Chapter 114
“Did you absorb… its magic marks?†Gatt also rushed over. He checked the blood covering Glenn’s body as he asked the question.
In addition to Dudian, all the eyes of the rest of the team were on Glenn. They were enviously looking at her. Although they knew this thing would not fall into their hands but still were excited at sight.
“Well,†Glenn nodded slightly: “This time thanks to your help I got my hands on what I wanted.â€
All of them acted polite and modest but they were happy in their hearts. It has to be noted that if a senior hunter favored them then their future in the consortium would be bright.
Dudian looked at the dead swordsman: “Are we going to take back his corpse or we going to bury it on spot?â€
Glenn looked back and sighed: “His body has been infected, it’s only in ‘suspended animation’ state. Evil is going to consume his soul and once again he will stand up as an undead. We will incinerate him.â€
The other hunters’ face expressions changed into a sad one as they looked down at dead swordsman. This was the only sore of this trip.
“I will take back his sword!†Knight came up and picked the sword from the ground. He spoke in a low tone: “We have been in the same team for last three tasks… Didn’t expect this one will separate us…forever.â€
Gatt came forward and patted his shoulder but stayed silent without uttering a word.
Its very difficult to understand meaning of life. For ordinary people it was very common to take life and death as a normal occurrence. But for hunters it was something that they had to be accustomed to as the time passed.
Knife-wielding youth and the knight went around to find combustible materials. They piled papers, wood and clothing on dead swordsman body. With the help of fire sickle they ignited fire to incinerate the swordsman. Crimson red flames were reflected on everyone’s face as they watched his body burn to ashes.
As the fire was extinguished the only thing left of him were ashes and leftover bones. Glenn approached and buried them on the spot.
After dealing with the swordsman body Glenn stood up and came to the black weaver’s body.
Knife-wielding hunter came forward to help Glenn. Both of them were skilled at dissecting the beast. The knife sliced through mucosa and the hard shell of the beast was stripped off.
It was a rare opportunity to learn the anatomy of the beast so Dudian came up to watch them. Although he had learned the ways to dissect some common beasts while in the scavenger training camp but complete dissection of various useful parts of a monster’s body with such a complex structure was a very difficult task.
Blood began to flow everywhere and pungent smell floated around as the various internal organs rolled down to ground.
Dudian quietly watched. Perhaps the object of dissection was a monster so that he didn’t feel nauseous while watching the whole process.
It didn’t take long before hard shell, head, spiked limbs and the other parts of the giant black weaver were dismembered respectively. Dudian saw Glenn cut open the black weaver head. She pulled out white soft cotton from the groove in the jaw bone. From the expression on her face it should be some valuable and useful material.
“Strange. It turned empty out in here! Did it…?†Knife-wielding hunter’s face turned ugly as he cut open the black weaver’s belly.
Glenn looked past as she heard the words. There was nothing in the stomach in addition to internal organs. The place behind the stomach was empty, flat.
Dudian was puzzled as he heard the hunter talk but from their dialogue he knew that they were talking about the ovary.
“Did it spawn before coming to hunt?†Glenn was speculating but shook her head and continued: “No its impossible. The young eggs have low survival rate. It would be very difficult for them to hatch out. Even if they hatch out, parasitic worms would be very weak and can’t form the magic marks.â€
Knife-wielding youth was disappointed but continued to collect the other useful parts.
Dudian saw that he took out a mass of yellow liquid from its stomach. He found it odd and asked: “What is this?â€
“It’s fat.†The knife-wielding hunter looked at Dudian. He was more modest towards Dudian as he thought of Glenn’s praise for Dudian: “Its excellent material to fuel the oil lamp. Nobility loves to use it.â€
Dudian dawned over to check it closely as he didn’t expect that people were willing to use stuff like this to fuel the lamps.
It didn’t take long before the giant black weaver’s body was completely decomposed. All of its valuable parts were neatly piled together while the rest of internal organs, flesh and blood were scattered over. It was done so to prevent other monsters to come to eat the leftovers. Glenn used the fire to incinerate the scattered invaluable parts.
The air was filled with strange pungent smell. It felt like the meat soaked in blood was cooked.
Dudian covered his nose. But he suddenly smelled the black weaver’s odor. He concentrated more and more on this odor and it seemed to be coming out from the soil.
Dudian was surprised as he sniffed more to detect the location where the odor was spreading from. Few meters away from the initial place where they had killed the black weaver, there was flat but fluffy soil. He remember the conversation between knife-wielding youth and Glenn: “Is that…?â€
At this time, the archer youth suddenly said: “As the hunt for black weaver is over, I wanna go to other areas and check if I can find something rare. After all this adrenaline, I’m feeling a bit itchy… Maybe I’ll be a bit lucky? Ha? â€
Glenn was filling everything to a large storage bag as she looked up at him and said: “Its alright but I have just absorbed the magic marks. I’m a bit weakened and will have to return to the giant wall to rest. If you want to you can go but I have to remind you that it is going to be dangerous!â€
“Its alright. I heard that there are teams in area no 6 implementing some tasks. I will join and co-operate with them while trying my luck!†The archer youth laughed.
Glenn thought about and said: “Alright, whatever you say.â€
Dudian thought of his own storage in area no 9 and immediately said: “I wanna go to.â€
“You?†Glenn glanced at him and frowned: “Area no 6 is too dangerous. There will be many high level beasts there so its not alright for you to leave.â€
“I will go to the other areas,†said Dudian, †Undeads may not amount to anything in their perspective but I’ve been short on money lately.â€
Glenn thought for a moment:†Its ok. But cold crystal are not much of a value. If you are that anxious for money I can lend you as long as its not more than 100,000 gold coins.â€
Dudian was staggered. One hundred thousand gold coins? It was an astonomical number. It was enough to buy a small town in the residential district!
“No, I don’t need that much… Moreover, I want to earn myself.†Dudian replied.
Glenn saw his determination: “Alright, I’ll escort you back.â€
Dudian nodded as he didn’t dare to run around alone in this area.
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Soon, Glenn had loaded all the parts of the black weaver into a large storage bag. It was enormously big in comparison to her small thin body but she easily took it up.
Dudian hesitated for a moment when he saw Glenn ready to leave. Nevertheless he said: “There seems to be something there.†He pointed towards the ground. Although it was speculation of his own but taking into account his ability he decided to go forward with it.
“Oh?†Glenn looked surprised: “You smell something!?â€
“In the soil,†replied Dudian.
Everyone had full confidence in Dudian’s sense of smell after the previous accurate tracking. All of them took out their weapons so that they would be ready in case of emergence. Glenn winked at knight and the latter as if understanding her message went over to the place where Dudian had pointed to.
He began to poke the ground. Team members saw round white objects in the sand after knight dag about thirty centimeters pit. Glenn and the others eyes lit up: “The black weaver’s eggs!â€
There were eight black weaver eggs found inside the pit.
Dudian saw that his guess was on point. He was both happy and sorry in his heart. Unfortunately his strength was too weak or he could leave the team and sneak back to take them. However, this area was too dangerous and even the intermediate silver hunters were afraid to roam alone. Although he has super sense of smell and can detect the monsters in advance but there were beasts who had means to hide their own smell and quietly reach their prey. This kind of monsters weren’t uncommon in this area.
He had reconsidered this option because he didn’t want to take the risk. After all God may not always bless him with luck.
Glenn looked at the black weaver’s eggs in her hands.: “There are eight of them so there is an opportunity for one of them to survive. I can absorb this one later on to enhance the rate and strength of my magic marks.â€
Knight was also quite happy.
