Reign of the Hunters

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Chapter 237 Liar (Part 1)

“Are you certain that Gongzi You was telling the truth?” that was the first sentence that was uttered by Silent Hymn when he recovered from the shock. Mithril is a valuable strategic resource that had no price in the current stage of the game. But what about the future? Nobody knows. Having control over the Mithril ore vein would mean that Genesis had an absolute advantage in the later stages of the game. Silent Hymn knew that Gongzi You have knowledge about such a fact as well. Since she knew the importance of Mithril… Why did she reveal this secret to Absalom?

“There’s no reason for her to lie, but I’m not entirely sure about it either.” Absalom voiced out his concern, “Good things don’t just randomly fall on somebody’s lap. I’m just amazed that it actually happened to me.”

“Why did you not question her about it?” Silent Hymn’s thoughts were in a disarray. It all felt so unreal to him.

“Is there even a need for that?” Absalom sighed, “She was caught by Fleeting Time. She had to show some good faith to avoid death. Her life depends on the ore vein. And there’s something else she said that I believe.”

“What is it?”

“Golden Era is coming, and we must be prepared for the storm. Can the eggs remain unbroken when the nest was overturned?” Absalom pursed his lips. It was apparent that he was troubled by the matter.

Silent Hymn gave Absalom’s words a long moment of thought. Indeed, under the circumstances, Absalom’s decision was the best course of action. Gongzi You would definitely die if she lied to them. Although her death was only a few additional Kill Glory to Genesis, it was a huge lost for Gongzi You herself. She was not an idiot, which was why she would never do such a thing. If she was telling the truth, this meant that Genesis would gain control of a Mithril ore vein, and gained a powerful ally in the Eastern Continent that was also in control of a Mithril ore vein. This would give them an edge against Golden Era in the future.

The only price Genesis would have to pay was 7 days’ worth of supplies. They would not be at a loss even if Gongzi You was lying.

“So what do we do now?”

“Gongzi You is definitely here to complete a quest. If that’s not the case, there’s no way she would willingly subject herself to Fleeting Time’s surveillance. We can be sure that there will be no attacks from the Eastern Continent at this time, so there’s no need to notify the other guilds about this. Gongzi You’s quest is a time sensitive one, and she gave herself 7 days to complete the quest. She gave me the coordinates of the Mithril ore vein, and she told me that the place would remain as a normal mountain range unless we triggered a certain quest. We do not have information about the quest. How do I find the quest within seven days? What should we do if we can’t find locate the quest giver before Gongzi You leaves the Western Continent? Unless we know her in real life, there’s no way we can get into contact with her after she returns to the Eastern Continent. She’ll never allow us to contact her in real life.”

Absalom explained his worries to Silent Hymn, who began his own train of thoughts as well. Gongzi You might look like the one who was at the less favorable end of the deal, but things might not be what they appeared to be. The escort they had to send to keep watch on Gongzi You was like a protection for her, and their actions of supplying her with arrows and consumable would solve her problems with resupplying in the Western Continent. There was also the fact that the quest to unlock the Mithril ore vein might be very hard to complete even if she was telling the truth. Silent Hymn was sure that the initial quest to trigger a resource so valuable would never be easy. Gongzi You would only be staying in the Western Continent in a limited timeframe, and there was nothing Genesis could stop her from returning to the Eastern Continent after her quest was completed. If they could not locate the quest giver in time, who would they be able to ask for the location of the quest giver?

Silent Hymn let out a long sigh and grimaced, “Gongzi You is not a simple person. She placed a big bait in front of us, but we could do nothing but to take the bait.”

“Yeah.” Absalom’s head was aching, “We’re lucky that Fleeting Time is the one who is keeping watch on her. She won’t be able to deal with him that easily, so we don’t have to worry about her for now. If it’s somebody else, even I will not know how things will turn out.”

“Fleeting Time is with her?” Silent Hymn was shocked, “You arranged for that?”

