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Chapter 125 The Last Tail
🕑 Added 2023-04-28 07:26:12 +0000 UTCChapter 125 The Last Tail
Morning had arrived, but the jungle remained dark, illuminated only by blinking lights in the ceiling, which resembled stars in a night sky. Lily yawned and stretched, feeling well-rested after a good night's sleep in a tent with a comfortable bedroll. It was clear that the team had been relieved of much of the tension they had been carrying.
Less than an hour later, we packed up and set out into the jungle once again, hoping to locate our missing comrade. However, after three hours, we found ourselves stuck on the riverbank, unsure of which direction to take next.
Typically, a search and rescue operation would involve splitting up the group to cover more ground, but Alistar rejected this tactic due to the monster's behavior, which involved ambushes, dividing, and isolating prey.
Two days had passed, and we found ourselves wandering aimlessly like lost chickens. Alistar was becoming agitated.
"Edelweiss might be on the other side of the river," he suggested.
"We shouldn't cross the river. It's suicide!" Rhegar raised his voice but quickly lowered it when he realized he was almost shouting.
"It's okay, Rhegar. The river upstream isn't very wide, only about two meters. But it would take us almost a day to walk there," Alistar explained, crossing his arms.
"I see. Then we should go there. We've been wandering around here shouting for Lord Edelweiss for days. If she can't hear us, she must be on the other side of the river," Rhegar agreed.
Now that we had numbers and strength on our side, we no longer feared small raptors or bees. In fact, they actively avoided us. We screamed as loudly as we could, and I even cast a fireball, making it explode in the sky like fireworks, hoping that Lord Edelweiss would see it. Later, many monsters and raptors surrounded us, but Rhander and I easily defeated them with our fire spells.
We marched on towards the other end of the river, spending another half-day in a quick march. Alistar commented that our marching speed was faster than the elven army, muttering Niece's name. As an exemplary lord, he noticed even the tiniest details and tried incorporating them into other scenarios.
"I wonder if the elves could recruit Niece for the war against the undead. Our marching speed has nearly doubled since we no longer need to bring supplies," he mused.
"Nope. Niece stays in the Dwarven Kingdom. She's essential for transporting iron ore and food to other Dwarven cities," Sig replied.
"I see."
"I'll see if we can bring out more resources and soldiers. Jona's report was worrying. We never liked the undead either, but there are limits to how much we can help you," Sig continued.
"I see. We should have done this forty years ago," Rhander muttered.
"Not really. At that time, the war with humans was still ongoing. The undead problem was still minimal. But yes, if we had known this was going to happen, we should have closed the leylines as soon as possible," Alistar explained.
"Lord Alistar, I didn't know the details. What does a leylines leakage look like?" Lily asked.
"Edelweiss knows better than I do. She will be the leading mage to close the leakage," Alistar replied concisely.
"You didn't know anything?" Sig asked, looking baffled. "Sorry, but you looked like you outranked that girl in this mission."
"I knew how we would do it. We will go to the leylines leakage with several stakes. Then, if we find the leakage, the mages will do the rest. We need about five mages to perform the ritual. However, the ritual itself is still undecided. The mana researcher will do it later after the Mythale stakes have been constructed, and they get to test them," Alistar said. He seemed a little agitated when others thought he didn't know something.
"I hope Lord Edelweiss didn't go to the river..." Rhegar muttered.
"Nah, Edelweiss could not possibly have drunk such dirty water, even if it was boiled," Alistar said matter-of-factly. "Even if she strolled along the riverbank, it was doubtful if she would get close to it. As a top elven doctor, she was uncomfortable with dirty water, even if it was only used for menial tasks such as bathing or laundry. At the very least, she would keep her distance so that the alligator could never ambush her."
"Hahaha! What a pampered princess!" Sig laughed.
"She could not possibly have lived in dwarven lands then. Haha! That water seemed good enough, at least for bathing," Helmet chimed in, mocking Edelweiss.
The group chatted until they got close to the narrow river. There, Alistar swam across the two-meter river while carrying a rope. It was a precaution in case the dwarves got swept up by the river.
"We didn't get swept up before. Why would we need a rope?" Lily asked innocently.
"The river current wasn't this fast before. Moreover, dwarves aren't known for their swimming ability. We might not need them, but they do," Lhorne replied flatly.
"We started on this side but didn't find Lord Edelweiss, Lord Alistar..." Alith and Sana muttered.
"We barely covered twenty percent of this jungle. We went straight from the cave exit to the river. There's a chance we missed her," Alistar replied.
"Alright, let's search this place!" Lily pumped her fist.
The search ended faster than expected. Less than four hours later, we found Edelweiss in a dilapidated ruin with Joseph and the three mercenaries. She was lazily sleeping as the other guy guarded the house when we found her.
"Hey, we were breaking our backs searching for you, and you were here, sleeping, eating, and bathing..." Sig said, looking exasperated, and Alistar gave a wry smile.
"If you're lost, you need to stay put in a defensible location while the others search for you!" Edelweiss said, puffing out her chest and smiling. She spoke so confidently that I thought it was from experience. Lily glanced at Alistar, and he confirmed that when they were small, Edelweiss did have those moments of getting lost in the woods.
"Never mind. It's all good that we have found everyone. Let's depart to the Titan ores pocket that Rhegar and Lily found and get out of this place."
The group moved forward with their objective unceremoniously now that all members had been found.
