Chapter 559: Night of the Owl (2)

“All right. It’s time for you to go with your friends!”

Crack!

Milphage broke an Overmind’s neck and stood up. He walked over to the others and said, “Hahaha! I don’t know whether I should say I’m sorry or thank you. Anyway, thanks for the help!”

“I’m so sorry about dragging you guys into this. It’s all because of our stupid master.” Kiora let out a sigh and handed over small pieces of paper to Mio, Mr. Shoot, and Christin Lewis. “Please take one as thanks.”

Mio’s curiosity seemed to have been piqued by the pieces of paper.

Christin Lewis muttered, “So this is the famous golden ticket...”

- It’s my first time seeing it in person.

Christin Lewis and Mr. Shoot seemed to be aware of the paper’s identity.

“What’s a golden ticket?”

- You can use a golden ticket to request the Hallem Guild’s aid at any time.

“Mercenaries are very clear about their grudges and debts.”

“It’s necessary to survive in this industry, and there’s even a popular saying about how a mercenary should return both favor and spite ten times,” Kiora explained.

“Oh, I see.” Mio nodded and carefully stored the golden ticket in her Inventory.

“I’ll make good use of it when the time comes.”

“Now that we’re done showing our appreciation, let’s get some sleep! We haven’t been able to sleep for the past few days. Oh, can you protect us while we sleep? I’ll give you three more tickets,” said Milphage.

“I can’t believe that we have a dumbass for a master! Even restaurants won’t distribute their VIP cards so easily!”

The night became noisy with the addition of three more people to accompany Mio and Mr. Shoot.

Mio looked up at the sky and blinked. “Dark clouds...”

‘It looks like it’s going to rain.’

***

Mio rubbed her eyes upon waking up and said, “Mr. Shoot.”

Mr. Shoot turned.

“Yawn. Good morning,” said Mio.

- Yes. Good morning.

Mio woke up an hour later than usual. Perhaps it was due to the fierce battle last night.

Fwoosh!

Mr. Shoot picked up the weapons he had deployed near the camp and displayed words on his helmet.

- Thank you.

“What do you—oh.”

‘Right. I saved his life.’ Mio stared at Mr. Shoot in silence. “You would have done the same if you were in my shoes last night, right?”

- Of course, I would save you.

‘I’m always prepared to risk my life for your survival.’

The words that Mr. Shoot couldn’t display on his helmet hovered in his throat.

“You do not have to thank me, then. Return the favor by saving my life one day,” Mio said with a smile.

- But isn’t that harder than saying thank you?

“Indeed. Don’t save me, then.”

- I never said that I wouldn't save you.

Mr. Shoot stood up, ending their silly conversation.

- Well. I’ll get going and hunt something for breakfast.

“Oh, I’ll be the cook, then.”

- Maybe not today. I don’t think you should spoil them when it’s their first day with us, and it’s also not a good thing to do because they’ll expect you to cook every day.

“Mmhm.” Mio nodded and said, “You’re right. Then, should I go and hunt something as well?”

- Why don’t you rest today? You must be tired from last night’s battle.

With that, Mr. Shoot left the camp to hunt.

Mio took out the old booklet to start training.

‘Where did I leave off yesterday?’

“Ah, right,” said Mio. She could still remember how she thought about the possibility that the Purple Dawn Style was an unfinished sword technique because it didn’t make much sense to her.

‘I can’t say that it’s unfinished. The chapters before I got stuck had a high level of completion, and I could perform them quite smoothly as well.’

And that was why Mio couldn’t give up the Purple Dawn Style...

‘If only I have a suitable cultivation method to go along with this sword technique...’

Mio was sure that she would surely become even stronger if she had a cultivation method that was compatible with Purple Dawn Style. She could easily extrapolate the right way to perform the sword technique from a compatible cultivation method.

“Sigh...” Mio sighed and concentrated on studying the sword technique

Meanwhile, Christin Lewis finally woke up. He looked around and saw that Milphage and Kiora were still asleep while Mr. Shoot was missing.

Mio’s defenseless back filled Christin Lewis’ eyes. He stared at her defenseless back for quite a while before sneaking up to her.

Swoosh!

His divine power gathered at his fingertips.

‘It has to be instant.’

Christin Lewis reached out for Mio’s neck.

“You dirty little bastard!” A shout echoed throughout the camp.

Christian was startled, and he hurriedly hid his hands behind him.

Mio also turned around at the sound.

“You can’t eat all that delicious food by yourself...!”

“That startled me. Was that Milphage?” asked Mio.

“Tsk,” Christin Lewis clicked his tongue and said, “I didn’t expect that he talks in his sleep.”

“Mr. Christin Lewis?” asked Mio.

“Yes, Miss Mio?”

“I didn’t realize that you’re awake. By the way, why are you standing behind me?”

Mio’s voice sounded doubtful.

Christin Lewis hurriedly explained, “Oh, I saw a bug. I was trying to catch it.”

“...A bug?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not a fan of bugs. I wish Jun-Ho were here with us.”

‘Jun-Ho’s Exterminator (A) will ensure that no bugs will dare to come near us.’

“Anyway, please make a sound whenever you approach me from now on. I might misunderstand you if you don’t.”

“Sure, I will be more careful in the future.

- Today’s hunt was a huge success!

Just then, Mr. Shoot appeared with a few birds and rabbits in his hand.

He expertly put on an apron over his suit.

- Breakfast will be ready soon. Can you guys wake the others up?

***

A woman was on a cliff overlooking the forest, the sea, and a sandy beach.

“What do we do? How about we attack them right now?” she asked.

“Hm, that sounds disrespectful,” said the man next to the woman.

