Chapter 97: Hunters

Kyran took residence in one of the smaller training rooms at the training ground building. Stella did not assign the room to him, but it became automatic because he stayed there most of his time.

Although Stella told him several times that she had a room prepared for him at the main tower, he refused to leave the training room. When Stella offered to transfer at least a bed for him to sleep on, he rejected the idea and just told her he would be fine on his own.

Fearing that Kyran would get annoyed at her meddling, Stella did not insist and let him be.

While Kyran was making his last preparations early that morning, Avrum and Emery dropped by and gave him the items he requested for his trip.

They could give all the items much earlier, but Malia decided to provide newly concocted potions and pills for him. This way, its medicinal effect would be easier to absorb.

It only took Kyran a quarter of an hour to finish checking all the items. And he was satisfied to know that even if an emergency occurred where he had had to fight more beasts, he would not have any shortage of potions and pills—especially the energy replenishing potion.

Because Kyran knew he would need that more than the stamina potion, he specifically requested a larger quantity.

During the two days of figuring out how his warp ability works, Kyran learned that he could warp almost anywhere as long as he had enough magic energy. As for the requirements he had to fulfill to use his warp ability, he noticed three points. First, he could warp at a spot he was presently looking at. Second, as long as he remembered a place he had seen or been to, he could easily warp in that location. This point answered how he could warp inside the conference room, although he had never been there before. Since he could remember that place from Stella's memory, he was able to warp there. Third, he could warp near a person he was thinking of.

Yes. Kyran already had this idea when he was at the abandoned warehouse threatening Celine. A thought occurred to him then that even if Celine tried to escape, he could easily find her as long as he thought of her.

Anyway, Kyran thought the third one was pretty convenient. He could find Nolan if he wanted to. Unfortunately, when he tried it, he failed. He soon realized his warp ability had some limitations.

One of its limitations that he had long expected was that the farther he wanted to warp, the higher his magic energy consumption was. Another limitation was that if the place he wanted to warp to had a powerful defensive array or prohibition, he would have trouble warping in. He could still warp there, but it took some time and consumed a lot of magic energy and physical strength. As for other limitations, like how he could not warp to where Nolan was, of how he could not warp into the Regis Estate, he had not figured it out yet.

Kyran did not dwell on it either since it was not an urgent matter. At least he tried to convince himself that it was not urgent.

After checking all the items, he carefully arranged them inside his pouch so it would be easy for him to take out each potion and pill.

When he was done, he turned to his side and looked at the face-altering mask he, Noir, and Sigma created.

Kyran smiled, remembering how his array attainments had greatly improved.

The one hour, which was equivalent to seven days in Stella's study, Noir taught Kyran, was very productive. Noir was also pleased and told him he did not mind having Kyran become his genuine disciple once they resolved his situation.

Kyran was grateful to Noir as well because he turned out to be an excellent teacher. He was the opposite of Nolan, who let Kyran figure things out himself; Noir taught him closely and also answered almost all of his questions. Of course, there were some questions that Noir did not respond to completely. Not because he did know the answer, but because there was no definite answer.

It was the last day of Kyran's array training when Noir called Sigma, and the three of them talked about the 'face-altering mask'. With three heads calculating the correct array formation and deciding on the materials, they succeeded in creating the prototype in just a day. As a Transmuter, Sigma's ability made the creation of the mask easier.

Kyran reached for the mask and looked at it. The mask looked like an ordinary white mask. It did not have any visible writings because that was how they created it. It also had a prohibition that would only respond to Kyran's magic signature. This way, even if it fell on the hands of another person, they would not be able to find anything strange about the mask.

However, this mask had one flaw, and Kyran already planned on improving it in the future. The mask's flaw was, it could only change into one appearance. And that was Tyr's. For now, it was enough.

Besides, Kyran was not planning on using Tyr's face once he went hunting. He planned on only covering his lower face.

