Dominic passed Amie an Ogre Hunting Rifle as they reached two hundred metres from the clan.

"Here, start out with this, and then we will switch weapons when they get closer. Use the solid shot to start with, it’s better against Ogres. You do have the [Create Munitions] spell, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, it’s one of the basics for the Duskblade Sect. I’ll take good care of the rifle." Amie joked as she checked it for any issues.

They approached to the hundred-metre mark, where their accuracy would be called acceptable, as neither was a professional marksman, and took aim.

The Ogre Clan was only ten strong, but ten Ogre Cores were as valuable as two hundred of the Frogger cores, just based on their level. But to a blacksmith, level twenty cores were infinitely more valuable than the lower level ones.

The sound of rifles split the air, and two Ogres dropped. Then another two as Dominic and Amie furiously worked the actions on their weapons and picked targets who hadn’t noticed them yet.

That got them through the first six, as the Ogres eyesight was not great, and they were relatively small targets in the long grass.

But then, they were charging, and the duo had to change to aiming at the centre of their bodies, which were armoured, or their legs, which were not an instant kill.

Dominic went for the legs, hoping to slow their approach, while Amie tried for the head the first time, and missed. Her second shot hit a chest plate, but the reduced penetration left her doing minimal damage, even with [Firebolt] enhancing the shot and damaging the armour.

Dominic slowed a second Ogre with his second shot, then paused to get a headshot on the first one, which had stumbled and fallen over a rock.

Then, it was time for pistols, as the Ogres were too close for anything else.

From so close, it was not hard to get a solid hit, but with their damage reduction, even shooting them in the head was not a guaranteed kill. Not even for a level twenty pistol.

The swing of an enormous club send Dominic rolling backwards to avoid it, and then running to the side to keep the creature from getting another good swing at him.

Eight times Dominic had to shoot his next target as he ran, and from the way it was holding its head, it might not be dying.

So, he switched back to the rifle, and hoped for the best.

It wasn’t easy to shoot a rifle in such close quarters, but with the target on the ground, the kill shot was a success, leaving him free to deal with the two limping Ogres.

Amie was much faster than he was, Dominic noted as the mage darted around the battlefield with both pistols blazing.

It had to be a spell, as she was stepping on air every few seconds, using nonexistent obstacles as springboards to change direction. Incredibly effective as a fighting style, and worthy of a Mage Sect full of assassins.

She did have perfectly good melee weapons. But she had no intentions of getting close enough to need to use them if there was any way that she could avoid it.

One lucky hit was all that the Ogre needed, and neither of them had any healing spells.

Dominic smiled as the last of the Ogres dropped, then tapped all the bodies with a hand to collect the monster cores.

As he did, he noticed that there were quite a few items in his storage ring that were not cores. Those were all that was supposed to be in there, and he had them piled separately from the rest of his monster cores, so that he knew how much was supposed to be split.

But among the pile of cores were multiple swords, some folded cloth, a pair of boots, and one rolled scroll.

That was exactly what he had been hoping for.

"I think I got a crafting scroll." Dominic quietly informed Amie as she checked the area for more nearby portal beacons.

"Nice. Check it when we get back. If you do it now, you’ll get all distracted with the need to make a cool new thing." She replied.

"Good point. That is definitely more distracting than the urge to know what sort of new thing I might be able to make. There is a chance that it’s not an item that will be useful to me, after all."

Amie winked at him. "There is a chance that it’s an Alchemy scroll or something as well. You don’t always get the items that you need, even if the Monster Blessing is pretty reliable."

Dominic nodded. "Well, we can always hope to add to the pile as well. How about it? Did you find any other portal beacons?"

"I thought that we were going to find your wife?"

Dominic shrugged. "She’s in this general direction. We’re bound to find her eventually. Now, how about those beacons?"

Amie laughed at his casual attitude. "Yeah, there is another right in front of us, just over that hill. I can hear combat in that direction, so there is an army unit somewhere close. But the way that the sound carries here, it’s hard to tell exactly."

Most of her experience was either in the desert or in the cities, so she hadn’t quite gotten used to the way that the grasslands muffled sound.

"Then off we go. It had better be something good. We should have kept the scryer with us."

Amie just rolled her eyes. The mage who could do the scrying was among the injured, as the lines had been breached by the Minotaur force. He wasn’t in bad shape, but he did need to go back to the Sect and get someone to look at his injuries after he took the healing potion.

With no more hesitation, the pair moved toward the next portal beacon, and the sound of fighting.

A much larger fight than they had expected, but a small group attracted much less attention than a full unit of Royal Guards and a cavalry Company would.