After raiding through the first house, Hazel and her companions roamed the neighborhood and ransacked a few more places, taking whatever was useful and putting it in their storage bracelets. Kitchen utensils/appliances, other technological devices, tools from the garage, books, and the like.

A couple of hours passed until Hazel and Astrid finished their little house raid. They took a brief look at their haul, either keeping what they found or tossing the useless ones.

And with their raiding fest done, the group soon moved on to the swarm, doing the same drill as before. They flew into the queen's detection and then carpet-bombed the swarm as they came their way. The infants, web weavers, and sentinels were very easy due to the air superiority Hazel possessed.

The only problem was, unsurprisingly enough, the Reapers. Instead of being part of the swarm, the reapers went off on their own, sneaking around the city and out of Hazel's sight. She didn't realize this until one of them jumped from a building they flew by and lunged at them.

Astrid was the first to notice, and Nycteris was the one who killed it after Hazel cast telekinesis on it and allowed her familiar to tear it apart with his razor-sharp teeth. Once again, they witnessed how highly intelligent this new spider species was. It wasn't just their super speed or razor-sharp blade hands, but also how crafty and quick-witted they were.

These reapers knew that being part of the swarm would only get them killed, so they separated from their brethren to attack Hazel and her companions in another way. If Astrid hadn't sensed the first reaper, they would've been in a worse situation than they already were.

Thankfully, after the first incident, Hazel took things more seriously and sent out all of her Astral Eyes to completely observe her surroundings. Every building they were near, every street and alley they flew past, all of it was under Hazel's gaze as she meticulously observed it all.

It was thanks to this that she was able to spot the other reapers, waiting in other buildings nearby for her and her companions to fly past it. And when they did, the trio swiftly took care of the death spiders without slowing down.

Once the reapers were dealt with, everything else went smoothly, just like when they took down the swarm during the day. The trio continued this for two more waves and successfully took down the spider swarm once again.

As a reward for their relentless slaughter, Hazel was now Level 32, Astrid was Level 31, and Nycteris was Level 25. Hazel could tell that her progress was a little slower compared to before, and that was likely because of the level difference. Her level was now on par with the reapers and sentinels, which meant that she wouldn't get as much experience if they were a couple of levels higher than her.

Plus, she was letting Nycteris get most of the kills because he would benefit from them more since he was still below level thirty, unlike her and Astrid. Much like the previous two nights, once the battle was over, Hazel told her familiar to fly them back to the Jetport base so they could rest for the rest of the night for what was to come later.

Several hours passed, and Hazel woke up to the sound of players roaming the Jetport. The noise was much louder compared to before. A sign that more people were taking refuge within the jetport while also joining the Valiant guild.

As she got up from the blanket she was sleeping on, Hazel noticed that the shipyard restaurant was even more crowded than before. Her astral eyes scanned the restaurant, noticing that she could barely see the floor now because it was covered with multiple players resting on top of it. Another sign that the number of members and refugees was increasing at a frightening pace.

"Looks like they'll need to get that village up and working fast," Hazel muttered to herself.

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"You're not wrong," Astrid said, catching her partner's attention.

When Hazel looked over at the dark elf, she watched her walk past a couple of sleeping players as she approached her with two cups in her hands. When she saw the cups, Hazel looked at her partner with an arched brow.

"You drink coffee?"

Astrid shook her head with a scoff. "No, I'm having tea." She gestured with the cup in her right hand, likely claiming this as hers. She then gestured to the cup in her left hand. "This one is for you."

Astrid gave Hazel the cup as the witch grasped it with both hands. Once she got the cup, she lightly blew on it before taking a sip of the coffee. Instead of a bitter taste, there was a large hint of sweetness in the substance, telling Hazel that her mom likely put in sugar or some kind of creamer. Considering that they were right next to a Starbucks, she figured that they got their supplies from there.

"Zoe's certainly gathering more players than she can likely handle," Hazel noted before taking another sip of her coffee.

"Well, she's a knight and believes in chivalry and helping others. She wants to aid people as best she can in these...dire circumstances."

"Yeah, but it seems like she's getting a bit...too eager to help people. While I'm not saying that she shouldn't, I am saying that before she pulls this kind of stunt, she needs to have a firm foundation to house her members. The Jetport is big, but even you can see the limits of the building's capacity, right?"

Astrid nodded. "The building is getting a lot more crowded than usual. Even this restaurant was running out of space now. It won't be long before they use another large room as a place to let people rest in."

While both Hazel and Astrid understood Zoe's intentions, it seemed to them that she was being too hasty with her decisions to help people. While it was good for her to gather people who needed shelter and a place to feel protected, she also needed to make sure that she had the proper necessities to provide for everyone within her Guild.

However, Hazel could also see why Zoe was so eager to gather more survivors in another way. After stumbling into the territory of a guild, she knew that there were going to be more guilds popping up all over Portland. And once they reach a certain point, it won't be long before those guilds start causing problems with other guilds. Worst of all, all of these guilds would result in one certain conclusion: A turf war.

The one thing Hazel was certain about when it came to multiple organizations forming all over the place was that sooner or later, those groups were bound to clash against one another. Whether it was for the sake of property and resources, and just because one guild didn't like the other, Hazel knew that a guild war was going to happen in Portland sooner or later.

Especially when one of these guilds was trying to become the Main/Global guild that represents their world. Hazel wasn't looking forward to when that event was going to happen.

"So, what exactly do you think we'll be facing in the fourth stage?" Hazel asked, drinking more of her coffee.

Astrid shrugged. "Who knows? Considering how formidable and annoying those reapers were, something tells me that we're in for a ride in the next few hours."

Hazel groaned. "Yeah, I'm definitely not looking forward to that."

Despite how well she did against the reapers last night, even when they nearly died to the first one, that was only because she had the help of her familiar flying around. She won't be able to summon Nycteris for their daytime swarm assault, so she and Astrid were essentially on their own.

And knowing that the stages get more difficult with each passing day, Hazel knew that the new spider species for the fourth stage wasn't going to be easy to deal with. It didn't help that she and the rest of the players were going to be forced to deal with them during the first stage rather than the second. They were practically jumping into the fray without a parachute at this point.

"Well, I should be able to at least get a look at the new spiders to see what we're dealing with, though I'm not eager to know what their name was," Hazel grimaced.

"What was worse than Reaper?" Astrid questioned.

"I can think of a couple, and believe me when I say this, you don't want to know."

The dark elf stared at her partner for a few moments, clearly disturbed by this statement. "Yeah, I'll take your word for it."

Considering that the spiders have been getting stronger and more dangerous with each stage that passed, Hazel wasn't looking forward to the species she was bound to encounter during the fourth stage. And yet, despite her protests, there wasn't much she could do but wait for their inevitable introduction.

It was days like these that made Hazel want things to go back to normal. Even though she loved and adored magic...there were some things that she wouldn't allow to happen just for the sake of achieving her dream. And one of them was letting so much chaos happen in her hometown in such a way.

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