Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 674: Get lucky

Chapter 674: Get lucky

Victoria made her way into one of the cleaner huts in the village, ignoring the wary looks of the villagers sent her way.

Arriving at the entrance which was covered by a cloth, she announced her presence with a clap before a response came from within.

"You may come in."

Quickly obliging, she walked in to find Alex seated on a bed with an aged woman wrapped in several layers of white clothing.

The woman glanced at Victoria, her pale white eyes scanning the vampire briefly before she got to her feet and excused herself, taking slow yet steady steps.

"How do you feel?" Victoria asked as she came to sit at the bedside.

"Better," Alex replied as he placed a hand on the area where he’d been injured.

Now it was covered in a clean white cloth which served as a bandage.

Unwilling to get into the rather painful details of how the aged lady helped him get rid of the infected wound, Alex inquired. "So, any luck?"

"I managed to get a map," Victoria remarked as she took out a parchment from her jacket pocket and handed it over to Alex.

"So where are we right now?" Alex asked as he took the map and scrutinized its contents.

"If we continue heading north, we might end up at the Azure Seas."

"So we head east."

"Yes, but according to Archibald, we risk getting into defender territory which leaves us prey to whatever armies are still fighting. It also doesn’t help that our destination is a defender."

"So we wait," Alex said. "We can’t risk getting caught up between two fighting forces. The last thing I want is to get blown up by cannonballs."

"I agree. But the problem is we can’t stay here. According to Archibald, the villagers here only store up enough food for themselves. Even Archibald has to pay a huge sum to convince them to hunt for him. If we want to remain here, we either hunt or we have to find a way to bribe the villagers, a notably harder course of action considering we can’t even communicate with them."

"Don’t worry, we can hunt."

"Not in your current state." Victoria pointed out.

"True that." Alex intoned before proceeding to snap.

Utilizing the Blessings of the Dark Moon, he quickly healed himself, regaining peak condition before proceeding to take off the white cloth.

"That..."

"Come on," Alex said as he got out of bed and put on his shirt. "We have work to do."

***

"How’s it looking?" Nadia asked.

Currently, the four ladies, Ana, Nadia, Elena, and Arwen, were lying against a rock while scrutinizing the city-state in the distance.

Of all of them, Ana had the farthest line of sight and so could easily make out what was happening.

"They are on high alert. It’s just as the merchant said. Nysodosia seems to have suffered an attack recently."

"They are part of the aggressors, aren’t they?... I had no idea the defenders could still launch such attacks." Nadia admitted with Ana responding.

"I doubt it was a human army they fought. Remember, it was a group of Mutants that attacked our caravan."

"So what do you plan to do?" Elena asked.

Pursing her lips, Arwen asked. "Couldn’t you teleport us into the city?"

"I can’t," Elena said. "It’s not visible but the space within that city is currently being influenced by Quillion. If I try to jump in, we risk either appearing in public, triggering an attack, or appearing somewhere unsavory."

"So what do we do?... We can’t just walk up to the front gate as we did in Tesus."

"We have to wait. Surely there’s going to be a caravan, just like ours. If we are lucky, we might be able to get in with them." Ana said before proceeding to get into a sitting position.

"What are you doing?" Arwen asked.

"I said if we are lucky." Ana intoned. "So I plan on making us lucky."

"Ah."

***

For a devout TruthSeeker, the most important time of the day was time devoted to study and research.

It was a time that couldn’t be traded for anything and was most definitely not the time to be distracted by anything.

Hence the reason Archibald turned to regard Alex with a vexed look about him.

"Mind explaining why you have decided to trouble me?... We had a deal."

"We did." Alex calmly intoned. "But my partner and I have a bit of an issue."

"Not my problem. I’ve already provided as much aid as I should. Anything else is you being greedy and I will not stand for it."

"We just want to know where the villagers hunt their food."

Archibald snorted. "Do you think they’d allow two unknown elements to enter their hunting ground?... Might as well ask them to behead their children and offer their heads to you."

"Fine then, do you know of any other hunting ground?"

"Are you being serious?" Archibald asked with a raised brow.

Shaking his head, he returned to his study, seated at a corner with a table before him and atop the table, a large book.

Alex continued to stand behind him, seemingly scrutinizing him before he asked. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you been a Mystic for?"

Archibald paused before proceeding to glance back at Alex with a hint of annoyance.

Alex didn’t know why but he appeared offended.

"Just curious." Alex immediately added while raising his hands in surrender.

Archibald snorted. "I doubt that’s any concern of yours. As far as I know, it’s neither illegal nor problematic."

"True, being a Mystic isn’t illegal, but then experimenting on humans surely has to be."

Archibald paused yet again, his expression shifting ever so slightly as he glanced back once again.

"Calm yourself, I don’t plan on doing anything about it... at least, not yet."

"What does that mean?"

Alex shrugged, making no attempt to give a verbal response.

Letting out a sigh, Archibald remarked. "I’ll let them know that you are interested in joining them when they hunt tonight."

"Nice doing business with you."

And so Alex left, allowing Archibald to return to his study.

Turning a page, the image of the anatomy of a wolf came into view, but not just any wolf... a werewolf.