Monster Horde.

A phenomenon caused when a dungeon or labyrinth had gathered the maximum amount of magic power in the atmosphere and releases it all at once.

The resulting event causing all monsters in the area and within the dungeon or labyrinth to turn psychotic as they stop fighting each other and peculiarly start gathering into a horde, these hordes usually then start to decimate every living being that is not a part of their horde until the psychosis wears off, which can take weeks but no longer than a month.

Monster horde’s in this world had been responsible for countless tragedies and falls of many major kingdoms, the strength and size of the horde usually depended on the size and strength of the dungeon or labyrinth that caused it, because of these past experiences the people in this world took great care when dealing with dungeons and labyrinths as they could turn into massive bombs if not regulated properly.

Because of this, monster hordes rarely ever happen within the inner parts of kingdoms who understand what they are doing, nowadays monster hordes only happen in kingdoms which don’t regulate them properly and places where the dungeon or labyrinth hadn’t been discovered yet making it so that the dungeon or labyrinth goes undiscovered and gets the opportunity to absorb magic power from the atmosphere without a hassle.

Things like these only ever happen in regions that have yet to be explored.

One of them being frontiers for example, giving another reason as to why most people never go there to begin with.

-What is the size of the monster horde heading our way? Where is it coming from and when will it arrive?

Tanner asked, holding a stern and solemn expression as he quickly made his way to the main plaza of this town.

Following him was his secretary Shalila who looked cold to the touch and the guardsman who had informed Tanner about the monster horde, Avian and Cornelia too were following closely, even though they didn’t actually need to be here, Avian stuck along since he wanted to know more before making any actions while Cornelia simply followed Avian like always feeling slightly alarmed.

News already traveled quickly as the adventurers, merchants, civilians and craftsmen all moved in unison preparing for what seemed to be an upcoming battle, the fact that they didn’t look too panicked or disorderly suggested that this may not have been the first time a monster horde had visited this frontier town, in fact Avian had done enough research to know that Alimdal indeed was able to suppress a few monster hordes already, but it was recorded that those were all low level monster hordes that came from dungeons and not labyrinths, and even those monster hordes were considered deadly to a town like this.

Trying to keep up with the surprisingly fit governor who was fast and steady, the guardsman told him everything he knew as his sweat covered his face.

-The rangers have reported that the monster horde this time is much bigger than the ones from earlier, mid-level at the very least, but not high level, they said the monster horde will be coming from the north of the town and will arrive within 3 days with the pace they are going which is the bare minimum if they aren’t distracted midway!

-(a mid-level monster horde…that’s surprisingly strong, do we really need to leave right after we arrived? What kind of rotten luck is that?)

Avian thought to himself, looking at the governor as he tried to gauge his reaction to the new found information.

Any inexperienced and corrupt leader would be sweating buckets at this point after hearing the scale of the enemy, but Tanner was different he was no simple lord’s representative, but someone send here personally by the lord herself which meant he was trusted and capable, plus having dealt with a few prior monster hordes before, he had more than enough experience to understand what was coming.

The solid and high walls surrounding the town weren’t just built for show after all, they were here to precisely counter the monster horde and protect them from those monster’s onslaught, many thoughts went through his head, but as he was thinking he suddenly noticed the young boy, Avian with the young lady following them, their presence was something he did not expect, especially the gaze Avian was giving him making momentarily stop as he turned to look at him.

-Is there…perhaps something you still want to say?

Tanner asked, but Avian shook his head before replying.

-No, it’s just there is something I want to know, governor can you stop this monster horde?

-Hah?! What rudeness! How can you speak to the governor like this!

The guardsman cried in outrage raising his spear as he face Avian, but Tanner calmed him with his hand as he shook his head before speaking.

-That’s Enough Hatter, leave them be, they had just came here so it makes sense that they would want to know whether or not they would be safe in the place they just arrived and not just entered a death trap…and as for you young man…I will be honest I do not know as we had never dealt with a monster horde of such scale yet, even though you had just come, it may be wise to depart immediately while you still can, I apologize that you had to come under such circumstance, but I hope you will be well alongside your companion.

