=I don’t get it. Why not just kill them all? It’d be faster.=
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Gio spent three straight hours looking up and down the entirety of the Jade Lake, only to find jackshit.
Well, mostly jackshit.
At some point he got attacked by a Giant Indigo Crab while swimming around, shot it in the brain and ended that fight real quick.
"Looks like crab for dinner tonight."
It even came with a 2nd grade aether beast core, a little victory as it were.
Gio proceeded to drag the crab’s carcass from the Jade Lake’s shore all the way back to the Wolfe Family camp, which was surprisingly elaborate.
There was a large cooking fire in the center, surrounded by several luxurious tents that were actually high class aether tools that provided both protection and comfort. Nothing short of a fourth grade aether beast could hope to break through such a tent.
Tending to the fire was a personal chef of the Wolfe Family, a status made clear by the symbol displayed proudly on his shirt.
"Elder, You’re back! Did you manage to hunt anything good?," the chef asked once he saw Gio walks towards the fire.
"Just this crab. Once you get the core out, we can prepare it for dinner."
Normally, such an extravagant set up for a hunting trip would be rather out of place for a location like the Jade Forest, but such a display was actually in the Wolfe Family’s best interest.
The Wolfe Family had long figured out that humans were quite similar to birds, in the sense that they will get enraptured by obvious shiny treasures, unaware if any dangers or predators that could use such things as a trap. They were also firm believers of the term "trial by fire".
"Anybody with a decent enough bounty come our way yet?"
"Nothing worth keeping alive I’m afraid."
"Ah. Any casualties?"
"Not yet, the disciples have been careful to coordinate and kill as needed."
One would think such obvious extravagance/death traps would eventually lead to a reputation for the Wolfe Family among the reprobates and criminal elements of the frontier that could be summed up with the phrase, "do not attack", but they were careful as to maintain a "modest" variance. In essence, they would cycle through how their expeditions looked to the public in order to screw with people. This ensured that the Wolfe Family would have a steady stream of "sparring" partners for their children, while also allowing them to claim "rightful salvage" on any bandits that happened to luck out prior to attacking them.
"Did anyone of the other groups come back from their hunts early yet?"
"Not yet, elder. You’re the first."
"Hmm. In that case, I’ll take this opportunity to relax a bit."
Gio was about to turn in for the day, write up a report finding nothing and wait until dinner, until the sight and sound of one of the talented disciples running into the camp, screaming like a devil was chasing after him interrupted Gio’s plans. The latter was going to reprimand the screaming youth, until he saw the sorry state the disciple was in.
"Elder Gio! Elder! We-"
"Whoa, whoa. Calm down Colt, calm down what happened? Where are your teammates?"
"We, we were attacked! N-not by a bandit or an aether beast though! It was something else! It just took out Alice and Jericho like they were nothing!"
"Something else? What was it? Where was it?"
"It was in this weird building. We thought it was a wandering ruins entrance, but before we could enter we got-"
But before the disciple named Colt could answer further, the dirt behind him began to rumble moments before a fleshy tentacle shot out of the ground at a speed that not even Gio could have noticed, cloaked in a power he could "feel" but not identify, and grabbed the disciple by the throat. Once it had latched on tight, the tentacle began to drag the disciple into the ground.
Gio was still an Aether Master, so even if he failed to notice the tentacle’s initial assault, he was still fast enough to launch a counterattack, which was aimed to slice the offending appendage in half.
However, his face went into shock as his attack passed through the tentacle like it was thin air, slightly distorting the image.
"What?! How did it-!"
The disciple reached a hand outward, hoping someone would grab it and save him from whatever grim fate was in store for him, but before anyone else could grab him, he was pulled underground.
Gio and the camp cook could only watch in stunned horror as the disciple was forcefully dragged through the dirt in such a manner that it left an obvious trail of furrowed earth behind him.
It was obvious to the two men, that this was bait.
"Elder Gio, what was that?! It just grabbed him like it was nothing and just-"
"I am aware of what just happened!," Gio shouted, "And I’m pretty sure whatever grabbed him was the reason he was so beat-up like that...and is still a danger to the other teams...damnit."
Granted, as Gio said this verbally as a means to convey empathy to the personnel, mentally, he was thinking something a bit more...selfish.
’Jacob said that the Demon’s Archive is supposed to be home to all sorts of forbidden knowledge, arts and formulas...it would make sense that something that powerful would be closely guarded. I guess this means the brats accidentally stumbled upon it’s location?,’ Gio thought to himself.
Colt had mentioned that he and his team had stumbled upon a "weird building" before being attacked. As far as Gio was concerned, this was the only solid lead he had.
"If anyone else comes back before I do, tell them I’m still hunting. Don’t cause panic, understand?"
With the orders given, Gio rushed in the directions of the furrowed earth.
’While it would be ideal for the disciples to not be dead, well...accidents happen.’
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=I can’t believe he actually fell for that. I figured they’d run the moment they saw that kid getting yoinked.=
=Oh yeah...speaking of, shouldn’t you be checking on you-know-who?=
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"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!," Zhen Guo cried as tears flowed down his face and ruined his charcoal eyeliner, causing black streaks to form.
By his side was Zhen Yue, acting like a caring older sister/shoulder to cry on, and Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu, who were both plugging their ears.
This wasn’t due to rudeness, rather...
"How long has been crying for again?"
"Since he’s been back so...an hour."