Chapter 200 - Days DLXVI - DXCVIII

The next thirty days were fully focused on hunting. I was starting very early, clearing the vicinity of the camp, then the first chamber of the den, to next run all the way to wolf territory to kill the boss. After a week Blue wanted to start switching our turns to get class points. He still didn't have enough in him to take down the werewolf without taking too much risk, but the moment he would be able to do that, my access to those points would end. This way we were able to share, and it could last longer.

He was also my resource for news about events happening in the city. Aisha managed to pull her coup, and switched the figure at the top of Followers of Divine Tree. Maia was the new leader. After Blue described her to me, I managed to connect the name with the face. She was the same blonde with curly hair, that tried to talk to me at the cafeteria.

Apparently, she was one of the most successful recruiters among them. Ambitious girl, that pretty quickly agreed to Aisha's terms. I had my worries at first. I was afraid Aisha might try to do something stupid again, which would mean a definitive end to our friendship, but Blue assured me that Hatta is present at every meeting.

Moreover, she was about to be granted a position in the council. Blue was against that. He didn't want to split the power among too many people and especially grant it to a person that's still unchecked, but there was no other way, as Maia had a lot of influence among newcomers, not only the followers of her religion.

The spread of new believers was cut short. Some people left Followers of Devine Tree for other organizations, but many remained to among their ranks. They were actually very popular, as they worked hard, and helped to establish forms of defense in the city. Many of them volunteered to keep watch on the walls, and donated their crystals to good causes, such as new necessary buildings, the device upgrade found, and the weapon and armor found.

Rishi and his father were busy like never before. Not only they needed to work on equipment, but also siege devices that Hatta and Blue wanted to be installed on the walls. They also wanted to build towers, and outpost closer to hunting grounds. There was a lot of work, and we still suffered for lack of crystals, but little by little the situation seemed to get better.

Will even started to mention canyon at the meetings. I was positive that they will go there pretty soon. To be honest, I wanted to go too, but I also knew it's too early to even think about killing that beast, remaining in the cave. The monster that almost killed me.

Blue was all for that, as he was constantly pressuring others to do their best and expand. We needed so many things to be done, and the only way to get them was through the device. For that we needed points. A lot of points.

Even with all this information, we kept our talks short. I didn't want to accidentally get swayed by the guy. I had my respect for him, but he still was a dangerous individual. I didn't need my judgment clouded. I needed my eyes to be wide open.

With my everyday travels and difficulties of remaining hidden in my pocket, Ki'rai decided to only go with me on occasion. In her spare time, she climbed the trees and roamed around. I was pretty sure she is contacting her masters, and giving them detailed reports on everything we talked about. I did my best to keep the informations about the situation in the city as vague as possible, but my own person was a different subject.

She was able to observe me every day. She knew my weak and strong points. She knew exactly how strong I was, yet to meet with Xuvi, I still needed to get stronger, according to her words. This, and bring them crystals. I still had no idea how many, as she refused to tell me, constantly bringing up that I'm too weak.

That's how the days passed.

Then we started to make our way back. We took it slow, as I was actually tired after those very busy days. To be honest, I was surprised that I actually was able to make it, but I did. Ki'rai was happy, because she was really getting bored out there with nothing going on, and nobody to spy on. Shy would probably leave me if her orders were not clear. She had to remain by my side and make sure I'm ready, for whatever her masters wanted from me.

I was well aware that I should keep my guard up with them. Even though I knew it, the opportunity to finally find out what was going on around was too important to ignore. Maybe they even had the key to allow us to go back to earth. I was sure that they at least know something.

Even when we camped close to wolves den I didn't go help Blue. At that point in time, he and his men were ready to handle it by themselves. Maybe some of them would get wounded in the process, but who cared? Their regeneration was ridiculous.

Seeing the city gates after so long made me happy. I had to split up with Ki'rei, which was a bit sad since I enjoyed her company. I knew she will remain close, as she had to constantly spy on me. She herself was more excited about spying on other people. I became boring to her.

After two days of travel and many more of sleeping on the bare ground, seeing the city center made me excited to finally spend the night in a proper bed. The place itself looked way better now. All cleaned up, with few benches for those who wanted to hang around. I also noticed a pub open in a place where we used to keep the firewood over a year ago.

Hunters hanged around there. Many were coming in, and going out.

My carts filled with crystals brought tons of attention upon me. People whispered among themselves as I was passing by. I caught few words. Apparently, I became somewhat of a legend.

Probably Hatta's propaganda was behind that. Or maybe Aisha's? I knew that I will find out sooner or later.

As I was about to stand in line to use the device, people just allowed me to go first. I'm not gonna lie. It felt nice, as I was very tired. I sold part of my score for 20 million points. That was 8 000 crystals. The rest I left for Rishi.

Then I immediately bought the fifth upgrade of Void manipulation skill, which was the last upgrade I could get for my Shadow soldier class. This unlocked me a possibility to evolve into Shadow knight. There was only one problem. I needed a hundred class points for that. That was beyond my reach, at least for now.

I decided to do my best to upgrade the Fighter class. It was the second most useful combat one after Shadow soldier.

I did a bit of math and with two more months of grinding, I could make it for sure, and still have plenty left to upgrade the basic statistics. Something I put on hold for a while already.

I ended up buying the fifth upgrade of weapon mastery skill, which was the last one. Then I also bought a fourth upgrade of 'Parry' skill and a pair of new clothes.

I packed the rest of the crystals into backpacks and brought them to Rishi. He wanted to talk about the hunting together, but I was too tired for that and told him I'm gonna visit the next day. Then I went to take a bath, ate in the cafeteria, and finally called it a day.

The long hunting period came to an end with 4 059 920 points remaining on my account, and twenty-two class points.