Abyssal Awakening

Upon arriving at the outpost, Alice furrowed her brows as she noticed the same situation in the outpost. The ones who hunted the beasts were happy while the captains were concerned.

All of the beasts they hunted already had old wounds across their body. Not only that, but all of them were juvenile beasts.

"Just tell the tavern keeper to bill everything to my name. I'll sort it out later." Bo reminded as he jogged towards the main building with the other captains.

Seeing them whisper to one another, Alice read their lips and noticed that all of them were talking about the beasts.

The common factor for all of this was the fact that every single beast that came from the frontline had old wounds and lacked an adult watching over them.

Had it been just one or two, Bo and the others would've dismissed it as it wasn't uncommon for beasts to lose their parents. Especially near locations where humans frequent.

But all of them at the same time? Not only that but they're also moving towards the outpost? That's too much of a coincidence.

Narrowing her eyes, Alice figured that she probably wouldn't be able to talk to Torgeir anytime soon since he'd be busy dealing with the new information.

"What's your plan with that blood?" Selen whispered over.

She knew of Alice's unique body condition and drinking the blood directly wouldn't cause her any issues. But with her body barely being able to regenerate, forcing it with a new source of blood might be dangerous.

"Depends. But if I have no other alternative, I'll probably give one vial a test and keep the others as an emergency if it goes well. I need my own trump card after all, can't go around wrecking sh*t if all I can do is make a shield or two." Alice chuckled while taking out a fruit from her pouch.

After visiting the tavern, she wanted to go find old man Ragnar and thank him for his information. Without it, the fight would've gone far differently with the beast running away at every possible moment and them not knowing how to deal with that.

"Well, the sooner you recover the better it is for me." Selen shrugged as Alice was stubborn.

Once she set her eyes on something, it was hard to stop her from doing it.

Going their separate ways, Alice skipped to the tavern while buying herself 10 jugs of mead. Spotting Egil sitting by the same table again, Alice jogged over while the staff brought over her mead.

Before he could even greet her, Egil froze up at the sight of the mead. Eyes turned towards them but Alice ignored it and rubbed her hands with eagerness.

"Seems like you had a pretty good hunt today." Egil remarked as Alice nodded her head with a grin.

"Yep, went pretty damn good. Bo had a talk with everyone and people got their sh*t together. Though the beast was a bit weird we still killed it in the end. What about you? I'm hoping they stopped firing random crap at your back now." Alice asked while drinking a jug of mead in one go, shocking the staff.

There was only one thought on the staff's mind.

'How does that tiny body hold all of this mead???'

Regardless, it was not her problem so long as Alice paid for the mead.

"They're a little more careful now but it can't be helped if a stray attack lands on me because of how I fight. But overall, it's definitely an improvement." Egil smiled.

Chatting away while more and more people arrived at the tavern, Alice enjoyed the relaxing conversation after a hunt. It was far more enjoyable to talk to Egil about the hunt than it was with her current teammates except Selen. After all, at least she could talk to him!

Outside of the hunt, neither Einar nor Brynja cared to make small talk with her and that was fine so long as they did their job during a hunt.

After around an hour and a half, Egil went to resume his training while Alice made her way towards the house with old man Ragnar.

In her hands, she held a jug of mead while swaying from side to side.

Thinking about how much mead she drank and how much Bo had to pay, Alice began to giggle to herself.

She was holding back a little these days since she didn't have much gold. But since Bo was paying the bill, she didn't need to tap into her limited supply nor did she need to hold back.

The only thing that could've made today better was if Ria and Luke were here but the two of them were still in the Abyss.

Thinking about her dear friends, Alice couldn't help but let out a sigh as she missed them a lot. She missed the parties they had, the joy when she forced Luke to drink, the arguments and most importantly, their company.

"I wonder how they're doing…" Alice couldn't help but mutter.

'I'm sure they're doing fine. Kaden probably left some instructions for them.' Alyss reassured as Alice nodded her head.

Knowing them, they're probably working towards their next target.

