The F-Rank portal was still just as inconspicuous compared to the other portals.
The five of them stood before it.
Mia was a good leader.
She had got everything sorted out after they arrived at the fort yesternight.
From the missions to the rations, everything needed for their stay in the true outlands had been settled.
Yes, it was going to be a long stay in the true outlands.
Very much unlike the short time Neo had spent there.
He was going to be out there in the true outlands for weeks.
Not alone this time around.
“Alright, everything has been confirmed.
It is time.” Mia spoke up.
She brought out her Adventurer Card.
So did the others including Neo.
They tapped on her card one after the other.
This was the only way to enter as a team.
Otherwise, they would be scattered across vast distances.
Someone like Neo would be thrown into a completely different area.
As the team leader, Mia was the first to step in.
She was wearing a light leather armor.
Her longsword hung from her side.
Lancelot went in after her.
He was suited in heavy armor, with a large tower shield strapped to his back.
Derek went in next.
The young man seem to be in a better mood today.
At the very least he was unusually quiet.
He also wore light leather armor.
He carried a short bow, a quiver of arrows strapped to his back.
Then that left Sofia and Neo.
The two had yet to enter.
Sofia smiled at Neo.
“I will be taking up the rear.
Let’s have a pleasant demon hunting.”
“Alright.”
Neo went in.
A moment later Sofia came in behind.
Now, the five were gathered in the true outlands.
Sofia was wearing light armor.
The belt around her waist held all sorts of daggers.
Neo could also tell that there were others hidden all over her body.
Neo himself was in his cloth armor, with his longsword hanging from his side.
“Everyone is here now.”
Mia began.
“As I have explained earlier.
All our missions are related to demon hunting.
I have accepted enough missions to keep us occupied for at the very least a week.”
Neo nodded at that.
No one had any objection.
“Hunting will be our main focus.
Any other resource we gather will be only what we come across by chance.
Agreed?”
Everyone agreed.
“Alright, let’s not dawdle,” Mia said, “Everyone, to positions.
Neo, you are with me.”
Lancelot got in the front.
Mia and Neo were in the middle.
The rear was taken by Derek and Sofia.
It was a solid formation.
They moved forward.
Unlike Neo’s first entrance, they soon encountered their first demons.
Not one or two.
A party of twelve demons.
They were also in a pretty solid formation.
Neo sneaked a side glance at Mia.
She did not look bothered.
“Hold.” Mia gave a command.
Everyone stopped.
As soon as they sighted the demons.
The demons had also sighted their team of five.
“Combat ready.” Mia gave another command.
Lancelot took off his tower shield, and stood behind it.
Derek nocked an arrow.
Sofia had two throwing daggers in her hands.
Neo also got into a ready stance.
The demons didn’t wait at the other end.
They rushed forward, trying to overwhelm them with the number advantage.
Unlike humans, demons trusted the strength of their bodies.
It was rare for demons to use weapons.
“Shield.” Mia commanded the moment the demons were a few meters from them.
Lancelot heeded her command.
His body surrounded by a thin layer of white essence aura.
He raised his tower shield, then banged it down.
His essence aura which he infused into the shield was projected outwards.
The projection took on the same appearance as the shield, but it was of a far larger size.
Enough to cover the ranks of the charging demons.
It moved fast as it slammed into the charging demons.
Destabilizing their ranks, and disorienting them.
Derek and Sofia were not far behind in making their move.
Their bodies also surrounded by a thin layer of white essence aura.
They also infused their auras into their weapons.
Arrows found their marks as the disoriented demons were turned into pincushions.
The throwing daggers also found their place in their targets.
Demons however weren’t so easy to kill.
They were tough.
Only a few of them had died or been incapacitated.
The disoriented ones were already regaining their bearing.
They were charging forward, crossing the remaining few meters.
“Charge.” Mia gave another command.
Lancelot in the front, led the charge with his shield in front of him.
When there was a little more than a meter between both sides, he slammed his shield on the ground.
He had been infusing his shield with his essence aura.