However, Dudian suddenly noticed the archer who was standing next to him. Although he was laughing and congratulating Glenn but his expression was blunt. Moreover because of the gap in height between both of them, Dudian could easily see that his palm was clenched into a fist. His thumb skid because of the force. Dudian suddenly understood as he wryly smiled in his heart.
“When the black weaver was fighting and dealing with us didn’t have the opportunity to secretly hide its eggs.†Glenn recalled the previous battle. She sighed as she look at Dudian: “Fortunately you are careful in your observation or else we would miss the eight immature eggs.â€
Dudian smiled but stayed silent. He was helplessly thinking that though it was unintentional but he seems to have offended the archer youth. The latter had ultrasonic hearing ability so he should aso hear the sound emitted from the buried black weaver’s eggs. That was why he proposed to go to area no 6 for hun. Obviously it was an excuse and he was clearly waiting for the team to leave. He later would secretly get back to take the eggs.
But archer’s plan was unsuccessful and exposed in front of Glenn and the other knight. After all, they were not stupid and could understand every but didn’t exposed their anger.
“I have gained another enemy … …†Dudian looked up at the young archer’s eyes. He was surprised to see that he was still smiling. But Dudian still felt that he had to remember archer’s appearance. In case he meets him outside the giant wall in the future, he would have to stay as far as possible from him. Or else he would be target of secret revenge and will be trapped in a situation beyond redemption.
“It’s all Dean’s credit that we could accidentally find the eight immature eggs.†Glenn looked at Dudian thought for a moment and said: “In accordance with the consortium’s prices this rare monster egg costs 1000 gold coins. However everything depends on the survival rate, so the value can turn upside down.â€
“I’ll give them to consortium to allocate the prices. But total price of four of the eggs would belong to Dean as he was the one to find it. It would be four thousand gold coins. The rest of you will get one thousand gold coins compensation each. As the eggs are immature, I’ll give them to consortium to help me cultivate them.â€
Glenn smiled as she saw that neither knight nor the others objected her distribution.
Dudian was surprised as he saw Glenn give him a lot of share while distribution. He didn’t expect half of the value to be distributed to him. Moreover, he would gain her goodwill.
“We gotta thank Dean’s nose this time!†knight laughed out loud.
Gatt also smiled and patted Dudian’s shoulder, said: “Good one.â€
Dudian smiled as he exchanged polite words with the others.
Glenn put away the eight young eggs and the crowd retreated along the same route.
Along the way, Dudian’s sense of smell and the archer’s ultrasonic hearing helped them to avoid many monsters. However they still encountered few beats. Moreover, one of them had ambushed them and attacked but fortunately because of Glenn’s fast and quick response it was killed.
Through the battles Dudian gradually came to understand Glenn’s battle strength. She could easily cope with monsters up to level 20. However, she was having problems with monsters above the level 20. For example, if she alone encountered black weaver, which was a level 26 beast, her life would be threatened.
After all, without Dudian’s advance notice of black weaver’s position, it would have quietly lurker over to attack and Glenn wouldn’t be able to detect its presence in time.
Glenn escorted the team out of the area no 1. They came to the forest with giant trees next to the highway. They continued to escort Dudian until the area no 7 which was swept clean.
The area no 7 was already being swept clean by the hunters while Dudian was still a scavenger. Now it has been cleaned through. Even if there are occasional monsters left but with his strength he could avoid and escape them. Unless, if his luck was bad he could meet the most dangerous beasts of the area no 7.
As they entered the area no 7, Glenn and the other left leaving Dudian alone.
Dudian had seen Scott’s map and remember pieces and bits but he still asked Glenn about the routes. The area no 7 was not far away from area no 9. He was heavily armed so he was going to hunt in area no 7 before leaving to area no 9.
In the area no 7, Dudian saw lots of undeads roaming around. Glenn and the others informed him that the undeads were the last to be cleaned out. Unless they are on hunter team’s way they will be killed. Generally hunters would not take the initiative to look for them.
Each time a new area is cleaned, the first to be search and killed would be monsters with parasitic worms. Because they would be the most dangerous neasts of the area.
Beasts with parasitic monsters would be much more powerful than ordinary monsters.
If they hunted the undeads then some monster will flee to other areas. Especially they could go to areas under the other consortiums command. It was equivalent to donating the ‘cream’ of the crop to the other consortium.
Dudian was not panicked when he saw the aimlessly roaming undeads. But he was full of joy. He found a building and reached to a high ground. He began to throw stones to make sound and attract the undeads from the other areas.
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Hunting level four ordinary undead was primary hunter’s favorite compared to other beasts. Undead’s would chase on instinct. Its enough to use simple traps to kill them unlike other monsters which have cultivated beast-like sense of survival. Even the ‘bone rats’ knew how to avoid dangerous situation and were pretty difficult to capture using traps.
However, it had to be noted that ordinary undead would evolve into a skeleton after going through another mutation. After heavily consuming and reaching the new level, all of its capability would leap up and upgrade. It would reach a level where it could directly fight head on with an intermediate silver level hunter. Moreover it would have a sense of consciousness and would not be easily killed by external forces.
Dudian had previously seen a skeleton’s corpse in the area no 1. At the moment, he could easily distinguish this once as ordinary undeads and that’s why he dared to hunt them using traps.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Arrows flew out. His effective range was 100 meters and it was actually height of a twenty four story building. Normally, the height of majority of residential buildings was around four to five meters between each floor.
Dudian was standing on twenty’s floor right now, about 80 meters from the ground level. Roof was dangerous to stand as the concrete was crumbling because of serious corrosion. He used stones to attract the undead’s into his effective range.
Arrows accurately hit the undeads. He was able to capture their movement trajectories easily after the high-intense experience with the black weaver. Dudian felt a lot easier shooting the undeads in comparison to black weaver. It was much easier to predict their actions.
Arrow would hit the undead from its head and nail it to the ground.
Occasionally he would hit the undead’s shoulder or the arrow would pierce its face. The force of the shot would be enough to stumble its body onto ground but an undead would feel no pain. So most of the time they would stand up to run towards the direction of the sound.
Dudian would continuously pull the string and shot the arrows.
Arrows in Dudian’s quiver ran out as he went to pull another arrow from the back but couldn’t grab onto any. He had a wry smile on his face because of the joy. He went to the other side of the building and began to throw stones to attract the gathered undeads to another location.
Stones fell onto the neighboring streets. Sounds of fallen stones echoed out loudly in silent ruins. Undead’s ear were particularly keen so they immediately gathered to move towards the source of the sound.
Dudian quickly went down the stairs while he smeared undead powder all over his body. He reached the ground floor and went over to the pile of corpses of undeads. He cut their heads or fracture them from their necks. He took seven or eight heads and carried them back into the building. He squatted at a corner and began to cut open the heads. He found cold crystals inside and began to collect them.
As he finished with this batch, Dudian ran outside to collect more heads and brought back to dissect them in the corner.
In about three tries, he had collected all the heads of the undeads and the arrows that he had shot before were recovered too.
However, after this he didn’t continue to hunt but went back to the roof of the building. He took out one of the cold crystal and sliced his finger. The hot blood dropped onto crystal. It seemed like ice had encountered the hot water. The location where the blood dropped, the crystal began to melt turning into a transparent silver liquid.
Dudian continued to observe.
