"Dodge!"

"No need I can block the swipe, keep charging your shots"

​​

"Sid, follow up as soon as we stagger it"

"You got it!"

With organized commands the small group of nine dealt with the monstrous coati before them, deftly blocking its wide tail swipes and keeping the deadly claws away from the ranged attackers at the back

"Now!"

Yelled the earth mage as he finished channeling his skill, rupturing the earth beneath the coati and knocking it off its feet

His shout wasn't just a waste of breath either, he was giving signal for the noble figure roaming the sides of the beast to take the opportunity and finish this fight

"Eat this you thieving rascal!"

A little vengeful the young man catches the coati off guard, filling its belly with multiple wounds

"That's it, retreat!"

"Che!"

Unsatisfied with his handy work he retreats as the beast regains its footing, expecting the angered fellow to counterattack

They overestimated this creatures guts however, its cowardly nature surprising them as the thing just turned around to flee

"Yo what the hell?! Come here and fill for the food you stole and ate ya bastard!"

Rushing after the running creature the man found his speed lacking, his comrades also yelled for him to come back knowing one should never chase after prey if it wasn't weak

"Just let it go Sid, we can find more food"

"Where? I'm this darned toxic waste? Anything living here must be either strong or poisonous themselves"

He dejectedly yelled back, still giving chase to the coating disappearing into the distance

Puti!

The figure of the creature stopped all of a sudden, a large sword now poking through its body

Sid slowed down to a stop, peering into the distance warily

A little ways from the fallen beast a human seemed to be approaching, clad in armor from head to toe, the shape of the armor however showed the person's gender to be a female, dislodging her greatsword from the body and going back from where she came

"Who's that"

Asked one of his approaching party members, the rest of them having seen the kill happen as well

"Dunno, but we're gonna find out"

Seeing a fellow human so powerful they couldn't help but follow

"Inform the guild to keep some distance behind us, tell them to make the beast into rations too"

"Alright"

They weren't alone so they had to tell their three hundred members following some distance behind about the situation

Thus the nine kept an eye on the far armor clad woman, following her openly

"Hey, is it just me or is the poison around us thinning down?"

Someone noticed the peculiarity all of a sudden, though the ground surrounding their path was still fuming with poison, the road they stepped on was mostly free of any such toxins

Not knowing what to make of the situation they could only speed up and ask the woman, if she knew a way out of this dreaded land then it was for the best they tagged along

But the closer they approached the more nervous they became, forced to keep some distance from her

Surrounding the woman was a black aura of sorts, it stung just to come near it, this very aura seemed to be clearing the poison from the earth, clearing way for them to walk

Not only that, even the beasts ran at the mere sight of her, sparing them the trouble of fighting

This rather peaceful walk continued on for half a day, only exiting the harmful land once the sun had set

Upon stepping onto the lush earth the armor clad woman retracted her aura, giving them a backward glance before darting away with unbelievable speed

"Hold up! Who are you?"

Sid hollered but to no avail, she was far gone

The next moment a new figure entered their sight however, this one dressed in black all over, wearing sunglasses even though the sun had receded beyond the horizon

Sensing something off with the timing Sid and the bunch waited for the person to come closer with some doubts

"Greetings everyone, are you the leaders of the approaching group?"

"What group?"

They denied, wanting to know what they were dealing with before deciding whether or not it was safe for the members

Dag pointed to the sky in response, promoting them to look up into the dark sky, barely making out the flying figure of some bats

"Our eyes in the sky spotted your group miles away"

"....Yes we are the top brass of those guys, was that woman with you too?"

"What woman?"

Dag sounded confused, puzzling them quite the bit

'If she wasn't with whoever these people are then who was she and why was she helping them?'

Were the thoughts passing through everyone's mind, sadly it wasn't the time to muddle over things, they needed to get everyone to safety before the nocturnal beasts started to roam

"Do you have a shelter by any chance?"

"Oh yes, more than just a shelter too, follow me, I believe you are one of the few who were allocated a location"

Dag spoke somewhat mysteriously, turning around and leading them forward

A good while later, when it was the dead of night, everyone could spot a red light in the distance, illuminating the mist some ways beyond

"What?! The mist is already here?"

