The next day, Yusa video called both Krune and Ao Sulian. She wanted to discuss Shinja's situation once more.
"I don't think she would give us any problem, so what about we go to Raskie Danger Zone as we planned before? I believe that if necessary, she would sign a blood contract to keep things secret. Not to mention that she probably has got bored of staying in the city all the time too, don't you think?"
Krune simply followed logic. He didn't know Shinja as well as Yusa, so he just said.
"Well, if she does sign the blood contract, I have no problems with that. Finding out that I'm a wisp in my main concern, after all. If you can convince her to do that, then be my guest."
Ao also gave his piece.
"It's also good since if things really go south, she could help us out too."
Yusa nodded and accepted the task, she was the one who would talk to Shinja.
On the same day, Krune and the others gathered together again. Yusa had convinced Shinja to sign the blood contract after saying that she and Ao had also done it. Although she had some misgivings, she read the terms and concluded that it would not put herself in risk. Yusa believes that Shinja wouldn't do anything wrong, but they had to be careful. After that, Krune looked at everyone and said.
"Alright, it's still morning, and I'm getting tired of staying put, so let's go to the mission hall and take a mission. Our objective this time is to beat down an 8th stage Foundation Establishment beast without me using my real form. I believe that we have more than enough power and coordination to do that. As for Shinja, she will stay away and only intervene if something wrong happens."
Shinja eyes almost popped out of their sockets! 8th stage Foundation Establishment? As far as she can see, Krune is at the 4th stage while Yusa and Ao are on the 5th. It should be impossible for them to threaten an 8th stage demon beast.
'Could it be that they really just wanted to use me?'
She couldn't be blamed. She had never joined and team before, so after hearing that they would confront such a much higher level demon beast, she thought that they were only doing that to force her hand. Unfortunately, it was already too late since she had already signed the blood contract and can't change it.
"Does anyone have any questions?"
Ao and Yusa didn't say anything.
"Okay, we leave tomorrow morning, so take the rest of the day to prepare whatever you need."
The next day, Krune's group was again at the Solie Clan to use their teleportation formation. Zu Solie had already got numb to this. Since he is bound by contract, then forget it, he will just wait for the day that they leave once for all. With their cultivation progress, it won't take that long anyway.
The City of Harta was the closest one to the Raskie Danger Zone. The Danger was just a week away with Krune's group speed. The Raskie Danger Zone was a foggy forest, and there was fog all year round. Such an environment gave birth to quite a few weird beasts that had stronger Divine Senses. Of course, it's only reasonable that the local life evolved like that due to the circumstances.
Krune's group was walking in the city until they arrived at the Formations Guild where their employer was. After talking to the receptionist, they were guided inside until they arrived in an enormous room. From the outside, the place didn't look like that at all. It was evident that space expanding formation was in place here. Inside, their employer was already waiting for them. He is a Three Stars formation master and quite a famous one in the city.
"Hello, I'm Jorei. I believe you are the mercenary group that accepted the mission request, right? Thanks for your help."
Yusa came forward to make the talk.
"Yes, it is us. According to the mission information, you need us to capture an 8th stage fog leopard, is that right? Could you give us more information about that?"
Jorei nodded.
"That's correct, although the description is short, the mission will probably be quite hard. Fog leopards have evolved into their forms after living in the Raskie Danger Zone for a very long time. Their bodies can fuse together with the fog making them very hard to detect. I will need one of those to help with my research on a new concealing formation."
Yusa understood.
"Do you have the location so that we know where to go?"
Jorei then transferred the information to everyone's communicators. They opened it, and sure enough, it was very deep into the Danger Zone.
"This is everything you need to know about them. As to how to deal with the situation, I will leave it up to you."
Ao then asked.
"Do they have human form at that level? We need to know to be ready in case they transform in order to escape."
Jorei shook his head.
"No need to worry, fog leopards are quite a strong race, so hey shouldn't be able to change into human form at the 8th stage. But be careful of the other leopards, their groups usually have a core formation overseeing it."
Ao nodded. He then looked at Krune, who agreed that everything should be okay, and then he said.
"Okay, Ao and I are going to buy some supplies while Yusa and Shinja go buy some better concealing runestones. The ones sold in this city should work better in that fog forest. This time, don't buy only cheap ones. Remember that even Core Formation Beasts might scan the area we are in."
Yusa said back.
"Of course I will buy good ones, I'm not crazy."
Krune, Ao, and even Shinja, who already understood Yusa a bit, looked at her with doubtful eyes. Yusa immediately got upset.
"Why are you even looking at me? At least I always got some concealing runestones! What about Ao? He doesn't even have one!"
In fact, the price didn't matter much. All the expenses, while they were in the mission, would always be shared between the three. But Yusa still believed that the less she spent, the better.
Ao just replied.
"I didn't need one before because, as a wind element user, I could just run away. But don't compare me today to my old self."
Yusa smiled and struck back.
"Oh yeah? Then where is it, mister 'I am always prepared now'? Where is your runestone concealing formation?"
Ao back started to sweat.
"This is your job, so I didn't bring any."
Yusa's smile got even bigger.
"In case I forget to buy the runestone, you wouldn't have any either while I at least would still have the cheap ones, right?"
Ao was starting to feel helpless. Why are they even talking about this? The problem was Yusa's love for money, wasn't it?
