Chapter 493: Hunting

"Honorable Arrodes, my second question is: 'How did Sherlock Moriarty

escape from the ruins?'" Ikanser's mood was a lot more relaxed than

before.

The surface of the silver mirror shimmered, rapidly outlining Sherlock

Moriarty leaning his back against the wall, his fists clenching and

tightening.

Then, Ikanser Bernard and the surrounding Machinery Hivemind deacons and

captains saw the private detective's exaggerated smile before turning

around and dashing out with his gun drawn.

At this moment, under the influence of the composed scene, they all felt

an inexplicable sense of sadness and excitement.

The image in the mirror jumped, revealing Sherlock Moriarty wielding his

revolver as he shot at the altar to no avail. The scene of those

disintegrating bullets caused everyone present to be a little worried.

Then, Sherlock Moriarty threw out a brass key, and the altar showed

signs of instability due to corruption.

With the erupting air blast, Mr. A fell to the ground and Sherlock

Moriarty pathetically fled out of the temple building.

At this point, the image changed to have the slightly turbid Tussock

River as the main background. Sherlock Moriarty and Mr. A floated in the

water, looking up into the sky where there were no clouds or fog.

Almost instantly, Mr. A. became transparent and disappeared, leaving

only Sherlock Moriarty looking around in astonishment.

"...The Church of Evernight's reinforcements?" Ikanser said with a

frown. "Unfortunately, he didn't mention what appeared in his letter. We

have no way of guessing. Was he trying to sell this secret for a good

price, or was he simply affected by it and lost the relevant memories?

Also, his experience of escaping from the underground ruins doesn't show

anything. It seems like the corresponding clues have been concealed at

the same time..."

He analyzed it quickly, in procedural sentences, and then without too

great a psychological burden, he chose to answer with reciprocity

instead of taking a risk.

*Arrodes doesn't seem to be in the mood to be a prankster today. I can

make the most of it...* In his self-consolation, Ikanser saw

bloody words appear on the surface of the mirror.

With a skip of his heartbeat, he had a bad premonition, suspecting that

Arrodes had already recovered to his usual "state."

The blood-like words wiggled and quickly formed into a question:

"Who was the person you gave your all to while trying your best to win

the favor of, only to end up being abandoned?"

With his head buzzing, Ikanser's face drained of all its color before

flushing red.

The question pierced a deep wound in him while leaving him at a loss as

to what to do.

*If I mention who he is, then his reputation would be ruined before

tonight... I've already become a kind of "legend" in some

sense...* Ikanser swallowed his saliva with great difficulty and

bitterly said, "I choose punishment."

A bolt of lightning immediately descended. However, it was different

from before. It was no longer silvery-white and had been dyed with

slight green.

It hit him right on the head, causing his hair to stand on end and flash

with the color of lightning.

He shook violently like shaking dice, as though he had been drugged with

a hallucinogenic drug.

Archbishop Horamick sighed, closed his eyes, and muttered to himself, "A

Grade 0 Sealed Artifact?"

When Ikanser recovered, he looked around and said, "There's one more

question. Where did the key that Sherlock Moriarty used to destroy the

descent ritual come from?

"Which one of you is going to use 2-111?"

All the Machinery Hivemind deacons and captains looked at each other.

For a moment, no one responded.

The sound of water splashing against the ship's hold seemed to be the

only sound left in the world. The sea at night was both noisy and quiet.

Klein suddenly woke up and opened his eyes. He saw the wooden ceiling

covered with a crimson moon veil.

His spiritual intuition told him that there was something happening

outside.

Is someone having a rendezvous? He tilted his head to listen,

vaguely able to hear some unnatural sounds.

He sat up, put on his gloves, and put on his coat.

His eyes turned dark as he took out a gold coin, flipped it, and quickly

performed a divination.

After receiving no revelations of danger, he took out the revolver under

his pillow and put it in his pocket.

After making the appropriate preparations, Klein opened the door and

walked out of the room, following the sound to the upper deck.

At this moment, at sea, away from the industrial pollution, the crimson

moon quietly hung there, mysterious and dreamy.

After carefully bypassing a few patrolling crew members, Klein arrived

at the area where there was a commotion. He could smell the faint scent

of blood.

With the help of the moonlight, he looked over and saw the former

adventurer, Cleves, squatting to the side of the ship and setting up

something.

There were three people hiding in the shadows of the cabin about a dozen

meters away from this gentleman. One of them was a companion of Cleves,

the female bodyguard in the black coat, and the remaining two were the

children of their employer, a girl of fourteen or fifteen years of age

and a young gentleman of no more than ten years of age.

The two youngsters wore thick cotton nightgowns and outer coats. It was

obvious that they had come out in a hurry.

They trembled amidst the chilling night wind, but they still squatted

there full of energy and vigor, looking at Cleves with their bright

eyes.

Playing hide and seek? Klein joked inwardly.

He purposely increased the volume of his footsteps, causing Cleves and

the others to turn their gaze towards him.

