Volume 3 Chapter 3: Part 4: Camping

 

The alpha's body became lifeless as it dropped down from the tree, making a dud sound.

 

Even before the body became lifeless, the body still moved around like the head was still attached.

 

That worked?! Awesome! Onyx looked in awe. Even he was surprised by how effective his move was as well! He knew he had to do something like this to defeat the alpha. 

 

If he had taken the stone lizards on one by one to get to the alpha, it would have been a never-ending process. And if he decided to charge at the alpha alone, the rest would bombard him. 

 

But the second one was the best option. Onyx just needed to be fast. Fast enough so the other stone lizards wouldn't react to him. 

 

And that was what Onyx did.  

 

Onyx jumped down, landing beside Cyrus and Nigel. 

 

"What?" Onyx noticed how the two's mouths were gaping at him. It looked like a wide fish. 

 

Nigel was the first to speak up, "What was that?!"

 

"Hmm? Didn't you see it? I just rushed at the stone lizard and cut its head off." Onyx said nonchalantly. There was nothing wrong with his actions. It was plain for everybody to see. 

 

Cyrus shook his head, "That was not a rush! Nobody can call what you did a rush! You were like a bolt of lightning!" 

 

He had seen rushes before. Heck, those two fools were examples of how someone rushed. But what Onyx did was absurd! How can that guy be D-rank?!

 

Nigel nodded at those words, "You were absurdly fast. I couldn't see you in the trees!" With the added leaves and darkness of the night: Onyx's rush was a blur. 

 

"..." It's that fast? Onyx didn't know either. It just felt normal to him. Like he wanted to be fast, and he was fast.  

 

He didn't think it was that fast. 

 

"Let's talk about this later. There are still stone lizards up there." Onyx looked up to see the stone lizards staring down at them. It was surprising to him that they hadn't attacked them.

 

That goes to show how stunned they were by how their leader died. Onyx readied his blade upwards, preparing to jump up again.  

 

Before he could do it,  the stone lizards quickly dashed away!

 

"..." Should have done that from the start. Onyx sighed as he sheathed his sword, "Help me out and collect the corpses."

 

"What about the lizards?" What if they come back?

 

"Forget them. The lizards won't do anything now that the alpha is defeated." Onyx said as he picked up the alpha's corpse. The alpha was the strongest of the stone lizards. 

 

Well, it was. 

 

With it gone, the others were nothing more than weaklings. They saw Onyx as a monster. What was more: the alpha gave all the orders in the group. Having it gone meant the whole group was out of order. 

 

"Let's leave it here for now. We have to go check up on the rest!" Nigel realized that Rena and their group were protecting Morgan.  

 

"Oh yeah." Onyx almost forgot about them. Well, it was Rena. Onyx and the two quickly move to where Morgan and they set up camp. There, they saw Rena and the girls in formation. In the center were Morgan and his workers. 

 

"Master, are you okay?" Noticing Onyx and the two coming forward, she loosened her intensity.  

 

"I'm fine." Onyx smiled, "Are there any problems around here?" He looked around to see corpses of stone lizards around them. 

 

Rena shook her head, "There were stone lizards that came our way. But after a while, they ran towards your direction." 

 

"Big sis Rena took them out without any trouble at all! She was so quick with the sword!" Willa shouted out.

 

"It was so beautiful," Tricia added as well. 

 

Hearing the compliments, Rena scratched her face in embarrassment, "It was nothing." 

"How can it be called nothing? You were killing the lizards off in a matter of seconds. I have never seen somebody move so quickly." Morgan praised her. 

 

"Good job. Let's go back to the fire. Morgan, can your men help collect the corpses?"

 

"We got you!" Morgan smiled. 

...

"What happened here?!" Morgan screamed out when he arrived at the campfire. It was a bloody battlefield. Corpses were riddled everywhere!

 

"Yeah, we fought a lot." Onyx shrugged his shoulders while Nigel and Cyrus gave wry laughs.  

 

"Also, there are corpses on top of the trees. I'm going to drop them down." Onyx didn't say anything else as he jumped up into the trees. A few seconds later, the stone lizard corpses dropped down like raindrops.

 

"..." Morgan gave a strange look and turned to Nigel, "How can he be so nonchalant like that?"

 

"Don't ask me. I'm shocked too." "I gave up a long time ago."

 

It didn't take long before all the corpses were on the ground. 

 

"Wow, you guys killed a lot of them."

 

"Morgan, I have a proposition." 

 

"Hmm? What do you have in mind?" 

 

"How about you guys take some of the lizard's corpses as replacements for the damaged goods?" The stone lizard's skin should be enough to repay for the damage those two caused. 

 

Morgan quickly refused, "No. How can I accept it?!" Just one stone lizard was enough to replace all of the damaged goods.

 

"Nah, you can take it. The rest agreed with this." Onyx talked about it with the group, and they decided on it too. 

 

"We have more than enough to share with the rest even after you take it." They had killed more than 30. 

 

"....Alright. Thank you very much!" Morgan finally accepted the lizard corpses. Moving all of them,  

 

"You guys can continue to sleep. I doubt any monsters will come over and deal with us." Onyx said. 

