When the night blanketed the forest between Sill Alari and Thera, Michael and Gaya descended through the canopy to the thicket. They navigated through the woods.

They step on dried twigs and leaves, making creaking noises. Michael focused on the Environmental Map to see if any reapers were around them. But to Michael's

surprise, he hadn't found a soul. Michael thought it must be because the reapers wanted to maintain secrecy. After all, having several men patrolling could expose their location. Gaya followed the map, and eventually, they reached the hills adjacent to the forests. As far as one could see, there was nothing but stone before them.

"It should be here somewhere," Gaya furrowed her crease, running her hand through the rough surface.

Michael stood a couple of meters away from the hill under the shade of ancient banyan trees. He looked around the place to locate if there were any illusion runes near them. Yet, he found nothing, which meant there was no illusion. So, after a while, Michael summoned the system.

"System, scan the place to see if there are any hidden entrances,"

Since it was just a simple scam, the system only asked for five thousand badass points. Afterward, a pale blue light shot out from Michael, visible only to him, searching for hidden entrances in the hill. Ofcrouse, Michael knew there was a possibility the reaper had given him the wrong location. But he looked the reaper in the eyes when he received the parchment. So unless the reaper was a peerless liar, this place must be their hideout.

"Are you sure this map is legit?" Gaya asked Michael.

He stayed silent until the blue light in his sight turned jade green, spotlighting an area.

[The system has found an entrance protected by secret arrays and runes. Does the host wish to break them? It would cost the host 15,000 badass points]

"Yes," Michael said nonchalantly. The jade green light intensified as the hill spotlighted by the system trembled. Soon, it split open with a slow creak.

"How'd you? Never mind," Gaya was startled, but she was with him long enough not to get surprised by things like this. Before taking a step into the cave, Gaya conjured a ball of light in her hand, tossing it into the cave to not only light the cave but also detect if there were any hidden traps. Afterward, the both of them cautiously walked through the cave, expecting trouble any second.

"Is this place supposed to be empty?" Gaya questioned after noticing the empty caves. She could understand why there were no reapers outside, but she wondered why there were no guards inside either.

"I don't think so," Michael said in a husky voice. They continued to walk without triggering any traps or meeting reapers until they reached a spacious hall lit by a crimson red chandelier hanging from the cave top. Surprisingly, the hall seemed to have been tossed by someone else. All the tables were either broken or upside down, the quest boards were destroyed, and what could have been the counter was burnt to ashes.

"This is not what I was expecting," Gaya said.

She looked around instead of moving forward. At this point, Michael realized why there were no guards on the way or any life signs detected on the Environmental Scanning map. Michael slowly hovered to the burnt counter. He thought the reapers guild would be bigger than a simple hall. He was disappointed.

"What happened here? Did someone kill them all? If so, where are the bodies?" Gaya questioned Michael while looking around the hall.

When Michael reached the pile of ash, he found nothing. Still, he bent down to pick up a handful of ashes.

Michael took out a portion from the system storage before pouring the silver liquid into the ash. Since Michael was a 5-star Alchemist, he brewed many potions in his free time. This potion was one of them. He used it previously to find Jack's blood trail in the forest. If someone had burnt the reapers, the potion would turn the ash red after absorbing the silver liquid.

As Michael expected, the ash became red.

"So someone killed them all? But why and who? This place must have had a Fusion Stage reaper. Every reaper guild has one," Gaya furrowed her crease. On top of a Fusion Stage cultivator, she knew the guild would have had several Soul Refining stage cultivators along with powerful defense arrays and runes.

"If this place only had one Fusion stage cultivator, he must have been the one who tried to kill me back on the floating mountain," Michael tossed the ash to the ground and dusted his hands.

"I killed him, leaving this place with no Fusion stage reaper," Michael hovered around to see if there were clues to figure out what had happened here. But he found none. Whoever killed them did a thorough job of erasing the evidence.

"We need to figure out whether this is connected to someone sending a reaper after you or not," Gaya said.

"Hmm," Michael nodded.

"If we could get our hands on some reapers in Elon or Ozer, we might get some ideas. We cannot deny the possibility this might have happened because of some internal dispute," Gaya was right. Yet Michael didn't think it was the case. He needed more concrete evidence before coming to a conclusion. But one thing was for sure, he wouldn't be bothered by the reapers for some time.

