About one week had passed since the children and cat left the core farm, and they had crossed all sorts of terrains. At times, they went through zones without wildlife and had to rely on the grain they collected at the farm as pretty much their only food source, but most of the time they could hunt enough to eat balanced meals, mostly thanks to Baolao's techniques.

Water was also starting to be a problem. They were fine until the farm because they had plenty of leather bags filled with river water, and the farm had a well were they refilled their supplies again, but they barely had enough for half a day more, being optimistic.

They had also been slowly but steadily gaining distance over the beast horde. It seemed like even those black beasts had to eat, and feeding all of those monsters required going through densely forested aeras with more animals and higher mana concentrarion.

After having a closer look, Al realised that the horde that was (presumably) following them was only a small fraction of the tens of thoudands of beasts that ravaged Duyan city. They amounted to less than five thousand, maybe their job was to destroy villages in the direction that Al's group was coincidentally going in.

'It almost seems like whoever's doing this gains something from people's deaths... after all, whenever the beast tide destroys something there's little to nothing left to loot.'

The group had a bit less than three days of advantage over the rabid beasts, but that could change at any time if they had to stop for some reason or the beasts suddenly sped up.

That morning, after reaching the top of a grassy hill, they spotted what seemed to be a town, It had a stone wall surrounding it, but it was barely 3 meters tall, and not very sturdy-looking.

The group approached the town gate at the east of the city and found two guards staring dumbfoundedly at them. Al signaled the rest of the group to stay behind and moved forward, thinking 'It's time to put my meagre diplomatic experience to use.'

The guards didn't say "Halt!" like Al had kind of expected them to, and instead just asked "Who are you kids? Where are your parents?"

Al realised this might be easier than he thought it would be and said "We come from the east. All the cities and villages have been destroyed by a wage of tens of thousands of black beasts, and many thousands of them are coming towards here. I know it's hard to believe, but you will probably be able to see them once they reach the top of that rocky hill over there."

Al knew it was shocking for a toddler with a squeaky voice to say this, even if Al looked older than he was, but he used the momentum of the conversation to his favour and continued. "They will be here in 3 days, and you won't be able to defend against them with these walls. I need to talk to the city lord in order to set up an evacuation of the city."

Finally, one of the guards reacted and said "Hey kid, I'm sorry if your hometown was overrun, but we can't just let you visit the city lord without any proof. Plus, what you say sounds pretty unreasonable."

Al was glad that the guard was this understanding, since he's expected him to shout at Al or tell him to screw off. 'It's going just as planned'

Al said "I understand. See that hill over there? You will probably see a sea of black start covering in a few hours. When you do, please take us to the city lord."

Then, Al went back to his group and said "let's take a nap under that nearby tree. It's going to take a while to get permission to see the lord."

The group finally enjoyed some time of rest that they'd been deprived of for almost two weeks, and they all fell asleep under the comfortable tree shade under the gentle heat of early spring.

Eventually, Al was woken up by the guard, and he told him "You... you were right. Let's go, I'll lead you to the lord's mansion. He normally doesn't accept meetings without an appointment, but I'm sure he'll make an exception."

Al quickly woke the rest of his group up, practically having to yell at Misty's ear to get her to comply, and they all entered the city, following behind the guard.

The city's decoration was austere, and it reminded Al of the outer part of Duyan city. It was also dirty and foul-smelling, though the streets were a bit wider and the buildings were partly made of stone, instead of only wood.

One big difference was that every once in a while there were poles coming up from the streets with polished bright yellow mana crystals on top of them, and the crystals seemed to all have the same, simple patterns etched onto them. Al knew from his experience on Earth that these were supposed to be inscriptions, though he never studied how they were made or what they meant.

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It was strange that none of the texts he bought from merchants mentioned inscriptions even in the passing, and he didn't even know how to say it in this world's language.

In any case, Al guessed these were like streetlights, that sucked ambient mana and their inscriptions acted as programs to say that they should emit light only when it was dark out or something.

'The mana concentration here is higher than in Duyan city, so maybe that's why these types of commodities can work.'

After following the Main Street for a while, Al's party arrived in front of a two-story manor, with ostentatious decoration that clashed with the look of the rest of the city. The style leaned towards your typical medieval fantasy, but it had touches that much resembled pagodas and eastern arquitecture too.