 

"Gotcha." Morgan and his employees went back to sleep. And Onyx's group decided to sit back at the campfire again. 

 

"Alright, now that we're done giving it to them, let's distribute the rest between ourselves," Nigel smiled. Even after giving Morgan a tenth of it, there were still many to share. 

 

"There's enough to go around for all of us. How about we distribute it evenly between all of us?"

 

"I'm fine with that." "Me too."

 

"Should I really get something? I didn't do anything, though?" Willa looked down at the ground. She didn't do anything at all for the entire fight. When Rena woke them up, Willa and Tricia didn't even understand what was going on!

 

And when they dealt with the monsters charging at him, Rena was the one who killed all of them. She and Tricia stood there and watched.  

 

Nigel shook his head, "No. We'll all get a share. We all worked hard for it. You protected Morgan and the rest. You've done well. So be proud." 

 

"...Understood." With that, everybody got corpses. 

 

Willa and Tricia's faces beamed with happiness when they got the corpses. This was something they never expected to have. They were only F and G-rank adventurers, yet they got D-rank material.

 

"Onyx, are you sure you don't want any stone lizards?" Even Nigel was happy about the sudden haul. But he looked at Onyx in concern.

 

Onyx shook his head, "I'm fine. I got this, so I don't need anything else." Instead of taking any of the stone lizard corpses, Onyx got the alpha. Compared to the regulars, it was much better than theirs. 

 

I can make some equipment with this. As Onyx thought about what kind of armor he was going to make, Nigel spoke out, 

 

"What do we do about those two?" Everybody's expressions turned dark upon hearing his words. Nigel didn't need to say who it was. 

 

They know. 

 

"Where did those two clowns even go again?" Cyrus was too focused on the fight to even care about them. 

 

"If they didn't return, they might still be running from their lives." The fight ended a while ago. And these stone lizards were taken out with group effort.

 

So it was more likely that Vinnie and Blaine were still running away. 

 

"What are we going to do about them?" There was no way they could let this go after what they did. 

 

They just left them out to die. 

 

"The guild is definitely going to want to hear about this. When we get to the Riqueza Kingdom, we'll inform the staff about what they did."

 

"Gotcha." Cyrus nodded, "But what are we going to do about the sleeping? Onyx, got any ideas?" 

 

Everybody looked at Onyx, waiting for his response. 

 

"For now, we should go with the first plan Nigel brought out. We should do it in pairs as there may be monsters left." He told Morgan that other monsters wouldn't be coming here.

 

But he wants to make extra sure. With how much noise they made from fighting, monsters might come at them again and attack. 

 

"Gotcha." "Rena and I will take the first watch." 

 

"Alright, good night then." The four went back into their own tents. 

 

Onyx and Rena sat beside the fire. I can use it now. With everybody asleep, Onyx took out some materials from his dimensional bag. 

 

"Master, what are you doing?"

 

"I'm just doing some maintenance on my sword" Onyx took a cotton ball and began to dab on his sword. He brought all the necessary items with him to do light maintenance. 

 

He wasn't planning to do anything like this unless he wanted them to find out about his dimensional bag. But with everybody asleep, he could take these things out now. 

 

"Rena, hand your arrows over. It will be difficult to damage the monsters if the point is dull." Onyx remembered how Rena would reuse her arrows, taking them off the goblin and lizard corpses. And shooting the same arrows many times would make the tip dull even faster. 

 

"Thank you, master." Rena didn't hesitate and handed him the arrows. Examining them, even Onyx was surprised by how dull they were. It's so round. 

 

He felt the tip of the arrows, and there was no sharpness or point.

 

"Were you aiming at their bones?" Rena nodded, "Yes. Most of the shots I took were aimed at the joints." By aiming at the joints, it slowed the monsters from getting closer. 

 

"I see. Then I better get these sharpened." Onyx began to grind the arrows down using the whetstone. His moves were slick and quick, like he did this for months. 

 

I've gotten better. Onyx smiled a bit. In the beginning, Onyx was horrible at repairing anything. Gus screamed in his ear so many times that it might've exploded. 

 

However, as time went on, he got better at doing it. 

 

After a few minutes of grinding, Onyx handed the arrows, "These arrows should pierce through the bones now." 

 

"Thank you master." Onyx continued to work on his sword. But he added, "You can go to sleep, Rena. I can watch over the camp by myself."

 

"Master, you should be the one to rest. I can keep watch instead." Rena instantly refused. 

 

"But you'll have a better aim after you get some rest."

 

"If you're going to say that, then you should be the one resting, master. You're the most important piece in our group."            

 

"..." Staaarrreeee. The two of them go into a staring match with each other. In the end, Onyx sighed, "Shouldn't you be listening to me? Aren't I your master?"

 

"Master did tell me before not to worry about our relationship. And you can use the seal to order me whenever you want." 

 

"I will never do that." Onyx knew about it as well. Onyx could literally order her to die, and she wouldn't be able to stop it. However, he would never use it.             

 

"You can. And it's my duty to watch over your health as well."

 

"Alright, alright, you win." Onyx didn't know what to say but gave in. But he did make a slight smile on his face. These types of things always made Rena open up a bit more.