Chapter 149 - End Of The Safe Boundary
The team was hit a wave of uneasiness. Elena and Garry approached Nina after the other and expressed their concerns. Jeremiah was a man of few words, but his soft gaze accounts enough. Only the team leader was concerned with gaining more Yin Cores.
Having learnt her lesson, Nina relaxed expression was replaced with stern vigilance, reacting to the slightest of sounds. The others followed suit and advanced with guarded stance. Getting injured by an undead ghoul was no laughing matter.
"The undead ghouls carry lethal corpse poison in their claws and teeth, with no cure." Walking ahead, Elias informed them, before heartlessly stating, "If you get afflicted. I'm sorry but you are as good as dead and will be left behind."
When the team heard this, pressure suffused the surrounding as coldness filled their hearts. They gripped their weapons with heightened vigilance. No one want to be left alone in this forest. Unless they have heaven-defying luck, chances of survival were close to nil.
Only Leon remained unperturbed. Corpse poison was nothing to him. Furthermore, people could just remove the afflicted part of their flesh decisively to avoid the corpse poison from rotting the rest of their body.
The ventured deeper into the forest with a heavy mood.
750 yards… 775 yards… 800 yards. Leon nonchalantly glanced at the markings on the trees that indicated their distance as they went.
Along the way, they encountered 1 Level-2 Undead Ghouls and 2 Level-3 Undead Ghouls, gaining another 2 Grade-3 and 1 Grade-2 Yin Cores for the team.
"Hahaha, this is really not bad. 4 Grade-3 and 1 Grade-2 Yin Cores in an hour worth of hunt. That's 140,000 Craws."
Elias laughed heartily. The team also wore smiles on their faces. 140,000 Craws was not a small sum of money. Even Leon was taken aback by the rich payouts for these Yin Cores.
Grade-1 Yin Cores were worth 10,000 Craws and successive grade higher was an increment of 10,000 Craws. Thus, a Grade-6 Yin Core would be worth 60,000 Craws. But considering the strongest Awakener in Blackwillow Town were 5th step Awakeners, a Level-6 Undead Ghoul would wipe everyone out.
"We've already encountered 5 undead ghouls, yet not a single mutated ghoul."
Elena wondered why they haven't encountered any thus far. The value of a fresh mutate ghoul body was even more exaggerated. the fresh blood vitality of a Level-1 Mutated Ghoul was worth a whopping 100,000 Craws.
"Mutated ghouls are much rarer than undead ghouls. Mutated ghouls require much more stringent conditions to be created."
Elias continued to answer all questions asked like a walking encyclopedia.
"Team leader, since you are so experienced and knowledgeable of the forest, how come you don't have your own specialized team?"
Once that question was asked, the others also pricked their ears to listen in as well. Everyone was curious and suspicious towards that point. Elias became gloomy and cold at once. "Don't ask questions you shouldn't."
"Oh… sorry, team leader. That was insensitive of me." Elena immediately apologized. Perhaps, she poked at his sore spot. "It's getting a bit isn't it? Hehehe…" She tried to change the subject.
They were after all in one of the Human Domain's few Perilous Lands. Experienced and knowledgeable as someone may be, they cannot predict the future. Elena figured the team leader used to have a team, but they suffered a mishap and got wiped out.
Strangely after venturing another 100 yards deeper and reaching the 900-yard mark, they did not encounter another ghoul along the way.
"This is strange. Did our luck already run out? Why isn't there anymore ghouls?" Nina commented. It was eerily quiet.
AHHHHH~!
Suddenly, a scream came from not too far ahead, causing the team to pause their steps in alert. "It seems one of the other teams that went ahead of us had encountered trouble. We will go in a different direction."
The team leader's statement took everyone by surprise. "We aren't going to help them?" Nina asked doubtfully. Wasn't that too cold?
"No." Elias said sternly. "The number one thing you should all be careful of in the forest is not ghouls but humans! You can help them, but they may not feel grateful. In fact, they may even try to kill you, if you have treasures on you."
There were also other problems. Such a loud sound would naturally attract attentions. If they head to the source and find themselves outnumbered by ghouls, things could get dangerous. It was best to avoid the problem. Not helping others, was helping themselves.
"How is that possible? We are all humans. We should be helping each other."
Elias shook his head and said, "There's no limits to human greed. This is the Extreme Misty Forest. No law governs this place. As long people can get away with it, all kinds of wickedness can be conducted here. I've seen it too many times. Teams hunting other teams for their treasures, even team mates killings each other to claim sole possession of the spoils. You all should throw away your kindness. Being kind to others here, is to be cruel to yourself."
