Chapter 275

A week passed at the mall’s temporary camp.

The teams out on the roads, digging up meteors, came back one after another. Inside Ironvale County, around it, and across the seven towns they had passed on the way in, every last meteor had been dug clean out.

Since the day Emily Ward came back and woke up, she had not stepped out of Magnus Specter’s RV bedroom once.

She had been sick for a full week.

By all reason, an Awakened—especially a second-awakened one like Emily Ward—didn’t fall ill so easily. Unless it was like last time with Magnus Specter, when mind and body were driven past the limit again and again, sickness had no easy way in.

And even if she was sick, a Life Crystal would fix it in seconds.

But she refused treatment.

Refused food too.

She just lay there in silence in that room. No matter who went in, no matter what they said, she only stared at the ceiling, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes, not a word, not a sound, no response at all.

Liana Jabbar had just finished counting the total number of Crystals dug up these past few days. She came to find Magnus Specter and the others in the RV living room for a temporary meeting.

She glanced at the bedroom door, shut tight as death, and let out a soft sigh.

“This is the regiment’s latest Crystal count. Look for yourselves.”

The Ice Regiment’s original Crystal stockpile, added to what they got from Ashbrook Town, Hanford City, Ridgehaven City, the seven towns along the road, plus Ironvale County and the four towns around it...

The Ice Regiment now had a total of 30,859 Crystals.

Over thirty thousand of all kinds.

Of those, there were 16,758 Water Crystals, 10,857 Metal Crystals, 1,755 Super Fire Crystals, 686 Life Crystals, 777 Earth Crystals, and 26 Nature Crystals.

Just one prefecture-level city, two county-level cities, and a scattering of towns had brought in more than thirty thousand Crystals.

Originally, they had also harvested over ten thousand ordinary Fire Crystals, but the women of the Ice Regiment had fused them all into Super Fire Crystals.

Otherwise, the total would already have broken forty thousand.

With Emily Ward absent, the air in the room felt heavy.

Magnus Specter set down the little notebook in his hand.

“Give out 1,000 Super Fire Crystals. Let the sisters keep them for emergency survival. As for the rest—every Awakened gets one more Metal Crystal. Every squad leader gets five Metal Crystals as reserve. Every company leader gets fifty Metal Crystals and one Life Crystal. Every battalion leader gets one hundred Metal Crystals and three Life Crystals. As for me...”

He paused and counted it out in a flat voice.

“I’ll take one hundred Super Fire Crystals and one hundred Life Crystals.”

The Earth Crystals were useless to ordinary team members for now. All 777 of them, Magnus Specter put into his space.

Then he took another 16 Nature Crystals.

The remaining 10 were distributed to the vice-regiment commanders, one each. He told them how to use them, but made one thing very clear—unless there was no other way, they were not to touch them.

Nature Crystals were good stuff.

Too good.

If an ordinary female team member used one, she would lose the ability to use Metal Crystals to protect herself. Then she would turn into a marked target, the kind enemies would focus on first.

“Regiment Commander!”

Harper Quinn lightly knocked on the RV door and stepped inside. Her face was straight, businesslike.

“Regiment Commander, Sister Abigail and Sister Emma are back.”

In the morning, Abigail Doyle and Emma Doyle had led a team out to check the Ironvale air-raid shelter.

The news they brought back was bad.

The entrance and the inside had both suffered major cave-ins.

That place was finished.

“So what now?” Charlotte Renard let out a quiet sigh. “Are we still going to Springvale City?”

Even if the Ironvale air-raid shelter were still intact, Magnus Specter had never planned to go there.

His mind was still on the road ahead.

Dig meteors.

Take Crystals.

The more, the better.

“Let the sisters rest well for one day today,” Magnus Specter said. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll take a team ahead and scout the way first. I’ll go to Springvale City and see what’s there. At night, the main force moves together. We meet at the timber mill. Along the way, if you run into towns, leave people behind to dig meteors according to the same marching order we used on the way here. The rendezvous point stays near the timber mill.”

The women gave slight nods.

Without Emily Ward here, even Sophia Reid had gone quiet. She only nodded in silence and didn’t start trouble with Magnus Specter this time.

“When we reach Springvale City...” Lana Stewart asked hesitantly.

“I’ll check the situation there first,” Magnus Specter said. “After we secure the area around Springvale City, we’ll find a way to take Victor Dean’s military district logistics base. After that...”

He stopped for a beat and looked at the women before him.

“After that, we go to the Queenstead City in Liaodong Province that you mentioned, Emma.”

“And what about the other prefecture-level cities in Northreach Province?” Sophia Reid asked. “Are we taking those too?”

Magnus Specter thought it over.

“Let’s wait until after we take Victor Dean’s logistics base.”

Nobody objected.

Liana Jabbar and Charlotte Renard went upstairs to push the women harder on making big steamed buns and roasting dried animal meat, trying to get each team member stocked with at least half a month of food.

“Regiment Commander, wait a moment...”

Lana Stewart glanced at Sophia Reid and called after Magnus Specter.

He stopped and turned to look at her.

Lana Stewart said, “These past few days, Xiaoxue and I tested the effects of that batch of snake blood.”

Magnus Specter stood still and listened, serious now.

“We poured snake blood over an off-road vehicle,” Lana Stewart said. “We’ve had people timing it the whole time. Up to now, seven days have passed. There were always people inside the vehicle, but no animal attacked it. On the contrary, they all stayed far away.”

“Seven days already?” Magnus Specter was a little surprised.

“It has been seven days,” Sophia Reid cut in. “But just before the meeting, the sisters came back with a report. A sparrow started pecking at the roof, got pierced, and died. We counted the time. Roughly around one hundred seventy hours.”

Seven days.

That caught Magnus Specter off guard.

“And on people? Have you tested that?”

“We have.” Lana Stewart answered honestly. “If it’s poured on a person, the effect lasts about three hours. We tested it on that rat demon beast we captured. Haven’t tried much else yet.”

“Three hours...” Magnus Specter narrowed his eyes slightly. “Can our people still breathe during that time?”

“They can. Breathing’s not a problem at all.” Lana Stewart said, “When the snake blood is poured on a human body, the effect is even better than a Super Fire Crystal. It’s just the snake gall...”

She frowned faintly.

“We also had a female team member test the snake gall. She ate a fist-sized piece raw. After eating it, there was no effect at all. The rat demon beast still attacked her. We don’t know why.”

Once the business was done, Sophia Reid and Lana Stewart got off the RV together.

That left only Magnus Specter and Sarah Franklin, who had been sitting on the sofa all this time without saying a word.

Seeing everyone gone, Sarah Franklin slowly stood up, walked over, and took hold of Magnus Specter’s arm. Worry sat plain on her face.

“Brother Xiaofan, Teacher Emily still won’t eat anything. What should I do...”

Magnus Specter looked toward the bedroom door and patted her lightly at the waist.

Right now, he had no good way to deal with Emily Ward either.

Liana Jabbar came back just then.

When she saw the two of them standing close, she forced out a smile.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No, Sister Liana...” Sarah Franklin quickly explained, her face flushing a little. “I was just talking with Brother Xiaofan about Teacher Emily... she still won’t eat.”

Liana Jabbar also looked toward the bedroom door.

Then she walked back to the sofa and sat down, letting out another soft sigh.

“I came back because I wanted to talk to you about her.”

Sarah Franklin sat obediently on the sofa armrest beside her and held her arm.

“What’s wrong with Teacher Emily?”

“She...” Liana Jabbar gave Magnus Specter a meaningful look, then turned and looked at Sarah Franklin. She sighed and said softly, “I think what she needs most right now... is family.”