****(POV)

Metropolis-D was in a state of unrest AND rest. Most of the city was functioning as usual except the southwest part that the slothtrosities had claimed for themselves. They had found refuge there after their forest had blown up (none injured).

Many citizens were worried about the future. Some had lost their homes, some their businesses, and others feared the same happening to them. They could only thank their lucky star that the creatures were a lazy bunch.

Still, living next to them was extremely risky. Who knew when one of these S+ class beasts would sleepwalk and destroy everything on its way? For now, the entire area had been condemned with an elite team sent inside.

Dario was obviously a member of this party. In fact, he was the MVP of it. Climbers with skill protecting the soul were are rare as virgin hookers. But, given the number of Climbers, there was bound to be some, but even they were lacking.

The yawn of the sloths seemed to be able to ignore conventional magical resistance skills. Luckily, it just so happened that a dragon's roar was as tyrannical. It would allow them all to disregard that ability.

It had been more than two weeks since they had arrived and they had proceeded extremely carefully. After all, a single Ranker's life was worth way more than the economic losses currently happening.

By now, they had a methodology to take care of the sloths. Ever since coming to this world, the creatures would wake up fairly easily. The tactic they came up with was to play with them as if a deadly puppy until they were exhausted. They would then fall into a deep slumber for a few hours.

People would then load them unto transport ships and send them back home. Many had proposed flying them to the sea to be dropped (could they swim?) or to an island far away, but Metropolis-D wasn't exactly near an Ocean.

As for getting them to a neighboring Metropolis, it would anger the whole alliance, so it wasn't an option at all. They had to treat the sloths like living, indestructible garbage that could kill them anytime but that they still needed to dispose of.

Fortunately, the entire operation was going pretty well so far. Ironically the people dying like idiots to these creatures had served as a severe warning for the others wanting to attempt the same. It was especially fearsome because a single sloth had annihilated the numbskulls.

They were now in the process of relaxing, waiting for Dario's mana to regenerate. He was sitting on an intricate copper bench that seemed so out of place. It helped boost his mana regeneration, along with the many trinkets he was wearing and the juice/concoction he was sipping on.

His teammates could be heard conversing:

"How great is this? All of us are saving the world together. We should do this more often." A Jovial man exclaimed, munching on a meat skewer happily.

Bennett was from Devouring Panda and was a survivalist. He could thrive in any god-forsaken environment and enjoy himself. Like many others in his guild, he always had food with him. Only cooks had the luxury to hand their creations to everyone so easily.

Devouring Panda's ideology could be summed akin to a cooking recipe:

1. Grab a bigass pot.

2. Get tons of ingredients from the Tower.

3. Use a skilled chef to mix it all to perfection.

4. Distribute and enjoy.

5. Get more recruits thanks to the awesome food.

6. Get more Rankers because there are more recruits

7. Get more ingredients because there are more Rankers.

8. Repeat steps 1 to 8 until world domination is achieved.

9. Realize the wonders of becoming a complete foodie and forget about world domination. Pursue culinary excellence instead.

"Saving the world? We're hauling overweight sloths. Are we zookeepers or Rankers?! You may love doing this, but not all of us are like you!" An annoyed man with a book in hand grumbled.

Sakar was in Ouroboros, and he was always reading something no matter the situation. Many would ask him what he was doing with an olden days book. The thing was, it was a very realistic piece of tech. It just happened to look like paper, feel like paper, and smell like paper.

As a spatial mage, every adventure was nothing more than a waste of time to him. What was the point of slowly walking to the destination when you could teleport? That ability did sound extremely strong, but it had way too many restrictions. He was their trump card in case of emergency.

"Stop fighting, you two. Anyway, how are we on the forceful deportation duty?" Asked a gorgeous Fairy (literal name) as she playfully made a sharp wind current twirl around her finger.

"Good and bad. We are making steady progress, but at this rate, it may take us months to evacuate all sloths. Hopefully, Old Jones will find us some worthy helpers." Davos was the official leader of this operation. As a strategist, he had various buffs that could raise morale: a weaker but more AoE version of Dario's skill.

"Guess I'll have to download a few more books," Sakar murmured.

"Don't worry. I have plenty of food. I can also have some more delivered." Bennett 'reassured' them.

"This would be so much easier if they hadn't settled in the city. What about my plan to bait them with food?" Fairy Lynn asked.

"They don't care about it enough for it to work. We'd have to anger them, outrun them and possibly make them remain in D-23 with food. But, it's impossible to do it safely with more than one creature at once." Davos sighed.

"So, leader, do we just keep going like that? What about Climbing? We can't remain here forever." She asked once more.

"Alright, my mana is full." Dario interrupted them. Break time was over.

They soon found a sloth and began fighting it at full power. Davos was using his tactics to boost the allies while brandishing his flagpole like a hammer.

Bennett kept circling the creature while jumping everywhere. He used his magic to create bonfires, to douse the creature in drinkable water, to create rock platforms hindering it. It was a whole bag of annoying tricks.

Sakar sometimes would blink (teleport) in and out while kicking the creature. At other times he would help allies slightly. But all this time, he kept his book in hand. To be fair, they had practiced this routine way too many times.

Fairy was using her wind magic to buff everyone's speed. She would also send deadly currents right at the creature's nose. While it was immune to the damage, it did amplify how much of its own disgusting smell the sloth perceived.

Right before the soul attack came, Dario would mightily roar and make sure they were all fine. It took a while, but they finally managed to tire the creature out completely.

The A-Rank transport team soon arrived with their vehicle. They loaded the sloth onto the flying ship and went away to drop it in the nearby D-23. The site had been cleared and quarantined, so it would be hard to access.

The defenses set-up all around would be sufficient to buy time. Naturally, they would have to deal with this ticking bomb soon. But, until they found a method to make the sloths sleep longer, this was pretty much the best they could do. After all, these monsters were seemingly invincible.

In the meantime, Dario was regenerating his mana. He couldn't help but think about the upcoming operation to rescue Josh from the grasp of Gene Corp. Since he couldn't participate, he could only pray that everything would work out and believe in his guild…

— — — —

[A/N] Alright, it's official. This will be a regular thing from now on. (To thank the awesome people supporting the novel)

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