Within one of the rooms within the Amber Palace, I suppressed my desire to feed as I gazed upon the results of last night's hunt. It was truly an exciting hunt that continued up until just before dawn. All the prey I'd set my sights upon were powerful and quite likely to have special abilities I didn't have or know of.
If something unforeseen happened there was the chance of sustaining severe injuries. Still, I was highly confident that my targets would be caught. However, in the end there wasn't anything unexpected and all 5 targets were hunted down and slain.
The five targets we hunted were the Otherworlder with [Job - Magic Gunner]and 4 others that were employed by nobles. There was a middle-aged man who wielded an axe and was the leader of another mercenary company, a young Dragonewt who wielded two swords, a male Gillman who used a trident and could manipulate water, and finally a [Lion Beastman] with a flaming mane.
It turns out that the young male Otherworlder was the easiest to kill. When he attended the banquet and reunited with Female Samurai, he had actually dared to try and flirt with her. After giving her a cue, they drank alcohol together until he was heavily drunk. She then brought him back to the inn as planned. At that point he was subdued without any trouble and didn't even have time to feel pain. The other 4 targets took some time though.
The Mercenary Leader had to be separated from his mercenaries. The young Dragonewt refrained from alcohol and remained sober. The Gillman had snuck out from the banquet to swim in the river flowing through the Royal Capital. Finally, the [Lion Beastman] had managed to remain alert despite being drunk.
With no other real choice, I had to mix in a sleeping poison into the ale the mercenaries were drinking to kill the Mercenary Leader while they slept.
A powerful diuretic poison was injected stealthily into the fruit the Dragonewt was eating. He had to then be kidnapped while he was in restroom.
The Gillman was caught using a brutal tactic similar to fishing with dynamite.
The [Lion Beastman] was the most troublesome, he had to be assaulted under the cover of darkness as he was returning to his room.
Since these four had connections to the Nobles Faction, this was killing two birds with one stone as their war potential was decreased. I had noticed movement as we were hunting so I judged that it was better to hold off on the Otherworlder until after I dealt with the others.
This time it was the presence of the Dark Hero that proved the most troublesome. Because I could constantly feel her presence hidden within the shadows, I had to concentrate far more on hiding than just hunting.
If it weren't for[Kidnap]and[Recognition Difficulty], I seriously might not have managed to hunt in the first place. I quickly looted the equipment from the 5 corpses and consumed them each one by one.
[Ability learned: Flame Leo]
[Ability learned: High-Speed Swimming]
[Ability learned: True Dragon's Martial Arts]
[Ability learned: Job - Magic Gun User]
[Ability learned: Spirit Refinement Technique]
[Ability learned: Divinely Forged Form of the Otherworlder]
As a result of my hunt, I managed to gain quite a few good abilities. In all fairness, I still really want more but it's fine for the moment because the Otherworlder's flesh was far more enjoyable than I had expected it to be.
As I continued to consume his body it was as if power was flowing into me. To top it all off, I'll say it again, the flesh was simply divine. If possible, I'd like to eat more in the future… hah… it's going to take some willpower to keep myself from eating the Female Samurai. After I finished eating their bodies, I created 5 clones to mimic each of their appearances. I had already investigated how they had conducted themselves beforehand on how they planned to prepare to depart from the Royal Capital.
Because of this, even if they somehow go missing on the way to their destinations, I won't be suspected. I made their equipment just a part of the clones as a part of the disguise. Since I've done this, I won't have to worry about reclaiming the equipment later and any other issues that might entail.
Once I finished everything regarding the hunt, I began the training of the 14 new members that had managed to pass my qualifications.
I had contacted all of the members who qualified yesterday and not one of them was absent. Though, after our usual morning training there wasn't a single person remaining unscathed. All the members had collapsed from exhaustion and looked miserable as their vomit and sweat covered the ground.
Hmph, they need to persevere since I'm only going easy on them for today as an introduction. I was tired after staying up all night so I took a nap roughly mid afternoon. I woke up in the evening, ate dinner and took care of my routine duties before going back to sleep.