The hunt started very early in the morning. Sun didn't make it yet but was on its way. It was grey around, while I was sitting on the edge of the cart, and munching on a piece of carrot. I was worried if my attempt was even possible. Mark was very strong, and for sure he wasn't gonna just lay around waiting for me. He probably forgot of my existence. I was only a nameless friend of Aisha.
The worst part was the rest of his men. Blood brothers backing him up. Even if I managed to have a duel one on one with him, they would for sure supply their leader with crystals before such a fight. I had to become strong, very, very strong.
I slid off the edge of the cart, grabbed the handles, and started pulling. There was no place for pointless worries. I already decided what needs to be done. I was sick of my own cowardness. Even in this situation, my own mind was doing everything to make me back from this stupid plan. It was even ready to play a long game. Steadily, point by point led me to the realization it has no chances, and I shouldn't do it.
I knew my mind too well to fell for this trap. So I just discarded all thoughts and focused on walking. After some time I parked the cart inside some bushes, picked up my weapon, and headed deeper, where wolf's territory started, on purpose making noise. Hitting tree trunks with the back of my blade. Going thru bushes. It worked pretty soon and howling around could be heard.
I focused for a solid minute to localize the closest and started to jog in that direction. I executed the same tactics from a couple of days ago. This time It worked a bit better. 67 crystals were earned that day. Few people also tried to hunt in the upcoming days, but I was faster and more experienced. I snitched few kills from them. There were some arguments, but in the end, those guys were too weak to hunt there, and I wanted to stay alone, so I forced them to go back.
The next two progressed in a similar manner. I wanted to hunt a bit more, but if I was to keep it up, I had to reserve some strength. So I only gathered 110 crystals more. Heading back with 66 stones in the backpack on the third day, I never expected to meet Will. He was sitting under the tree next to the bushes, which were my parking spot, and munching on a piece of jerky. Next to him, leaning against the same tree, was a long spear, and underneath a large backpack.
- What the fuck are you doing here Will?
- I, yet again, came to save your ass. I have no idea if you realized it, but Nacho is back on your ass, and he is pissed.
- Fuck. Well, he might look for me all he wants. I doubt he is gonna find me here.
- You pissed a few guys off. They are talking in the city about an asshole who doesn't want to share hunting grounds. They even provide quite an accurate description. How the heck do you think I managed to find you?
- Fuck.
- You need to ditch this place.
- This is the best hunting spot available.
- This is a dead spot. Nacho is pissed, and he has some friends in Blood Brothers. Who the fuck knows how many people might come here for you? They can be already on their way.
I didn't answer anything to that, and just put the backpack, and weapon on the cart. Then grabbed the handles and started to pull it deeper, into the forest.
- Where are you going? - He got up quickly, grabbed his things, and went after me.
- Deeper. I can hunt on the other side of the wolf's territory just as good, as here.
- That's a stupid idea. They will find you anyway. You might or may not get a day or two, but that's not a solution.
- Then fucking give me one.
- We can go hunting goblins.
- That's not good enough.
- You have to take what you can. You can't always get what you want.
- I'm done with that way of thinking. If those motherfuckers will come after me and my score, they will pay with blood. I'm not backing off from this spot.
- You are nuts Peter. I knew that already, but I had no idea it was this bad.
Even though he said that he kept following me. He tried to pick up the conversation, but I was actually too tired for it, so we kept walking for the next few hours in silence. We were forced to take the longer route to avoid encountering wolves at night. Even though a couple of encounters happened, and we scored 21 more crystals. Then we set up a camp and decided to keep watch in turns. I was the first one to sleep. Will never woked me up, giving me the full night of rest.
The next day hunting progressed normally. We didn't encounter anybody except ourselves. Will had a bit of trouble keeping up with me, and by the end of the day was totally exhausted. I scored only 50 crystal on that day, and Will even less. Actually way less. That night I was the first to keep watch, but I didn't remain on this duty for the whole time, and after around six hours switched with my new compadre. He was not amused.
The following day of the hunt began a bit later cause I wanted to also get some rest. Even though we started later, there was no option of earning less, so we had to compensate with effort. I scored 75 crystals. Will was not so lucky.
After that point days kinda blended with one another. We hunted a lot and slept in shifts to avoid getting ambushed by wolves, or people. I was expecting Nacho to show up, but he actually never appeared. Maybe he had a different plan? Maybe he just waited so I could get closer to the city? I had no idea, but there were no doubts that I was gonna find out sooner or later.
A whole month passed in this manner. I managed to get 1482 crystals more, for a total of 1 755. Will didn't earn even half of it and was half dead because of exhaustion. He had to actually pass on hunting the last few days.
- You are a fucking demon - he said sitting on the cart.
I was pulling it, heading thru the woods to goblin territory. Going straight to the fourth gate was too risky.
- I need to be.
- I guess you are right.
- I need to be the worst motherfucker of them all.
He laughed.
- You know. There is a saying, that it's not the good guys who are getting rid of the bad guys, but even worse guys. So I guess I need to become one.
- Maybe. But you don't strike me as a villain, you know? I wouldn't call you a hero either. You are just... just a mess.
This time I laughed.
- You know, Peter... I need to take a nap. Wake me up in case of emergency.
- Yeah, yeah.
He quickly started snoring. I was not blaming him. I actually enjoyed the silence. I walked thru the whole night, heading closer to the wall when it started to become dark. We arrived in the early morning. There was a guy waiting for us. He bolted as soon as he recognized who I was.
- That is Nacho's doing - said Will, who was awake.
- I know. Be prepared.
- Oh, I will. But don't you think it's too risky for them to fight you here, in the city? Especially this early, when a lot of hunters are in the vicinity? Wuxia has your back.
- I'm not sure of it...
- I guess we will find out.
But to my surprise, Nacho didn't show up until we went all the way to the city center. And there he was hanging on the street with some people. Will quickly recognized them as some random members of Blood Brothers. There were also a few of his boys. I saw Luca and Maurício. After they noticed me Nacho smiled while looking straight at us. Then he actually pointed in our direction, and the rest of his crew took a god look. He probably was arranging himself a few supporters.
We made it past them without any more stuff happening. Then there was a long line of people preparing for the hunt and occupying the device. We waited for around an hour and sold our score. I earned a nice number of 438 750 points. I dumped most of it straight into the constitution buying 200 upgrades of it worth 400 500 points. Why?
Well, I had a dumb plan involving me risking my life in exchange for a ridiculous amount of crystals, but to even have a chance, I needed incredible stamina.
With the rest of the points, I got rid of accumulated fatigue, and small wounds to be a brand new human being. Also a bit of food. We parted our ways with Will. He had his place to stay, and I just returned to the old room provided to me by late Zhang Yong. I needed some sleep.
Day ended with 52 905 points on my account.