?435 Searching For Loot
"Are you sure you're not joining us, Wittral?" Amita asked, a tad disappointed.
"There's a lot of pending work. Sorry about that." Wittral smiled wryly, "You guys go ahead and have fun."
"Don't bother with him, Amita." Maroppa said and linked hands with Amita Brimgan, grinning, "It's a girls' day today. We'll shop till we drop. Wittral won't have much fun with us anyway, so let him stay here with his tea cups."
"You make a solid point." Amita recovered and patted herself, counting the amount of money she had brought with her. A moment later, she stared at Wittral, asking for more, "This won't be enough."
"Seriously?" Wittral expressed shock, "You're carrying a week's profits in your pouch."
"It should be at least two weeks worth." Amita complained, "Please, Wittral?"
"Ugh, fine." Wittral quickly gave in as he brought out another pouch of money and gave it to Amita, "Keep it safe, alright?"
"Sure!" Amita said and boarded a carriage with Maroppa, making a trip to the railway station. They then boarded a train to Resnesk City, dubbed the Textile City of the Brimgan Empire. It was a city littered with clothing stores, updated with the top-
of-the-line fashion trends and brands.
The amount of money in the possession of the two women was a lot, but it was easy to blow it all up on a few pairs of dresses in Resnesk City if they went for the luxurious variety. Technically, Amita could use Subtle Terrain Domination to weave multiple threads into a dress of her choice.
But as that wasn't her field of expertise, she didn't bother with it. Besides, she wanted to have some fun once in a while.
While the two women had fun with their shopping spree, Wittral had an expression of absolute seriousness as he temporarily closed the tea shop and waited at the entrance. Soon, upon seeing a carriage arrive, he made a formal bow, "I have been expecting your arrival, Madam Yarsha."
"Why did you invite me when your place is closed?" Yarsha frowned upon observing the lack of bustle in the tea house.
"Please follow me. We'll talk inside." Wittral said and invited her to the fourth floor, seating her in the same spot she occupied when she arrived with the Boar King.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Yarsha Zahara said and waved the letter she had received from him, "Other than stressing the matter to be important, nothing of context was written here. I was this close to treating it as a prank."
"It's not a prank." Wittral smiled wryly as suddenly, he activated Subtle Terrain Domination and attacked her, forcing the air down on her.
"What?" Yarsha Zahara was stunned by his sudden attack. The air struck her before she could even activate her Human Avatar, sending her flying across the place. "How dare you attack me?"
Prana billowed out of her in full swing as Yarsha Zahara activated her Human Avatar. An instant later, the air targeting her bent to her will and instead attacked Wittral, stunning him.
But two seconds later, Wittral stopped attacking, "Okay, I managed to confirm what I wanted."
"You're safe," He said and extended his hand towards Yarsha Zahara, "I'm sorry to have surprised you. It was a necessity."
"You better have a solid explanation. Otherwise, I'm destroying this place alongside you." Yarsha Zahara growled as the air revolved around her, acting as a Satellite. The fingertips of her right hand had turned into an inert substance that shone differently based on the direction of the viewing angle. Held in it was a Satellite cup.
The moment Yarsha grabbed it, the air clumped together to become a Satellite that revolved around her. She cautiously got up and took a seat, frowning as she watched Wittral clean up the place and use his ability to heal the damage and make the place pristine once again.
He then brought in some tea and poured a cup for her, "This Low-Grade Elixir is on the house as an apology."
"Get to the point." Yarsha didn't touch the tea and instead glared at him, losing her patience by now, feeling disrespected by his actions.
"Loot revealed himself three days ago." Saying so, Wittral unfurled a wanted poster that displayed a picture of Virala in his Stage 2—Exoskeleton—form. From head to toe, he was covered by the exoskeleton. And hence, it wasn't possible to make out his actual appearance based on it.
"Sir Brangara must possess a picture of Loot." Wittral said as he stared at Yarsha, "Have you looked at it?"
"I had in the past." Yarsha nodded and stared at the wanted posted, commenting her thought, "Their facial structure is similar."
"This is a list of the witness accounts." Wittral unfurled another scroll, containing statements from the spectators who witnessed Virala in action. He didn't have access to the records collected by the guards.
Instead, it was something he collected personally. The incident was pretty high profile with a lot of witnesses. Hence, many people were happy to share. He didn't even have to leave the premises of his tea house to gather information.
He casually approached a few to ask around in the tea house and soon enough, the people who had been at the scene heard about his inquiry and came to talk to him. Around three to four were his customers. Just their witness reports were enough for Wittral to make a list.
"The Spirit Weapons failed to even dent him?" Yarsha stared at the first point, quickly thinking of the answer, "Internal Inertial Gravity."
"He sucked the blood of everyone? What ability is that?" She frowned at the second point.
"Bloody Affection, the Primary Nature of the Silver Grade Pranic Beast, Decaleech. They are present at the Sticky-Slip Plateau." Wittral said. He then pointed to the third point, "He escaped by instantly creating a tunnel. Digging tunnels is dangerous here due to the toxic traits of the Southern Veins. Moreover, the ground parted way to create an underground tunnel. Only one ability can perform this."
"Drifting Tunnel, the Primary Nature of the Iron Grade Pranic Beast, Shifting Ant. They live at the Guna Caves." Wittral said, "In the case of both Drifting Tunnel and Bloody Affection, the displayed effect is many times stronger than the Primary Natures possessed by the respective Pranic Beasts."
"Three Natures…" Yarsha Zahara frowned, "Including what my husband said about him, he has at least seven to eight Natures."
"But the Boar King already confirmed the fact that Loot doesn't lose his Natures once he uses them." Wittral said, "And now, I found out another piece of information."
He said solemnly, "He can hide in the Nature Slots of others."
"…I know that already." Yarsha Zahara, "My husband witnessed it when he fought the Mammoth Clan recently. He saw Loot hiding in the Nature slot of an Empyrean Tusk."
"So, you're already aware." Wittral sighed, "I wanted to inform the Boar King so that he'll have an easier time discovering Loot's location, since he's probably still in this city."
"As long as the Boar King searches for someone with more than one Nature, he'll be able to discover Loot," Wittral said.
"Unless someone unleashes their Prana, it's not possible to determine if they have more than one Nature." Yarsha retorted, "And it's easy to conceal one's presence too. Everyone goes about their daily life while fully concealing their presence to avoid leaking any information about their power to others."
"So, it's futile." She said, "I've already tried it. Even though I can perceive the presence of a Nature even when one conceals himself, I'll still have to manually scour through everyone in this city. Loot only needs to jump into the Nature slot of someone I already checked and behold, my search attempt will become useless."
"I think if we're judging by his motives, we can figure out where he strikes next." Wittral said in all seriousness, "He's targeting every unique individual to steal their powers. It's why I attacked you at the start to check if you were safe or not."
He spoke, watching Yarsha Zahara's face harden in response, "After all, I feel you'll be his next likely target."