26 Masked Demons

"Have you heard?"

In the distant cabins of the Hundred Thousand Beast Forest were students bustling around to find information, friends or seek resources.

Many students who were skilled with business predicted that a situation like this would happened and would build huts, shacks and cabins for tired adventurers.

Food, water, rope, etc could all be found there.

These places acted as locations for people to gain fame from doing a famous deed or form groups to hunt tougher monsters.

Objects that could be used to store objects were meaning corpses and meat of slained monsters would be quick to rot under the blaring ray of the sun however the business students would buy those materials at market price.

They were able to solve a problem and form connections at the same time. In general they were making a profit.

A red wine using the blood of a beast as the base was served towards the man who asked the question.

It was nothing more than a bait as he continued

"2 Gold for the information."

The other who was teased, grumbled at the stingy man before him before flinging two shiny coins at him.

At the other end of the bar was a chuckle

"You scammed another one already?"

The man didn't reply but instead told the news to the requester.

"This will pay off. After the first few days no one had heard of them but they suddenly appeared."

"It was a duo that caught multiple Nascent Soul Beasts. The corpses were said to be sold at this very store but the rumors continued to spread like wild fire."

"Many hunters were blinded by greed and decided to take advantage of the duo."

The man took a chug of his wine in an inelegant manner before continuing

"In the end a part of the forest was stained with blood where even the rain couldn't wash away the dye and the hunter's peers could sulk at their friend's foolishness."

"Their outstanding name created a name for them. They had no uniform from a recognizable school and their face was concealed with a veil and a bamboo mask."

"The closest one has found of their appearances was a white mask beneath their bamboo hat."

"Eventually the mass decided to call them; Twin Masked Demons"

Sighing at the brief dialogue, the man waited for any more inquiries that the person in front of him may ask.

As if perfectly timed the hooded man asked

"Where were they last seen?"

"Hmmm, if I recall it was around.... the ravine of the south area."

Whatever that meant the hooded man nodded before screaming.

"Dylan! Wake up, we're going now."

Rushing out of the bar in an instant a drowsy man rubbed his eyes before groggily following after the man.

A man in the back noticed the unique insignia on the drowsy man's collar as well as the block that hung off his back.

"That sword and insignia...hmmm. Great-sword Monster Dylan?!"

The mutter that he repeated to himself left the whole bar in silence until a person chirped in

"You mean... the one that just joined the Autarch Society."

Another slapped the head of whoever stated that as it was obvious since there was only one person who could have that name, style and organization.

...

"Can you pass me another bait?"

The voice contained a tinge of joy and a sense of happiness while the response he got was from a voice that was much deeper

"Here."

Throwing a chunk of an animal, the man caught it without a hitch and continued to fish.

Between the two was a desolate silence that no one dared to interrupt as this tranquility was very rare in their environment.

"Ah."

One of them had just caught a fish and struggled to pull it up until the other helped him out.

Dean was surprised at the difficulty they were facing but when he saw the faint outline of the beast he instantly grabbed his polearm and struck the water.

The head of the beast was instantly decapitated and Leonard quickly pulled up the head while Dean rushed to catch the rest of the body.

He estimated that it weighed only 13,000 kg and had the great length of less than 15m.

It was simply an exaggeration to them but in front of them was such an unusual fish.

"It seems I was right... something is happening."

"So we can finally visit the Core circle?"

Leonard wasted no time as he instantly butchered the fish into pieces and threw out the bones. After doing this more than a 100,000 times, it was a cinch but Dean had much less experience.

Finding that they still had some vegetables they decided to create stew as they eventually got tired of the taste of roasted meat.

Dean found that Leonard liked more of the creamy style soup or the nutritious kind usually with carrots.

It was not mentioned aloud however Dean would always find himself needing to roast a few pieces of meat otherwise he would starve when Leonard chugged the whole pot.

The ladle swerved around the mixture and the aroma wafted throughout the area however the scent of vegetables was the main dominant force that no carnivore coveted.

*SNAP*

A twig in the distance broke and a nervous step was taken aback, noting the incident, Dean threw a glare in that direction before throwing a small branch towards that direction.

Imbued with Battle Intent, it darted in a straight manner, destroying every tree that was in the way until being reflected by a block of metal.

Leonard had noticed this when he was disposing the leftoversand asked

"Who're the uninvited guests?"

The two revealed themselves in front of the Masked Demons and jested with each other.

"If only you were more quiet, we might have seen their faces."

Although it was a joke, Dean mocked it in his head.

'And if you did see my face then there would be a corpse.'

"Anyway we are here on the behalf of our organization, the Au-"

"We are not interested."

Leonard allowed Dean to call the shots as it seemed that he had the tendency to have control of a situation when he journeyed with him for half a month.

The reassurance that was brought along with Dean's confidence made Leonard feel a hint of fear if he could scheme that well but then felt proud for being able to make such a great friend.

"Wait, listen. Our group plans on hunting a Spiritual Transformation beast in the Core Circle. Others are joining as well and in return we can give some Spirit Fruits for your company."

Dylan added

"Make sure to meet at... the bar you sell your corpses to tomorrow."

The man wanted to scold at Dylan's poor manner in front of these two however leaving it as is they quickly exited from this location.

"Ummm... is this what you meant?"

Dean responded to Leonard's confusion in a blank tone

"Yeah."

While cooking their dinner both were left befuddled by their recent encounter.

Dean noticed the insignia on that man as well as the first half of that man's group.

'He's probably with Christian... this turned out to be much better.'

His grand scheme was that if they managed to somehow defeat the Spiritual Transformation beast then he could just sabotage their fight.

On the other hand, if everything goes wrong then he'll just run.

Either way there was nothing restraining him too much as he was also confident in Leonard's skill so in the end Dean will make a profit.

Leonard wasn't expecting that he would already be going to Core Circle like this but the following news made him have a sense of fear.

Spiritual Transformation.

A state of being where one has reached enlightenment.

If beasts simply roam around the core circle with that cultivation then Leonard could only hope that his life would be retained without any harm coming his way.

The only upbringing thing about this situation was that he could at least receive a Spirit Fruit.

Given the right materials he could turn that fruit into a pill with at least 4 times the effects.

It was best to just relax and wait for the ensuing adventure of tomorrow.

Dean decided that they should just take a nap in the cavern so that both of them could sleep in peace.

Waving each other good bye, they slipped into a slumber until the morning.

It was simply unfortunate for the bar that was there wasn't a name used to advertise it.