It's been three hours since Fredrick and Cabrera had begun mining Mithril.
With their combined strength, they had managed to mine out eighty-eight percent of the Mithril present.
At this moment, Fredrick decided that what remained was just enough for one set of armor and maybe a few weapons.
They didn't want their enemies getting stronger, so leaving the bare minimum was only right. Plus, with this, Ezra would be able to sow seeds of discord between the royals and the great nobles that lived close by.
Beside Fredrick, Cabrera stood with his back to the wall, panting.
"Rest for a little while" Fredrick spoke, before sitting down on the flat ground beside Cabrera.
Mining had definitely taken a toll on them both.
But their faces were all smiles, and it didn't take long for them to fall asleep.
At the same time, the party of Nightshade guilders had just arrived at the outpost.
They could only be stunned by the scenery of dozens and dozens of dead bodies laying all over the place. The houses were burnt down to the ground and the wooden walls had long been destroyed. Dozens of snakes roamed all over the place as they devoured the dead bodies.
Most wouldn't be able to stay impassive at the sight of such a disaster.
One of them unconsciously blurted what all others were thinking.
"What happened here?"
The guilders wanted to start up chatter, but Franc was having none of it.
"That's enough! We didn't come here for them. We're going towards the mountain"
Quickly, he adjusted his horses, but before he could take off, a voice spoke out.
"Boss, you're not just going to leave it like this, are you?"
Franc turned to face the man who spoke and glared at him menacingly.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"Let's scavenge it instead"
As those words were said, the eyes of all others lit up with realization.
"Oh! Of course"
"Boss, let's do that, there might be some really nice things under all the rubble"
"Or maybe on those bodies"
Franc held his chin in contemplation.
He had come here to make a killing, and while this wasn't the way he had imagined it, was there any reason to ignore a free meal?
Moreover, there was no certainty that the items hadn't been taken away already.
"All right, we'll scavenge every nook and cranny, and take even the breadcrumbs we find. Get to work!"
No reply was given, neither was it needed.
The guilders turned their horses and charged into the devastated outpost, before quickly dismounting their horses and splitting into groups of ten, five and three.
Like so, forty guilders spread across the outpost and took everything worth anything.
Franc joined the fray and scavenged alone.
It didn't take him long to locate the Missionary.
With a quick inspection, it didn't take him long to figure out that the Missionary was a treasure mine of its own. Franc couldn't hide his glee.
'I've struck diamonds!'
He hastily called back all the guilders and, together, they began to plunder as much as possible as fast as possible.
Franc didn't know, but he was drinking from a poisoned chalice, a very lethal one.
And he wouldn't be the only one, as those that had been tailing him were beginning to catch up.
Though, there were only three others, none with even close to forty members. They hadn't come to fight in the first place.
Also, because Franc didn't have time to spare them a glance, because he was plundering, they each spread across the outpost in different directions so as not to cross paths and began scavenging in earnest.
Twenty minutes after they began doing so, Winston and his escorts arrived on the scene.
As expected, he was utterly outraged at the sight of the others scavenging dead bodies-
"How dare you?!"
-or so he made them believe.
'Those are mine for the taking!'
Yes! How dare they steal what was his?
His hands were already on the hilt of his sword, intending on killing them all.
Winston's escort imitated the gesture as they got ready for battle.
But it wasn't like Franc and the others were just going to stand there and die peacefully.
Like Winston, they had immediately become aware of their presence.
Then, it was hard not to be with how loud the hooves of their horses resounded.
The tension in the atmosphere began to increase as everyone stared at each other, waiting for the others to make the first move.
The three other groups quickly called all their guilders, unsheathed their weapons, some of them recently looted, and gathered around.
Now, the five parties were staring at each other.
But as he narrowed his gaze, a quizzical expression formed on Winston's face.
How could it not. He knew these guys!
As an Admiral, there was no way he wouldn't know of the guilds that existed in his territory.
The reason the other didn't recognize him and his escorts was because they were wearing cloaks.
Then, something came to Winston's mind…
'No, wait, how did they know about this in the first place?'
After all, he himself had only received information about it a few hours prior.
In that case…
'Did they know about it beforehand?'
That was the only plausible explanation he could think of.
But once he took a closer look, he couldn't help but shake his head.
'But that doesn't make sense'
Because, if it were so…
'The mana crystals are worth far more than anything they could find here'
They would have gone for the manite mine instead of scavenging dead bodies.
This thought process led him to a conclusion.
'So…they somehow knew that something had happened here and decided come and take a look…but don't know what it was about'
He almost facepalmed himself.
'Right! The manite mine'
How could he have forgotten about his top priority so easily? He had to confirm the existence of the manite mine.
Without thinking twice, he hit his horse and advanced into the forest.
His escorts were flustered at the unexpected movement, but quickly sheathed their blades and followed after him.
The four parties though, were utterly dumbfounded as they looked at each other.
*Shrug*
But once they confirmed they were gone for good, they quickly got back to looting as if nothing had happened.
At the same time, the Avillian masters Ulrik and Kurt were hastily making their way to the mountain of mana crystals on a special breed of buff horses called Acktans.
Their species was Ackitnar.
These two Acktans were white and brown respectively. Their ears were longer than those of normal horses. Their sense of smell was stronger. They exceeded normal horses in all physical categories, whether it be speed, stamina or strength. And most importantly, they were more intelligent.
Not intelligent enough to have gained sentience, but they knew how to play dead in front of predators and had the ability to quickly distinguish when to fight and when to run.
An ability that many human's sorely needed.
Behind them were a slew of knights, mages and shifters, numbering fifty and riding horses of their own.
After all, what was the use of making an entrance if it wasn't going to be big?
