"Oho, you must be new here, mate," another one spoke up. And from their appearances, the gears on their bodies, William could tell they were all silver grade spirit masters, roughly at the early twentieth in age or something.
"That mean?" William felt like he missed something the common folks here already were aware of.
"It's the hunting festival, mate," another dude said, "it's a traditional activity that the crazy dudes of the Lockheart impact do every few years."
"Lockheart impact?!" William couldn't believe that he heard the name of the impact Sith tried to recruit him into at the first moment he stepped into the territory of the Scorching Lands.
"Yes mate, they are a force that can do anything," another said, "take my advice and keep your eyes away from them. They are crazy, nuts! Do you know that they use a sort of luring array to gather up the monsters from a huge area of the forest, and let their newly joined teams to fight and prove themselves against these hordes? This is crazy mate! Totally insane!"
"..."
"They let their newly joined teams out there, facing hordes after hordes of scary and crazy monsters. It's just your luck to find a safe way away from their craziness! Many unfortunate teams will end up strangled in the middle of the monsters they lure, ending up either getting killed or falling into the hands of those crazy folks!"
"This…" just when William was thinking he'd throw away all the burden and worry he felt towards his team the moment he'd arrive at the Scorching Lands and find them, his heart couldn't help but clench upon hearing all this.
"Are you saying that many teams will fall into their grasp?!" William knew that the chances of his team falling into the area of activity of this impact was very high.
"If they got some luck, mate," one of the team said with a long whistle, "or else, if they got the short part of the stick, then goodbye for all of them."
"They won't be that lucky, dude!" another one argued, "they still have to pay a price to get freed."
"That's correct, no one would get lucky if he met the monsters or those crazy dudes," another silver spirit master said, while nodding his head, "and that price isn't fixed. It totally depends on the mood and nature of the dark gold leader of those crazy dudes."
"Dark gold? Price?!" William slowly muttered, while feeling more restless the more he thought about this.
In his heart, he was sure for unknown reasons that his team faced swarms of monsters lured by this array. He didn't need to ask to know how ferocious such an array was. It managed to clear up a great stretch of the deep lands of the forest as he saw it himself.
"Do you know where this test is?"
"Tests mate, not just a single one," one rolled his eyes, as if what William said was some sort of a naive thought. Everyone smirked and even a few laughed, "there are at least twenty testing zones out there, scattered all across one hundred kilometre radius around."
"This…" William knew it was impossible for him to go and look for his team right now. If it was just a single test zone, then he'd try his luck to arrive there alone.
But twenty zones? Scattered in one hundred kilometre radius? That was a vast area that he'd never be able to cover up alone in a few weeks' time.
And when he realised this, he felt glad he didn't settle on the other option back then and didn't go to actively seek out his team back then.
"Mate, do you lose it here or what?" another member pointed towards his head as he added, "didn't you hear what we said? Stay away from trouble! This is for your own good! Even a silver team like us won't dare to come closer to those maniacs."
"Thanks," William knew they only meant good for him, "may I ask for directions towards the main fort? It's my first time getting here."
"Oho, you are lucky," who seemed to be the leader of this group of spirit masters laughed, "we just finished our task and were about to head back. You can stick around, mate. Ah, by the way, in case you didn't hear it yet, the forest is now quite a dangerous place around the main fort."
? "Dangerous? Thanks to that impact?" William was now linking everything to the Lockheart impact.
"No, no mate, they are crazy, but only towards their own people," the leader shook his head, as if he just heard something quite unbelievable, "it's all thanks to those f*cking homies, the bastards!"
"Bastards?" William paused for a few seconds, "do you mean the dark spirit masters or what?"
"Who else, mate? They are going all over the place, killing any team who is venturing alone out there."
"This…" William suddenly recalled the dark spirit master team he accidently met before. From them, he knew a drawing of his face was already distributed among many dark forces. And it seemed there was some sort of a bounty on his head.
"They are acting like hornets stirred from their nests, pussies out of their brothel," another dude said, "they are acting arrogant, actively seeking trouble. They never acted this way, never!"
"I told you already, it's all the fault of the Lockheart folks," another one said, while nodding as if he was all knowing about everything happening in the world, "they are acting like this to kill their new recruits. Take it from me, in a few days, we'll see the entire forest tremble under the brutal and bloody fights of these two crazy forces."
"As long as it's away from my rooftop, let them do whatever they like," the leader harrumphed, "I hate meddling into other mates' business. If they want blood, let them kill each other and stay away from me."
William didn't agree on such an idea, but he remained his lips tightly shut. He wasn't responsible for what others thought. Just like this dude said, as long as they were away from his path, he wouldn't care about them.
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