(Carroll's POV)
Carroll was recovering at his base when he arrived, a tall and thin human, but his eyes seemed like sharp knives, a cold and indifferent expression crossed his face as he looked at Carroll.
Hunting Blade, the number two officer in Bloodshed Land, unlike the other muscular guys above Heber, was one of the few with a normal physique.
Carroll swallowed hard as soon as he saw him, knowing that the Tyrant must be unhappy with him.
-Where is he?- was Hunting Blade's only question.
Carroll sighed as he spoke. -I have no idea. Finding someone on this planet through technology is like finding a needle in a haystack. If it were a Mage, it would be much easier. Even so, they headed northwest when they left and after that, I have no idea where they went.
-Useless.- Hunting Blade scoffed. There were no strong mages in Bloodshed Land, even the few that existed were mages focused on physical enhancement.
In Bloodshed Land, Carroll's social life was less than good, as a traitor, though Heber didn't mind, but the other officers did, so Hunting Blade didn't give Carroll a second glance as he left so quickly that he left an afterimage.
As Carroll suspected, Heber was not happy, so he sent Hunting Blade to get revenge. Not only that, Hunting Blade's mission was to beat Black Spider almost to death and then bring him back to Bloodshed Land.
The reason isn't something as trivial as torturing him, imprisoning him or anything like that. No, Heber values talent, almost like a space Kaido, so when he saw the video, aside from his irritation at Ames throwing that in his face, he was more interested in Black Spider's talent.
It would have been a waste to leave him to Ames, so he wanted to recruit him.
If Black Spider doesn't back down? Well, then it's not too late to kill him, at the very least, he'll have to fight Ames again.
As for Ames causing trouble in his territory after hitting her? Heber hadn't even thought about that, Ames would just rage for a while before letting it go. Too bad he didn't know that Ringo was not only rapidly increasing his favorability with Ames, but was also the key to her finding her adoptive father, Aesop.
Therefore, if Heber actually dares to do this, it is likely to become a far more catastrophic event than the Tyrant could have anticipated.
Even so, Black Spider wouldn't just stand there waiting to be caught, and besides, even if he was caught, so what? Black Spider could simply kill himself and be reborn in another body, the advantage was with him from the start.
Furthermore, as soon as Hunting Blade began searching for Black Spider, the same one who was still excavating Maktru with Trax, Rick and Slugcat, had already foreseen this.
It wasn't because he wanted to, but while he was using his ability to foresee the future of the excavation, he found himself fighting against Hunting Blade.
He blinked slightly, thoughtfully. He hadn't expected this. Had he stumbled into a Chinese novel while walking through the forest? How did the situation turn out where you hit the young master and the ancestor shows up to take revenge?
Black Spider's lips trembled, he sighed and became thoughtful, letting his original body deal with it first.
//-//
On Ames' side, Ringo was still being restrained by Ames, no longer talking about hitting Carroll, but Ames was bored, so she called him over for a drink and a chat.
Something totally unthinkable for other BGAs, like casually having a drink with your subordinate during an informal conversation, but for Ames, it was just another day trying to escape boredom.
Ringo doubted why the woman didn't want to do anything, since she was bored, why not build an organization? She only needed to randomly raise the idea and various civilizations and financial groups would jump in to support her.
But as soon as the woman thinks about working, all the boredom disappears and laziness wins, she's like a cat that jumps around everywhere, but when you need her, she throws herself on the floor and ignores you.
It was really difficult to deal with her, but Ringo didn't mind, he understood a little. Just thinking about managing a huge organization like Black Star gave him hives. He created Hell and jumped ship, leaving everything to Melissa.
If Triple Six grows to the point of becoming something like the Black Star army, he'll be the first to delegate a manager.
Thus, the pair got along very well, Ringo commented on interesting things, Ames drank and listened, sometimes she asked questions, other times she remembered something from her journey to the BFG and shared some stories.
In the end, the two were simply cut from the same cloth, Ames and Ringo were realizing it.
The difference is that Ringo has a continuous drive to get stronger, while Ames simply doesn't care about it, but Ringo knows that if it weren't for his paranoia driving him forward, he would be the first to act like Ames.
When Ringo received the information from Black Spider's side, he was slightly surprised, stopping his speech. Ames, curious, noticed his change in expression.
-What happened? Did Austin find you?- Ames asked curiously. Ringo had already explained that he sent a clone to Austin's territory to build a weapon.
Ringo even thinks that the invitation was simply to better protect him, but he has no way of knowing for sure, Ames isn't the type to say. - "Stay here, I'll protect you."- She would just protect him and that's it.
-No, it's Black Spider's group. Apparently, the Tyrant wasn't happy with the event and sent the number two officer from Bloodshed Land, Hunting Blade.- Ringo explained.
Ames raised an eyebrow, a mixture of curiosity and irritation. -What does he want?
-I don't know, I just saw the future, he hasn't found me yet.- Ringo shrugged. -Do you want me to hit him too?
Ames tilted her head thoughtfully. -Are you confident?
If he were to use everything he had, yes, but he didn't want to expose himself, so he said. -If it's to win a fight, no, but if it's to kill him, yes.
Ames raised an eyebrow, curious, but didn't ask much, instead shaking her head. -Then forget it, just ignore him.
Ringo smiled and agreed, if he didn't want Hunting Blade to find him, it would be very easy since he could see the future.
So, the two went back to drinking and talking, as if the previous subject had never come up.
//-//
On Black Spider's side, knowing Ames' preference, he simply changed direction, he was already in a magic carriage, something the third clone had bought on the Mages' planet. It was bigger on the inside than on the outside, ran on magic crystals, was fast and what Trax and Rick practically loved was that it was dry.
At Rick's insistence, the third clone also sent some drinks, he and Trax were already drunk, while Slugcat, having his first experience with alcohol, was jumping around and rolling around like... well, a drunken cat.
Black Spider ignored the idiots as he continued to drive the chariot, at the front, four horse puppets galloped through the air, pulling the chariot over the trees and rocks.
Black Spider kept looking for opportunities to stop and dig constantly, sometimes he would stop and point out a spot for Rick and Trax, who would grumble and reluctantly begin digging.
They soon extracted raw ore from Maktru, the ore itself weighed tons, but when refined, only about half a kilogram could be extracted.
Even with all that work, knowing how much those things were worth, neither Trax nor Rick complained.
Trax treated it as training and Rick just wanted money.
Slugcat also helped, but the little thing was a terrible digger, so the group continued their search, while Black Spider now had an extra mission to avoid Hunting Blade.