Chapter 614: Escape From the Crystal Tree Forest (2)

"Stop!" The second Verdell and Valerie emerged from the forest and saw the large number of adventurers guarding the outskirts of the forest, some of the adventurers also spotted the two of them, with one immediately calling out for the two of them to stop.

""...""

Knowing that there was no way for the two of them to escape from this kind of lineup, Verdell and Valerie decided to follow along before Verdell silently signaled for Valerie to follow his lead. Knowing that Valerie wasn’t the brightest when it came to navigating these kinds of situations, something she was more than happy to follow along with as she settled in behind him.

"What is the matter? Why are there so many people gathered here? Did some rare monster emerge or something?" And seeing she settled in silently behind him, Verdell stepped out of the forest to meet the adventurer who had called out to the two of them with a confused expression clearly visible on his face as he asked this.

"Huh? Just two people... Ah, are you two perhaps unaware of the crystal bunny that emerged inside this crystal tree forest?" Faced with the confused expression of Verdell, along with the fact that he and the young woman behind him didn’t fit the description of any of the people they had set up to catch, the adventurer eased his expression as he asked. The earlier suspicion and tension in his voice from calling out earlier had already vanished.

"A crystal bunny!? Something like that emerged here!? No, we haven’t heard about it. Me and my friend have been spending the past few weeks in this forest trying to complete her class advancement quest." Showing a shocked expression on his face before quickly shaking his head while explaining what the two of them had been up to, Verdell earned an understanding nod from the other party and the few adventurers who had crept over from the side.

The explanation he gave was normal and wasn’t odd in the slightest to these adventurers. Him and his companion, not knowing about what was happening, was understandable given how the section of the crystal tree forest that had been affected by the influx of adventurers was in a completely different place.

Not to mention, this place had a dugout just outside the forest. Making it the perfect place for someone who wanted to enter the forest to hunt monsters or complete a specific class advancement quest to enter the crystal tree forest through.

"I see... We are here trying to catch the ones who got their hands on it, though, if you want to join us, you will have to get ready for killing other adventurers!"

"That..." Hearing the explanation from the adventurer followed by the clear look of hostility from the surrounding adventurers who didn’t want anyone else to join the upcoming fight. Especially not someone who was clearly a powerful adventurer like himself, Verdell showed the right amount of hesitation before slowly shaking his head after seemingly thinking things through for a bit. "No thanks, I think both me and my friend would like to avoid a bloody struggle like that. Especially considering how we have just spent weeks in the forest fighting monster without pause." Refusing the offer a few seconds later.

"I understand, I recommend you and your friend leave this place- or you might get caught up in the upcoming battle..."

"Of course, we will take our leave immediately." Feeling the underlying threat within those words, Verdell nodded his head in agreement before he and Valerie made their way through the gathering of a little over a hundred adventurers before starting their journey back to the city.

In the end, the main reason why the two of them were able to make it through these adventurers blocking the forest entrance was because the two of them were rather unique in their own way.

One was a dwarf while the other was a woman standing over two meters tall. Not exactly common amongst adventurers and undoubtedly someone that these adventurers were able to cross out immediately as being amongst the group of adventurers they were waiting for.

After all, if they had truly been part of that group of adventures, they would have been difficult to miss.

"For once, I really do apricate this place not having any dwarves around..." And as the two of them successfully escaped what could have been a deadly encounter had the two of them been the common human or beastkin that were the most numerous amongst adventurers, Verdell couldn’t help chuckling to himself as he muttered this. Feeling grateful that the northern frontier essentially only had his uncle around and not a single other dwarven adventurer from what he had seen so far.

It wasn’t to say dwarves were rare amongst adventurers; it was just that they didn’t tend to go to a cold desolate place like the northern frontier that wasn’t just dangerous but had yet to uncover any rare minerals or other underground resources that dwarven adventurers specialized in extracting.

Or more specifically, dwarven adventurers were good when it came to clearing out underground monsters and securing underground mineral veins.

Before the northern frontier stabilized enough to start surveying the underground resources that had yet to be uncovered, it was unlikely any dwarves would bother to make the trip all the way to the dangerous northern frontier.

On the contrary, because many dwarves class advancement quests tended to involve finding certain unique metals underground, if new and unique magical ores were uncovered, the northern frontier might end up becoming overwhelmed with an influx of dwarves...

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself while moving through the thick snow, Verdell remembered how such a thing had indeed ended up happening at another frontier of the guild.

Not only had that frontier ended up becoming overrun by dwarves, with dwarves making up three fourths of the adventurers there, but a local dwarven kingdom had ended up jumping at the opportunity to expand into that frontier. Turning it into part of this dwarven kingdom before the guild even had the chance to react.

Normally, the guild would have been against something like this, but given how this was a frontier that was already extremely resource demanding to maintain, the guild had been more than happy to negotiate with the dwarven kingdom over the land and certain special resources and dungeons within the frontier the guild wanted, something that was agreed on within a few short days, as the dwarven kingdom was only interested in some specific ore veins that happened to aid in the class advancement of certain unique classes to the dwarven race...

"Verdell?" And seeing him space out for a bit thinking about this, Valerie poked his head as she asked in a somewhat worried tone.

"Ah, it’s nothing, just thinking about how easy it was for us to get through those adventurers." Knowing it was best not to make her think he had been hit by some kind of confusion spell, Verdell quickly reassured his friend before throwing the matter of the dwarven kingdom to the back of his mind.

Although, part of him still wondered if there was a chance that the guild would end up recovering some kind of precious ore vein in the northern frontier that would make dwarves start swarming into the place like what had happened in the past.

Even if not to the point of getting a dwarven kingdom to jump in, at least enough to make a few more dwarves show up.

His hope that more dwarves would show up in the northern frontier aside, Verdell and Valerie made the several hour-long journey back to the city with relatively little difficulty. Only ever encountering a few weaker monsters that were native to the northern frontier along the way and a few adventurers that had originally set out for the crystal tree forest in hopes of obtaining the crystal bunny but were forced to leave early because of injuries they received from the monsters inside the crystal tree forest.

Taking the opportunity, Verdell and Valerie mixed in with these adventurers who were already on the way back to the city. Fitting in without any issues, as they began learning a bit more of what had happened inside the core of the crystal tree forest after they had left.

According to one of the injured adventurers, he was part of a large group of adventurers that had set out with the goal of capturing the crystal bunny and two of the mages in their group could use a special magic for long distance communication to communicate with each other.

From this, he had managed to learn what had happened inside the forest after the group who had "fooled" everyone into guiding the crystal bunny into their trap before seizing the crystal bunny to escape. Deciding to share this with everyone after Verdell asked about it. Not seeing any reason to hide something like that in the first place.