Lana and her team now had 5 weeks to accomplish B-rank. She wanted it sooner than later, of course. The faster she could stop having to go out and be babied by everyone, the happier she would be. She also was anxious to get to her planet and survey what she needed to do. The rest of her team moved to the C-rank building. Almin and Kattie shared an apartment while Alto and Duff shared another. It wasn't a requirement but the team felt it was easier.
To give Duff more time training, they decided they would hunt from morning to mid-afternoon and allow Duff to train with Nate for a few hours after dinner giving him time to rest. Dobin was also reading his new books. After about three days, Lana decided to let them both have a few days in the shelter to do their thing and they went out in a group of 5.
She coordinated with Quinn for areas that hand intermediate and advanced close to each other. They'd be able to keep an eye on each other while still getting stronger. She watched him fight once and realized he was even more bored than she was. He had killed a king tier where she had just killed a bunch of advanced. If he was fine with it, she needed to shut up. She was on advanced-tier now anyway. Quinn was probably wishing he was with her. Quinn seemed to be restricting what he's using to gain more creativity in his style. Maybe she should try it.
Lana had to confess that for the first week, the advanced tier beasts they encountered all seemed pretty boring. Just a few hits and she killed them. She even restricted herself on the whip and used the various plants or just straight punches and kicks using Qi. It eased the boredom. At the same time, she didn't know if she was ready for a king tier. That was something she didn't want to try while pregnant unless she could figure out her soul weapon. That was if her soul weapon was a ranged weapon.
She paired Alto and Shalt together and Almin and Kattie. She had Caser with her. She enjoyed the teamwork she was seeing. Meanwhile it was a competition between her and Caser of who could get the most kills. She had to admit beating him in the kill numbers was getting harder. He mastered those roots and tentacles. Between those, his powerful jaws and those claws that seemed to be able to tear through anything, he seemed unstoppable. She had a feeling eating the crystals was that was making him stronger. She could feel the difference after had ate the full thing with the crystal rather than just consuming flesh. She also noticed that each time his power increased, he had another pair of tentacles out of his back. Currently he had three pair.
Lana tried a few more new things out. Her root spread had gotten to be a larger area. She infused it with Qi and concentrated on it pulling the roots down through the beasts she had trapped. It was messy but effective. She tried her tree with her being held up high, away from close range and shot plants and vines, seeing which was more effective against the different kinds of beasts out there. She knew she could get in there with her martial arts and such but the idea was to see if she could learn and gain kills while staying out of harm's way.
While in the tree, she was able to observe the progress of her team. Almin was amazing with his axe and the string Alex attached so he could sling it with range was brilliant. He was able to use his metal manipulation in new ways as well. He and Kattie would stand back to back with Sven over head attacking beasts. It was clear they had been practicing some special moves together and they were excellent as a team.
Alto and Shalt was an interesting combination as well. Alto was better at range while Shalt was better at close range. They were slower at killing at first but soon, it became a competition between the two groups. Almin and Kattie won the first two days while it was a tie on the third day and Alto and Shalt won the last day. Lana didn't tell them how many she and Caser got until they turned in their crystals. They got 161 advanced tier crystals in those 4 days. The two teams got less than 10 each day.
Each day, she would put in half the ones she got on herself and share the rest. The team could work here without her while she went to check on things on her planet. Plus, they could rank up on the planet rather than staying here if they wanted to. She was getting antsy. She really wanted to get over there but didn't want to risk her team.
The next week went much the same way. They were still all C-Rank. She realized she was getting more and more tired. She knew the first trimester resulted in fatigue and that her pregnancy could, in fact, cause her team to be in danger.
Lana discussed things with the team and what was decided was she would call her ship as soon as they returned. She would take a nap then she and Dobin would board the ship and go to the new planet. She could sleep on the way there.
It would take 4 hours to get there to both places. She could make it faster by turning off the stealth mode once they were away from the Crow's planet and turning it back on once they got close to hers. That would only take an hour or so depending on how cautious she was being in when she turned off stealth mode.
Lana asked Quinn to put Dobin and her things in his shadow and move them to her ship when it arrived after dark. All she had to do was call her ship then go purchase some equipment. She needed to be able to order supplies so the market system was purchased. The faction market system was more expensive because more items were purchased at once. The receiver station had to be big enough to handle freight. She also got her faction system. She purchased a whole bunch of foods to bring with her then laid down to sleep. She was still asleep when her ship arrived.
Dobin carried her while Quinn, Caser and Shalt escorted them. Dobin placed her on the little bed. Caser lay on the floor next to her. Shalt lamented staying behind but understood the need to get stronger. She'd be with her brother. Quinn was also uneasy about it but both men left the ship and went back to their rooms.
Logan had given her the map he made of the underground settlement. Lucky for her, he was able to hack the military computers and had it backed up. He wasn't very talkative when she checked in with him. He found his parents dead when he returned home and had a lot on his mind. He said he was working on a communication system for her to use so the signal would be hidden. He also was creating a faction system for her. She would be listed as a nomadic faction as they had discussed. He was also going to create a teleporter for her that required access verification. He told her she could buy a faction system and the market system to make purchases but once he had the software prepared for her, she would need to bring it to him for an update or he would need to come to her.
Four hours later, Dobin was landing at the old Bree shelter. They wanted to ensure their ship didn't get trampled by that huge beast. It was daytime on this side of the planet. The sun was just coming up over the horizon but he was tired so he chose to take a nap while his sister finished her sleep. The day was expected to be busy but he refused to allow her to push too much.
Lana woke four hours later, giving her a 12 hour long sleep. She woke Dobin and they ate some of the food she had purchased. Dobin had replaced his military watch with a new one once he got to the faction and threw away the military watch once the civil war started. Most of the functions only worked on the training base.
Before they left the ship, Dobin loaded the relevant maps of the planet and the underground area. He noticed there wasn't really much explored between the three factions.
The Bree and military had done the most exploration, essentially linking their bases and expanding out from there. The third faction was sending updates electronically and never got far enough in exploring to locate either of the two bases visually, though maps were shared.
Dobin refused to allow Lana to carry a bag. He carried the bag that had the small kitchen. The first step was going to be to put in a tree shelter and put the kitchen in it. That would be base while they were there. The question he had was where all this was going to take place. She traveled more of this planet than he had.
On the map, between the Bree and Military areas was a vast underground cavern area that was found by Logan but the map was incomplete. They could see openings in the walls on the map. They also knew there was a settlement down there where Quinn's team fought a king-tier beast. To Dobin, it looked like an abandoned dalki town but Lana knew it was vampire. To her, it didn't matter. It was empty. Maybe.