'Do you think Kaden would've told them to take out branches of the Abyss?' Alice asked curiously while Alyss folded her arms.

Knowing Kaden, that was very likely.

'Either way, I'm sure they're having a better time than us.'

'True.' Alice nodded in agreement.

###

"F*CK! F*CK! F*CK! F*CK!" Luke shouted while running as fast as he could. He didn't even dare to turn around while Ria's body was thrown past him, causing him to pale.

"Yo~ Where do you think you're running off to." Rosalyn's voice rang out with a devilish grin. A strand of blood grabbed onto Luke's ankle and threw him into the air.

Since Rosalyn worked with blood, her ability to keep people alive was far stronger than Kaden. With that in mind, her training was more torture compared to actual training!

*RUMBLE!!!

Lightning crashed down from the sky as Rosalyn blocked it with her hand.

Smirking towards Ria, she taunted her with her finger.

Just as Ria was about to attack again, a droplet of blood appeared in front of her as Rosalyn's fist slammed into her face.

*BANG!!! CRASH!!!

Slamming into the ground before being kicked away, Ria twitched in the rubble of the wall.

"Weak! Too weak! If you attack the branch now the cardinal will kill you with a snap of their finger! Is that how you want to face things?!" Rosalyn shouted and slammed her heel down as blood droplets surged around her.

"Promotion! DIE!!!" Luke shouted as his chess piece changed into a bishop and took on Alice's appearance.

Void Flux!!!

Energy converged around Alice's fingertip but Rosalyn was a step faster.

Blood spears pierced through the void, stabbing into the bishop's chest before exploding and shattering it into pieces.

"Do you think I'll just let you fire Allura's attack off like that?! Dream on lover boy!" Rosalyn cackled. All of her frustrations from being thrown around by Kaden were relieved at this moment while she 'trained' these two seedlings.

"Damn loli hag!" Luke grumbled as she didn't pull back any of her punches.

With each punch, his ribs would fracture and break but her ability kept them alive.

"Hah? Did I hear you correctly just now?" Rosalyn's voice rang out behind Luke as he felt a chill down his spine.

Grabbing Luke by the back of the neck, she lifted him into the air and twisted her body.

*CRACK!!!

Slamming heels into his back, she heard a pretty nasty crack while helping him heal wounds.

Watching his body ragdoll across the ground before falling limp, Rosalyn dusted her hand while puffing up her modest chest.

Before she could say anything, she felt her hair stand on its end as she immediately turned to Ria who fired off a full powered lightning strike.

*BANG!!!!

Crashing down from above, a torrent of destructive energy rained down from above.

"Is that all?" Rosalyn's voice rang out.

Punching down, the ground fractured and broke Ria's stance.

In that brief moment, Rosalyn grabbed Ria by the face and threw her into the air.

Blood converged towards Ria as Rosalyn clenched her fist.

Blood Explosion!

*BANG!!!!

Looking at the bloody fireworks, Rosalyn let out a youthful cheer as Ria slammed into the ground next to Luke.

Both were completely knocked out as Rosalyn flipped her hair with a smile on her face.

"Fufu~ You know got a long way to go if you want to take out the branches of the Eclipse. You'll have to be close to how strong I was before I ascended to the status of a Lord. Otherwise, you'll be eliminated by the Cardinals that appear." Rosalyn chuckled as Ria's body twitched.

"Urg… Un..der..stood." She squeezed out, feeling sore all over her body.

Even though Rosalyn healed them, it didn't reduce the pain at all. At this point, Ria was confident that she had seen the pearly gates of heaven multiple times already before strands of blood would drag her back into the living.

"Good. I'll give you two an hour of rest before we resume." Rosalyn clapped her hands as Luke pulled out two sets of blankets and pillows.

Catching a set, Ria didn't hesitate to fall asleep as Rosalyn trained them even through the night!

They had to get sleep whenever they could get it! It was truly a hellish experience.

Even if it's to get stronger, she was beginning to reach her limit!

'Grandpa!!! I wanna go home!!!' Ria shed a silent tear as she drifted off to sleep.