silas. Like her, he had become extremely cautious. One hand rested on the hilt of a dagger as his eyes swept across the ruins.
He did not answer, as he was busy analysing what he was seeing.
"And where’s the team?"
Cher stood near what had once been the Rune Heart and searched the area.
"They’re here."
Silas’ voice suddenly echoed through the ruins.
"They’re all dead."
Cher rushed toward him.
Just beyond the Rune Heart lay seven bodies dressed in academy uniforms. Their corpses were scattered across the ground, charred beyond recognition and torn into pieces.
The sight was gruesome enough to make Cher immediately avert her gaze. But Silas did not. Instead, he crouched beside the remains and carefully examined them.
"A powerful fire attack caused this," Cher said after a moment, only stealing another glance before turning her eyes away. "But it happened at least a day ago. You’re not going to find any clues."
She was right. The corpses had already begun to decay, and the burn marks had long since cooled, mixed with the rotten remnants.
Even so, Silas’ unease only deepened. He didn’t hurry to leave as Cher hoped; he started a thorough search for any clue. He checked the standing walls, the fallen rocks, and even the ground. Everything told a scary story about a terrifying fiery attack that stormed across this place, yet he didn’t find anything else useful.
"What are you doing?"
Instead of leaving, he walked toward a nearby pile of rubble and pulled out a heavy backpack.
"It still contains almost a full supply of Mana Crystals," he said. "No reason to leave something valuable behind."
"You..."
Cher rolled her eyes before remembering where he came from. To someone raised in an orphanage, a bag full of Mana Crystals was indeed a fortune.
"Give it to me. I’ll store it."
"Store it where?"
Silas handed over the backpack anyway.
"My portable device."
As she spoke, the bag vanished. Seeing the surprise on his face, Cher briefly explained.
"Portable devices are among the most valuable tools used in war. They allow their owner to store items in a separate space. They’re bound by blood and connected to a mark on the user’s body, which makes them convenient and secure."
She left out the details. Still, Silas understood one thing clearly: obtaining such an item was far beyond his current means. He needed to grow stronger and become wealthier first before dreaming about owning something like that.
After storing the backpack, Cher watched him in silence. But Silas ignored her gaze and continued examining the ruins. That nagging possibility remained firmly lodged in his mind.
What if the dragon had done this? He couldn’t shake off the seed of doubt once rooted in his mind. So, he searched for evidence in a second tour, but found none.
Eventually, he gave up.
"Let’s go."
The two resumed their journey. An hour later, they reached the next defensive line. Just as Silas had feared, the outpost there had suffered the same fate.
It too had been destroyed, its defenders were dead. The only difference was the manner of their deaths. Unlike the previous team, these students appeared to have been ripped apart by sharp claws. There were even many claw marks on the standing walls. Not to mention the fallen rocks were crushed into rubble.
Silas immediately recalled the terrifying talons of the dragon and the countless times the Shadowheart had narrowly avoided them. Yet he couldn’t be certain, as many monsters possessed deadly claws.
"How did both teams die without sending a single distress signal?" Cher asked.
It was a reasonable question. And Silas had no convincing answer.
"Maybe they became careless."
It was one of two possibilities he had considered. The second one he kept hidden, thinking that they had encountered something so overwhelming it shattered the shield, breached the outpost, and slaughtered everyone before they had time to react.
"That could be it," Cher said slowly. "We’ve been handling most of the monster waves ourselves. Anyone might lower their guard after several peaceful days."
Silas scanned the ruins in silence. The scale of destruction simply didn’t fit that explanation.
’Besides, if we killed every monster that approached our line, where did monsters capable of this even come from?’
Silas scanned the ruined outpost again, and his eyes lingered a bit longer on the decayed bodies of six youngsters with the Frontier uniform. A few days ago, the students stationed here had been no different from his own friends.
Now they were dead.
A cold realisation suddenly settled into his heart. Whatever caused this destruction just happened to miss their outpost. If whatever had done this had chosen a different path, the bodies scattered among these ruins could have belonged to Lara, Darius, and the others.
A chill ran down his spine, especially when he recalled what the Shadowheart did to the dragon.
Trying to escape from the suffocating dread, his gaze drifted toward the horizon. Three more defensive lines remained before they reached the outposts that had sent the distress signals.
"Let’s go."
Before leaving, he collected another backpack full of Mana Crystals and tossed it to Cher. Then the two of them resumed their run.
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