Awakened: SSS Ranked Soul king

"Hey Victoria, catch" as soon as Guilliman entered the hall, he panned his head to Victoria who was standing infront of a desk along side Cyrus and Hamdel.

"Hm?" She raised her head upon hearing Guillimans words, swiftly putting her hand up and catching the rolled up map he had flung.

They had gotten around two maps already, one of which was a detailed map of the outpost building, the offices and capabilities. With that they had been able to confirm that there really was a tunnel down below.

The problem was that they had no idea where it led to, so they now had to prioritize getting a much broader map at least.

"Ohhh, that's…" rolling out the map Victoria froze breaking into a weird smile. Guilliman had gotten exactly what they were look for, and it was exactly what they thought.

The tunnel did lead to shelter.

But she didn't know how to feel about it in all honesty.

" let's take a look" Cyrus said looking at the map strangely. Victorias facial expression was hard to read.

"Sure" laying down the map on a he desk, it became perview to everyone around.

"That's…." Gritting his teeth , Cyrus sighed.

Actually, they wouldn't mind risking going through the tunnel even if it led to a dead end, they could always comeback if that was the case.

The problem here was that reaching the tunnel was much more dangerous than their entire operation of breaking into the forest.

Down below, where the entrance to the map was supposedly placed, was crawling with plant like beasts, they didn't even know how powerful they were because the enteramce to the underground was guarded by a mythic beast.

That was only the entrance, the dangers down there were still unknown to them, but if a mythic beast could be just a guard….they couldn't even imagine what was down below.

"We really have no choice huh" Hamdel smiled bitterly.

Actually they already came to the decision that going down below was futile, it was but a death sentence. The thought of fighting that monsters in the opposite room was already gut wrenching enough.

However, what Guilliman had brought to them was a game Changer in the sense that they didn't even have a choice but to go downbelow.

This was a map of the entire forest.

Not just the part they were in, it was a map of everything although a bit vague it touched the most important information they needed.

And that information was that they were in boiling water.

Unlike the Blacksteel shielter that had a zone behind it without monsters, the blackraven shelter was completely surrounded by thick forests and monsters. There was no safe route.

This wasn't optimal as most shelters had to have some sort of relationship with the outside world, hence the need for a space to allow them leave the shelter.

They theorized that that space would probably be a safe zone in the forest, one with a minial amount of monsters allowing for troops and messengers to pass through.

That theory of theirs had turned out to be factual, there really was a safe zone leading into the forest and out of it, and even though it would be more dangerous now, it would still be less dangerous as the other places.

If they could find this safe zone it would be smooth sailing, until they reached the fog.

Unfortunately for them, they were no where near that safe zone. No far from it.

From their estimation with the map here, it seemed like they were in the most dangerous area of the forest, far away from the safe zone.

"No, there's another way. We can leave all together" Cyrus spoke out a hint of fear in his eyes.

Going down there was a death sentence and moving forwards was also a death sentence. Their only hope of survival was to retreat. With the map in their hands finding the safe zone from outside would be much easier.

"Hmm, that not necessarily safer Cyrus, the slaughter behind us would have attracted more fearsome beasts and even if we survive….thats at least a months worth of time," Victoria disagreed.

She wasn't looking to helm over ravenskeep, but getting there later than the other geniuses of the shelter was liking asking to become slaves. She would rather not be under the palm of anyone at this point in her life.

"And this so called safe zone, it's been 200 years, why do you think it'll still be safe? For all we know there might be a great beast there laying in wait" Victoria added causing those in the surrounding to involuntarily nodd.

They had come to far to just pack up and retreat, for gods sake a few of the men in Cyrus's cohort had even died. Going back was like spiting on their graves.

"I'm not going to risk mine and my men's lives for your crazy ambitions!" Cyrus shot back with poisonous words.

'Ahhh so it's finally revealed' Guilliman smirked.

This was a very funny situation to him, Victoria had been unknowningly suffocating his influence in the group and it was pissing him off. Cyrus had even fallen to just flat out disagreeing with everything she said.

It was a rocky situation but also a funny one simply because Victoria had no idea that she was doing this.

Maybe it was something to do with how she grew up, but the way she spoke with authority and her ability to inspire her lessers. It had always been top notch, as if she was use to it or maybe even born with it.

For Cyrus? His authority came from his strength, he was clearly not as good of a leader as Victoria was. With Victoria being stronger than him his influence was diminished.

"What ambitions?! I just want us to stay alive!!" Victoria clearly hurt by that previous exchange retorted with a hint of vexation in her eyes.

She was being purely logical here, Cyrus was thinking of staying alive in the short term, he didn't think of staying alive after entering the shelter.

If they kept running away from monsters here, when they reached the keep there would be no difference aside from the fact that they would now be running from humans.

"Fucking…." Cyrus was going to retort when he soon heard a voice from behind.

"This is just a waste of time, we are all slayers here. Let's just put it to a vote" Guilliman said rather lazily.

A fall out was nice to watch, but Cyrus was still needed much more so than most of his teammates combined, he knew it and very Victoria knew it also.

"Yes, that's a more reasonable way to settle this" Hamdel added as a voice of reason. Most people in the two cohort already respected him because of his advanced age so they listened.

"Sigh, Hands up if you want to retreat all the way back to the gate" Victoria sighed scanning through the men around.

The first to rise his hand was Cyrus then his ever so loyal

Younger brother Quinn and finally one other.

That was three votes

Cyrus had six members in his cohort, He frowned and looked around with frustration. Morgan and two other didn't support them going back.

"Hands up if you want to risk your life in this godforsaken forest" Cyrus said sharply his gaze firmly hovering over the three from his cohort.

Victoria and her friends were fiercely loyal so he didn't doubt any of them would abstain. He had lost and he knew it. But losing and having his own cohort members betray him were two different things.

If none of them voted it would be okay, just seen as a lapse in judgement and views, but if they chose to side with Victoria….then it was a big problem.

Fortunately none of them raised their hands to support Victoria so he maintained a good standing for negotiations at least.

"If we do this, we aren't leading the charge" sighing Cyrus spoke.

Even though they won the vote they did so with the members of only one group, as such most of the risk would be borne by that one group.

"Yes, this is only natural. But it also means the spoils will mostly go to us" Victoria sneered. She hadn't thought that this guy would be such a coward, she wondered where Barthold even met such a group of shivering little girls.

Of course, this was anger speaking, deep down she understood that this was a complicated matter. Things would probably change if they found a more suitable way to deal with the dangers ahead.

Or so she hoped.

"Guilliman, Jemie, we're heading outside" Victoria said calling the two members of her cohort capable of scouting and left the room heading directly into the forest.

"What's up? Shouldn't Quinn be among us?" Jemie asked hurriedly as they followed Victoria from behind.

The kid was the best scout here in all honesty. He could easily see what was inside without much risk.

"When have we ever depended on outsiders?" Victoria said rather coldly as she walked forward towards a hill.

She was pissed off by Cyrus's words.