He stopped dropping the blood to check how the cold crystal would end up. Over the time, the temperature of the blood cooled down however it didn’t freeze back into cold crystal.
Dudian was relieved but he thought that just this one experiment was not enough as an insurance. He returned downstairs and collected the blood of undeads. However, the blood of undead couldn’t melt the crystal. Instead when it dropped onto the crystal it was frozen immediately, changing to a shape of dark red tear.
Dudian was assured after this: “After absorbing the magic marks my blood had changed. Cold crystal can’t erode my blood. It means that I should be able to directly absorb the cold crystals.â€
He clutched the cold crystal as he wanted to directly absorb it. However there still was a trace of hesitation in his heart. Although he knew that according to his speculation his body would be able to absorb it but as a human he was afraid of the unknown. Moreover, he knew that one experiment was not enough to prove that results would be stable. He was uncertain about the side effects that could pop up after a long period of absorption of cold crystals.
He thought more on the topic but eventually gave up on the impulse to immediately absorb the cold crystal. After all, there is only one life so he had to be cautious not to lose it.
He put back the income into the back and grabbed his bow and arrows to continue to hunt the undeads. He planned to continue with the experiments and slowly study the secret of cold crystal in order to be able to maximize its effects.
Time was running fast.
In the blink of an eye two days went by. Dudian had hunted down close to 600 undeads in the area no 7. It was equivalent to 600 gold coins. Occasionally he met some large monster which he had seen before. He couldn’t identify their level so bypassed and avoided them.
“I will turn half of these cold crystals while I’ll keep the rest. Maybe in the future I’m going to build a secret base outside the giant wall?†Dudian made plans while checking around the surroundings.
suddenly~~
A familiar smell drifted into his nose.
A woman’s figure emerged in his mind.: “It’s her!â€, Dudian whispered.
He would never forget this smell which belonged to ‘bloody swordsman’ Linda.
“Thirty miles or so… Is she hunting in the area no 7?†Dudian’s eyes flashed. He thought that the area no 7 recently was the focus of consortium. They wanted to thoroughly clean this area. So it was not surprising that Linda ended up in here.
First time both of the had met in the scavenger headquarters and he had stayed alive narrowly escaping the death. The idea of killing her flashed in his mind but at the same time a voice secretly spoke: “It was only a verbal conflict which would not rise to the point of killing each other. A long time had gone by, perhaps she has forgotten you as meets lots of people daily.â€
However, another idea emerged: “We are outside the giant wall. Even if you kill her, no one will know. The law of the wall does not protect anyone in here. Even if people would know, there would be no way to convict you. Kill her! Kill her so you want have unnecessary trouble in the future. Although she is a silver level hunter, but how can she protect herself if she can’t the enemy!â€
“Murder … it’s too harsh.â€
“Kill! Kill! No one will see.â€
Two different voices echoed out in his mind as Dudian pondered over the matter. At first he was not aware but later he had learned the identity of the hunter he had killed. He was called Brian and was woman’s younger brother. He put away the hesitation in his heart as he spoke in determined tone: “She won’t let go! I’m in training period so there is no way for her to deal with me. But after the training period, she will try every means within her capabilities to kill me!â€
“She has to die!â€
“It is necessary for me to deal cleanly and thoroughly with people who I have offended!â€
Softness in his heart faded away as he looked at the scratches on his right hand.
He hesitated for a moment but later on he took out the bag of cold crystal from his backpack. He pierced his hand and clinged the cold crystal.
Coldness entered his body through his palm and moved along his arm.
“Even if I ambushed her, it would be very difficult to kill with my current strength. I hope my speculation regarding cold crystal is right. Nevertheless I can’t absorb too much…†Dudian’s lips moved as he whispered. The feeling he got from the cold crystal gradually disappeared but he nervousness in his heart increased.
After a moment, he took out second cold crystal and continued to absorb it. He stopped as he felt discomfort in his body.
“It is a heaven sent opportunity and my only chance to fight back!†Dudian thought: “After the training will be over, I’ll have to implement the mission but she will be the one hunting while I will be the prey. If I can seize this opportunity…†He prayed in his heart. He prayed for success. It was going to be risky move. But if he didn’t grasp onto it, then the situation will be much more difficult after he finishes the training.
It was best to firmly grasp to the opportunity. Otherwise he would have to passively fight back against Linda’s attacks in the future.
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Area no 7. A ruined street.
More than twenty corpses of undead were lying on the ground. Their heads were cut and bodies exuded stench. Smell originating from the corpses had attracted bloodthirsty flies. They were fluttering and hovering around the corpses taking bites once in a while.
Few streets away from them, five figures were sitting next to a stone pile. They had dry food in their hands as they were enjoying day’s lunch. No smell radiating from the surrounding stench could interfere with their meal.
“If we can hunt down the clawed dino lizard, then we will be able to complete the task…†Linda was scanning the map while eating the dry food. She was thinking about the favorite habitat of the monster.
Gale who was next to her laughed: “If we count our loots from area no 3 then with the completion of this task… Captain you will accumulate enough points to buy a drop of ‘Angel’s blood’ so that your magic mark can go through the metamorphosis again. You are going to be the third senior hunter in our consortium.â€
“It all depends on luck. †Linda looked indifferent and unexcited.
“I believe that you will absolutely be successful.†Dark skinned girl complemented Linda.
The others also quickly said encouraging words as they had confidence in Linda.
“For the time being, Gale get ready as when we find the monster we will act according to the previous plan. You will pretend to be injured while I will summon people from the ‘black pavilion’ and say that we have encountered a rare beast. They will have to send someone with extraordinary tracing ability… †Her face was cold as Linda closed the map.
Gale smiled: “No need to pretend… We will make a real injury instead. â€
“Will the consortium approve to send the kid out?†Dark skinned girl asked.
Linda indifferently smiled: “Of course! You do not understand the ways of consortium. Now we have a great opportunity at hand. Almost all the hunters with tracing ability are either out in the wilderness or injured. The kid is a newcomer, however he has a rare magic mark. But in the end he doesn’t have ‘light physique’. No matter how much potential he has, at the end he will die. That’s why the consortium is to lazy to spend resources on him. Why do you think they didn’t send him to hunter school?â€
Dark skinned girl nodded in approval: “This way the consortium will transfer the little devil into our team. We can slowly torture him and the abandon his corpse somewhere. We will have to only destroy the tracks that could lead to him. We just have to bring back a magic mark taken from a rare monster and say that he died while hunting it. Even if the consortium will doubt us, there will be nothing to say…â€
The others smiled.
Linda’s eyes squinted as she daydreamed. She has been concerned about Dudian for long time and she couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.
“Even if we don’t leave any clues and no one can trace it back to us but I’m sure you know how the consortium handles such matters like infighting. We will be gradually marginalized. Moreover, they will send us to complete extremely dangerous tasks. †Gale had carm personality so he analyzed everything through the smallest details.
“Of course,†Linda lightly said.
They ate and chat. Soon all of them were full so Linda stood up and patted the dust off her body: “We have to look around the Red Lake area.. We may find traces of the beast…â€
“Ok.†All of them nodded in approval.
Linda lead them with the help of the map to the Red Lake.
…
…
Dudian’s body still didn’t feel any discomfort, instead his visual and hearing have been enhanced a lot. Especially his sense of smell. Previously he could sense Linda’s approximate position. However at the moment, he was able to narrow down to exact position about a kilometer away from her.
While quietly tracking the smell he had smeared new layer of undead powder on his body to ensure that the others won’t be aware of his existence.
