Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest

125  Chapter 29.8 - Banquet

"Team Fox! Team Fox! ANSWER ME!"

Inside the same space filled with portals opening all around, the bulky man was shedding sweat.

As the urgency in the bulky man's voice intensified, he repeatedly attempted to establish contact with Team Fox, his fingers frantically tapping the microphone. But there was nothing but silence as the signal remained frustratingly broken.

"Team Fox! Respond, dammit!" he barked into the microphone, his eyes darting between the screens that displayed the ominous darkness within the room where the veiled figure stood.

"Czzzt….."

However, only a broken and disturbed signal came as a response, as if to mock him. He wondered, how did this happen?

Was there a jammer that would block their communication?

His face turned to the veiled figure, his eyes bloodshot. Had he been betrayed? He asked himself.

"It is not the Blackthorn Family."

At that second, the veiled figure's voice came just to answer his question. "The mana-eating property of the walls wouldn't block the signal, and you know it."

"THEN WHO IS IT, DAMMIT!"

He shouted, his voice echoing in the darkness of the veiled figure's chamber while the screens and whirling sounds continued, though there was no response from Team Fox.

It was as if a shroud of secrecy had descended, separating them from the world outside.

And for them, the members of the most crucial part, that was something that couldn't be overlooked no matter what.

"DELTA!"

The bulky man immediately shouted, his face turning to one of the screens. There, he could see one of the attackers clashing with the forces of the Blackthorn Family.

[What is it, leader? CLANK!]

A composed voice came from the speaker as the man clashing with one of the guards stood up.

"Retreat from your position and return immediately."

[Are you sure, leader? The planned time hasn't come yet.]

"Yes, we don't have any choice."

[Understood.]

As the bulky man clenched his fists from one of the portals, a black-clad individual with blood spluttered all around his body appeared. It was as if he butchered countless animals.

From the tip of his spear, blood was spilling to the ground.

"I need you to look for Team Fox."

"Team Fox? The ones entering the vault?"

"Yes. Something must have happened there."

"Tch. I knew those thief bastards wouldn't be able to do the job properly, didn't I-"

"SHUT UP! We don't have much time to waste."

"Understood."

Without even talking much, the man with the spear suddenly disappeared, leaving a gush of wind behind his back. It was a truly inhuman speed belonging to a high-ranking awakened.

<nulli>-WROOM!

In a matter of seconds, the man entered the portal, leaving everyone alone.

******

Delta, one of the black-clad individuals of the shadowy organization, obeyed the leader's orders without hesitation.

He retreated from his current position, leaving behind the chaos of battle in the Blackthorn Family's stronghold.

The plan had been to keep the guards, and the forces of the Blackthorn family occupied for a certain time, but the unexpected turn of events had forced a change of plans.

"Tch, that is why I said he should have sent me."

He was one of the strongest members of the organization and knew such an important task shouldn't have been left to random thieves.

As Delta passed through the portal and arrived at the vault's location before him stood a scene that he was very familiar with.

What lay before him was a gruesome scene of death and destruction. The lifeless bodies of Team Fox were strewn about, their blood pooling on the polished floors of the vault.

It was a classic tableau of violence that he himself lived all his life. He spread his senses with mana into the vault using his unique skill [Radar]; he could sense no life aside from himself.

Four lifeless bodies and a bunch of artifacts belonging to the vault.

He just stood there for a second, as he immediately realized they were too late.

Since the fact that the item they were searching for was not even there. The amount of energy that the <nullb>Mana Nucleus should have contained was something that he would never miss, no matter what happened.

"Tch."

He clicked his tongue as he lowered his hands. He started searching for the body of one of the dead Team Fox members.

Delta carefully inspected the lifeless bodies of Team Fox.

<nulli>CLICK!

With a click sound, he found the thing he was looking for.

His experienced eyes quickly discerned that the special device they had planned to use to conceal the energy of the Mana Nucleus was indeed missing from each of the fallen members.

"This?"

The moment he realized that fact, he immediately understood one thing. Whoever had orchestrated this last-minute disturbance was well-prepared and well-informed.

The fact that they knew the organization had the necessary equipment to secure the Mana Nucleus meant it was known to them.

"There was a rat."

He mumbled to himself as he realized that fact.

They knew the value of the Mana Nucleus and had taken the necessary steps to secure it.

The shadowy organization had not only failed in its mission but also lost a valuable asset.

[Delta.]

At that exact second, from the earbuds inside his head came the voice of the leader.

[What is the situation?]

Delta took a deep breath before responding.

"Leader, things went south. Team Fox is down, and the special concealment device for the Mana Nucleus is missing. Someone knew about our mission and our target."