Tanner was about to turn around and leave, but Avian wasn’t finished yet.

-You say that…but you are still going to stay? Which means you do have a way to stop this?

Tanner stopped, not understand why Avian was asking him this and feeling a bit dubious, but he steeled his mind before replying with conviction.

-I will stay and I will fight, to win or lose doesn’t matter, but I will fulfill my duty as this is the task my lady has given to me.

And with those words, Tanner ended the conversation and returned forward speaking with the guardsman who looked at Avian with a bit of peculiarity while the secretary Shalila looked at Avian with a bit curiosity before following her leader.

Avian simply stood there watching them go with his arms crossed pondering to himself while Cornelia started to get increasingly anxious as she knew full well what a monster horde entailed, even though she never experienced one herself, she had heard dozens of stories and read hundreds of historical records, most of which rarely succeeded in defending against monster hordes, she seriously didn’t want to stay here anymore knowing that a mid-level monster horde was coming this way, but Avian had other ideas as the gears within his mind churned.

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First of all, he decided to visit his property at last, even though it may turn into ruins after 3 days, he still wanted to see it while it was up.

Cornelia again followed Avian as he moved without a second word, she expected that they would be immediately leaving, but seeing that he was going somewhere else she couldn’t help but say in a bit of hysteria.

-Where are we going?! Aren’t we going to flee?!

-Be silent, we still have 3 days before the monster horde actually arrives, we have more than enough time to flee if we want to, before we do anything I want to my property and ask around some more.

-What?!

Cornelia shouted, not understanding at all what Avian was saying or thinking, she really wanted nothing than to leave at this very second, but she didn’t have the guts to do it herself as she knew that she wouldn’t be able to do anything on her own with no funds or knowledge of survival, in the end the only thing she could do was follow Avian, but at the very least she was confident that Avian wouldn’t actually risk his life which is why Cornelia became a bit more calmer as she followed Avian through the town which had turned a lot more bustling compared to how it was before.

Cornelia prayed that everything would turn out fine.

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-Did you hear? The governor just made a speech in the plaza talking about the monster horde.

-Yeah, he said something about fighting the horde and staying together, but there are already a lot of people leaving the town, though most of them are newbie adventurers and beginner merchants.

-Yeah, it seems like 80% of the people in town decided to stay, fools I say! I don’t understand what do they think a mid-level monster horde is? I am sure not going to stick around to find out!

-You say that, but those people also have their reason to stay, after all we are talking about the governor here who had already repelled a lot of lesser monster hordes, he is well liked by the people, plus he isn’t alone either, I heard the adventurer’s guild has his back especially the adventurer party Silver Fang who seem to follow his every word, you know how strong they are comprised of entirely rank 2 individuals.

-Yeah sure they are strong, but they are still only 4 people, what are they going to do about a horde that size?

-I guess, but we still have the adventurer guilds master, though I haven’t seen him for a bit, anyways see you later.

-Yeah, good luck.

The merchants wished each other good luck, ending the conversation as they separated while Avian pretended to pick a fruit to buy, the vendor who decided to stay even with the monster horde coming seemed a bit annoyed that Avian was taking so long to pick and scan his wares, but after Avian heard the entire conversation he decided to finally buy a random fruit as he paid the vendor a few big coppers before asking him.

-A lot of people seemed to decide to stay, aren’t you going to flee knowing that this monster horde is about to come?

The question didn’t particularly incite any reaction out of the vendor as he gave Avian his change together with his fruits which looked like apples but with a mix of blue and purple, over all he seemed to be used to all of this as he replied amiably and without a hitch.

-Are you new here? That’s the kind of question only newcomers would ask, to answer it, most people are already used to this, the governor, Tanner his name, is quite a capable fellow and someone reliable, since the founding of this town he always stayed here and protected it, people including me have a lot of trust in him, but most importantly where would we even go? The next closes town or village is too far away and most of the people who settle here aren’t just here because of the heck of it, we are here because we have no other place we can be.

