Alka and the other two quickly returned to the camp, which essentially became their residence.
"How's the situation in the Land of Fragrant Flowers?" Lucilia asked, jumping onto Alka's shoulders.
The three of them sat down in the middle.
They began to talk.
"The situation in the Land of Fragrant Flowers is not bad, but it's really heavily guarded, making entry very difficult."
Alka said from the side, "As for the two options we discussed earlier, the one proposed by Sofia has been eliminated."
"What's going on?" Julia asked.
"The area where the treasure is hidden, coincidentally, is where the undead are stationed. Unless we can fight our way out, it's best not to go treasure hunting there under these circumstances."
Alka said, giving Narvi an apologetic smile. "We've been hired by the Fragrance Land to help them eliminate the demons wreaking havoc within.
Would you like to join us? The spoils will be shared among you based on your contribution."
He could clearly see Narvi's strength; he was also at the third stage, but he didn't know if this member of the Nafas family possessed a treasure.
Possessing a treasure and not possessing one displayed different strengths.
Those with treasures had a huge advantage.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to kill the demons with such ease as they had previously demonstrated.
For a normal Toucher without a treasure, it would be difficult for them to achieve such ease. Fighting against demons always comes at a price.
Narvi thought for a moment and nodded.
Now that he was here, he couldn't stay here forever; he had to find something to do.
Besides, he had clearly witnessed the strength displayed by Alka and the others. Following them would be safer than staying alone in the camp.
Seeing Narvi nod in agreement, Alka also nodded, and the matter was settled.
"Get ready, everyone. After understanding the specific situation tomorrow, we may split up into teams. This will be more efficient," Alka said, turning to the group.
The main reason was that they had too many people, and with the help of the puppet girl, they were relatively well-equipped.
If they acted together, their efficiency would be too low.
Besides, they were searching for demons. Although this world was damaged, it still had some rules.
Not to mention that the Land of All Spirits was the domain of a god, although this god had relaxed his control over the area during this critical period.
However, the portals opened by those demons couldn't transport too many demons at a time.
Otherwise, this place would have fallen long ago.
As a result, despite such a vast territory, the demon population wasn't as high as they'd imagined. This was primarily due to the demons' strength and mobility, which resulted in a great deal of destruction and chaos.
Coupled with their chaotic nature, this caused considerable trouble.
And to defeat them, an elite squad or a sufficient number of ordinary soldiers would be required.
For the Land of the Spirits at this stage, such a configuration was a bit too extravagant.
They were almost all trying their best to resist the undead pouring in from the border.
Everyone nodded.
They rested, awaiting tomorrow.
...
The next day.
This time, Alka traveled alone to the Land of Fragrance. The others, in the camp, made preparations, awaiting his return.
Soon, Alka passed through the layers of checkpoints and arrived at the military camp.
This time, a soldier led him directly to a side entrance next to the camp, where a dedicated greenhouse stood.
As Alka entered, he saw Gilliana bustling about inside. Besides her, many soldiers in lightly armored clothing were coming and going.
There was a vast amount of information and materials piled up here.
He could see blue birds constantly flying back and forth.
This place was probably used for intelligence processing.
Alka stood there waiting for a moment. Gilliana, who had finished her work, saw him and hurried over.
"Sorry, I'm a little busy right now. Come with me."
With that, he led Alka to the table inside.
He took out a stack of information and handed it to Alka.
"This is the detailed information at this stage. The time the information was transmitted is marked in the upper right corner. You'll have to interpret it yourself.
It's best to come once a week to receive the latest information. There are also some key targets, and the amounts are also marked."
Alka briefly glanced over the information.
It briefly described which areas were most infested with demons and which areas were roaming with powerful demons.
It also marked several demon camps where these demons had established stable portals.
Alka stored the information in his space ring and said simply, "Okay, I'll be leaving now. You go ahead and wait for our good news and prepare the money."
Hearing this, Gilliana smiled helplessly, shook her head, said goodbye to Alka, and went back to work.
Alka quickly returned to the camp on the Swallow and placed the information on the table.
Everyone took some and examined it. "So much money for clearing out a demon camp?" Jason looked at the amount listed below the demon camp information with a hint of surprise.
The information they had revealed only three demon camps. The cheapest one was priced at over 3,000 gold sails, and the most expensive was nearly 4,000.
This was quicker than robbing money.
