Unseen to all, a few strands of invisible energy emerged from Rihanna's body, and swiftly made their way into the bodies of Wen Haoli, Su Maihiya, Zenoba Taskunae and the others in their group. She had boldly shown a different face, but she was not going to wait for them to strike. She needed to know about her enemies every step before making her own preparations.
Perhaps because they were too startled or felt wary of her sudden change, but none of them came after her anymore. At least she did not feel any more intense gaze following her during the rest of the time they stayed at the Mission Hall.
Uncle Yaoi returned soon. He was holding an ivory-stone strip, with carved patterns glowing in the same light blue energy.
"If you have finished looking around, we should make our way to the tower for registration."
Both Artreya and Rihanna had wandered through all the shops in their vicinity, and were now keen on seeing what lay inside the towers.
The first thing which caught their eyes, was not the Mission Tower....instead it was a humongous Demonic Beast at the other side of the tower. The size and height of the tower had blocked the beast, otherwise, the beast itself was not at all small!
"Ugh! What in the world is it doing?!"
Artreya was gagging and choking. Even Rihanna was finding it difficult to look straight at the beast.
There was a large circular dais beside the tower, and the beast was standing on this dais. Well....it was difficult to say if it was standing or sitting. Because it looked more like a giant worm standing on its tail. It looked exactly like a caterpillar, was snowy-white in color, and had a bright red snout. Rihanna couldn't make out any eyes and nose, but then, the head of the beast was too high up in the air to make out anything clearly.
The beast opened its snout wide, till it looked like a wide, scary grin. A man was tied to a thin post before it. All of a sudden, the huge open mouth, along with half the body swept through the air, straight towards this man standing near its foot. This movement was so sudden and released so much of hidden power, that the people surrounding the dais felt oppressed.
Hurriedly they all moved back to ease the force pressing down on them. The beast, in the meantime, picked up the man with its large mouth, and then directly swallowed him!
And that was not the worst....the worst was that his entire body was extremely transparent! So all the people standing and watching the show saw the entire process - the man slowly moving down the beasts throat, the juices flowing out of its various organs, the man being pushed into the stomach with a lot of different juices, which then all churned together.
And finally, the man was roughly pushed into the intestine, and shoved out of the lower part of the beasts body!
Along with a disgusting, rotting corpse like stench, the man, covered in thick, sticky mucous rolled out of the nether part of the beast.
As the people around were silently gasping and shuddering at this scene, the man finally moved his limbs, then attempted to stand up. After a lot of falling and crawling and pushing himself up again and again, he finally stood up. The thick mucous seemed endless, and it had already started hardening into a white, thick and flaky layering over his skin.
"Why....why does he look older than when the caterpillar swallowed him?!"
Uncle Yaoi was probably feeling as disgusted as them, as he pulled on each of their hands, all the way till they entered the tower.
"That is an Origin Mettanae. It is a female Mettanae, one of the very few insects who have managed to evolve to the Supreme Grade level. It is also called the Judgement Masters. What you saw just now is a unique method the Mercenary Halls have created to punish all the people who try to steal, betray or create other troubles inside the Mercenary Mission Hall. It also serves as a lesson to all the other people."
"But....how did he suddenly become older?!"
"The Female Mettanae swallows it's preys, and absorbs all the life essence and cultivation power of the prey. They use this as nutrition for their eggs. Then they throw out the body. They actually keep repeating this process again and again, till all the nutrition available in the prey has been fully absorbed, and what is left is a dried up corpse. But here they are only using it to serve punishments, so they can only swallow the person once. As you saw....being swallowed even once will take away decades from your lifespan."
Rihanna and Artreya looked at each other and shuddered. Hands down this was the weirdest punishment they had seen....both, in the lands and in the dimension!
These large and heavy looking towers were divided into different storeys, and every side of the walls were covered by large, open windows. Bright yellow and white light sparkled through these windows. Strangely, even though the windows were wide open, and didn't even seem to have any shutters, they could not see anything of what was going on inside. Probably some array blocked all visuals.
