Chapter 2184: Althea Returns

Althea and Garan’s group had been rushing back for more than a week since they left Warrior City. It was really not nearby at all, and it was a hassle because they could not use the Mercenary Hall arrays due to the composition of their party.

Fortunately, they had Sol, who was quite a bit faster than beast carts, especially since the maximum level of beasts that could be ’tamed’ was only around level 15. Without Sol, they definitely would take much longer to get to their current spot.

During this time, since they had entered the town region far away from the city, they didn’t bother to cover up the dwarves anymore. As long as they were confident with their overall strength, they would have no need to endure discomfort.

Now, the dwarves were openly hanging on to the orcs, and their group had gotten quite familiar with each other.

They also had another companion this time, Virion, who literally tagged along without much warning. However, Althea and Garan didn’t mind tag-alongs, and it wasn’t like Virion needed to get carried.

Virion had long wanted to go to Alterra. Now that he wanted space from his wives and he finally had a good rival, how could he not go and see?

Also, there were so many dwarves. He was needed there to guard them.

And they actually needed it.

After they left, a few forces from Warrior City actually went out to target them.

Although Valhalla and Virion were strong siblings and were overlords of the City, such a massive place was always a mixed bowl. There would always be forces trying to gain more advantages over the others and each one was not weak.

The group that dared target them was not the same as the group that attacked the villa. They did not even know Virion was coming or that they didn’t know there were actually more than a dozen orcs in this group, some of which were far more powerful than orcs they knew, which was scary enough

This group sent a few dozen men, the weakest of which was level 20. They couldn’t deal with Althea’s group within city walls because they had the Lord’s backing, but outside it was free-for-all.

Who’d have thought not long after leaving the City, many would be riddled with holes with Virion’s lasers, wrapped to death by vines, frozen by ice, buried by random tunnels appearing underground, and so on.

There were also a dozen or so pureblooded orcs who could handle two or three on their own. They were so sturdy and could only be damaged with Class C weapons and above.

They were already lucky that the sunflower thing didn’t seem to want to eat them and just repeatedly slapped them on the ground, on trees, or against each other.

The two level 40s sent out by this group were both injured so badly that they were barely alive and would have permanent effects.

Suffice it to say, Althea and her group, despite being caught outside, did not suffer losses.

Their group hadn’t entered any territory in this period of time, completely just camping the whole time. They wanted to avoid any further conflicts.

Anyway, with Althea’s large, plantable space and the constant flow of monster meat coming their way, they really had no problems camping.

At night, Althea and Garan were most comfortable. After all, they had the portable House.

"Damn. I want something like this!" Virion muttered enviously at the side.

"If your space can’t carry it, there’s no point."

Even if someone had an earth elementalist on the team, it wasn’t practical to make small shelters. What were they going to do about it after? Just leave it? What a waste of mana!

"I do have a space stone!" Virion said. "It can fit a small structure."

Granted, it was the kind of space that wasn’t very big, and the shelter that could fit was the kind where he had to lean down to enter, but aren’t the tents like this?

"Just a small shelter," he said, looking at Althea.

"There’s no need for my wife to do this," Garan said, and he dragged Virion to do carpentry work instead.

The posts and beams were wood. The surface was made of tanned monster hide. Althea could whip up tanning solution with just the stuff in her space. She had a lot of chemicals in there, ready to do experiments anytime, anywhere.

They lived like this over the past week or so, and the trip was rather leisurely.

They didn’t expect that when they neared the region, they’d see acquaintances in the middle of nowhere.

One had to know that this place was huge. Even if several teams operated around the same territory, they might not actually cross paths. Otherwise, how would certain beast mobs completely miss certain villages on the way whenever they were targeting a town?

They were attracted by the large beast mob gathering around a small rocky mountain, quickly inferring there were people in there. At the time, Althea just sent Sol to see if the group needed help, not expecting them to be fellowmen.

They were all injured to various degrees, covered with sweat and grime. When they saw her and Garan, they looked like they were messiahs.

"WOW! Ministers Althea and Garan!"

"What? It’s really them!!"

"What a coincidence!"

Virion and the orcs cleared out the mobs while Althea and Garan jumped into the cave. They were greeted by dozens of people. There, they also saw the leader of the mercenary team guarding them.

"Helios? Long time no see."

Helios gave an embarrassing smile. Regardless of whether the situation was unavoidable or not, it still felt like he failed his duties for things to get this bad.

The others, on the other hand, after seeing their most reliable ministers, evidently loosened up. Even if they were in pain, their eyes had become bright, and it was almost like they were going on vacation.

"Lady Althea, Lady Althea! That...that Sunflower...."

"It’s my unique pet. Its name is Sol."

"Wow..."

"This..."

"Has there always been such a thing?"

They gaped and watched as the Sunflower continued to massacre a portion of the monsters, directly grabbing a few to eat.

While others were distracted by the plant, others’ attention leaned more towards the other fights, which were arguably no less impressive. "Are these orcs?! Full blooded ones?"

"They’re really large!"

"Wow, a deer!"

"Is that a wolf or a dog archetype? Such cute dog ears..."

"IKR. At least a head or two larger than Baku, let alone Gochi and Maomao."

"I want to climb over their shoulders..."

The orcs were fighting relatively near the mouth of the cave and they could hear these exclamations. They were shocked to see such friendly humans.

Though the humans in Warrior City were civil, they weren’t particularly passionate or excited. For the Quo Town orcs who had been interacting with humans even before, it was even more of a shock.

Then...as the mob decreased more and more, they could see that at the back of the line, there was another group. They were taken up by orcs and they flinched in surprise.

"DWARVES!"

"Hello~"

"You look a little different from what I know..."

"Nice tattoos..."

"Do you wanna see my phone?"

Anyway, whether it was the plants, the full-blooded orcs, or the dwarves, the Alterrans could only say that Lady Althea and Sir Garan could really recruit new talent!