"Forget it. We can't afford to offend them," Juanlu said helplessly, rolling his eyes.
He also held another demon camp document, which clearly stated that powerful demons often appeared within the camp.
They were estimated to be at the fifth stage.
"But fortunately, the strongest of these demons are mid-level. I haven't seen any high-level demons. Demons this powerful aren't allowed to escape here either."
Simon said with a sigh of relief after flipping through the information in his hand. The strongest mid-level demons are at stage five, or at the lower end of stage five.
At least once a fight breaks out, they won't be completely defenseless, and they have ample opportunities to escape.
In short, there's danger, but it's not yet impassable.
"Look around and pick out some decent areas and targets," Alka said, beginning to sort things out.
Soon, everyone picked a relatively good area.
It was about a day's distance from their current location at full speed.
That area was almost the worst hit, where the demons first appeared, and there were more of them.
There was also a demon camp there, but it was the first one to be destroyed.
As a result, while there were many demons in that area, there weren't many powerful ones.
It was just enough for them to wreak havoc there, but of course, they still had to be careful.
After determining their target, Alka looked at everyone. "Then let's split up now."
"Sofia, Jason, Julia, and I. The four of us will form an assault team, specifically targeting the tough targets."
"Divide the puppet team into three teams. The remaining people will each lead a team in pairs to tackle the easier targets."
Everyone nodded.
Pororo and Matresa will be in one team.
Juanlu and Narvi, who were temporarily with them, will be in another.
Lucilia and Simon will lead puppet teams 5 and 9 to form the logistics and support team.
"Okay, now that we've decided, let's move."
After everyone had made their arrangements, they began to head towards their chosen destination.
A day and a night passed quickly.
They were currently on a reef, barely above the surface. From a distance, it didn't seem particularly remarkable, and could even be overlooked.
Looking at the massive reef, Alka pondered: "Let's dig through it and create a cave inside to serve as a temporary base."
He immediately acted, and everyone was immediately excited.
With Simon's abilities, he quickly carved out a small base, approximately three meters deep.
Using stones, a mechanical framework, and a certain amount of magic power, he constructed a hidden barrier above.
A faint pink mist drifted across the barrier.
Then Alka embedded a massive teleportation mirror at the base.
Everything was ready.
"We'll split up into three groups and leave now. The remaining group will remain at the base and wait for the others to take their turn."
Hearing Alka's plan, everyone nodded.
The group left behind by lottery was Juanlu's.
Watching Alka and the others leave, they hid within the base.
Jason glided swiftly through the sky, riding on Urulius's back.
He would be the scout for Alka's team, responsible for locking onto targets from the air.
Julia had transformed her legs into a fishtail, swimming through the water, ready to provide support to Alka and the others.
Alka and Sofia stood on the mirror Alka had created, floating on the sea.
"Simon and the others sent word that they spotted a small group of mid-level demons. They appear to be resting. They've circled to the other side and marked their location for us," Alka informed the others, reading the text message transmitted from the mirror in his hand.
With that, he and the other three deviated from their course, heading towards the location they had received.
They had been heading in that direction for a moment when Jason in the sky announced, "Alka, there's a demon squad 1.6 kilometers to the left, weak."
Hearing this, Alka turned to Sofia and said, "Pass the message to the others and have them come."
As the message was passed back and forth, each locked onto their respective targets.
Alka and his companions, having taken a detour, soon ran into the demon squad ahead, which was resting.
Because Alka and his companions weren't completely concealed and were heading straight for them, they were quickly spotted.
"They've spotted us and are charging towards us!"
The demon squad ahead numbered six in total, with only two imps.
The mid-level demon in the lead was enormous.
It was about five meters long, but its shape wasn't humanoid. If anything, it looked more like an ape.
Its torso wasn't strong, but its dangling arms felt like two hammers.
Its dangling arms lacked fingers, and its palms were flat, flat as a sheet.
Its legs resembled cow hooves.
Its head lacked eyes, but instead had a slit, like a helmet.
A red light flickered within the slit, swaying back and forth.
Hidden within it was a single red eye.
A rainbow of light slid down from the sky, trailing several rainbow streaks as it slammed into the enemy ranks.
Crystals instantly spread like frozen ice.
The two imps were instantly frozen in place, transformed into crystals.
The other demons bore numerous wounds.
Urulius, carrying Jason, fell from the sky.
