Chapter 363 Eyes everywhere
On planet Latrina at the beautiful cliffside that overlooked the blue river and shelter, a portal had opened up near the base of the cliff. Out from the portal came Erin first, and next after her was James. The two of them were wearing what everyday Travelers would wear. Which tended to be a mismatch of beast equipment.
It would give people no reason to suspect them for carrying weapons and at the same time, not make them associated with any group. Erin had been given a basic tier beast armour to cover her whole body. Most of it was in some beige type colour, and one could tell from a look it wasn’t cut or crafted well. As if she had been given leftovers off someone’s dead body.
The more she started to think about it, the more it made her worry that it might have actually been leftovers from one of their dead agents. She couldn’t help but stare at an oddly faint red marking that wouldn’t go away no matter how much she rubbed at it.
However, if she was to kill or defeat beasts while out on the field, she could use that to improve her own equipment. Or each time she ranked up to a different number, she would also be given a hefty bonus in credits.
As soon as the two stepped out of the portal, Erin started to look at the top of the clifftop. It was where they had last left, and where James had thrown her watch.
"Do you mind if I go up there and check the view?" Erin asked. "It’s been a long time since I’ve been out of that base."
"Sure," James said. "I’ll go with you."
She was hoping James wouldn’t have replied like that, but at least she was able to go to the clifftop. As she moved, she noticed James stayed a few feet behind her and it never seemed to change, she slowed down her pace going up, and he slowed down his, if she sped up hers, he sped up his as well.
Due to her training at the base, it was clearly apparent he was tracking her. The two of them had finally reached the top, and with him around it would be hard to look clearly through the grass to see if she could find the watch, but she slowed down her stride and did just that.
Her field of vision, and her ability to spot things had gotten better, she hated to say it, but it was because of Pure. This was all part of their training, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see it at all.
’I guess there was a chance it was taken away by one of those flying beasts in the end. Just my luck.’
As she looked over the cliff top and looked out at the beautiful view, she let out a big sigh. "James, are you always going to be following me this closely?" She asked.
"I thought you would notice, and yes." He replied. "Do you not remember, it will be like this for a month. I need to bring you up to speed, and a lot of our agents try escaping in the first month and let me tell you something. Not one has succeeded."
It seemed like there was no reason for James to say those last words, but he had probably already figured out why Erin had chosen to come up here and was trying to give her a warning.
James felt like Erin could go far in the organisation if she just could cut her ties with the rest of the world, and see the future ahead like the rest of them. But the one driving factor in Erin’s mind that made her disagree with everything Pure had shown her, was that she wanted to get stronger.
And to be the strongest one could be, they needed abilities on top of everything else. In Pure’s mind, there would be a world with no conflict, so there is no need for power, but Erin could never imagine that happening, even if powers were taken away. So she wanted to be the strongest she could be to protect everyone. The problem she felt with the world right now, was the ones with the strongest powers did nothing, and there wasn’t one person who was supreme over all the others.
If there ever came the chance where one person would be stronger than all the others without question and also did things the right way, then the world could change for the better. If she couldn’t find that person, then she had to become that person.
"So, what exactly are our duties here again?" Erin asked.
"It’s actually quite simple for the most part, it’s just to act like a normal Traveler while gathering information and news. Keep up to date with what is going on, on this planet." James explained. "You see, we have agents deployed on every shelter on every planet. As well as in other places. They all report back to the base. This allows them to get a big picture of what is going on and how things are moving. Even though we have fewer people then the military, our information gathering and our eyes are just as good.
"Sometimes, when you have too many people in a charge, it actually gets harder to do things."
"You have people on every planet and shelter?" Erin said, shocked, knowing they also had agents in the military basis.
"Well there is one exception, and that’s red portal planets. With no military presence there and at risk of losing our talented agents, we see no point to send anyone there. Although you may get the very top single agents on those planets from time to time. Since those are the only ones strong enough to survive in a place like that."