"They couldn't be leading us to a trap could they"

Sid frowned, feeling like things weren't simple

"Get the guys to make more distance between us"

"They would be a bit out of range for a quick rescue if anything happened once they do that"

"We didn't spot a single beast on the way, this place is strangely scarce of anything and I bet whoever lives there is the reason"

Motioning with his chin toward the red light he explained, thus while somewhat hesitant they still conveyed the message, then continued along with their guard raised

The clearer the scene became the less doubtful each one of them became, for an outline of eleven buildings could be made out, the rubble and remains of houses cleared around them, between the buildings one could make out a path just by looking at the beaming watchtowers illuminating the mist

"What are you guys doing?"

Unable to hold back any longer Sid questioned Dag

"Stopping the mist, how else do you think this region is still standing? If you hadn't noticed your already on the other side of human borders"

A shocking reveal was spoken casually, stopping the mist? The other side of the borders? Didn't that mean they were holding it here all this time?!

Their faces remained stunned all the way till the few were standing before a woman sitting a little distance from a renovated large hotel, a desk before her with piles of information filled papers

"Welcome, may I know what guild you are from"

The woman asked, her words polite but tone uncaring

"What for?"

"To see which area you have been allocated, if any"

She replied dully, god knew how many groups asked her the same question for the past three days, with every one of them being some random get together that wasn't on the list

"We are the Scroungers"

Sid answered, much to the embarrassment of some of their members, the name was just that demeaning, no one knew what went through their minds when choosing it

Still, they looked on expectantly, surely the woman who seemed to be a receptionist would laugh but they held hopes of obtaining some sort of residence here, after all this seemed to be a proper fortress built by fellow humans

Contrary to their expectations however she flinched back, fiddling to take out a big list with names written in bold characters

"Umm, uh does any of you happen to be Sid by any chance?"

"? Yes, that would be me"

Confused as to why she already knew his name he replied

Soon as he conformed the matter she rose and gave a bow

"Sorry if I came off as rude, I have been dealing with many groups and slacked a bit, would you kindly follow me to your allocated building?"

Not knowing what to ask since everything needed a question of its own he just went along with it for now

Moments later they came to a large tunnel that went underground, in front of which were two of the watchtowers

Getting this close allowed them to witness the fiery object floating on top, astounded to know that it was a gazing eye shooting rays of flame at the mist

Following her down with some nervousness after the sight they found themselves in a large hall filled with furniture, much like what they were used to before the world changed for the worst

"This is your residence from now on, the building henceforth belongs to the Scroungers, once the buffer time for changing territory comes off you may claim it as your land"

She said, handing him a thin notebook

"As for these, they are the rules for this place, the most important one is not to cause any fights between your fellow humans, adhere to it and other issues would be minor, do you have any questions for me?"

"....Yes, a ton of them in fact"

The other eight nodded their heads like pecking chicks, they could not support him more in this statement

Thus the Q&A session started, continuing for almost two hours by the end of which the receptionist's voice was cracked from all the talking, only then was she allowed to go back to her desk

"Someone punch me, I wanna know if this is a dream"

"Okay"

"Hold up I want to keep dreaming!"

Too late, the ranger received a heavy punch to the face by the tanker, cheek swelling, though the pain helped numb the shock received

"How could humans, people like us, build all this?"

"You still think we are people after seeing everything here? We might as well be dogs compared to them"

"I don't think so"

Sid refuted the self degrading comment

"If we really are so unimportant why allocate us an entire building? You saw how many groups we passed on the way here right? Even the woman herself mentions that there were only twenty guild areas to be occupied, if we are so bad why would they give us one?"

"....There has been a mix up?"

Ignoring the stupid reasoning he continued

"Whoever is leading this place must know something, something we don't, and that thing concerns our potential, at the very least, we must be stronger or more beneficial to them than the other guilds, even if we are of less importance than the other guilds who will also be given land"

Hearing this sound deduction and since they didn't really have any other clues they chose to go along with it, perhaps they really were valued by this place's founder, perhaps their guild would actually rise from his point on!

"Umm, guys, I think we forgot to tell the others to come here"

"Right, how much time has passed?"

"No more than a couple of hours"

"Didn't we tell them to run if we exceeded an hour?"

"....."

Each stared at the other in dismay

"Quick! Go catch up to them!"

With fluttering feet they went to bring back their members, rising and everything could be postponed until then