Abyssal Awakening

Cleaning up the beasts wasn't difficult as Alice had already taken care of a majority of them during her rampage.

Once the scene was cleared and they were sure that no more Harvesters could be found, Ria started to collect their corpses in a large bag. The only really useful body part from a Harvester was their sharp tail. The material could be bought for some coin and repurposed into daggers.

Meanwhile, Alice calmed her mind as the adrenaline slowly faded from her body. She took several deep breaths while glancing at the blood dagger in hand, watching it absorb all the blood around her the moment it made contact.

During the fight, she wasn't sure if she could make bigger blades with foreign blood, since Nalem said it required her own. However, that didn't seem to be the case since it could use the Harvesters' blood, the only difference being it required far more to get the same results.

'If it takes, let's say, 1 unit of my blood to make a dagger and 4 units to make a greatsword, it requires 4 units of foreign blood to make a dagger and 16 units to make a greatsword. It'll be handy if I can't afford to lose blood, as long as there is a bigger supply nearby.' Alice mused to herself as she enjoyed the versatility of her new weapon.

Twirling the wire with the dagger attached for a little while, Alice recalled the blade and transformed it back into a bracelet while helping Ria out with collecting the corpses.

"What's next?"

"Next would be to report this back to the Guild. The owners should be able to try and revitalise this land with some help from the Guild. Our job is essentially done here." Ria explained while making sure the bag was sealed up tightly.

Taking their bounty back to the carriage, they took the ride back to the city and prepared to celebrate their first completed hunt. Thankfully, there were no abnormalities with the mission, unlike the Kata Charger hunt.

However, as they approached Zadash, Ria noticed a figure waiting by the gates. Squinting slightly to see who it was, her eyes soon lit up with joy. She jumped out of the carriage to rush at the figure.

"Grandfather!" Ria called out with a smile as she charged forward with lightning flickering from her body.

Widening his eyes, Gin braced himself and caught Ria without any issue.

"Missed me?" Gin grinned as Ria nodded.

"When did you arrive? Did you have to wait long?"

"I've only been waiting for about half an hour. I visited the Guild to find out where you are. They said you were out on a job. I don't see Allura with you. Did she go off on her own again?" Gin asked, glancing towards the carriage and seeing Alice sitting silently while watching the two of them.

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'Seems like the girl is still reticent. Though she does look more relaxed.'

"Allura said she needed to deal with something on her own while we went on a hunt. We just finished our second hunt, so we were about to go celebrate. You must be hungry too, right? Come on, let's go eat!" Ria grinned.

Gin smiled helplessly.

Seeing Ria swing Gin's arms around like a little girl, Alice couldn't help but chuckle.

'I suppose she can only fully relax around Gin since he was the one who saved her from the Cult. Her childhood was taken from her, so this might be her way of getting back what she lost. I wonder if I have a side like that within me…' Alice thought.

But she couldn't see it happening. The only thing she could think of was when she vented her emotions in the midst of battle.

It was only in battle that she managed to let out her rage towards the Zenia family.

There was no childish side to her; it died long ago on an operation table.

As she continued to watch Ria and Gin talk to each other with warm smiles on their faces, bitterness appeared in her heart.

'What is this feeling?'

"Why the long face?" A voice rang out beside her as Alice looked up in shock. There, she saw Allura sitting beside her. She had her arms spread out on the seat while wearing her jacket. Naturally, she was smoking like usual.

"I don't know. A weird feeling just appeared in my chest." Alice sighed and shook her head.

"Hm. Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually. But hey, your speech is getting better. Good job. How was your first hunt?" Allura smiled and patted Alice's head.

Alice began explaining what had happened, starting from everything they found around the ruins, followed by their fight with the cultists, how they almost died, and what Instructor Neal asked them to pass onto Allura.

"Hmm…" Furrowing her brows, Allura fell silent.

Thinking to herself for a few moments, she shrugged and patted Alice's head once more.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do later when we go talk to that brat. But setting that aside, did you happen to run into Kaden? I doubt it since that b*stard doesn't come down here anymore, but you never know." Allura asked while giving Alice's bracelet a brief glance.

