By the South side of the inner city walls, Zatu, Night Fang and Sir Howard make their way to the open gates.
The gates are tall with a thin veil of mana separating the clear air of the inner city from the gray fog that obscures the other side.
As Zatu looks curiously at the other side, Night Fang stops on her tracks.
"Do you have a mask on you?" She asks only to be met by a confused look.
"Mask?"
"I'll explain as we walk, just wait here for a second." She says sinking into the shadows.
Leaving him in silence with Howard sitting pretty at his side.
A couple minutes later she emerges back out with a solid wood mask in her hand, with no holes for either mouth, eyes or nose.
As she hands him the mask Zatu recognizes it as a magical device made to counter beasts with mist and poison attacks.
Fumbling a bit Zatu places it on his face as the mana in his body syncs to the device and activates it.
From his eyes the wood becomes transparent and the air that passes through it gains the distinctively sweet taste of mana.
"What type of beast are we gonna encounter? Where is yours?" Zatu asks, pointing to the mask.
"It's not for the beasts, but for the smoke on the outer settlement." In response Illya shakes her head, making her way to the gate. "If you aren't used to it you'll pass out in minutes."
Nodding Zatu follows along into the gray fog, the moment he crosses the veil his field of view shrinks to a few meters of distance and he feels the humid air envelop every inch of exposed skin.
Rubbing his thumb and pointer together the fog feels sticky between his fingers.
'I'll be fully covered next time.' Zatu sighed in his mind, already regretting not bringing a cloak in his space pouch.
"What even is this fog Illya?" He asks as his vision slowly grows farther thanks to the mask.
"Hmmm." She pauses in thought. "How much do you know about the outer settlement?"
Zatu thinks for a second.
"It appeared after the last beast waves, vulnerable to beast attacks and I think it's not part of Unbreon?"
Illya raises an eyebrow at him.
None of what he said was wrong, but it was so much less than she expected.
"The outer settlement is responsible for processing dark shrooms into its consumable forms, the fog is mostly a byproduct from that."
From behind the mask Zatu's eyes narrow down.
Just then his vision grows wide enough to see more of the picture behind the gray fog.
The ground is made of a mixture of old paved stone and a strange gray mud.
On the curbs abandoned for years people lay half unconscious every few meters.
Relieved smiles plaster their faces as their irises glow gold overlapping their black scleras.
A symptom of long term use of dark shrooms.
'A mark for those shackled by their past.' Zatu frowns to himself remembering a bit about what Arbo told him about shrooms.
A drug that could help you calm down and concentrate, but also gradually installed itself within your body and became a basic necessity to the user for life.
Much like food and water, but worse.
Those eyes showed the reliance had already established itself.
And gave him understanding why Illya brought him a mask before crossing the gate.
"How come you are not affected but they are?" He asks in a dead tone, a bit of his distaste for tainting his voice.
Moving through the streets Illya looks back at him.
"For one I have poison immunity, for another they aren't like that simply because of the fog."
"Then why?" Zatu's frowns deepen.
"shroom husks, another residue from the dark shroom refinement." She points precisely at one of the people, even though she has no mask to help her see through the fog. "You can know it's husks from the smiles and dazed look, finished products don't leave you this incapacitated."
Slowly they kept moving down the streets, shabby shacks and narrow streets circling them all around.
And as they approach the center of the settlement, Illya slows down and turns to Zatu.
"We are getting closer to the main processing station for dark shrooms, If you're curious I can give you a tour through the settlement as well, with your status within the city I can show you pretty much everything."
Zatu pauses for a single moment before a frown flashes on his face and he shakes his head.
"Let's not, I'd rather spend more time looking around where I'll be fighting beasts than here."
***
Minutes later the fog thins out around them, at this point there are few to none of the shacks previously seen.
All substituted by rubble left from the fall of the south district 8 to 9 or so years ago.
"When you move through the fallen area, you should always choose where to walk through based on your strength and class." Illya points at the rubble. "Moving through the fallen buildings can cut off line of sight and reduce the chances a beast sees you from afar."
Then her hand shifts to the old street.
"Moving through the streets makes it easy to see you, but as a bonus makes it both easier to travel and reduces the chances of a surprise encounter with a beast."
Zatu nods at Illya's side, his eyes traveling through the surroundings searching vigorously for any signs of movement.
"Knowing my class and tier, where should we walk for now?"
"If you were alone you'd better risk through the rubble since with your tier you'll just lose to any and all beasts nearby. But when we start the guiding we'll let you walk down the streets as I hide in your shadows."
"Like a bait?"
"Exactly, cause if I'm showing they won't come… at least not the ones from past Beast Waves."
At that Zatu nods, nobody knows why, but anyone that studied even a little about beasts would know beasts that survived past waves were both smarter and less aggressive than newer ones…. Though most would hunt you down either way if given the chance.
Like that Illya and Zatu walked around through the outer district, talking about beasts, the terrain, the species that lived nearby.
*
Hours later to the point even Sir Howard fell asleep on Night Fang's shoulder.
To be fair this tour didn't go like Zatu imagined it would when walking outside of the city.
For hours he got to see and explore the place peacefully without a single beast in sight.
A strangeness Illya had reinforced was because of her presence when asked about.
At this point his excitement from the idea of fighting a real battle today had already faded.
Not because he couldn't but he knew he shouldn't… This was his supposed rest day after all.
So he accepted that nothing big was going to happen today…
That was until Sir Howard suddenly opened black eyelids and let out a low and guttural meow.
In an instant Illya stopped on her tracks and Zatu froze in place.
Hearing the sound that came from the cat's mouth didn't sound like good news to him.
And yet a part of him couldn't help himself smile at the possibility of some action.
As the conflicting emotions churned in his stomach he turned his eyes to Illya.
"What was that?"
Illya turns to him, a hesitant look in her eyes as it jumps from Zatu to Unbreon in the distance.
"A tier 3 is close by… and it shouldn't be here." She frowns, knowing she doesn't have enough mana to take Zatu to the city walls and come back.
Walking to it would be only minutes of distance, but shadow merging with a large companion simply cost way too much mana.
The other options of fighting with him nearby or leaving him alone in the outer district also sounded horrible.
And at the same time, she was one of the few awakened in the settlements that are both Tier 3 and combat focused.
So ignoring the beast meant deaths, of which size and magnitude she couldn't estimate.
"Can you kill it? Or should we go after reinforcements?" Zatu asks, seeing the hesitation in her face
"Well, I can kill it…" She states without even knowing what beast it is, a confidence that emerges from the focus of her class. "But it could be dangerous for you."
Zatu nods. "Let's go kill it then." He answers before starting to walk forward confidently, each of his steps brimming with resolve.
An action that brought a giggle out of Illya's lips.
'Acting as if he is the one fighting and…'
"You're going in the wrong direction Zatu!"
He walks back to her, acting as if nothing happened.
For a moment Illya is impressed with his thick face, before she notices his ears are now red and his eyes run from hers like a desperate bunny.