Chương 511: Chapter 512: Fog

"Miria, is the scout still alive?" hissed Veritum. I checked the clearing one more time. My soul sight couldn't pick up any signs of human life in the area, apart from our group. With my regular eyes, I could faintly pick up traces of red near the edge of the clearing, even if I couldn't find the body or any other traces of the scout. Perhaps he had already been eaten, or perhaps the mist was simply obscuring his corpse. Either way, human blood had obviously been spilled here, but the victim's soul was missing.

There was one obvious conclusion.

"No. I think we're too late," I said. I felt a twinge of guilt. Had we moved too slowly? If we had moved faster, would the scout still be alive? Could he have been saved? On the other hand, I knew that we had been rational in slowing down. The risk of walking into a trap was too high. Risking sixty people's life to rush into an uncertain situation would have been foolish. Even so, I still felt bad. Veritum took a deep breath. In, and out.

I saw his tense shoulders relax for a moment, as if he were going through some kind of relaxation exercise. Then, his shoulders tensed again.

"So the scout got surrounded and then killed?" He frowned.

"A scout should have noticed other monsters creeping up on him. Also, the way that old Thom was rushing through the woods is strange - it's like he got way too eager to follow the mist monster, and completely ignored the context surrounding that goal."

"Perhaps he wasn't in control of his actions, or something mentally attacked him?" Said one of the other adults.

"I have a hard time believing that old Thom would have acted like this under normal circumstances, so something was clearly wrong." I frowned. I wasn't sure if that assessment was accurate or not, but it was definitely something to think about. If the fog banks had some kind of mental attack along with their summoning abilities, they would truly be huge pains in the neck to deal with.

"It's also true that we're running into a variety of issues for our more specialized work needs, though," said one of the other adults.

"Old Thom didn't have a [Scout] spark at all, because none of the [Scouts] came through the portal with us." I grimaced. I hadn't realized our talent shortage was so severe. Though, in hindsight, it did make sense. We had left a huge number of people behind when we fled to this dimension.

We also hadn't exactly given priority to migrators who had the best skills during the flight - the other [Spatial Mages], and my friends and I, had prioritized our own family members, then taken as many children with us as we could. That meant that we had, indeed, kept a very large portion of the clan alliance's offspring alive - but it also meant that most of our skilled adults had turned into tree mulch.

We were missing huge swathes of important roles for a functioning tribe, such as backup healers, a variety of production related classes… and [Scouts], apparently.

"Miria, how strong are the mist monsters in the clearing?" I blinked in surprise. Were we still thinking of fighting them? Taking them down, and avenging old Thom? On one hand, I felt like that was a bad idea. We were still unfamiliar with the strengths and weaknesses of the mist monsters, and we weren't actually sure that we could take down six of them. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. I squinted at the six mist monsters.

"The strength of each of these creatures varies wildly. The weakest ones aren't actually that powerful, at least as far as raw life force goes," I said.

"If I burned through all of my ess - errr, mana, I could probably kill the two weakest ones instantly. The strongest one is a lot more troublesome. I think it has around 2, 000 [Vitality] or so?" I said, as I did my best to convert System [Fortitude] estimates into the local System's math.

"I also suspect that due to the nature of these mist creatures, that 2, 000 [Vitality] stretches a lot further than it would in a regular monster, because their immaterial bodies make it so much harder to inflict proper damage on them. If we include the fact that these mist clouds can summon huge hordes of lesser fog monsters to attack us, we're also outnumbered quite heavily." Veritum gritted his teeth as he stared at the fog monsters.

He gripped the handle of his axe so tightly that I heard a faint creaking sound coming from it. I wasn't sure whether it was from the wood groaning under his grip strength, or the sound of his tendons.

"It's not worth risking the rest of us just to avenge one [Scout]," said an older lady, whose name I didn't remember.

"We should withdraw and find an isolated enemy. That way, if we prove to be outmatched, we can have Miria wipe it out with her gift and then retreat back to the settlement to regroup. This is an unnecessary risk." Veritum paused, and then looked at each of us in the eyes. He paused for a moment, and then he sighed.

"I don't want to," he admitted.

"We left behind too much during the great migration. I know that Old Thom is already dead… but we already lost so much. Killing the mist monsters would make it feel like we can at least answer to his soul, now that it has returned to the Outside. Besides, I'm tired of getting pushed around by powerful monsters and armies. We were kicked out of our former home by the Universal Tree. Tens of thousands of our former friends and family members were killed by the war, or left behind as fertilizer.

Then, we came to this world, where the city of plant people couldn't accommodate us. Now, we finally have a new home of our own, and people to protect. I'm tired of being pushed around." Then, his gaze hardened.

"But I won't put your lives at risk against your will, either. Let's put this to a group vote. Who is in favor of fighting now? raise your hands. Those who wish to retreat, keep your arms down." I hesitated. On one hand, the rational decision was certainly to retreat back home and then try to find an isolated enemy to test things on. On the other hand, perhaps I had been influenced by Veritum's words, or perhaps I was also sick of being pushed around by the Universal Tree.

I hesitated for only a moment, before I raised my hand. Sallia also raised her hand. Anise and Felix did not, although Anise looked hesitant. <Miria, you're in favor of fighting? > Felix sounded more than a little bit surprised. <I think it would make more sense to retreat back to town, as the other lady said. We can always pick another battle. > <I suppose, but… > I floundered for words, as I tried to figure out why I supported fighting right now.

I didn't actually think Felix was wrong - fighting another day made more sense. But… <I really am just tired of being forced into being something I'm not by circumstances, > I said. <The Universal Tree's remnants in the Market have already pushed us into so much desperation over the centuries. I'm a bit exhausted by it. I want to fight back. Besides, if we can't even overcome this battle, I don't know if we have any real shot of surviving our fight for more lives when we return to the Market.

We're missing a lot of the major upgrades we need from this life in order to be safer. A battle like this, against unknown and powerful threats, that can secure the future of our settlement, should be worth a few good rewards from the Market. So from both an emotional and rational perspective, I think fighting here makes sense, too. > Felix paused at my words, and then he slowly raised his hand too. A moment later, Anise followed. Veritum did a hand count a few moments later.

Thirty three hands were raised, while twenty nine were opposed to fighting right now. We would fight.