Back then, it had always been exactly like this, William leading the way, defying the common sense of the world, while everyone on his side scrambled to keep up with his pace.

"I need you to do something for me for sure," William said, his eyes moving around the immediate landscape, assessing the topography before he crouched down and started drawing a rough structural blueprint on the dirt ground below.

"While I am away harvesting, I’ll need you all to work together to dig a trench around as big an area as you can possibly manage. Just make absolutely sure to let any of the shadow monsters that are currently inside your designated perimeter leave the zone before you close the trench lines over.

If you don’t, they will be trapped inside with you, and we would be forced to prematurely kill them using our spirit power, which will draw the whole horde down on us."

"A simple trench?! Will that actually work against these things?" Lara asked, her voice laced with heavy doubt as she looked at the drawing.

William nodded firmly, his confidence unshakable. "These monsters lack a certain physical property; they fundamentally cannot traverse open gaps or deep holes in the earth. To them, a simple trench is as inescapable as a metal bird cage. Just make it as expansive as you physically can, because this enclosed area will act as our primary, fortified base of operations in this new world."

William’s instructions were crystal clear. They were to turn the specific area surrounded by this trench into their main operational fortress within this unforgiving zone. However, the implicit meaning behind his strategy wasn’t lost on anyone: while the interior of the trench would provide a temporary sanctuary, the moment they stepped outside those boundaries, they would have to actively fight against those terrifying beasts and risk their lives on a daily basis just to gather resources.

"If the trenches are so effective at keeping them at bay, we can always try to build another layer of trenches later on to safely expand our territory, right?" Lina asked, her eyes scanning the rough blueprint he had drawn in the dirt.

William immediately shook his head, dismissing the idea.

"One gap is a protective buffer; more is just a structural hindrance," William paused, letting his gaze sweep over the faces of his gathered guild masters before seriously adding:

"The extreme method I’ve just used to wipe out the local horde can technically be replicated, but I would strongly suggest against ever doing it again. Any volatile resource present in this region should be carefully preserved and harvested for our future growth, not carelessly burnt down just to kill a few useless, low-level monsters. Plus..."

He turned his eyes back toward the distant, blazing horizon, a grim and deadly serious look settling over his features. "If these weak shadow monsters were truly the strongest entities in this area, this place wouldn’t have been universally marked as the most dangerous forbidden zone in the entirety of the upper realm.

There are far stronger, far scarier predators out there in the deep dark, and we should know exactly when to stop and turtle up before we accidentally attract something that will kill us all, regardless of what defensive measures we try to deploy."

His ominous words carried a clear, urgent hint, one that explicitly told everyone that they shouldn’t take the gruelling task of digging the trench lightly, nor should they spend too much time lazily chatting about it. They were working on a ticking clock.

"Leave this task to us," Lara said, her expression hardening with determination. "We’ll make absolutely sure to finish a properly sized, secure trench around the perimeter before you come back from your harvest."

"Sure," William replied, already turning his body to move back out into the wilderness. "Just remember the absolute rules: do not use a single shred of spirit power while digging, and do not leave even a single shadow monster trapped inside the perimeter before you close the circle." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Deep down, he trusted his friends and guild masters implicitly. He knew they would perform to the absolute best of their abilities in this stressful situation. The stakes were incredibly high; the longer his artificial hell ignited and burned the Vibrant Fiery Ore veins, the more copious and dense the amount of spirit power would become as it dissipated into the surrounding atmosphere.

So far, the ambient energy signature was only thick enough to attract, at most, silver-grade monsters from the immediate vicinity. But once the leaked spirit power accumulated past a certain critical threshold, and with no physical bodies or cores available to naturally absorb and anchor it, the far scarier, primordial predators lurking in the deeper layers of the forbidden zone would inevitably catch the scent and flood this way.

The shadow monsters were admittedly one of the most troublesome and iconic species occupying this forbidden region, mostly due to their sheer numbers and stealth. And yet, they were far from the only terrifying predators calling this wasteland home.

William knew he possessed the specific systemic knowledge to counter the unique properties of the shadow monsters, but if other, more conventional upper-realm beasts arrived, he and his guild masters would be forced to properly engage them in direct, brutal combat.

That was the absolute worst-case scenario, and it was one he desperately wanted to avoid at all costs. Even though the shadow monsters were currently being drawn to the massive spirit power fountain he had created, that volatile fountain was fundamentally short-lived.

Soon enough, the chemical and spiritual reaction in the ore would burn itself out, the chasm would stop gushing energy, and the residual spirit power lingering in the region would slowly vanish into the atmosphere.

If they hadn’t established their base by then, it would leave William and his guild masters completely exposed in a tight spot, and he simply refused to let such a disastrous result happen.

"I’ll gather as many cores as physically possible from the current blast site, and then I will immediately retreat back here to start our training," he decided internally, mapping out their schedule.