Low Guruk

1123 Hours, July 31st, 3039.

Near the outskirts of Low Guruk, a broken city reclaimed by nature's forests, Dayle, Raines, Arthur, and Queen watched a powerful monster trudge through the city streets through the busted windows of a highrise complex.

Gugugugu...

"Is that?"

"Yes. That's a shiverhorn."

Dayle stared, eyes wide in wonder at the 10m tall behemoth whose feet shook the streets as it confidently strode through the city. At first glance, the beast resembled a supersized rhino, but there was a significant bulge along its throat that rhythmically pulsed with blue light. Dayle wondered what the light represented, but luckily, the shiverhorn, as if sensing his curiosity, provided an apt demonstration.

The shiverhorn's two-meters-long horn suddenly glowed white. Several light particles danced around the horn as if celebrating it coming to life. Vwooosh! A beam of ice shot out of the horn and then crashed into a branch overhead. The branch was instantly enveloped in hard, dry ice and then cracked under pressure, causing it to come crashing to the ground.

Gugugugugu...

The shiverhorn's gullet rumbled in pleasure as it approached the fallen branch. It bent down, and then picked up a pumpkin sized fruit. Crunch! In one bite, the shiverhorn crunched and then swallowed the fruit.

Gulp! Dayle swallowed hard. He could understand why Queen urged caution. The shiverhorn was not a monster FireRain could face. Even without its freeze-horn, Dayle doubted their current weapons could break past that thick hide.

Looking at the shiverhorn, Dayle thought back to the conversation they had with Queen on the way. Queen, at the time, revealed Low Guruk was an abandoned city that had been reclaimed by nature. The town, once constructed atop the ashes of ancient forests, now had its buildings strangled by thick interconnecting branches and vegetation.

Beasts of all kinds roamed the cityscapes, making their homes in the spaces once owned by humans. But, even among these monsters, four significant overlords ruled over vast swathes of land.

The aforementioned shiverhorn was one such overlord. By the rankings, it was around Level 80 and was a local tyrant. It led a pack of smaller shiverhorns to graze freely in its territory and was unique in the sense that it was the only herbivore among the overlords. However, while it might have been a herbivore, it was even more aggressive and territorial than carnivores. It sentenced any trespassers caught to a swift and angry execution.

The second tyrant was the leader of a pack of spidermonkeys. It specialized in stealth kills and entrapment, making the jungle-like city its playground. Spidermonkeys, while not overly aggressive, were utterly unpredictable. On one day, they could let you pass through their center without interfering, but on another, they could stone you to death just for being in their line of sight. That unpredictability and their sheer numbers made their territory a no-go.

The third overlord was a lone Sabertiger. It might have been alone, but it commanded the most strength amongst all the overlords, making it on par with not just the overlords, but their packs combined. Its powerful nose made it next to impossible to sneak past its territory, and its command over wind allowed it to launch attacks from several miles away. Its sense of smell was the reason the group ultimately ruled out its territory.

The final overlord was perhaps the most terrifying. The radiation caused mutations in every lifeform, including plants, and this overlord was one of the worst. The Dreameater Tree was a single tree whose roots and branches were spread over the entirety of its territory. The terrifying thing about this tree was its ability to infect monsters and people within its region.

The infected were fed dreams that allowed the tree to seize control over their wills. The dreameater tree could then either eat the infected or control them to protect its territory. From the intel Queen got, many mercenaries had been lost to the tree. The truly terrifying thing about the dreameater tree, however, was its intelligence.

Instead of instinctual feeding, the dreameater tree could learn the languages of any individual it infected. Furthermore, it had the sense to make its captives mate and reproduce to have a steady supply of food and protection.

Fortunately for the dreameater tree, it could not grow past its current territory, or else with its terrifying ability, the humans would have put a burn order on the entire forest the moment they learned of it. As it stood, however, the humans settled for declaring the area as a danger zone.

Karifa was a massive continent, and there were so many places humans had yet to explore. There was no sensible reason to cut down this entire forest and wildlife unless it threatened their existence. No treasure found could be worth the research potential of this exotic wildlife.

In the end, however, this was why Firerain chose the shiverhorn territory.

