Keneric crawled into the clubroom through the vined-windows. His food bundle was more than he could manage through the small opening, so he made multiple trips to get individual items inside. Canned food first formed a pile inside, next were the water bottles, and then other food-related items he had stolen from the professor's personal storage. But the blood-stained bed sheets were left outside—abandoned around the corner far from the clubroom's location. Keneric didn't know if fresh women's blood would attract monsters to his hidden base, but he did not want to test his luck.
Back inside the clubroom, it was still very dark. There were candles and a burner for making tea, probably used by these tea eccentrics, which Keneric could use as a light source, but he didn't need it. His glowing green eyes scanned the building while his footsteps made soft sounds over the wooden floor. He moved the supplies from the windowed entrance to a more appropriate corner over one of the tables.
As he organized the supplies, Keneric thought over what the woman said. No, no, not her last words like "Please kill me" or anything, but more about what she told about the Law campus.
"Marcus, hmm..."
Done organizing everything, Keneric eyeballed the rations and guessed they could last the girls two weeks at most. Well, that was enough for now, and he could keep adding to it before they were ready to leave.
Next, Keneric moved away from the table and checked the back entrance for any signs of forced entry. He was relieved to see there were none. Maybe it was the vines or the spider pair, or because the professor's scouts had already cleared the area—the second secret shelter remained relatively secure for now. Or maybe because the Art's building attracted all the ravagers to it daily, this area became relatively easy for Keneric to travel.
And Keneric did travel with the intention to scout the Law campus. The daylight was already waning, but night brought no dangers to him. He moved through the swamp into the shadows, easily blending in with his nondescript, dirty clothes. But Keneric was forced to stop and kneel down when he saw four to five green-skinned, one-eyed ravagers crawling through the shallow waters.
"When did they start working together?"
This was the first thought that came to Keneric's mind. The ravagers he had encountered previously were alone, just like the mutated monsters he had killed. But now it was alarming to see them move together, and moving with an objective. How did Keneric know they had an objective? Well, they all were moving towards the Law campus where Keneric was heading too.
So Keneric followed the one-eyed monsters slowly while maintaining a distance. Half an hour passed, the group of green added one more member to the party and again began their journey. Keneric previously thought they were mindless minions, only capable of hunting for food, but now he understood they were evolving. And not just them but everyone in the swamp and the swamp itself were changing as the mutation grew stronger.
The half-dozen ravagers finally reached their destination and attacked the Law campus as it came into view. Keneric stayed hidden far away, watching the students take action from the ground floor. As for the main law building, it seemed to have already been destroyed by one of the giant golems, and people had moved back to dorms to find shelter.
There was another difference between the Law stronghold and the Art's stronghold that anyone could notice with a short observation. Keneric did too. More students lived here, and they worked better together to deal with the ravagers' attacks. That spoke volumes about the leader named Marcus maintaining law and order unlike the professor.
Finally, after an hour of fighting, the student guards stationed in the bottom floors of the law dorms could take a breather as they effectively dealt with most of the ravagers using quantity over quality and makeshift weapons. But one ravager escaped, and they didn't give chase into the dangerous swamp. It was badly injured too with green blood flowing from countless wounds over its rough body.
Keneric saw the creature run toward the edge of Melbourne University campus and followed secretly. He felt hungry too. And he might as well take down an easy target and absorb its essence. Ironically it was dinner time too.