Nightfall was soon upon Hazel and Astrid as the two remained on the rooftop for the rest of the day. Once the sun was down and the moon and stars were up, that was the pair's cue to head back to the city for another nightly visit. Their third nightly visit.

Hazel did the same song and dance as before, summoning Nycteris on the Jetport rooftop and flying back to Portland in the dead of night. Before leaving, Hazel wondered if her mom was watching them in secret, but she didn't appear when the trio was about to depart, so that didn't appear to be the case.

So, the three took to the skies and flew over to Portland. Instead of flying on her own, Hazel rode on Nycteris as they made their way to the city. She mainly did this because her familiar seemed to hate it when she flew without his assistance. It was like a child who wanted his parent to rely on him and would pout when they didn't. Hazel couldn't help but find it adorable.

Anyway, it only took a few minutes until they reached their destination, landing somewhere in the Highlands again. Right now, the entire eastern section of Portland was currently unavailable to them. Except for Nycteris, since he wasn't cursed, but Hazel didn't have anything she wanted her familiar to do in that part of the city, so she wasn't going to send him there anytime soon.

However, upon landing in one of the buildings within Highlands, Hazel and the other two soon realized that other places were just as unavailable or restricted as that portion of Portland.

[You are within the Territory of the Wild Hounds Guild! All non-Guild Members will be seen as guests until they either leave or join the guild!]

Hazel creased her brows upon reading the message panel. "The Wild Hounds Guild?" She scoffed. "How original."

She didn't expect to come across another guild's territory like this. However, establishing their base in the Highlands was certainly smart. It's dense with houses that people could use as homes, and rich with supplies in each building.

"It looks like some players turned this part of the neighborhood into their territory," Astrid noted while letting out a heavy sigh. "It might be better if we leave this place before we run into any members of this guild."

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, especially if the wild hounds were extremely territorial. If they were, what we just did would not be something they would tolerate."

"You're right about it. Invading a group's territory is an extreme offense that cannot be resolved with simple apologies and gifts. Let's leave while we can," Astrid then climbed back on Nycteris's back.

Hazel soon followed suit, and the trio was back in the air again. Instead of immediately landing somewhere else, they decided to look around for a place that wasn't occupied by a guild to avoid another trespassing incident.

"So, where should we go now?" Astrid asked.

"Well, we can't go anywhere that has a popular landmark. Residents of Portland would definitely flock there."

"Like the Jetport?"

"The Jetport is definitely a good example," Hazel nodded.

Since making guilds was now possible, Hazel and her companions needed to tread lightly when roaming the city. They got lucky after leaving the Wild Hounds guild territory without causing any trouble. The next guild territory they land in likely won't be the same.

Flying around, the group moved away from Highlands and went north a little bit, flying over Woodfords. Looking down the area, Hazel picked a random spot that didn't look like a place where people would set up their territory and land. It was a house on the edge of a neighborhood.

Landing there, the three of them waited for a bit, making sure that a panel didn't materialize and warning them that they were on some guild's property. A few seconds passed before Hazel and Astrid could let out a sigh of relief.

"Good," Hazel muttered. "At least not all of Portland is under the faction of some guild."

"Something tells me that isn't going to last long." Astrid grimaced. "We're only in the initial phase of the new world after the system came to be. It won't be long until Portland is filled with guilds."

"Yeah, you're not wrong," The witch groaned. "Though, what I'm more worried about is the turf wars that are going to be happening sometime soon. Without any laws and those to enforce said laws, anything and everything was free game. It's no different than the purge, only instead of a day without laws, it's every damn day."

Astrid leaned her head to the side curiously. "The Purge?"

"I'll explain later. Honestly, if DVDs still work, then I'll just show you the movies. After all, seeing it is a lot better and easier than explaining it."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Considering that cars worked, there was a high chance that other forms of technology were still viable, like kitchen appliances and the like. Even if they didn't, there was a chance to recreate her world's technology. Of course, Hazel would need to gather specialists to actually achieve this, since her knowledge and experience in such matters was inevitably zero.

Then again, she could always learn how to make them through trial and error. Though she already had her hands full with learning runecrafting and improving her spells, so she didn't want to risk overloading herself with multiple tasks at once. At least, not until she figured out if there was some kind of multi-task or parallel mind skill she could obtain to overcome that hurdle.

She had so many things to do that it was beginning to give her a head-splitting migraine. It wasn't just the spider queen and her training but also Astrid's quest to take her home, Dolk's presence within Portland, and most importantly, her search for her brother. Hopefully, her mountain of tasks would dwindle soon, so she could have a moment to relax and not stress over everything.