Shiverhorns were tough customers, but their senses of smell and hearing were nowhere near as advanced as the saber tiger. Furthermore, as shiverhorns were grounded beasts, the scouting party could carve a path through the vines that connected the highrises' upper floors.

"Whoo... this won't be easy," exclaimed Dayle as he watched the lumbering figure round the corner after enjoying its meal.

Beside him, Arthur frowned as he looked at the shattered branch on the ground. "We will have to ensure we cut down any fruits along our path." After he spoke, he looked at Queen. As the expert on these beasts, only she would know if that was a good idea or not.

Thankfully, Queen's eyes brightened, and then she answered with a smile, "Good idea. This way, we can be certain the shiverhorns won't shatter the branches we choose." Sensing Arthur's hesitation, she added, "Orra tangerines fall off branches often. The shiverhorns won't suspect a thing. Your plan is solid."

"Alright." Raines, who had been watching the street through her sniper rifle, looked up. "In that case, we should get going. The main force will catch up soon."

Queen nodded. She then pulled out a flat device that resembled a trip mine and placed it on the ground. Dayle and the others had seen her place a few of these before. They were trackers, which would let the main party know which route to follow.

After ensuring the device was firmly in place, Queen tapped on her gauntlet, which summoned a pair of cylindrical drones. The drones hovered in front of the group for a few seconds, and then Queen sent them out the window to scan the next building. From this moment onward, there could no longer be any mistakes, or else they would incur the wrath of over 1000 shiverhorns.

Information from the drones flashed in Queen's left eye. When she received the all-clear, she waved her hand and then jumped out of the window onto an overhanging branch. Dayle followed behind her, and then Arthur, with Raines' keen eyes bringing up the rear.

The small scouting party traveled in this formation through Low Guruk. They charted a complicated, but safe course through the city, sometimes climbing several floors high or descending dangerously close to the ground to find interconnecting branches. There were a few incidents during the trip. Once, a rotten branch crumbled under Dayle's foot, which almost caused him to fall into the path of a shiverhorn.

On another occasion, a crow-like bird called a siren almost screamed its alarm, which would have alerted the nearby monsters to the party's presence and location. Luckily, Raines spotted the bird in time, which gave Queen time to assassinate it with a drone silently.

All in all, the trip was filled with as many dangers as it had thrills, but ultimately, the scouting party heaved a sigh of relief when they came upon their target, a collection of apartment buildings. Strangely, the buildings surrounding this region appeared to be silent. Almost too silent.

FireRain and Queen observed the compound from their vantage point atop the roof of a neighboring mall. Dayle frowned and then tapped Raines' shoulder. He did not like the looks of this place. For one, no branches were stretching to these buildings. That alone was proof that someone or something had deliberately cut down any branches to prevent easy access to the compound.

Raines picked up Dayle's cue and quickly set up a post by the window. She balanced the rifle, and then looked through the scope zoom in on the structure. Raines silently combed through every inch of the compound, but could not find anything suspicious. However, a bad feeling had begun to rise in her heart at some point, and that feeling only worsened the longer she scanned the area.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Queen began to grow impatient. "Hey, doesn't look like there's any defenses on the outside. They must be huddled inside. Let's go."

"No." Dayle surprisingly coldly rebuffed her. The young man's brows tightly furrowed as he observed Raines' tensed shoulders. "We do not move until she gives an all-clear."

Queen shook her head. "I'm telling you there's nothing." She raised her fingers to her eyes and took out a pair of contact lenses. "These are the best level 70 scouters. They have night and heat vision effective for at least 3 km. I'm telling you I can't see any heat signatures in the compound." Queen put the scouters in her eyes, and then looked at Dayle with a tight smile. "No offense, but there's nothing she can find with that sniper that I couldn't find with this."

"I understand." Dayle nodded. "I know you're in a hurry because the main force is reliant on our intel, but that is exactly why we shouldn't rush it." Dayle looked at Raines. "If she thinks something's wrong, then there's a 99% chance there is."

Queen looked at Dayle in doubt. However, after a moment of thought, she sighed and then said, "Ten minutes. I can't wait any longer."

