They didn’t have to wait long before the soldier came jogging back and stopped in front of them.
“Let me formally introduce myself. My surname is Chen. Since you’re not part of my unit, just call me Chen-ge or Old Chen.”
Old Chen nodded at them. His earlier departure wasn’t just to fetch their supplies—he’d also found the soldiers who’d received them before and asked for some deeper information.
For instance, he’d previously only known that one of these girls, a certain Ye Xin, was a genuine Midnight-grade Hunter. When it came to dealing with monsters and unexpected situations, she might actually have more experience than him.
Now, he also knew that the white-haired one—the most mature-looking among the three girls—was very likely a Moon Elf.
Connecting that with their destination, he could roughly guess what was going on.
“Here, carry one of these on you. Think of it as an electronic map with built-in positioning. A full charge lasts about two weeks. With this, you shouldn’t get lost.”
Old Chen pulled out a small device similar to a handheld game console. Its camouflage color scheme made it easy to associate with the military.
He personally demonstrated the positioning function, zooming in and out on the map, searching, navigation, and a few other features, then handed it to the Midnight-grade Hunter Miss beside him.
Ye Xingyao fiddled with it in her hands for a bit, nodded in satisfaction, and gave it a thumbs-up in high praise.
This electronic map was extremely precise. Not only could it display the surrounding terrain, but it also seemed to have some function for detecting magic power. After pressing a certain button, three red dots—herself, Yi Shiyue, and Fumier—appeared clearly near the center of the crosshairs. Zooming out a little, it seemed there were quite a few beings with magic power in the military camp as well.
She just couldn’t tell whether those were weapons and equipment or superpower users.
Seeing that the Hunter Miss had easily gotten the hang of the map, Old Chen gave a slight nod.
“Next, let me fill you in on the situation around here:”
“You need to be extra careful on the wasteland. This place has nothing to do with the word ‘safe.’ Monsters appear at a rate many times higher than inside the city. Add in ferocious wild beasts, and further north there are elf tribes that don’t exactly welcome humans, so you absolutely must pay attention to your surroundings.”
“The elf tribes to our north are a major clan. Their leaders are a line of Moon Elves and Forest Elves, while the majority are made up of Earth Elves and Forest Elves. Over the years, we’ve had quite a bit of dealings with them. If you run into trouble or get harassed, try not to start a conflict if you can avoid it.”
Old Chen’s tone when talking about the elf tribes was clearly a bit off, as if they gave him a headache.
“Are they strong? What level of strength are we talking about?”
Ye Xingyao pressed on with some curiosity. If the potential danger was something they absolutely couldn’t handle, and even retreating would be difficult, she’d probably just turn around and take the two girls back.
“They’re not strong, not really. Most elves are only around First Night Grade… The important thing is, there are a lot of them.”
Old Chen sighed, looking like he was quite troubled by the matter.
Hearing that, Ye Xingyao understood what was going on.
“Actually, we do have a cooperative relationship with them. When monster invasions happen, our military fights alongside the elves. It’s just that these elves are arrogant to the bone, and for some reason they’ve got a preconceived notion against us.”
“Unfortunately, we really do need the positional magic of the Earth Elves and Forest Elves, and they need our firepower and some of our technology, which has led to this somewhat awkward situation.” Old Chen continued explaining. Of course, he was really saying all this for Ye Xingyao’s benefit. He could tell that among these girls, this Ye Xin was the leader.
Even if one of them was a Moon Elf, he believed that a Hunter Miss who’d reached the Midnight-grade rating would be a smart one.
He knew many Hunters. The vast majority never reached the Midnight-grade rating, and every single one who was still alive was the sharpest of the sharp.
“Mm, we understand. Then what about our destination? What’s the situation there?”
Ye Xingyao nodded to show she’d taken in his words, then steered the topic back to the most important point.
“The place you’re going is to the northeast. Just search ‘Shuoyue’ on the electronic map, and once you enter that area you’ll find your destination.”
Following his instructions, Ye Xingyao typed in “Shuoyue” on the electronic map and pressed confirm. After the selection succeeded, she saw their destination—the place where Yi Shiyue’s grandmother had settled down.
After a brief scan, Ye Xingyao found that this place wasn’t too far from their current position. Of course, that was assuming they used a vehicle as their mode of transportation.
“But… this looks like a small village?”
In a place like this, a village could still be built?
Combining a bit of the information the soldier had unintentionally let slip earlier—that Yi Shiyue’s grandmother would help heal the soldiers here and such—with an elf like that around, building a village might not be too difficult after all.
“Yeah, it really is a village. It’s precisely because villages like this exist that we can communicate with those arrogant elves. Though it’s only barely enough to exchange words. Those guys… never mind.”
“Anyway, that’s the general situation on this wasteland. I don’t have the right to ask what you’re going there for, but I do want to ask one more time: are you sure you don’t want a few soldiers who know the way to accompany you?”
Old Chen finished his briefing and brought up his earlier suggestion again.
“How strong are the monsters and beasts that appear around here overall?”
Ye Xingyao thought for a moment but couldn’t make up her mind. Having a soldier she wasn’t familiar with along would make it a bit hard to keep her identity confidential.
“Individual strength doesn’t exceed Entering Dream Grade at most. But some of them travel in packs, so it’s hard to generalize.”
“Then we won’t need any for now. If there’s anything we can’t handle—”
“You can contact me through the electronic map and the satellite communication in the vehicle.”
Old Chen was silent for a while. Seeing that she seemed to have made up her mind and was quite confident in her own combat ability and that of the Moon Elf beside her, he didn’t try to dissuade her further. He handed the car keys to Ye Xingyao and told her where to find the vehicle.
As for the somewhat adorably dazed blonde loli, he’d automatically ignored her, treating her as some kind of mascot the Hunter Miss had brought along. The Hunter Miss would take care of the people around her herself, anyway.
“Mm, thanks a lot, Chen-ge. If there’s anything you need us to do, just say the word. No need to be polite.”