The last few words the Vendor spoke was spoken in quite a cynical way as he smiled at himself ironically, Cornelia for some reason seeing that couldn’t help but sympathize with the Vendor who for all intents and purposes looked like an ordinary and honest to god uncle that sold fruits, but he too likely just like her had something that didn’t allow for society to accept her, and listening to him talk, a lot of people here were likely the same.

-I see.

Avian said, not bothering to comment any further as he threw an apple to Cornelia who jumped a little before fumbling with the apple midair and barely catching it even with her high dexterity, Avian bit into his apple while the Vendor simply laughed at Cornelia’s antics who blushed in embarrassed while quickly following after Avian who started to walk towards his property the small general store.

On the way there, Avian wasn’t just walking without thinking about anything else, to understand the situation he was in, Avian was collecting all sorts of information he could get his hands, by listening to anyone who had something interesting to say.

Capable leader, silver fang, guild master.

Those were all words Avian kept in mind as he made his way towards the store while eating his apples that tasted both sweet and sour, only through analyzing every single piece would Avian make his decision, truly Avian didn’t want to leave if he didn’t have to, on the contrary Avian smelt the sweet scent of opportunity, the monster horde represented immense danger, but it also represented immense wealth as through the research Avian did he knew that each time Tanner was able to defend Alimdal from a monster horde, it launched the towns wealthy high up to the point it allowed a town on the frontier to build massive and sturdy walls encompassing it.

If Tanner is able to make it happen once more, and with a mid-level horde at that, Avian could only imagine the amount of wealth the town would get from this accomplishment, and while this was immensely dangerous Avian wasn’t about to leave without making sure that there was a chance for this to happen.

-Ehm…Lukas…do you know where the building is?

-No, but I don’t need to since I think we are already here.

Avian said, turning around a corner and what seemed to be a shady alleyway as it was a plenty with trash and other muck and dirt that was probably piled on so it wouldn’t get in the way of the main road.

In such an alleyway normally you wouldn’t assume there to be anything like a store, but there was a single shutter like door with a metal lock at the bottom with a sign above the shutter reading “Humblewood General Store”, Avian concurrently also pulled out his deed together with the key that came with it from Tanner for the store to make sure before giving it to Cornelia who took the deed slightly confused and reading it before going wide eyed as she started to look at the sign and back at the deed repeatedly almost not believing what she was seeing.

-Hah?! This is the store?! Seriously in this dirty alleyway!? Who would even come here?! Is this a joke?!

-Who knows…

Avian muttered, not as outraged as Cornelia but still slightly frowning as the location had something left to be desired, either way Avian wasn’t about to needlessly complain like Cornelia and started to go to the shutter to unlock it and head inside to see what was up.

Finding the store itself was complete coincidence as Avian hadn’t heard about it from Tanner as they were suddenly interrupted making Tanner likely forget about where it was, Avian still remember this but didn’t ask as there were more important things he wanted to ask and because he figured he would find it eventually since this town wasn’t enormous like a city even If it was big.

(Wrrrrr)

Unlocking and raising the shutter Avian and Cornelia were immediately stormed with dust as air finally flowed into the store causing the dust to expel outwards, Cornelia not expecting this immediately started coughing and wheezing while Avian merely frowned while blocking his mouth.

The light was very faint in the alleyway, but as Avian and Cornelia finally looked inside, they discovered an extremely dusty store as it looked like it had been years since anyone last came inside here or even cared for the place.

Not even rats seemed to want this place home as Avian using his [Blood Sense] couldn’t feel any of those pests around, the old wooden counter with numerous shelves looked okay enough, but Avian could still tell there was a lot here that needed work to be done.

-(Maybe leaving this place isn’t such a bad idea after all)

Avian momentarily thought, not looking optimistic as the future seemed a lot more unsure then predicted.

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