Chapter 273 - Oath (6)

"This is bad, right?" Danielle asked without knowing if they were in a good or bad situation. "It can only mean that something bad is about to happen."

"It is hard to say…" Luke said. "If the enemies left this world, then we succeeded on our mission and now the elves just have to deal with ordinary monsters and crystals. However, if they are hiding, they might wipe them out the moment we take our eyes from this world for long. The plan to split the elves into several regions also won't work anymore since they will become easier targets."

The real problem was the fact that they couldn't confirm anything. Not to mention, the elves were waiting for closure to their long war, but what they got was some questions. The elves looked pretty pissed, it was weird given how meek they were, and Rina didn't know what to do. At least not right now.

"What should we do, my queen?" Luke asked.

"Now isn't the time to joke around, Luke," Rina said.

"Keep frowning and worry endlessly what might and might not happen won't help either," Luke said. "You need to relax, or your people will feel your worries as well."

Rina realized Luke's point. That was probably why he tried to be a bit more carefree than usual. After thinking for a while, Rina realized that was a good chance for them as well. The elves could even face monsters one hundred levels above their archer corps using their archer corps. So, she decided to use those and the same tactic the other overlords had used. They will secure the locations that were spawning the strongest monsters and use those to keep leveling up the elves. Some of them wanted to return to their peaceful old days, but that wasn't an option anymore. So, they might as well get used to that new lifestyle where they had to keep their guard up all the time.

After moving around for one week, they found the areas in the central part of that continent that had the most high-level monsters. They were between level 250 and 330, and while their population wasn't big, they kept spawning a decent number of monsters every day. To each of those areas, Rina assigned ten of the archers and ninety other elves to help them build a camp in the area while they fought the monsters.

"I suppose that is the best plan of action, we also can come now and then to check things," Luke said. "Shall I leave some skeletons in each of those places as well?"

"No, it isn't a good idea," Rina said. "We have to change our ways and adapt, it will be better if they don't grow even more dependent on us."

Rina seemed more determined than usual, but at that rate, she probably would lose her place as the queen of the elves… maybe that was her goal, to begin with. Regardless, they traveled around while transporting and leaving the elves in the places they should be. They didn't seem that against the idea either, probably because Rina considered the connections and relationships the archers had and put those closest to them to guard the areas they would be.

Thanks to all that work, they spent one more week on the elves' world and then prepared to go home, but Luke felt that he didn't finish what he came to do. It seemed that he also wanted the closure that the elves had been waiting for. Still, it was unreasonable to want for that since overlords, and the other crystal owners could come and attack whenever they felt like it. Luke wondered if the continuous battles were something that he had to get used to, just like that planet and Earth…

"When I lived a carefree life, I dreamt of having an adventurous one, but I didn't think it would be so filled with blood, this isn't good," Luke thought.

Putting such worries aside, Luke wondered if he should tell Celia to spend a good part of her day checking things in the elves' world. She had no reason to help Shalia so that probably would be good. Moreover, that would make Amanda want to help her, then Richter will follow and then Rachel. Luke would free himself of those troublesome individuals with a single move.

"I was planning to do that from the very beginning," Celia said when Luke asked her if she was willing to do that.

Celia was one of them who had changed the most, she wasn't as goofy and carefree as Luke, but she was a lot livelier before. Maybe seeing so many elves dying changed her perspective. For one reason or the other, they didn't see many people dying when they were on Earth.

When the group returned to Earth, they noticed that some clouds were right above them, and they couldn't help but be amazed when they approached the walls of the fortress. While they saw the elves' world many times from above, it was different from Earth. It was mostly covered in vegetation, after all. In any case, they weren't flying that high since Julia and some other survivors were looking for camps below them. Currently, they were flying over Alabama and kept going westward.

"Welcome back, Luke," Julia said. "You won't believe it, we already found twenty survivors this morning when we passed through Georgia."

"I suppose that is good," Luke said, and then he looked at Richter, who silently nodded.

"Is there something wrong?" Julia asked.

"Nope," Luke replied while forcing a smile since lying to his mother was tough.

Richter had the skills to investigate most people without being found, so Luke asked him to do that later, once everyone forgets about their return. While looking for survivors was a good way to increase their manpower, they couldn't drop their guard.

"By the way, Luke," Julia said with a cold smile on her face. "Who is your new friend?"