Su’en put away the half-carved wooden doll and put on his gas mask again.
Just as he walked out of the tent, he heard Mr. Abagon rubbing his leg and cursing as he walked out of his luxurious marching tent: “Damn it, this dungeon is not a place for humans. My old cold legs have relapsed…”
Su’en listened to this and the corners of his mouth under the mask lifted slightly.
…….
This time, the “Thornbird Trading Company” hired a total of five small hunting teams and some scattered hunters. These fifty to sixty fully armed hunters were also the main force for transportation security.
Su’en found a corner and listened quietly.
If there was an emergency meeting, it meant that there was a problem somewhere.
Before long, everyone arrived, and Mr. Abagon got straight to the point.
“I just received the latest news. In the d24 area, which we will enter in about three days, several transport teams were attacked by mutated monsters and almost completely wiped out. But we must deliver the supplies to the campsite of the Dawn City Ruins on time. So, I hope you can be prepared, send more people on guard duty during the night, and ensure the safety of the transport teams…”
It was clear that this manager, who had never been outside the city, was nervous, and he spread his fear to the entire transport team.
The more hunters headed to the Dawn City Ruins, the more dangerous the journey became. It was like fishing, attracting more and more mutated monsters with the scent of human beings.
The dungeon was not a human territory; it was always a paradise for monsters.
Humans were just a kind of delicious food in the eyes of monsters.
The deeper underground, the stronger and more numerous the monsters.
With that said, the hunters began to discuss.
“I heard about it before. It seems that there is a large group of ‘Three-eyed Poison Lizards’ active near the d24 area. Several hunting teams have encountered small-scale monster groups and suffered losses…”
“That kind of mutated monster is quite troublesome. They are fast, move in groups, and a bite can infect people with toxic substances that cause flesh to rot… Do we have enough antidotes prepared?”
“Not many. Hopefully, we won’t encounter a large-scale monster group, otherwise, we’ll be in trouble.”
“Everyone, prepare in advance. Place the outposts farther away when setting up camp…”
“Yes, that’s the only way.”
“…”
The leaders of the five hunting teams gathered together to discuss.
After all, they all made a living from this, and no one was scared away by the danger.
…….
In an inconspicuous corner, Su’en also quietly listened to the battle plan arrangements discussed by several team leaders.
The underground passages were complex and winding, and there were many routes to the Dawn City.
The transport team was currently taking this route, which was the closest one discovered by the hunters so far.
But it was not the artificial secret passage that Su’en knew before.
They took a detour and passed through some dangerous areas marked on the map.
However, Su’en didn’t care since he was traveling with the team.
He didn’t feel any urgency while listening.
He knew about the “Three-eyed Poison Lizards,” which posed a significant threat to non-professionals. But for him, those monsters that could be killed with a regular firearm were not a threat.
Moreover, with the “Invisible Corpse” as his trump card, even if high-level mutated monsters appeared, he had a way to fight back.
Even if they really had to run, most mutated monsters wouldn’t be able to outrun him, who had the Eight-Armed Spider Spear.
After a while, the meeting ended.
Su’en was about to go back to rest.
But Benson, the leader of the “Boozehound Hunting Team,” came up to him.
“Johnny, my brother!”
“What’s up, Captain Benson?”
“Hehe, that kid Tommy has been causing you trouble these past few days.”
Benson was a big-bearded man with a boozy nose and a hearty personality.
Although they hadn’t known each other for long, Su’en had a good impression of him. Because of saving Tommy before, this big-bearded man was always very polite to him.
Su’en smiled, “It’s not really trouble.”
Benson looked helpless like an old father, “Ah… this kid is driving me crazy. I heard that he likes to tinker with those mechanical things. I wanted to send him to the repair shop as an apprentice. It may not be wealthy, but at least he can live a comfortable life. But he doesn’t want to. He keeps shouting that he wants to be an adventurer, a real mechanic. So, I thought of taking him out to see the world, but we almost had a problem on the way. If it weren’t for you, that kid would have suffered a big loss.”
“Tommy actually has a talent for mechanics…”
Su’en smiled. He felt that this big-bearded man must have something else to talk to him about.
Sure enough, after being polite for a while, Benson finally said, “By the way, Johnny, the route ahead may be dangerous. If we really encounter a large-scale attack from mutated monsters, stay closer to our team. We can take care of each other.”
He said it politely and took Su’en’s face into consideration.
He said it was taking care of each other, but he actually wanted to take care of this lone wolf.After all, in the eyes of ordinary people, gunmen are a profession that needs to be protected by teammates, especially snipers. Once they are approached by monsters, they become weak in close combat.
