The trip to Vacuo was rather uneventful, despite the increased threat posed by the Grimm. It was a different experience for most of the team except Verdona. The heat was scalding hot and towns were nearly non-existent. All they could find were mining outposts and groups of camps. Their plan was to head to Shade Academy to set up a temporary base of operations. After that they were planning on asking the students who had been through such Grimm experiences if they could describe the creatures and if anyone they knew had been through similar experiences.

Nathan, Verdona, Reginald and Dr. Watts would be questioning the students while Diana and Gregorius set up a forward base just outside shade.

The first person they met was Caleb. The poor boy was unfortunately still frazzled by the experience and was thus not of much help. But his description of the monster helped provide a basic face to the monster.

Dr. Watts was surprisingly humane when dealing with Caleb. He didn't go personal with his questions and was rather pitiful of the boy. But asking about a detailed description of the Grimm's body and shape was rather suspicious since the boy hadn't yet gotten over the loss of his friends and the Grimm had been giving him horrific nightmares about the event.

After that they met a 3rd year student named Ken who had apparently on a practice mission faced off against a new type of Grimm.

Reginald first asked "Are you comfortable with discussing this matter Ken?"

Ken replied "Yes, although I am a little nervous."

Verdona then asked "Do you want anything to calm your nerves?"

Ken replied "No."

Dr. Watts then cut in asking "Can you tell us how did this encounter occur and give us a description of the creature that attacked you?"

Ken replied "I was on a training mission with my team to help defend a group of camps that were under attack by the Grimm. We thought that it would be a simple mission and that we would only encounter standard Grimm. But the things we saw were monsters out of our fathers' most horrific stories. We saw monsters similar to the ones Caleb saw and a Spherical Grimm with one eye and teeth that looked more like knives. It even fired yellow Fireballs that tore apart our Auras and there was another Grimm it was slender, looked more like a skeleton and didn't fight. Instead it let out horrific cries of pain and anguish that not only struck fear in our hearts, it also reverted any damage we did to the beasts."

Nathan then asked "Did you have any other such experiences recently."

Ken replied "No. I still can't forget that day seeing David drop to the floor in distress and then being picked up by that infernal beast becoming its dinner."

The account was horrifying and rightly so. It was a shock for even a true huntsman to see such sights and to imagine mere students becoming targets for these creatures made Reginald's blood boil. He wanted to find these creatures just to enact some form of vengeance for these students. Life may not be fair but it doesn't need to be this hard.

They had only one more student who they were going to question. Unfortunately, the poor kid was probably on his death bed. Unlike the 2 before him this child was unable to make it out of his encounters unscathed.

The group found him on a bed in the infirmary surrounded by 5 of his closest friends. Regrettably, the team had to send the child's friends away. As they sat down to talk at the boy they found the boy was surprisingly peaceful with what had happened to him.

Dr. Watts asked first "What happened to you?"

The boy responded "I walked right into a trap when I was walking alone. I was a little sad as that day I got news that my mother had died in a mining accident. What came after me was looked like a huge hulking beast curved like a Beowolf but armed like a Death Stalker. It in its center had an orange sphere from which occasionally it shoots out spikes. It was covered all over its body in armor except for its lower back and neck. I was able to kill but not before it had already cut a gash across my stomach and punctured a lung."

Verdona said "I'm sorry this had to happen to you."

The boy looked up at her and said "Don't be, I probably shouldn't have been walking alone, that too in such a fragile mental state. What happened to me is my fault entirely. I just hope that you all don't make the same mistake."

Reginald reassured the boy "Don't worry we'll make sure to get to the bottom of this."

The boy responded "Good luck."

The team then decided to meet up with Diana and Gregorius to help them out with the base and then go for lunch.

Gregorius asked "How did the talks go?"

Reginald responded "Depressing but we managed to identify 3 more new types of Grimm. A healer type, a flying type and a tank type. I'll show you the sketches Watts made."

Gregorius asked "Speaking of Watts did he give you any trouble?"

Reginald replied "No."

Gregorius said "Still keep an eye on him. You never know when he might try to backstab us."

Reginald asked "Where's Diana?"

Gregorius replied "In Shade Academy asking the teachers where to go to meet some locals."

Reginald asked "Is the base set up?"

Gregorius replied "Yes, to the best of me and Diana's abilities."

Reginald then said "Let's meet up with Nathan and Verdona given how Verdona was pretty shook by the experience and Nathan was silent for most of the time"

Gregorius was surprised about that revelation so he decided to go with Reginald.

They had found them both in the mess hall eating some strange food in the mess hall.

Nathan saw them first and said "The food here is weird man. The most expensive thing is crab and otherwise you got stuff like bat stew, gecko cake, breadfruit, etc."

Verdona exasperated said "It's not that bad, it's just weird for some people. I'm sure you will get used to it. Also mole crabs are very difficult to hunt here so anything we make with it expensive."

Gregorius then said "Not gonna lie, but some of this food is rather weird."

Reginald said "Still looks can deceive."

Nathan in response to this said "Speaking of looks was there anything off about Watts today?"

Verdona replied "Given the reports we read I think that he was a lot better than I expected."

Gregorius was surprised to hear this and said "It's unlikely that Watts would not be interested in this topic. After all the last 3 projects he put forward to the Atlesian Council were based on Grimm Manipulation. So any new type of Grimm that could resist his tech can be heavily problematic to his research."

Reginald asked "Gregorius, are you sure he is that bad? He was surprisingly humane this time."

Gregorius still didn't budge "Still don't trust him."

Verdona said "Tomorrow we are headed to some of the main villages to get the words of the locals about these Grimm happenings."

Nathan said "Just remember to never split up in case the Grimm attack."

Gregorius said "And don't trust Watts."

Reginald then said "Well if all the planning is done, let's eat some food."