NOVEL NEXT 54: Journeying Out of Kaneth
With breakfast being over, the world having woken up, a crowd of adventurers began gathering outside the northern gate of the city Kaneth. The northern gate of the city was infamous, of course not for the best reasons, but still, infamous.
The northern wall as a whole, being the wall that’d face the brunt of the monster wave was reinforced beyond reasonable measures. Almost three times thicker than the other walls, the northern side was also much taller than the other sides. Moreover, in comparison to the other walls, each decorative, colorful, alive, the northern wall and gate could both be described with only one word: desolate.
Dark colors, a total lack of any decoration, the walls were made only for war, only for the monster wave. There were slits for archers, there were racks among racks of arrows, there were backup bows, all spread across the walls.
As the northern wall of the city bridged the gap between two mountains, being the best natural chokepoint that the entire monster wave would have to cross through, the northern wall was a separate entity, totally independent from the other walls.
Beyond that, the land outside the wall had a stark contrast to the land outside the other three walls. Outside the other walls, although snow blanketed the land, nature was still present, houses were still built, even if they were sparse and dilapidated. The land outside the northern wall though, was a barren wasteland, land worn flat blanketed only in snow, the trees that used to exist trampled to nothingness after years and years of raging monsters.
However, even in this inhospitable little area, Chelsea, her boots planted, firm in the snow, waited as the crowd of adventurers began to gather before her.
“Did you all eat breakfast?” Chelsea began letting the crowd wake up a bit before jumping into the thick of it.
Hearing everyone’s affirmation, Chelsea continued, crossing her arms, her figure, although not the tallest, imposing, “So, everyone who is below S-Ranked, your job today will be staying here in front of the gate. Today’s the first day that monsters will be showing up, they’ll just be stragglers ahead of the main group, but it's still critical to kill them.”
With small murmurs breaking out in the crowd, some dissatisfied with their job, Chelsea rebuked, “Don’t let your guard down! Though this may seem like an innocuous job, one where you can relax, this is far from it! Termed stragglers, these monsters are still heavy in number and dangerous! I assume you all have read the pamphlet provided by the guild, but after their long exposure to dense nature energy, the monster’s minds have been corrupted, therefore they have no sense of self-preservation! Their instincts are gone! They’ll just lunge at you with full strength!”
Satisfied seeing that the lower-ranked adventurers seemed to have refocused, Chelsea turned, waving her hand forward, “Everyone above A-Rank, follow me.”
Trudging forward, Chelsea was then followed by a number of people who left the crowd, joining her on the journey farther into nature.
Energy coursing through her after breakfast and the shenanigans that transpired during the meal, Kaitlyn jogged up, asking Chelsea who was leading the group, “Same as usual?”
“Same as usual, of course,” Chelsea nodded with a kind smile, patting Kaitlyn on the back, “Thanks for being here to help out as always. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
Shrugging, Kaitlyn turned back, walking back towards the others, “You’d probably just rely on the old men over there, Jayce and Dexter.”
Raising a fist as Kaitlyn ran off laughing, Chelsea barked, “I’m literally smack-dab between Dexter and Jayce! We’re not old, Kaitlyn!”
Her ears having lost their hearing for a few seconds, a true unexplainable mystery, Kaitlyn rejoined with the otherworlders she was friends with, “I’m back, just had to ask Chelsea something real quick sorry.”
“No worries at all,” Oliver reassured, giving a thumbs up, “Good to make sure everything is running smoothly, we don’t want people getting hurt from a lack of communication.”
Agreeing with Oliver, Josephine, having overheard the conversation, asked, “If you’re allowed to tell us, what were you talking about with Chelsea? The usual?”
“Ahh, she’ll explain once we get to this clearing we usually stop at, but I can explain.... Where to start though...” Kaitlyn ruminated, staring off into space while organizing her thoughts, “I’m not as good at explaining this as Chelsea but I think the gist of it is this.”
“So... Usually, since we know the monster wave is going to fully collide with the city tomorrow, we take all the strong adventurers and try to thin out the monsters a little,” Kaitlyn explained, patting the swords at her side, “Makes it a lot easier than just letting them all hit the city on one day.”
“Why don’t you all just... attack them starting from a month before then?” Rachel asked, a confused light on her face, “Wouldn’t that just completely solve the problem?”
Chuckling, Kaitlyn agreed, “That probably would be easier in some ways. But first thing is that we can’t really gather adventurers for an entire month, it's just not feasible for them since they have responsibilities they have to attend to. Another thing is that it just makes the appearance of the thing that causes the monster wave, the large nature elemental thingy really unpredictable. So we don’t do that.”
“I see...” Rachel nodded before smiling, “Thanks for answering! Is that the ‘usual’ you spoke of then?”
“Ahhhh, no,” Kaitlyn shook her head denying while kicking some snow into the air, “The usual is that Chelsea will be in charge of the small fry, while I’ll be in charge of the big strong single monsters. It’s kinda just where the strengths of our abilities lie, so we split up the work in that way. That’s also why Jayce, Dexter, and Sasha all have an unreasonable amount of swords strapped onto them right now.”
Looking over at the three that Kaitlyn mentioned, Damien chuckled, “That’s true... that is a lot of swords. Why don’t you have any then?”
Smug, Kaitlyn laughed, “I’m more important. I get to conserve just that little bit of stamina. Well, also because Chelsea doesn’t need more than that...”