Dayle's lips spread in a bright smile. Indeed, it was much better to work with a smart person. "Thanks. We'll-"

"Caught it!" Raines' excited shout startled the others, but she was much too panicked to care about that. "These smart bastards." Raines' fingers on the rifle trembled in fear and panic. If the fireteam had gone in with the belief that the area was free, they wouldn't have even known how they died.

"Hey, wanna share with the rest of the class?"

Rather than answer, Raines took out two pairs of binoculars and handed them to Dayle and Arthur. She then pointed at the apartment complex and instructed, "Closest building to our right, fifth floor, look at the crack by the window."

Dayle obediently pointed the binoculars at the recommended location, and then zoomed in. Initially, he did not see the point. It was a regular window with a crack on the wall. Cute caterpillars occasionally crawled out of the cracks, but that was i--

"My God!" Queen softly exclaimed in fear. Cold sweat pooled on her hands and at the nape of her neck. She looked at Raines with newfound respect in her eyes. This was the respect accorded to those who had proven themselves in the field. It was less than Raines deserved for this discovery.

"An illusion - no, camouflage? Holographic, maybe?" Arthur muttered as he observed the 'cute caterpillars.' At first, it did seem like multiple caterpillars were leaving the crack. Still, after focusing for over a minute, it became clear that these were three caterpillars, whose movements were replaying on a loop.

Just from that little piece of information, it was safe to bet that the entire complex was under some sort of illusion or camouflage. But, a masquerade on the scale of five highrise buildings? How was that even possible!? More importantly, what were the Nexus trying to protect that required this much security?

A terrible feeling washed over Dayle. His instincts screamed that he had stumbled upon a secret way above his head. However, in contrast to this, his heart thumped in excitement. He could sense it. Whatever was in that complex, even if not pertinent to their primary mission, would almost certainly be an unforeseen treasure.

"Dayle?"

Dayle turned to Arthur, who was looking at him with questioning eyes. If Dayle could sense the danger, then indeed, Arthur also could. As the leader, Dayle was the one to make the ultimate decision when the team was faced with life-threatening dilemmas.

Dayle hesitated. The allure of getting something from this mission was great, but it would ultimately be meaningless if he blindly led his team into a slaughterhouse. After a few moments, Dayle looked at Queen. "Is it possible to get a bird's eye view with your drones?"

Queen shook her head. "Already tried. Whatever camouflage they're using, it's thorough. They've even accounted for overhead cameras.

Dayle thought for a moment and then clapped his hand. "How about this? Do you have any paper on you?"

"Paper?" Queen raised her brow in doubt, but then pulled out a notebook from her gauntlet. Judging by the cutesy heart cover, it seemed to be some sort of diary or log. The scout tore out a page and then handed it over to Dayle.

"Thanks." Dayle took the paper and then quickly folded it into the shape of an airplane. Queen looked at Dayle with confused eyes, but Raines and Arthur appeared nonplussed. They were more than used to Dayle's unconventional thought process. It was more abnormal for Dayle to come up with a 'sensible' plan.

When Dayle was done, he sent the paper plane flying out the window. Buoyed by the wind, and their high elevation, the paper plane successfully crossed the road, but then disappeared as if sucked into an alternate dimension.

Dayle's eyes narrowed, but his eyes shone with light. "Seems the arrogant bastards did not set up any walls. The illusion is holographic."

"Which means we can get intel as long as we get some eyes 'inside' the hologram," reasoned Queen. She looked at Dayle. "What do you think? Should I send in a drone?"

Dayle shook his head. "With this much security, I'm a thousand percent certain they've made provision for drones. No, we need a way in that can't possibly be tracked." Dayle scratched his head. "I'd go in myself, but that would be playing Russian roulette with the bots, and I'm not the biggest fan of relying on luck or fate."

"Just say you're the unluckiest guy ever to live," Raines cheerfully jibed.

Dayle shrugged with a bitter smile. "Can't argue with that."

Queen and Arthur chuckled, thankful for Raines' tension breaker.

"But, I do have a plan."

Queen looked at Dayle with startled eyes. He had a plan? In this situation, where even she was stumped?

Dayle, seeing her expression, bitterly smiled, "How much did that scouter cost again?"

Queen's expression turned ugly.