Shades of the New World

Chapter 284: Suspicions

Evin gathered the information he got from Khunichi and went back to the temporary base. Runa went back into Evin's dimension, since there wasn't anything dangerous to face, which left Evin alone with his thoughts.

'Can't believe he actually asked to join the Paradra at the end of it all' Evin thought, impressed by the man's guts.

But sadly, guts alone didn't really help someone become successful. A certain about of skill, or luck was needed to back up one's brave decisions. Well, it didn't really matter, since Evin had gotten everything he needed from the man. And he promised to give him back his horn if he saw it lying around the secret base he was about to raid, as a way to reward Khunichi's help.

When Evin entered the temporary base, he noticed that the rest of the team was already inside the common room, waiting for him with a cup of tea in each other's hands. Dzuko and Yazuran had already come, so the team was fully functional.

'Damn, I should get myself a cup of coffee' Evin suddenly felt a great craving. He walked over to the desk and started boiling some water.

"How did it go?" Sannah asked, noticing his arrival.

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"Pretty good. I couldn't find the exact location of the base, but I'm pretty sure it's under the city somewhere and it was established 5 or 4 years ago," Evin replied, "Tons of local earthquakes were felt around that time, and the amount of kidnappings suddenly increased in number as well. There wasn't any specific characteristic to the people that disappeared, just anyone that usually liked to walk around the town streets alone."

As he was speaking, he poured in some coffee grounds into the metal filter he made for himself, trying not to add in too much.

"The man also mentioned lots of weird sounds and lights coming from underground. He mentioned one instance, there was even a phenomena, where thin strands of bluish light seemed to seep out from the ground below one night. The residents of the town sent a notice to the inspector that comes in monthly, but they didn't really receive any information back. Could you ask headquarters if they've received anything similar?" Evin asked.

He sat down next to the rest and looked at the hot water slipping through the layer of coffee with longing. The rest were already familiar with Evin's daily ritual so they weren't really bothered by it all.

"Ertu," Sannah ordered and the latter went to the communication device. Sannah resumed the conversation, "Do you think the man's trustworthy?"

"He didn't look like he was bribed or anything, and I witnessed a few moments where the town residents communicated with him," Evin said and described what happened in more detail, starting with the conversation between the two Hornbearers and ending with Khunichi's guesses about the potential location of the secret base. 

After all, Khunichi and the two had been captured at one point. Obviously, they were blindfolded and put unconscious, but they still remembered where they got captured and they both agreed that they've been carried through a long set of stairs shortly after. This narrowed down the places the team needed to search marginally.

"At the end of it, he even asked to join the Paradra," Evin joked slightly after he finished.

Sannah and the rest listened to the full story and everyone seemed convinced, except for Yazuran.

"Is Eleven Six really trustworthy? During the entirety of the mission, he seems to be the only one discovering things one after another. We've had cases where turncoats pulled us into craftily sequenced traps. Moreover, Eleven Six seems to only stumble upon these revelations through random coincidences."

Evin heard the man's complaints and found some logic to it all. After all, for Evin, who was living through these incidents, it didn't really seem all coincidental to him. But for someone else sitting on the sidelines, things start to seem suspicious. But he still had to explain himself to a certain degree.

"It's not that I've stumbled upon them by coincidence. I actively visited crowded areas in hopes of hearing anything useful from the patrons, or in hopes of spotting someone suspicious stalking around like myself. Today, I was switching between the two taverns, listening to everyone's conversation before I finally stumbled upon Khunichi."

"But you also found yourself in a fight with two enemies three days ago and survived. Not only did you survive, but you incapacitated one of them completely, while managing to mutilate the other's leg in the process. Also, I've heard about the effects of the ice shard on Eleven One's finger. I heard that you got pelted by a dozen of the things, but for some reason, you seem completely fine compared to her? Isn't this just another of your plays to get on our good side and lure us into a something sinister? I feel that you noticing the trio of mages during our trip was also some part of your plan."

"First of all, Sannah touched the spell without any protection whatsoever. If she had just covered her fingers with a protective layer of some sorts, not even her World Domain, the effects would've been much less dramatic. This is the reason why it's okay for us to lob spells at each other, but not at non-mages. My skinshifter armor is deeply imbued with Dark Energies, so it shows a certain amount of resistance to a spell's effects," Evin started.

"As for how I was able to win against two enemies, well, I have many tricks up my sleeve. They didn't know that, so they couldn't protect themselves from them. If I ever fight the same people again, I'm sure I'll face a much stronger fight compared to before."

"You might also say that I should've killed them altogether if I was strong enough to incapacitate them to such a degree. But the problem was, they didn't look very incapacitated to me, with the woman endlessly throwing exploding needles at me and the man's situation completely unknown to me at the time. I learned that he had lost his leg only after everything was over. There was also the risk of their allies coming over to help, and I definitely wasn't willing to fight an entire team of elites."

Hearing Evin's explanation, Yazuran still didn't look very convinced. But thankfully, someone from the team defended Evin.