Dawn Architect

Chapter 53: dubious proposal

The city we were in was in the eastern region of the empire, far from the Forest of Destiny, which we used to frequent for our hunts. Instead, this area had a large swamp, a treacherous and difficult terrain to explore.

Unlike the Forest of Destiny , the swamp didn't get more dangerous the deeper you went, but certain areas were extremely dangerous. You had to be more careful than ever. It almost reached the fourth rank of three stars. The kids had also improved a lot and this mission could be the catalyst for their advancement.

We hunted normally throughout the day, making sure not to stray too far to return before dark. On the second day, everything seemed normal until we encountered a rare weed.

This weed was growing randomly everywhere, making it extremely difficult to find or grow. But I could also sense the presence of other people around. Before I could warn the children, Clayton, who also recognized her from a guild mission with a high reward, stepped forward.

The reward was high because of its rarity, equivalent to a core of a four-star beast. What Clayton didn't know, however, was that the mission had been created by Christian at my request. I needed that herb for a potion recipe that in the future would be invaluable. The more I could get, the better.

Clayton was approaching the herb when I detected movement and reacted immediately, deflecting an arrow that was headed his way. Immediately, I launched a lightning arrow toward where the attack came from, hearing a muffled scream followed by a crashing sound. Although I knew there were people around, I wanted to understand their intentions.

When they attacked first, I did not hesitate to respond in kind. Before long, the children joined me, and from the thicket of the forest, a group of people appeared. The leader raised his hands in surrender.

"Dear friend, this is a misunderstanding. We don't want to fight. It was just a mistake by our archer," he said with a smile on his face ignoring the fact that I wounded one of his people.

Although I was still alert, I decided to play along.

"A mistake eh... so tell me, why did your man shoot an arrow at a member of my group?"

"You're wrong, it was just a misunderstanding. My friend wanted to fire a warning shot because we are using that plant as a decoy. He was so nervous that he fired unintentionally."

"Decoy?" . This guy was telling half-truths, 'let's see what his target is'.

"I have a proposition for you," he continued. "We're hunting a rare four-star crystal snake. If you help us, not only do you get to keep the rainbow plant, but we'll split the snake's bounty 20-80."

From what I could perceive, their group consisted of five three-star adventurers and ten two-star adventurers. We were outnumbered and out-strength, but only two of the five three-star guys were visible the other three were hiding, but the snake hunting part seemed true.

I could easily hunt it alone, but normally it would take at least a group of its size and power to hunt that beast. It was too generous, though it was true that that snake's core and body were more valuable than those of a six-star beast, because of its rare mutation of the earth element. The man continued, seeing that he was thinking too much.

"Don't think it's a bad deal. We have the equipment and the rest. You just have to help us keep the snake while the rest takes care of the rest. Your rookies can help them, see? It's a good deal."

"Okay, let me talk it over with the guys first."

I turned to the guys and spoke mentally so that only they would hear me. 'What do you think of this situation?' I asked them, probing their opinions and judgments about the situation.

'Suspicious,' (Eirlys).

'I-I don't think they can be trusted,' (Chris).

'Boss, we need to hunt that snake down,' ( Clayton).

'In my opinion, we shouldn't follow them,' (Misha).

'But that snake is worth a lot,' (Tom).

'I will follow what the leader says,' (Miyuki).

'Boss, I feel it's a trap,' (Roi).

'It's the chance to become stronger,' (Nora).

'Those guys are scary,' (Walter).

Opinions were mixed, but most agreed that we should not follow them. Still, I had already decided to accept; I just wanted to know how they would react in situations like this. It was a test of their judgment. I hoped they would learn something from this experience.

Turning around, I spoke to the leader. "We agree, but we'll leave the division around our contributions."

The guy hesitated, but in the end readily agreed. Then, he began to tell us about his plan. They had seen the snake frequently near this plant. He didn't have a specific time of day when it came, but it was known to come every day and sleep around this plant for an hour.

According to him, they planned to hunt it alive to increase its value. His plan was that, while it slept, an archer would shoot it with an arrow covered in a potion specifically designed to put it to sleep. The problem was that it would take time to take effect, and we had to stall her until it did.

If we left her alone, she might come back and dive into the swamp, making it very difficult to find her later. Understanding that this was a good plan, I agreed.

As the hours passed, we each hid in position. Suddenly, we could see a snake with crystal scales as green as emeralds come out.

The snake scanned the surroundings with its tongue, but the guys had artifacts or non-elemental concealment spells or spells of elements other than darkness.

For my part, since the dark mana had the concealment trait, it always seemed like a non-elemental spell, so I had no hesitation in using it.

When the snake was sure of the surroundings, it approached the rainbow grass and made circles around it, coiling.

At that moment, another archer shot a special arrow that was able to pierce its tough skin. Once that was done, three of us, including the other three-star guy who showed up, moved around the snake.

We just had to get its attention long enough.

Dodging was easy and my attacks were simple, not piercing its tough exterior.

This continued for a while, but suddenly the snake unleashed a glow from its scales and multiple green crystals began to come out of the ground I could see they were poisonous so I dodged it, but at that moment the snake's tail which also had sharp crystals hit me so hard it sent me flying while wounding several areas of my body and also causing poisoning to all those wounds

"Lucien!"

"Boss!"

"Big brother!"

The poison was invading my body even with the healing trait I couldn't counter it I could hear the boys voice calling out to me, but my vision was getting blurry as I saw the boys next actions.