“Ready to head out now? I tracked our guy down and he’s nearby.”
The short period of rest had done a lot for Aurora’s physical health. Her fortitude was the goddess’s recovery tool, but natural rest was still superior.
Even one hour was enough to make her feel energetic.
“Sure. Should we bury our tracks this far? We’ve not bothered to hide our presence this far but it could get problematic if we were to get followed from here on.”
“We should. We were not on the tower’s radar before but I feel like the tower will start to take us seriously from here on.”
Aurora was sure that the tower would become a bigger problem for them from here on. The only reason their group had not been targeted this far was that no one knew their affiliations.
But Aurora knew that Quince would not keep their secret. And once the tower knew, their security would be non-existing.
“Ok, Take a few steps back and I will torch the place down. Don’t give me that look. This much is easy to do.”
Aurora was worried for Rita but she ultimately decided to wash her hands off this case. If Rita wanted to torch the cave down, then it was up to her.
It was not like the cave would have any more used for their group anyway and it was a security risk since it carried too much of their scent.
“Make sure you mask the smell properly. It would tease you forever if the tower managed to find us because they tracked us by our scents.”
“Of course, that would not happen. Have some faith in me at least.”
Rita complained but she took out her tag from the system storage. It was a newly made one from Aurora’s residual power and it was extremely potent.
In a way, this usage of the spell was also a trial run to see how compatible Rita was with using Aurora’s magic.
ρ?n?a (n??)???? And it worked perfectly. The cave was lit ablaze within seconds of coming in contact with the magic spell.
“So now that we took care of it, where should we go next? Our man is on the run, right?”
Aurora nodded at Natasha’s observation. The tracking spell Ava had given Aurora had not worked so far but it had suddenly started working a few minutes ago.
Aurora could only chalk it up to being a distance issue. Their guide must be nearby but they were not showing themselves.
“On the run or not, it doesn’t matter to me. I am not in a mood to chase someone down. I guess it is time to let loose.”
Aurora had held back using her magic this far because she did not want to give her identity away to her companions. But now that she no longer had to keep her secret, it was time to let loose.
The magic started with a ball of light before it started taking shape into a wolf. This was one of Aurora’s spells she rarely used but it was really useful when she had to track someone down.
“Go, drag our guide out.”
The magic left through the boulder before disappearing behind another boulder.
“Wow, I didn’t think you were capable of summoning magic as well. Will I be getting my spot taken away as the team’s summoner?”
Rita was joking, this much Aurora knew but she did not want Rita to entertain such useless thoughts.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am not a summoner and that was no summoned. I just forced my magic to take a physical form and it naturally turned out as a wolf.”
“Oh, is that so? I didn’t even know something like this was possible.”
Rita sounded relieved with the discovery. Aurora was glad that she had decided to interfere before Rita could get any more ridiculous ideas in her head.
“It is not difficult to create such creatures out of magic but they lack utility and have to be manually controlled. I’m glad we have Rita as our summoner so that we don’t have to waste magic on such useless tasks.”
Natasha was not one to speak uselessly. So seeing her speak in such a situation was rare for Aurora. Rare and also heartwarming.
Natasha was trying to cheer Rita up in her own way. It was awkward at best but it was heartwarming for those who knew Rita.
“So I am your manual laborer now? You don’t have to flatter me like this to gain my favor. I will still do my best when I regain my powers.”
Rita forced out a laugh but it turned genuine pretty soon. Aurora was glad to see that Rita was not feeling down.
It was difficult for Aurora to remember that Rita was a teenager mentally. Just because her body was that of an adult, it did not mean her mind was as well.
“Look, the wolf is back. And doesn’t it look like it is carrying something in its jaws?”
Aurora, whose attention was on Rita, quickly looked over to where Rita was pointing. She could make out a familiar shape in that direction and she could also feel her magic.
It seemed like the wolf she had created had ended up finding what she had sent it to find.
“Spit it here”
Aurora opened her hand to receive what the wolf had brought back. She was sure that the wolf had a clue about their guide but the wolf spat out a dwarf on Aurora’s hand instead.
The small body on Aurora’s hand was alive and humming with energy. She could tell that the dwarf was alive and well.
It was also awake but pretending to be asleep. The irregular heartbeat beneath her hands gave the dwarf away.
“Ahhhhhh, I think we killed it. What should we do with it? Should we throw it away and look for a new guide?”
Aurora saw the aura flicker with hope as soon as Rita spoke those words. The dwarf was amusing to see but Aurora was annoyed to see it trying to trick them.
‘I guess I will have some fun as well.’
“No. Let’s dissect every part of this dwarf and sell its organs. I am sure it will fetch a huge market price.”
Aurora was faced with the twin’s looks of concern at her words. She was even sure Rita was giving her the look which screamed ‘concerned’ but Aurora did not back down or correct her words.
All she did was give the pair a gentle and calming smile back and it seemed to be enough for Natasha to get the message.
“Ah, I see. I think I know of some places where we can get this dwarf dissected. But first, we should preserve its body in frozen cold. I don’t want it to decompose before we reach the upper floors. Here, let me…”
As soon as Natasha’s cold hands touched the dwarf, it jumped up in fright. It had tears filling up its huge eyes and he gave the trio his most pitiful look.
“P-Please don’t kill me. I will do whatever you want me to. Please don’t kill me.”
Aurora tightened her hold around the dwarf as soon as it showed that pitiful expression. She was not surprised to see what a good actor and liar the dwarf was.
“Drop the act. I know the overlooker told you we were coming. You were trying to run away from us, right?”
Aurora tightened her fist even more and she continued doing that until the dwarf found it difficult to breathe.
Only then did the dwarf breaks its pitiful mask and showed its true colors.
“Tsk, so you knew. I thought I would be able to get away because humans are stupid. I’ll warn you, I don’t intend to help you any more than I have to.”
The dwarf dropped its polite and meek speech as soon as it realized it had been caught. Swarfs were treacherous creatures who did not care about anything or anyone.
As long as they could benefit, they won’t even hesitate to sell their own child or loved ones. They were heartless creatures who only cared about themselves.
But it was not their fault. It was the fault of the abyss that made them this way.
“Oh, don’t worry. I will make you do what you need to. So, it’s time to get back to business. Start leading us to the Death Pool.”
The dwarf did not look happy but it ultimately decided to comply. One thing the dwarfs had was their sense of self-preservation. And the dwarf could tell that these people were not the ones he could outrun or outwit.
These were different from all the other humans it had seen this far. So he decided to sit tight and comply with them.
Besides, there was the pressure of the overlooker to consider as well. The dwarf did not want to get on her bad side if he could help it. The last dwarf that had tried had ended up dying a painful death.
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