Everyone began to look at the team leader in a new light. Whatever doubts they had regarding the team leader's intentions for recruiting was washed away.
"Team leader, you picked us because you knew we would be easy prey for others, right? You were looking after us, right?"
"Don't get me wrong. If any of you get afflicted with corpse poison, I will not hesitate to kick you out of the team to fend for yourself."
His response came off cold, but he did not deny anything. The team took it as the team leader's tacit admittance.
The team leader said not to trust humans, but Leon could see everyone's trust in the team leader. He inwardly shook his head and remained silent. 'Let's see what you're playing at.'
He already noticed that while Elias mentioned many things, he did not mention anything about the tree markings. Perhaps it was general knowledge so he didn't see the need to, but by the looks of the team members, it doesn't seem like their noticed the tree markings. Leon would have also missed the markings if not for his good eyes.
The team continued to hunt along the 900-yard mark. Over the next 3 hours, they were able to gain another 5 Grade-2, 7 Grade-3 and even 1 Grade-4 Yin Core. Their harvest tallied to a grand total of 490,000 Craws.
Half a million! That amount was enough to set a commoner for life, if they live frugally. However, after dividing the money equally, each member would only end up with a bit over 80,000 Craws.
"Hm? It seems the mist is started to get a bit thick around here. Should we head back, team leader?" Garry suddenly suggested.
"It shouldn't be a problem. There's still another 3 hours before the gate closing time. We should make use of this time since we are currently hunting quite well."
No one disagreed. Since the team leader said there's no problem, why would they miss out on the chance to make more money? Another half an hour passes by, before people finally began to notice something was wrong.
Leon shook his head and quietly tagged along. Although it seemed like they were hunting along the 900-yard boundary, this was a misconception by the thickening mist. They had been heading straight for the 1-mile boundary the whole time.
He had noticed the problem when he longer saw the tree markings and had to mentally calculate the distance. By now, they should be around the 1700-yard boundary, about 60 yards from the 1-mile boundary.
"We've been encountering more and more ghouls. Also, the mist is getting way too thick to see anything! I can't even tell left from right anymore. Can we start returning?"
Once Nina spoke these words, there others started chiming in. "We hunted enough. We shouldn't be too greedy." They were more self-conscious. They already hunted 1,300,000 Craws worth of yin cores.
More ghouls meant more money, but also greater danger. No matter how important money was, it wasn't as important as their life.
There were hints of exhaustion in their tones and few beads of sweat on their faces, despite the coldness of the environment.
"Let's go then." Elias nodded without a single sweat. He couldn't go against the entire team's wishes. He began leading them back. Elena and the rest were about to follow suit when Leon placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Hm? What's the matter, Leo?"
Leon smiled coldly at Elias, before answering her question, "I wouldn't go that way if I were you."
"Why?"
Elena and the rest were puzzled, while Elias had small change in expression before it was hidden by his smile. "Is there a problem with my lead, Leo?"
"Problem? Hahaha… There is a big problem." Leon responded with a chuckle. "Why are you trying to lead everyone beyond the safe boundary?"
What!
Everyone was shocked by Leon's accusation and turn to Elias with a questioning gaze.
"What do you mean by those words, Leo? Have I not treated you well, for you to slander me so?" Elias said unhappily.
"That's right. The team leader has been good to us." Nina defended, but she still gave Leon to explain himself based on her good impression of him.
However, he didn't spare Nina one glance. His sight was fixed on Elias. He had been contemplating this whole time.
If Elias just wanted sole possession of the spoil, he could just quietly kill everyone off with his strength. There was no need to lead them all the way to 1-mile boundary. Thus, therein lies the first problem. It shouldn't be about the spoils.
Then came the second problem. They hunted this whole time, but they had not seen even the shadows of a mutated ghoul. Mutated ghouls were rare, but not to the point of nonexistence. They should have already encountered a few by now, but they did not.
The next problem was everyone's stamina. With the harsh conditions of the environment, everyone burns more energy and tire out more quickly when they have been fighting this entire time. It was natural for him not to break a sweat as a practitioner at the 9th layer Body Tempering Realm, but it was strange for Elias not to break a sweat when everyone else already did.
After summing up all the problems, it brought him back to the main point, which was also the first doubtful point. Why did Elias only recruit first-timers? What was his real motive?