New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 971: The Unforeseen Issue

"Once inside the caldera, we'll need a way to either ditch our escort, or make sure they can't follow us. Because as soon as the harpies spot us, there won't be time to tell them to run. Harpies tend to act as a flock, and by my estimations, there should already be no less than thirty.

"If we have to cover for two regular folks while we fight, this hunt goes from already dangerous to possibly deadly. We'll need all our focus on them."

"I'll take care of that," Liu Yan said with a mysterious grin.

"No killing," Alex interjected, unsure of what he had in mind.

Liu Yan put on an offended face, looking at Alexander with a faked disgruntlement.

"Of course, no killing! Who do you think I am?" he rebutted.

Alex shrugged, saying, "Eh. I barely know you. Maybe you're a closet psychopath. Better to specify than have to deal with bodies."

Liu Yan coughed at his response, only realizing after a moment that he was joking.

But David raised his hand, interrupting their banter.

"Can I keep going? Or will we waste our day here, chatting back and forth?"

Alex smiled at him, saying nothing more, and Liu Yan looked at David apologetically.

"Thank you," David replied to their silence.

"Where was I? Ah, yes. Once we ditched the escort, we'll have to make our way down into the caldera and attract the harpies' attention. Once we have their eyes on us, we should be able to take care of them swiftly, which would be ideal, since most of you don't have a mana lobe yet.

"Something that our guild leader could fix, if he wasn't always busy doing things on his own," David said, blame dripping from his words.

Alex looked away, acting like a spot on the ceiling had caught his attention, making David shake his head in annoyance.

"In any case, we will need to take care of this as swiftly as possible. I don't know if there are only regular harpies, as the satellite imagery only catches sight of the nest periodically, and none of the snaps show anything other than normal ones.

"I can't even find their hatching area, which is what worries me the most," he sighed, going through the snaps, all of which showed increasingly more harpies.

This was indeed worrying, as they had no solid idea of what they were stepping in.

"My most realistic bet here is that they have nested in one of the volcanic tubes that open up over the sea. But since the angle never shows us inside, I have no way to be sure. We'll have to be careful about this," David pointed out.

He swiped at the table again, a 3D rendering of the volcano appearing instead of the satellite imagery.

"With the Bellemares' help, we were able to map the island and the volcanic tubes that still pass under it, as well as inside it. Sadly, we couldn't get a satellite scan, so we only know the layout.

"With this information, we should be able to track down any stray nests if there are any, and take care of them to eliminate the problem. But this is where the issue could get more dangerous..." David said, pausing at his last word.

Alex looked at him, a worried expression flashing on his face.

"What haven't told us, David?" he asked.

David looked at him and pursed his lips in hesitation.

"We got recent reports of seismic activity of the volcano. All signs point to the volcano becoming active again," he said, hesitantly.

Alex and Kary both frowned.

"Isn't that a good thing? I doubt the monsters could resist getting submerged in lava," Alex pointed out, with a cocked eyebrow, thinking nature could fix their issue for them.

But David's sigh pushed his building relief away.

"It's not that simple, Alex. This volcano has been considered dormant for a long time now. Its last eruption was over six thousand years ago. If it's now showing signs of activity, after so long of dormancy, without a triggering factor like a massive earthquake, or shift in tectonic plates, then it means something else is at play."

Kary looked at the 3D rendering, and saw that the tunnels all connected in the center, about a hundred feet under sea level, into a large chamber, from where a much larger tunnel went toward the center of Jeju Island, where the main volcano was located.

"I read somewhere that Jeju volcano was also considered dormant. Are there signs of activity at that one as well? Or is it just this one?" she asked, looking concerned.

David shook his head no.

"Just this one. Which is what worries me. The last time, there were no signs of any activity around Jeju. This means that everything that is happening now is not a recurring event from my last life. I have no idea what to expect as an outcome.

"But I do know one thing," he said, pointing at the chamber she had been eyeing.

"Whatever is causing the activity, it's in that chamber. And if we let it linger too long, it could cause a catastrophic event to the entire island. So our hunt might turn into something bigger, depending on what we find..."

Kary and Alex weren't too happy about this. They were heavily unprepared for an expedition any longer than a single day.

Even if they could buy supplies directly here for a more extended trip, they lacked the manpower to rotate in the event of a multi-day hunt. This trip would get increasingly dangerous the longer it took.

"And why are you only telling us this now?" Alex asked, slightly peeved he had held this information from them.

"Because I wasn't sure until we landed. Katherine was still doing scans with her satellites and scouring the web for reports of seismic activity. It isn't easy, even for her, to hack into science institutes undetected, you know?"

Alex clicked his tongue, annoyed at this truth.

"And what would this mean in a more general term?" he asked.

"It means we might not be able to achieve complete success here. We might need to call in some reinforcements, or forsake complete victory altogether..."