The first three storeys were for registration of the various missions.
Missions were first divided according to the level of cultivation of the mercenary. Which is why, a team at level three could not move to level four, since their average cultivation is what decided the mission level they were eligible for accepting.
However, the same mission could be broken down into different levels. When a mission had multiple side-tasks, then the side-tasks would be separated according to their grade, and the level of cultivator required for completing the mission.
So the same Mission for Abarone-Tengai, was actually available at every level in the Mission Hall. But the side-tasks for every level was different.
Moreover, within the same level, the mission would be broken down according to the importance of the mission, the person or group who had put forth the mission, the bonuses available after completion of the mission, etc.
And accordingly, these missions were then separated into three slots, each of which was in a different storey of the tower.
Uncle Yaoi took them up the large staircase to the second level.
As soon as they entered the main hall of the second floor, they saw a number of white energy orbs scattered around the room, floating gently in the air. Groups of people were moving to and fro, going to these orb or returning back.
Uncle Yaoi checked around the room, then led them to one of the orbs on the left.
The orb was small, slightly bigger than a football, and was softly bobbing up and down in its place. As the two kids watched, Uncle Yaoi took out the ivory slip from inside his storage space, and put it inside the orb.
This slip had all the details of the mission they were applying for, the name and cultivation level of the team members as well as the name of their team. It was only now that the two of them came to know the name of their team - Lyaenia Anjitak. Rihanna felt her lips twitching. There was no way she would be able to remember this team's name!
Jitak, as she came to know, was a term for Group. Lyaenia was an ancient beast, who was something similar to a mermaid. And supposedly, they were all females. For the life of her, Rihanna couldn't understand why four lonely men had named their team after a mermaid!!
Uncle Yaoi noticed her giving him weird glances and almost burst out laughing. He still broke out into coughing fits, trying to suppress his laughter.
The ivory slip had been sucked into the orb, and was slowly turning inside the energy sphere. The pattern of the stone slip was glowing brighter. Gradually it turned to a golden blue shade, signifying that their team had been accepted for the mission. The stone slip gave a final turn, then was slowly pushed out of the energy orb. Uncle Yaoi took it and kept it back in his storage space.
"Though, Lyaenia are legendary beasts who no longer exist today, but the records say that they had exceptionally strong senses. They were capable of hunting all kinds of treasures as long as it was under the water. It is said that a Lyaenia's cove underwater, would always be filled with rare and precious resources. They used to love hoarding treasures, though they rarely had much use for them."
Rihanna threw a suspicious glance at Uncle Yaoi, which made the latter speechless. He wondered if it was time to change the name of their team!
"There will be an auction held here tomorrow. Are you both interested in accompanying me?"
"Will it be as amazing as the one we attended in the Underworld Abyss?"
"Sssh!"
Uncle Yaoi immediately glanced around. It seemed her words had made him nervous.
"Never mention that name in these kinds of places. You never know who is listening. The government of the five countries are not very friendly with them. But they cannot approach them due to their backing. The same is not true for you and me. If the government can cut down on the people visiting them, what does it matter if you and I disappear!"
Rihanna immediately shut up. She already knew a little about the complicated relations between the five countries and the Underworld Abyss. Truly....she had been careless!
Rihanna didn't see the group who had been stalking her since morning when the three of them left the premises of the Mercenary Mission Hall.
There was still more than week left for the mission to start. The Mercenary Hall was gathering large number of teams at various levels for this mission, and that was sure to take time.
So, for the next few days, Rihanna chose to close herself within the Seed Space and experiment with the various herbs and plants and other resources stocked inside her storage space. She was planning on having some pills and elixirs, as well as some poisons ready for use. Then she could focus on making a few protective, defensive and illusion arrays and keep them ready for use.
It was good that both Uncle Yaoi and Artreya were caught up with the auction which started the next day at the Mercenary Mission Hall. Rihanna could avoid all uncomfortable questions, and disappear without a worry. Even Artreya did not know about this Seed Space within her.