Absalom snorted, “I’m not exactly willing.”

“What do you mean?” Silent Hymn was puzzled, “Did Fleeting Time volunteered for it or something?”

“He did not exactly say it out loud, but he was hinting at it. If I don’t go according to his wishes… He’ll definitely beat the shit out of me.” Absalom expressed his resentment.

“Why does it feel like a scandal will happen whenever Fleeting Time is involved…” Silent Hymn rubbed his chins.

“You said as if Fleeting Time’s a pervert…” if Fleeting Time heard his words, Silent Hymn would not live to see the next morning.

“Ahh… I’m just saying that he seems to be in a good mood these days.” Silent Hymn shook his head immediately, “Since he’s with Gongzi You, let’s just give him the chance to take one for the team. I’m sure he can help us in the effort to gain more information from Gongzi You.”

Absalom snorted and then chuckled at Silent Hymn. It was apparent that he agreed with the vice leader’s words.

Fleeting Time was resting in the palace courtyard with Ye Ci when he received a voice call from Absalom, much to his annoyance, “What is it? Stop wasting my time.”

“Aiya! The chat actually connected! Are you busy just now? What were you doing? Is it that thing? Damn, you’re fast…”

“You can just tell me if you want to die, Absalom. I don’t mind lending you a hand.” Absalom’s creased his eyebrows when he heard the malice in Fleeting Time’s voice.

“No, no, no, no, no! I’m sorry! But there’s really something that I want to talk to you about.” Absalom would of course not pull a senseless joke on Fleeting Time at a time like this. He was the key to the badger game that Genesis set up for Gongzi You (of course, Fleeting Time himself was not aware of such a fact…) It would not be wise for him to infuriate Fleeting Time, “Can you ask Gongzi You about the initiation quest to unlock the Mithril ore vein?”

Despite his annoyance at Absalom’s (something like “act of disturbing him”), Fleeting Time immediately relayed his question to Ye Ci the moment Mithril was involved. Ye Ci took a bite from the apple in her hand, and narrowed her eyes. She then replied earnestly after a brief moment of thought, “I don’t know.”

“Eh?” Fleeting Time was surprised by Ye Ci’s response, but he could tell that she was not lying from her expression, “Then how did you…”

“I found it by chance in the Eastern Continent.” Ye Ci sighed, “It’s hidden very well, and could be easily missed by someone who is not observant.”

“Can you elaborate? Give us a hint or something.” asked Fleeting Time after a moment of thought.

“A hint…” said Ye Ci after a long pause, “Ahh… Talk to all the NPCs you can find in the map, and clear any and all of their quests. Pay close attention to any Dwarves in that area. The quest giver in the Eastern Continent is a Black Iron Dwarf, but I’m not sure which NPC is the quest giver in the Western Continent. However, according to the books in the National Library, the Dwarves are the only race across all the continents that have the capability to locate Mithril. So… Keep and eye out for any Dwarves.”

“So it’s an open quest?” as a veteran, Fleetng Time could guess the nature of the quest after listening to Ye Ci’s words.

“Yes, it is.” with her mind made to form an alliance with Genesis, there was no need for Ye Ci to beat around the bush. The information that she provided was beneficial to her allies.

“Alright, understood.” said Fleeting Time with a smile, “Thank you.”

Thank you…

It doesn’t sound like something this shameless Fleeting Time would say. Ye Ci was momentarily stunned. The ghost of a smile then formed on her lips, come to think of it, this guy is not that much of a nuisance after all.

“Clear all the quests in the map, and pay attention to any Dwarves you see. The person who is searching for the quest must be observant and have been to the National Library and have read all the books there.” Fleeting Time summarized Ye Ci’s words for Absalom.

“Ahh… Gongzi You told you all that?” Absalom did not expect the sudden flow of information.

“Yup.” Fleeting Time was slightly puzzled by Absalom’s apparent surprise. Then again, as players of opposing continents, it was normal for him to doubt Gongzi You’s words.

