A black swamp stretched for miles in length, filled with dark muddy soil. Poisonous fog shrouded the swamp from all directions, making it impossible for one to see the dangers inside.
Some five hundreds meters from the bank of the swamp, two groups of people were standing. Each group was carrying weapons and camping items.
One group was led by Byron - a group specialized in human trafficking. The other group was led by Amir - an adventurist group.
Byron was laughing joyously while Amir has a sullen expression. The reason for both men was the same - Kiba.
Bryon was complimenting Ruby - his ’daughter’- for finding a good man like Kiba as a boyfriend. While only Byron and his group knew nothing could be further from the truth, Amir wasn’t privy to it.
Amir took everything at face value. He believed the plan he has made to collect Stardust Mushroom might no longer work now that Kiba has met his relatives.
His plan relied on sacrificing two strong mutants - Ashyln and Kiba. But now the chances of success didn’t seem high. He was worried Kiba would leave the group with Ruby and this made him grit his teeth as Ashlyn alone wouldn’t be enough.
"Fuck, what luck," Amir bitterly muttered in his heart.
Kiba and Ruby were in each other’s arms as Byron shared his happiness to see them together. He was truly acting as a modern father.
"Byron, come here," A woman named Cindy called from behind.
Cindy was clad in standard attire for an adventurist along with transparent yellow glasses.
"Excuse me," Byron said to his ’daughter’ and her ’boyfriend’. "Before coming here, we were in the middle of finding a herb so I have to discuss it with my companion."
"Sure," Kiba replied in a kind and understanding voice.
Byron turned around and joined Cindy. The two walked for some distance and stopped next to a decayed tree.
Byron then pressed a switch on his watch. Invisible sound waves emitted from the watch which enveloped Byron and Cindy. The new sound waves formed a protective barrier which would stop anyone from listening to their conversation.
"What have you found?" Byron asked.
"That Kiba guy is a walking treasure mine," Cindy said, her eyes green with greed. "We would definitely get millions and tons of high-level resources if we sell him to some scientist or old freak."
"That’s rather a very high evaluation," Byron was startled by her assessment.
"He deserves it," Cindy said as her gaze passed on Kiba. "It is an initial assessment. I should be able to judge his rank soon."
"Good," Byron’s lips curved up in a smirk.
He inwardly praised Ruby, Xander, and Kyron for finding such a specimen. He even decided to promote the three especially Ruby for seducing a walking treasure house.
~beep~
The glasses on Cindy’s eyes released a beeping sound and a virtual screen popped appeared in front of her eyes.
The screen displayed information based on Kiba’s heat signature and aura along with how the energies in the environment reacted with him.
There were various energies in the air as the core of the forest was a meteorite from an alien world. These energies were rather sparse here since the region was far away from the meteorite, but they were present.
It was a different matter that most people could not feel their existence due to their negligible presence. These energies always mingled with other sources of energy, mainly those carrying life vitality.
Currently, if an energy manipulation mutant was to see this area, he would find the region enveloped in rainbows of energies. The energies were entering every living being here, human or not, but there were two exceptions.
One was Kiba and another was Ashlyn!
"He is a Level VII mutant!" Cindy said, her pupils dilated with shock as she read the report on her glasses. "An Alpha!"
"What?!" Byron’s breathing turned ragged and he started trembling in fright.
Even Crazy Rampage King - the beast ruler of this region- was just a level IV, a lower rank Beta! Yet the man who seemed so harmless and kind was an Alpha!!
Much less here, even on the entire planet, an Alpha was someone whom most powerful organizations would never wish to offend.
After all, a Beta could pose risk to a sizable mutant population, but an Alpha carried the power to affect cities.
Byron was terrified out of his wits. His entire back was drenched in cold sweat as he recalled how he just patted an Alpha as if it was some kid.
"He is not a treasure mine... he is a bomb!" Cindy muttered, her voice hoarse. There was no more greed in her eyes, instead, there was plain horror.
"Those three bastards!" Byron cursed. "They would get us killed!"
"Umm, maybe there is some hope," Cindy said after some thinking, her voice still filled with lingering fear.
"What do you mean?" Byron asked.
"There is always a heavy risk in our line of business but we have succeeded because we took risks!" Cindy answered.
"This is not a risk but plain suicide!" Byron readily disagreed.
He would have agreed even if it was Level VI but not Level VII. The difference between Alpha and Beta was no less than night and day.
"I know but hear me out," Cindy took a deep breath before continuing. "Even the strongest of men kneel down under a beautiful woman. Kiba might be strong, no, super strong, but he is a man, and that is his biggest weakness."
"Well..." Byron obviously understood what she meant but he was still adamant. After all, the chances of failure were too high.
"I’m not talking about our usual schemes," Cindy said, her eyes once again filled with greed. "We have better ideas to exploit his innate weakness."
"Surely..." Byron’s eyes glinted with understanding.
"Yes! The Pond of Lust in the meteorite!" Cindy’s voice contained obvious excitement.
...
After a few minutes, Cindy and Byron returned to Kiba and others.
Amir or others from his group were not surprised by Byron using sound waves for privacy. After all, every group has secrets which they would not want to leak.
"Sorry it took long," Byron said in his same friendly voice. "We have to finalize some details."
"It is fine," Kiba said, a bit of ridicule in his eyes which went unnoticed.
Even without his will, his senses would ’show’ him everything in his vicinity as if he was looking from a bird’s eye view. And when someone focuses their eyes on him, his senses would become sharp and lock on those eyes.
So he obviously noticed when Cindy was studying him through her glasses to determine his strength. He was a bit surprised that she was carrying such advanced sensors, but otherwise, he was unfazed.
If he wished, he could have fooled her sensors and make her feel he was a low-rank mutant. But he didn’t; he allowed her to determine his current level without any hindrance due to two reasons.
Firstly, he wanted to avoid killing them now. He wanted them to live so that he could use them as guinea pigs in the core region. He has killed many people already, and he was afraid that if he continued his killing spree, there would no mutants left for him to use. Something he truly wanted to avoid as finding a cure for Felicity depended on this.
The first reason was for the future while the second reason was for the present. The second reason was...
"What do you plan to do?" Byron enquired.
He wanted to tag along with Ruby and Kiba but knew that was impossible. They were already a part of the group and obviously they couldn’t join. Just from Amir’s reaction, Byron could tell how unwelcomed he and his team were.
"Seek some herbs here and there," Kiba answered vaguely.
Amir sighed in relief knowing Kiba hasn’t shared Stardust Mushroom’s secret.
"The sky is turning dark," Mina interjected before others could converse. "We can’t cross the swamp now."
"We will do it in the morning when the fog is low," Amir said before bringing his eyes on Ruby.
"What?" Ruby asked, startled.
"The area ahead is far too dangerous," Amir said, trying to sound professional.
"And why are you bringing it now?" Kiba asked, his voice rough as a devoted boyfriend. Inwardly, he was chuckling as everything was going just as he wanted.
"Kiba, don’t misunderstand," Amir turned towards him and said, "You are strong but she is not. If she goes ahead, there are chances she might face danger where you might not able to help her."
"You!" Kiba’s eyes turned red with anger...