An orange-yellow light flashed.
A thin demon wielding a shattered, blood-red blade's eyes blurred.
A leg, shrouded in silver light, had already struck him in the neck.
With a cracking sound, his head instantly tilted to the side, his entire body slamming into the water.
But even with such a fatal wound, the demon's resilient body didn't lose its life.
The intense pain only fueled the demon's rage. Its eyes flashed red, and it roared in fury.
Using its sword to resist, it tried to stand up and continue the fight.
A blue meteor streaked across the sky.
Alka had vanished from the ground without a trace, reappearing high in the sky, crashing down with the force of a comet from the sky.
"Get out of the way!"
Jason, who had descended with the crystal dragon, rolled to avoid the great demon's punch. His eyes widened as he watched the falling meteor. "Urulius, take me away!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a tail curled around his body, and Urulius immediately leaped out from the demon throng, spreading outward.
With a flap of his wings, he flew seven or eight meters and hid.
The light that Sofia had transformed into also disappeared at its point of origin.
Julia, on the periphery, hadn't approached in the first place. He swirled the magic power in his hand, freezing the sea surface into spikes that pierced a demon and pinned it to the sea.
"Bang!"
The powerful impact slammed into the water.
The splash, like a bomb, transformed into a column of water that shot up into the sky.
A large amount of seawater fell like raindrops.
"Whoosh, whoosh..."
The sound of panting carried through the water curtain.
The scattered people looked inside.
Alka panted, rubbing his fists. "That feels so good!"
At this point, the vines below had already broken off in large numbers, and Alka was floating on the water, stepping on the mirror.
Everyone looked at the giant demon, who had only attacked a few times throughout, not even saying a word.
His arms, like iron bars, were completely severed in the middle, compared to his fists. His relatively thin body was folded together, and his legs were completely folded.
Gray-black blood, like molten iron, flowed from his body, staining the surrounding water like ink.
Observing this, Alka quickly pulled out the material stripper he carried from his pocket ring.
"This demon is too big to fit," Alka said uncomfortably.
He had no choice but to take out his tools and manually dissect the demon, which was slumped over the material stripper.
The most important thing was to collect the gray-black blood flowing from the body.
"This power is truly outrageous!" Jason, standing nearby, couldn't help but exclaim as he observed the situation.
Julia swam over from the edge, pushing aside the demons frozen into ice and crystals blocking her path.
Only half of one of the bodies remained.
The other half had transformed into shattered crystals, scattered in the water, mingling with the surrounding seawater before disappearing.
Looking at Alka, who was collecting blood and dissecting the body, Sofia frowned and said, "Don't make such a fuss next time. The power is already far too great."
Hearing this, Alka nodded repeatedly.
"I just wanted to test the effects of the most outrageous power. I have to say, it's very satisfying."
Because the demon he held, now a mere corpse, belonged to the Metal Steel category in the Demon Atlas.
This type of demon is known for its toughness and defensive abilities.
Those who are not very good at using spells, specialize in
The kind that thrives in melee combat.
Relying on immense physical strength for survival.
The result was that this demon, renowned for its defensive capabilities, was instantly crushed to death by his own blow.
One can imagine how immense the force generated by its meteoric transformation at maximum power was.
Most importantly, it was incredibly fast.
This already made him very satisfied.
What a pity, the corpse had been irreversibly damaged.
Alka took a quick look at the demon and found that its most valuable element was likely its iron-like arms.
What a pity, he had discounted them.
If he were to sell it, the price would undoubtedly be significantly reduced, but if he was only using it himself, it wouldn't be affected much.
Metallic materials like this were extremely tempting to Simon; he would probably use them all.
Thinking of this, Alka felt less distressed and quickly began the dissection.
Sofia and the others waiting nearby also relayed this information to the others.
After Alka had dissected the entire demon into a pile of raw materials, a ball of holy light appeared in Sofia's hand, illuminating the remaining discarded flesh and blood.
The holy light, like a flame, instantly ignited the entire mass of flesh and blood, emitting gray-black smoke and a pungent odor. A howl, like an angry roar, could even be heard amid the crackling sound of the burning.
The remaining flesh and blood could not be discarded carelessly, as it would pollute the surrounding environment. It must be eliminated using positive energy, or a relatively high-temperature flame.
It was best to use the flame of holy light to eliminate any hidden dangers.
After the process was completed, everyone left.