But unfortunately for him, he had Krune as a friend.
"Yusa is right in this point, being unprepared is not good. I myself have a few common concealing runestone formations with me just in case. It's just like when you said that when dealing with women, sometimes you need to be prepared to force your way in! The key is preparation."
Ao was dumbstruck! This was about a conversation that they had a few weeks ago when Krune asked Ao to help him understand women better. After several turns, the conversation went all the way to that phrase. The problem is, what he said was to force their way in…side their hearts! Brother, where is the rest of what I said?
Yusa and Shinja looked strangely at him, which made Ao sweat even more!
"Heart! I said, force our way inside their heart!"
Krune looked puzzled.
"But in that case, she won't get pregnant."
Ao vomited blood! Krune is cutting down the important parts of their conversation and bringing out the unnecessary ones. It's evident that Krune misunderstood the meaning of 'inside' for a certain reproductive situation. Now he was talking about when he had mentioned about having children of their own.
Yusa and Shinja strange face became dark now.
Yusa looked at him and then said.
"So this is how you think about women? That has opened my eyes."
In fact, Yusa knows very well that Ao definitely hasn't said those words in that way. It was probably Krune turning everything that Ao said upside down. But now Krune, Shinja and even Jorei, who was only listening on the side, finally forgot about her. Not to mention that she was feeling very happy to see Ao in that situation. Usually, he would disappear anytime Krune did some weird. But the best thing is that Shinja and Jorei don't know about that... How funny! She wanted to lie down and laugh, but she had to keep her play.
Krune then put one of his hands on Ao's shoulder, and he looked completely serious. In fact, he really was! There is no way that the zero EQ Krune would be able to joke like that.
"Brother, don't worry, I will be on your side. Just be sure to buy protection next time."
Ao finally got desperate. Little did he know that the protection Krune mentioned was about the runestone concealing formation. Still, by putting it that way, it felt like Ao had already forced his way on some women.
Shinja finally couldn't take it anymore! She also took 'protection' in the same way that Ao did. Shinja thought that she had to free the women from the world from this guy! Not to mention that she started to think that Krune weird ideas were, in fact, coming from him.
Jorei watched all of that with his jaw completely open.
'Just what kind of team is this? Is it really okay to send them?'
Ao, who had been wronged, finally got a chance to explain the whole story. Still, not before a few purple bruises appeared around his body. Yusa, just as expected, was laughing by the side while Krune still had his puzzled face.
Shinja was feeling embarrassed, though. She had beaten Ao because of the wrong reason. She was helpless since the group's leader, Krune, was simply a lost case for common sense. Worst of all was Yusa, who should have told her about what was really happening, but just kept laughing on the ground.
'How can they even accept someone like him as the leader?'
Ao was feeling helpless too. He then made a decision! Next time, he will make sure that Krune understood his intentions through and through. Otherwise, he wouldn't say anything to start with.
Finally, the group decided to leave for the Raskie Danger Zone. After signing the agreement at the gate, they rushed forward in the direction of the deeper zones.
During the last two days, Shinja started to become scared of this group of three! It doesn't matter which one of them, their control over the elements that they used were at the same level as her own. One must remember that Shinja has a Pure Yin Body, so her affinity with the water element is not something that can be achieved that easily. Let alone unnamed cultivators like Yusa and Ao!
Yusa's water element control even had some different aspects that she had never thought about before. Shinja couldn't understand how she got to that point. She doesn't know much about the wind element. Still, she is experienced enough to tell that Ao's wind element control isn't the least bit weaker than Yusa's water one. To find one genius was already hard, but for two to appear in the same group and no one notices them, that's almost impossible!
But that wasn't the worst of all. The real monster here was obviously Krune! She had heard that he could control more than one element while still a low-level Foundation Establishment. Still, the problem is that every single one of the elements he showed so far is at a higher level than her water one. She even felt depressed when she saw Krune using the water element to train against a beast he found on the way.
She lost! She didn't say it out loud, but she knows! Krune's water element control is definitely above hers.
At first, she just decided to protect them while they are in their mission. But now, she was again struggling against her pride! She wanted to ask Krune for a few pointers, but at the same time, she didn't.
The only comfort she had was the fact that she still had the highest combat prowess.
But it didn't last long, though. On the fourth day, they encountered a 7th stage Foundation Establishment Demon Beast. She thought that she would have to already come forward to control the situation, which made her feel good with herself. It was finally her time to show her good side to them! Unfortunately for Shinja, Krune just made a question.
"Alright, who between the three of us will fight?"
Yusa and Ao immediately raised their voices, the weird thing was that Krune, who had the lowest cultivation, also wanted to battle it! It was evident that none of the three thought much of that 7th stage beast at all! They just considered it a good target for training.
Yusa finally lost her patience with all their discussion and said.
"Then, we will resolve it with rock, paper, scissors!"
Both Shinja and the beast that was waiting were taken aback! Did they even notice the difference in cultivation? They want to battle alone? Have they gone mad?
The reason the demon beast hasn't acted yet was that he couldn't see through Shinja, so he was afraid of her being stronger than it. But it was almost losing its patience after seeing how Krune's group was acting.
In the end, it turned out that Yusa won with stone! Ao and Krune looked gloomily at their hands since luck wasn't on their side today.
Yusa went forward and said.
"You are very lucky, this lady will be your opponent."
Just like that, the battle started!