"Friend, what happened?" Klein recalled the expressions of some bounty

hunters he knew in East Borough.

But he still maintained Gehrman Sparrow's unique identity of being cold

and sharp.

Cleves replied, unperturbed, "A private job, a hunt that came by

accident, but one that's worth looking forward to."

A Hunt? Klein's interest was suddenly piqued.

The reason he had named himself Gehrman was that it represented the

first hunter of a game he had played in his previous life, and it suited

his idea of hunting evil at sea.

Klein was in no hurry to inquire about the reason. Using his left hand

which wore Creeping Hunger, he pointed at the shadow next to him with

his left finger, "Private job? Doing a private job in front of your

employer?"

Cleves, who was squatting there, glanced at the boy and the girl and

said, without changing his tone, "Cecile wasn't careful enough and ended

up waking Donna and Denton up. She had no choice but to let them

follow."

The girl called Donna wrinkled her nose when she heard her name

mentioned. She curiously looked up and asked Klein, "Uncle, are you also

an adventurer?"

*Uncle? Even if it's the me from Earth, I'm at most 10 years older than

you!* Klein said in amusement, "No, you can't use the word

'also.' Strictly speaking, I'm the only adventurer here; they're just

bodyguards right now."

He turned to Cleves and said, "Hey. Mate, what prey did you discover?"

Cleves looked into the faint crimson waters and said, "A murloc."

*Murloc? That's a Beyonder creature! Even though it's of the lowest

grade, it's still quite difficult for ordinary people to deal with them.

They would need at least five to six people and four to five spears to

have a chance... That's right, the scales on a murloc's body are very

hard. Revolvers can only deal a little damage. They need to have a

rifle...* Klein raised his eyebrows and asked, "What do you plan

on doing? And how are you sure it's a murloc?"

Cleves pointed to the edge of the ship and said, "There are traces of

its body's mucus here. One to two hours ago, it tried to climb onto the

ship to attack the passengers, but the deck was still bustling with

activity and there were lots of sailors and crew."

Klein took a few steps forward and saw that there were some traces of

green corrosion on the side of the ship.

He recalled the information he had come into contact with in Tingen

City, and it coincided with the content in the books. He asked with

great interest, "Why must it be one, and not a group?"

He remembered that murlocs had a tendency to live together.

"If it's a group, then they'll directly destroy the ship's hull and let

everyone sink. Moreover, the area around this channel and the

surrounding sea have already been cleared of murlocs. The Church of

Storms really enjoy hunting them," Cleves solemnly explained.

*That's because murlocs are probably one of the main ingredients of the

Sequence 9 Sailor potion...* Klein stroked the revolver in his

pocket and asked with a smile, "Are you confident?"

Cleves didn't directly answer him and instead opened a paper bag beside

him. Inside the bag were some pig organs still stained with blood. This

was the source of the smell of blood that Klein noticed.

"All murlocs like this kind of food and are unable to resist its allure.

Of course, these monsters love human organs the most, so in many sea

legends, it's emphasized to prepare some pig or beef organs from the

ship's kitchen or canned organs," Cleves said as he sprinkled some

granules. "Pepper granules can cause the murlocs to feel the excitement

of smoking marijuana and lose some of their sense of balance. This can

last for about a minute, and after that, the murlocs will be exhausted

after the high state of excitement has subsided."

He then took out a wooden box from his clothes and placed the dark green

paste on the tip of the triangular blade, dagger, and short knife.

"The mint cream that's popular in Pritz Harbor is a unique sweetener for

humans, but in the eyes of the murlocs, it's a deadly blood toxin.

"In addition, I borrowed two rifles from the sailors. I got an agreement

to not disturb this area for twenty minutes, and I spent a sizable sum

of money. However, as long as I can successfully kill a murloc, then

I'll be able to reap ten, twenty, or even thirty times the cost."

*As expected of an experienced adventurer, he's exceptionally aware

about the weaknesses and problems of his prey... Listening to him speak,

I feel like they have a chance of successfully hunting the murloc, even

if they aren't Beyonders... In the face of traps and firearms,

Low-Sequence Beyonders really aren't much stronger than the average

person... It's not like there are no Low-Sequence Beyonders who die in

gang wars... However, murlocs are creatures that seem to wear full-body

armor. It's not easy to kill them. They would be injured, but it's not

like they can't escape...* Klein curiously asked, "You seem to

have killed quite a number of murlocs?"

"Understanding the characteristics of common sea monsters is a

prerequisite for an adventurer's survival." Cleves didn't show the joy

of being praised as he remained calm and silent.

As they conversed, the girl, Donna, and the boy, Denton, squatted in the

shadows and listened with relish. They found all of this to be the most

interesting thing in the world.

Yes, I also need to brush up on my studies in this area...

Klein smiled and said, "So that's how it is. I didn't disturb you, did

I?"

Cleves pierced a portion of organs on a rod and said with a deep voice,

"If you want to participate, take care of Donna and Denton so that

Cecile won't be distracted."

"Sure." Klein, who wanted to watch from the sidelines, smiled and

agreed.