Elemental Cats

The explorers exterminating the Scorched Earth Rats had made their method effective enough to split up into smaller groups and spread out through the wasteland. Instead of gathering the rats densely, like they had done at first, they poured water and a light amount of explosives into the tunnels in a much larger area.

With enough experimentation, they had managed to create a liquid explosive that slowly began drying up in contact with air, leaving behind a highly flammable dusty substance that wouldn't mix with other materials after drying.

The explorers first poured down that mixture, and after it dried, leaving a trail of fuses, they poured various other explosives that were efficient at collapsing the tunnels. Since the second round of explosives tended to be thicker and flowed slower, they were flushed down with water.

After enough time for the explosives to run deep into the tunnel system, or at least as deep as it could spread, and everyone had left the area of the wasteland they were targeting, the fuses were lit by a few mages. The mages were then rushed away from the area while the fire rushed along the fuse and down into the tunnels, racing toward the spread-out mass of explosives.

Although lighting only a single fuse would, in theory, set off all the explosives eventually, there was no way to determine how the materials had spread out down in the tunnels, so to be safe, a few mages would light the fuse at the edges of the designated area, and a few would ignite it further into it. The ones who went deeper inside the zone were partnered up with those who had the greatest movement speed, in return for the riskier job, they get more money than the others.

After the fuse is lit, and everyone has moved a certain distance away to enjoy the spectacle, there is usually only a slight delay before the explosions happen. And this time was no exception.

The slight delay had let everyone calm down and listen to the subtle hum that came from the fuse burning. The sound gathered and bounced on the tunnel walls, echoing and reverberating all the way to the surface.

Then before the sound of the lit fuse stops, a tremble runs through the ground. The trembling is only the beginning as the holes in the ground turn into tiny geyzers, spouting out steam and boiled rats. Accompanying that steam is the sound of the explosions that has been distorted when rising through the ground.

After the initial release of steam and the trembling, the ground shakes, and with a rumble signifying the tunnels' collapse, the surface level of the ground sinks several meters, in an area even larger than the initial one. In some places, the ground becomes even with areas that have already received their rat extermination treatment. With the chaotic tunnel building and the randomness of nature, the earth collapses unevenly, leaving the ground looking like a warzone. Cracked, dry soil, covered in clumps and craters, with blood seeping up here and there. Not to mention the rat corpses all over.

Since the dead rats no longer needed to be used as fertilizer, they were left where they were, especially the ones buried by the former tunnels. With the tunnels already collapsed, preventing the rats from freely moving around in the areas with lots of fresh nourishment, and an ongoing extermination, the ones in charge of planning decided to use the corpses as a way to reinvigorate the barren wasteland.

Although leaving the rat corpses alone might open up for a quick comeback from the rats if even a single couple remains, the explorers-turned-exterminators weren't planning on being careless, and with their method, they could afford to completely go through the wasteland, at least once. After finishing with their work, they had also planned to ask the guild have someone regularly monitor the wasteland.

With that area done, it was time for the group of exterminators to move to the next one.

To maximize their efficiency the mages and fighters had split up into two groups, with an even distribution of manpower. The two groups went different ways and started circling the wasteland, exterminating the rats and collapsing tunnels one segment at a time. And then, after meeting the other group, they would continue around and keep doing what they were doing but one layer deeper into the wasteland.

With supply lines and convoys of materials running through the wasteland at all times, it didn't seem as barren as it once was.

With the size of the wasteland, it would take a lot of time and supplies, despite the efficient method they had devised when exterminating the rats. In order to not waste extra time going back and forth between the camp all the time, extra merchants and mercenaries were hired to safely transport everything that was needed, between the town, the main camp, and the two groups somewhere in the wasteland.

The convoys had encountered the small forest where the Ash Monkey tribe lived, but since the primary focus was on transporting goods and delays wouldn't be tolerated, that matter was put on hold for the time being. Some of the Janitors had tried reporting it to Hugh, but the twins blocked his tent and merely said he was busy.

Unsurprisingly Hugh was still busy chasing after leads for that orb. With no way to progress in his desperate treasure hunt, he was crazily looking under every rock and tuft of grass he could find in the wilderness.

He only stopped when he needed to eat or to go back and ask his subordinates if they had found anything, only to go back out in disappointment.

During one of his outings, where he had gone all the way to the forest, he felt the ground shake. At first, he thought a large beast of some kind was running crazy nearby, but as the earthquake continued, it felt less like the ground was being stomped on and more like the ground was shaking in pain.