Chapter 707: Chapter 707: Rendezvous

Flynn Hansen had a point. In any case, the fact that his four teammates were still alive was the best news they could hope for.

The terrain on Demon’s Ridge was treacherous, making the path extremely difficult. Rotted leaves and moss were incredibly slippery, and a single misstep could lead to a fall. The four of them held their staves and proceeded with extreme caution, watching every step.

Water droplets from the leaves dripped down onto her goggles. Evelyn Ford wiped them away with her sleeve and quickened her pace to keep up with Ronan Kendrick. Her shoes were already soaked through. Every time she lifted and lowered her foot, water squeezed out from the fabric and lace eyelets.

Mushrooms were already growing on the trees. The tree mushrooms were growing in overwhelming abundance, and Evelyn picked a good number of them as she walked. They would be perfect for a warming soup tonight to ward off the cold.

Two hours later, they finally crossed two mountains and arrived at a swamp. Evelyn pulled out her map for a look. They should be close to the area where one of the teammates was located. Flynn Hansen borrowed a whistle from her. A signal of three long blasts and one short one rang out. A few minutes later, a series of responses echoed from a distant mountain peak.

"It’s my teammate! I heard a reply!" Flynn was ecstatic. He found a very tall tree, climbed it, and continued to blow the whistle to call out to his teammate.

He would blow a blast, and the other side would answer.

"We’ve got a rough direction. Let’s go. We’ll meet up with your teammate first."

Flynn jumped down from the tree, his face flushed red with excitement. "They’ll never guess it’s me. They’re going to be so surprised."

"Then you should put on your mask later. We’ll go say hi to your teammate first," Ryan Rowe suggested, coming up with another one of his bad ideas. And yet, Flynn actually agreed.

"Okay, I’ll give them a good scare."

Evelyn and Ronan glanced at each other, both with a look of utter speechlessness on their faces.

The swamp was overgrown with weeds taller than a person. To get through, they had to wade through them. Evelyn handed everyone a sickle. With a light swing of the blade, large swaths of weeds fell to the ground. But the swamp was all mud and water. The moment Ryan stepped onto it, he sank a good way in. Fortunately, Ronan reacted quickly and yanked him out.

"That scared me to death! It felt like a pair of hands was grabbing my feet just now. The more I struggled, the faster I sank. The mud feels like it’s sucking me in. It’s terrifying."

"The mud in a swamp is active. It doesn’t just pull, it pushes too. Be careful."

Ronan spread the cut weeds over the swampy ground. He walked in front, and everyone followed closely behind him. The swamp was vast; it took them over an hour just to cross it.

Besides the terrifying swamp, the primeval forest was also home to all sorts of wild animals. Luckily, they didn’t encounter any today. If it were summer, the place would probably be swarming with snakes, bugs, and flies.

"My shoes are full of mud. What a pain."

"There’s a puddle over there. Rinse the mud out, or your feet will slip easily."

Evelyn took a few bottles of water from her backpack and passed them around. Hearing Ryan and Flynn’s conversation, she noticed Ryan’s shoes.

"You should change them. The sole is coming off," Evelyn said, taking out a few pairs of shoes. She and Ronan both changed out of their soaking wet combat boots.

After changing their shoes, the four of them rested for a few more minutes before setting off again. Half an hour later, they successfully met up with the first teammate.

"Marcus." Flynn had originally planned to scare his teammate, but when he saw him, he was no longer in the mood for such games.

"Captain?" Marcus Scott heard Flynn’s voice and was still unsure. It wasn’t until Flynn took off his mask and walked right up to him that he believed Flynn had really returned.

"You’ve worked hard." After hugging Marcus, Flynn clapped him firmly on the shoulder.

"It was nothing, Captain! We didn’t let you down. We’ve been keeping an eye on the wild boars and cattle in the mountains. We haven’t lost a single one. In fact, dozens more have been born this past month."

Marcus was thrilled and rattled off everything that had happened over the past month to Flynn.

"Captain, after you left with the other brothers, Gavin Gable, Sonny Sawyer, Wayne Xavier, and I—the four of us—built a thatched hut at the foot of the mountain. The wild boars and cattle couldn’t wander far, but they kept coming down to ravage that patch of Water Celery. We had no choice but to drive them back up into the mountains. To stop them from coming down and destroying the Water Celery, we moved into the mountains ourselves. Half a month ago, the four of us split up. I don’t know where they are now. I’ve been calling for them, but I haven’t gotten any response."

"Don’t worry, they’re all okay."

Marcus’s eyes lit up. "Captain, you found them?"

"Not yet. But we brought the base’s divine tracking birds. We were able to find your location because these two divine birds went into the mountains last night to scout and pinpointed your exact positions." Hearing the words "divine birds," the two small birds, who had been dazing out on Evelyn’s shoulder, instantly puffed up their chests with pride.

"Divine birds? Are they really that amazing?" Marcus’s attention was immediately drawn to the two birds.

"They’re incredible. They can even understand human speech. They’re better than rescue dogs."

"As long as Gavin and the others are okay, I can rest easy. And who are these people?"

Flynn quickly told Marcus about the identities of Evelyn and the other two, and their purpose for coming to Demon’s Ridge. When he learned they had been sent by the base to help, Marcus was overcome with excitement.

"That’s fantastic! Did the base send a lot of people? By the way, the mountain paths are so difficult, how are we going to get the Water Celery and the wild boars and cattle out of here? The wild cattle are ferocious. They’ll charge people with their horns. They’re impossible to tame, unless we kill them and carry them out."

"Don’t worry about that. We’ll make the arrangements. Marcus, come with us out of the mountains for now. We’re going to find Gavin and the others first." Flynn paused, then continued, "From now on, we just need to follow orders. Understood?"

"Understood."

There were over a hundred wild boars in Marcus’s area alone. He led them on a detour to avoid the herd of large, brown, long-haired boars.

"The wild boars on Demon’s Ridge are very different from other boars. Their limbs and bodies are long, and they even have tusks and long quills. They’re almost like small black bears. By the way, what do they usually eat?"

"They only eat the wild vegetables in the mountains and the Water Celery from the swamp down below. Oh, and I noticed they like to root around in the ground. I thought they were eating tree roots, but it turns out they’re after black truffles. I’ve gathered a lot of them myself in my spare time these past few days. With nothing else to eat in the mountains, I’ve been surviving on them."

Ryan Rowe tsked twice. "These days, even the wild boars eat better than we do."

Hearing this, Marcus scratched his head in embarrassment, then pulled a few black truffles from his tattered pocket.

"Here, try some. They don’t taste great, but they’re very nutritious."

The truffles he took out were still caked with dirt. Ryan was about to refuse, but Flynn reached out, took them, and pressed one into everyone’s hand.

"You can eat them raw. They’re very fresh."

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