"Let's go," Michael threw some Spyders around the place before flying out of the cave. Suppose the killer or the killers returned to the cave, the Spyders would catch them.

After leaving the cave, Michael and Gaya flew higher and higher until they flew past the clouds. Then, they stopped to enjoy the starry sky.

"Lord Information. He might know something about this," Michael said. That elf made his living by selling information. So if someone knew about the reapers guild destruction, it was him.

"Why waste time? Let's go there now. You can teleport us there right? If someone asked, we could say we used some teleportation scrolls we got from some ruin,"

"Hmm," Michael agreed with Gaya. Although the scenery was too alluring, he was not in the mood to enjoy it. Instead, Michael willed the system to unequip his old Lucifer armor. Thanks to Hunter, who disappeared wearing his Dark Suit 2, his latest armor, Michael had to wear his old one. Because of that, Michael had to forge new armor again. But this time, Michael decided to take his time and forge the armor from the materials bought from the system. To do that, Michael had to upgrade the system first, which he would do as soon as the auction was over.

When Michael appeared behind a tavern in Sarton, it was already midnight. The streets were empty, blanketed with a tiny layer of whiteness. The snowflakes rained down upon them, making the night colder and prettier too. Since Michael and Gaya visited Lord Information a couple of times, they knew the way to Mary's flower, where Lord Information resides.

The streets were void of any light except fireflies which illuminated the road and the falling snow specks. Michael and Gaya walked the paved streets under the embrace of darkness until they saw the brightly lit Mary's flower shop. Even at this hour, the shop was brightened by two street lamps and a glowing blue rub atop the roses.

Cling!

Michael pushed open the door, ringing a bell attached to the door.

"Welcome to Mary's flowers," The same brown-haired girl from before greeted Michael and Gaya with a bright smile.

"Can we meet Lord Information? It's kind of an urgent matter," Michael said.

"Send them in," Michael heard Lord Information's voice resonate in the room. They both followed the girl to one of the glass racks filled with rose bouquets. Sliding the glass door, the girl pulled the bouquet in the center just like before. After entering the room, Michael saw Lord Information sitting behind the oak table with a tall stack of parchments. He had enough parchments to bury a grown man underneath. The candlelight illuminated the elf's fatigued face.

"You traveled very fast from Royal land to Thera and Thera to here," Lord Information surprised Michael and Gaya. To be honest, even Michael was freaked out by Lord Information's extent of reach. Michael thought he only operated in Elon and Ozer. Now he realized Awor wasn't out of his reach either. After Michael and Gaya took their seats before Lord Information, he closed the parchment he was reading and turned his gaze towards them.

"So how may I help you?" asked Lord Information.

"Someone has put a bounty on my head again, Lord Information. I need to know who, and as usual, I'm willing to pay any price for that information," said Michael, leaning back on his chair.

"We also need the reapers guild locations," asked Gaya.

Lord Information had never been concerned about what his clients would do with the information provided by him. His clients valued privacy. So Gaya knew whatever she asked would strictly stay between them.

"I have two kinds of information to provide you. First one, you will get for hundred thousand coins. The second one will not cost you coins, but I require something else. But, ofcourse, the second one is very valuable and might give you some answers," Lord Information said to Michael as though he was expecting Ghost to inquire about the reapers guild.

"It's a long day, Lord Information. So hit me straight with what you require," Michael said, deeply exhaling.

"Hmm," with a nod, Lord Information flicked his wrist as several alchemy ingredients materialized on the table along with an old worn out parchment.

"Let me guess, you want me to refine a pill or a potion for you using these," Michael asked, looking at all the alchemy ingredients on the table.

Although it seemed like a simple task, both Michael and Gaya knew Lord Information wouldn't have asked for this instead of coins if it was an easy task. However, Michael could refine any pill or potion within a 5-star Alchemist's domain.

"The pill requires to be concocted within three mins Master Ghost,"

"Three minutes?" Gaya furrowed her brows. By looking at the ingredients and the parchment, Gaya was sure it was some ancient recipe that required ultimate skills. Not that she doubted Michael, but three minutes seemed too little.