The city's defensive zone served as a buffer during the initial stage of defending against monster invasions.
At the same time, it also functioned to provide early warnings and control the number of monsters.
Thus, the city's defensive forces regularly patrolled the area and cleared out monsters.
As long as a city's military system had not collapsed, there generally would not be any overly powerful monsters in its defensive zone.
At most, a few lone Bronze Rank or Silver Rank monsters might appear.
The area could even serve as a training ground for novice adventurers.
Thirty minutes later...
"...The size of each city's defensive zone varies. If I remember correctly, Asiala's defensive range is fifteen kilometers."
With Shalina explaining things beside her, Moss followed Falan and the others to the edge of Asiala City's defensive zone.
She looked at the stone stele standing on the ground to mark the boundary, then turned toward the resting Shalina and the others and asked:
"Isn't this range a little too small?"
No wonder the Horned Boar herd hadn't been detected despite being so close to the city. As it turned out, they hadn't even entered the zone yet.
Falan took several gulps from his waterskin before leisurely walking over to Moss.
"Glug, glug... Hah—!"
He lowered the waterskin and let out a long breath. Then he glanced at the stone stele on the ground before explaining to Moss:
"That's because Asiala is located in the inner area of the territory. Of course, the heavy flow of people here is another reason."
"There are adventurers from the guild, as well as traveling merchants and information brought by merchant associations."
"Besides, to prevent problems with the city's internal security... the importance of having troops stationed here is even greater."
After listening to Falan's explanation,