Lena and Jake went toward the clearing where Reidar currently was, though they were injured, so they were not as fast as they wanted. Before they reached the battleground, blue boxes flashed in front of them.

[Party Member Reidar Miller has defeated Level 375 Hydra.]

[Experience Distributed.]

[You have gained 5,420,000 C.L.A.S.P. Points.]

[You have earned 1,626,000 Survival Points.]

Jake blinked the notification away. "He did it," he said. "I mean, I know we've seen him pull off crazy stuff before, but that thing wasn't weak at all. It was a Tier 37 monster at Level 375."

"Yeah… Reidar is a hell of a lucky bastard," Lena said. "That trait is really a cheat." She sighed. She liked her Predator's Echo, but Jake's and Reidar's traits were out of this world.

"We can discuss how impressive it was later. Right now, we need to regroup and figure out our next move," Jake said, adjusting his broken arm against his chest.

"I know, I know," Lena said. "Just needed a second to process it, that's all."

The iron scent of blood hit them. It was strong enough to coat the back of their throats before they even cleared the trees.

Then came a wet, slick squelch as their boots struggled for purchase on a forest floor that had been turned into a mire of mud and gore.

Only after pushing through the last layer of underbrush did the source reveal itself: the massive corpse of the Mist-Gorged Hydra, still leaking blood onto the ground.

The Hydra's body was slumped in the center of the crushed vegetation. All five of the beast's heads were pinned to the ground.

Standing over the corpse were five of Reidar's Quadraginta swordsmen. Each one stood on one of the Hydra's heads, with their swords piercing through the monster's eyes to pin the heads to the ground and going through the brain.

Reidar stood a few meters away, wiping an oily substance from his armor. He looked up as they approached. He didn't smile and instead observed them and noticed they were injured.

"I got the notifications," Reidar said, his voice flat. "Isadora and Lucius are dead."

Lena nodded once. "Yes."

Reidar was silent for a moment. "They were Church officers. Dangerous ones."

"Doesn't make it easier," Jake said. "Even if they were the enemy, killing someone when they're out of mana and can't fight back… it's not pleasant."

"I know," Reidar said. He met Jake's eyes. "But they chose their side. Lucius commanded the forces that slaughtered civilians. Isadora used her healing magic to keep zealots alive so they could kill more people. They knew what they were doing."

"Still feels wrong," Jake said.

"It should," Reidar said. "The day it doesn't feel wrong is the day we've become like them."

There was no celebration and no debriefing. The threat was gone, and that was the only thing that mattered.

Behind Reidar, the Quadraginta began to move and began stripping the battlefield down. Their hands moved through the bodies of the church members scattered around the battlefield, looting them.

Reidar walked over to join them, and so did Lena and Jake. He kicked the corpse of a church caster over with his boot. "Let's see what they had. Maybe they were carrying something useful for once."

The loot from the cultists was disappointing. The Quadraginta piled it up: standard-issue Church daggers, amulets that provided minor mana regeneration, and armor that had been shredded by the Hydra's teeth or the summons.

It was mostly level 320 trash that served no purpose for their current power level other than to be converted into raw materials or be sold to the vendors.

Even gifting them to the survivors would be better than keeping them, the problem was that compared to the stuff sold by the vendors, made by people with decades of training in the craft and with a far better mana-based technology, these were mere trinkets, and it wasn't just that, but also the fact that even gifting those things wouldn't be useful since the average survivor was still weaker than level 200.

Maybe Creamont was an exception, and the rest of the world was even weaker.

"Garbage," Jake said as he sifted through a pile of tunics. "All of this is garbage. We risked our lives for pocket change and broken junk. Fantastic."

"We didn't do it for the loot, Jake," Lena said. "Besides, the problem is just that we are stronger than them. This gear will actually be rather useful for other people," Lena said.

She held up a dagger and examined some gloves before tossing them back into her inventory.

The cultists were expendable assets in Silas's plans. He had no interest in whether they survived or died, only that they did what they were told.

"Well, for once things are not going as they planned," Jake said. "The only problem is that you and I are both injured and exhausted. I'd say that counts as slowing us down." Jake said, turning to Lena.

"There is still that," Reidar said. He pointed to the Hydra.

The massive beast's body was still waiting to be looted. Reidar did it, and he got three items, actually.

There were three Helmets.

Reidar picked one up and gave the rest to the others. His was made of a dark, greenish scale material that felt cold to the touch. The faceplate was stylized to look like a reptilian maw.

The item's statistics appeared.

—[<< ITEM >>]—

Name: Great Helm of the Regenerating Head

Rarity: Epic

Type: Heavy Armor (Head)

Level Requirement: 320

Defense: 480

Durability: 150/150

Attributes:

S.H.I.E.L.D.: +25

A.C.U.M.E.N.: +15

Effects:

Hydra's Blood: Grants the wearer +200% Health Regeneration when out of combat and +50% Health Regeneration while in combat.

Toxin Filter: Grants immunity to airborne poisons and +40% Resistance to Acid damage.

Multi-Faceted Vision: The wearer cannot be flanked. The helmet provides a magical 360-degree field of view to the user's mind.

Description: A helm forged from the skull plates of a Mist-Gorged Hydra. It carries the creature's annoyance at dying.

—[<< END >>]—

"360-degree vision," Lena said, turning the helmet over in her hands. They all got the same helmet. It was weird loot, actually, because items were usually all different from each other.

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