Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!-Chapter 612: Unexpected Reward

Being in a desert, the soldiers often carried shovels and other tools to help them dig and possibly run into a water resource. But the oceanic desert being so turbulent, the ships had to be lined in a way that created a pocket where nothing moved and only then the hunt for the life-giving liquid would begin. However, with the god of the desert having calmed the sandy waves, a group of soldiers shovelled away at the ground with nobody to help them.

"Did the general really yell at you, Hannah?" Tris–a demi-bull monk of their group looked out of the hole that they were digging and stared at the winged harpy that had been yelled at by Raven earlier that day.

Everyone had heard the news by now, and some were so afraid already that even if death awaited them when ordered to march forward, they would've preferred it to facing the general's rage.

"Just yell? He scared the life out of me. I swear he can be such an ass sometimes…" Throwing in a rope, the pink-haired harpy held the rope tight. Grabbing it firmly, the demi-bull began to climb while another man, a human, kept digging into what felt like wet sand.

Getting to the very top, Tris held onto June's shoulder. The elf helped him to a nearby chair before brushing her long, grey hair away from the front of her eyes. Folding her hands, she scoffed at the man.

"Why do you always have to pry? Besides, I think the general did right." Swaying sideways as if in a dance, her eyes locked with Hannah. "How else will we learn if not by defeating these monsters ourselves? You do remember what happened the last time we depended on him too much, right?"

The frustration on the harpy's face quickly turned to a grimace. It had happened so quickly, the slaughter of a hundred or maybe two hundred people; never in her life had she seen anything like that.

"That's true, but he could've been a bit nicer–"

"Nicer while we were in the middle of a battle?" Scowling at the fairy elf, couldn't comprehend what naive way the harpy's mind worked. Lifting her chin with pride, she leered at the young girl half her age and slightly shorter in terms of height. "Thanks to him, we didn't lose a single soul today; anything else, especially something like his attitude in the middle of a war, should be inconsequential."

Gathering just a flicker of courage, the harpy glanced up with furrowed eyes. Her mouth opened to complain to the older woman, but before a word could be spoken, Tris interjected himself into the conversation.

"Ey~Ey~ ladies, don't get your panties in a knot, alright? We're all tired, so just chill a little bit." Reaching into his shorts, the bull took out a pouch and flaunted it in their faces. The harpy gasped, for she knew what he kept in that pouch, while the elf simply stared at her with confusion riding on her face.

"Tris! I told you not to bring anything like that with you!" Complained the harpy, but the man simply undid the bag's tie and reached in to reveal a balled up stack of soothing herbs.

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"By the goddess, isn't that–" Taken aback by the familiar hint of the substance, the elf's eyebrows furrowed once more. She knew exactly what it was, but it wasn't anger that she was feeling, but something else entirely.

Walking closer while the bag was still open, she snatched it out of Tris's hand and took a deep sniff of the pouch. A weak smile took over her face, surprising the other two. But the moment she let the bag down, her sour expression returned again.

"Why the fuck were you hiding this for so long? I've needed a smoke for as long as we've been fighting this war."

"What?!" Further blown away by the elf's words, Hannah stood baffled with her mouth agape.

On the other hand, the worried look on Tris quickly disappeared and extending his hand, he took the bag back from the elf. Although reluctant, June gave it away voluntarily, expecting him to share.

"OI! Anyone up there?" And while they were busy talking about drugs, the only man working yelled out in complaint. "Oh for fuck's sake! The water's rising get me the fuck out!"

"Shit…" Forgetting everything else for the moment, the elf rushed back to the ditch to save her lover from drowning in a desert. Quickly throwing the rope down, she pulled and pulled until her man, a decently handsome male, was finally standing back on his feet.

Watching the duo from a distance, the other two, who were dating in secret, couldn't help but smile. The smile, however, didn't last long as the wetness on the human man appeared more than just water. Wide-eyed, Hannah looked closely and began walking closer and closer. Getting close enough to touch him, she pulled on his sleeves and decided to sniff the stain left by the water.

"HEY!" June complained, but what Hannah said next disarmed her jealousy.

"Th-that's fucking dark water!" Quickly looking up at Aredin–the only human of their group, Hannah's breath grew heavy as she'd heard of its effects on normal people. "We need to get you to priestess Erika NOW!"

The group had found another well of dark water, the very same liquid that transformed Arche from a regular arachne to a colossal monster with countless horrors living as spiders within her body.

At first, everyone was left aghast. Their minds refused to believe it, but as reality began to set in, they charged right for the ship on which Erika was meant to heal the injured soldiers. What was a cause for concern for the group would soon become a valuable resource for Linkle and, in turn, towards the war effort, but for now, the only thing they were concerned with was getting the priestess' help before anything strange happened to their leader.

Note: A Few more chapters of catching up, mostly with Maria Hayley and the djinn sisters, as well as the false heroes, and then, major plot events will start taking place for this arc.