Lana looked at everyone after calculating the amount of crystals. "Okay, we are 58 intermediate crystals away from Almin's level 5 ability book. We still have several days but let's see how close we can get today. Let's see if we can get two or three ability books out of this venture."
She then put all the intermediate tier crystals in her bag underneath as much as she could so it would look like all she was carrying was food. Katie would carry a bag with the basic tiers from yesterday. They used the same tactic as the day before and they knew the task was quite easy for them but because of this, they were easily able to gain more and more. By lunch, they had 30 more crystals. Having stayed out over night gave them a lot more hunting time than those who had to travel back and forth to the shelter.
They had traveled in a straight path from their tree and at this point, they decided to circle around to the north and loop back to the tree and be there in time for dinner. They traveled a good bit and according to their map they were about halfway back when they stumbled on a large field of highly burnt earth. Their MC was almost recovered from their last fights, and it was a good thing.
Just after realizing how big the area was, they questioned if they had made a mistake. From 4 different directions, 3 snakes appeared.
"Earth wall, earth wall, earth wall," Lana heard. Dobin was on it. She got behind the shield with Almin and made a cactus and her rose vine but this time she did something different. She wrapped the vine around the cactus and injured it so it was leaking water. She then swung the vine across the field as more and more snakes appeared seemingly from nowhere. They had apparently stumbled upon a nest and there was no telling how many were there. She killed 4 instantly with the other 2 critically wounded.
Sven was unable to keep up with the sheer number and Kattie had nothing that would injure them. She was safely behind the earth wall that was surrounding them and being reinforced. How long Dobin's MC would hold or the walls he was building, no one knew.
Alto was throwing water daggers at each one as quickly as he could but he was a lower level than everyone else. His MC would be first to go.
Almin held his shield in place protecting himself and Lana. He called more metal to build the shield further in case the wall fell but heat would still be an issue if someone touched it. At some point, half the snakes were killed but Alto was spent and Dobin was struggling. Sven was tired. Lana looked at her people and knew she needed to do something.
Lana had an insane idea and went for it. Donned still in her stage 2 armor, covered in roses, she leaped over the barrier while wrapping seaweed around her hands and holding it there with her climbing rose armor, then began punching her way through the snakes. As the vines and seaweed got damaged, she'd replace them. It didn't take long for the roses to become charred and start falling off but she would grow new ones. With kicks and punches, everything she had practiced with Kattie and Raten, combined with her acrobatics, she was able to defeat the remaining snakes. But she was exhausted. She had burn marks on her body despite her efforts. She sat down and was getting ready to lay down when she noticed smoke off in the distance. She was getting ready to instruct everyone to gather the crystals when she noticed they already were.
At this point, she didn't care how many there were. They were alive, somehow. By some miracle. They learned an important lesson. Not paying attention to your surroundings and getting over confident could lead to your death. Perhaps some gear would be needed soon as well.
While sitting, she opened up her bag to allow them to put some of the crystals in it. She had not purchased much in the way of seasoning so those pockets were available to hold crystals as well. Soon her bag was filled and they started filling their own bags as well. They didn't have time to count because they saw a vehicle heading their way. It was from the military base.
Soon a sergeant jumped off the vehicle, "everyone is being recalled. You need to get in immediately."
Lucky for them, all they needed to do was drop a few more crystals in their bags then close them up. There were other students in the vehicle and they had trouble finding space. Lana had to sit on Dobin's lap and Kattie sat on Almin's with Sven sitting on Alto's lap. Next stop was the military base.
All the students were taken straight to the teleporter and informed to join their class on the other side. The vehicle drove off again without another word. Night had fallen just as they approached the gates so the students didn't hesitate. The teams held each other and went through one team at a time wondering what happened that they were returning the day after a week-long outing was started.
Lana and her team immediately looked for Nis and found him pretty quickly. He was counting his students. She could see Logan so she was happy he had been returned safe from whatever danger this was about. Her team quickly informed Nis they were there and joined his line. She gave a small wave to Logan then looked at the line next to them. That was Del's class. Vorden was meant to be there. She noticed his entire team was missing and began to worry.
The teleporter opened again and she saw more students enter the area. Still no sign of Vorden. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he came through and the portal was shut down. She noticed Leo was with them and they looked more battered than her team. She didn't see any obvious wounds and they were not rushed off for medical attention so she had to assume their needs were already met. She didn't dare leave her spot and mess up Nis' count. Which he kept doing. Did we lose someone?
The students were then informed there had been a Dalki attack and some students were missing. The next two days were days off. Everyone was to return to their dorms for the day. Since it was almost dinner time, Lana's team went back to her room so she could cook. While she did that, the rest of the team counted crystals.