Heathcliff rubbed his forehead the colonists had just arrived and the headaches were already starting.
He had received word from the players that were at the guild that the colonist had been stupid enough to risk going into the forest with not just people but animals too, even traveling in the open fields right now was more than dangerous.
Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the new arrivals several players that were coming back from the guild ran into the new arrivals and escorted them as far as they were willing to before going their separate ways, it's from them that he received the information that was causing his headaches.
There were a couple of people that thought that they were better than the people around them and should be treated better than everyone else.
Nobles that had lost their position in high society and now had to live out in the frontier.
The nobles and by extension their servants along with everyone that would be living with them would do the same thing as them, meaning that they would be cleaning out one of the ruins and living in it.
From what the other players had told him the frontiers maps were being redrawn, not in the sense that new land had been gained but in the sense that things that had been lost had been recovered.
That meant that more resources needed to both come and go from the frontier, so unlike before when the guild was the main thing managing the finances and population census now it would be the noble's duty to do so.
Heathcliff felt as if he had been forced to go back and sit behind a desk so that he could do paperwork all day.
The new arrivals had their guards, but they were only concerned with keeping the nobles safe, everyone else was on their own.
The sound of water pouring into the fortress echoed through the fortress and truth betold both Heathcliff and the players welcomed it, even though they now knew that there were holes in the ceiling, they also knew that there were several passages they hadn't seen when they first explored the fortress.
Right now a party made up of a mixture of both high-level and low-level players were investigating those areas of the fortress and so far there hasn't been anything dangerous.
The beast tamers are keeping a close eye on their creatures as their monsters seem to be picking up on things that for whatever reason their help screens aren't able to pick up.
Normally everyone would have already left the fortress long ago and gone off to seek their own adventures and take advantage of this new world.
Heathcliff didn't blame anyone that was already doing this in fact he was glad that those that were already doing this were able to move on, however, most if not everyone that remained inside the fortress did so for one of three reasons, the first two are more than obvious.
Yet it's the third reason that so many capable players remain to guard the pillar that they brought back.
When the countdown finally ends every player that died in the death game will be brought back to life and the pillar will vanish, a lot of people have loved ones- friends and family that died in the death game and are waiting to see them again.
Whatever happens after that didn't matter, one thing at a time was the best solution for everyone here.
The rain finally stopped and it was time to let the animals loose, whatever is out there was taking advantage of the rain to spy on them, so its time for them to see how smart it is.
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The army along with several beast tamers will be scouting the surrounding area, they wouldn't be going anywhere near the farms or villages but they would be looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Every player that was leaving the fortress is a veteran of the death game so no one will be taking any unnecessary risks, unfortunately, that won't be the case when the others come back.
This might be their last chance to come back to life and if they died, there isn't any telling how everyone will take it.
Heathcliff let out a breath and noticed that a slight mist formed in front of him, the temperature had just gone down.
"Heathcliff, turn on your chat, you're going to want to look at this" one of the members of the Army said to him and as Heathcliff activated his help screen and opened his private messages he found himself looking at the corpses of an entire heard of cattle.
"Whatever did this didn't attack them because it was hungry or was trying to make them leave its territory, it just killed them because it wanted to," the player said to him
"What about?" Heathcliff began to ask but the man cut him off
"See for yourself," the man said as he looked up and
Heathcliff could see several members of the Army cutting people down from the surrounding trees
"Whatever did dis, played with them, it didn't even spare the kids," the man said to Heathcliff
"When you find what did this, tell me," Heathcliff said to the man but he stopped talking as the man began to run after something that had caught his attention
The player's level was high so despite the distance, he was able to reach the area where the shadow that had caught his attention was.
"My guess is we're either dealing with some sort of spirit or fairy," the man said as he reached behind him and graved onto his ax before using it to cut one of the roots that were sticking out of the ground.
Had the forest been alive, in the way that the trees moved on their own, attacking the tree with the ax would have made the monster react, but it didn't, this meant that the trees themselves weren't the enemy.
The sound of several players running could be heard in the distance before the sound o their armors loudly announced that they stopped moving, the sound of the armors was soon replaced with the sound of the knights cutting a tree or digging in a random spot around them.
Heathcliff didn't like this, whatever this creature or group of creaturs was, was making the players chase after shadows and change the te field around them.
It was smart he would give it that much, unfortunately, it wasn't smart enough.
In the sky, several birds watched as the shadows buried themselves into the ground before the players managed to reach them, at first the creature's actions seemed completely random, but after a while, a pattern began to form.
Heathcliff smirked, not every player was either looking for the enemy at the moment or was inside the fortress.
He sent a message to the players that were still in town or out having fun and told them about what has been going on, he also made sure to send them the images of the infants that had been hung by the creaturs, the infants were alive but the trauma they must have experienced.
The only thing Heathcliff had to do now, was waiting.
"3-2-1," Heathcliff said as the sound of pigs screaming filled the forest.
The creatures had been caught completely off-guard the moment the other players arrived and used their momentum to stave the creatures through the back.
Those that managed to escape found themselves looking into the hungry eyes of several monsters that could travel underground.
Heathcliff watched as the player from earlier held one of the creatures and he frowned at how disgusting the creature looked.
It resembled a pig, but walked on two legs and wasn't any bigger than a six-year-old human child, but its strength didn't match its size even though the player that held the monster was a high-level player, he was still struggling to hold on to the creature.
The creature stopped moving as it looked into the man's eyes and its eyes filled with fear as the man walked up to a nearby wolf.
Heathcliff listened to the creature scream as the wolf bit into it.
"We will escort these people where they have to go, but someone else should check if any of the other groups were attacked," the player said to Heathcliff.
Heathcliff closed his eyes, no doubt the other guilds were already on the job and didn't need him to tell them what to do, either way, his mind was busy wondering where the creatures had come from.