North of Bluestone County.
Far from the city, in the desolate wilderness, a group of over a hundred people hurried north.
The mountain road leading north was exceptionally rugged, with uneven terrain, rubble and concrete everywhere, and only the barely recognizable remains of a highway.
Less than two kilometers out of the county seat, even those pothole-ridden concrete remnants veered off toward the mountains.
The players did not take the road, instead advancing in a straight line.
Since most trade routes through River Valley Province ran from the eastern provinces to the western ones, this mountain trail saw almost no traffic. Lush vegetation filled the route, along with birds and beasts darting through the woods.
While heading toward their mission objective, the group encountered three multi-legged beasts.
The tentacle-waving, writhing monsters looked like lumps of stitched-together flesh. Their slick, rotten skin made them resemble piles of mud from a distance.
If they did not open their huge, fang-filled mouths, few would remember that these things were ferocious beasts capable of swallowing an entire two-headed cow.
To keep gunfire from exposing their position, they ordered everyone to switch off their safeties. After spotting the multi-legged beasts, they had Fang Chang kill them one by one with his bow.
They lost some time along the way. By the time the Burning Corps and the Silver Corps reached the mission target, the sun was already high overhead.
It was one in the afternoon.
Crossing the gentle slope ahead, they could see a valley nestled between two hills.
This was Pinewood Gorge.
It was said that during the early Prosperity Era, this place had once been barren wasteland.
Later, following breakthroughs in controllable nuclear fusion, the Human Alliance overcame its energy bottleneck and had more funding than it knew what to do with. To