Chapter 458: Shocked

Song Xue widened her eyes in shock. She had seen a lot of shocking things, but this was the first time she had witnessed a ruin being formed right before her eyes.

’No, in the first place, has there ever been a person who witnessed the birth of a new ruin?’ Song Xue’s brain stopped functioning for a moment.

She thought the previous visit to the Dead Village would shock her the most. It turned out Auric was just getting started.

’How am I supposed to report this? No, in the first place, Auric must have done something. How did he form a ruin?’ Song Xue didn’t know whether to classify this situation as Auric making his own ruin or something else.

’In the first place, why did he actually want to go here? Why did he choose this building? Now that I think about it, he mentioned something about something weird happening in the city. Then, he found a building that remained intact.

’Does this building have something significant that can form a ruin?’

What she didn’t realize was that if she just took this information at face value, she would end up destroying the ruin.

Yes, if she attempted to do the same thing or let the researcher do their own thing, the membrane wasn’t the only thing that would break. The entire flow of energy would break and cause a massive leak. In the end, it would end up like another Dead Village.

Only if they repaired the energy flow would that place become a ruin, but with the research on the Dead Village remaining stagnant, they would only get that answer in a few decades.

Song Xue didn’t know what she was supposed to say after this. Did Auric just tell her that he wanted to give her this place as a gift? Did he really form a ruin to give a bonus reward?

Auric could probably just ignore it and continue on their way without forming this ruin. In fact, with Mathias around, there was a chance that Auric could sneak out of the city later and form this ruin so that he could test everything he wanted without anyone knowing.

Later, he could simply mention finding the ruin in this area.

Yet he didn’t. He specifically mentioned using this ruin as a gift, which conveniently shifted the focus away from his responsibility for doing something reckless.

Song Xue thought she had been careful after receiving the warning from her father, but she wondered if Auric would end up returning to his country first or if she would get a heart attack first.

On the other hand, Katarina simply covered her face with both hands while saying in an exhausted voice, "Oh, Lord. Please give me strength."

Stella was just enjoying the sight. She didn’t care much about what Auric did. The more Auric did something unique, the more advantageous her position became. After all, it just meant she chose the right thing.

In the future, Auric would definitely become a supreme master whose expertise was different from that of other Rank 7 humans.

Then again, she wouldn’t have a headache because she was Auric’s bodyguard. Katarina was Auric’s secretary, the one who had to take care of the aftermath. That was why every time Auric did something special, she had a headache about how to deal with the reactions.

Maya fell silent. The fact that Auric managed to form a ruin meant that he would become the center of attention.

Obviously, this country wouldn’t want that kind of information to spread. In other words, they would try their best to suppress this information. Meanwhile, while other countries focused on getting the woman with a resurrection ability, this country could focus on pursuing Auric.

That was why this news was unlikely to spread to the rest of the world. She understood if Auric did this out of that consideration.

However, she also understood why her grandfather told her that he would rather handle a few massacres than Auric.

The moment this ruin appeared, this information would be passed along to the highest decision-makers.

In other words, the president, his entire cabinet, and even the Rank 7 Sword Saint would be informed. They would immediately come to get more information about this.

So his job was not only to ensure Auric’s safety but also to make sure that Auric could actually return to the country.

It was fortunate that no assassins would be able to sneak up on him, but that only applied to the wilderness where there was no one around.

At the same time, there was a high chance that those people would spare no effort in recruiting Auric.

All this time, Esfrata had been giving Auric some space, but the government had certainly disappointed Auric with their way of dealing with Dermania.

Auric had already learned this country’s language, so they could use this as a basis to recruit him. Like Esfrata, this country had a Rank 7 human after all. This meant they wouldn’t have to be afraid of other countries either.

When she led the squad to exterminate a family, Joker didn’t even come to voice his opinion. Besides, he also had his previous reputation, which helped him during the negotiations. In this country? He had nothing. There was no backup either.

Auric simply said, "It’s indeed a beautiful world."

"Hey, boss. Don’t you think you owe me an explanation? You could have said something before this." Katarina let out a long sigh.

"Ah." Auric looked away, not saying anything as if he hadn’t anticipated any of this. It didn’t give Song Xue enough reason to suspect that it was premeditated, which was the whole point.

Katarina let out a long sigh. "You really need to give me a bonus after this. A big one."

"I know, I know." Auric nodded. He had created a big mess this time, but Katarina still planned to deal with it, so he definitely had to give something big after the trip.

"Still, what is going on? Are we inside a ruin now?" Katarina asked. "What are we supposed to do next?"

"I merely awakened a ruin that was still in slumber. The ruin would probably appear in a few years, or it might end up getting ruined after being reclaimed and redeveloped." Auric nodded.

"Shouldn’t you just let them redevelop it? They won’t even realize there is a ruin here."

"Well, it was a simple bonus for the friend here." Auric shrugged.

"Right?" Katarina scoffed. "I won’t ask anything else about this ruin or how you awakened it right now, but I’ll definitely hear it later. And now, what are we going to do?"

Auric raised one finger. "We leave?"

"You don’t want to do anything like searching for artifacts?"

"No artifacts have been formed yet, so it’s useless to search for them. Looking at this size, this ruin contained elements up to Rank 5. It’s a high-level ruin. The elements are earth, light, and dark. Light and dark? It doesn’t strike me as a place with abundant light or darkness." Auric looked around.

"Maybe it’s working like the city’s history book. It has become a place filled with death but also filled with hope for the future. You should remember that Selena Bellegarde’s Life Element belongs to the light element category. There is also a Death Element that belongs to the dark element category."

"I see. Hope and despair." Auric nodded in understanding. "If you put it that way, I can see why it’s abundant in it. And since it’s located in a city, there’s simply a lot of minerals around, synthetic or not."

"Yeah. So what are we going to do now? How do we leave? We need to find the gate first."

"That’s what we’re going to do right now." Auric nodded. "It’s quite fascinating to see a ruin form, but after it awakens, there’s nothing else to see."

When Auric was about to give some instructions, a series of roars echoed through the city.

"!!!" Mathias frowned and immediately lifted his body into the sky. "This doesn’t look good. Hey, son. You really need to tell us about this before."

"What’s going on?" Auric asked with a serious expression.

"A large horde of beasts is coming. Most likely, they’re drawn to the huge amount of energy released when this ruin was forming. Since this is a Rank 5 ruin, there’s a chance for many Rank 5 beasts to appear, given the size of this ruin. However, this is the first time I have witnessed a ruin form, so higher-level beasts might even come to check it out."

"Oh." Auric looked amused. "That’s going to be troublesome."

"Yeah. We only have six people here, and we’re about to face hundreds of beasts including a couple of high-level beasts. We really need to get ready, or we will all die."

Song Xue had taken out her phone and called her father. "Father, this is Song Xue. We’ve got a situation. A new ruin is forming, and I’m inside of it. Requesting back up. Ping my location and send everything you’ve got."

Song Xue wanted to give a report, but she had no choice but to focus on what was about to come. They had to survive first.

Auric leaped into the air and levitated by using the boots. He observed the beasts before returning to the ground. "Miss Song, I’ll need to have you there. Katarina, with me. We’ll hit the beasts from the top of that building. This is a perfect place because we have big roads, so they will be less likely to sneak around buildings. So I will need you to stop them here and here. Sir Mathias, I will need you to single-handedly stop that side."

Seeing someone like Mathias didn’t offer any suggestions, Song Xue also accepted it.

The rest of the group already trusted Auric’s ability, so they immediately moved to their respective positions.

"Can you give me a lift?"

"Yep." Auric grabbed her and flew into the sky.