Eric smiled and grabbed Livy's shoulder after she had stored away the Rank 2's corpse and was done drinking her potions.
He blinked, and both appeared in front of Lyria.
"Good job, Ly. Now, drink potions to refill yourself first." He turned toward Livy. "Liv, take away this Rank 2 as well."
Livy trembled as she again needed to cover a big, hairy spider with her Mana, though after the last time, she had started to grow accustomed to it.
She nodded and started doing her job, including the dissected limbs.
Lyria didn't utter a word and, after a quick nod, began recharging herself.
Although her Mana was still nearly full, she still took the potions, as most only increased natural regeneration numerous times instead of refilling it in one shot.
After both were done, Eric handed Lyria her daggers, which he had picked up while clearing the few clues left by both girls.
He instructed with a serious tone, "Ly, Liv, there's no time to waste. Swiftly change into your best lightweight armors."
They each had multiple armors, including heavy armors, which none of them liked to wear, as they preferred being agile over sturdy. The current situation also demanded running and quick reactions.
Lyria and Livy nodded without questioning.
Lyria didn't hesitate and, with one swift motion, removed her cloak—including her Tier 1 outfit—right in front of Eric's dazed gaze. Now, only her underwear covered her sensuous curves.
Livy glared at Lyria with hate. She wanted to do that, but Lyria was one step ahead!
Just as Livy was pulling out her own, Eric swiftly turned around and "calmly" began observing the buildings of Everwood Village.
Eric originally wanted to burn the village down to end the Crimson Tide Spiders' infestation.
Although Crimson Tide Spiders had strong resistance to fire, that didn't mean they resided within it. So, whatever tiny ones survived and thrived in the village would have no choice but to leave.
Those little ones wouldn't survive for long either, as other mortal animals wouldn't let them do as they pleased.
For any species, including humans, the most troublesome time was their beginning stages. Without leaders protecting and guiding those mortal spiders, they wouldn't live long enough—unless an extremely smart and determined one appeared among them, though the chances of that were very low.
Eric wanted to finish a task completely when he personally involved himself, just like with Wisperwood Village. But the current situation was perilous, and there was no time to waste. He even abandoned the newborn-stage Rank 1 corpse Livy had killed along the way. He didn't want to spend an extra second searching for it.
Eric then casually wondered if he had successfully gotten all three Rank 2 kills for his breakthrough requirements...
Riya promptly crushed his hope.
"No, you only got one Rank 2 kill—and not a single Rank 1." Though those newborn Rank 1s were useless for his counts anyway.
"W-what? Why? Aren't we a team? Shouldn't it count?"
Eric was disheartened. This was like finding a house full of treasures but only being able to carry what his two tiny hands could hold. Anyone would cry at missing so much.
Riya took a deep breath and decided to explain properly, as this was important.
"...Strong support and contribution in a fight are considered team kills. During all the fights in this village, you never acted against any Beast other than the one in the warehouse."
"Your own 'existence' doesn't care if you've 'registered' yourself as the team and sat on your butt the whole time. You need to actively contribute for it to count."
But it would still be considered 'facing a situation' that slightly reduced the difficulty of his next training breakthrough requirement—though that wasn't the focus, so Riya didn't mention it.
Eric blushed with shame.
He had learned laziness from his fellow lion brothers in his past life. He simply couldn't abandon their heartfelt teachings!
Nevertheless, he still wasn't confident about finishing the current breakthrough requirement within a month, so it didn't really matter.
At that moment, Lyria spoke, pulling Eric from his thoughts.
"Brother Eric, we're ready."
He turned around and nearly whistled. Both girls looked absolutely badass and beautiful in their armors.
Lyria was clad in dark armored clothing. A form-fitting dark shirt was layered under a scale-mail bodice with matching shoulder pauldrons, giving her a sleek yet formidable look. Her pants were similarly dark and form-fitting, with armored knee guards, and tall, sturdy leather boots—ideal for mobility and protection.
Livy was clad in striking blue scale-like armor, also form-fitting and outlining her physique, paired with dark brown leather pants. Scale-mail covered her torso, legs, and portions of her arms, and her tall, sturdy boots matched the armor's color and texture.
All their armor had Protection Runes inscribed on the inner side, hidden from view so opponents wouldn't notice.
These Runes weren't bad for defense—in fact, their defense was far superior to their current Mana Defense, which heavily depended on intelligence stats and mana pool.
Their armor was high-grade Tier 2, and the Runes were similarly Tier 2, offering excellent overall protection.
"Okay, let's escape."
He wasted no time and sped east.
Lyria and Livy chased after Eric.
They soon left the village and entered the forest of tall redwood trees.
"Brother Eric, why are we in such a rush?" Livy asked, confused, while following him.
They had won against the three newborn-stage Rank 2s, which should have been Crimson Tide Spiders' limit. It couldn't be that a young-stage one was here—and even if there were, they could still fight and win unless massively outnumbered. So, she didn't understand the urgency.
Lyria answered for Eric, "Ly, we must always look beyond the surface. Brother Eric taught us that long ago. Didn't you find it strange that so many Rank 1s and three Rank 2s were in one village?"
Livy was annoyed by Lyria's lecturing tone but didn't argue. She understood Lyria was urging caution, and she remembered Eric teaching them that years ago. So, it was her fault for not thinking deeply about their situation—she'd only focused on killing enemies in front of her.
