"This place… we're on the other side of the bridge!" As the ever enchanting night-like spell ended, the three of them were safely taken away from the reach of those hunting vampires. The teleportation was successful.
"Wait— the vampire—"
Before Celene was able to finish her sentence, a hazy cold smoke fumed around the person they just met. A dim light glowed from his body and soon it turned into another shape. As those smoke perish, a completely different figure appeared.
Silver hair. Sky blue eyes. Snow-like skin. A suit shaded fully in cold white. Only one creature in this world can pull such a sinister appearance.
"You— you are a human!?"
A being who possessed the greatest intellect and the ever cold element of ice. Their civilization might be at threat of extinction, but they're still the messenger of winter.
The lycan was beyond shocked seeing how different the person transformed from what was once a bloodthirsty vampire. Now all he did is sending chills down her spine. Even with how far her head was compared to his, she still felt his wicked presence dreadfully close.
"Penn Fälscher, at your service." With a cold smile, he bowed to the two of them. "Codename: Chameleon."
"Celene… I can't believe you almost ended our mission before it even begin." A long sigh echoed through Dov's mask.
"Can you blame me? He was looking exactly like them!" The embarrassment painted her face red.
"Our broker here is a Fälscher, a human lineage of shapeshifters." Dov shook his head in disappointment. "You're a hunter, Celene… it's a necessity for us to be able to sniff them out."
"Next time you gain attribute points, dear Crescent Night. Spend it on perception." Penn suggested.
"Sorry…" Celene got so embarrassed by how much of a newbie she is.
"Speaking of the devil, Chameleon. Why were we teleported to the middle of the road?" Dov calmly asked the human broker. "You'll tarnish the furtiveness of our exchange."
"Our situation is a bit different, Night Bear…" Penn lifted his left hand with two of his fingers pointing upward. Sparkles of light began flickering around his palm. "Now that the market is being raided by vampires, all the hidden spots are currently being occupied by the residents."
With a rectangular frame, crystals of ice painted a bunch of flowery patterns filling every side inside that frame. Then as the light perished, they turned into a file, white and clean, filled with utmost secrecy.
"Here. Open it." Penn gave the file to Dov. And as he received it, he proceeded to carefully unseal it to take out the documents inside little by little.
"This is…" Dov got a bit surprised to see how many pages were inside that file. Meanwhile, Celene was just curiously peeking from above him, as he positioned the papers so she could also read along.
"So far, we have 4 races from 4 cities answered the Pretender's call. Dark elves, mers, dwarves, and angels." Penn reported.
"Every single one of these races is led by a powerful ruler. Once this ruler dead, their cause of following the Pretender will be crippled."
"So only the ruler? We don't need to cause genocide, is that correct?" Dov tried to reaffirm.
"Correct."
"And by rulers, you don't mean the Champions of Elements, right?"
"The documents are right before you, Night Bear."
"Understood."
Celene looked somewhat relieved to hear it. Not just that it's such a burden to carry if she were to take so many lives, but it's also an incredibly hard thing to pull since every race also has its fair share of adventurers who are probably a lot stronger than she is right now.
The Adventurer System has been introduced to this world for centuries. With some of the mentioned races possessing a great lifespan, there's a high chance for a couple of old and powerful adventurers to guard them as Protector—one of the five adventurer's professions which supposed to protect local residents from outside threats.
For an Apprentice Hunter like Celene, any adventurer who had a profession is an opponent she needs to put extra care while handling them.
"Your first target is the Tribal Chief of the dark elves, ruling over the Shrine of Consciousness." Penn continued with the objective. "He's quite young for an elf, about 100 or so years old. The last chief died due to the Three Necromancer War, a couple years ago."
"I'm sure you won't have any trouble neutralizing an inexperience target, won't you?" Penn's smile always looked so cold and sinister, though it was probably just his nature as a human.
"Have the situation got any worse yet?" Dov ignored. "Has there any human casualty?"
"Not quite." Penn retorted. "With how dire the situation has become for us, the Queen only allowed Exalted Adventurers (those who passed 6 metal ranks) to wander outside the kingdom's territory, so no one dared to do any harm towards them."
"Most of the activities were run with utmost secrecy. Not to mention all the humans in Lustmist were monopolized by the demons, so not a single one present in Shrine of Consciousness."
"I see." Dov affirmed.
"Any more questions?" Penn offered.
"One last," The masked hunter took it. "Do we have any other Broker near the scene?"
". . ." Hearing it, the Chameleon went silent for a while. "Our eyes are everywhere, Night Bear."
As his words got spoken, cold mists began to gather around him, coating him clean till his presence was as good as gone. Then right after the sound of snapping fingers, those mists perish, and so did he.
"What does that mean?" Celene wondered.
"It means they always monitor our movements and will send us some fragments of help if they redeemed we needed it."
A light shone around Dov's index, covered by a black glove, shaped like a ring, and a small portal opened before it. The masked Hunter then carefully put the file he received into it, putting it inside the safety of his inventory dimension.
Then without any more words spoken, he started walking towards the east, to the place where he might find his target. The Shrine of Consciousness, the home and sole city of the dark elves.
"Oh right, we forgot to ask about the vampires— well whatever, we'll probably meet them again. Eventually."
*
The traveling distance from the bridge to the shrine isn't something that gonna take the two of them a full night of walking.
The main problem they were facing is that it was located in the Lustmist Province, which is ruled by the demons and their Shaman—The Champion of Darkness element, the Demon King (Queen) who's only second to All-father when it comes to magic, she's also his greatest ally.
Now, a demon is a being who feeds on lust. They charged themselves with sexual acts toward others, whether their partner is their own kin or from other races (depending on the demon's rank).
However, throughout centuries, their primary source of lust always came from humans, since they possessed the highest amount of it compared to other races. Now with their number severed…
"It must be tough for them, eh? Having so many humans lost their lives from their war against the dragons."
Celene commented as they were about to enter through the northwest entrance of the province.
The place was quite narrow, squished between two grey hills. The dirt was shaded like ash, while the not-so-many trees were barked black with their leaves screaming dark shaded purple.
"Yeah… not to mention with humans on their rush hour rebuilding their civilization, they banned any demon activity inside their last and sole city, since doing an act with a demon would drain too much energy which they must use for a lot of crucial things."
"Pity them."
Although the main problem they're facing right now is not about the demon having both internal and external crises, but the very nature of the province itself.
Since they feed on lust through sexual acts, the demonkind must make sure their partner is always in the mood to do it. Hence the Shaman drugged the air with magic that will stimulate it.
The whole province is fuming with it, mists that will ruin one's mind with an urge to satisfy their raging lust. Dov and Celene need to stop themselves from being affected by these mists so they can avoid being distracted and keep their head on their mission.
Although… actually—
"I'm immune to it." Dov flatly said.
"Huh…?" Celene immediately froze after she heard his words. "But— but but—" Her face turned blue as the thought of fear quickly shrouded her.
"Please… Celene. When you see me, has it ever come to your mind that I'll be able to get seduced? To get charmed?" Dov tiredly shook his head.
"No… But still!"
*Sigh!* He got no time to deal with this and just continued his steps to enter the Lustmist province without batting an eye on his pathetic hunting partner.
"Wait, Dov! Wait! How am I supposed to deal with this!?" She followed him, but in the highest state of panic.
"Figure it out yourself. You're a damn Hunter, Celene."
"What if I get so in heat? What if I pounce on you!?"
Hearing her say that, Dov's step immediately got held.
"Relax, Celene… what can a maiden like you even hope to accomplish?"
Her face got cooked bright red the moment those words spurt from his mouth. Then at this point, she stopped asking questions.