Aside from the rather intimidating looks of its mbers, this team's haul didn't look particularly eye-catching, just a very ordinary harvest.
"Eh, big bro Fingerley?"
As soon as Tusi ca out he saw Fingerley sitting on top of the "pile of treasure," his eyes lit up at once. Leaning on a tree branch, limping over, he asked, "Why are you resting here? And what's with all this gear? Ah, I get it, big bro, you must've found a treasure vault and are sharing it with everyone for free, right!"
In Tusi's imagination, Fingerley was instantly wrapped in a thick halo of great, glorious, and righteous light.
"You're thinking way too highly of ."
Fingerley smiled and shook his head, then told him everything they'd gone through inside Sain Ancient City.
Hearing that his dearly respected big bro had finally cleared Sain Ancient City, even though the other guy kept stressing over and over that the Boss Monster wasn't beaten by him personally, Tusi still fired off a rapid‑fire barrage of praise on the spot.
Utterly unable to withstand that kind of fancy flattery, Fingerley promptly cut him off and shifted the topic: "You guys are still butting heads with the Four Kings of Little Longdu?"
At that, Tusi shrugged, raised a hand and pointed at his teammates behind him:
"They've been beaten into a rage and insist on settling the score with the Little Longde Ruins no matter what. No matter how I try to talk them down it's no use. Anyway, there are items in the Little Longde Ruins that are worth going for, so I just went ahead and applied to be stationed there long‑term."
Fingerley looked over at Martin and the others. They imdiately nodded with faces full of indignation, saying, "We have to take down the Four Kings of Little Longdu. The humiliation they gave us has to be paid back double!"
They really had that righteous‑fury, burning‑for‑revenge look going on. Any superior officer seeing his subordinates so eager to throw themselves into the job would have a hard ti voicing opposition, right.
Though he felt these people were kind of weird, in the end all Fingerley could do was say, "Very good, very spirited, keep it up," as encouragent.
"But the pity is, even though we've managed to gather a few Wolf Rings, it's still not quite enough." Tusi sighed.
After the rebel army reported the situation at the Little Longde Ruins to units elsewhere, they received support from other forces, including a few of the scarce Wolf Rings.
On top of that, a small number of quick‑footed adventurers had already rushed from other regions to Hepa Town in Scaroon, and among them there were also a handful of people carrying Wolf Rings.
By scraping things together like that they finally managed to assemble enough for a small squad, so Tusi's team wouldn't die instantly the mont they jumped into the Abyss, and could at least go toe‑to‑toe with the Four Kings of Little Longdu.
The reality, though, was that the protection ti a Wolf Ring could provide in the Abyss was still a bit too short—at least for the mbers of Tusi's team, far too short.
Even if they could rely on superb movent technique to tangle with the Four Kings of Little Longdu, they couldn't adopt a slow and steady, ti‑consuming approach; they had to decide the outco before the Wolf Ring's protection wore off.
But the thing Tusi and the others happened to lack most was the ability to "one‑shot kill." To put it more bluntly, the entire rebel army was lacking "ultimate offensive power." Maybe only Fingerley and a few others barely counted; even Hevi didn't make the cut.
Still, all these days of effort hadn't been fruitless.
At the very least, they'd gained so understanding of the Abyss's characteristics.
"Oh right, big bro, since you guys are done with Sain Ancient City, why don't you co give a hand—"
Tusi's eyes lit up as he thought of this solution, but before he could finish speaking, several voices calling "Excuse us, coming through" rang out; turned out Hevi had sent people over to help move stuff.
"Whatever it is, let's talk in a couple days. My whole body really aches right now, I just want to get a good night's sleep."
Fingerley stood up and flexed his joints, which crackled as he moved, then directed the Soldiers who'd arrived to carry off the supplies. Once the area was cleared, he waved goodbye to Tusi and headed back with the Soldiers.