Su’en understood. This was to repay the favor of saving Tommy before.
He didn’t say much, just smiled and nodded, “Hmm, okay, thank you.”
…….
In this way, the transport team continued to move towards the depths of the dungeon.
Along the way, they encountered several small-scale attacks from distorted monsters, but because the transport team had enough manpower and firepower, they were able to repel them without any danger.
Su’en was a sniper and didn’t need to engage in close combat. Occasionally taking a shot was enough.
No one cared about this lazy and unsociable guy in the team.
Su’en’s daily life was also very regular.
He studied the Voodoo Doll, tinkered with some machinery, meditated to increase his dark spiritual power, and recorded detailed changes in his body data after injecting the “x serum”…
Then he studied and interpreted Isaac’s Alchemy Manuscript.
When Su’en was ambushed by the Umbrella Organization in the “White Sail Warehouse” before, he was puzzled as to why those guys could quietly take things away but chose to kill to cover their tracks.
Later, in the battle on Green Street, Su’en killed three second-tier professionals from the Umbrella Organization. After extracting the memory fragments of the ice mage who ambushed them in the warehouse, he finally understood that the reason the Umbrella Organization wanted to cover their tracks was because they considered this manuscript as a “contaminant” and believed that its curse would contaminate anyone who came into contact with the notes, causing great harm.
Their orders were to eliminate anyone who had come into contact with the notes and retrieve the manuscript.
Moreover, this was a direct order from the Duke of Black Tower!
But this made Su’en very puzzled.
He identified the detailed information of this manuscript and found that it didn’t have any “contaminating properties” at all.
The only curse mentioned was that coming into contact with the manuscript would involve certain “causality” of the manuscript, and it was unknown whether it would bring fortune or disaster. How could this be considered contamination?
Su’en felt that this was probably a move by the high-level officials of the Black Tower to monopolize the knowledge of super-tier alchemy.
After all, he also learned from the memory of another second-tier professional that the Umbrella Organization knew about the existence of this manuscript. Moreover, they speculated that it was one of the five manuscripts left by Sir Isaac, which recorded the “Divine-tier Alchemy”.
After much contemplation, Su’en wanted to find answers in the notes.
He had been deciphering this manuscript for the past few days.
Unexpectedly, using his not-so-clever deciphering methods, he managed to translate the contents of the manuscript.
The result was…
He found that this notebook was just an ordinary alchemy notebook, at least from what he had seen so far.
The contents recorded on it were a special alchemical prosthetic.
The Sir Isaac of that year wanted to use a “Heart Prosthetic” to bear additional dark spiritual power and also give the human body a continuous recovery “blue buff”. This would allow alchemists to never lack dark spiritual power in battle and freely unleash more powerful spells without worrying about consuming their mana…
Moreover, the contents of this notebook were also very user-friendly. It seemed that the half-god alchemist was afraid that future generations would not understand his brilliant ideas, so he gradually explained from the basics, step by step, how to successfully create that “Heart Prosthetic”.
Su’en understood the first few pages, which recorded the manufacturing blueprint of the “Isaac’s Alchemical Heart (Level 1)”. The main material used was the heart of a first-tier distorted monster. Although the runes and refining formulas were complex, they were entry-level knowledge that low-tier professionals could gradually learn and master.
And miraculously, he could only see the later contents after understanding the previous ones.
These past two days, he understood the first few pages and then deciphered the later pages, which contained the contents of the “Isaac’s Alchemical Heart (Level 2)”.
Thinking about it, there were still Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 contents in this notebook…
It was simply an ordinary notebook.
This book was completely a collection of alchemical knowledge, apart from alchemy, it contained even more advanced alchemical knowledge.
There was nothing that could be considered “contamination” in it.
The only special thing Su’en felt was the sentence that was suspected of “blaspheming the gods”.
Sir Isaac wrote this sentence on the first page with a disdainful tone: “So-called divine-tier creatures are nothing more than high-level materials in the face of great alchemy.”
Su’en speculated that the final part of this notebook might be about using the so-called divine heart to refine an “Isaac’s Heart”?
…….
The transport team continued to walk towards the depths of the dungeon for several days and finally entered a high-risk area. The atmosphere in the team gradually became tense.
On this day, they chose a relatively safe place to set up camp as usual and assigned more people to guard at night.
Su’en also set up his tent and began his daily research.
But unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, a group of uninvited guests broke into the camp.
“Someone attacked the camp!”
