"If you have come to help, then we might join you," Seirion said. "However, we need to confirm that you are truly on our side. We have some friends who are in trouble, if you help them, we will join you, and the others would probably do it as well."

Luke wondered if Seirion was messing with him, they just met, and he was asking him to do a favor for him. That being said, it was rare to have a conversation in that world, and since Luke was going to look for others, it was more or less part of the job. Besides, he was half certain that the guys who needed to be helped were facing overlords or something almost as troublesome. He decided to at least go with them for the time being. He wouldn’t lose anything by facing the enemies, he would gain, actually.

"Well, I will make sure that they will pay me somehow," Luke said. "Where are they? Who are the enemies that are causing them trouble?"

Luke just wanted a clear and direct answer, but as if he was some sort of NPC, the old man began to explain a lot of things. They were useful but unnecessary as of now. When the dark elves began to leave to look for allies in other worlds, the monsters and the overlords became more active. So, those that weren’t that stubborn realized that they were losing more allies than defeating enemies. They might be made to keep up the fight for a while, but it was hard to see them winning. People like Seirion realized that, and they began to look for those that thought of the same thing, and then they created that settlement.

However, some of their allies couldn’t move and join them because they were in an area where crystals appeared pretty much all the time. To make matters worse, the owners of those crystals got mad and then sent some empowered versions of their monsters. Those were the bosses, but they were different than the other creatures in some aspects... Considering the appearances that Seirion described, they looked a bit like one of those dark bears that Luke almost got killed by on the first day.

"I was wondering why I didn’t see them anymore..." Luke said.

"They are rare... But at higher levels, they become stupidly hard to deal with because the more they fight and eat, the stronger they get," Rina explained. "Sometimes, they even get the skills of the targets they eat."

Luke didn’t see that beast using any skills. Then again, it was a low-level one, and if it had been summoned to Earth after being born, then it wouldn’t have eaten many people that had skills. Nevertheless, it was a troublesome monster indeed. It probably wasn’t on the level of an overlord, but Luke couldn’t drop his guard.

After that, Seirion informed of where his friends were supposed to be. They were at northeast, near the coast, but way beyond the areas that Luke had explored with his friends. The sahuagins probably won’t be there since there were another apex predator species there. Speaking of sahuagins, the skellies that he left there weren’t dying that fast, so it seemed that their master didn’t have the resources to take them down that fast.

"You guys should pack your things. You will show us where your friends are, just in case," Luke said.

"... I suppose that is fair enough; it is only natural that we should help," Seirion said.

Luke had a plan of his own. That was why he said that. Still, it didn’t seem like Seirion was plotting something. Although Seirion readily accepted the offer, the others in the village didn’t look that enthusiastic about obeying the orders. They had seen the flying fortresses sometimes, and they always belonged to the enemy and were used to make monsters rain down on them. They didn’t have much of a choice, though. They knew that only those who fought a lot could afford one of those..., and they could obtain immense power by fighting.

"I truly hope that you aren’t plotting anything," Luke said when the final dark elves from that village finally entered the fortress. "I hope we can work together to accomplish our goals, despite my concerns."

"I understand your concerns, but I am too old to plot anything that might endanger my people," Seirion said. "I can tell that you and your friends have a certain level of strength that goes beyond your levels. Besides, I know that if something were to happen, you would give the order for this fortress to fall and kill everyone in it."

Luke certainly wouldn’t do that since his friends were inside as well. Still, he didn’t negate that. It was a good idea to leave some fear inside those guys’ minds since Luke didn’t force them to become his followers.

"Anyway, when did those creatures begin to appear in earnest?" Luke asked, already wondering if he could tame them.

While they were vicious beasts, they still were monsters. They probably could be tamed... considering their abilities, Luke wouldn’t mind creating an army off those. It was the first time he had heard of an army of those, so maybe it wasn’t possible to do so. Otherwise, the oldest overlords would have created that army already.

"They began to appear three weeks ago, and they often target our allies in order to increase their power and decrease them. Still, since the other monsters hate them, they can only divide their numbers to do that," Seirion explained.

It seemed that, for whatever reason, those creatures didn’t have high numbers... Yet. It was probably because making one of them costs a lot more mana than any other creature. Regardless, it didn’t seem like they had found the crystal that spawned them, so it became clear that an overlord summoned them, and they were waiting for their beasts to decimate the dark elves... Probably watching everything from above...