CHAPTER 64: HUNTING FOR CORES (1)

As ramie escorted the two magicians outside the house, to send them off, the female magician finally spoke.

"Um… sorry, for gawking at you like that… I didn't mean to disrespect you…" With a soft, melodic voice, Nora, the female magician said to Ramie, apologetically.

Actually, she as bloodline magician also had physical traits of beasts forced on her body. And it had caused her endless sorrow and aggrieve.

The change included her eyes becoming abnormally big, and the emergence of two wings from her back. As for the worst, it was that her legs had morphed into something that looked like perching birds' legs, with four clawed toes, three directed forward and one directed backward.

When she first casted that damned morphing spell, she was under the impression that this spell would shot out something that can kill beasts, just like the elemental path magicians she had seen did. However, and to her dismay, what happened after casting that damned spell was a world apart from what she had in mind.

Although the change did not morph all the parts of her legs, but only the feet and the shin, up to the knees… but still, it had almost driven her crazy with fear, thinking that she had caught some sort of strange illness.

Anyway, having no other alternative, and with grieve and unwillingness, she was forced to live with this the outcome.

Afterward, she started seeing people die one after another, even warriors and magicians among them. While she on the other hand always survived. As unlike them, she had the choice of flying, which was like a safe pass in all of the battles her group had gone through.

As such, and with time, she finally started feeling less crestfallen and dejected regarding her form, as the advantage was undeniable.

However, her appearance remained a heavy burden, a one that she couldn't accept, but had to live with. Because every time one sees her for the first time, there would be a lot of gawking, as if staring at a circus freak, thus agitating all over again.

As such, she started covering herself up. She especially hated those who stare at her leg with that look of disgust in their faces, not even bothering to consider how she might feels to be stared at like that.

She could see it in their eyes, she could almost hear them thinking of how lucky they are for having normal legs, and not chicken legs.

Although, these people might be just jealous of her flying advantage, but still, those looks on their eyes as they stare was still too much for her.

But now, she had finally met someone far… far worse than her.

The look on her eyes when staring at him wasn't look of disgust as much as shock, as his condition was too exaggerated. Inwardly, seeing that there was someone else in much worse condition than her, she started feeling a stream of relief surge in her heart, as though a large weight had been lifted off her shoulder.

What was her condition comparing to his…!

Although her legs might cause some people to cringe, but that was it. It was nothing comparing to this man's disturbing face.

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Even if his nose-less, dark-green, wood-patterned face was shocking to look at, but with time, one might get used to it, maybe. However, his eyes! They were downright horrifying, very difficult to even look at!

'To actually have the bloodline of a beast that's called subterranean ghost tree… Just, how unlucky can one be? At least my bloodline has come from a bird… and not some atrocity'

Having witnessed how horrendous the bloodline's morphological changes can be, she actually started feeling lucky. As at least, her bloodline didn't come from a creature with a sinister name. As for her eyes, they were only a bit larger than normal, and not like this man's; downright fear-provoking, sinister, and creepy to the point that makes one feel very uncomfortable facing him.

Her case was a far cry from this fellow.

Following this line of thought, she started feeling as though knots and knots were untying in her heart, one after another, and releasing away her repressed feelings of disgust, loathe, and hatred she held toward her disfiguration.

It made her feel much lighter, as if a great burden has been lifted off her chest. As after seeing what this magician's bloodline had done to him, she no longer felt as though she received the short end of the stick, as apparently, someone else has.

As such, she felt as though she owned this Ramie man an apology or something for widening her horizon.

On the other hand, Ramie just nodded to her, and repeated that he didn't take offense of any kind, before sending the two off.

He had no idea that his face had just saved someone from a severe case of depression.

…

In the following days, the survivors group completely settled, and sorted their things out.

Naturally, with the addition of such large force, the compound safety went up by an entire level, which reflected positively on the life style of the inhabitants.

First, there was now enough number of warriors to completely secure the compound, by forming guards' teams that patrols the compound during night and day, thus ensuring that the inhabitants sleeps peacefully in the night, and wakes up energetic the next day.

The direct result of this change was that the artisan that was responsible for making weapons using the buffalo's beast bones had a breakthrough in his work, and actually managed to make a bow.

This bow was completely made from the buffalo's' beast parts. The bow shaft was made from bones, as well as the arrows, while the string was made from the buffalo's tail's hair.

Although, these bows required so much power to pull the strings that only warriors with ignition percent higher than 25% had the ability to use them… but with their high penetrative power, they were considered a game changer weapons. They immediately raised the fighting power of the compound by a huge margin.

Now, the next time flying beasts attack the compound… they'd be in for a tragedy.

After making these bows, Brent immediately started working on ways to apply his lightening inscription on the arrows, to further enhance their penetrative power.

The second benefit of the additional manpower was that instead of making one trip to bring water from the river per day, now, they make 3-4 trips.

Before, the compound leader was using the tanker truck to bring water as fast as possible, in case the compound is attacked during his absence, and also to reduce the fuel consumption.

Now however, and with the presence of another Lv.2 warrior around, there was no need for haste. As for the fuel consumption problem, they solved it by pulling the tanker truck with robes.

Although this method was more costly, time wise, but at least the fuel was no longer a constant nagging issue at the back of their minds.

The increase in the water missions enabled people to finally bathe to their heart content, which reflected positively on their morals.

When the survivor's group first came and settled, they maintained their own gathering, and remained separated to a large extent from the original inhabitants, due to lack of trust between the two groups.

However, with time, and as they started mixing together, trust was built up slowly and steadily, and the line between the two groups started fading away, a bit by bit. Now, the two groups had practically merged with each other to a large extent, basically becoming one large group.

Now, there was no division in the areas of residence, treatment, and other aspects. Although in name, they were still two different groups, but in actuality, they had turned into one large group with two leaders.

This turn of development was the main reason behind the increase of life quality in the compound.

At this pace, days went by, peacefully, with no one dying for a good while.

Finally, people started regaining some of the sense of security, for the first time ever since the start of this whole thing. They no longer stayed up all night with a lingering terror in heart, not sure if they'd still alive till morning or not.

Anyway, with so many warriors around, patrolling the compound day and night, the life of the residents started stabilizing a bit by bit.

After over 3 weeks of peaceful times, the two leaders held a meeting to announce an important matter that concerns the security and welfare of the compound inhabitants.

Now, these kinds of meetings were held once every week, to make decisions on important issues. Ramie and the group were always welcomed to take part in them, as their group held a significant amount of power. However, other than Lance, no one among them usually attends these meetings.

However, this meeting seemed to be special one, as the two leaders specifically expressed their hope that their entire group attends this time, especially Ramie and Reem.

Apparently, the next meeting was involving something big, something that the leaders might need their group's help with.

When Ramie heard the news, he had a faint guess in his heart for the reason, as did lance and the rest.

'It seems that things are finally progressing to that point…'

Ramie thought to himself.

…