Dudian had stopped after absorbing about hundred crystals. The body’s temperature seemed to rise a lot so he immediately stopped and didn’t continue to absorb the cold crystals. He was scared that he will end up as an addict and will crave for cold crystal. Moreover, each of these crystal piece were the size of a table tennis ball. Even if they melted into liquid form their capacity was about several bottles which was not a small amount.
Even drinking a lot of water will make people uncomfortable lest the cold crystals.
Dudian felt that his body’s temperature gradually returned to normal after he stopped absorbing cold crystals. He was relieved. Moreover he found a place and hid the remaining cold crystals. Then he took his bow and arrows and chased after the small of Linda.
The distance between the two was getting closer. It seemed Linda was still hunting along the way.
“In case I ambushed them, shot her from the close range… But still the hunters next to her will find and kill me.†Dudian was brainstorming ideas while trying to catch up with them. “I can’t rely solely on bows and arrows. Making traps is also a kind of equipment. Only scouts are provided with tools to make them but I can produce some rough traps. Although the scout would not fall for it but the rest… … â€
Many thoughts flashed in his head.
Time went by…
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed.
It was rainy season. The clouds had marginalized the sky making the light dimmer. Ruins of the city were desolate of life.
A heavy rain had just washed the streets. The smell of decayed was floating in the air.
Around Red Lake.
Weeds grew densely along the vast edge of the lake. The vessels used for sightseeing had long been rotten. Even the ships has long been wiped out leaving only decayed empty metal frames. The waves were gently shaking them. If they hit a bit harder most probably would tear them off.
Linda squatted near a grass edge. She was observing the nearby surrounding. They have been here for two days. It was not long for a camp but not short either.
“The footprints were left many days ago. It should have gone too far from here…†Dark skinned girl spoke as she had lost patience.
Linda replied: “Since it went through here, it will certainly come back.â€
They could do nothing but hold their breath and wait. Suddenly, Gale sniffed and whispered. : “We are being tracked.†â€
“Track?†Killing intented flashed past in Linda’s eyes: “A beast? Another team?
“No, only one person.†Gale frowned.
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“A single person?†Another one was puzzled.
Gale slightly nodded: “He should be smearing the undead powder to cover up the smell. The past two days I always smelled an undead chasing behind us. I thought that it was a wandering aimless one. But whoever it is he was walking straight behind us. Moreover when the rain started he stopped. If it was really an undead, it would not take the rain into account. It means that the person chasing us was worried the undead powder would wash away so he was forced to stop.â€.
Linda thoughtfully said: “Listening to your talk, I think this person is taking a very tender approach while tracking. Its na?ve to think that powder alone can hide the trace. If he is chasing us in a straight line, then the tracking method he uses is judgement by the smell. He knows how to cover up his smell by using the powder but he doesn’t know that when tracking the others he will be easily exposed. He doesn’t know that we have Gale with us…â€
Dark skinned girl said: “If he doesn’t have information about our team and still dares to track us then isn’t he stowaway from another consortium? â€
Linda’s face was cold as she spoke: “Maybe a junior, a rookie who strayed into our region. He isn’t aware that he is found. But even if we kill him… there is no reason to do so… â€
“Instead of killing, it is better to catch him and give to consortium. It will be considered as a meritorious service.†Gale said.
Linda got up and said: “Go and check. If he is pleasing to the eye then leave alone or else kill!â€
“That clawed dino lizard … …â€
“Nick and Reid, you two stay in here. If the beast comes up inform us using the smoke signals.â€
Linda gave the instruction to the two and left with Gale and the dark skinned girl. They followed the direction that Gale pointed to.
…
…
A desolate street.
After heavy rains, the broken streets were covered with mud and potholes. Moss and vines were soaked in rainwater.
Dudian was in a high-rise looking at the sky. Heavy dark clouds were coming towards his location, indicating that soon a heavy rain would pour.
“Rainy season… Rain is really frequent … …†Dudian said to himself. He took out the arrows from the quiver and began to wipe them one by one.
Afterwards he took out dry food and began to eat slowly so that he could restore his body heat. The early rainy season was not suitable for hunting. As the temperature was still very cold, many large monsters still perched in their nests and slept. Only the bloodthirsty ones would be lurking around looking for prey.
After eating, he picked up the bowl filled with rancid blood. He had found quite a few bowls from a house. Time and radiation had destroyed the things constructed by humans. However there were things that still as they were made of clay. All the bowls in front of him were filled with blood. Time to time small red blood maggots would flutter around bowls to leech the blood.
Dudian stained the tips of arrows with blood and let them dry.
Soon, all of his blood painted arrows were ready and put into the quiver.
“They are coming … …†Dudian looked at the clouds in the sky. The faint thunder sound that he heard seemed to resonate with his heart beat. His eyes squinted looking at a distance on street…
Three figures quickly approached and none of them leaked any odor. They felt like three silent stones.
Dudian put the arrow and pulled the string while he prostrated himself onto the ground. He was tightly staring at the head of the beautiful woman’s figure. He had locked onto her head, waiting for her to enter into his range.
“Three hundred meters away … …†Gale whispered quickly: “Nine o’clock. In front. He should be in alert after our odors disappeared. Now he is motionless. I think there is an ambush…â€
“Quickly behead!†Linda said coldly.
“Trap.†Gale said: “He is probably a scout or an archer. We have entered his range. If he is an archer then the best chance for him to shoot us will be when we enter the high-rise, so be careful. If he is a scout, the trap is likely buried inside the high-rise.â€
Dark skinned girl glanced around: “There should be no traps on the ground level. If there are then the traps are inside the high-rise.†She was a scout and had learned scouting skills such as pathfinder and traps. Especially, making traps. She had absolute confidence as she spoke. Unless the other side was a mid-level scout and had learned more than she has. But that was impossible since the other side had been exposed.
“I will go in while you two go from left and right sides of the wall. †Linda quickly made a choice. She knew that they were giving the other side more time to prepare as they dragged acting. She was going to catch the other side in surprise as he wouldn’t expect their arrival!
“Yes!†The two immediately said and went separately.
Linda pulled her sword with one hand and deeply looked at the building. With a sudden forceful push she rushed inside at full speed. She had her sword in front of her chest as she was confident that she would be able to stop any arrows that would come from front.
Direct confrontation!
This was her fighting style. Although she was a woman but her temper was more fiercer than a male’s.
She knew that she was exposed to the enemy’s line of sight. She was quickly calculating the distance in her heart.
Two hundred and fifty meters, two hundred meters, one hundred and eighty meters ……
When she was about one hundred and twenty meters from the high-rise, she still didn’t see any kind of movement on top of the building. She could help but wonder: “Is he resting on the roof? Didn’t he realize that we are counter-attacking?â€
In addition to doubts there was a bit of inexplicable uneasiness in her heart. She was in 100 meters distance from the high-rise, so the arrow had to be shot by now. The distance was closed to sixty meters.
Is the other side not an archer?
She felt perplexed as there was faint feel of anxiety in her heart. But she had reached the bottom of the building. She briefly hesitated but still her fingers clinged to the wall and she began to climb up. The wall was corroded so couldn’t carry her weight. That’s why she relied on her speed to crawl up rapidly.
As she was about to climb onto the third floor she felt a chill from backside.
Her heard was aghast as she looked back.
Whoosh!
An arrow was shot when she turned. Puff! The sharp arrow pierced through her cheek into her mouth. A sudden pain hit her brain almost making her scream out loud!
