The Ancient Genes

"Vatican!! You mean the Vatican in the south. The one near the City of Ishtar.", Max asked in shock.

'F*ck is this a joke. If yes, it's not funny. But it doesn't look like they are joking. Did I really travel halfway through the Continent?'

"Care to explain what's going on Ethen.", Kaiser asked.

"I remember hunting with my party before we were separated by a beast horde. In the end, I jumped off a cliff and the next thing I know is finding myself here beside the river.", Max replied after a quick thought. The amount of information he gave shouldn't lead to him being identified anyway.

The crowd looked at Max with a blank look in their eyes. It was clear that none of them intended to buy it even though he wasn't lying.

"Beast horde! He is obviously lying."

"Yeah….not to mention that this river flows from the east to south is absurd itself."

"Yeah, even if it did, there is no way for him to survive with all the beasts in the water."

"Give this kid to me...he will spill out all the beans within a second."

"If you don't know about it. It doesn't mean that it didn't happen.", Max ignored the people and said while looking towards Kaiser.

The people were pissed of by Max's remark and one of the tall bulky man with the shield stepped up.

"What did you say?"

Max looked at him. He really didn't care and had already decided. If this man touched him, he would cut off his hands and if he still didn't give it up. He would be dead meat today.

The bulky man moved his hand towards Max and a chilly gleam flashed past in Max's eyes. No one but one had noticed the look in Max's eyes.

"Wait!!"

Kaiser grabbed the bulky man's hand and gently shook his head.

Even though the guy didn't want it. He still followed Kaiser's instruction and backed off.

"Rene, hand me the transmitter.", Kaiser asked the archer.

" What….. that requires a lot of energy to use. You barely have any left after the fight. Do you really need to go that far for a stranger?", Rene replied.

Even though his words might sound a bit unpleasant, he wasn't wrong. Max too wasn't affected by it. He just wanted to know the way out and nothing else.

"Just give it to me, I am not as exhausted as you think.", Kaiser said with a smile.

Rene shook his head as he handed over the transmitter.

Max looked at the entire scene and had developed a good impression of Kaiser.

But what really was surprising for him was the transmitter.

'This mercenary group is filthy rich. A transmitter was expensive as modern technology didn't work properly in Orena. Only the thing which required mana to operate could properly work here.'

After a short while, Kaiser put down the transmitter. His face had turned a bit pale and sweaty.

Everyone looked at him for answers. If he said that the kid was wrong, they would chop him into pieces.

"Huff! He is right….there was indeed a massive beast horde in the east a few days ago.", Kaiser's words shocked the hell out of everyone.

The beast horde was obviously one of the reasons. But what was even more surprising was that the kid managed to survive and somehow crossed halfway through the continent in a few days.

'F*ck! Where is the logic in it?'

Everyone had the same thought in their minds.

" Kaiser...I don't believe it. Even though the incident might be true. But we don't know if what this guy said was true. What if he just had the knowledge about the incident?", Rene said after giving it a thought.

"But it isn't possible to know about this incident. If he had been trailing us for a while. He should have entered Orena almost 2 months ago at the same time when we did, while the incident occurred a few days ago."

With one providing an argument, others too joined in. After a while, Max could clearly see most of them still were doubtful of him.

"Hey! I don't care what you think. I don't even know why you are fighting. I just want to know the way out.", Max interrupted them.

"Everyone, we are taking a quick break. Ethen you come with me!" Kaiser replied.

The others still complained but Kaiser didn't pay a heed and eventually everyone settled down while glaring at Max.

Max on the other hand didn't care as he talked with Kaiser. He came to know that Kaiser once worked for the Union. But an injury had forced him into an early retirement. This led him to changing his battle style and only focus on spells while avoiding combat. After he developed his techniques, he joined the Vultures and after years of hard work, he finally managed to become a Squad leader.

Max could guess that the man was around High Tier Mage at minimum.

"Here take this. If you come to Ishtar City and need any help, feel free to contact me.", Kaiser passed a card along with the map that he had just drawn.

" Thanks...I am grateful. But aren't you scared that I am a spy?", Max asked.

He had been wondering about this since the rest of the guys were pretty worried about it.

"Haha..well there are quite a few reasons. First, we aren't the main group. Don't you think that we are quite weak to be at this place?", Kaiser asked with a smile.

" Now that you mention it…..you people really are…", Max replied.

"Well, we are here this time as a porter group.", Kaiser replied.

" Porter group?", Max asked.

"Yes, we are only here for carrying things that the main group collects and hunts. You see we are carrying a lot of rare resources, beast meat and cores."

"The main group is divided into two. One is the vanguard and the other is the rearguard. The Vanguard clears the way for us. So we don't usually face any problem. The Shadow Leopard really surprised us. And you did too. But it was obvious that you followed a different path here or else you would have bumped into the Vanguard group.", Kaiser replied.

" Is that enough of a reason, to be not afraid?", Max asked with a smile.

"Well, I am confident about killing you if you really did something unnecessary.", Kaiser said with a smile. But Max realised that he wasn't joking at all.

" Well, I ain't a spy. So you don't need to worry and even if you could kill me, it doesn't mean that I will let you do it.", Max said as he got up.

"Do you want to join us? I can recommend you. We are a pretty big group in Ishtar. You can earn a good amount of money."

Max looked at Kaiser. But before he could reply, a scream rang out.