The guard went ahead and entered the mansion, then came back out about 10 minutes later with a slightly pale face and a frightened expression.

He told Al in a shaky voice "B-be careful about what you s-say, okay? I-if he doesn't listen to you, d-don't push it, just give up. Good luck!"

Al nodded slowly and followed what seemed to be an atendant of the lord to his study, bracing himself for a tough discussion. Unfortunately he told Al that pets couldn't enter the mansion, so he left Yuly and Koro behind and went in by himself. He stopped in front of the study's wide open doors, and peered into the room.

When he saw the lord's face, only a single thing came to mind. 'He has a bad guy face.'

Al didn't know if it was because of his long, greasy brownish grey hair that reached his shoulders, or his pale, thin face with protruding cheekbones and pointy chin. Perhaps it was his small brown eyes, or his ugly half-smirk that made him seem like he permanently looked down on everyone.

Perhaps it was all of them.

In any case, Al prepared himself to deal with a potentially frustrating person and resolutely stepped into the exuberantly decorated room, even more so than the rest of the mansion.

His expectations were sadly fulfilled when the lord said "Well, well, I was informed that a little kid wanted to tell me something about my city being overrun by black beasts? Let's hear it."

Al clenched his fists and answered "Indeed, city lord. They are thousands and they are mostly Rank 3. I believe this city has no chance of repelling them once they reach the walls."

The man then said "Rank 3? Ha! Rank 3s are beasts that only appear in the innermost forests of the continent, and you're telling me that thousands are coming from the manaless frontier forests to the east? Surely you could've come up with a better lie?"

Al clenched his fists even tighter and refuted "Surely the city lord had seen the moving black mass that's barely three days away right?"

The city lord just said "Of course, but if they're coming from the east, there will only be a few Rank 2s at most, and thousands of vermin are still vermin." He said with a twisted grin was he looked down at Al.

Then he said "When we crush them all, we will make a fortune from their parts!"

At that moment, Al decided to give up. He had wanted to save this city's residents, but the lord wasn't going to be convinced no matter what he did. He would spent the next few days convincing merchants and families to leave the city, then storm out even if the lord opposed them. His group could probably deal with whatever puny forces he sent, anyways.

Al sighed inwardly and stopped clenching his fists, checking that there was no blood on them. 'Seriously, how hard did those manga characters dig their nails into their palms to make them bleed so much!?'

Al quickly said "Then, if you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave." Then turned around and made the impression of walking slowly, but used a small [Impulse] every step to get out faster.

He told his group about what happened, and they came up with a game plan. Firstly they found a place to stay the night, and ended up choosing the best inn the town had to offer, though by Earth standards it would barely get a single star.

Then they went around telling every trader and merchant about the beast wave, advising them to gather near the western gate before dawn of the day after the following day. Most didn't comply at first, but Al told them that they could just return to the city the next day if the city managed to kill the beasts, and he also showed them Koro's swords and his own Squirrelic.

They didn't know what beasts dropped these, but they could discern the quality of the items due to their profession and could see that they most likely came from Rank 3s. In the end, about 70% of the merchants ended up agreeing.

Al chose to convince the merchants because most had horse-pulled carts which would allow them to travel more distance, and they all had plenty of resources that they could exchange for protection during the journey. He also proposed leaving the city to the kind family that ran the inn, but they politely refused going with him.

Thus, the day of the evacuation came. Some families that heard from the merchants what Al said had also packed their things and decided to leave, though they weren't many. Most merchants had brought all their merchandise or at least most of it.

Al opened the gates without trouble after knocking out the two guards, and the caravan departed without any major issues. They were gone before dawn, and a few hours later, the city was already facing the first offensive of the beasts.

The evacuating caravan watched from atop a distant hill as the city started to burn due to the black birds, and although many had pained looks on their faces, they were all relieved inside due to having made the right choice. Eventually the land beasts reached the city walls too, and the walls fell like paper due to the fearsome charges of the Tusk Tanks, that were practically biological siege weapons.

The group didn't stay to watch the town's destruction though, and swiftly moved away to gain distance from the beasts while they were pillaging the town.