“For now check to see if there are any wounded.”

I ordered Ryu, and afterwards just sat down on the ground. This time’s campaign was a fail… We at least managed to get a look at the real BOSS, still due to being exhausted we couldn’t do anything…

I was thinking that it was about time we all went back, however, considering that we had 2 team mates that had went missing, we couldn’t just go back without searching for them.

‘Still that Gojo… What in the world did he do.’

The monsters that were rushing towards Gojo had suddenly been blasted away, and had died just like that.

‘I wonder if he used some kind of skill?’

“Wan! We have a problem. Another 3 guys have gone missing!”

“What!?”

What was going on… With the 2 from before now there were 5 people that had suddenly vanished.

“Did you check the surroundings?”

“Yea we did, however they were nowhere to be found!”

“We’re going to find them immediately! Let’s first divide into several teams…”

“Wait! It’s way too dangerous to look for them now Wan!! Let’s first go back and regroup.”

“They should still be close! We can’t just leave them here.”

“Calm down! Everyone’s exhausted. If the worst comes to be, then all of us might end up being wiped out. What are you, the leader, going to do in that case!”

I often had quarrels with Ryu, and in most of them he was the one that was right. This time wasn’t an exception as well…

“Okay… We’ll go back for a bit, however when we go back we’ll make a team as fast as possible and go look for them!”

“I’m glad you understand, let’s do that. It’s not like they’re amateurs. They won’t die that easily!”

We tidied up and decided to go back. After all going back safely with everyone was one of my duties as well…

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

‘It looks like we’re going back after all… To be honest continuing the search is dangerous so I do think it was the right decision.’

Thinking that I began to pack and prepare to head back, when Wan talked to me.

“Thank you for helping us back there. What do you think about the BOSS? I want to hear your opinion as well Gojo.”

After thinking for a bit I answer her.

“I don’t think that’s the BOSS… It was probably some other kind of monster.”

For an instant Wan made a stupefied expression.

“Why do you think that?”

“Compared to the BOSS that I saw before, how should I say it, this one’s power and feeling were just lacking. It’s hard to believe that the BOSS that’s in control of whole of China is weaker than the one that was in Japan.”

And after checking its stats, it just seemed like its level was on the low end as well. Even though it had that Undying skill I still didn’t think it was the BOSS.

“I see…”

Said Wan with a disappointed look on her face. At that time, a person from the back of the line came running, hurriedly towards us.

“What happened?”

Wan asked the the running group member.

“Another person disappeared!!”

That along was enough to tell us that something strange was going on.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Up until now 6 of Suzaku’s members had disappeared just like that… There was definitely something going on! They aren’t your everyday people after all!

Even if something had occurred it’s hard to believe that they would disappear without leaving behind any traces… Which meant that…

“We’re being attacked! However I don’t know how…”

Upon hearing my words, everyone’s tension immediately heightened once again.

“Wan what should we do? Should we face it, or should we run?”

I immediately answered Ryu’s question!

“We’re retreating! It’s dangerous to fight an unknown opponent!! We’ll be moving in groups of 3, don’t travel alone by any means! Everyone, prepare to go down the mountain.”

Paektu Mountain had a lot of greenery, but it also had a lot of rocky regions, so the field of view wasn’t that bad. If an enemy attacked there’s no way we wouldn’t see it…

We immediately packed up, formed a line and proceeded to go down the mountain. All of us were on our toes as we were hurriedly going down.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

“I maxed out again…”

Before I had known it I had already maxed out the second Monk Class Slate.

→

Chi Control’s rank went up to B. Since its rank was now the same as Wan’s I should probably be able to start using Aura in the near future as well, was what I was thinking…

I took out another Monk Class Slate from my space region… I wanted to raise my Chi Control’s rank as much as possible so I immediately tapped the third Monk slate.

‘Still it’s strange. If we were attacked by a monster then I should have felt something.’

I had the Hostility Detection and Detection skills after all, so if there had been an attack I should have felt it.

‘Since I didn’t feel it does that mean that the monster attacking us has a skill similar to Stealth?’

While pondering about different stuff I heard a noise from the back. The whole group stopped and Wan and Ryu went to check. Apparently the three people in the far back had disappeared.

“No way!? Even though we were proceeding with such caution!?”

Ryu responded to Wan, whose words were already enveloped in rage.

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to escape… We’re completely trapped!”

The squad that had once contained 31 people, was now down just to 22…