After talking with Zoe and the other players, Hazel watched them be the first to leave as they entered the cargo truck and drove off to the meeting place. Once they were gone, she then moved back inside. Her initial goal was to fly out and head over to the Orc sightings to see what she could find. Before doing that, though, she had something else to do.

[Hazel Thatcher: Zoe and the others just left for the meeting place.]

[Astrid Skogr: Which means you're planning to head out as well?]

[Hazel Thatcher: Yeah, but I need to do something first.]

[Astrid Skogr: Alright. Good luck, then.]

[Hazel Thatcher: Right back at you.]

Now that Zoe's group was currently gone, all that was left was for Hazel to head over to the forest and do some investigating. But she had one thing to do before leaving.

After messaging Astrid, Hazel dismissed the chat room and made her way over to the rooftop. As for what she planned to do, she needed some eyes to keep her informed about what was happening during the meeting. And she knew one method that could solve this issue of hers.

...

After her little side-trip to the Rooftop, Hazel was now zipping through the air like a drone, flying further away from the Jetport building. She watched canopies of trees and wilderness rapidly pass her in a flash, not even giving her a moment to admire them. Not that she had the luxury of doing such a thing at the moment.

Hazel was currently on a mission. And the last thing she needed was getting distracted. Especially when she had a lot of things to do. She had to keep an eye on the meeting with Zoe and see if Dolk shows up, while also currently investigating and dealing with the Orc situation.

She was very busy tonight. And she knew it would only get busier as time passed.

Hazel flew for a little bit until she stopped and hovered over a dense forest below her. Looking down, she casually scanned the top of the trees for a moment. Then, she began to descend to the ground. Once the trees were now taller than her, rather than the other way around, Hazel looked around. There was nothing to see, but that didn't matter to her.

"Okay, so I'm pretty sure this is the general area where those players encountered the Orcs," She muttered to herself.

While Hazel wasn't certain of the location, the players told her that they encountered the Orcs near the border of the Valiant Guild's territory. And if that was the case, then there might have been more Orcs located somewhere. Whether they were taking residents within the base, which likely wasn't possible, or the Orcs were entering the Guild's territory in search of food or something else.

Either way, they were likely located somewhere around here. And all Hazel needed to do was find them. As for what she planned to do next...she didn't know. Her initial goal was to just exterminate them, but after looking back on her previous actions, she came to realize that what she did before was unacceptable.

For one thing, when Hazel encountered players like Orcs and the like, she never really gave them a chance to try and surrender. If anything, she just attacked and killed them without a second thought. And she realized that she mainly did this when she was experimenting with her spells. She basically saw the Orcs, goblins, and such as nothing more than test subjects whose lives didn't matter to her.

And Hazel knew the reason behind this. It was because she saw them as nothing more than monsters, like in the Fractured Dungeon. Back then, whenever she encountered anything that could kill her, she would kill them. That was because of how they always behaved and what the descriptions said about them.

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The Fractured creatures in the dungeon were merely husks of who they used to be. They weren't even alive and were basically being puppeted by a combination of their baser, more animalistic instincts and the corruption that destroyed their world. Anything that wasn't human was immediately killed on sight without hesitation.

And Hazel brought back this type of mentality when she returned to her world. Though there was a moment when she hesitated against those Orcs when she and Astrid first made it out of the dungeon. As soon as she heard them talk and not act all that animalistic like the monsters back in the fractured dungeon, she faltered.

Of course, that didn't last long, and when she realized that her life was in danger and she had no choice but to fight, she merely saw them as monsters that needed to be killed. And while Hazel didn't regret having this kind of mentality, she also knew that she couldn't just kill anything that didn't look human.

Hazel believed that if it were possible, she could probably converse with the monster players and form some kind of friendly relationship with them. This would not only avoid any further bloodshed but also provide a bit of peace and stability as well.

However, that was only if her opponents were able to listen to reason. If they weren't and simply attacked Hazel like a bunch of savages, then she wouldn't hesitate to kill them. Just because she knew her previous actions were wrong, on some levels, doesn't mean she was going to hesitate from killing now. All she was doing was changing her standards and giving the monster players a chance to cooperate.

If they didn't, then they would simply die. Not only did these Orcs pose a threat to the Valiant guild, but they also threatened the safety of Hazel's mother. And she would do anything to protect her family members. It didn't matter if the whole world tried to harm those she held dear. If they posed a threat to her loved ones, then she would kill every one of her enemies without a second thought.

Hazel may be trying to consider peace as an option, but she wasn't foolish enough to avoid killing her enemies. It's like the old saying went: don't mistake kindness for weakness. And she was far from weak.

"Okay, then," Hazel rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Let's get this party started."

She then summoned several of her Astral Eyes and spread them out to scan the surrounding area of the forest. Once they were far enough away, her vision then connected to the various astral eyes currently monitoring her surroundings. She could see all of the trees, bushes, and shrubbery around her for at least half a mile or more.

Her vision switched from Astral Eye to Astral Eye like a security camera, changing channels of each one so she could see what they were seeing. And so far, she wasn't seeing much. No sightings of Orcs or the like. This not only confused her but also annoyed her.

"Come on, now," she muttered to herself. "Give me something to work with here, alright?"

Hazel only came here because she was using the Orcs as an excuse. However, she also figured that the idea of Orcs setting up their base near the Valiant Guild's territory was also true, which was why she wanted to investigate it.

While she was okay with the idea that no Orcs were wandering the area since this also saved her a lot of time, she was a bit irritated that she could be essentially on a wild goose chase. At that point, she wished for an Orc to show up, so she didn't believe that this whole thing was a massive waste of time.

Thankfully, Hazel's worries were for naught. After switching through her astral eyes enough times, she soon found what she came here for. Through one of her eyes, she spotted a large, bulky, green Orc located out of the corner of her vision. Turning to get a better look, she saw the Orc in full view, currently trekking through the forest within the Guild's territory.

Not only that, but this Orc didn't appear to be alone. Following behind the Orc were several of his brethren. All of them possess weapons from spears, swords, and bows. There was one Orc that caught her attention. From what she could make out, the Orc wielded a large staff and wore a worn and torn cloak. A magic cloak, to be precise. Which meant this Orc was a mage.

While she had the opportunity, Hazel quickly appraised the Orcs to see what she was dealing with.

[Drebur'tok, Class: Berserker, Level 28]

[Drikgorn, Class: Barbarian, Level 25]

[Vigzog, Class: Brute, Level 25]

[Trogarg, Class: Archer, Level 26]

[Gul'bog, Class: Shaman, Level 23]

"Geez, all of them were over level twenty. No wonder the players from the guild were having a lot of trouble with these guys."

While she was concerned regarding their levels, Hazel also knew that none of them would be able to do anything once she used her Evil Eyes on them. Though she only planned to do that if they posed a threat and didn't listen to reason, which she highly expected them to do anyway.

"Alrighty, then," Hazel muttered while cracking her knuckles with a daring smile. "Let's see if my peace option actually works out."

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