CHAPTER 65: HAVENWOOD (2)

Reidar watched the man’s expression tighten. "Is something wrong?"

Martin let out a heavy sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "You saw what happened here today. That wasn’t some random attack. It’s been like this for weeks. The Maulers hit us almost daily, sometimes twice if we’re unlucky. We’ve held them off, barely. But today..." He gestured toward the shattered section of wall where defenders were already stacking fresh timber. "Today they broke through. First time that’s happened. We lost good people before you showed up."

He fixed Reidar with a grim look. "That breach changes everything, because we would need to put people there to stop the monsters from entering. We’re running low on fighters who can stand against level 30 creatures. Every day we lose people, or they get injured."

"It must not be easy for your healers."

"It isn’t." Martin paused, as if he was thinking about the person in question. "Actually, we have multiple healers here, or at least more than one person has healing skills. The main healer would be a woman called Mara. She was a nurse before all of this happened. She lived in a nearby town that got destroyed by the earthquakes."

"But once you heal your people, everything should be all right."

Martin made a grim face.

"Depends. The monsters do not stop at slashing and tearing. They also rip and maul." Martin paused and looked at Reidar in the eyes.

"Every attack like today’s costs us. We win, we get stronger from the kills, but we lose pieces of ourselves. A man loses an arm to a Mauler’s jaws. A woman gets her leg crushed by a Ravager. Mara, our healer, can stitch a wound shut in seconds, but she can’t regrow a limb. Those skills... they’re a fortune we don’t have. So, our defenders... they decrease. The ones who can still fight are stretched thinner and thinner, guarding the walls, trying to gather resources."

Martin’s gaze drifted toward the forest beyond the walls. "Without that wall sealed, we’re just prey in a pen. And those things outside have developed a taste for human flesh."

Reidar scanned the settlement’s edge again, where the wall just stopped and the woods began. The air felt thin out here.

"Something doesn’t add up," he said, his voice low. "Your defenses are solid, your people are organized... but there’s no safe zone. No monster-repelling field. I’ve seen it before. Why haven’t you used a Settlement Creator Token?"

Martin’s shoulders went rigid. He looked Reidar over again, as he understood Reidar must have been in contact with other people.

"You know about the token." It wasn’t a question.

Martin hadn’t mentioned it to his own people, not wanting to advertise a prize forever out of reach. For an outsider to name it meant this man had been places, seen things Martin’s scouts only whispered about.

"You’ve been to another settlement, then. One that completed the quests."

"I did," Reidar said.

"We never told our people about the token. It didn’t make sense to give them hope we couldn’t deliver."

A weary, knowing sigh escaped the settlement leader. "You helped secure one, didn’t you? Somewhere else."

"I did. It involved killing a Bark Behemoth and rescuing some trapped children."

"It’s not like this for us. The quest chain to earn it... it’s a brutal series of objectives. Clearing specific high-level nests that even our strongest people couldn’t clear and securing resource nodes deep in their territory. My people are brave, but we’re bleeding out. Literally. With the monsters constantly attacking the city, we can’t spare even a single person from defending, and when we are not doing that, we must gather resources to reinforce, fix, and build our defenses. There is only one dedicated team that is trying to get the settlement creator token, but even they are far too weak to tackle the remaining high-level quests."

"We tried sending out parties to secure the perimeter outside the town. The Maulers hit them before they could get half a kilometer out. We lost twelve people on the last attempt—three never made it back; the others came back missing limbs or bleeding out. Mara barely stabilized them."

He pointed at the medical tent, where groans still drifted out. "Every time we try to push out, they hit us harder. We can hold these walls, but we can’t go beyond them. Out there, we lose our edge. Trying to gather enough people and strength to complete those impossible quests? It’s a trap. The token’s right there, just out of reach, and the thing we need it for is the same thing keeping us from getting it."

Martin’s gaze was bleak, fixed on the busy crews repairing the breach. "We’re strong enough to survive. We’re not strong enough to thrive. Not yet."

"But you said a dedicated team is trying to do it?"

"Yes. They are almost at level 50."

"Level 50?"

They were stronger even than Reidar. Well, at least in terms of levels. But Reidar knew that having a strong trait could make a whole difference. He himself killed far higher-level monsters with his summons.

But that also raised a question. If he understood how strong summoned creatures were, why others didn’t? Getting summoning skills should not be impossible for level 50 people, even low-level ones. Though he wasn’t going to ask that.

It was likely that they really didn’t know about such skills.

"Almost. In truth, they are at best level 45."

"The monsters you are facing are level 35 at best. They can’t really do nothing?"

Martin sighed. "What would be the point? The ravagers and maulers come back the following day. If we sent the team to fight, they would not have been at their current level; they would be weaker, and we would have made no progress toward getting the settlement creator token."

The math didn’t add up. Reidar kept his expression neutral, but his mind went through all the weird things that Martin had said.

A settlement with fighters nearing level 50, even if few, should have been a fortress, not a bleeding wound.

They were dealing with swarms of level 30-35 monsters, dangerous, yes, but manageable for a coordinated group around the same level and in a defensive position to boot.

Yet here they were, pinned, losing limbs and lives to attrition without even the settlement creator token.

Besides, why the fuck weren’t they using summons?

In his experience, the moment he’d gained Summon Rift-Sprite Squad, the dynamics of every fight changed. Numbers stopped being a problem.

One person could lead a whole little army and really change the game, even when they were outnumbered.