System's POV
chapter-539

The next day…

"So you guys have been surviving by eating Ants every day?" Thirteen asked with a smile.

"There's nothing to eat aside from them," Diana replied. "Also, they taste good when roasted."

The teenage boy soon agreed that the Ants did taste good after taking a few bites of the leg that was handed to him.

Overall, he found their current situation way better than he initially expected.

Nearly nine hundred individuals were currently inside the stronghold, including the Lizardmen, Ratmen, and Goblins.

The bulk of their forces came from the Wanderers that Thirteen had gathered before entering the one-way portal.

While their numbers weren't that many, it was enough to deal with most situations unless they were going to fight Rank 8 monsters and above.

He was considering telling them that it was about time for them to head North.

But Diana and the others, who had survived the monster onslaught, still believe that the threat of the Monster Outbreak should be their priority.

'There's a possibility that there may be more nests that I'm not aware of,' Thirteen thought. 'Very well. I'll just wait for three more days to see if there will be another Monster Outbreak. It will be easier to convince Diana and the others if they understood that they don't have to worry about Monsters Outbreaks again.'

A few hours later, he gathered everyone in front of the Fortress so that all of them could practice large-scale formations for the upcoming battles.

Now that he was the Commander of their forces, and Diana was the Vice Commander, he decided to train the Wanderers to learn battle formations during the next three days.

The center of the formation was none other than Diana.

With the power of the two artifacts that Thirteen had given her, she would be able to boost everyone's strength and morale at the same time.

The golden necklace on her neck, which she named Justice, could transform into a golden banner, which strengthened everyone within its vicinity.

Her sword, which she named Defender, possessed the indestructible ability, allowing her to block attacks without worries of it being destroyed.

The golden blade which manifested from her sword handle was also very sharp, allowing her to play an offensive role if need be.

Erica was also located at the center of the formation, allowing her to cast powerful spells while being protected by the other Wanderers.

The Cygni Faction were positioned right behind the Apostle Team, and they would be fighting alongside Diana on the front lines.

After his humiliating experience with Thirteen, Leon hated the teenage boy more than ever.

However, he didn't dare to confront him again in the future, especially after his body was buried in a pile of dung and was pissed on by some monsters, whom he didn't see because his head was buried in the ground.

Tiona's Petrification Breath turned people's bodies to stone. However, their consciousness would remain, meaning that they were still able to see, feel, and hear inside of it.

This was also the reason why Thirteen chose this skill. It can be used to save people's lives as a last resort, making monsters think that the petrified humans had truly turned to stones instead of living, breathing creatures.

Even now, Leon couldn't even look at Thirteen's face, knowing that if he did, he might feel nauseous as if he was suffering from PTSD.

Thirteen trained them the whole day in formations. It wasn't easy, but after the first day, everyone managed to understand their roles and how they would fight together as an army.

They repeated the same training on the second day, with Thirteen correcting the flaws in the formation and pointing out individual mistakes made by the members.

On the third day, they once again trained until noon.

According to Diana, the Monster Outbreak would start in the afternoon and end in the evening.

Truth be told, Thirteen wasn't too worried about it because. All of the Ant Eggs had been devoured by not only Gwenn but also the monsters inside Rocky's Mobile Fortress, treating it as an unlimited buffet.

Of course, the bigger part of the harvest was given to Gwenn because it needed to reach the Rank that Thirteen had asked it to reach.

Fortunately, within those three days and after consuming countless Ant Eggs, the Overlord Beetle finally became a Rank 4 Monster.

This increased the number of creatures it could put under its control to ten.

This meant that Gwenn could now mind control ten Champions and Rank 5 Monsters without problems.

As the Wanderers took their places on the nearly-ruined fortress walls, all of them gripped their weapons tightly.

The Monster Outbreak should happen in less than an hour, so everyone prepared themselves for a grueling battle.

Thirteen, who was beside Erica, Sherry, and Diana was sitting on a chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

His eyes were closed as if he was just taking a nap.

But if any signs of trouble occurred, he would instantly awaken and take command of the Wanderers, who were now starting to wonder if the Monster Outbreak would still happen or not.

Minutes turned to hours, and even though the sun was now about to set on the horizon, not a single monster could be seen headed in their direction.

Diana, who knew how horrifying the Monster Outbreak was, was feeling both relieved and confused as to why it didn't happen.

"I guess the Monster Outbreak stopped after you guys completed your first mission," Thirteen said as he stood up from his chair. "If my guess is correct, it is now safe to travel towards that pillar of light in the distance.

"Since we also have a time limit for our second mission, all of us will depart tomorrow. We can't waste more time staying here in the stronghold."

Diana nodded in understanding. "Very well. I will tell the others about your decision."

Although she was still worried, she decided to trust Thirteen because he was right about their second mission having a time limit.

When Diana had finally left to inform everyone that the threat of the Monster Outbreak was now over, Erica and Sherry approached the young man with suspicious looks on their faces.

"Did Rocky and the others do something?" Erica asked.

Thirteen nodded. "They have been raiding an Ant Nest for the past few days."

His explanation was enough to confirm Erica's and Sherry's guess regarding why there were no longer any monsters attacking them.

"Will you tell Diana about Rocky and the others?" Erica inquired. "She is a good friend of mine, and I believe that she can be trusted."

Thirteen pondered a bit before nodding in agreement.

"True," Thirteen said. "Since Diana is my Vice Commander, she needs to know about Rocky and the others so that she won't second guess my decisions."

"I also think that is the best approach," Sherry commented. "If she knew about their existence, she would be able to come up with an excuse later if something unexpected happened."

Erica then shifted her attention to the purple light shining in the distance. It looked beautiful from afar, but for someone who could faintly sense the magic in her environment, it gave her a very ominous feeling as if something extremely bad would happen soon.

"Do you think we can complete this mission?" Erica asked as he shifted his attention to the teenage boy, who was still looking at the light on the horizon.

"Of course," Thirteen replied. "Before coming here, I asked The One to give me an easy mission. Since he agreed, then this mission should be a walk in the park."

Erica and Sherry stared long and hard at the teenage boy who had been in a coma for several days after his battle with the Goblin Emperor.

If that was considered a walk in the park, then they could expect that things would only get worse as they continued to clear their Chain Quest.

Thirteen, on the other hand, was starting to form a theory on what needed to be done in order to clear his mission.

Of course, he first needed to see the Human Kingdom first to confirm his theory, but if his instincts were right on the money, he believed that he would need to do something drastic to overcome the situation that they were going to face.

'I just hope that I won't be forced to do something crazy,' Thirteen thought.

But even after he thought of that, Thirteen knew that if he was pushed to make a decision, he would not hesitate to do something crazy.

Especially since Tiona's clone, who had scouted ahead towards the pillar of light in the distance, had just informed him that it could sense several Rank 8 creatures hiding within the Human Kingdom.

With so many high-ranking monsters, even his Monster Army wouldn't be able to take them down even if they fought with everything they had.