After landing on the house, Hazel and the other two jumped off so they could properly roam the streets of Woodford. So far, there wasn't much within their vicinity aside from a couple of lone goblins and other monsters like dire wolves and slimes. None of which Hazel wanted to fight against at the moment.

"Alright, let's do some scavenging," Hazel rubbed her hands together eagerly.

"Seriously?" Astrid arched her brow skeptically. "You want to scavenge through these houses?" She gestured toward the other buildings around them with a dubious expression.

Hazel shrugged. "I don't see why not. Besides, the other players around here will likely do it anyway, especially when they make this place their territory like part of The Highlands, so I say we search these houses and see what's inside. Plus, it'll be a nice change of pace, you know?"

While Hazel did plan to find the queen's horde like before, she thought that raiding some houses would be pretty fun to do before that. After all, the laws from either world were completely useless right now, and there were no cops or knights who could possibly arrest them for doing this.

Hearing Hazel's suggestion, Astrid simply sighed while her head hung low in either shame or defeat. "Alright then, let's go break into these houses. There likely are items inside that we could take for ourselves."

Once they agreed, both Hazel and Astrid began their house invasion quest. And the first house they decided to break into was the one they landed on when they were in the sky. It appeared to be a two-floor house with yellow and red paint splashed on the walls.

Walking up the drive, the trio passed by a turned-over car lying in the grass. Neither Hazel nor Astrid bothered to peek inside the vehicle since they believed there was nothing inside worth looking for anyway. Making it to the front door, Hazel held Astrid off from going in yet.

She then summoned another astral eye and mentally willed it to go inside the house to do an inspection first. Scanning the interior of the building, Hazel soon concluded that the area was deserted, with no monsters or players living inside. Once she confirmed this, the dark elf stepped in front of Hazel before opening the door and entering it.

Hazel soon followed suit with Nycteris trailing behind them. Luckily enough, the Nightwing bat was able to fit through the door so he could do some exploring as well. Entering the house, the trio found themselves in the living room. Next to them, near the entrance, they found stairs leading to the second floor.

Before going there, Hazel and the other two walked further into the living room, looking around the place. Despite the literal apocalypse happening, the living room looked quite intact. The white couches positioned in the middle of the room looked clean and pristine, clearly showing that no one had messed with them since everyone disappeared for thirty days.

The same went for the table, chairs, and even the computer desk positioned in one of the corners of the room. While Astrid took a look at the couch and tables, Hazel walked over to the computer desk to see what was there. From what she could tell, aside from the cheap-looking monitor, keyboard, and mouse, there wasn't much that she took note of.

There was a stack of papers and a couple of unwrapped candy bars that the owners didn't throw away or ever will now. There was also a vase with flowers. Sadly, the flowers were completely wilted and dead, clearly due to a lack of care from the owners. Of course, that was to be expected when you were absent for thirty days.

"Do you have a house like this, Hazel?" Astrid suddenly asked.

"Well, my mom does," She explained. "I currently live in a dorm. It's basically a house complex in a college or university. But yeah, my mom has something similar to this. Though the house is in East Deering. It's a good place, though. It's located a few blocks from the ocean, so my brother and I would always walk there to pass the time or clear our heads."

"...do you wish to go back there? Or maybe back to your dorm?"

Hazel paused for a moment to consider her answer. "A part of me does. Sadly, a good majority of my important belongings were whisked away when I was teleported from the cafe. I do still have some books there that I want to take with me when I get the chance."

"Would you like to go there after inspecting this house, then?"

"...not right now, honestly," Hazel's face fell. "If I go back, I might get all emotional and reminisce about how things were so normal back then and all. Only to realize that nothing would be the same anymore. Especially in our current situation."

She couldn't afford to get stuck in the past. Not with everything that was going on. If Hazel went back to her old house...a part of her likely wouldn't want to leave after. Right now, she needed to focus on the present and, most importantly, the future.

Though, despite thinking this, once everything had calmed down and she was able to relax a little bit, Hazel did think about taking a trip back to her house just for a little bit. It wouldn't be to gather any supplies but to simply...bask in the nostalgia before returning to the here and now.

Hazel then shook her head, putting aside the thought of her home and the past for a moment. "Alright, let's get back to scavenging this house."

Astrid nodded. "Right."

Putting the conversation aside, the group resumed their breaking and entering and searched through the house, curious to know what to find inside. And after they were done with this house, they would then check out a few others before taking on the horde again.

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