At the grounds of the second floor's rest area, a group of twelve had just arrived.
Since they reached an agreement to abandon the mission. Carl and company immediately headed down the mountain and arrived at the second floor just hours before sunset. Once they arrived, the group bid their farewells to each other and separated.
Jack and Goliat had been ultra-excited and relieved during the trip to go down. They're highly satisfied with their loot for the hunt, so they decided to go back to the City of Fieres, and visit the Mage Associations' transactions point.
'They won't have to hunt for weeks,' they said.
Max followed right after the duo without saying too much of anything, besides going home.
For the front group, they didn't go anywhere yet and headed towards the Second Level's rest point.
The man at the entrance greeted them and led them inside.
It was at this moment. The group suddenly divided into two.
Left went Jill, Mason, and the guide entered into a special-reinforced room. The sound of a lock was the last thing they heard.
Nymphall and Austin headed somewhere else. Onto an office. This was the room which was used for important negotiations between hunters and the management.
After looking at the people in the room, Austin activated his infinite storage item and openly showed the corpses of the dead hunters they found on the fourth level. This included the cultivators of the club, which were all highly trained cultivators.
After this, Austin could be heard succinctly reporting the details of the situation. Sometimes assisted by Nymphall.
"This is just a few borders before the last of the fourth floor, so it is quite possible that he is on the move."
"I see. What about that thing in the green chasm?" said the only woman in the room.
The woman, who was in her thirties, was dressed lightly as if he was going at a hunt.
She had long dark hair that was pony tied all the way to her bottom, and a long face that seemed more masculine than one would expect. The most noticeable detail of hers was her muscular body, which looked more capable than most men in the area.
Sara Bacon, she was the head of the Seventh Mountains' crew. With the duo's report, she had already heard everything, but she had not confirmed the most important thing yet.
"Did you talk to her?"
"No," Austin rejected, "But we found someone that meets the requirements she laid out before. Someone talented and young."
At this time, Austin quickly tapped on the mechanic table, which reacted by popping up a transparent screen in the air. After opening up a profile in the citizenship registry, he passed the screen over to Sara's side, showing her the profile of a certain youth with dazzling blonde hair. But the most important detail about him was the data beside the picture.
Sara thought for a minute, and then looked at Austin.
"Good work, Inspector. We hope this relationship ends great for the both of us. We shall meet again. Contact this boy and make him one of the members for your next raid then."
"Of course, I will." Austin said. He looked around the room for a while, and asked something that had been bothering him, "Are we sure the club and the association did not wire-tap this place?"
"Huh?" Sara frowned.
"I might be breaking the law, but cops will be cops. I had to stay wary."
Sara merely snorted, and gestured him to go.
"Well, that worry is just disrespectful. Don't forget to put the convicts where they belong." Sara said, as the cop duo started to leave.
Once they got out, Sara and the others in the room started to talk about more seriously.
"Can this place hold up with all the hunting that thing is doing up there? It's only been a week, and it had already took reigns of the third floor? It's only a matter of time before it gets down here." A man leaning against the wall commented.
"The rate of the improvement indeed is scary. But more than anything, we have to make sure we don't mess up. I am prepared to lose everything to get my sisters back. " Sara said.
…
Meanwhile, Carl was on top of a small hill overlooking the Hunter's rest area.
The environment here was a lot warmer than in the higher floors. It was also pouring with small time hunters like himself. The mood was relaxed and peaceful, compared to the higher floor's ominous silence and darkness.
Carl could not help but sigh when he noticed that Alex hadn't left yet.
"I thought you were going to hunt again?" Carl asked.
"I did," Alex answered and revealed several mana stones in his hand. Alex also had an infinity store item so it disappeared immediately right as he saw it. "I saw you here, so I said to myself, why don't I go there and ask him what he gonna do for now?"
Alex smiled.
Responding to him, Alex then pointed to the circle house in the center of the rest area. Just as he pointed, he saw Austin, and the whole group head out of the building.
"I'm going to be talking to them, see if I can join the next raid. That leader of them is not one to give up easily. Defeating this thing from the Green chasm sounds a little dangerous, but it seems interesting, and I could manage. I didn't even get injured this time after all, and I just killed a leader-class."
Alex could not argue with that. This fat friend of him had shown what he was capable of.
But he had issues with his decision.
Carl started to stand up this time, and prepared to head towards Austin's direction.
"I know you don't like Austin and his group. That's obvious. But I feel like you're a good person, so let's see each other again, Alex."
Right there and then, Alex watched Carl unhesitantly head towards Austin to talk to them, disclosing his wishes.
At first, the captain allowed the youth to speak his mind, even nodding towards him. But then he asked one thing.
"Do you know where the blonde teen named Alex?"
Carl was a little bit confused why they would ask that right now, but Carl looked at the top of the small hill, directing their vision with his.
"He's just--" Carl did not finish his first thought. Alex was gone.
"If he's not with you, I don't think we have a deal." Austin immediately said, placing his hand on his shoulders, as they passed by him.
Carl simply shook his head. Little did he know the scale of trouble he was headed to.