Eldros didn't know anyone was looking at him or talking about him. Even the usual feeling of a camera spying on him was long gone.
He was simply too tired to care and was using all his remaining strength to make his brain keep working again. That said, his eyes remained open and his hand didn't leave his iron disc.
He was in the Wilderness after all, where corrupted beasts might come out at any time. He wasn't safe and he knew it.
"The green hyenas shouldn't be this far out on the edge and not in such great numbers," Kat muttered darkly.
She was sitting up now, massaging her head. "Their territory is far out, but they are here."
Nobody said anything for a while, but they were all thinking of the same thing.
The Skullhowl.
Jarek frowned. "The Skullhowl must be behind it. They must have some mysterious artifact or a new powerful backer to be able to pull something like this off."
Eldros finally spoke. "What's the history between you two?"
She shook her head. "Just normal teams. But we were the two strongest teams in the outpost. Initially there were more, but over the years they've either died or moved away, leaving only the two as the most dominant. The Skullhowl and Jarek's team."
"Then… they want to be the only one in the outpost? It shouldn't be that simple," Scar said.
Jarek's face darkened. "The Skullhowl are affiliated with the Ninefold Eclipse, but it's more like they're doing work for them now and then. So we don't need to worry about the Ninefold Eclipse, but if the Skullhowl are behind this, then we must absolutely destroy them!"
A grim silence settled over them.
Kat's eyes flashed and she stood up. She brought one of her jars of power over and sprinkled some in her palm. She then mixed it with the blood of the hyena monsters and began to whisper.
Each word she spoke contained power that Eldros couldn't understand even as he listened intently. The thing in her hand shimmered and the powder completely absorbed the blood, turning dry once more.
She then blew the powder into the air where it hung and shimmered before moving as if it had a will of its own and then… it scattered down exactly where the team was.
Kat's eyes gleamed. "It seems what attracted the monsters is here among us. We all have to check ourselves. Bring out everything on you, from your pockets and including your sacks."
They all did.
Eldros emptied his sack and all the contents in his pockets without hiding anything. The others did the same, and the ground was filled with different items.
Kat personally checked everything, and her eyes narrowed. "Well, I don't find anything. It must be the other one, where the monsters must have been drawn here by a more powerful Magus."
Jarek pressed her lips together grimly. "It seems the Skullhowl really want us dead this time for sure. It's settled then. We'll have to leave the teringe seed for now. We'll try to hunt evil spirits instead."
With that, everyone began to put their contents back into their sacks, and it was then that Kat noticed the purple potion in Eldros's hand. "Where did you get something like that?"
Eldros stiffened and his hand tightened on the purple potion. Was this the cause of the monster attack? "What is it?"
Kat stared at him with a gleam in her eyes. "This thing is expensive. It's a poison that makes use of one's blood and life force for power. I won't recommend using it, you should sell it."
Eldros nodded but didn't say anything more about it.
They rested some more and then they headed deeper into the Wilderness. This time they were more cautious, and Scar acted like a scout, but they weren't met with any unforeseen situations.
Before long they reached a place where a Dragon had once stood, but now what remained were crumbled buildings. Inside the buildings were monsters' bodies piled high, reeking of rot and decay.
"Evil spirits are naturally attracted to places like this. We set this up to create a fishing area," Jarek explained.
Buzzing around the corpses were translucent dark shapes of formless shadows. They darted around the buildings and the bodies. The areas around them were filled with coldness and an eerie sensation of wrongness.
Eldros wasn't afraid though. He'd seen a lot of them in the Dungeon he woke up in and in the ruined city. If one avoided them, then there wouldn't be any problem.
Kat took the opportunity to give him a short lecture as she began to remove some magic instruments from her bag. They resembled nets with rods but were inscribed with strange words of power.
"Evil spirits are powerful. The more corporeal they are, the stronger. Not only can they attack your physical body, they can target your soul and sea of conviction."
As she was saying that, she was also on the move with the others. They covered themselves with black robes that pulsed with a sinister aura as if they were part of the evil spirits, and then they got close to the destroyed Dungeon.
Eldros was charged with looking out for them, so he was mostly scanning the surroundings with his senses, but he was still watching what the team was doing.
With the net and rod, they would scoop the evil spirits in as if they were hunting for butterflies. And since the magical instruments were made specifically for them, the evil spirits could only struggle within them.
They continued like that for an hour before they were satisfied and wrapped up the magical instruments in a special sack.