At that moment, John seemed to reach the same conclusion. "They will be a cohesive force with fear towards the spriggan. Their anger will be redirected to us, and in turn…"

"They will want to get my parents for the sake of having a card to play in case I return, or so I think."

Reidar sighed as he realized that he would once again need to power level his allies.

While another solution existed. Kill them all. Reidar considered killing all of them: the War Hounds, the Ember Circle, and the Iron Keep. Kill every single group inside Creamont until only the Spriggans remained.

Such a path would require killing innocents, and even if he only neutralized the threat by removing their strongest fighters, it would still doom everyone under their protection to a gruesome death.

Pushing those dark thoughts aside, Reidar focused on the only remaining conclusion: the Spriggans could not afford to stay this weak.

"Given this is the situation, we need to get stronger," Reidar said, "and fast at that."

"How?" John asked. "Our people are talented fighters, but we're stuck at our current levels. The monsters in the area are too strong now to give us even a slight chance at getting some levels, as even the weakest creatures from the portals are too dangerous."

Reidar offered a smile that wasn't entirely pleasant. "That's exactly what we're going to hunt."

Seraphine's eyes widened. "The portal creatures?"

"Yes. The ones between levels 250 and 300, which have been pouring through the rifts the Church opened. They did it already, so we know it's an effective strategy."

"That's suicide," Seraphine argued. "My people can't fight creatures of that high level. We'd be slaughtered even with your help."

"No, it won't happen, and your people don't need to fight them directly anyway," Reidar said. "I'll handle the combat. Your people just need to deal as much damage as they can from a safe distance to reap the benefits of me slaughtering the monsters, or use summons to do the same. It's nothing complicated, and it will help us all."

"We can't be sure the monsters won't be able to kill anyone."

"It won't be like the valley, Seraphine," Reidar assured her. "Back then I gave you the skills, and you guys did most of the job." He paused.

"This time I will be the one fighting; as long as you are in my party and take part, the rewards will follow. Even if your people contribute almost nothing to the battle, you will still gain some C.L.A.S.P. points. Since we are fighting monsters 250 levels above you, even scraps will result in massive point gains enough to push them up dozens of levels in a couple of minutes."

The scout leaned forward, clearly interested. "How many levels are we talking about?"

"I don't know exactly," Reidar said, "but when I fought monsters 30 to 50 levels higher than mine, the gains were substantial. Although it wasn't enough to make me level up then, there are thousands of monsters in the region now with a level gap far bigger than what I faced, and we are talking about monsters who should give millions of C.L.A.S.P. points upon their death. Thus, the C.L.A.S.P. points' multipliers should be even higher than what happened to me."

Seraphine studied the map, tracing the locations of known monster activity with her fingers while considering if what Reidar said was true or viable.

"There are three active groups of monsters in our area based on what we have been able to find out, but we don't know much since they arrived just yesterday."

"Then send people to check while I do the same, but keep in mind I expect you to prepare a group of volunteers by tomorrow. Dad will be with me," Reidar said.

"What about the Other factions?" John asked. "If we had this idea, it's likely they had it too."

Reidar nodded. "I don't think the others managed, but for sure the War Hounds did, based on the reports you guys just gave." He paused. "The only question is how, or better, who helped them. And despite me not having any proof, I think it was the church." He paused again.

"Let's be honest… Only I and the higher-ups from the church can do something like this. We are an anomaly…"

Everyone turned to look at him.

"When I was in Havenwood, the survivor town where Lena came from, I battled against a guy named Silas. He was level 84 while I was level 47, and I later found out that the Progenitor himself, who was level 250 back then according to the vendor Morv'axil, had conquered the town."

"250? How is that even possible?" The scout asked.

"Easy," Reidar said. "Based on what I know, monsters have two ways to get stronger, both of which work thanks to a single ability. They can absorb mana from the environment, effectively getting stronger by doing nothing, or they can battle other monsters and absorb the mana released upon their death."

That mechanism was also the base that powered the C.L.A.S.P. points. With each kill the survivors made, they absorbed mana from the slain monster, though this was filtered and limited by the system based on the survivor's level. The level was a quantification of an individual's battle prowess rather than a simple step on a strength ladder; it acted as an open door or the removal of a limitation. The greater the level, the higher the amount of mana the body was allowed to store before the system manipulated that energy and transformed it into attribute points.

"This means that the Progenitor has the same ability, and since he doesn't have the system regulating his mana flow, he gets stronger faster by killing as many powerful monsters as he can."

"So, are you saying one of them helped them?"

"It's highly likely," Reidar said.

"It's not just that, but these guys conveniently opened a portal that spawned insanely strong monsters that only they can kill?" He paused.

"If you want my opinion, all of this had been planned."

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