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
“…”
The sentry sounded the alarm, and suddenly there was a commotion outside.Su’en didn’t dare to be careless. He cleaned up the invisible zombie and stepped out of the tent.
To his surprise, despite the commotion, no fight had broken out.
The intruders were not mutated monsters, but a renowned bounty hunter group from Old Lingdun.
The members of the wilderness hunting team guarding the camp were angry, but they didn’t dare to fight back.
Among these rude intruders was a second-tier professional, ‘Flower Sword’ Hol, a sub-leader of the “Iron Knight Bounty Hunter Group”, an experienced swordsman who excelled in court fencing.
After all, they had signed a protection contract. The wilderness hunters of the transport team also had the duty to protect the transport. They stood their ground with their weapons, not allowing this group of uninvited guests to break into the core of the camp.
Although the other party had a second-tier professional, the transport team also had one to two hundred people. If a real fight broke out, it would undoubtedly end in mutual destruction.
The other party didn’t dare to act rashly either.
Then Hol negotiated with Abagon, and it seemed that he said something. The manager of the merchant group actually easily agreed to their search in the camp!
“We are pursuing a very dangerous fugitive. Please cooperate with us for your own safety.”
“Everyone, step out of your tents, open your tents and large bags, we need to check!”
“Take off your masks, please show your faces…”
“…”
There were ten people from the Iron Knight Group. Judging by their demeanor, besides the second-tier Hol, there were several other formal professionals.
This was already a strong team configuration.
Su’en watched this group of people storm into the camp, seemingly looking for a “fugitive”.
Hearing this, he frowned.
Because he himself was a fugitive.
Could it be that the Umbrella Organization had tracked him here?
That was his first reaction.
…….
These guys drove everyone out of their tents and then checked one by one.
Su’en was now in blue skin, which couldn’t be exposed to light. Once he took off his mask, he would definitely attract attention.
But he was also a bit puzzled… The “Iron Knight Group”‘s handling method was a bit overbearing, wasn’t it?
After all, the people in this transport team were all legal wilderness hunters. Bounty hunters were not law enforcement agencies and had no right to search. This was the most important reason why Qian arranged this legal identity for him, to avoid unnecessary trouble.
And this rude behavior naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of several wilderness hunting team leaders.
Benson, the team leader, spoke up directly: “Hey, hey, hey, ‘Iron Knight Group’, don’t go too far. We are a wilderness hunting team, not some fugitives. We have no obligation to cooperate with your search!”
With that, the leaders of the other four teams also echoed: “Exactly! On what grounds are you searching us?”
The wilderness hunters were not cowards, and it seemed that an armed conflict was about to break out.
The search was obstructed, and Hol’s face turned pale.
Ordinary bounty hunters wouldn’t dare to kill legal wilderness hunters.
But he seemed to be carrying some urgent order, didn’t have time to argue, took out a wanted order and a gold badge, directly revealed his identity, and coldly said: “This is the highest level wanted order issued by the Black Tower, I am a special law enforcement officer of the ‘Umbrella’ in the outer city. Just half an hour ago, this extremely vicious fugitive assassinated Lord Haus, the chief intelligence officer of Old Lingdun. Anyone who obstructs the pursuit will be treated as an accomplice of the fugitive and killed without mercy!”
Seeing the gold badge that Hol showed, the faces of several wilderness hunting team leaders changed drastically, and they didn’t dare to speak anymore.
No one dared to provoke the Umbrella Organization.
…….
On the other hand, Su’en’s expression became somewhat strange.
Was it really the Umbrella Organization’s undercover?
So a high-ranking official had just been assassinated?
Looking at the wanted order, he also understood that these people were not here to catch him.
From a distance, he could clearly see the portrait on the wanted order.
Wasn’t that the woman who had blown up the experiment?
That woman had made a bigger fuss than him before, and she definitely couldn’t stay in Old Lingdun. It was expected that she would flee the city.
But she didn’t keep a low profile after escaping, and caused a big commotion again?
Su’en’s eyebrows twitched.
The legendary “Super Mechanical Warrior” who existed only for battle, was she really so troublesome?
The fact that Hol was in a hurry to reveal his identity and search the camp meant that they were sure that the woman was nearby at this moment.
However, what Su’en cared about was not the woman’s situation, but his own.
Because at this moment, a guy from the “Iron Knight Group” had already come to his tent, and then, holding a gun, he ordered: “Hey, you… take off your mask!”
Hearing this, the gaze hidden under Su’en’s gas mask also cooled down.
A thought flashed through his mind: Should I kill them all…
ps. These two chapters are transitional chapters, written a bit weirdly… I don’t know where the problem lies.