Chapter 127: Poach

A group of people with wide smiles on their faces approached them. They bowed and introduced themselves.

"Hello! We are from Paupre’s group. Our leader has sent us to meet with you in an attempt to have a little bit of a discussion," said the man in the middle.

Beside Eren, Celeste leaned into his ears and whispered; "They’re probably very interested in our allies."

Just like she said, Eren could see that their eyes kept on focusing over towards Delia and her group of Academic Sector examinees. It seemed that they had impressed Paupre and his group, and they wanted to become allies with them.

Of course, they couldn’t simply just poach her from Eren’s group.

So, they would probably try to ally with Eren so that they would also be allied with Delia and her group.

It was a very sensible move. But it wouldn’t work for one simple reason. And that was Eren.

Delia and her members knew that they wouldn’t have been able to do that if Eren hadn’t taught them the method to do so. It would be stupid if they were to get high on their own laurels and abandon their alliance with him for a second-rate group like Paupre’s.

In fact, they wouldn’t even want to change allies even if Dantes or Magnus or any of the other top leaders had wanted to recruit them.

Eren’s knowledge on Array Formations were truly something that they valued over everything.

"So?" the messenger asked. "Would you like to visit our camp so that you could speak to our leader?"

"If he wanted to talk, then he should have come here himself!" said Abe, stepping up with a frown on his face.

Eren couldn’t have said it better himself.

"Unfortunatley, our leader is currently quite busy preparing for his ascent on the Third Cliffside. He is confident that he can finally traverse through its traps," said the messenger.

"Then we have nothing to discuss," Eren said to the messenger.

Seeing the obvious rejection, the messenger was at a loss for words. They thought that they would at least listen to their request for a meeting, given they were literally lowering themselves just so that they could talk with Eren’s group.

"We will be conquering the Territory soon," said the messenger. "An alliance with our group will ensure that you will not be wasting your time in this Territory."

Celeste stepped up. "Not if we get there ourselves first."

The messenger frowned, but didn’t say anything else. He turned towards Delia, the very person they wanted to talk to in the first place.

"Miss Delia. Paupre has told us to tell you that he is very impressed with your Array Formations. He wishes that you lend us your hand in completing this Territory."

Now that their request for a meeting was declined, they were now openly trying to poach Delia and her group.

"I cannot do that. Please tell him that nothing will make me change my mind," Delia answered decisively.

Hearing this, the messenger nodded. He gave everyone a long gaze for a few seconds, before he turned around with his other group members to walk back up to their camp.

Eren stared at them as they left. Then, he turned towards everyone. "Change of plans. We’re conquering the Second Cliff now."

This surprised everyone, but they were all on board with his decision. Sierra, Abe, and the others were angry and motivated because Paupre tried to poach Delia. They wanted to prove everyone wrong and conquer this Territory before the others did.

And so, Eren led the group forwards. They followed the path winding up through the volcano. This time, it was a lot steeper than the ones at the base, needing for the others to do a little bit of actual climbing before they were able to reach the threshold of the Second Cliffside.

Here, another sheer vertical wall prevented them from reaching higher up the volcano.

But unlike the First Cliffside, this Second Cliffside was covered entirely in a cloud of smoke. From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed as if this place had reached the clouds.

Of course, that was an exaggeration as the miniature volcano was not tall enough to reach the clouds. And they were underground. No condensation could form here.

The cloud was actually made out of smoke. One produced by an Array Formation.

According to what Pang Cai told them, this was the obstacle that prevented others from climbing up the Cliffside so easily as the first one.

"That cloud looks... poisonous," Celeste said. "There’s no plants nor greenery growing on the stone."

Just as she said, the smoke was actually a poison that would deal continuous damage to whoever was in contact with the smoke for a long time.

Spending ten seconds in the smoke would cause anyone’s skin to become red and itchy. Twenty seconds, and it would feel like their skin was burning. Thirty seconds, and the smoke would cause second-degree burns.

Eventually, they reached the base of the Second Cliffside.

And there, they saw Paupre’s group camping near them. Among them was the messenger who had approached them just a few minutes ago.

The man stayed silent and didn’t acknowledge them.

Instead, he turned to his other group members and spoke to them in hushed tones.

A few seconds later, he and his group began their preparations to scale up the Smoky Wall.

"How are they going to scale up that wall?" Sky asked.

"They’re not going to be using any kind of protection?" Abe added.

Eren watched their group start to Reinforce their feet to scale up the walls.

He noticed that they were grouped up in pairs.

While one of them walked up the vertical wall, the other one stayed a step behind and kept their hands on their partner.

Celeste frowned as she saw this. "They’re... letting themselves get burned by the smoke."

Eren nodded. "Yes. But it doesn’t matter. They’re getting healed."

It seemed that Paupre had allied with the Medical Sector group in this Territory, and used them in order to scale up the Second Cliffside.