Chapter 336: Group preparation

Crash!

Falling from the sky was none other than a huge plus-sized bird.

Though its features were viscous, its form remained uniform, and it didn’t waft with a corrupted air.

Signaling that it was safe to eat... Standing before the corpse was none other than Elaine, a bow crafted from ice dispersing into icy mist.

Running up behind her was Brandon, looking abnormally pale.

Though he did seem okay in truth, his body was still recovering from heavy oxygen deprivation, the symptoms still displaying even after hours outside of the water.

"Damn, I think this is my first time seeing a girl that knows how to hunt..." he started with a big smile, glancing at Elaine with an exaggerated expression of admiration.

Elaine’s cheeks puffed with pride, basking in the affection of Brandon’s attention.

"But somehow I don’t know how to cook." Brandon sneaked in a mock, to which Elaine responded with a spiteful glare.

Grabbing the meat and tossing it into her inventory, "I hope your ability to hunt is as effective as your jokes cause you’ll be needing it." Elaine scoffed while purposely increasing the pace in her steps.

The two weren’t only here for hunting and gathering food, if that was so they would have tried to advance into the forest beyond the shore.

Their purpose also included scouting and feeling out for potential threats.

But just like Seth, the two had also come to the conclusion that this was a corruption zone.

And corruption zones followed a specific rule, or at least the corrupted within did.

These abhorrents couldn’t dwell in areas with sparse presence of corrupted essence, this fact wouldn’t change even if it was a corruption zone.

This was the fact that led them to come to the conclusion they had, and through mental scan alone it was obvious the foliage held through corrupt essence density in its air.

Meaning the moment anyone strayed into it, they’d probably be attacked with hordes of rabid corrupted abominations starved for god knows how long.

And the two didn’t want to be anywhere near the forests till they were fully recovered and in leak shape.

After all this would be their first encounter with an awakened-level corruption zone.

Plus, with their notoriously awful luck, this zone was probably home to a corrupted beast.

The two reached a separation of water, an obstacle that could only be bypassed by swimming or taking a detour.

Neither of which options Brandon or Elaine wanted to do.

So...

"..."

"..."

"I think we should end our journey here." Brandon muttered, leaning towards Elaine.

To which she nodded, turning around immediately.

So far both sides had caught enough meat to feed the hungry mouths waiting for them further ahead.

They had progressed this far in hopes of finding more survivors or with any hope, their friends also.

Without wasting time, both figures made it back to the makeshift campfire, surrounded by a crowded group of around fifty human soldiers.

Most of the soldiers had lost their mecha suits to both the storm and the sea, making them unable to initiate a space jump.

Leaving them trapped in this massive corruption-plagued island sitting in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a vast body of water.

They weren’t as far out as somewhere like Point Nemo, but because all continents had converged, messing up the geography of the planet a bit, it could still be said that they were closer to space than Pangea at the moment.

They had no choice but to find another alternative, but till then their best choice of escaping this place and finding civilization again was to find other survivors; the more heads they had coming together, the stronger their chances.

Several hungry eyes turned their way, shining with anticipation.

The role of leadership had subconsciously been delegated to the two evolvers from team apex.

That was just how it was, Elaine and Brandon didn’t even try to actively take charge, the soldiers simply accepted it as so outright.

"Okay guys, here’s what we’ll do, we eat to recover some energy, and we begin to explore the forests in hopes of clearing the corruption zone." Brandon announced loudly.

The soldiers nodded unanimously, understanding that this would be the most effective route to safely searching for survivors.

The sooner they cleared this zone, the easier it would be to find the others.

Plus, if there were other surviving groups, the chances were that they’d come to the same conclusion.

Which made the probability of reuniting somewhere along the process of clearing the zone inevitable.

It was the best approach to their current situation.

With that said, Elaine took it upon herself to distribute portions of meat, most from pheasant and only a few from fishes.

Due to emergency protocols, all division members always had an extra flask of water in their inventory.

A temporary solution to their water problem... sitting around the large bonfire, crackling with soothing heat.

While the surrounding carried a chill stemming from the ocean and the presence of corruption.

Roasting their meat by turns, everyone ate, drank, and took their time in the process to recover.

With Elaine and Brandon drawing up their next moves.

This same setting could be seen in two other locations: one where Jack headed, and the last where all three division leaders—Uriel, Lukas, and Dorian—were present, with the group of survivors accompanying them numbering in the hundreds.

All four spots with surviving groups, planning along the same path, cleared the corruption zone first, and immediately some began their march earlier than the others.

The one especially being led by Seth, who was quite anticipating his eventual clash with the corrupted.

While the other groups also started marching in unplanned orders, some taking their time, others moving with haste.

Meanwhile, as all this was happening, deep at the core center of the island, a mountain of green towering over the forest stood high, radiating a thickened mist of corrupt essence.

As within the mountain, a cave of voluminous size, housing a rather terrifying lifeform, sat.

Within the darkness of the cave, six glistening crimson eyes pierced through the veil of darkness, and settled upon the distance.

A growing glare of hunger bloomed in its eyes, as a terrifying presence radiating an extreme air of corruption rolled out.

A haunting growl slowly rumbling through thousands of kilometers.

The boss of the corruption zone was quite sensitive to the presence of intruders.