A heavy silence followed his words. The leader knew the significance of the Mana Nucleus and the lengths they had gone to secure it. The failure of this operation was a significant setback for the shadowy organization, and there would undoubtedly be consequences.

[FUCK!]

Following that came the loud shouting of someone angry. It was the expected response; even Delta knew how important this mission was.

[Get out of there, Delta. We are done here.]

As the order came, Delta stood up once again. He wanted to look for more clues about who did it, but he knew he didn't have much time.

"Understood," Delta replied, his voice tinged with disappointment and frustration.

<nulli>THUD!

However, he wanted to vent his anger, and he did it by kicking the corpses of Team Fox.

"Useless bastards."

He mumbled, looking at the rolling body.

<nulli>TICK!

However, at that exact second, he found something shiny on the ground. It was a small object that was shining even in the dimly illuminated room.

"Bullet?"

He thought to himself as he grabbed the small object. For some reason, his intuition told him that he should take this piece with him as a clue.

And he did just that, putting the small metallic piece into his pocket.

<nulli>SWOOSH!

Then, he left as he entered without even wasting any more seconds. Just like the wind he came and the wind he left.

<nulli>RUSTLE!

Though because of that, he missed the silhouette that suddenly appeared out of the shadows, with an outfit whose golden engravings were shining.

Even the mask covering his face was unable to mask the purple eyes shining underneath.

*******

"That was close."

I mumbled to myself, finally moving from the spot I was in.

"If not for this artifact, I would be dead."

There were two reasons why I came to this place and spent this much time and resources for today.

The first one was to disturb the plans of the demons and the organization.

And the second one was to make myself stronger.

How could I become stronger? When this question was asked, there were several answers that could come.

You could train and increase your stats by pushing yourself to the limits.

Or you could be born with a silver spoon.

And, now inside the vault of the Blackthorns, here I was, meeting the second requirement in my own way.

The moment I had killed the intruders, the first thing I did was to secure the Mana Nucleus. Since they came here knowing its properties, they already had the device to seal the energy coming out of it.

Of course, if they didn't know how to seal the energy being released, that would undoubtedly make them a target, as if to show others what they were doing.

Moreover, it was also impossible to put such unstable material energy-wise into the spatial bracelet without stabilizing it.

Those were the reasons why they would need a different device. And I knew what that device was.

Thus, grabbing the small higher technology suitcase, I immediately secured the Mana Nucleus and put it into my spatial bracelet.

However, that wasn't the end. I knew the fact that another member, probably one of the highest-ranking ones, would be sent to this place, and that alone was enough to threaten my life.

And, I was sure that my [Shadowborne] trait wouldn't be enough to conceal my energy from the eyes of high-ranking awakeners.

At that time, inside the Nexoria City Museum, the reason why Kaya wasn't able to find me was that she didn't have the direct opportunity to look for me. If she had the chance, she could easily find me and locate me.

However, that didn't mean I was hopeless.

I knew one of the things that I had been lacking was the fact that I needed armor. A suit that I could use to defend myself.

A special armor that needed to be flexible, enabling me to move stealthily, and also a good defense.

If there was such an armor, the Blackthorn Family would certainly have it, and in fact, they did.

[Unknown's Armor]

In the game, Victor gave one of his lackeys that armor later times.

A special armor that was found in one of the dungeons as loot and then later stored in the Blackthorn Family's Armory way in the past. Though the previous Blackthorn's did use it a little and enchanted it, it was still something that even most of the Blackthorns were not aware of since the item was left behind on the shelves and was already forgotten.

Considering the amount of things that the Blackthorn Family had and created, it was pretty normal that this armor was left to rot on shelves of one of the random vaults.

Also, most of the items here were actually things that Blackthorn's didn't care about or things they had abandoned as projects.

However, that didn't mean it was useless. It just didn't have the opportunity to shine.

The armor's innate ability was pretty simple but useful.

It had the ability to block the mana detection abilities, making it impossible to be located by mana sense. And, to add more, it also improved the stealth-related traits of the wearer.

I didn't know how the stealth improvement worked exactly, but the nerds of the game always advised the assassins to wear this armor in later stages as their main gear since it basically made the game a lot easier.

But that wasn't all there to it.

Thanks to the enchantments that were carved onto the armor by previous Blackthorns, the armor also had the ability to increase one's stats according to their limits when worn. Moreover, since it was a mana artifact, it had the ability to adjust its size and how it looked, just like most of the armor.

This was what made it a very suitable item for me and a good catch.

And there I was, eating the fruits of the armor hiding in the shadows. Thanks to the armor's unique ability, I was able to go undetected by his mana expansion, and that saved my life.

"Now, I have at most two minutes left."

I mumbled to myself, looking at the shelves.

"I guess this is the time to secure some good money….."