"No. Why? Was I supposed to see him?"

"If you didn't see him, then it's fine. Let's go celebrate your first successful hunt, shall we? I got a bit of time now, so I can watch over your training a little." Allura smiled as she stood up and hopped off the carriage.

"Gin! Let's bring the young ones somewhere nice today. We can't be eating standard Guild food for this occasion!"

Hearing Allura's voice, Gin looked up in surprise before scratching his head.

"When the hell did you show up? Can't you stop popping up out of nowhere and actually appear like a normal person? Goodness. But sure, I was going to take Ria somewhere nice anyway. Got any places in mind?" Gin asked.

"Dunno, I usually just rock up wherever and eat stuff. I've never really been anywhere fancy." Allura shrugged.

"Sigh, I'll sort it out as usual, then… Go submit your hunt results and stick close to Allura. I'll come find all of you once I find a nice restaurant." Gin smiled towards Ria and patted her head.

"Alright." Ria nodded happily.

After they said goodbye to Gin, they made their way to the Guild to submit their report. While the two did that, Allura excused herself so that she could talk to Neal alone.

Pulling out another cigarette, Allura opened Neal's door without even knocking. She sat down on the chair and stared at the instructor in front of her.

"I presume that Alice and Ria have told you about the situation." Neal smiled, understanding that Allura was in an irritable mood right now.

"They have. Do you just need me to kill this thing? Or do you want me to clean up the rodents?"

"As much as I would like to ask you to take care of the rodents, the most concerning thing is the White Death. We don't know its power at all, but considering it was born from the body of an Old Abyss Lord, you're the only one we can count on at this moment. If we had more time, I would've called for more reinforcements." Neal shrugged helplessly.

He knew that Allura liked to take the neutral stance usually, however, Neal had no choice but to rely on her to save the people from such a predicament.

". . . I'll see how it goes. If it requires me to move, I'll move. If not, Gin can probably sort it out himself." Allura replied after a period of silence.

Breathing out a cloud of smoke, she stood up.

"Send me all the details you have about this. I'll let Gin know when the time comes."

Without waiting for his reply, Allura left the room, causing Neal to sigh out in relief. Cold sweat had long covered his back.

Someone who was rumoured to be on par with the Abyss Lords, Allura was famous within the highest level of the Hunter community. Yet no one knew where she came from. She suddenly appeared one day and took the community by storm.

If it wasn't for the fact that he worked with her before, he wouldn't have even known about her. Not only that, Allura didn't feel dangerous, unlike the high level Hunters he'd seen before..

No, she felt harmless. But the power behind that glare of hers was enough to make Neal's legs go soft.

"I should ask the branch leader for extra pay when he comes back." He forced a smile.

###

Meanwhile, Gin took a trip down to the Underground. After hearing about what Ria had to go through, he had to try his best to suppress the killing intent surging out from the depths of his heart.

Taking the same path that Allura took to go down, he approached the strange altar with a tree in the shape of a person.

"Joseph." Gin called out as the man kneeling in front of the statue glanced back.

"Gin, welcome. I presume you are here to ask about the rodents that have made themselves known to the city?" Joseph asked with a smile.

"If you know then stop beating around the bush." Gin sighed.

"Of course. Unfortunately for you, they have pulled out all of their agents from the city. All you can do now is wait for them to reappear," Joseph apologised, "But we do have information about their Archbishops, the ones that were involved."

"Send it to my room once you have compiled it into a file. I'll have my men bring you the payment as usual." Gin nodded and turned around to leave.

"For this to have brought an esteemed Hunter out of retirement, you have become quite the family man." Joseph smiled as Gin paused mid step.

"Speaking of which, do you have a good restaurant fit for a celebration?" Gin asked as he had spent quite a bit of time reaching the place.

". . ." Blinking in surprise, Joseph chuckled.

"I will have the finest room in the best restaurant of Zadash reserved for your group."