'What's taking the recruit so long?' The white haired veteran thought as he filled a small pot with water and the dried meat.
As the veteran looked around, he was puzzled. He had finished setting up camp, took the liberty to assign some tasks to some of the other guys, had cleaned all of his weapons and was getting ready to cook yet the newbie he had given the task to was still not here with the dry wood.
'Perhaps I forgot to tell him where to bring the wood or to bring the wood anywhere at all' the veteran thought with worry.
He was getting old so his memory was getting worse so it could have been a real possibility that could occur.
'I'll just go there again, what could happen if I just check up on them.' He said reassuring himself as he stood up and walked over to where the newbie was.
As he went there he saw the newbie facing the certain with white strands and they seemed awfully quiet as if something awkward had just happened between them.
Even though the white haired veteran observed this he still decided to approach them and said, "Hey! What's taking you so long to bring the wood?"
Hearing the voice the newbie or rather William turned back instantly and upon seeing the white haired veteran he spoke, "My bad, I got too worked up talking, but I'm basically done with the work."
"Basically done!? So you haven't finished!? A job that takes 15 minutes and you still haven't finished it!? How slow can you be!?" The white haired veteran spoke up, shocked at the slow efficiency.
"Cut him some slack, It was mostly my fault." The Veteran with white strands spoke up, defending William.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"So if you are at fault take responsibility."
"I will."
"Then you are in charge of cleaning all our dishes after we cook and eat the food."
"…" hearing such a request the veteran became quiet and his eyes lost colour.
"What happened?" The white veteran asked, a smile forming on his face, "Cat got your tongue?"
"Doesn't this seem unfair?" The veteran spoke up glaring at the white haired veteran in front of him with a cold expression, "I would like a responsibility proportional to the fault I've caused."
"So in the end all that speech of it being your fault and that you'd own up and take responsibility was a lie huh?"
Hearing this, a vein popped up on his head as he became increasingly more and more irritated, "Are you trying to get killed?"
"Oh, I didn't know you had the ability to kill a fly, nonetheless even leave a scratch on me."
Watching all this William broke out into cold sweats seeing the tension rising up.
"Break it up, will ya?" A new voice came from behind them. "Why y'all even quarrelin' amongst yerselves, eh?"
The man spoke in a rhythmic, rolling accent. He wore no armor, only a revolver tucked into his belt and a small knife at his hip.
"Oh, and you think you're so great just because you got some custom-made stuff from Skelra, huh?" The veteran with the white strands snapped, his irritation clearly getting the best of him.
The man sighed, his shoulders dropping. "Ay, I meant no harm. Just thought y'all oughta avoid the conflict. Besides, I came lookin' for ya. The Cap'n found somethin' interesting, and I was hopin' y'all might join me."
"Something interesting?"
"Yep," the man grinned, his accent thick and rolling. "Cap'n Verrith and Gill found an impeccable home for a colony of monsters. If y'all get my meanin', eh?"
The white-haired veteran scowled. "I understand, but you really gotta fix that accent, man."
The man just shrugged, unfazed. "Well, either way, y'all wanna come take a peek? It ain't far—bout half an hour from here."
The veteran stood up, brushing off his legs. "I'm goin'."
"I wanna see it too," William added.
"Are you all trying to run away from your responsibilities!?"
The accented man chuckled, waving a hand dismissively. "Give it a rest, eh? They oughta see these finds, especially the newbie." He pointed a thumb toward William. "Now, follow me. Let's get movin', eh?"
A tch left the white haired man's mouth as he turned around and picked up the wood that William had separated and tied up with a small rope and began to tie up the wet pile of wood too, "I'm getting too old and bitter for this shit."
The old man spoke with an irritated voice.
— ✦ —
"Isn't this an interesting find?" Gill spoke, a warm smile present on his face.
"Yeah I guess…" Verrith said remaining distant.
He was often like this, quiet. He would have moments of 'normality'where he would speak and converse when he felt he desperately needed to or was comfortable in doing so.
Like his conversation with his Sky where he reassured Sky when he was apologising.
This nature of his was somewhat understood by Gill who was now looking back down on the massive hole—easily forty paces across—sloping down into a dizzying, pitch-black abyss.
As they were looking Gill turned back and saw 3 figures ahead.
As he squinted his eyes to look better he recognised them, "Ah! It's Will! I've sent him to ask if the new recruit William or anyone was interested in joining us." Gill said enthusiastically slowly turning towards Verrith, "You don't mind company do you?"
"Yeah, I don't mind it." Verrith spoke, watching them come closer.
"Cap'n Gill and Verrith I brought two folks with me." The man with the weird accent or rather Will said loudly.
"Oh that's nice." Gill said with a big warm smile appearing in his face, "Also isn't it a bit funny that your name is just a short version of the new guy's name?"
"Now ain't that a shocker, eh?"
"Didn't you know? The new guy's name is William and your name is Will."
"Sir, I don't wanna be rude but I was wondering if we could move on quickly since I'm wondering about that 'interesting' thing that this guy was saying you found." The man with the white strands said with a bored expression.
"Oh right, here it is." Gill said, pointing at the hole with his finger.
Seeing the pointed finger, William walked up and upon seeing the Lange hole kneeled down and looked down.
He couldn't see any bottom or anything for a fact but yet he felt an eerie sensation.
"What is this?" William asked.
