Chapter 194 - How It Feels To Be The Loser (3)

Basil and Iliana's talk had roughly taken half an hour; within that half an hour, the five students were busy speculating what the content of the two's conversation was.

Although they didn't get to confirm anything in the end, seeing Iliana's current gesture alone was enough; it must have something to do with romantical subject. of course, they didn't what exactly they had talked about or what they had done.

That way, the team's journey was silent for most of the time. There was still some conversation, but it was only between the five students; Iliana seemed to completely tune the world out by burying her face in Basil's back.

After another half an hour, the team stopped in their track. They had arrived at an area that, by far, was the most chaotic area they saw. Looking at the scene in front of them, while for different reasons, they were all humming to themselves.

"What in Akasha's knowledge has happened here?"

"This is ..."

"... Madness."

"Holy ding-dong!"

While they had seen quite a lot of weird things—despite still being young—in their journey as a Mage, all of them, except for Basil, couldn't quite wrap their head around what they were currently seeing in front of them.

While the burning buildings were quite "normal"—they always saw it happened at least once a day in normal times—the rest of the scene wasn't really "normal" in times like this. Of course, they didn't know what an Outbreak should look like either; it was their first time experiencing an Outbreak.

Human bodies that had lost quite a bit of their chunk littered the ground, painting it with a gruesome red color. The pungent smell of blood was exceptionally thicker in the area, easily making anyone who had a weak mind empty the content of their stomach.

That wasn't all though, there were still quite a bit of things that made the scene repulsive even for Mages who were quite used to look at gruesome scenes.

There were countless of human's viscera decorating the ground. There were some bodies that were hung to a pole by their neck with their or whoever's intestines it was, and there were also some who had their body skewered from their bottom to their head with a crookedly made metal.

It doesn't take a genius to conclude that the unlucky people must have experienced an excruciating torture before they died.

Unsurprisingly, most of the victims were civilians; only a couple of them were Knights ... Local Knights. That means, none of the Mercenaries had reached this place yet.

"They are having a feast." Basil caressed his chin; it wasn't his first time seeing a scene like this. In his past life, this kind of scene had been pretty much the norm. "That means, they are cooping up somewhere."

"Cooping up? What are they going to do? Reproduce?" Iliana asked in wonderment.

Basil lightly frowned. "Didn't you learn—I see ... None of you really know of the Monster's traits."

Due to his experience, Basil was naturally ahead of everyone. He forgot that while all of the students had learnt about Demons which they called "Monsters," the academy could only provide the students their names and apparent traits.

None of them had learnt anything about the Demon's habits, culture, and hierarchy. At this point of time, every human population still thought that Monsters, all of them without exception, were a bunch of unintelligent creatures.

While the statement was not completely wrong, it clearly showed humanity's ignorance; there were a group of dangerous Demons whose prowess and intelligence far surpassed humans. Their ignorance would definitely bite them in their arse in this Outbreak.

It had also been the same case in Basil's past life. A serious research about Demons were only conducted after the first Outbreak had ended.

"Once Monsters have a feast, that means they are going to Evolve to a higher grade." Though he could explain things in the right term, Basil wisely decided not to. "They can actually eat anything they want to Evolve, but humans have the most effect on them ... For some reason."

"Oh... You are knowledgeable," Alexandra commented. "I believe that is not written in any book."

"Indeed. It comes from experience."

Alexandra slightly frowned at Basil's response; considering how old Basil was, she couldn't help herself from doing so. "Anyway, what happens when the Monsters are 'cooping up'? They reproduce?"

"They digest the food—the humans—they have eaten, and turn it into an energy that boosts their Evolution. In some cases, they also fight with their own kin, eat the defeated, and come out as a higher grade Monster."

Unlike Iliana, who was confident in her ability, and was sure of her survival, the five students gulped dryly upon hearing Basil's explanation. They didn't need to be a genius to understand what would happen if they let the Demons successfully Evolve themselves.

"We need to find where these creatures are cooping up themselves, so we can prevent them," Robert sternly said.

Iliana turned to him, and quirked her eyebrow. "Are you nuts? Didn't you get what 'cooping up' actually means?" Iliana snorted in amusement. "There'll be thousands of Monsters concentrated in one place, and you want to fight them? By yourself?"