Another projection of his shield appeared.
This one, however, seemed to carry more heft.
Not as fast as the first projection, but it nonetheless covered the short distance in no time.
It slammed into the demons, throwing them back.
Lancelot remained in his position.
The man seemed too spent to perform another such feat.
Mia and Neo flashed past him.
Their swords drawn as they moved to end the demons.
Sofia and Derek were not far behind, but they remained by Lancelot’s side.
The demons were really tough.
They were still alive but most were immobized.
The ones that could still move were no threat.
Mia’s sword flashed as one head after another rolled.
Her body wasn’t surrounded by any essence aura.
She wasn’t projecting her aura outward.
Like Neo, she was also using a technique that strengthened her body directly.
Any infusion of aura into her weapon was done with her body as the medium.
One of the advantages of close combat techniques.
Neo wasn’t moving as fast as she was, but his sword still pierced some demons’ skull.
He was now seeing the real dangers of the true outlands.
Meeting a scattered one or two demon wouldn’t always be the case.
The cleanup was swift.
They gathered the dead demons together.
Their useful parts were taken, the whole operation was swift and clean.
Mia collected the military merits for killing the demons as she was the team leader.
She would distribute it when they left the true outlands.
They left the place, and moved forward.
“Let us rest here for a while.” Mia said when they had walked for a while.
Everyone, especially Lancelot seemed to appreciate that.
They dropped their baggage.
Everyone brought out their dry rations and water gourds.
Neo saw Lancelot take out an essence crystal.
He looked at the crystal and almost cringed.
Mia, however, seemed to have noticed his slight movement.
Neo, of course had seen an essence crystal before.
No, he was used to them.
They were the basic currency of the Immortal World.
The one up there.
The one in Lancelot’s hand was just so…
The only word he could use was impure.
The glow was very dim, and it had a lot of imperfections in its inner structure.
Mia moved close to him.
She whispered.
“Don’t tell me you have never seen an essence crystal since you came here?”
Indeed, he hadn’t.
His head was still stuck in some of the cultivation traditions of the Immortal World.
The F-Rank at its early levels were to be cuultivated with the natural essence in the environment.
Since, essence crystals were not that common here, and he hadn’t sought one.
He was in a sense, seeing it for the first time.
Mia could guess the answer.
“Do you want some?” Her voice was almost amused as she asked that.
Neo shuddered.
Mia burst into a soft laughter that drew the others’ attention.
Seeing the two together however, they soon turned back to their business.
Sofia had retrieved her thrown daggers during the cleanup.
She was sharpening them.
Derek was also busy with his bow.
Neo knew essence crystals had no side effects.
Even the one in Lancelot’s hand was safe.
His reactions now were only psychological.
Still, he would hold off on using them for a while.
He only wondered how pills were here.
He didn’t even want to go that route.
Unlike essence crystals which were natural, pills had toxins and side effects.
He didn’t want to imagine how their pills here would be.
He turned to Mia, who seemed to have had her fun.
“I didn’t expect you to teach them immortal techniques, even if they are the most common ones.”
“It’s all just basic techniques.” Mia snorted.
“They are just techniques that will rank near the top here.
Nothing special.”
To someone like them both, they were indeed nothing special.
“You trust them this much?”
“They are good people.
With the little time we have known each other, I can be sure of that.” Mia told him.
Neo nodded.
“It is not as if I taught it to them all at once.
It was gradual, and I did not present it to them as some powerful technique.” She looked at her team members.
Neo felt that she knew what she was doing.
The Immortal World wasn’t such a nice place that one would grow up naive.
“Neo.” Sofia called.
He looked up.
“I didn’t know you could fight so well.”
Neo smiled.
He was about to reply.
Derek snorted.
“I didn’t know stabbing downed demons is now considered being able to fight well.”
“Hey, are you sure you saw the same thing I saw?” Sofia asked him.
Then it devolved into a pointless argument between the two.
All seemed well with the team.
And, it looked to Neo that Derek was back to his usual self.
(^o^)
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