Even when he knew that Gongzi You’s honesty was due to the alliance between their guilds, he could not hold himself back from blurting out the words, “Have you managed to take down Gongzi You? Why would she tell you such a secret…”

“What did you say?” Fleeting Time did not hear Absalom’s mumbling.

Absalom did not have the courage to repeat his sentence, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I’ll be on my way to locate the ore vein. You take good care of Gongzi You. See ya.” and he immediately disconnected from the voice chat after his hushed reply.

“Is Absalom on his way to look for the quest?” Ye Ci narrowed her eyes.

“Yup.” Fleeting Time stared at the sly grin on Ye Ci’s face and smiled, “Do you have anything to say to them?”

Ye Ci pursed her lips, “Good luck.”

Fleeting Time let out a hearty laugh. It was as if the welfare of Absalom was none of his concern.

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, I’m just imagining Absalom’s expression when I relayed your message to him.” Fleeting Time answered truthfully.

Ye Ci did not expect the response, “I thought you’d be angry.”

“Why would I be angry? Let’s be real here, I like getting that idiot Absalom into trouble.” said Fleeting Time with a smile as he leaned against his tank.

“You’re calling him an idiot?”

“Is he not? He’s an idiot who would always clean up the mess that I caused.” replied Fleeting Time with a warm smile. Despite his words, Ye Ci could feel that he cherished his friendship with Absalom.

I’m so envious of their friendship.

The monsters in a dungeon would not respawn. The palace courtyard became quiet after Ye Ci and Fleeting Time have cleared the way the mobs of monsters in the place. There was nothing left other than the corpses of slain monsters.

“The drop rate of gems in this place is high.” Fleeting Time was able to obtain almost a hundred gems from the corpses.

“It’s a shame that I won’t be able to take these gems back with me.” with the absence of High tier tailors in the current stage of the game, there was no high level backpacks in the market. This means that Ye Ci’s inventory slot was very limited.

“You can hand them to me. I’ll merge them for you in the Light Saint City and give them back to you.” suggested Fleeting Time. 20 gems of the same kind would take up a slot in Ye Ci’s inventory. It would be a waste of space for Ye Ci to have so many low level gems in her inventory. She was not able to gain access to Light Saint City, which meant that she could only merge the gems when she was back in the Champion City of the Eastern Continent.

Ye Ci shook her head, “It would be too expensive to merge these gems. I’m broke now. I don’t have the money for that.”

She was telling the truth. Ye Ci’s bank account was left empty after her purchase of the two houses. The rent of her properties in Red Lake City and her salary from Upwards Ho! would not be banked into her account in the near future, and she could not access her mail to collect the money she made by selling items in the Auction House as she was in the Western Continent.

“Why are we talking about money? It’s harmful to our relationship.” Fleeting Time pursed his lips.

“Don’t talk about relations with me. It’ll hurt your coffers.” Ye Ci rolled her eyes, “How bout this.. You can have any gems you want from the batch that you’ve merged for me!” said Ye Ci after a slight pause.

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows when she noticed Fleeting Time’s stare, “What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?”

“No.” Fleeting Time shook his head, “But is it that hard to accept my hospitality as a host?”

Hiya minna-san! It's almost the end of the year, and it's been a long ride. I would like to thank you all for being with me throughout the entire year as I post the translation of this novel chapter by chapter, part by part... Thank you for all your support, especially the peeps who supported me on Patreon and sent donations to me on Paypal. I sincerely hope that next year will be a better year for all of you, and myself of course.

I started this novel back in 2016 (I think) and it's been 2 years since then. 2019 is just around the corner, and I hope I can do better next year, and hopefully complete this series by the end of that year. It sounds ambitious considering my *cough cough* not-so-fast release, but this is something that I hope to achieve, and I'm sure you people will continue giving me your support as I continue my journey in translating Reign of the Hunters.

Once again, thank you all for accompanying me in this long journey that I've enjoyed very much. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

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