Ball of Nothing

Truen had to admit, the Spring of Vitality was amazing. Unlike Zero who also cultivated qi, Truen was fully reliant on mana of the environment to recover and there wasn't a place better than Endow Hill in Half Moon Village.

In just two days after his isolated recuperation, the archer was finally fully recovered physically. In addition, his mana reserves were half-filled. Unless he had to take on an S-class menace, Truen was ready to set off down to Smargdas again. Roovan and Cleo told him that Jermine was fitting in nicely with New Moon Village and an important person in the construction progress. He truly didn't think that Monoman and his tribe would be willing to adapt to living underground but he supposed those who lived a rough life are willing to do anything to make it better with a second chance. Half Moon Village was built among the trees and in trees because they had a dryad. Now that New Moon Village were inviting mole beast folks, maybe they would see some cultural changes.

The wood elf noted that his mana reserves were sufficient for now so he sent word to Zero about creating the waystone from Half Moon Village to New Moon Village before he left for Smargdas. He wasn't as proficient as Zero when it came to alchemic arrays but he knew the basics of drawing a teleportation circle. Still, Truen's waystone would require a mana sacrifice. Most of the people in New Moon Village didn't have mana and some from Half Moon Village didn't have mana to activate it either. The only logical solution would be to visit the abyss and ask Ruth for a huge bag of mana stones in exchange for some other materials the demons needed.

That errand took Truen a day to complete and by the time he finished teaching the villagers how to use the mana stones, he left everything to Raj who was in charge of the building project. They only had a limited number of mana stones so Truen urged them to plan their trips carefully and sparingly.

Mitchnew received word from Truen about his arrival a few days ago and planned to welcome him back hospitably with Desert Lily's first appearance in Smargdas. It wasn't often that Mitchnew found someone worthy of calling her opponent and the ladies decided to spar while waiting for Truen.

Lady Death certainly lived up to her reputation but Desert Lily wasn't a pushover either. They were evenly matched in combat skills and the respect they had for each other increased tremendously after ten minutes with no clear signs of a victor.

Truen walked into the underground assassin guild and narrowly dodged a needle that embedded itself into the rock surface behind him. The follow-up projectiles were easier to deal with and Truen jumped out of the way, hopping onto the beam near the ceiling to avoid the tackle from both ladies.

"I see that you've been warming up," he commented dryly at their dishevelled appearance. "Sorry for being late. I had to take a detour."

Not wasting more time, Truen made himself home in Mitchnew's base and made them three cups of tea. The undead bandits didn't show up ever since Half Moon Village started stationing at least one guard from Clowis' team every night for patrol duties. It was unknown if the necromancer controlling those bandits was acting cautiously or just not dumb enough to underestimate the guard sent on duty.

Clowis, Lowis, Titor and Ruth took turns visiting New Moon Village. Monoman was more and more impressed with each new representative Half Moon Village sent. Seeing a vampire with demonic blood was shocking but seeing a vampire who enjoyed regular food like a normal person was a true eye-opener. He also learnt from brief interactions that Ruth was Zero's combat teacher. That definitely caught the warrior's interest but Truen didn't interfere. It was better that they got along and had better connections with the main village for Zero's sake.

"Have you heard about undead bandits in the area?" he asked Mitchnew who shook her head.

"What's going on? Desert Lily just told me how they successfully convinced the Green Hawks with Dwayne to implement some standards for slaves. Grey Legion doesn't like it very much."

"Really?" Truen asked in disbelief. He honestly thought that such a huge change would take longer but Desert Lily smirked, full of confidence.

"With Lady Death backing the Black Mamba, not even Grey Legion can do anything about it. In fact, Dwayne sent Brutus to mess up their auction house and slave pens for not following the rules set by Green Hawk. You might be forgetting that Dwayne is a retired S-class adventurer who single-handedly stopped all fighting in Deadman Town and ruled the lawless zone. Monoman is a long-time friend of his so when they heard The Mammoth was moving here to support Half Moon Village, I can only imagine what the Grey Legion are thinking."

To fill Truen in on what he was missing out on, Mitchnew explained that they found out the true backer for the notorious Grey Legion. There were not only magicians and alchemists backing the powerful faction. They were part of U.N.U.'s powerhouses.

"Is it Sylvia the Silver Witch?" Truen asked out of worry. Zero did tell him some strange things and he hated to ruin potential business partners before Zero got to them.

Mitchnew shook her head and Desert Lily remained silent. "We don't know for sure. It could be but it might not be either. Sylvia is obsessed with alchemy but from the rumours of what we hear, she is only interested in creating chimaeras. Xvyal and Yxaan hasn't responded, I don't know how they are doing in U.N.U."

"The bandits that attacked and kidnapped the women and children were undead. We suspect a necromancer at work. Do you think Soon will be able to find out more?"

Desert Lily was confused. "Who is Soon?"

Mitchnew grinned. "U.N.U. isn't the only place that has necromancers. Half Moon Village has two powerful A-rank ex-adventurer undead and one very powerful wizard turned half-lich necromancer called Soon. Oh, we have a powerful witch who specialises in alchemy too by the name of Lovina but she isn't in the village at the moment. She's interning in Arabesque with her master - Merlin."

Dumbfounded, Desert Lily could only let Truen and Mitchnew make plans to find the bandit mastermind and capture them for interrogation. If she thought that she was on par with Lady Death earlier in terms of her information network from the lawless zone and in fighting prowess through their earlier exchange, she was having second thoughts now. Unlike her, Mitchnew wasn't working alone. She had powerful allies and friends in high places while Desert Lily worked alone. Dwayne wasn't even a close business partner she could depend on. Just who exactly were these people and what was Half Moon Village?