"Man, when are we gonna manage to take out the Four Kings of Little Longdu..." Tusi watched his big bro's figure recede into the distance and let out a sigh.
Martin and the others sighed in perfect sync as well, looking every bit like heroes whose grand ambitions remained unfulfilled.
Elsewhere, as Fingerley walked with the Soldiers toward the warehouse, he asked, "What took you guys so long getting here? Sothing going on today?"
Before the Soldiers could answer, Hevi suddenly popped out from who‑knows‑where and slapped Fingerley on the shoulder.
"I'm afraid your wish is about to be crushed."
"What wish?" Fingerley tilted his head.
"What you just said—wanting a proper night's sleep." Hevi's expression was very serious, which made the other man put away his joking tone and ask, "What's wrong?"
"News from the front line: the Holy Light Church is launching a massive offensive. No idea what they're plotting, but the newly arrived adventurers confirm the report."
Hevi lowered his voice and said:
"Given the current situation, this ti it's very likely to affect Scaroon's final outco."
Fingerley fell silent for a mont, then scratched his head and sighed:
"Why'd it get here so fast? I haven't even had a proper ti to reminisce with Sain yet..."
He turned his head to look in the direction of the Underground City Teleportation Gate to Sain Dungeon and said:
"Hope those guys don't co out to find Hepa Town completely changed."
The "those guys" he was talking about were Luluwo's group of three, who were still sowhere inside Sain Dungeon doing who‑knows‑what.
Right at that very mont, the three of them were in the middle of a grand adventure that stirred up endless mories.
"This feels so familiar, the wind is so comfortable..."
Dangling in the air from the Bat Monster's grip, Luluwo let out a sigh of contentnt, her whole body going limp under the caress of the breeze.
The sun was setting in the west, yet there was none of the nightti chill; instead, the warmth of the sunlight blended into their bodies as they ascended, the cozy heat lting away the fatigue of their adventure.
Not a figure of speech—their bodies really were being restored to peak condition.
Tami and Berto both wore blissful expressions. As if out of consideration for them, the Bat Monsters were flying very, very slowly, letting these people who had passed the trials of Sain Ancient City relax as much as possible.
Generally speaking, in the Rodland Region, those who cleared Sain Ancient City were given a nicer title: "heroes." Luluwo and the others had no idea; otherwise their noses would be up in the clouds right now.
After they'd "pushed" that mountain of rewards onto Fingerley, the three of them had walked over to the Bat Monsters that were beckoning them.
Things went just the way Luluwo had imagined: the Bat Monsters grabbed them by the shoulders, then flapped their wings and carried them high into the air. Looking down, Sain Ancient City shrank to a little pitch‑black dot, and the entire world seed to beco tiny, as if they could wrap it up in one hand.
The Bat Monsters bore them steadily upward, over endless mountain ranges, through thick banks of cloud, bathed in golden sunlight.
Every bit of this scenery matched up with Luluwo's mories.
"Back when I touched the Painting World of Yanor Londo, I opened my eyes and found myself already dangling mid‑air from a Bat Monster, and this was exactly what I saw."
Luluwo sighed in wonder, flashes of the past flickering in her eyes.
Northern Undead Asylum, Fire Transmission Ceremony, Undead Town Outside the City, Sick Village, and finally Sain Ancient City.
"So this is what happened in the story before that Painting World opened up."
Now she finally understood why, at the start of the Painting World, they'd been hanging in mid‑air—it turned out this was the official, designated transport line to Yanor Londo!
Before long, the sunlight pouring down from above grew ever more golden, and even the sky itself seed to resound with a solemn and dignified atmosphere. The group couldn't help but be affected, their expressions no longer joking and carefree.
Luluwo and the others raised their heads and looked into the distance: a vast and majestic Ancient City sat there, bathed in endless sunlight.
Sure enough, it was the city that matched the one in her mories.
"Long ti no see, Yanor Londo."
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