Chapter 79: The Hunt (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
One month later.
In the library of the Lennon City Lord’s castle.
The marble tiled floor was smooth, colorful, and had a brown circle pattern on it. All the small circles were inside a large red circle. There were more than ten bookshelves in the room, and yellow oil lamps were glowing gently on the walls. A young man in a white suit was standing next to one of the shelves reading a thick book carefully.
The young man had an average-looking face, and his skin was a bit pale. His short brown hair barely covered his ears, and he looked just like any other n.o.ble playboy, though the suit he was wearing did not cover his muscular body.
That young man was Angele, who looked wild but gentle.
He had gotten the permission to enter the lord’s library and read the books the lord had collected. It was to try and find more books like the Wizard’s book he had.
“Ugh…” Angele sighed and closed the book. “This one isn’t made by a Wizard, either.”
Angele was disappointed, and he put down the last book he had wanted to check.
*Creak*
Someone opened the door.
“Master Angele, have you found anything useful to you?”
A man with a pretty face walked into the room. It was Tinos, and he was still wearing a black leather suit, his short blonde hair combed to one side.
Angele could still not believe that Tinos was male. He couldn’t imagine how attractive the man would be if he tried to wear some female clothing. Angele thought for a second and carefully returned the book back to its place on the shelf. He then turned back and smiled.
“Mr. Tinos, what brings you here? Although there are plenty of books here, I failed to find the ones I wanted,” Angele said.
Tinos closed the door and slowly walked towards Angele with a red leather whip in his hands.
“Master Angele, you’ve changed your hairstyle? Last time I saw you, you still had long hair, and I think you looked great with it,” Tinos noted, his words focused on some irrelevant things first. “My scout has reported that he found a Glowing Beast in the forest around the Lennon City. It had attacked several teams of merchants and also injured a number of hunters. My father and my brother are going to hunt it down, I am wondering if you are interested?”
“Glowing Beast?” Angele lowered his head and started to think.
The Glowing Beast’s name came from its appearance—the beast was blue and its skin was always glowing. Based on the description found in the books, an adult Glowing Beast was three meters tall and three to four meters long. It was about the size of a below-average Asian Elephant. The beast was very special to Wizards and their apprentices due to the value of its heart. Both Wizards and their apprentices could easily make it into a basic enchanted item.
Wizards or their apprentices could use the enchanted item to cast Glowing Fire Strikes, and the cooldown of the item was one day. The Glowing Beast’s skin could also be made into high-quality leather armor suits. The beast was relatively easy to find on this land.
“Well, I’ve never seen a Glowing Beast in real life, so I will join them.” Angele nodded.
“They will be leaving this afternoon. I will let them know you are interested right away.” Tinos smiled, turned back, and quickly left the room.
Recently, Tinos had begun to try and find all the reasons he could to spend time with Angele, and Angele knew Tinos wanted him to joins his side. Angele was not so sure about the reason but Tinos and Harland did not like each other, and Tinos was a bit nervous after learning that Harland was building a friends.h.i.+p with Angele.
However, Angele liked Harland more because he was much stronger than Tinos.
‘Glowing Beast…’ Angele was happy. ‘If I can take its heart, I will be able to make a basic enchanted item.’
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Outside the west forest.
A team of mounted soldiers in white plate armor suits left the city through the west city gate. That gate was not as busy as the main one, and there were not as many people around there.
There were about twenty people in the team, and the leader was a handsome young man riding a white horse. The blonde man’s body looked balanced and strong, his skin smooth like a marble sculpture’s. He was leading the team, and two men were following after him on black horses. The man on the left was wearing a black hunting suit and the man on the right had a pretty face.
Following the three, there were four fully geared knights and about ten mounted soldiers in white plate armor suits. The team was heading to the last location the Glowing beast had appeared at.
The leading Knight was Harland Reed, and Angele and Tinos were following right after him. The fully geared knights were knight-level warriors, and the soldiers in white plate armor suits were some of the best in the lord’s army.
Harland kept checking the surroundings while slowly advancing. He saw the washbasin sized footprints on the gra.s.sland around the bridge, and he also saw some blood stains on the gra.s.ses.
“Last night, that Glowing Beast went to the west city gate and attacked several pedestrians. That’s why you did not see many people around the gate. The footprints are easy to find, and the only thing we need to do is follow the trail,” Harland said in a deep voice. “The Glowing Beast’s skin is very hard, and I brought the best short iron spears I could find this time. After initiating with the spears, the four Knights need to step forward and try to block its attacks. The rest of you can act freely depending on the situation, and I will prevent it from escaping to the side.
“What about me? Brother? I am a Knight too? Where’s the order for me?” Tinos asked.
