Meanwhile, at the same location where Shella and Eric died, five people appeared. They wore the same tight black suit, covering every part of their body other than their eyes.
As soon as they found two cracked skeletons, the middle one raised his hand. "Investigate the body."
The other four disappeared. Two of them began looking for any clue about the skeletons while taking out blood samples from the ground, whereas the other two checked the two skeletons. With the present technology, they should be able to get enough information from the blood test even if the blood dried up.
Next to the tree was a small bracelet with blood smearing on it. It was none other than the Skylink that the skeleton had.
"I have found the Skylink. We need to confirm the serial number."
The one, who commanded them earlier, took a step forward as he raised his hand, activating the Skylink, which happened to be the same bracelet.
It projected a blue screen to which the man typed a few things before getting his hand close to the Skylink.
Suddenly, the screen changed, turning into an ID Card.
ID: 1534197856371
Name: Shella Alberona
Status: Normal
"It's confirmed. She is the one we are searching for." The captain nodded before turning to the other skeleton. "That means the skeleton belongs to the male. They are the useless couple that the chairman wishes to remove."
"Still, we can't really get any information with all this evidence. Everything has been eaten, leaving only blood and broken skeletons. There is no artificial wound in the bone, so we don't know what they experienced before dying from a beast." The man presenting the bracelet sighed in defeat.
"There are only two possibilities. According to Young Master Laust, he asked them to follow Theodore Griffith. Assuming that the latter killed them and left them here, he might be more dangerous than we expected. The chairman needs to know this."
"How about the second possibility?"
"He is not involved at all. A beast killed them when they followed him. Considering Eric Lautre was a Level 12 and Shella Alberona was a Level 9, it would be tough to fight in this place. They would constantly face Level 10-15 monsters." The captain paused for a moment before his tone turned grim. "But…"
His subordinates stopped what they were doing, listening to his words.
"Either way, they were following Theodore Griffith. Calculating the direction and range, his original plan should be the forest beyond the slope where many Level 20 monsters reside. This means that our information is not accurate anymore."
The subordinates drew a gasp as they quickly checked Theo's level again in their information. He was only a mere trashy level 7. With him going to that place alone, he needed to be at least Level 20 if not 25.
To think their data was not this accurate. If the chairman knew, he would have punished them.
"Captain. What should we do?"
"First. From the current information, we can safely assume that he came here during the public holiday, so we had no information about his current position."
"How about we go to the Temples, Captain? The academy allows the first-year students to register themselves in the Temples, so he must be there."
The captain thought for a moment. "The Temples, huh. The first-year students are forbidden to register there because the academy wants them to gain enough experience during their first year to make sure they don't regret walking on their chosen path. However, many of them have begun killing the monsters here, so it's also the way for the academy to measure the talented one. This proves the importance of the temples…"
After contemplating for a while, he gave the confirmation, and the group quickly left the scene. They didn't forget to bring all the samples they could get for identification.
Little did they know, someone was watching them this whole time.
She was an old lady with long white hair tied into a ponytail. Despite her aged face, it still brimmed with energy as if she had barely reached the threshold of old age. Her silver eyes slightly squinted when she heard their conversation.
"Temple, huh." She looked down with her right hand supporting her chin. "Should I visit the temple or search this place? Never mind. Today is a special day, so I will go to the temple first."
She jumped off the tree before she disappeared mid-air.
…
Unlike their predictions, Theo was having a good time after dealing with the poisonous toad and finding another pair.
"Ho? A pair of toads?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Before thinking about those two, he looked at what he got first from the first toad.
[Killed a Giant Toad.]
[EXP+51]
He touched the toad's body as it slowly disappeared, leaving not a single card.
"Such a shame." Theo shook his head helplessly before hearing someone's laughter.
"Hahaha! This is our lucky day. We shall use this pair of toads as the first celebration of our party."
Theo furrowed his eyebrows and came closer as he was curious what was going on. He hid his presence while peeking through the gap between bushes.
It turned out that while he was rummaging the loot, a group of three reached this place and fought the toads.
The first one was a red-haired man with a big "X" scar on his chest, while next to him was a timid-looking boy wearing big round glasses. Behind them was a big muscular guy holding a giant club with spikes on the club's head.
'I am unlucky today. They might not need my help too.' Theo sighed and thought. 'Let's say they need help and I burst in to help. I might be able to turn around the situation, but is there really that much merit in going that far in this situation? And what if they use that chance to say that I am hoarding all the good things and use it to go against me.'
His face was distorted when thinking of so many bad possibilities and concluded it in one sentence. 'Seems like a hassle.'
As he was about to turn around, Theo witnessed one last thing that changed his mind. The person with an "X" scar on his cheek pushed the young man wearing glasses towards the toad, making his balance unstable.
"Go, Rookie!"
The two toads quickly stretched their tongues from two different directions. However, their target was the same, the glasses guy.
The first tongue hit his face, destroying his glasses and deforming his face. The second one struck his stomach, blowing him several feet away.
"Gah!" The guy seemed to still have his consciousness and stretched his hand toward the two guys, asking. "Help…"
"Now!" Contrary to the guy's expectation, the two ignored him and quickly attacked each toad, leaving a huge mark in their belly. "Haha. Using someone as a sacrifice indeed makes everything easier. We can kill this pair of toads in under three minutes. Let's go, Second Brother. Rookies are indeed good since they are easily enough to be fooled."
"Yes, First Brother." The big guy smiled before looking at the rookie on the ground, still trying his hardest to survive. "Before that…"
The big guy hit the glasses guy's head, crushing his skull. The half-broken glasses flew to the air before landing on the ground smeared with blood.
Theo's expression turned cold when everything unraveled before him. This scene reminded him of what might have happened to him when Eric and Shella betrayed him.