'I'll improve the array calculation to make it easier to manipulate the mask's appearance anyway I wanted as soon as I get the correct materials for it,' Kyran decided as he placed the mask on his pouch and stood up.

"Time to go. First stop, Kilead Town." He said as a purple disc appeared on his feet.

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Kilead Town was the town where Kyran met up with the Chamber of Commerce to transport materials. Because this town was the farthest town he remembered going south, this was his first stop.

From Kilead Town, Kyran planned on warping in short distances going south. He estimated arriving at the outskirts near the forest going into the Chaos Palace within two hours. After getting the bark of the Duali Tree, he would then go to the forest near Bearch City, where the forest beasts called Theihorn, was found.

Theihorns were medium-sized beasts that were a mutation of the Wolvern beasts. They both had the appearance of wolves, but the difference between them was that Theihorns had grown 'horns', and instead of furs, they had scales. What was more, these beasts could utilize the energy around them and use air magic.

This was not the first time Kyran would hunt forest beasts that could use magic. During his last two years in military school, they visited different forest locations in Meliora and cities near it to hunt forest beasts. Sometimes the beasts were captured by their instructors, and they fought the beast while they were present. However, most of the time, they would only provide a map of where their targetted beast was located and leave them on their own.

Kyran shook his head and pushed all these thoughts at the back of his head.

He looked at his surroundings and nodded after confirming that he warped at the exact location he had thought of; the outskirts of Kilead Town.

After confirming that he was alone and there was no immediate danger around, Kyran took out a rolled parchment from his pouch.

The parchment was a map of the whole Ylfaen Empire. Currently, he was somewhere south of the eastern part of the empire.

Chaos Palace was located south and was between the borders separating the Ylfaen Empire from Archadia's territory.

'So if I'm here,' he thought and looked at Kilead's location on the map. 'Then this way is south.'

He turned to his left and looked ahead. He looked up and checked the position of the sun, and nodded after confirming the direction.

'Okay, time limit is two hours to get to the outskirts leading to Chaos Palace.' He thought and returned the map in the pouch.

He looked at a location up ahead, and a purple disc appeared beneath his feet.

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Kyran arrived outside Tarrin Town. This town was the closest town going to the Chaos Palace.

As soon as he arrived, he noticed that several hunters were entering the town.

'Why were there so many hunters here?' He wondered with a slight frown and immediately hid behind a tree.

Hunters were different from mercenaries. Most of them were ordinary people, while some who could use magic had low magic attainments. These people hunted forest beasts for a living. They did not hunt for reward but sold the beast's parts in the market.

There was nothing wrong with finding a lot of hunters in one town. However, they avoid dangerous hunting grounds like the forest surrounding the Chaos Palace. Their reasons were simple, with their level and equipment not as high and sophisticated as the mercenaries, they were bound to get accidents, and they could not afford it.

'Yet here they are.' Kyran thought.

He hid silently and observed the situation first. He noticed that most of the hunters were moving in groups of seven or more. That was a lot compared to their usual three-person team. And they were all heavily equipped.

'It's like they are going for a raid,' Kyran observed.

Were the hunters planning on raiding a nearby forest? But the only forest near Tarrin was the forest surrounding the Chaos Palace. And during this time of the year, the miasma around the Chaos Palace was thicker, so these hunters could not possibly be going there. Or were they?

Kyran heaved a sigh and took out his face-altering mask. Although he was not planning on using this mask while hunting, he would still use it when going into towns. He would still cover his face though. The purpose of wearing the mask was even if something happened where he had to remove the cover on his face, the face under the cover was not his.

'Let's find out why there are hunters here,' Kyran decided and wore his mask.

The mask's array activated at once and fit Kyran's face. His face changed to Tyr, however, his hair remained black.

That was one more flaw of the mask which he planned to fix soon.

'No matter, I just hope the hunters' presence will not hinder my plan.' Kyran thought and covered his mouth with a cloth.

He left his hiding place and walked toward Tarrin.