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Chapter 114
“Did you absorb… its magic marks?†Gatt also rushed over. He checked the blood covering Glenn’s body as he asked the question.
In addition to Dudian, all the eyes of the rest of the team were on Glenn. They were enviously looking at her. Although they knew this thing would not fall into their hands but still were excited at sight.
“Well,†Glenn nodded slightly: “This time thanks to your help I got my hands on what I wanted.â€
All of them acted polite and modest but they were happy in their hearts. It has to be noted that if a senior hunter favored them then their future in the consortium would be bright.
Dudian looked at the dead swordsman: “Are we going to take back his corpse or we going to bury it on spot?â€
Glenn looked back and sighed: “His body has been infected, it’s only in ‘suspended animation’ state. Evil is going to consume his soul and once again he will stand up as an undead. We will incinerate him.â€
The other hunters’ face expressions changed into a sad one as they looked down at dead swordsman. This was the only sore of this trip.
“I will take back his sword!†Knight came up and picked the sword from the ground. He spoke in a low tone: “We have been in the same team for last three tasks… Didn’t expect this one will separate us…forever.â€
Gatt came forward and patted his shoulder but stayed silent without uttering a word.
Its very difficult to understand meaning of life. For ordinary people it was very common to take life and death as a normal occurrence. But for hunters it was something that they had to be accustomed to as the time passed.
Knife-wielding youth and the knight went around to find combustible materials. They piled papers, wood and clothing on dead swordsman body. With the help of fire sickle they ignited fire to incinerate the swordsman. Crimson red flames were reflected on everyone’s face as they watched his body burn to ashes.
As the fire was extinguished the only thing left of him were ashes and leftover bones. Glenn approached and buried them on the spot.
After dealing with the swordsman body Glenn stood up and came to the black weaver’s body.
Knife-wielding hunter came forward to help Glenn. Both of them were skilled at dissecting the beast. The knife sliced through mucosa and the hard shell of the beast was stripped off.
It was a rare opportunity to learn the anatomy of the beast so Dudian came up to watch them. Although he had learned the ways to dissect some common beasts while in the scavenger training camp but complete dissection of various useful parts of a monster’s body with such a complex structure was a very difficult task.
Blood began to flow everywhere and pungent smell floated around as the various internal organs rolled down to ground.
Dudian quietly watched. Perhaps the object of dissection was a monster so that he didn’t feel nauseous while watching the whole process.
It didn’t take long before hard shell, head, spiked limbs and the other parts of the giant black weaver were dismembered respectively. Dudian saw Glenn cut open the black weaver head. She pulled out white soft cotton from the groove in the jaw bone. From the expression on her face it should be some valuable and useful material.
“Strange. It turned empty out in here! Did it…?†Knife-wielding hunter’s face turned ugly as he cut open the black weaver’s belly.
Glenn looked past as she heard the words. There was nothing in the stomach in addition to internal organs. The place behind the stomach was empty, flat.
Dudian was puzzled as he heard the hunter talk but from their dialogue he knew that they were talking about the ovary.
“Did it spawn before coming to hunt?†Glenn was speculating but shook her head and continued: “No its impossible. The young eggs have low survival rate. It would be very difficult for them to hatch out. Even if they hatch out, parasitic worms would be very weak and can’t form the magic marks.â€
Knife-wielding youth was disappointed but continued to collect the other useful parts.
Dudian saw that he took out a mass of yellow liquid from its stomach. He found it odd and asked: “What is this?â€
“It’s fat.†The knife-wielding hunter looked at Dudian. He was more modest towards Dudian as he thought of Glenn’s praise for Dudian: “Its excellent material to fuel the oil lamp. Nobility loves to use it.â€
Dudian dawned over to check it closely as he didn’t expect that people were willing to use stuff like this to fuel the lamps.
It didn’t take long before the giant black weaver’s body was completely decomposed. All of its valuable parts were neatly piled together while the rest of internal organs, flesh and blood were scattered over. It was done so to prevent other monsters to come to eat the leftovers. Glenn used the fire to incinerate the scattered invaluable parts.
The air was filled with strange pungent smell. It felt like the meat soaked in blood was cooked.
Dudian covered his nose. But he suddenly smelled the black weaver’s odor. He concentrated more and more on this odor and it seemed to be coming out from the soil.
Dudian was surprised as he sniffed more to detect the location where the odor was spreading from. Few meters away from the initial place where they had killed the black weaver, there was flat but fluffy soil. He remember the conversation between knife-wielding youth and Glenn: “Is that…?â€
At this time, the archer youth suddenly said: “As the hunt for black weaver is over, I wanna go to other areas and check if I can find something rare. After all this adrenaline, I’m feeling a bit itchy… Maybe I’ll be a bit lucky? Ha? â€
Glenn was filling everything to a large storage bag as she looked up at him and said: “Its alright but I have just absorbed the magic marks. I’m a bit weakened and will have to return to the giant wall to rest. If you want to you can go but I have to remind you that it is going to be dangerous!â€
“Its alright. I heard that there are teams in area no 6 implementing some tasks. I will join and co-operate with them while trying my luck!†The archer youth laughed.
Glenn thought about and said: “Alright, whatever you say.â€
Dudian thought of his own storage in area no 9 and immediately said: “I wanna go to.â€
“You?†Glenn glanced at him and frowned: “Area no 6 is too dangerous. There will be many high level beasts there so its not alright for you to leave.â€
“I will go to the other areas,†said Dudian, †Undeads may not amount to anything in their perspective but I’ve been short on money lately.â€
Glenn thought for a moment:†Its ok. But cold crystal are not much of a value. If you are that anxious for money I can lend you as long as its not more than 100,000 gold coins.â€
Dudian was staggered. One hundred thousand gold coins? It was an astonomical number. It was enough to buy a small town in the residential district!
“No, I don’t need that much… Moreover, I want to earn myself.†Dudian replied.
Glenn saw his determination: “Alright, I’ll escort you back.â€
Dudian nodded as he didn’t dare to run around alone in this area.
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Soon, Glenn had loaded all the parts of the black weaver into a large storage bag. It was enormously big in comparison to her small thin body but she easily took it up.
Dudian hesitated for a moment when he saw Glenn ready to leave. Nevertheless he said: “There seems to be something there.†He pointed towards the ground. Although it was speculation of his own but taking into account his ability he decided to go forward with it.
“Oh?†Glenn looked surprised: “You smell something!?â€
“In the soil,†replied Dudian.
Everyone had full confidence in Dudian’s sense of smell after the previous accurate tracking. All of them took out their weapons so that they would be ready in case of emergence. Glenn winked at knight and the latter as if understanding her message went over to the place where Dudian had pointed to.
He began to poke the ground. Team members saw round white objects in the sand after knight dag about thirty centimeters pit. Glenn and the others eyes lit up: “The black weaver’s eggs!â€
There were eight black weaver eggs found inside the pit.
Dudian saw that his guess was on point. He was both happy and sorry in his heart. Unfortunately his strength was too weak or he could leave the team and sneak back to take them. However, this area was too dangerous and even the intermediate silver hunters were afraid to roam alone. Although he has super sense of smell and can detect the monsters in advance but there were beasts who had means to hide their own smell and quietly reach their prey. This kind of monsters weren’t uncommon in this area.
He had reconsidered this option because he didn’t want to take the risk. After all God may not always bless him with luck.
Glenn looked at the black weaver’s eggs in her hands.: “There are eight of them so there is an opportunity for one of them to survive. I can absorb this one later on to enhance the rate and strength of my magic marks.â€
Knight was also quite happy.
