With the dimension boss beaten, Alba was biting the fingernail on her thumb as she was trying to figure out what was the best thing to do.
"Reno, what do you think? Usually, I have Cronker advise me on these types of things, but he's not here," Alba asked.
"Hey, why Reno?" Tilon asked. "Do you think Cronker and Reno are the only two smart ones or something?" Tilon said, banging his shield on the ground so hard that a loose sandstone from above fell and hit the top of his head.
"Alright, go on," Tilon replied, going back to sit down while rubbing the top of his head.
Reno continued to evaluate Raze before giving an answer.
"The worry we have is that we have to look after Raze. Will he wake up before the portal closes? From the look of things, I doubt it," Reno replied as he was tapping the side of Raze's head, but there was no reaction at all.
"We saw what Raze can do. It's clear he can open portals to other dimensions, but we also don't know all he is capable of."
"There's a good chance if that portal closes up, we might be stuck in here."
"I see, I see, so we should head to the portal," Alba stated with her finger in the air like it was some type of genius plan she had come up with.
"Well, then we have to think about the enemy, right? How many are there that are in here? This is an initial stage realm. That means to defeat the dimension boss the warriors don't have to be at a particularly high stage to defeat it."
"But from what you saw with Froma, how did it look?"
Alba was imagining how she would take out the beast herself. From the look of things, maybe it was a level four beast and it was taken down in one hit.
"At a guess, a high-stage middle mid-warrior, is that the saying?" Alba replied.
"A high Stage 8 warrior," Reno replied.
He himself was a stage 7 warrior that had recently managed to break through to stage 8 but was in the low stages. Alba was around a high mid-stage 8 warrior herself.
But the differences within the stages were higher. Stage 9 warriors; low, mid and high, there was a big difference between them as well.
"Of course it's hard to tell just from seeing one move, but I would say it was at least that," Alba continued.
"Right, and we don't know how many of them there are. While fighting, will we really be able to protect the Dark Magus… sorry, Raze. I think we should use Raze from now on since it's an identity he wants to keep secret."
Scratching her head, Alba was now even more confused about what to do. If they stayed, the portal might close and they had no way out.
If they went to fight, they might be overpowered and have difficulty protecting Raze.
"I just want a solution."
Reno smiled hearing this.
"Just send a couple of members that work well together to scout out the area and report back."
Looking at the members available, it didn't take long for Alba to decide.
"Alright, Lilly and Tilon, a nice spear and shield combination. If the opponent looks easy enough, maybe deal with them, since we will have to either way to get out of this.
"If there's too many, then come back here."
Tilon stood up from his position, and Lilly made sure her hair was tied up properly as she held onto her spear. The two of them agreed as they gave a nod.
"Remember, we don't have any more pills from the Dark Magus at the moment. So there will be no second chances," Alba stated.
The Crimson Crane had been helping Fixteen sell the pills they had, and just before arriving, they had attempted a few raids on portals where the pills were needed.
They always wanted to leave some for emergencies, but thought when meeting the Dark Magus they might be able to get more from him.
They never expected to just be sent off straight into battle like they had been.
Before moving out, Tilon placed the sword wrapped in cloth down by Raze's side, although he was confident in his shield to protect such a weapon.
The words of Dame played on his mind. It was such a precious thing, and the last thing they would want was for it to get into the hands of the enemy.
With that, the two of them were off. Froma, who was still on top of the building and looking out, informed the two of the direction of where the beast was taken down.
They would inspect the area first before heading to the portal.
Quickly traveling with their foot techniques, they were able to cover a large distance easily and found themselves in the fighting area.
The sand hills that would usually naturally form had all been pushed away. It looked like a crater the way the sand had moved.
And what was left on the ground were the dead bodies of the beasts.
"Look at this!" Lilly called Tilon over. She then proceeded to stab the dimension boss right in a certain spot making a fist-sized hole.
Then with her hand, she reached in and pulled out the level 4 crystal.
"The crystal was still inside," Tilon said.
"Exactly, although in middle-stage dimensions, something like this is easy to come across, it's still something that we wouldn't leave. Especially a dimension boss crystal, since they are a little more special."
The dimension boss crystals, although still at certain levels, tended to have a little more power compared to regular crystals when being used as Qi pills.
Some had stated that even certain techniques would improve, or techniques they were unable to use before could now be used.
"With how many beasts are here that have been killed, and so quickly, it's most likely to be more than one person, right?" Tilon asked.
"I'm not too sure about that," Lilly replied, "We'll just have to see."
The two of them continued to move, and eventually, they had returned to the first sandstone-built housing village but it was different compared to before.
The buildings in the area, all of them had been destroyed; they were flattened. Even the large tall trees, they had been hit and forced into the sand.
"This wasn't like this before when we arrived, right?" Lilly asked.
"No, was there some type of infighting that occurred in the group, why would they just destroy everything in sight?" Tilon asked.
They looked around the area, and they noticed it was leveled, the area was so flat that they could even see the portal in the distance, but there was no one standing in front of it, or a group of people ready to attack.
"It was so I could spot those coming here a bit easier," a voice said, as they gently landed around ten meters away from them.
"Now, in an area that is meant for staff members and students only, I manage to come across warriors, and middle-stage ones at that. It is quite clear that something is amiss here."
"So are you going to talk, or are we going to have to fight?"