"T-That is ... At least—at least we need to do something to hamper the process—"

"Quit yapping, Robert!" Iliana waved her hand in slight annoyance. "That is none of our job; we are just here to investigate. I know you are quite eager to accumulate merit point just so the King will notice you, but you can do it by yourself. You can't risk the entire team's life."

"I don't mean—"

"I know." Iliana raised her hand. "I know you care about the people. However, that is not our responsibility; it's the Kingdom's fault—your King's fault that these people are dying."

Robert was frowning, but he didn't say anything; he understood what Iliana had said was correct and logical. If the King hadn't been too invested in guarding BA-22, and had quickly sent backup, the situation wouldn't be this chaotic.

Therefore he sighed in the next moment, and kept his silence; he didn't want to debate Iliana anymore. In the very first place, he wasn't that eager to fight the horde. He had suggested the idea merely out of his sense of obligation as a citizen of Braxtein Kingdom.

"Of course, it doesn't mean we will pretend we don't know it. We will look for the location, and make a report about it."

Robert raised his head, looked at Iliana, and nodded wordlessly; that was the best course of action that the team could do.

Also at that moment however, Basil opened his mouth. "We don't have to look for the location."

"Yes?" Alexandra turned her confused gaze at Basil. "It should be our priority—finding the location of where the Monsters are Evolving."

Basil quirked his eyebrow. "How do you know that they're Evolving?"

"Didn't you say it yourself that—"

"They are having a feast. I didn't say that they are currently Evolving."

"... Isn't that the same, though?"

"No." Basil shook his head faintly. "Evolution takes time; they have to, at least, eat the entire citizens of Fortescher County to be able to start the process."

Alexandra clicked her tongue, and muttered lowly in annoyance. "Tsk. You should've said it earlier; you are making me worry for nothing!" It wasn't audible enough for anyone to hear her, but Basil could still hear it quite clearly.

Iliana looked at the back of Basil's head, and asked, "So, where should we head to?"

"Why are you asking me?" Basil turned his head to the side, and met Iliana's eyes.

"Because, you are the Pathfinder."

Basil slightly frowned, but didn't comment anything. Turning his head back to the front, he used his Mana Sense, and scanned the ground of one kilometers ahead of him. 'There are no Nightcrawlers in the ground. That means, the horde don't go there.'

Retracting his Mana Sense, Basil asked the Guide instead. 'Guide, where is the position of the closest Demon horde to me?'

[Solving the Host's puzzlement...]

[Initiating Visualization; target: the closest Demon infested area to the Host...]

The process was instantaneous; the moment Basil heard the notification from the Guide, his vision immediately warped afterward. No longer seeing the gruesome scene of mutilated bodies littering the ground, he was currently seeing a resting horde of Demons.

After he looked around at the new scene briefly, Basil blinked his eyes, and his vision returned to normal; his eyes could see the gruesome scene once again.

Only a few seconds had passed, but it had been a few seconds of silence for the students. Therefore upon turning his head to the students, he could see them looking at him in curiosity.

Ignoring their gaze, Basil opened his mouth. "We will head to the west; there is a quite less populated area there. There is a possibility that the horde is resting there."

"Intuition?" Jocelyn asked.

Basil pointed his head. "Logic ... Which many of you do not have."

While Iliana, Cray, and Whitney had known Basil's bluntness well, it wasn't the case for the other students. Therefore, some of them couldn't help their mouth from twitching.

"Uwoh! You're so straightforward!" Of course, the airheaded Jocelyn was different.

Paying no attention to Jocelyn's full of admiration gaze, Basil notified Deacon to move once again via their [Link].

Since the path before them was filled with dismembered bodies and human's viscera, Deacon took a deep breath, and shot a sphere of a highly condensed wind to the path.

Whoosh!

Boom!

The ground that the wind sphere hit developed a 3 meters wide trench, and the bodies along with the viscera decorating the ground were destroyed. Some that weren't destroyed—that were slightly away from the trench—were thrown away to side, thus making the path really free from any human's body parts.

When the wind died down, Deacon nonchalantly dashed forward, ignoring the weird gaze that the five students were throwing at him and Basil.

"That was ... Violent."

"For such a previously well mannered Beast ..."

"... As expected of Basil," Cray and Whitney muttered in unison.

Shrugging in the next moment, the five students activated their Transportation Artefact, and chased after Deacon. Although they weren't very fond of what Deacon had done under Basil's permission or maybe order, they didn't comment anything.

As a Mage, who was known for their low morality, they were aware of it: the dead have no more worth.