Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the pitch-black city walls.
Derrick Berg, carrying a leather pouch on his back and holding the "Hurricane Axe," stood outside the gate with nearly a dozen teammates.
Looking up, he noticed that between the stone cracks of the wall, the dry black soil had crumbled, but clusters of tenacious weeds had stubbornly grown from it, swaying delicately like human hair.
Just then, he heard a faint sound of footsteps and quickly withdrew his gaze, looking towards the city gate.
Amidst the alternation of lightning and darkness, a tall figure slowly walked over, two restrained straight swords crossed at his back.
Following that, his pale, disheveled hair, his profound, weathered eyes, his twisted, deeply ingrained old scars, and his perpetually unchanging brown coat and linen shirt came into Derrick's eyes one after another.
The newcomer was Colin Iliad, the Chief of the City of Silver's "Six-man Council," a powerful "Hunter."
After greeting him, Derrick instinctively cast his gaze towards the Chief's waist, where a leather belt divided into many compartments hung. Each compartment held a different small metal bottle.
This was a hallmark of a "Hunter's" experience and power.
Derrick had heard from his parents before that "Hunters" were adept at finding the weaknesses of different monsters, identifying the uses of various materials, and in a unique meditative state, they could mix and concoct corresponding magical potions, holy ointments, essential oils, and special marks by leveraging the former and relying on the latter. Then, by ingesting or applying these items, they could achieve the effect of countering their targets.
In a sense, an experienced, knowledgeable, well-prepared, and keenly observant "Hunter" was a natural nemesis to most monsters. The quantity and variety of the small metal bottles on their belts represented their "experience."
Of course, this was only a part of a "Hunter's" extraordinary abilities. By relying on these alone, they couldn't be called "Demigods" or "Saints."
Colin looked around, confirming that all the team members were present, and then said in a low voice:
"Light the lamps. Let's go."
Two team members immediately lit the candles inside the lanterns, allowing a dim, hazy yellow light to pierce through the extremely thin leather.
During the "daytime" when lightning was frequent, there was no need to use candles in the City of Silver because there was "light" every two or three seconds, and the surrounding monsters had been cleared out again and again. However, once they left the City of Silver and entered the depths of the darkness, they had to ensure there was candlelight at all times. Otherwise, if the lightning failed to keep up at a certain stage, creating a lightless environment for over five seconds, the team would likely be attacked by certain monsters.
A fierce battle wasn't the most terrifying development. What Derrick remembered vividly was a story his parents had told him.
Once, while exploring the depths of darkness, because of a fight with a tide of corrosive walking corpses in the previous stage, they couldn't replace the candles in time and had to endure eight seconds of profound darkness. When the lightning struck again and the candlelight reappeared, they were shocked to find that out of the original eight teammates, only five were left. The other three had vanished silently and imperceptibly, never to be seen again.
Taking a deep breath, Derrick gripped the "Hurricane Axe," walked in the middle of the team, and followed the Chief in the predetermined direction.
A flash of lightning suddenly brightened, presenting the fields of black grass on the plain like a somber oil painting.
A ten-member exploration team of Beyonders walked along the road full of jagged gravel, deep into the patches of black grass.
The lightning subsided, and the thick darkness instantly surged back, nearly engulfing them completely.
The dim yellow candlelight pierced through the leather, flickering weakly, stubbornly holding onto the surrounding area.
...
East Borough, an oily, cheap coffee shop.
Klein, as previously agreed, found Old Kohler, who was spreading margarine on a slice of toast.
Glancing at the crumpled cigarettes on the table, he laughed and said:
"New?"
"No, they're old ones. I haven't smoked them, but I always carry them with me. I take them out and sniff them occasionally. Heh, it reminds me of my days of wandering. Back then, I really felt like I could die at any moment," Old Kohler said with a tone of lingering fear.
Klein took out the twenty Soule in small change he had prepared beforehand. He sat down while pushing the money over to him:
"I was very satisfied with the intelligence from last time."
Before Old Kohler could be modest, he turned to the counter:
"One loaf of oat bread, two slices of toast, a pat of butter, a serving of beef stew with potatoes, and a penny's worth of tea."
"Mr. Moriarty, you didn't have dinner yesterday?" Old Kohler asked, holding the banknote, a little stunned.
Klein shook his head and laughed:
"I'm going to be very busy next. I might not have time for lunch."
He had to pretend to be very enthusiastic and diligent, after all, he had taken a hundred pounds in expenses from Prince Edsack.
Old Kohler didn't ask anything more. He looked around warily as he stuffed the banknote into his coat pocket.
"Your request from last time has results. The bounty on Azik Eggers came from a few gang leaders and some information brokers. Hmm, I don't know who commissioned them. It's very hard to get in touch with them."
MI9, huh... Klein nodded:
"That's enough, no need to dig deeper. It's too dangerous."
Old Kohler sighed in relief and changed the subject:
"A couple of days ago, someone saw a guy who looked like Azik Eggers in a cheap hotel on Golden Cape Street. They say he matches the photo on the wanted poster almost perfectly."
...Klein's heart tightened, but instead of being alarmed, he smiled:
"And then? What, is this matter over just as I was about to go for this bounty?"
"Then? With the lead, quite a few bounty hunters rushed over, but they found nothing. Uh, they said there were signs of a struggle in the room," Old Kohler did his best to recall the news he'd gathered.