Ali and Belen stopped talking as soon as Kamis and Kurata approached the survivors. The teenager watched tensely as the two sides exchanged words. When his two companions first approached the crashed airship, the survivors quickly surrounded them with weapons drawn. The response revealed that most of the survivors could barely stand and some of them even had a limp arm. The seconds ticked by slowly but, after several seconds more of conversation, Kurata was allowed to approach one of the survivors. A minute later, the survivor was jumping happily in place, causing the other survivors to be more lax in their stance.

We need to wait longer before we can appear. I really hope this doesn’t take too long.

As he watched Kurata healing all the survivors, Ali readied his levitating wall. He didn’t want to get caught unready since an unknown foe could have hidden summonees or concealment abilities too. He and Belen then waited patiently until they got the signal from Kamis. The two of them approached cautiously but, by then, the survivors greeted them with smiles. Once they reached Kamis and Kurata, the leader of the survivors was already giving commands to pack up the valuables and supplies. Belen was allowed to store supplies into her bag. As soon as the leader determined that they had what they needed, she ordered everyone to abandon the crash site.

“I’m Stana by the way,” said the leader as she hiked up the trail with the party. “We thank you for your help! You may not know it but you probably saved everyone here.”

There were fourteen survivors in total, including Stana. After Kurata healed their wounds, all of them were carrying crates on their backs. None of them were at all bothered by the climb as they had no issues keeping up with Ali’s party. After inquiring further, the party learned that the survivors were merchants who were assigned to deliver goods to a nearby city. Their airship was shot down and, with the help of Kurata, they had no casualties. When asked if they knew who was responsible for the attack, Stana shook her head.

“Do you know the local terrain?” asked Belen.

Stana reassured them that, before their group had an airship, they had to travel by foot. Therefore, this was their familiar hunting grounds. As long as they didn’t encounter those who shot their airship down, then they should be able to reach the city with no delays.

“I must admit that the drizzle is unnatural,” said the merchant leader. “Dust storms normally last several hours. I've never seen one end so abruptly only to be replaced by a drizzle”

Ali made sure to look around to avoid eye contact with the others. In addition to keeping the rain dance ability a secret to his party, the teenager also told his two summonees to remain hidden. Even if Stana was trustworthy, there could be spies within the ranks of the merchants. As of the moment, he wasn’t even sure if they could trust Stana. As a precaution, he wanted two hidden aces to remain hidden until they were needed. Meanwhile, the large group turned a corner to enter a cave where they quickly dried themselves off. Then, a few of the merchants lit up torches before they proceeded deep underground. While Mika stayed close to Ali, Tian went deeper and returned with news of the tunnels being empty.

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I’m glad we don’t have to face that…thing.

With the creature’s appearance still fresh in his mind, Ali shuddered at the thought. He knew that, if the other Dark Cult members weren’t present, his party would have perished there. The speed and ferocity of the creature was beyond anything they had faced. Even the lightning giant at Vliland was at least slow and clumsy. They could at least kite or flee from the giant. The creature was a whole different story.

Ali, I hope we never have to face that thing. Even I find it terrifying.

Do you know what that thing is?

It doesn’t have a name but I believe it came from my realm. It’s probably a powerful creature that has been further experimented by humans. We call them the Dreaded.

Dreaded? Fitting name for that creature. Let's try to avoid meeting another one.

After an hour of walking, the group exited the tunnel. As they walked out of the cave mouth onto a plateau, a city surpassing Vlidland appeared before their eyes.

“Welcome to Naeleph, the terminus of the Ore Road.”

“Ore road?” muttered Kurata loudly.

Hearing that, Stana gave a quick summary on the Ore Road to the party. The Ore Road was a network of trade routes that linked Cheudal to the other nations and was said to be a major source of wealth for the lightning nation. The name was given due to Cheudal ore being a highly valued commodity transported by merchants along the trade network. Serving as the terminus of the Ore Road, Naeleph became the richest and most populous city in all of Cheudal.

To think we arrived at the city we were told to avoid by the Dark Cult…

Because Naeleph was the richest and most populous city in all of Cheudal, its importance in the civil war became that much more important. Even before the civil war, plenty of factions were vying for influence, resulting in an extremely complicated web of relationship between all the factions. From what Ali gathered, the Dark Cult was just a minor presence in the city as the more powerful factions already had a firm foothold in the region. For that reason, the Dark Cult had to send some of its strongest members to maintain its small presence in the city. Ali and his party members were small fries who didn’t belong in the city. During a civil war, the value of Naeleph had skyrocketed. Wars required funding and the city was a great location to acquire such funding.

Hopefully, we can get assistance from the Dark Cult members and go to a city where we are more useful. Since we arrived here, we might as well make the most of it.