"Wait, wait, hold on, bad idea," Loran said hastily, standing up and approaching the center.

As he stood up he could hear excited whispers all around him.

"He's not dead!"

"So I guess they made it back then?"

"He doesn't look injured."

"The message said Yang got injured."

"He is stumbling a lot though."

"I wonder what they found."

"Loran," Liza said with a blank expression as he approached, "Good to see you unharmed."

"Yes, thank you. Now more importantly, why are you telling people to go across the river?"

"I believe I made my reasoning very clear, but I assume you are referring to the new creatures you discovered yesterday?" Liza turned back to the crowd. "I would like everyone to note that my recommendation comes from the fact that hunters have been operating in the eastern woods and so far have experienced minimal difficulties. Loran here has new information that must be taken into account." She then turned back to Loran. "Is that satisfactory?"

"...If someone dies, I'm blaming you," he said calmly.

He then turned to the audience, feeling significantly less calm now that he was being expectantly stared at by dozens of people.

"Alright everybody, the short answer is that east of the river is a higher level area than over here. Everyone kind of knew that already, but we didn't realize just how bad it could get. For starters, me and Yang ran into a new kind of monster called an Iron Ant and it was far stronger than anything we've fought so far."

"You guys got taken down by ants?" Bates shouted from the back, "You going soft on us Loran?"

"It was a single ant about a foot tall and two feet long. Please consider that information carefully and shut the fuck up."

A few people were chuckling at Bates' prodding, but when Loran explained just how large these ants were the implications caused The Pit to go silent.

"These ants are strong, strong enough to nearly break Yang's leg with a single attack. As if that wasn't enough they're faster than me, have a brokenly high detection range, and have armor that gives Yang's a run for its money."

"How can something that OP even be allowed to exist!?"

"You can't be serious!"

"Is he making this up?"

"That sounds even worse than the Demon Bear!"

Even though most of the players understood that a giant ant would be strong, Loran's description was still too unbelievable. They quickly began talking amongst themselves, while a few tried to deny Loran's claims.

"Quiet!" Loran shouted, getting everyone's attention back on him. "Whether or not you believe me, there is currently a dead ant over at the Workshop and you can ask Yang about her broken leg tomorrow. Secondly, this is why I sent that message back yesterday. Anyone who goes in blind against these things was going to get themselves killed. The only reason Yang didn't completely lose her leg was because of her armor." Loran took a deep breath, putting on a confident face to try and calm everyone down. "Anyway, let's move on to the good part."

The Pit became silent once again, this time hopeful.

"First of all, in case it wasn't obvious, these thighs[edit: things] are not invincible. Most of their attack power comes from a Skill, so anyone who focused on STR should be able to hold them down. On top of that, it seems like bludgeoning damage has extra effectiveness against their armor. Once you break through they die pretty easily."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Loran's strategy disappointed most of the DEX-focused players, who understood that their bows would be basically useless, but the general atmosphere was improving. Knowing that the powerful new monster had such a simple weakness made it significantly less intimidating.

"Also, there's a reason I named these things Iron Ants. According to their description, they have actual iron in their shells. Once the Workshop figures out how to process it, it'll be another way for everyone to get stronger and make these things less of a threat."

The moment Loran mentioned the ants having iron, all remaining fear disappeared from the audience. While the Iron Ants were certainly dangerous, their having a unique resource made the players view them as a challenge, one with a suitable reward.

"With all of this in mind, I say that if you want to hunt on the east side, do not go alone. That area is simply too dangerous for solo hunting right now. Also, if you want to avoid them try heading south. We don't know where their nest is for sure but it seems to be north."

Loran took a moment to breathe, looking around The Pit as he prepared to explain the other threat they ran into out in the woods.

"There's one other thing that we ran into on the way back, and it might be more dangerous than the Iron Ants."

This caused a wave of confusion to spread through the crowd. The Iron Ants were already a big discovery, and now there was something else?

"While we were coming back with Soze and the others, our party was attacked by a pack of Moss Wolves lead by a named wolf."

The Pit was suddenly filled with a cacophony of excited questions, too many for Loran to pick out even a single one. Their excitement was understandable. In most games, a monster or NPC receiving a name meant that it was either related to an important storyline or could give special rewards. If they were dealing with the former then they could receive some direction for the first time since the game started, and if it was the latter the rewards would certainly be worth the effort.

"Quiet, I said quiet!" Loran shouted, barely being heard over everyone's shouting. "Before anyone asks, we weren't able to kill it, we nearly died just scaring it off."

"Cowards!" someone shouted, "you should've chased it down!"

'I am too tired for this...' Loran thought, rubbing his eyes in frustration.

"Alright, if you're going to be like that here's the short version. The monster was an Alpha Wolf called The Wise One, and it had a unique Skill that let it have better control over its pack. As a result, we were attacked by a pack of at least one hundred Moss Wolves. The Wise One itself stayed far away from the fighting, was able to give complex instructions by howling, and seems to have nearly human-level intelligence."

Loran had spoken quickly, and when he finished, everyone in The Pit was left processing what he had just said.

"If Soze hadn't managed to sneak up on the damn thing we would've all been killed," he said calmly. "If any of you want to try your luck, go right ahead, but personally, I think we would need at least thirty people to have a chance of beating it without casualties."

As soon as he finished speaking, Loran started walking toward one of the exits. A few people were calling out to him, probably wanting more information on The Wise One, but he wasn't paying attention.

'I've already given them everything I could anyway.'

There really was nothing else to be said about The Wise One. As intelligent as it appeared to be, there was no way for a small group of players to reasonably go after it unless they had a truly genius tactician on their hands. While more than a few players have demonstrated that they can be quite clever, there wasn't anyone with that kind of skillset.

On top of that, the six of them together made probably the most powerful hunting team in the village, and still, they were being overwhelmed.

'We lack the individual power to overwhelm its numbers, and we can't fight it with intelligence. Our only option is to fight numbers with numbers. At least we won't have to mobilize the whole village or anything extreme like that.'

As Loran left The Pit, he saw Zed standing by the exit.

"So you can talk without choking now?" Zed said teasingly.

"Yeah yeah, real funny," he said walking past. "How did your sparring match with Yin go?" Loran asked as Zed began walking with him.

"She needs work. She has a good sense for using a bow, but it's pretty obvious that most of her skill comes from practice more than talent. Although," he rubbed the side of his stomach, grimacing, "she's definitely a quick learner. Give her a few weeks and she'll be as good at close range as any of the melee fighters."

"And you're sure that's not the debuff talking? Making you overestimate her?" Loran asked, not meaning to bad mouth the archer, but wanting an accurate measure of her abilities.

Zed's brow furrowed. "...Maybe a little. I'm definitely much weaker and made a bunch of basic mistakes." His face relaxed as he dismissed the thought with a shrug. "If you're so concerned maybe you should test her. Besides, I don't think she's all that interested in sparring with me again."

"Yeah? Well, not many people like fighting armed maniacs." Loran let out a big yawn. "Anyway, I'll check in with her later. Right now I need to rest up for our Iron Ant hunt."

"That's going to be in at least three days. You'll be fine."

"Well I lost about a quart of blood, and we all had a rough day today. You should take it easy too."

"Whatever, I'll see you tomorrow."

The two split off from each other, ready to rest after what they both agreed, though only one admitted, was a truly hellish day.