The two started to head down from the clifftop towards the shelter. They would need to look for accommodation they could pay to stay while there and set up all of their equipment. Everything would be covered by Pure. It made Erin wonder how they managed to get such money in the first place, to create a base and pay for all these operations.
The only thing she could think of was with what James had mentioned earlier. Maybe that’s why she hardly ever saw the high single number digits around the base apart from agent five. It seemed like five was always in charge of the base, because the others were never there and as for number one. The person rumoured to have a Demon tiered weapon. She had never even seen him once since she had joined.
Once entering the shelter, it seemed easier than others to find accommodation and all sorts. The people who were running the place seemed to be happy that Travelers had decided to stay. They were even given jobs on the spot, to protect the shelter as a part of a shift duty once a week.
When looking around, Erin noticed there were quite a few Travellers who seemed to be working as guards. It seemed a bit strange to have this many people protecting this one peaceful shelter. Technically this planet was classified as a green planet. The highest level of beasts that would be seen here were intermediate tiers. So why so many guards?
The two of them had entered a nice-sized apartment. It had a large living room that doubled up as a kitchen area, and then two separate rooms with a bathroom each. It was definitely more cosy than her living quarters at the Pure base or the military base.
The two of them after unpacking their belongings did the standard checks in the room. Sensors were set up by the door, secret cameras were placed in the corners of the room, and they themselves checked if there was anything wrong with the place. After everything was done, the two of them sat down on the table together.
"Okay, let’s see how well you’ve done so far," James said. "What did you notice about the place?"
"This place is quiet, really quiet and all the people look happy. It’s as if the shelter has never experienced an attack before. Yet, for some reason, there’s an absurd amount of guards all over the outside of the shelter. It’s as if, if they’re hiding something, or protecting something."
"Good," James replied. "When I first came here, I noticed the same thing too. So I decided to do a little digging, however, even for us, it was hard to find out who was funding everything. The only information we could get was the shelter was being privately financed. A shelter not protected by the big four or the families, or by the military. There aren’t many people in the world who would be rich or powerful enough to look after a single shelter like this, so that narrows our suspects down a little.
"But just like you, it does seem strange, and our task is to find out who and why they need to do this. My research tells me there’s a dojo that had just been finished being built not too long ago. Apparently, there’s a crazy young person. He’s the only one that lives there. If anyone tries to get close, he tells them to go away. This will be our starting point."
At the same time, in that very same dojo. Leo was meditating in the main hall. He sat down on the floor, crossed legged with his eyes closed. The pains and urges in his body had gotten stronger, and he was trying his best to suppress it. He knew how to get rid of it instantly, the answer was to consume blood.
But Leo was trying to look for a different answer. Quinn had told him that some vampires had managed to eventually wean off blood completely. That he himself had become addicted and was in the middle of the process of trying to be less reliant on blood.
This gave Leo an idea, perhaps there was a way of using his Ki. He would be able to suppress hunger and stop his body from feeling what it was feeling. So far every day, when getting such pains, using his Ki seemed to work in suppressing it. However, if he used a blood skill, it would get harder the next day.
It looked like if he wanted to use the blood powers, there was no way of avoiding consuming blood, but if he just wanted the other advantages, such as increased strength, and speed. The suppression of Ki was enough. So he wouldn’t have to consume blood on a two-day basis, as Quinn had first suggested.
It was a good result.
"Sir!" The young man said, rushing in. Luckily, Leo had just finished meditating. Otherwise, the interruption would have made him start the whole process again. It wasn’t a quick one, as it would take about an hour to make the hunger go away.
"Oh sorry," the young man said as he saw Leo sitting on the floor as he entered the room. "You know, you haven’t been here that long, and I’m not used to this, I’m used to having the whole place to myself, relaxing and.."
"Please, what is it?" Leo said, interrupting him.
"Oh right, it’s about those two people I said I saw a few months ago. Well, there’s been reports that there back."
Leo, started to think about the watch he had found at the clifftop, that was currently in his room. If it really did belong to Erin, he wondered what they were doing back here.
"Maybe, I should go see what they’re up to," Leo said.
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