The air grown thick with tensions, several armed men charge at Vera with all kind of weapons and she doesn't want to fight all of them at once as some can be spotted chanting up their ice shades, fire balls and earth boulders magic.
" Hey wait wait wait! We can sort this out right? " - Vera hastened her tone and raised her hand up.
" Can we? " - The boss asked and signaled for his men to halt.
" I'm just going on patrol, giving safety advices. I will pretend that I've seen nothing if y'all stop whatever y'all doing, pack up your things and leave. "
" Nope. Can't do. "
" Oh then I will just leave and go back where I came from, will that do? "
" Can't allow that neither. You have seen too much. "
" Then..., then, I can stay in your camp and help you guys for some spare coin, is that good? Patrol job's wage is not that well paid... "
" ... Why should I trust you? "
As a professional slick tongue, Vera replied without thinking
" You can send some guys to keep watch on me and if I am slacking, you can just beat me then jail me, strip me and sell me right? Look, I just need some coin and you need your job done, you can keep me until you finished with your whatever project here, packed up and left. I'd have no rights to catch you then and look! I even got "off-work" badge here too so noone will comes after me. "
His suspicious gaze changed to a surprised gaze, boss man finally finished evaluating his choices and decided to agree to the offer but not before assigning 3 people to stay close and periodically checks on her.
" Heh, you said like your figure worth something. Fine. You look nimble, but I still doubt your actual strength. Look over there, you can help move those wood piles . After everything is done, I will give you the money that suit your performance. Remember, no detouring and no getting out of the inner reign. Got it? And, you are here for a week. "
' After the main parts are all done, I will get rid of you. ' - His thought.
' I will be out of here the moment you turned around. ' - Vera thought.
And yet, she actually went and help out regardless of her previous notion
----------
Hours later...
A dozen of cottage was built and there's still a lot of left-over wood.
" Hey boss ", Vera called, " The job is partially finished. Can I have my paid yet? "
" As you said lady, "partially", so no, not after it's "fully" finished. "
" Hey you ass! It's not as promissed! "
" I didn't promissed on anything like that. Look here, there's still a lot of job left undone isn't it? "
" You?! ", Vera fumed and her lips quivered as his solid reasoning.
" Fine fine, you looks desperate so I will give you some coin as exception. "
As he said, the boss handle Vera some few copper coins.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
" Hey!! This is not even one tenth of minimum labour cost!! "
" But you haven't done "everything". And there's still a week left. So, are you taking this or not? "
Still surrounded by the poachers, Vera grumped and go find a spot underground to sleep and still being supervised. There are 20 of them walking around setting up their base and settle the animals.
All those time she's here, she noticed a lot of things that can explode, like magical locks used for cages. Secretly carving some rune with her claws on all the wood she transported, even throwing wood pieces with < Link > and < Explode > inscription on it, she has turned the underground into a giant trap while acting to be submissive. Even her "loyal" supervisors are not aware of her acts and her hidden ability.
After boss's men verified that Vera is slept, there's only one of them remained to keep watch on her. With her great acting and hearing skill, Vera patiently waited until there is only five other grunts left underground beside her. She silently drawn < Silence > rune, charged herself and suddenly jump up to punch down the ground.
The shockwave extended out in a circle with a diameter of 14 meters, didn't cause a noise, stunned the others temporary due to the sudden shock. Using that seconds she crouched down and sprint toward the cage, release her lightning at those objects and explode them in a beautiful domino chain-action. As the cages broke and damaged, some beast got waken up and fight their way out.
Everything turned chaostic real quick.
Two of the five grunt one equiped with a mace, another is a giant hammer whom got lucky to have their Anti-magic gadget on to protected them from start to finish, started chasing Vera. One of them managed to jump on Vera with his spiky mace but Vera swiftly dodged to a side, ron and ran toward the loose beasts.
...a few minute ago on the settlement above ground...
" You all have done well, now have a feast before we advancing to stage 3 of the plan. " - The boss compliment on his men and started to bite on his wrapped meat-on-bone.
" Boss ", a girl in his group speaked up
" What, just say it. "
" What are you gonna do with her? ", the girl said as she pointed to the cave they've been working with.
" Who? Oh her. I don't know yet. There's something fishy about her docile behaviors. How can the Town mayor keep those people under his wings... "
" The town would be a perfect place for us people if that's the case. "
Some of the men broke into laughter as her conclusion but soon came worried expression.
* Zrahp - zz - Boam! - B-DOOM! *
A serie of explosion and crashing noise interupted their meal as they looked to the source of the ruckus. Noticed the beast running wild, the boss issued commands to his underlings to control the situation.
" LAK! " - The boss yelled angrily, wanting to get someone responsible for.
" I swear boss, I sealed those cage firm with 2 layers and put the animal to sleep twice! "
' It must be her then. None of you profit anything from this anyway. '
The boss signaled Lak to hand him his armor and weapon, dashing down to find Vera while mumbling
' You're dead, with me. '
----------
Back with Vera, she already climbed up an elephant beast using her claws, which result to the creature become crazy and rampaged on everything. Rearing up its front legs and ran everywhere to shake off its unwanted passenger, the elephant ends up become the shield to all the hits came from the two pursuers.
' Fuck it! Too much excercise! ' With her halved stamina from the labour work, she's hardly get enough time and strength to continues. Climb to the top of the animal and balance herself with her legs, Vera use her other hand to construct Lightning ball to shoot toward the underground cave's entrance, rided her elephant out of the cave.
Coincidentally, the boss also ran down when she threw that ball. As a result, the boss got flashed and paralyzed for a second, then got rammed by Vera's new pet.
Gasping for air, Vera used almost all of her remain mana to release one final attack.
" Ubercharge!! " - Vera screamed and releasing out constant electric shock, frying some slow-respond poacher. But that's only for the slow catch-up, the quick witted noticed her breakout and conjured a bunch of offensive spell to throw at her.
And yes, both side recieve the other's gift.
Dropped down to the ground and roll in pain, she used her remaining mana to apply Enhance magic to her feet and run away. There's only a few that's fared the attack and blocking her exit.
From two legs, she transformed fully into the shape of a jaguar to run zig zac, jump up the trees and flee away. If not for her emergency pills, she would have fainted out right now. Flinging from tree to tree, Vera seated down on top of one ideal tree to her, away from possible troubles.
' Maybe I should have ran back to report before all this happen. Really not worth it. ' - She thought before bringing herself to a nap.
==========
On the other side, two people patrolling another zone of the same jungle
" Eline, look! " - The Floor 1 Vice Guildmaster, Erik pointed at the sky.
" Birds fly in chaos order. That means... " - Eline said when tracing the source of that flock on her map.
" Let's go find out. "