Chapter 234: The five
"...Of course, all of it depends on the level of strength of your enemies. The domain can also be used to mark territory and for defensive purposes."
Vacuse sighed. "...Why do I get the feeling that you’re not telling me everything?"
"...I am not."
"...Right. So why have you not told me about the powers of the domain before?"
"...You never asked."
"...You’re my instructor! You know what, just forget it!"
Rith once told him that his void power was almost instinctive to him, and he didn’t really know how to teach others. Maybe Vacuse should be the one to ask probing questions about what it could do.
But time to return to his original question.
"...What does that have to do with my void creature, though?"
"...I told you I intervened. I mixed a quality flesh when creating the body, and then the core did the rest. The Phoenix feather is truly powerful."
"...And the power that my void creature got, is that a combination of void and heat?"
"...Void fire. It burns, but burns with the heat to erase. It’s a very powerful tool. You should use it well."
With that, Rith sank deep into his consciousness as if he was done answering questions, even though he had left Vacuse with more questions than answers.
With another sigh, Vacuse dismissed him from his mind and sent his mind sinking into another place—the void where his void creature was currently resting. Most of its wounds were healed, and it should be up and running before long.
Vacuse returned his senses and blinked. He rolled his shoulders and nodded to himself. His own wounds were healed as well, and he was mostly back to full fighting strength.
Next, he cast his senses into his ring to check on the progress of the dragon construct, and although its recovery was slow, it was still coming along nicely.
It was only then that Vacuse relaxed himself and slept.
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Five people stood in a concealed space and watched the three hunters sleeping. They wore black that covered every inch of skin, including their faces. "Have we received any changes in orders?" one of them asked.
"No. We were told to keep watch but to wait on standby orders for capturing those two, with priority on the girl."
The three shadows didn’t move an inch from where they stood like statues, and even when they spoke, it was through a special technique—mind to mind—making it difficult to know who was speaking or from where.
"Then the girl is the important one? But to me, it feels like it’s that blind guy. I could almost swear that he was searching for us, but I don’t know."
"Who’s important or not is not our business. We are only to do what we were told."
Through their minds, they all nodded in agreement. This squad, dispatched by the guide in Gloomspire, was a unique kind that all the guide managers in each territory had access to, their level of strength depending on the manager’s overall power and influence.
Right now, the manager could only control a squad with the power level of the Second Circle. But they were absolute elites. Even according to those powerful Magus families, the squad was considered elite by their standards.
What made them frightening was the fact that the squad had no names and, indeed, they did not exist. Only the managers and top-level leaders of the guides knew about their existence. They handled both information gathering and assassination.
That was how the guides had been able to keep their power and influence unshakable in the mountains among all the powerful gangs.
The curious thing about the squad was that the minds of their members were linked. Any information that one of them learned would be distributed, and if they got close to the guide territory, it would immediately be transferred over to other squads if needed. Their managers and other top leaders could also read this information.
It was, indeed, an information web in and of itself.
But right now, there were only five of them, and they were far from where they could distribute information to anyone through the power of their minds.
"Three members should sleep while we two keep watch. We’ll rotate."
There was no leader in the squad, but they usually agreed to reasonable and critical logic. As such, they never came to disagreements, and their fighting was well coordinated. Some might say they were like machines.
And from where they stood unmoving, three people slept and two kept watch. They stood like that for hours before a thought rang in their collective minds.
"Look. That one—the guide—is doing something."
And so he was.
Yukata had woken up from his blanket and mat. He looked at the two sleeping ones suspiciously, then shrugged, picked up his bag, and began to walk down to rejoin the main tunnel.
"We did not receive orders concerning Guide Yukata coordinating with us. We were, in fact, instructed to do away with him if he should stand in our way."
"But... what is he doing? Is he betraying them?"
"I don’t think so. Look at the amount of magical instruments left on the ground. Do you think a guide would easily forsake these and just leave?"
"We can come to the conclusion that he is working for someone else, or the hunters are up to something."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes. Should we follow him?"
"No. He is not important."
"His importance isn’t relevant. What’s relevant is if what he’s doing is relevant to the information about the hunters."
"Right."
"Right."
"Right."
"Right."
"Then we should follow him?"
"We can also wait for him to be back. Our role is primarily those hunters. This once, we should watch him. Next time, if it happens again, then we can conclude that a pattern is beginning to form, and thus we can act more actively."
"Indeed. Let’s wait and see."
And that was what they did. At least for a while, until the sleeping girl hunter suddenly turned and pointed directly up at where they were.
"They are right there!"