“Tinos, you stay with Master Angele. Although people like Master Angele are very strong, they need time to prepare their spells, and you need to make sure the beast does not get anywhere close to him.”
Harland was not expecting Tinos to contribute to the team, so he asked him to stay with Angele, knowing that Angele would be able to protect him.
“Thanks in advance for your help, Mr. Tinos.” Angele smiled.
“I’ve slain several Glowing Beasts during the war. They’re not scary, but we still need to be careful with its Flame Breath.” Harland patted the tower s.h.i.+eld that was hanging on his saddle. The tower s.h.i.+eld looked luxurious with the ‘sunflower and white bird’ emblem engraved in the middle of it.
Angele kept smiling, he looked gentle and harmless. He tied his crossguard sword to his waist, no longer nervous while staying around a Grand Knight after having reached rank 3. Last time Zero had said that Angele had less than 50% chance to win a fight against Harland, but this time it had increased to 70%. Angele felt that he was much stronger than before based on the numbers.
Harland waved his right hand, and one of the Knights moved towards him right away. They started to talk about how they should handle the various types of attacks from the Glowing Beast.
Tinos was also talking with another Knight, but they were speaking in a language that Angele could not understand, and it made Angele feel a bit uncomfortable.
The team entered the forest and followed the large footprints on the ground.
Angele followed behind Harland, who was still talking to a Knight called Anthony. Angele heard some of the things they were talking about: they were planning on training the mounted soldiers later, and they were trying to eliminate all the possible threats within the territory.
No one seemed nervous about hunting the Glowing Beast. The two other Knights behind Angele were talking about the new clubs that had opened up in the city recently.
“Master Angele!” Tinos finished his conversation with the Knight and turned back. “My Knight just told me that a s.h.i.+p full of rare goods just arrived at the Ricky Dock this morning, and they are auctioning some of the herbs tomorrow. I was wondering if you would be interested.”
“An auction, huh?” Angele thought for a second. “Will there be something like the Dragon Scale Flower?”
“I am afraid not…” Tinos had a bitter smile on his face. “The Dragon Scale Flower is so rare that only people like you would have access to it. However, I heard the legendary body armor, Sun of the Tribe, would be auctioned tomorrow.”
“The Sun of the Tribe? How is that even possible?” Angele was surprised, “That was the armor suit worn by the legendary Duke Stagger Plat.”
“It’s not the original for sure. It’s a replica,” Tinos explained. “The genuine suit would not come to a city like Lennon. Merchants would bring it to the capital if they somehow got their hands on it. But there will be some rare goods from the Merfolk and several Water Fairy slaves on the auction. I’m sure you will find something you like.”
Tinos smiled, and he was blus.h.i.+ng a bit. With his purple lips, Angele found him a bit coquettish.
‘Do those Water Fairies look more pretty than you?’ Angele really wanted to ask.
But he decided not to ask a disrespectful question like that, and it would sound very weird anyway.
Tinos did not notice what Angele was thinking.
“Last time I asked Sir Henry of the Ricky Merchant a.s.sociation to bring me some special skin care products, and I heard those were the favorites of the Merfolk Princesses. I hope my order arrived with the s.h.i.+p this time. My skin is very dry recently,” Tinos continued, and he sounded distressed.
Angele decided not to comment on that. He did not want to question his own s.e.xual orientation.
“Also, Viscount Sparks from Loran City sent me some well-crafted weapons last month, some of them sharp and pretty. After we finish the Glowing Beast off, you can come by my castle and take several of them if you want. I haven’t gotten the chance to send you a gift since we met, while I heard my brother gifted you some Night Honeycombs, and I think I need to prepare something, too,” Tinos said.
“Thank you for your kindness, but I like my sword,” Angele declined the offer. “We’re very close to the Glowing Beast so we need to stay alerted now.”
Tinos was going to say something else, but he stopped after hearing Angele’s words. “Sure, we can discuss it later.”
The team arrived at the logging area, the place looking empty without all the trees. There were countless tree stumps on the ground.
It was afternoon, the sunlight had weakened, and the area was extremely quiet.
“This is one of Lennon City’s official logging areas, and the sawmill is not too far from here. It was the first location that was attacked by the Glowing Beast,” Harland said loudly. “The city’s major source of income is the export of lumber, thus, even if we fail to kill the beast, we still need to make sure it doesn’t stay in our territory. Workers fear it, and if they don’t log, our financial situation will get worse.”
Harland’s voice was loud and clear. Several birds were scared by his voice and flew away.
“Understood!” all the soldiers yelled out.
“It’s getting close!”
Harland held his silver axe tight.