Chapter 128: Lullaby of the Geisha
The weapon that Jeremy recently got was far superior to most often Allen's weapons. He wished he last hit the worm beast, but since he didn't, he had no other choice but to accept his fate.
This was also probably for the better. Since Jeremy wasn't as strong as he was, when another beast would appear, at least he could defend himself and not let Allen shoulder the fight alone.
Other than the fact that Allen could still stealthily last hit the beasts, he would have no other problems. Maybe he would let Jeremy last hit some so it wouldn't be too obvious, but when it comes to important-looking beasts, himself was the priority.
"Okay," Jeremy kept the weapon back and looked ate Allen. "What do we do now?"
"Grind," Allen said. "And on second thoughts, I think I'll do this."
Allen summoned his Bodies, shocking Jeremy who was looking at him weirdly. "What?"
"You're summoning them, why?" Jeremy asked. "I thought you could do it on your own."
"I figured that if the Wandering Trader would have several different figures, it will be hard to be tracked down," he said. "Think about it. My own body figure is too obvious. There's not a lot of people who has a tall and lean build like I do.
"Most hunters are either tall and buff, just a regular height but is skinny, or short and lean," Allen continued. "You know that the roles doesn't just affect the personality of the Hunter, but as well as their physical appearance one they have been Hunting for a while. The roles will seep into their souls basically."
"And you know this from a fact?" Jeremy quirked his eyes up. "Well anyway, as long as you know what you're doing, I'm only here to help you."
"Thanks," Allen smiled. His Bodies had fully manifested themselves and they were now standing beside him. He ordered them to walk around the forest as a start. He still has ways to go before he can make them Hunt and perform swift and complex moves like him."
All three of his Bodies walked around the small clearing, walking in circles as their head looked around slowly. Allen was focusing his entire energy on making them move, but he was getting too focused on them.
"Just relax," Jeremy whispered. "You're doing a good job right now."
"Yes, you are!"
A familiar female voice cheered somewhere above them. Both boys turned to its direction and saw Queeny standing on top of a tree. She was smirking at them, giving them a wink before she landed on the ground gracefully.
"I knew I'd find you here," Queeny said. "My real body is back in Camp Twyla. I just sent Queeny to deliver you something."
"Deliver me what?" Allen asked. Queeny offered her hand to which Allen reluctantly took. "What is this…"
<Lullaby of the Geisha>
Type: Skill
Grade: Grand
Effect/s: (1) Active - Performs a song that will lull all non-allied units around a 20-meter area.
(2) Passive - The damage to the sleeping units will increase by 30%.
(3) ???
(4) ???
"What's this?" Allen asked. "Why did you give me this?"
"I have a mission for you," Queeny said. "You–"
"Well, the thing is, we don't do missions," Jeremy said, surprising both Allen and Queeny. "We make deals."
"He's right," Allen said. "I must oversee the contents of this deal and make sure that both parties would have equal benefits."
"Two million dollars including that Code," Queen smirked. "That's the prize of this deal. All you have to do is find the badge of a fallen Hunter."
Allen and Jeremy looked at each other, "Fallen Hunter?"
–
"Anthony Silva," Allen read the file. "Twenty-seven years old, 188cm, 70kg, brunette hair, has a mole on his face, has a tattoo on his arm, and his hair was a wolf cut style."
"They expected us to find a corpse of a Hunter that has been missing for three weeks?!" Jeremy growled. "And in a den filled with lions at that. And you even accepted it."
"The Code that Queeny gave me is going to be very useful," Allen said. "It will make the lions fall asleep while we retrieve the body and leave. It's not that hard."
"But it's a den of lions, Dante," Jeremy tried to argue. "A den of lions doesn't sound too appealing for me. I'll only have a part of that reward and I don't even think it's worth it."
"They'll give us two million dollars each," Allen looked up to see the dollar bills on Jeremy's eyes. "You still think it's not worth it?"
Jeremy paused for a second. He chuckled and shook his head, "Who said anything like that? Two million dollars for getting a body? That's nothing."
This made Allen laugh. "You're hopeless. But I'm no better. The sooner we leave, the better. It's going to be dangerous when the night comes. The lions will be taken care of tomorrow."
"But how will we contact Kevin?" Jeremy asked. "He didn't leave anything for us to contact him with."
"He gave us a bit of a deadline," Allen replied. "He will come back here, in this same spot tomorrow at nighttime. When we're not here until morning comes, the deal will be off."
"What if we got stranded inside?" Jeremy asked. "The deal will be off?"
Allen shrugged, "If we got stranded halfway through the task, we'll have until morning to figure things out."
"That's the catch," Jeremy deadpanned. "I knew two million dollars was going to be too much."
Allen just chuckled and prepared their camp. For the night, they will plan their attack. The den of the lions was located at the part of the forest where the forest meets the savannah fields. It was right at the frontier where the cold meets the warm, making it the optimum place for beasts to live.
From where they currently are, the den wasn't too far. The boys decided to leave at dawn right where the sun would rise. It will be enough time for them to get to where the den was when the sun was up, but not too late that it would be hard for them to go back.
From the information regarding the den, all Kevin told them was that it was an open cave that was filled with trees. By open cave, Kevin meant that the cave had no ceiling except from the trees that towered over it.
From a glance, it was no question that it was a pride's den. The lions that were roaming around the cave were too many, looking dangerously with their mane made of vines and their fur that were made of grass.
Each lion had a symbol on their forehead and there were three symbols. Allen knew that these three represents their role in the pride. A trident-like shape resembles that the lion was a hunter, a circle shape symbolizes the lion as a homemaker, and the last and the rarest one was the cross symbol which meant that the lion led a group of lions.
All the lions in the pride looked male biologically. All of them had the same vine like manes, but the main difference between the male and female was that the females have flowers on their manes as opposed to the males which had thorns on the vines.
Allen could tell that there were about one female per two male in the pride, a competent opposite to the single male and multiple females in the pride on earth. The beasts from the Otherworlds were indeed different.
"You should start," Jeremy said while they were looking from a tree. The tree was tall and the branch they were standing on was far from the cave, so they had to teavel down to reach the pride.
Allen sighed and activated the Code that Kevin gave him. The notification rang, signaling the start of the activation of the Code.
Then, Allen felt his body move on its own. He leaped down the branch he was standing on and landed right in front of the cave where the lions were.
Upon seeing the boy, the lions immediately growled. They lowered their bodies and prepared to pounce on the boy, seething aura of anger and fury.
Allen wanted to close his eyes in fear. He didn't want to see himself die just yet. His mouth opened and his voice came out of his mouth.
"The virtues that you possess are unmatched," Allen started to sing. It had the tune of a children's song, so Allen knew it was the lullaby that the Code mentioned. "You are the light that shines upon the earth. You are the fury that burns in my heart…"
The boys continued to sing as a visible streaks of line appeared in the air. The lines were like from a musical note, the musical symbols also appearing and dancing with it.
Not a few moments later, every lion in the den fell asleep, leaving Allen to finish his song. "Wow."