However, Dudian suddenly noticed the archer who was standing next to him. Although he was laughing and congratulating Glenn but his expression was blunt. Moreover because of the gap in height between both of them, Dudian could easily see that his palm was clenched into a fist. His thumb skid because of the force. Dudian suddenly understood as he wryly smiled in his heart.
“When the black weaver was fighting and dealing with us didn’t have the opportunity to secretly hide its eggs.†Glenn recalled the previous battle. She sighed as she look at Dudian: “Fortunately you are careful in your observation or else we would miss the eight immature eggs.â€
Dudian smiled but stayed silent. He was helplessly thinking that though it was unintentional but he seems to have offended the archer youth. The latter had ultrasonic hearing ability so he should aso hear the sound emitted from the buried black weaver’s eggs. That was why he proposed to go to area no 6 for hun. Obviously it was an excuse and he was clearly waiting for the team to leave. He later would secretly get back to take the eggs.
But archer’s plan was unsuccessful and exposed in front of Glenn and the other knight. After all, they were not stupid and could understand every but didn’t exposed their anger.
“I have gained another enemy … …†Dudian looked up at the young archer’s eyes. He was surprised to see that he was still smiling. But Dudian still felt that he had to remember archer’s appearance. In case he meets him outside the giant wall in the future, he would have to stay as far as possible from him. Or else he would be target of secret revenge and will be trapped in a situation beyond redemption.
“It’s all Dean’s credit that we could accidentally find the eight immature eggs.†Glenn looked at Dudian thought for a moment and said: “In accordance with the consortium’s prices this rare monster egg costs 1000 gold coins. However everything depends on the survival rate, so the value can turn upside down.â€
“I’ll give them to consortium to allocate the prices. But total price of four of the eggs would belong to Dean as he was the one to find it. It would be four thousand gold coins. The rest of you will get one thousand gold coins compensation each. As the eggs are immature, I’ll give them to consortium to help me cultivate them.â€
Glenn smiled as she saw that neither knight nor the others objected her distribution.
Dudian was surprised as he saw Glenn give him a lot of share while distribution. He didn’t expect half of the value to be distributed to him. Moreover, he would gain her goodwill.
“We gotta thank Dean’s nose this time!†knight laughed out loud.
Gatt also smiled and patted Dudian’s shoulder, said: “Good one.â€
Dudian smiled as he exchanged polite words with the others.
Glenn put away the eight young eggs and the crowd retreated along the same route.
Along the way, Dudian’s sense of smell and the archer’s ultrasonic hearing helped them to avoid many monsters. However they still encountered few beats. Moreover, one of them had ambushed them and attacked but fortunately because of Glenn’s fast and quick response it was killed.
Through the battles Dudian gradually came to understand Glenn’s battle strength. She could easily cope with monsters up to level 20. However, she was having problems with monsters above the level 20. For example, if she alone encountered black weaver, which was a level 26 beast, her life would be threatened.
After all, without Dudian’s advance notice of black weaver’s position, it would have quietly lurker over to attack and Glenn wouldn’t be able to detect its presence in time.
Glenn escorted the team out of the area no 1. They came to the forest with giant trees next to the highway. They continued to escort Dudian until the area no 7 which was swept clean.
The area no 7 was already being swept clean by the hunters while Dudian was still a scavenger. Now it has been cleaned through. Even if there are occasional monsters left but with his strength he could avoid and escape them. Unless, if his luck was bad he could meet the most dangerous beasts of the area no 7.
As they entered the area no 7, Glenn and the other left leaving Dudian alone.
Dudian had seen Scott’s map and remember pieces and bits but he still asked Glenn about the routes. The area no 7 was not far away from area no 9. He was heavily armed so he was going to hunt in area no 7 before leaving to area no 9.
In the area no 7, Dudian saw lots of undeads roaming around. Glenn and the others informed him that the undeads were the last to be cleaned out. Unless they are on hunter team’s way they will be killed. Generally hunters would not take the initiative to look for them.
Each time a new area is cleaned, the first to be search and killed would be monsters with parasitic worms. Because they would be the most dangerous neasts of the area.
Beasts with parasitic monsters would be much more powerful than ordinary monsters.
If they hunted the undeads then some monster will flee to other areas. Especially they could go to areas under the other consortiums command. It was equivalent to donating the ‘cream’ of the crop to the other consortium.
Dudian was not panicked when he saw the aimlessly roaming undeads. But he was full of joy. He found a building and reached to a high ground. He began to throw stones to make sound and attract the undeads from the other areas.
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Hunting level four ordinary undead was primary hunter’s favorite compared to other beasts. Undead’s would chase on instinct. Its enough to use simple traps to kill them unlike other monsters which have cultivated beast-like sense of survival. Even the ‘bone rats’ knew how to avoid dangerous situation and were pretty difficult to capture using traps.
However, it had to be noted that ordinary undead would evolve into a skeleton after going through another mutation. After heavily consuming and reaching the new level, all of its capability would leap up and upgrade. It would reach a level where it could directly fight head on with an intermediate silver level hunter. Moreover it would have a sense of consciousness and would not be easily killed by external forces.
Dudian had previously seen a skeleton’s corpse in the area no 1. At the moment, he could easily distinguish this once as ordinary undeads and that’s why he dared to hunt them using traps.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Arrows flew out. His effective range was 100 meters and it was actually height of a twenty four story building. Normally, the height of majority of residential buildings was around four to five meters between each floor.
Dudian was standing on twenty’s floor right now, about 80 meters from the ground level. Roof was dangerous to stand as the concrete was crumbling because of serious corrosion. He used stones to attract the undead’s into his effective range.
Arrows accurately hit the undeads. He was able to capture their movement trajectories easily after the high-intense experience with the black weaver. Dudian felt a lot easier shooting the undeads in comparison to black weaver. It was much easier to predict their actions.
Arrow would hit the undead from its head and nail it to the ground.
Occasionally he would hit the undead’s shoulder or the arrow would pierce its face. The force of the shot would be enough to stumble its body onto ground but an undead would feel no pain. So most of the time they would stand up to run towards the direction of the sound.
Dudian would continuously pull the string and shot the arrows.
Arrows in Dudian’s quiver ran out as he went to pull another arrow from the back but couldn’t grab onto any. He had a wry smile on his face because of the joy. He went to the other side of the building and began to throw stones to attract the gathered undeads to another location.
Stones fell onto the neighboring streets. Sounds of fallen stones echoed out loudly in silent ruins. Undead’s ear were particularly keen so they immediately gathered to move towards the source of the sound.
Dudian quickly went down the stairs while he smeared undead powder all over his body. He reached the ground floor and went over to the pile of corpses of undeads. He cut their heads or fracture them from their necks. He took seven or eight heads and carried them back into the building. He squatted at a corner and began to cut open the heads. He found cold crystals inside and began to collect them.
As he finished with this batch, Dudian ran outside to collect more heads and brought back to dissect them in the corner.
In about three tries, he had collected all the heads of the undeads and the arrows that he had shot before were recovered too.
However, after this he didn’t continue to hunt but went back to the roof of the building. He took out one of the cold crystal and sliced his finger. The hot blood dropped onto crystal. It seemed like ice had encountered the hot water. The location where the blood dropped, the crystal began to melt turning into a transparent silver liquid.
Dudian continued to observe.
