He remembered what Phyrill told him about the camp and such.
A few hours ago.
After Phyrill returned, he quickly asked Phyrill how it went.
Phyrill had a serious expression when explaining. "I noticed the monsters' trails were there. However, there was one thing missing. The camp was not far from here and I investigated their camp but found nothing. When I thought nothing could go wrong, oh boy, I was wrong.
"I checked the footsteps of the monsters to the camp and ended up finding one human's trail. I tried to look at it and found that the trail led to a nest a quarter mile away from their camp, which basically won't give you any problem if you don't wander around.
"I was convinced it was a nest due to the number of footsteps and if their scout was the one who did it, they did it horribly because it was so easy to know that this person wasn't that good in covering their trail when scouting the area. In fact, I noticed that this person came to the nest, not stayed away from it."
Theo's expression started turning cold as he asked for confirmation. "So, you're assuming someone tried to lure those monsters to the camp and used that excuse to lead the entire group to us?"
"This person can't be working alone." He shook his head and asked, "Don't you have any suspicion already?"
"Yes. First, Alea seems to have noticed something wrong with them. It may be the scheme of two or three people. And there are too many coincidences in this encounter, especially with how they chose this one specific direction." Theo nodded. "Besides, the fact they are this close to us is already suspicious. The mammoth is among the hardest ones to kill for a Hero Rank Monster, so it's impossible for them to challenge it if they even need our help to defeat the monsters.
"That's why they're kinda suspicious. Our location and this kind of timing… It's as if they are tailing us. I don't know, but I feel a connection between the monsters that emerged from the forest and them. And if everything is like how I describe it, you will see that it's all connected to them. In that case… I'm afraid they were behind us the whole time or someone continuously leaked our location.
"Do you think this is related to Laust?"
"He is the most suspicious one, but I don't have any proof. After all, he indeed told us he wouldn't do anything until the tournament is over. At the same time, he also rejected the idea of them staying in this camp. Considering Sihan and you, who probably will remain neutral, it's a huge gamble to do it and there's a huge chance the entire plan falls off. And it may be his family doing it behind his back, so he is clueless about it, making the entire scheme perfect. And I don't know how you transmit one's location in this place…" Theo narrowed his eyes.
"I can't say anything about the tracking process, but I think the methods require a summoner most of the time to use their summoned creature to pick up one's scene. There's no signal here, so no tracking technology is working. That's why It's either a summoner or a traditional method." Phyrill licked his lips excitedly. "We can torture them."
"And there may be other people that want to eliminate me…" Theo squinted his eyes. He thought there might be another person or influence that wanted to take advantage of this situation to get his pocket watch since it was too mysterious even for him. He often thought about opening it, but his brother's words stuck in his mind. He told him to use it when he had nowhere to go. Now that he thought about it, he had been too focused on the tournament and didn't open it when he was about to die with Alea.
As much as he wanted to reflect on it, he should put this thought away for a moment.
"Hmm… Now that I think about it, you are with the masked guy I met back then… I see." Phyrill misunderstood him, thinking Theo's problem came from his partner or maybe his other identity, which he didn't even bother to clarify.
Theo just let the misunderstanding continue since it was convenient to him.
"So, what are you going to do? Expose and torture them? I can help you without any cost since I just want to see how you usually operate. That's enough for the payment." Phyrill smirked evilly as if he didn't mind spilling some blood. "Maybe there is a chance for me to see the joker."
"Do you think Alea and the others will help us?" Theo shrugged, feeling not confident in fighting all of them.
Phyrill understood him. Theo didn't have confidence in fighting them due to the fact that he couldn't handle multiple people in the second stage. However, Phyrill had more experience than him, knowing that these people actually were not that strong.
After all, Theo couldn't fight multiple people because they were the best among each year and this group wasn't that good.
"Theo… I want to say three things to you. Your current level and prowess are above average to the point you can be mistaken as a second year. They don't have night vision glasses making this place good for assassination. Third, you have your head. As long as we can eliminate one or two people in an ambush, the rest will be easy."
"And that is when we don't need to control our strength to leave at least two people alive to get information, right?"
"That's… right." Phyrill nodded. "However, there is seventy percent of success here."
"No. It's one hundred percent." Theo shook his head.
Phyrill was taken aback by his sudden rise of confidence and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I will force them to leave as soon as the dawn comes, meaning whatever they're planning to do, they will need to do it tonight." Theo made a wide and evil smirk while saying, "And who said this is all my power?"
Phyrill's lips curved as he tried his best to contain his excitement. "You… are really the best student I've found in school."
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If we reach 2000 powerstones, I will start uploading 3 chapters/day + 1 Bonus Chapter every 300 PS after the milestone.