Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

While Elisabetha was dealing with the newcomers inside the domain, Rain tried to wake up the four prisoners, but he failed to do so. After he checked their bodies with magic, he confirmed that they had been drugged…

"They were probably knocked out as soon as they arrived in the city," Rain thought. "Then drugged to avoid letting them resist… the question is, why they didn't do the same to me? And why were they carrying them to this forest?"

Rain said things about Cthulhu, but he was only joking at the time… but there was something definitely dangerous in the forest. Rain kept healing those four, but nothing happened. Even his medical knowledge wasn't sufficient in that kind of situation… so perhaps the drugs had been crafted to ignore the effects of healing magic.

"This might be beyond my current magic skills since the people here had countless years to develop ways to keep people under control in these situations," Rain thought.

Now that things became obvious, Rain realized a bunch of weird things in the city… he didn't see a single kid, and he didn't see the elderly either. So, how come the city lasted that long? It was hard to imagine that everyone there was more than a few hundred years old. In the end, Rain could only wait for Elisabetha to get some results.

"... You want me to torture some people when I am also trying to understand the language of another group in the same area… how unreasonable can you be?" Elisabetha suddenly said after one hour.

"What did you learn?" Rain asked.

"Hmm… It seems their scheme has been going like this for quite a while," Elisabetha said. "This city was built after its founders decided to sacrifice newcomers for their so-called peace. These guys were from a group that confirmed the existence of other cities, but they couldn't come and go without offering some sacrifices to the monsters between the areas.

Also, apparently, you have to defeat at least one of those monsters to reach the next zone, but they always return after one hour. They never truly die."

"I see… so, we only have one hour to reach the next city and look for everyone and still want to reach the next zone," Rain said. Otherwise, we will have to fight the monster again."

"The issue is the fact that the monster here is a smart creature. Even after dying, it still remembers how it was killed," Elisabetha said. "Killing a second time should be even harder. Anyway, these people used the newcomers to prevent the monster from trashing out their city, and it seemed that such a setting was enough for the overlords of the prison."

"Do they know anything about the enemies?" Rain asked.

"Nothing," Elisabetha said. "They are as clueless as us. They fought some of their minions like robots, but they never fought those champions like the shaved guy in the dark armor."

That was troublesome… things were still a massive mystery. Still, Rain knew that he was going to find some answers once he met the guy controlling the prison. Defeating the monster in the forest shouldn't be hard, but he was worried about the possibility of leaving behind more people who had been captured.

"Is everyone in the city aware of this situation?" Rain asked.

"The higher-ups sure are aware," Elisabetha explained. "Those who aren't aware are those who have skills that are beneficial to the city and those who were too strong to be captured as soon as they arrived. They didn't capture you because the people around you immediately could tell that you wouldn't go down easily."

Rain sighed again… that was a difficult situation… he could target the higher-ups and capture them all like those guys. He did it now, but things will get chaotic in the city. Others will try to take their place, and the newcomers might be killed instead of captured now. His allies and friends will be in trouble if they have to fight agaisnt massive numbers alone.

It was clear that to escape the zone, people had to fight in groups to defeat this threat in the forest, but the people in the past eventually gave up on that. While they couldn't go that far, they still had a better situation overall, and things beyond were bound to get more difficult to deal with.

"What is the plan now?" Elisabetha asked. "I have the feeling that the monster in the forest is one of the first dragons, or at least something similar, so my power will be useful."

"Useful to take the levels of my skills…" Rain said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I will try to wake up these guys for a while, I will need the help of some extra hands, anyway."

Elisabetha nodded, and then she resumed her actions inside Rain's domain as well. Now that Rain thought about it, Elisabetha was talking a lot more than usual. It was a bit too late to wonder about that now, but it seemed that she was an introvert as well and didn't like to receive too much attention. Maybe it was because of her ominous aura or because of something else…

After doing several check-ups on those people, Rain confirmed that there was no toxin on their bodies that he could try to eliminate, so his current skills were almost useless. At that point in time, it was fair to say the spirits of those people had been drugged instead… the abilities of the people on the walls sure were something.

"Capturing everyone and gathering their knowledge for future reference will be going to be useful… However, there are some issues." Rain thought. "It is the only way to be sure as well that the others will be left alone… but these are some drastic measures, and I will end up making enemies of entire cosmic civilizations… once I do that, there is no way back…"