Chapter 255 - Days CMXIX - CMLX

I quickly discovered that on average I could encounter around four groups of ogres in the cave, which meant I really had to hunt like a mad man to gather ten thousand crystals in a reasonable time. With that, I ended up spending twenty hours a day underground, and it still took me forty days to gather enough of them.

At some point, my food supply ended, so I decided to do a little trick. It was risky because I really didn't know if I won't screw myself over, but it worked. I created an anchor in the camp, and it didn't make the other one, in the barracks, disappear. It was a gamble since I didn't check how many of them I can create after upgrades.

With this, and the number of upgrades I started thinking that I might be able to use four of those.

I grabbed a backpack, and shadow walked back to the city. I also wasn't sure if the distance won't be too big, but it worked. I packed myself plenty of food, and returned, to finish the hunt.

I was deadly tired after it all was done, and to be honest, I didn't really want to walk all the way back, so I decided to try another risky thing.

- Ki'rei, I want to try something, but I'm not sure if I can take you with me - I asked her when everything was packed on the day after, and we were to depart.

- You want to do it again. Disappear into smoke.

- Y-yes.

- Grab me, I'll go with you. The backpack on your back and the weapon in your hand travel with you, so why wouldn't I?

She was confident in her words.

- Because you are alive and those are just things?

She twisted her head, to the side, but remained silent.

- Look... I don't know what might happen to you if we do this...

- Then let's try - she said and rushed to grab my hand. - Do it.

I knew exactly that now when she was so focused on this idea, she won't drop it. She was too damn stubborn for that. So with my stomach rising to my throat, I tried it, and shadow walked with her.

We appeared just a few steps from where we disappeared, and nothing bad happened. She looked up at me, and a nasty smirk appeared on her face.

- I told you.

I answered with a wry smile.

- Get on the cart. I'll move us to my room in the barracks.

She did, and I send off the shadow to grab the handled myself. A few seconds later we arrived at our destination. I immediately realized that there are zero chances of me just getting the cart outside in a normal way. The door and window were too small for that.

- Fuck - I mumbled to myself. - Wait here for me. Hide under the bed, just for good measure.

She instead turned to Tam.

- Ok. That works as well, but try to not stand out.

I went outside, half marching, half running. The morning was nice and hot. The city center crowded, with plenty of hunters gathered to use the device.

- Peter? - familiar voice came to me from the side.

I turned immediately to face Amit.

- Whan did you return? I thought you were in the wastelands. What did you find out there? - a smirk appeared on his face.

- I wasn't there yet. I'm gonna go there... tomorrow. I was preparing something and testing... Yes, testing.

He snorted.

- You are a bad liar. Just tell Hatta what you know.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah - I waved my hand at him and left to avoid the rest of this conversation.

I went to the alley that at first glance looked empty, and dropped the third anchor. The other two remained, which was proving my theory about the amount being equal to the number of upgrades. Then I shadow walked back to the room, scaring Ki'rei.

- Bawk! - she jumped, spreading her wings, and dropping a few feathers.

- Sorry. I'll get you outside, but you need to hide. There is plenty of people around.

- Bawk.

- I hope you just agreed.

- Bawk.

- Yeah, yeah...

I grabbed the handles, and shadow walked to the alley. I quickly looked around, there was still nobody around. Ki'rei jumped off the cart and ran away to vanish between buildings. I finally could relax a bit.

I started moving, and just as I went out I almost bumped into Amit. My eyes just got wide.

- What the heck are you doing there? How... - he pointed at the cart.

- A skill. I actually at first moved it inside my room, and had to find an unoccupied place to get it outside - I said quickly, and awkwardly laughed.

- Yeah... What's the skill called?

- It's a combination of shadow walk and the void anchor - I explained quickly. - Do you mind stepping to the side? I want to sell the score, so I can have some rest. This hunt was exhausting.

He allowed me to pass, but I could still tell he was suspicious. I couldn't blame him. I was behaving strangely. There was just too much on my head, and I was losing track of things I had to pay attention to.

I went to stand in line to use the device. My score on the cart grabbed a lot of attention, especially since the crystals were big.

After some time I finally got my chance, and I put one of them on the glyph, to check the price. Five thousand points per single one. This meant I only needed two thousand of those. I immediately bought a big backpack and started to pack them up. This strange behavior didn't go unnoticed, but I just simply didn't care. Soon it was going to be over anyway.

I packed enough and sold the rest for 40 665 000. For a moment I considered upgrading myself, but then I thought that I'm very close to being able to afford the second tome of the manual, so I kept the points. With shadow walk I could run away from Xuvi at any moment, so wasn't scared of them. Besides, they wanted to team up.

I just bought some fresh clothes.

With that out of the way, I grabbed the backpack and went to leave it in my room in the barracks. I put some barriers around it, to be sure nobody is going to touch it without me noticing. With anchor right next to it I could react in a matter of seconds.

Then I went to the bathhouse, and next to the cafeteria. Then I was finally done and could call it a day with a smile on my face. I returned to the room and laid on the bed. I was tired, but few thoughts still bugged me. I was worried about the upcoming meeting with aliens, and also the secrets I kept from my friends.

But what else could I do? I just had to keep the secret to get to the bottom of this. I could only hope It will end being worth my effort.

The exhausting hunt came to an end with 82 572 780 points remaining on my account.