Over the next few days Chronos' team collected more information about the wasteland and its creatures.
The borders looked the same as a plain, mostly, but the deeper you went the more extreme the weather became. There were parts of the wasteland that were just circles of desert or had a constant storm blowing in them while others looked perfectly normal.
At least until you stepped into the sphere of influence that made it look normal.
In one section the life energy was so immense that the plants rapidly mutated and tried to devour you or anything else inside the sphere, in another there was a massive beast hibernating until it felt food approaching forcing them to retreat.
The way the wasteland acted reminded Chronos of the world crystals. They would affect the world around them by providing pure energy to grow everything and would decide the type of land and energy around them.
He had theorized that these crystals were influenced by powerful creatures in the past but seeing the wasteland he couldn't help but come up with another theory.
Thinking about the history of the wasteland perhaps powerful magics could force the crystals to alter their surroundings. Creating Isolated landscapes even long after the war had ended.
That war had seen many different powerful beings fight to the death and spells strong enough to destroy cities had been cast constantly.
If those actions had affected the world crystals, then it would explain why the wasteland was so chaotic. And with so much chaos the energy within the wasteland just didn't have time to recover which slowed down the regrowth of the wonders that had once existed here.
The creatures living in the wasteland were a different story. Instead of trying to grow more powerful they tried to stay weak but developed unique skills that allowed them to specialize in just one or two areas.
He found serpents that could rapidly move through the earth without disturbing it but lacked combat capabilities, relying entirely on poison and hunting weaker creatures for survival.
Birds that could safely fly through storms and only landed in plains that were surrounded by violent storms or other hard to reach areas or creatures like the waste buffalo that would sacrifice their lives to kill the enemy.
Seeing how an isolated land ravaged by war had developed, Chronos was amazed at the resilience and adaptability of life.
One morning when they were planning the day's activities Chronos heard footsteps coming from the swamps.
thud. thud.
"What's that?" Chronos asked.
"I don't hear anything." Lyla said.
He looked at Gregory only to see him shaking his head, he hadn't heard it either.
"I'm stepping outside." Chronos jumped over the railing to check on the sound, but he couldn't see anything nearby.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Whatever was making that noise was coming closer at a fast pace. It was rhythmic and now he could confirm that it was coming in their direction.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Crash!
"Everyone get inside!" Chronos yelled as he heard it crash into something and knock it over with ease.
The children playing outside ran to the ladder and gathered in the central room where they would be safe.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He could see it now.
It was a dark red skinned humanoid, taller than 4 meters with two large horns on its forehead. It was surrounded by a thick aura that obscured the details of its appearance but just from its movements Chronos could tell that it was at least as strong as he was.
Every step it took crossed several meters before it needed to take another step and the speed it was moving at meant that it would be here in under a minute.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
Skkshh.
It slid to a stop in front of him. As the aura faded away Chronos was finally able to tell who had arrived.
"Gorvak, you really gave us a scare. Send us a message before you come charging in next time."
Gorvak looked up at the treehouse and saw several small faces peeking out at him from the doorway.
"Sorry but the matron insisted on reaching the children as soon as possible after your last whisper bird message. Was it really that bad?"
He asked as he lowered a pack litter to the ground. On the litter was a middle-aged woman wearing the robes of a blue dragon priestess.
"Seeing you charging at me was like watching an armored war chariot headed straight for me but worse. Now I know how my enemies feel when I attack them. Welcome matron the children are waiting for you above."
"Good, it looks like you are at least taking care of them." She said but when she tried to move towards the tree an old woman suddenly appeared in front of her.
The swamp hag stared at her before speaking. "Well, you don't look like the type of matron to beat kids."
The matron looked scandalized, "Senior, punishments are necessary for when they cause trouble but if any blue dragon matron harmed a child without reason, I would personally burn them to death."
"I'll head up with you, if the children need anything else make sure to tell me." The swamp hag nodded in approval as they walked together.
Chronos turned to Gorvak, "Did you see anything strange on the way?"
"No, just the usual boars and crocodiles. It's strange how empty Dracon Fen is right now."
"Two armies of trolls and monsters just passed through along with the dark beasts ravaging everything in sight. It's only normal it would be somewhat empty, I'm more worried that something strange will move in before Dracon Fen recovers." Chronos said.
"I see. Well, I'm going to stay here and protect the kids so your group can explore the wasteland more fully. Though I'm not sure how much that helps given how chaotic the wasteland is." Gorvak said as he shrunk back to 3.3 meters.
That was an interesting skill but Chronos already had enough skills to study right now.
"I agree, all of the strange weather is really throwing us off. We weren't prepared for it." Chronos sighed as he rubbed his head.
If it was just raining it wouldn't be so bad, but they had also seen lightning storms, tornadoes, and small localized blizzards.
If the troll army, who knew the terrain, or the black robed priests were hiding inside one of those areas then finding them without getting caught would be near impossible.
"We haven't managed to find them yet so we're planning on increasing the range of our search but that means some of them might try targeting this place while we're gone. We'll be counting on you to keep everyone safe."
"No problem. Where are you planning on going today?"
"Far to the southeast. The black robed priests are too skilled at hiding so we're looking for traces of the trolls now that we have some knowledge of our surroundings." Chronos said.
"Chronos, it's time to go." Called Lyla.
"Good luck and always watch your back out there." Gorvak said.
Nodding Chronos jogged after his team as the matron and the swamp hag started organizing the kids for a lesson.
After several hours of running and crossing halfway to the central ocean, they found traces of the trolls or rather there was a massive path with tons of fallen trees leading out of the swamp.
"Did we miss this before or is it new?" Chronos asked.
Gregory looked at the trees before answering, "It's at least three days old. This is further south than we usually travel and it looks like they covered their trail pretty well inside of the wasteland."
That was true. Once the path went a few hundred meters into the wasteland it entered another one of those strange weather spheres that had dust flying everywhere and vanished.
Looking at the dust he knew he was going to regret following the trolls later, but he needed to do his job.
"Let's try to find where they've gone." Chronos started walking towards the dust but was stopped by Lyla.
"You should turn back into your human form, that way you won't be picking sand out of your fur all night. Why are you maintaining the werewolf form anyways?"
"I just got comfortable like this and forgot to change back." He said as his form shifted back to being a human.
As Gregory prepared to track the trolls he stopped and stared at Chronos' eyes.
"Is it just me or are your eyes almost transparent now?"
"Hm, really? I can't see my eyes." Sariah gave him a hand mirror to look in. "Ah, thank you Sariah"
Looking at his eyes, he saw the same light blue eyes he always had. Wait, there were small shimmering bits floating in the whites of his eyes that looked similar to the [Sever] skills visual effect, but it was very faint.
That must be what Gregory had seen, it certainly made his eyes look lighter than they were, but his eye color hadn't changed. The whites of his eyes on the other hand had become slightly more transparent.