Chapter 627: An Easy Hunt

But what about the enemies attacking them?

There was no reason to keep them alive.

At that moment, one of the larger Withered emerged from the southern crack, its body nearly four meters tall, with hard plates growing over its chest and shoulders.

Unlike most of the previous creatures, its movements seemed more coordinated.

\[ Race: The Withered \]

\[ Rank: Mutated \]

\[ Level: 45 \]

Lian looked at the information for a moment.

This one’s level is much higher than the others.

The creature let out a rough roar and charged straight at him, its right foot pressing hard against the stone.

Then it threw a massive punch toward his head.

The young Vorhelm caught the attacker’s wrist, and the impact sent a heavy force through his arm, but it did not even force him to take a step back.

With his other hand, he threw a straight punch at the Withered’s chest.

Bang!

The hard plates covering the creature’s body cracked.

The force of the punch passed through its natural armor and forced its four-meter-tall body to take a step back.

The Withered tried to regain its balance.

But Lian gave it no chance, taking a short step forward before driving his second punch straight into the creature’s head.

The bones in its face broke under the impact, and the large Withered was lifted off the ground before crashing heavily onto the rocks behind it.

\[ Level 45 Withered killed \]

\[ Experience received \]

He looked at the motionless creature.

Two punches.

For an enemy at level forty-five, it had not shown much resistance, though level was not the only factor that determined a monster’s strength.

Rank, race, body structure, skills, and evolution were also very important.

And despite their relatively high levels, these mutated creatures seemed to have lost a large part of their original abilities.

He looked around, and by this point, most of the Withered that had tried to attack him had been killed.

However, a few more creatures were still emerging from the cracks, and just as he was about to move toward them, a scream came from his right.

"Help!"

One of the staff members of the Awakened Association, who had come close to the crack to examine the changes in the ground, had become trapped in the path of a tall Withered while retreating.

The creature was about three meters tall, and its bony hands ended in hard claws.

\[ Race: The Withered \]

\[ Rank: Mutated \]

\[ Level: 37 \]

The staff member tried to move out of the creature’s attack path.

But his foot was stuck between two rocks, and the Withered raised its right hand, if its claws hit the man, they would probably tear through a large part of his body.

However, before the attack could be completed...

Clang!

A spear came in from the left.

Rindo turned his weapon and knocked the creature’s long arm off course, causing its claws to strike the rock beside the staff member’s feet instead of his body.

At the same moment, Noah opened his Twelve-Rib War Umbrella.

The metal surface of the umbrella moved between the staff member and the creature’s second attack.

A loud impact rang out.

Noah turned his wrist, directing the force of the attack to both sides, while grabbing the staff member’s arm with his free hand.

"Get up!"

The man struggled to free his foot, and the young Frenchman pulled him backward.

"Get behind that rock, it’s not safe here."

The staff member retreated without arguing.

Rindo continued using his spear to control the distance between himself and the creature, but before he had to launch another attack, Lian approached from the left.

His fist struck the Withered directly in the head, and a short cracking sound followed, the creature fell to the ground and remained motionless.

\[ Level 37 Withered killed \]

\[ Experience received \]

He glanced at Rindo and Noah.

Rindo simply nodded.

Noah closed his umbrella and looked toward the staff member, and after making sure the man had moved out of danger, he gave a small smile.

"Well, we couldn’t let you do all the work alone."

Lian did not answer and simply turned his attention back to the cracks.

A few more creatures could still be seen in the distance, but most of them were moving toward different parts of the plain instead of attacking.

It seemed that some of them had understood, even with their confused minds, that approaching the young Vorhelm was not a good choice after seeing the other Withered die.

The fight continued for a few more minutes.

Lian defeated the last of the attacking creatures with ordinary punches, and eventually, a relative silence returned to the area.

The bodies of more than twenty Withered were scattered around the cracks, with some lying on the ground with their skulls crushed.

Others had their chest bones broken by direct hits, while several more lay motionless farther away, beside the broken rocks.

However, he himself had not suffered any noticeable injuries.

Even the amount of mana he had used was almost nothing.

He checked his own status for a moment.

His level was still 29.

However, the experience he had gained had added a considerable amount to his progress.

"If I can find more of these creatures, I’ll probably be able to level up very soon," he murmured quietly.

This was a valuable opportunity.

Especially when he considered that he still needed to make more progress before reaching his second evolution.

But for now, there was something more important, he looked at one of the nearby corpses, and unlike ordinary monsters, the Withered had many differences in their physical structures.

Some had extra limbs, some had extremely long bodies, and others still retained signs of different body structures.

On one of the spider-like creature’s hands, he could see a deformed metal ring.

The ring had almost sunk into the skin of its finger, but it was still clear that it had once been made for an intelligent creature to wear.

He looked at it for a moment.

So they were probably something else before.

The System identified all of them as a single race, but the remaining signs on their bodies pointed to different pasts.

What could change different creatures into the same form?

He still had no answer, and examining a few corpses would not be enough to reach a reliable conclusion.

Lian stood up, and at that moment, an urgent message came from Noah’s communication device.

"All groups near the entrance area, we need support! Mutated creatures have emerged from the cracks around the Exploration Center!"

Noah immediately activated the communication device.

"Exact location?"

"Eastern section! Several groups of creatures are moving toward the equipment and support buildings!"

Lian looked at Rindo.

"Looks like it’s not just happening here."

Rindo placed his spear on his back.

"We should return."

Noah also reported their location without wasting time, and then all three of them began making their way back.

When they reached the entrance area, the situation there was very different from what it had been a few hours earlier.

The temporary buildings that had previously been used to check permits and store exploration equipment had now been turned into parts of a defensive base.

Heavy carts had been moved along the wider paths, and members of the Association were busy moving equipment crates, medical supplies, and food to the central area.

Several groups of guards had also been stationed at fixed intervals.

Around the main building, workers were strengthening the defensive barriers, while mages prepared protective formations on several stone slabs.

Lian stopped for a moment.

So they finally decided to establish a base here.

With the golden barrier closed and the dangers in the area increasing, this decision made sense. Keeping their forces spread out across a land where the ground was splitting apart would only increase the number of casualties.

On the other hand, the Association and government forces already had facilities near the entrance, and they could now use those same buildings and resources to establish a temporary base.

However, what caught his attention was the unexpected order in the area.

Despite everything that had happened over the past few hours, people were not moving around without a purpose.

Every group had a specific task.

The healers had been moved to the central area, the guards were taking up their assigned positions, and the communication officers were recording incoming reports on a large map.

This level of coordination under the current conditions was no small achievement.

"Looks like they finally found a proper commander," Noah said while looking at the busy forces.

Rindo had also noticed the order in the area.

"Better than having every group make its own decisions."

Lian nodded.

"Let’s see who’s in charge."

In front of one of the main buildings, several Association officers and government representatives had gathered around a large table.

In the center of the group stood a tall man with dark golden hair.

He wore a blue military uniform, with the official emblem of the country’s Awakened Association displayed on his shoulders.

He was probably no older than thirty-five, but the way he stood and the calm expression on his face belonged to someone with plenty of command experience.

With one hand resting on the map, he was examining a report from one of the officers.

"If we hold the eastern route here, how far is the second position from the medical center?"

"About four hundred meters," the officer answered.

The man moved his gaze across the map.

"That’s too far, move the route for transporting the wounded behind the equipment storage area, the middle section must also remain clear, I don’t want the carts blocking the rapid response teams."

"Understood." The officer nodded.

The man immediately turned to the next person.