He stopped dropping the blood to check how the cold crystal would end up. Over the time, the temperature of the blood cooled down however it didn’t freeze back into cold crystal.
Dudian was relieved but he thought that just this one experiment was not enough as an insurance. He returned downstairs and collected the blood of undeads. However, the blood of undead couldn’t melt the crystal. Instead when it dropped onto the crystal it was frozen immediately, changing to a shape of dark red tear.
Dudian was assured after this: “After absorbing the magic marks my blood had changed. Cold crystal can’t erode my blood. It means that I should be able to directly absorb the cold crystals.â€
He clutched the cold crystal as he wanted to directly absorb it. However there still was a trace of hesitation in his heart. Although he knew that according to his speculation his body would be able to absorb it but as a human he was afraid of the unknown. Moreover, he knew that one experiment was not enough to prove that results would be stable. He was uncertain about the side effects that could pop up after a long period of absorption of cold crystals.
He thought more on the topic but eventually gave up on the impulse to immediately absorb the cold crystal. After all, there is only one life so he had to be cautious not to lose it.
He put back the income into the back and grabbed his bow and arrows to continue to hunt the undeads. He planned to continue with the experiments and slowly study the secret of cold crystal in order to be able to maximize its effects.
Time was running fast.
In the blink of an eye two days went by. Dudian had hunted down close to 600 undeads in the area no 7. It was equivalent to 600 gold coins. Occasionally he met some large monster which he had seen before. He couldn’t identify their level so bypassed and avoided them.
“I will turn half of these cold crystals while I’ll keep the rest. Maybe in the future I’m going to build a secret base outside the giant wall?†Dudian made plans while checking around the surroundings.
suddenly~~
A familiar smell drifted into his nose.
A woman’s figure emerged in his mind.: “It’s her!â€, Dudian whispered.
He would never forget this smell which belonged to ‘bloody swordsman’ Linda.
“Thirty miles or so… Is she hunting in the area no 7?†Dudian’s eyes flashed. He thought that the area no 7 recently was the focus of consortium. They wanted to thoroughly clean this area. So it was not surprising that Linda ended up in here.
First time both of the had met in the scavenger headquarters and he had stayed alive narrowly escaping the death. The idea of killing her flashed in his mind but at the same time a voice secretly spoke: “It was only a verbal conflict which would not rise to the point of killing each other. A long time had gone by, perhaps she has forgotten you as meets lots of people daily.â€
However, another idea emerged: “We are outside the giant wall. Even if you kill her, no one will know. The law of the wall does not protect anyone in here. Even if people would know, there would be no way to convict you. Kill her! Kill her so you want have unnecessary trouble in the future. Although she is a silver level hunter, but how can she protect herself if she can’t the enemy!â€
“Murder … it’s too harsh.â€
“Kill! Kill! No one will see.â€
Two different voices echoed out in his mind as Dudian pondered over the matter. At first he was not aware but later he had learned the identity of the hunter he had killed. He was called Brian and was woman’s younger brother. He put away the hesitation in his heart as he spoke in determined tone: “She won’t let go! I’m in training period so there is no way for her to deal with me. But after the training period, she will try every means within her capabilities to kill me!â€
“She has to die!â€
“It is necessary for me to deal cleanly and thoroughly with people who I have offended!â€
Softness in his heart faded away as he looked at the scratches on his right hand.
He hesitated for a moment but later on he took out the bag of cold crystal from his backpack. He pierced his hand and clinged the cold crystal.
Coldness entered his body through his palm and moved along his arm.
“Even if I ambushed her, it would be very difficult to kill with my current strength. I hope my speculation regarding cold crystal is right. Nevertheless I can’t absorb too much…†Dudian’s lips moved as he whispered. The feeling he got from the cold crystal gradually disappeared but he nervousness in his heart increased.
After a moment, he took out second cold crystal and continued to absorb it. He stopped as he felt discomfort in his body.
“It is a heaven sent opportunity and my only chance to fight back!†Dudian thought: “After the training will be over, I’ll have to implement the mission but she will be the one hunting while I will be the prey. If I can seize this opportunity…†He prayed in his heart. He prayed for success. It was going to be risky move. But if he didn’t grasp onto it, then the situation will be much more difficult after he finishes the training.
It was best to firmly grasp to the opportunity. Otherwise he would have to passively fight back against Linda’s attacks in the future.
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Area no 7. A ruined street.
More than twenty corpses of undead were lying on the ground. Their heads were cut and bodies exuded stench. Smell originating from the corpses had attracted bloodthirsty flies. They were fluttering and hovering around the corpses taking bites once in a while.
Few streets away from them, five figures were sitting next to a stone pile. They had dry food in their hands as they were enjoying day’s lunch. No smell radiating from the surrounding stench could interfere with their meal.
“If we can hunt down the clawed dino lizard, then we will be able to complete the task…†Linda was scanning the map while eating the dry food. She was thinking about the favorite habitat of the monster.
Gale who was next to her laughed: “If we count our loots from area no 3 then with the completion of this task… Captain you will accumulate enough points to buy a drop of ‘Angel’s blood’ so that your magic mark can go through the metamorphosis again. You are going to be the third senior hunter in our consortium.â€
“It all depends on luck. †Linda looked indifferent and unexcited.
“I believe that you will absolutely be successful.†Dark skinned girl complemented Linda.
The others also quickly said encouraging words as they had confidence in Linda.
“For the time being, Gale get ready as when we find the monster we will act according to the previous plan. You will pretend to be injured while I will summon people from the ‘black pavilion’ and say that we have encountered a rare beast. They will have to send someone with extraordinary tracing ability… †Her face was cold as Linda closed the map.
Gale smiled: “No need to pretend… We will make a real injury instead. â€
“Will the consortium approve to send the kid out?†Dark skinned girl asked.
Linda indifferently smiled: “Of course! You do not understand the ways of consortium. Now we have a great opportunity at hand. Almost all the hunters with tracing ability are either out in the wilderness or injured. The kid is a newcomer, however he has a rare magic mark. But in the end he doesn’t have ‘light physique’. No matter how much potential he has, at the end he will die. That’s why the consortium is to lazy to spend resources on him. Why do you think they didn’t send him to hunter school?â€
Dark skinned girl nodded in approval: “This way the consortium will transfer the little devil into our team. We can slowly torture him and the abandon his corpse somewhere. We will have to only destroy the tracks that could lead to him. We just have to bring back a magic mark taken from a rare monster and say that he died while hunting it. Even if the consortium will doubt us, there will be nothing to say…â€
The others smiled.
Linda’s eyes squinted as she daydreamed. She has been concerned about Dudian for long time and she couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.
“Even if we don’t leave any clues and no one can trace it back to us but I’m sure you know how the consortium handles such matters like infighting. We will be gradually marginalized. Moreover, they will send us to complete extremely dangerous tasks. †Gale had carm personality so he analyzed everything through the smallest details.
“Of course,†Linda lightly said.
They ate and chat. Soon all of them were full so Linda stood up and patted the dust off her body: “We have to look around the Red Lake area.. We may find traces of the beast…â€
“Ok.†All of them nodded in approval.
Linda lead them with the help of the map to the Red Lake.
…
…
Dudian’s body still didn’t feel any discomfort, instead his visual and hearing have been enhanced a lot. Especially his sense of smell. Previously he could sense Linda’s approximate position. However at the moment, he was able to narrow down to exact position about a kilometer away from her.
While quietly tracking the smell he had smeared new layer of undead powder on his body to ensure that the others won’t be aware of his existence.