She thought for a moment and answered, recalling information on Crimson Tide Spiders:
"They hunt creatures, including humans, for food and growth. Brother Eric said this village had multiple Rank 1 and 2 Mana Wielders. So… were the numbers of Rank 1 and 2 Crimson Tide Spiders not enough? Do they have a young-stage one too?"
Lyria nodded. Livy wasn't stupid—just careless. With more experience, she'd notice clues left in the open.
"Half-correct." Lyria continued explaining, "To kill that many Rank 1 and 2 Mana Wielders, these spiders must have had a very powerful Rank Beast among them; otherwise, this village wouldn't have fallen so quickly—and especially so thoroughly."
Livy was startled. "You mean there was a Young-stage Rank 2 Crimson Tide Spider before they attacked the village?"
"Right," Lyria agreed and continued. "If I'm correct, the newborn-stage Rank 2s we killed were adult-stage Rank 1s before the village fell and only progressed recently. The Rank 1s you killed were also newborn-stage—meaning they were already on the brink of becoming complete Mana Beasts and likely progressed recently."
"Perhaps there were more adult-stage Rank 1s originally, killed by villagers. All this suggests a much bigger threat somewhere—just not in Everwood Village now. The spiders' earlier cries were likely desperate calls for help."
Livy nodded in understanding. "So you mean there's a high chance of a newly evolving—or evolved—Adult-stage Rank 2 somewhere. And since an 'Adult' can be approximately six to nine times stronger than a 'Newborn,' yeah... it's very dangerous to fight."
Just as Lyria was about to nod and finish her explanation, Eric suddenly spoke in a graver tone. "There's actually more. By now, we've traveled through various dangerous-looking caves, caverns, and many such locations—but not a single Mana Beast was found, nor even a living village..."
Those ghost women and panther didn't count, as they'd probably survived by luck or because the Crimson Tide Spiders ignored them as troublesome opponents—or, in a sense, already 'dead' creatures. Nonetheless, the number of Mana Beasts that should've been around was too low—not to mention, not a single living village was found.
Hearing this, Lyria and Livy's expressions drastically changed. Their faces grew pale as they understood Eric's implication.
Livy gulped. "Y-you mean... a-all the empty villages we encountered over the last two months—including the fact we almost never encountered Mana Beasts—w-were all the Crimson Tide Spiders' doing?!" She was horrified by her own deduction.
Lyria was similarly shocked. She, too, began connecting the dots. It seemed her vision was still lacking—still limited to recent events instead of the broader, earlier happenings.
Eric nodded while sprinting rapidly through the shadows of tall trees. They didn't use branches to travel and were still on the ground.
He continued his speculation. "All the clues we found in those empty villages suggest the villagers evacuated within the last five years. Now that I think about it, chances are it was even less—possibly the villages near Ringwood Town and the first we encountered were cleared three to four years ago."
"It's just that those villages were so clean—without even bones left behind—same with all Mana Beast dwellings we've stumbled upon—that we inevitably assumed they'd evacuated instead of being eaten, leaving not even bones behind."
Livy gulped and asked in a shaky voice, "T-then... w-why didn't they reach Ringwood Town...?" She was extremely glad that hadn't happened—otherwise, they might've all died. Even Bella Noll, at her peak, couldn't have dealt with such a large swarm of Mana Beasts alone.
Eric answered thoughtfully, "Probably because we were close to the ocean, and Crimson Tide Spiders aren't adept in water. They definitely didn't want any escapees alive—to avoid anyone learning of their involvement. We can see how thorough they were with every village—it was almost as if no fights ever took place. And there was also a wide river separating the northern plains from Ringwood Town."
"No matter the reason, these Spiders didn't go far south or west—the towns and villages Ringwood Town knew of were still alive up until the day we left."
"Just seeing how organized these Spiders have acted over the years—with such power that no villages or beasts resisted by any means—all this suggests..."
Eric fell silent, his expression severe.
Riya, in Eric's mind, also realized what had led to Umbrixa in Ringwood Town years ago. Clearly, these spiders were the reason—given how brutally their victims were murdered. She recalled Bella Noll mentioning that Umbrixa occurs when too many die in absolute horror. Back then, no one could've guessed these Mystical-type Mana Beasts were the culprits.
Lyria gulped loudly and continued Eric's speculation: "T-this suggests their leader isn't just intelligent but cunning—they left no traces, silently growing while devouring villages and beasts across this plain... A-and their leader might be..." She trembled, unable to finish as her earlier guesses solidified into dreadful certainty.
The gap between leader and subordinates must've been vast from the start—otherwise, such flawless control would've been impossible.
"T-then y-you guys m-mean the leader was already at the A-Adult stage? S-so is it currently evolving to the E-Elder stage?!" Livy nearly shouted, barely suppressing her volume.
She finally grasped the gravity of the situation. Facing an Elder-stage, especially of a Mystical type, was far deadlier than facing the same of Physical Types. Confronting such an opponent with only three of them was suicidal—even one of their direct hits could probably kill Lyria, who had the strongest defense among them at this moment.
"Actually, there is a chance...." Eric suddenly halted in place.
Lyria and Livy also froze.
Despite there being nothing in front of them, their expressions rapidly started changing. Even Eric's forehead and back were quickly drenched with cold sweat.
It was as if the forest around them had suddenly…brightened unusually.