He pressed down his hat to suppress his fluttering purple hair before saying, “Three Guild Masters of the Big Five and a gold-rank mercenary, along with Tenmei Mio. We should respect their firepower.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m sure the two of us can take care of them with our eyes closed,” said the woman. Judging from her expression, it seemed that she even believed that she could take care of those five people by herself.

“The owl’s there as well, so we can just attack them.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea considering Specter’s ability.”

Specter could read the memories of the deceased. The owl making a move first meant that they could be killed quickly under the combined assault of Tenmei Mio’s group.

“Let’s hide the owl’s identity until the very end.”

“...” Valencia Citrin frowned. She would always frown whenever she was dissatisfied with something. “Fighting them directly and using the owl is a no-go. What do you actually want?”

“Actually, I’m not exactly opposed to the idea of a head-on fight,” Isaac Dvor smiled and said, “Unfortunately, they aren’t small fries.”

Isaac Dvor looked up and saw dark clouds.

“Let’s wait. The weather seems to be in our favor as well,” he said.

Soon, Valencia Citrin’s ability would become a thousand percent more powerful.

***

Pitter-patter!

The rain was quite loud, and it filled the entire forest.

“Geez. I don’t think that this is just a passing shower,” Kiora grumbled upon being struck by a heavy raindrop in the face. “I think the rain will last at least three or four days. We’re not planning on staying here until then, are we?”

“Why not?” Christin Lewis asked, “It’s not like we can catch a cold.”

- Above all, we’ve also set up many early warning devices near our camp. I think this camp is safer than anywhere else.

“Hm.” Milphage contemplated for a while before asking, “The Archmage said that this world is just like Frontier, right?”

“Yes. Skaya said that we’re in a parallel universe of Frontier.”

“In that case...” Milphage unfurled a map and pointed at one location.

“This is Gamel Mountain. It’s about three hours from here, and there’s a huge natural cave called Mila Cave in Frontier. I don’t know if this world would have the same cave as Frontier on the 2nd Floor, but... I think it’s worth checking out.”

“This is quite unusual of you, Master. Mila Cave will be big enough for us to stay,” Kiora said.

- Hmm. As expected of the Mercenary King. Your knowledge of Frontier is indeed very deep.

“Hahaha! I’m flattered. Do you want another ticket?”

- I don’t think Miss Kiora will like that, so thank you, but now. Anyway, shall we make a decision?

Mr. Shoot looked at Mio, and the others turned to Mio as well. Mio became the implicit leader of the party just like that, and it was perhaps due to her performance in last night’s battle.

“Three hours isn’t too bad. Let’s move,” said Mio with a nod.

The party cleaned up the camp upon coming to a conclusion.

Milphage tapped his chest and shouted, “All right! I’ll take the lead! Kiora will be in charge of the rear.”

The party assumed their respective roles and started running.

‘It’s a little awkward to move around with strangers.’

Whenever Mio and her friends were on the move, she would either be on a tree or way ahead of the others.

“...?” Mio suddenly tilted her head in wonder.

If her senses weren’t deceiving her, then their altitude was gradually increasing.

‘Should I let them know?’

Mio contemplated for a moment, but she soon shook her head.

Their destination was a mountain, so an altitude increase wasn’t strange.

Meanwhile, the bushes drenched in water started growing at an alarming rate.

***

“Has the forest always been like this?” said Mio. He stopped and looked around. It had already been two hours since the party left their camp. It was about time they started seeing their destination, but the forest seemed to have gotten a bit strange.

“It is certainly a bit too foggy, even if we consider the heavy rain...”

“You’re right. The forest is dim because of the dark clouds, but the visibility is so low that it’s actually weird.”

The party looked around, but it was impossible to see even ten meters ahead due to the fog. The incessant noise of rainfall and the dark clouds made traversing the forest even more difficult.

“Wait,” said Mio. She seemed to have noticed something as she stared at a tree with narrowed eyes. “I’ve seen this tree before. I think we went past this tree earlier.”

“Huh? No way,” Kiora shook her head and said, “We decided to run straight to Gamel Mountain, remember? We didn’t go back, so there’s no way we’ve seen this tree before.”

“...That’s true.”

‘Am I mistaken?’ Mio thought.

However, she still felt uncomfortable, so she decided to draw out her sword.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Mio carved ‘X’ on the tree.

“We should hurry up. I have a bad feeling about this,” she said.

The party picked up the pace and ran for another thirty minutes.

They ran so fast that they arrived thirty minutes earlier.

“...”

However, a tree was at the party’s destination rather than a mountain.

- X.

The party went silent.

- Miss Mio?

Mio walked to the side rather than forward, so Mr. Shoot followed her out of concern.

‘Why is it so foggy?’

Mr. Shoot walked through the fog, which seemed to have gotten worse, and found Mio.

Mio was staring blankly at her feet.

- What are you looking at—

Mr. Shoot’s LED display abruptly turned off.

Fwoooosh!

A strong wind struck Mr. Shoot’s helmet.

“We’re in a trap.”

Mio was looking down at the sea below her.

Mr. Shoot looked down as well and saw massive bushes extending from the ground to support the island that they had been standing on all this while.

“So this fog isn’t fog...”

What they thought was fog was actually clouds...

“It is said that geniuses are immune to being blindsided, but I was completely deceived this time. They managed to deceive even my senses,” said Mio.

The party was trapped on a huge island that was at least ten kilometers in the sky.

Mr. Shoot bit his lips.

He had just confirmed that the island was made up of countless layers of bushes.

- I know the culprit.

Mr. Shoot was convinced that the culprit was none other than Valencia Citrin—an infamous Heaven who was also known as the Queen of Thorns.