Dudian had stopped after absorbing about hundred crystals. The body’s temperature seemed to rise a lot so he immediately stopped and didn’t continue to absorb the cold crystals. He was scared that he will end up as an addict and will crave for cold crystal. Moreover, each of these crystal piece were the size of a table tennis ball. Even if they melted into liquid form their capacity was about several bottles which was not a small amount.
Even drinking a lot of water will make people uncomfortable lest the cold crystals.
Dudian felt that his body’s temperature gradually returned to normal after he stopped absorbing cold crystals. He was relieved. Moreover he found a place and hid the remaining cold crystals. Then he took his bow and arrows and chased after the small of Linda.
The distance between the two was getting closer. It seemed Linda was still hunting along the way.
“In case I ambushed them, shot her from the close range… But still the hunters next to her will find and kill me.†Dudian was brainstorming ideas while trying to catch up with them. “I can’t rely solely on bows and arrows. Making traps is also a kind of equipment. Only scouts are provided with tools to make them but I can produce some rough traps. Although the scout would not fall for it but the rest… … â€
Many thoughts flashed in his head.
Time went by…
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed.
It was rainy season. The clouds had marginalized the sky making the light dimmer. Ruins of the city were desolate of life.
A heavy rain had just washed the streets. The smell of decayed was floating in the air.
Around Red Lake.
Weeds grew densely along the vast edge of the lake. The vessels used for sightseeing had long been rotten. Even the ships has long been wiped out leaving only decayed empty metal frames. The waves were gently shaking them. If they hit a bit harder most probably would tear them off.
Linda squatted near a grass edge. She was observing the nearby surrounding. They have been here for two days. It was not long for a camp but not short either.
“The footprints were left many days ago. It should have gone too far from here…†Dark skinned girl spoke as she had lost patience.
Linda replied: “Since it went through here, it will certainly come back.â€
They could do nothing but hold their breath and wait. Suddenly, Gale sniffed and whispered. : “We are being tracked.†â€
“Track?†Killing intented flashed past in Linda’s eyes: “A beast? Another team?
“No, only one person.†Gale frowned.
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“A single person?†Another one was puzzled.
Gale slightly nodded: “He should be smearing the undead powder to cover up the smell. The past two days I always smelled an undead chasing behind us. I thought that it was a wandering aimless one. But whoever it is he was walking straight behind us. Moreover when the rain started he stopped. If it was really an undead, it would not take the rain into account. It means that the person chasing us was worried the undead powder would wash away so he was forced to stop.â€.
Linda thoughtfully said: “Listening to your talk, I think this person is taking a very tender approach while tracking. Its na?ve to think that powder alone can hide the trace. If he is chasing us in a straight line, then the tracking method he uses is judgement by the smell. He knows how to cover up his smell by using the powder but he doesn’t know that when tracking the others he will be easily exposed. He doesn’t know that we have Gale with us…â€
Dark skinned girl said: “If he doesn’t have information about our team and still dares to track us then isn’t he stowaway from another consortium? â€
Linda’s face was cold as she spoke: “Maybe a junior, a rookie who strayed into our region. He isn’t aware that he is found. But even if we kill him… there is no reason to do so… â€
“Instead of killing, it is better to catch him and give to consortium. It will be considered as a meritorious service.†Gale said.
Linda got up and said: “Go and check. If he is pleasing to the eye then leave alone or else kill!â€
“That clawed dino lizard … …â€
“Nick and Reid, you two stay in here. If the beast comes up inform us using the smoke signals.â€
Linda gave the instruction to the two and left with Gale and the dark skinned girl. They followed the direction that Gale pointed to.
…
…
A desolate street.
After heavy rains, the broken streets were covered with mud and potholes. Moss and vines were soaked in rainwater.
Dudian was in a high-rise looking at the sky. Heavy dark clouds were coming towards his location, indicating that soon a heavy rain would pour.
“Rainy season… Rain is really frequent … …†Dudian said to himself. He took out the arrows from the quiver and began to wipe them one by one.
Afterwards he took out dry food and began to eat slowly so that he could restore his body heat. The early rainy season was not suitable for hunting. As the temperature was still very cold, many large monsters still perched in their nests and slept. Only the bloodthirsty ones would be lurking around looking for prey.
After eating, he picked up the bowl filled with rancid blood. He had found quite a few bowls from a house. Time and radiation had destroyed the things constructed by humans. However there were things that still as they were made of clay. All the bowls in front of him were filled with blood. Time to time small red blood maggots would flutter around bowls to leech the blood.
Dudian stained the tips of arrows with blood and let them dry.
Soon, all of his blood painted arrows were ready and put into the quiver.
“They are coming … …†Dudian looked at the clouds in the sky. The faint thunder sound that he heard seemed to resonate with his heart beat. His eyes squinted looking at a distance on street…
Three figures quickly approached and none of them leaked any odor. They felt like three silent stones.
Dudian put the arrow and pulled the string while he prostrated himself onto the ground. He was tightly staring at the head of the beautiful woman’s figure. He had locked onto her head, waiting for her to enter into his range.
“Three hundred meters away … …†Gale whispered quickly: “Nine o’clock. In front. He should be in alert after our odors disappeared. Now he is motionless. I think there is an ambush…â€
“Quickly behead!†Linda said coldly.
“Trap.†Gale said: “He is probably a scout or an archer. We have entered his range. If he is an archer then the best chance for him to shoot us will be when we enter the high-rise, so be careful. If he is a scout, the trap is likely buried inside the high-rise.â€
Dark skinned girl glanced around: “There should be no traps on the ground level. If there are then the traps are inside the high-rise.†She was a scout and had learned scouting skills such as pathfinder and traps. Especially, making traps. She had absolute confidence as she spoke. Unless the other side was a mid-level scout and had learned more than she has. But that was impossible since the other side had been exposed.
“I will go in while you two go from left and right sides of the wall. †Linda quickly made a choice. She knew that they were giving the other side more time to prepare as they dragged acting. She was going to catch the other side in surprise as he wouldn’t expect their arrival!
“Yes!†The two immediately said and went separately.
Linda pulled her sword with one hand and deeply looked at the building. With a sudden forceful push she rushed inside at full speed. She had her sword in front of her chest as she was confident that she would be able to stop any arrows that would come from front.
Direct confrontation!
This was her fighting style. Although she was a woman but her temper was more fiercer than a male’s.
She knew that she was exposed to the enemy’s line of sight. She was quickly calculating the distance in her heart.
Two hundred and fifty meters, two hundred meters, one hundred and eighty meters ……
When she was about one hundred and twenty meters from the high-rise, she still didn’t see any kind of movement on top of the building. She could help but wonder: “Is he resting on the roof? Didn’t he realize that we are counter-attacking?â€
In addition to doubts there was a bit of inexplicable uneasiness in her heart. She was in 100 meters distance from the high-rise, so the arrow had to be shot by now. The distance was closed to sixty meters.
Is the other side not an archer?
She felt perplexed as there was faint feel of anxiety in her heart. But she had reached the bottom of the building. She briefly hesitated but still her fingers clinged to the wall and she began to climb up. The wall was corroded so couldn’t carry her weight. That’s why she relied on her speed to crawl up rapidly.
As she was about to climb onto the third floor she felt a chill from backside.
Her heard was aghast as she looked back.
Whoosh!
An arrow was shot when she turned. Puff! The sharp arrow pierced through her cheek into her mouth. A sudden pain hit her brain almost making her scream out loud!
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