"I'm really this late because I was occupied. I'm definitely not here to get a free dinner," Zheng Yang thought to himself as he stood at the reception desk. Viya took both the dried and fresh fish to the kitchen, while Emily happily invited him to stay for dinner.
He accepted the offer graciously, feeling that it was better than eating alone back on the boat, after all.
After bringing him to the treatment room and checking his pupils, hair, and teeth, Emily asked, "Did you feel anything after getting the injection?"
"Does being hit with a pain so bad that I almost died count?"
He shook his head. "Nope. I'm feeling just fine. Emily, I don't think I need to get my genes checked. You know, some people just don't like having their genetic information leaked."
Due to the nature of the genetic stability check, his witch blood would definitely show genes that were different from normal human genes. He had no intention of exposing his genes that early. While he made it sound like he was simply discussing the matter, he had actually made up his mind to not cooperate.
Emily seemed unfazed at first, but she twitched after hearing his last sentence. She then slowly turned her head and looked at Zheng Yang for over a dozen seconds before saying, "Something's wrong with your bloodline, then? Seems to me that you're a metahuman after all."
Zheng Yang was taken aback. "What? You just go about deciding that I'm a metahuman simply because I don't wanna have my genes checked?" he thought.
He recalled running into Rovni and her gang when he came to get his first injection and realized the connection between them.
"So, Emily, I take it that you know about the occult and metahumans, then?"
Emily relaxed and grinned. "I'm of the occult too. Mystic meds, from a branch of ancient alchemy."
Hearing this, Zheng Yang felt like members of the occult were everywhere around him somehow.
"Rovni talked to me about you before. She's always had a very sharp intuition, and she thought that you were definitely a metahuman all along. She only lacked the proof to back her claim."
With a cunning gleam in her eyes, she continued.
"Rovni and I studied under the same teacher. Her specialty is enchantments. Now I've told you information about me and her. Shouldn't you come clean too as an exchange?"
"So, it was Rovni that provided Ricky his enchanted guns and bullets, eh?" Zheng Yang thought, intrigued. He felt that he would also like an enchanted handgun for himself.
Besides, at that point, it didn't make much sense to keep hiding the fact that he was a metahuman. Seeing that none of them seemed to have any ill intentions, he thought it best to take the opportunity to enter their circle so as to learn more about the occult.
After making up his mind, Zheng Yang grinned and said, "Alright, I admit it."
He then rubbed his right thumb and index finger, conjuring a bit of flames on the tip of his finger.
He thought that he looked quite cool and wondered if Ricky the oaf was capable of something like that as well.
"A spell." Emily's eyes lit up, and she asked right away, "How far can you take it?"
"I can conjure flames about this size." Zheng Yang then gestured, making an area about one square meter, taking care to only show 30 percent of what he was truly capable of.
"Anything else?"
"That's all."
Emily then nodded in satisfaction and grinned. "You possess beginner-level spell powers, and you seem to excel in close combat as well. Seems to me that you're of the demon hunters. Correct?"
Zheng Yang wore an honest, amicable expression and said, "You can actually tell, Emily."
Emily smiled in return, thinking that Zheng Yang was indeed a sly one.
Seeing how he had been hiding his abilities all along, she knew that there was no way that he was being honest about everything.
She knew that Zheng Yang was still definitely hiding something.
However, she thought it best to just leave it at that instead of pressing on.
She figured that she had done more than she was asked to, considering she'd confirmed his identity as a metahuman and made him reveal his superpower. As for his other abilities, she figured that they would learn about those once they all got to know Zheng Yang better. No one reveals everything about themselves at first, and everyone keeps some cards up their sleeves, after all.
Emily laid a trap with her words. "Seems like the hellhound didn't manage to get away, after all. But, early this morning, Desmond was taken away by someone from the occult. If someone uses the virus inside him, it'll spell disaster for the English Harbor."
However, Zheng Yang wasn't about to fall for her trap. He simply blinked his eyes and said, "Emily, that hellhound really did escape on its own."
Emily stared at Zheng Yang. Seeing how determined he looked, she wasn't feeling so sure.
"That thing really did escape?" she thought.
"Big trouble."
Zheng Yang then changed the subject and asked, "Emily, could I get an enchanted pistol like the one Ricky carries?"
Emily gestured and walked out of the treatment room first. "That depends on how well you're doing. You have to prove to Rovni that you're indeed worthy of getting such a gun from her."
"How do I go about doing that?"
"Well, to give one way, you could look for that damned hellhound and kill it.
"Desmond's transformation was more than enough to prove that the hellhound is carrying a potent mutated virus that could infect those who come in contact with it. You've developed antibodies from that injection, so as long as you're not bitten by the dog, you don't need to worry about being infected. Furthermore, flame spells are inherently effective against the powers of those on the dark side of the occult, as they're able to purify the source of such powers.
"You could also look into the identity and objective of the person who took Desmond away. Rovni and her people asked the Arcane Coven and they denied that they had anything to do with it."
Zheng Yang followed her to her office on the second floor before asking out of curiosity, "What is this Arcane Coven you speak of? Do they have a lot of members?
Emily turned around to look at Zheng Yang.
"You didn't know about the Arcane Coven? Didn't your teacher tell you about them?"
Zheng Yang felt rather awkward and said, "Never heard of them."
"The Arcane Coven is a loosely bound civilian organization. They're spread out all over Europe, and they even have branches in Africa and the Americas. As for their actual numbers, no one actually knows. It's said that there are at least a few dozens of them in the English Harbor alone. Among them, you'll find people of all sorts of lineages—demon hunters, spellcasters, witches, and knights. And I've even heard that some members are practitioners of ancient dark magic as well. Alright, go and take a seat in the living room. Eva should be back soon, and I'll be making dinner now."
…
"So, Emily is staying on the second floor, then," Zheng Yang thought.
He walked out of the office and sat on the sofa in the living room, thinking about what to do next.
Because he'd revealed his occult identity to Emily and wasn't doing the genetic stability test, he no longer needed to go to the clinic in the next few days.
The furniture that he'd ordered was simple, and all the equipment and materials would reach port the next day. It would only take him a matter of minutes to complete the renovation.
"How about looking for Entes and seeing what a party of the nobles looks like, eh?"
But then again, Zheng Yang wanted to get to know Emily and Rovni's gang better so he could learn more about the occult. Having a spirit vessel in his possession almost meant that he wouldn't be satisfied with only having a level one boat. Furthermore, the evolution of his boat was also tied to the growth of his bloodline powers and ability to resist eldritch entities.
However, evolving the spirit vessel involved a lot of things that he didn't know about, such as the level two magic formation evolution scroll, the level two spirit power core, and so on; all of which required further intelligence gathering. Unfortunately, he couldn't simply go about asking people about things related to the spirit vessel. As such, he could only learn as he went along and collect information all on his own.
He made up his mind to stay in the English Harbor for the time being, digging up all the information he could.
About 15 minutes later, a crisp-clear voice like a skylark's came from downstairs, and Eva deftly ran upstairs like an elf.