"It's a Liharachne nest." Gill said, his smile still present.
"A Liharachne…Nest?" William asked, even more confused.
"Yep, they basically are big acid spiders-about 2-4 meters big and their acid or venom are used to weaken debris or rocks so they can dig better." Gill said, answering Williams questions slowly, "They often are in the middle of the food chain when alone but give them 10 or 15 years and they can group up and create a nest like this, though it's often uncommon to find such things as they are often hunted by their predators before they can regroup in large amounts so you often only find small scale nests but this one's a big one."
"But if heavy rainfall falls won't the rain accumulate on the bottom and create troubles for them?"
"Not really, they often build holes on the side of the hole about 10-20 metres above the bottom of the pit where they can access their nest."
"Oh I see," William said, a bit shocked at the possibility that such a large amount of monsters could be just not too far from their camp.
"Oh and don't worry about them attacking us, they are pretty cowardly in nature so as long as we group they wouldn't dare attack us, well as long as we don't get into their territory so don't fall down, okay?"
Gill said, indirectly advising William to be careful.
"Well is that all you wanted to show us? Damn you really made us walk for half an hour just for a minute of observation followed by a lengthy lecture?" The man with the white strands said in an irritated voice.
"Now, now, there's no need to ruin your mood over something like this Dewe."
"My name's Drenew, not Dewe." The man said, trying to calm himself down.
"Oh, come on, I'm just tryna make our relationship more comfortable, I ain't meant no offence." Will said, putting his hands around Drenew's shoulder.
"F**k off" Drenew said, putting down Will's hands from his shoulder and began to walk away, "To be frank, I'm a bit apologetic for the disrespectful tone I've used midway through our conversation Sir."
He said facing Gill and Verrith, "But personally, I am too tired for this."
"Well that's a mood shift ain't it?" Will said, grabbing the hat resting on his back and putting it on.
"I don't wanna ruin the mood any more than it is now but I gotta say, I think we should probably head back too, don't y'all agree with me?" Will said, turning back and facing Gill and Verrith, "Personally, I hope the cap'n can also excuse his behavior and accept his half-assed Apology."
He said a smirk apparent in his face.
"No harm done," Gill replied, smiling back.
— ✦ —
"Is everything ready?" Ron asked Biny as he prepared a sword.
"Nope, It'll probably still take an hour or so." Biny replied, her hand dirty.
"Oh by the way Ron, you won't be fighting this time." Eli said, bored out of his mind.
"And why is that?"
"Probably to give the impression you are still recovering or something…I don't really know myself, the 'guy' just told me that so this time please follow orders or else we all will face the consequences, okay?" Eli spoke in a threatening manner, standing up and towering over Ron with his slim but extremely tall build.
"Cool down." Cale spoke, taking out a spyglass and peeking through it, "well they set up camp and they seem to be eating about now."
"So we attack after they are asleep or something right?" Robert asked the group as he was wearing a neck cast and had a black eye and his face seemed a bit swollen.
"Geez! Biny why'd you beat him up so much?" Greenet spoke a bit disgusted by Robert's injury.
"You should be happy that I didn't kill him for his incompetence."
"The plan didn't fail so there is no problem, so why are you harbouring such a large hatred?" Eli said, lying back down on the ground.
"Well to clarify, We plan on making a large and grand entrance and plan to kill and injure a large mass of them and leave a few stragglers right, did everyone get that?" Ron said, clarifying their intentions.
"Yes!" Voices sounded behind Ron.
And as the little moonshine provided by the mostly covered mom shined on them, a group of 10-15 people wearing pure black was faintly visible.
"Remember, if there's any complaint then say it right now." Ron Said, turning towards the group.
"Well I do have a complaint." Ron spoke, raising his hand.
"Well speak up then."
"Well my complaint is mainly towards the guy who ordered all this shit, and while I have numerous ones I just wanna point out that the whole elaborative scavenger system we made was a waste of time." Robert spoke, his voice becoming increasingly irritable, "He made us divide the scouts and gatherering squad into 3 teams, each team containing a specific amount of people. And while I understand the intent behind the very obvious differences in manpower among the divided teams sent for scavenging or hunting which was to allow the enemy, if they had wasted their time observing us for a long time to find the weakest point or when our most powerful team went out for a scavenge to steal the white stone back and our only goal was to kill at least some major powerhouse of their kingdom before letting them have the stone, which not only weakened their overall power but also drew in less suspicion."
Robert said in a fluent voice despite his injuries, "But…in the end that was basically useless because they just ended up not even observing us, they just attacked us at random and hoped for the best."
As Robert finished his sentence a silence was filled in the small place which was quickly interrupted by Biny who threw a large rock at his face causing blood to burst from his head and his head was soon buried on the ground.
"Will you stop running your mouth if all you're gonna do is complain and complain!" Biny exclaimed her voice filled with malice.
"Biny, please stop trying to kill Robert, will you?" Cale Said as he lifted the rock from Robert's face and began to treat his wounds.
"Then tell him to stop running his mouth will you!?" Biny spoke, obviously irritated, "It's not like he's the only irritated by the shit that guy's making us do yet he's complaining like he's the only one affected by it!"
"That's no justification." Cale said his gaze was now cold.
Seeing this expression, she clicked her tongue and sat down and began to make something.
"How did we f**k up so much?" Cale said a sigh leaving his mouth as a tired expression was now visible in his face.