Raising A Few Wives in a Beast Apocalypse-Chapter 498: Looking for Jack

So it turned out that not having to stage around a castle everywhere was pretty good for travelling speed.

Which might or might not be linked to the fact that they didn't have to worry about being visually large targets.

After all, it was a pretty big structure. And moving through the clear sky was practically begging for trouble.

Anyway, without it, and everyone being R6. They moved pretty smoothly. If Raya had been to Jack's base, maybe they could have teleported there.

Actually, even without that, using Muku's memories was enough. Unfortunately, the works had changed a lot since the last time and things had shifted all over the place. So the position technically no longer existed in the same place.

And teleporting to locations one wasn't sure about was a big no-no. Who knew what was currently there now?

Anyway, they took the general direction of the place and stuck to it. Because if the change, it took them a whole week of looking before they found it... Or it's ruins rather.

It was now thousands of kilometres away from where it was before. Which was that be expected.

It would have taken longer to locate it had they been weaker and slower.

Anyway, even the ruined state wasn't completely unexpected. Barriers like this stopped being useful a long time ago.

Anyone who still depended on them was simply seeking to die...

Maybe that's why the base was completely abandoned.

After all, if someone wanted to stay, with an average Evolver's power, it would be pretty easy to clear the place up and create something new and better. Like Lisa's fortress.

"I don't think it's abandoned... At least not completely..." Jade suddenly spoke up just when everyone was about to continue their search for Jack's group.

After all, they were looking for people not the base.

Of course, this was after Freya plundered the barrier crystal. She was still on a mission to improve their own barrier even if it wasn't as important as before. After all, it was still a valuable tool in battle...

Jade made a move before anyone could say anything. She summoned res flames then....

BOOOOOOOM!

She blew the whole place up, burning away rubble and sand leaving a pit behind.

At the bottom of the pit lay an exposed sand worm with its body completely roasted.

It would have been turned to ash had its body not been extremely tough and Jade held back. But neither of those protectes it's life.

"Damn it! Not these things. How did they even make it through the portal?" Muku immediately complained.

Raya clicked her tongue from beside Audrey. She also disliked the sandworms.

After all, both of them were humbled by the mindless creatures back in the Beast World.

"Umm. Do you have anything you want to share with the rest of us?" Jade asked while eying the worm. Probably wondering whether it could be eaten or not.

"Oh, it's nothing. As you can easily guess. That's a sandworm. Unlike normal beasts, it usually doesn't develop intelligence. However, as a trade-off, it's extremely tough and sensitive, things that make it more dangerous than most smart beasts...

...On top of that, they live in colonies with more than five hundred members... Then again, that was in a desert area. And since you haven't sensed anything else, I'm guessing this one was alone. Also as a testament to their good senses, it probably hid itself deep underground after sensing us. Which is practically impossible for normal R5s like this was" Muku replied.

"Ah... Okay. But you realise that this means that Jack and his group are most likely dead right?" Jade immediately said the most insensitive thing she could say at the moment.

And she did it with such a straight face it was chilling. Layla grimaced as even she had more self-awareness than Jade. Like what the hell! Is that something one says so casually?

Even if she herself along with the other girls didn't think much of Jack and his group, she should be considerate of Muku. He considered Jack a good friend even if their meetings were short....

"Yeah... I guess that means our search stops here. The next target was the ocean right? Let's go do that..." Muku spoke in an almost mechanical voice then moved ahead.

"What's wrong with him?" Jade asked the others in confusion.

While she was insensitive to matters from outside the group, she was rather sensitive to matters from within. So she instantly picked up on Muku's minute changes... Though she didn't understand the reason because to her, Jack was insignificant.

Sure him and his group would have helped them with KP, but that didn't matter too much as they could always find other people...

"You know girl, you and I really have to sit down at some point and talk about thinking before we speak" Audrey replied in an almost disappointed tone.

Initially Jade was completely insensitive even in matters in the group, but she had gotten a lot better over the years. This gave Audrey the illusion that she had improved overall. But it seemed it was wrong to assume that.

The girl had just improved her circle from involving only her to involving them too. Everyone else was still worth less than grass in her eyes. Honestly, they also kinda thought like that after a while, but they would never say it. Especially when one of them was involved in some way...

"Huh?" Jade was still confused.

"Muku cared about Jack you idiot. He was probably someone he considered a friend. Likely his only male friend before Klaus even" Emily couldn't take her friend's obliviousness anymore and spoke annoyedly.

Everyone else gave Jade slightly disappointed looks then moved on. After all, she had only made the mistake of speaking when she shouldn't have. Otherwise, they were the same in how they viewed Jack's group.

"Oh..." Jade finally realised. She immediately began feeling bad as well as cursing herself internally.

She knew that she had the problem of disregarding many things others cared about. But she thought she had gotten better over the years. Now it seems she wasn't completely better, there were still problems.

Anyway, she decided to apologise to Muku when she finds the time...

After that bit so happy incident, the group continued quietly.

While Muku said that they were done with the search, it was obvious from how he moved that he was still searching as they went along.

Seeing this, Jade saw a chance to redeem herself. She started helping him without voicing it. Putting in even more effort than Muku himself.

After a few hours, she found traces of a large group moving through the forest.

The traces were almost gone as it had likely been a long time. They were so faint that only she noticed them due to her better senses even Muku couldn't rival.

She of course told the others about it. Muku's eyes lit up a bit hearing what she said.

From then on, Jade took the lead while following the traces.

They went like that for many days until they reached a big mountain with many caves all over it.

With their strength, they thoroughly scanned it, and immediately sensed more than seven hundred lifeforms inside.

Their auras were quite familiar too. They were humans...

No one celebrated yet, after all, the people might not be the ones they were looking for.

They of course investigated with their mana sense. That's when Muku noticed someone very familiar.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Jack. Fortunately, it was Jack's wife. And she was holding a young child in her hands...

That could be talked about later. For now, he has seen enough to go inside.

And so, the group went inside. They were immediately greeted by hostile guards close to the entrance.

Unfortunately, despite having threatening looks on their faces the guards weren't very threatening themselves. They were just a small group of young teenage boys with R3 strength.

Muku and the others didn't try to force their way through. He just told them his name...

The boys immediately fell to the ground. It seemed they were told about him.

They started apologising nonstop until Muku threatened to kill them if they didn't.

After that, he was led to their leader. Who was unsurprisingly Jack's wife. Everyone had forgotten her name so they didn't mention it for the time being.

Muku planned on looking through his memories later before embarrassing himself by saying it wrong...

Anyway, the woman immediately began crying when he asked about Jack's whereabouts.

This could only mean one thing. And that's exactly what she told him.

"Jack is dead. He died three months ago. We were still living at the base despite the troubles because it was better than nothing.

However, out of nowhere, a worm appeared. He and the other men tried to defend us with all their might as PR4s but they were simply too weak. So they had us runaway. We thought they were only delaying it then coming after. But it seems we were wrong. They never came..." Jack's wife said with tears streaming down her cheeks.