The next day...
"So you guys have been surviving by eating Ants every day?" Thirteen asked with a smile.
"There's nothing to eat aside from them," Diana replied. "Also, they taste good when roasted."
The teenage boy soon agreed that the Ants did taste good after taking a few bites of the leg that was handed to him.
Overall, he found their current situation way better than he initially expected.
Nearly nine hundred individuals were currently inside the stronghold, including the Lizardmen, Ratmen, and Goblins.
The bulk of their forces came from the Wanderers that Thirteen had gathered before entering the one-way portal.
While their numbers weren't that many, it was enough to deal with most situations unless they were going to fight Rank 8 monsters and above.
He was considering telling them that it was about time for them to head North.
But Diana and the others, who had survived the monster onslaught, still believe that the threat of the Monster Outbreak should be their priority.
'There's a possibility that there may be more nests that I'm not aware of,' Thirteen thought. 'Very well. I'll just wait for three more days to see if there will be another Monster Outbreak. It will be easier to convince Diana and the others if they understood that they don't have to worry about Monsters Outbreaks again.'
A few hours later, he gathered everyone in front of the Fortress so that all of them could practice large-scale formations for the upcoming battles.
Now that he was the Commander of their forces, and Diana was the Vice Commander, he decided to train the Wanderers to learn battle formations during the next three days.
The center of the formation was none other than Diana.
With the power of the two artifacts that Thirteen had given her, she would be able to boost everyone's strength and morale at the same time.
The golden necklace on her neck, which she named Justice, could transform into a golden banner, which strengthened everyone within its vicinity.
Her sword, which she named Defender, possessed the indestructible ability, allowing her to block attacks without worries of it being destroyed.
The golden blade which manifested from her sword handle was also very sharp, allowing her to play an offensive role if need be.
Erica was also located at the center of the formation, allowing her to cast powerful spells while being protected by the other Wanderers.
The Cygni Faction were positioned right behind the Apostle Team, and they would be fighting alongside Diana on the front lines.
After his humiliating experience with Thirteen, Leon hated the teenage boy more than ever.
Diana nodded in understanding. "Very well. I will tell the others about your decision."
Although she was still worried, she decided to trust Thirteen because he was right about their second mission having a time limit.
When Diana had finally left to inform everyone that the threat of the Monster Outbreak was now over, Erica and Sherry approached the young man with suspicious looks on their faces.
"Did Rocky and the others do something?" Erica asked.
Thirteen nodded. "They have been raiding an Ant Nest for the past few days."
His explanation was enough to confirm Erica's and Sherry's guess regarding why there were no longer any monsters attacking them.
"Will you tell Diana about Rocky and the others?" Erica inquired. "She is a good friend of mine, and I believe that she can be trusted."
Thirteen pondered a bit before nodding in agreement.
"True," Thirteen said. "Since Diana is my Vice Commander, she needs to know about Rocky and the others so that she won't second guess my decisions."
"I also think that is the best approach," Sherry commented. "If she knew about their existence, she would be able to come up with an excuse later if something unexpected happened."
Erica then shifted her attention to the purple light shining in the distance. It looked beautiful from afar, but for someone who could faintly sense the magic in her environment, it gave her a very ominous feeling as if something extremely bad would happen soon.
"Do you think we can complete this mission?" Erica asked as he shifted his attention to the teenage boy, who was still looking at the light on the horizon.
"Of course," Thirteen replied. "Before coming here, I asked The One to give me an easy mission. Since he agreed, then this mission should be a walk in the park."
Erica and Sherry stared long and hard at the teenage boy who had been in a coma for several days after his battle with the Goblin Emperor.
If that was considered a walk in the park, then they could expect that things would only get worse as they continued to clear their Chain Quest.
Thirteen, on the other hand, was starting to form a theory on what needed to be done in order to clear his mission.
Of course, he first needed to see the Human Kingdom first to confirm his theory, but if his instincts were right on the money, he believed that he would need to do something drastic to overcome the situation that they were going to face.
'I just hope that I won't be forced to do something crazy,' Thirteen thought.
But even after he thought of that, Thirteen knew that if he was pushed to make a decision, he would not hesitate to do something crazy.
Especially since Tiona's clone, who had scouted ahead towards the pillar of light in the distance, had just informed him that it could sense several Rank 8 creatures hiding within the Human Kingdom.
With so many high-ranking monsters, even his Monster Army wouldn't be able to take them down even if they fought with everything they had.