The one who held the tree branch in his hand was naturally Darr.
His snake pupils were filled with excitement.
It was at this place three years ago that he met Negary.
And now, he stood in the same place, using a tree branch to kill the enemy and caught the Gear that flew from the momentum.
It was the exact same as how it was three years ago, the only difference was that what he obtained three years ago was a ring that allowed him to continue living, but what he obtained now was worth so much more than that.
"Lord Negary, was this within your expectations as well?" Darr felt his entire being trembling from excitement.
When he discovered where the Gear had appeared, he had already recognized the abnormality, after some simple calculations, he felt even more hysterical.
He knew that a certain amount of time was necessary to fuse with the Gear, and other than those from the church, most other people would have no choice except to run after obtaining the Gear.
The three departments of the church weren't completely cooperative with one another, and the current commander of the Saint Hunters was a new arrival of the city, so not only did they not have cooperation, he didn't even have a tacit understanding of their relationships, which completely tanked the chances of the church obtaining the Gear.
At the same time, the most suitable location to flee to in the vicinity of the Gear was this part of the city moat.
Cross-checking with the map in his mind, Darr noticed that the place where the Gear was discovered happened to form a straight line with where he first met Negary along a single path.
Whether it was because of this perfect coincidence or out of his admiration and worship towards Negary, Darr chose to stand and wait at the original location.
Sure enough, a man soon hurriedly fled towards his direction. Furthermore, it could be seen that the man had given up most of his trump cards for the sake of obtaining the Gear, so this was when he was weakest.
Like taking candy from a baby, a single outstretched tree branch was enough to take this man's life. Darr didn't even need to exert one extra bit of strength in order to obtain this Gear that so many coveted.
This means that everything was dictated by Lord Negary from the very start, and I am the one he had chosen!
For a passionate fan, was there anything more riveting than for the target of their idolization to remember them and even specifically choose to grant them something they had wished for?
Holding the Gear in his hand, Darr looked down at the dead Saron, collected some of his blood, then kicked him into the city moat below.
This man was the victor of the previous competition for the Gear, which means that everyone would only think to search for him.
If he left no corpse to be seen, their attention would continue to remain on this man, and my fusion with the Gear would be a lot safer.
Right as Saron's corpse was kicked into the moat, several arms covered in mud shot out from beneath to grab and pull it below the murky water.
Darr didn't bother staying behind to enjoy the terrible sight of the corpse being devoured by the monsters beneath the city moat, instead opting to flee into the underground sewers.
He couldn't underestimate the other competitors, as they would most likely locate this place soon one way or another, so the correct choice right now was to find a safe place to fuse with the Gear.
As Darr expected, almost immediately after he left, Chromie had already arrived, then jumped down into the sewers without hesitation.
The Apparition I was fighting against wasn't killed by me, but disappeared by itself.
There are only a few possible causes for this, the biggest of which is that the master of the Apparition died.
Chromie walked along the dimly lit underground sewers, as he reached a fork in the road, he discovered traces of the Apparition user's blood on one side, while the other side had nothing.
Someone killed that Apparition user and stole the Gear.
Chromie's eyes flickered briefly, then chose to follow the path without any traces of blood and soon found different traces. After all, moving along the sewers while covering one's tracks made it so that they moved very slowly.
After reconfirming his target, Chromie began trailing them. There were personal reasons why he was so determined to obtain the Gear of Impurity in this operation.
Without mentioning people from other organizations, the Hermit Order's internal attitude towards the Gears of Impurity was obsessive worship.
Chromie had raided and destroyed a Hermit Order headquarter in another region, from which he obtained a relatively deep level of understanding towards the Hermit Order.
Against external forces, the Hermit Order was extremely unified; because the Hermit Order itself was a community founded on using contribution points and the benefits it brought as their foundation. This meant that the community who used the system itself must grow increasingly stronger for members of the Hermit Order to benefit from it even more.
However, the Hermit Order wasn't internally unified. They constantly competed against one another for the sake of benefits; they formed several smaller circles among themselves with those who commanded resources at the center.
They had already started to fight among themselves for the sake of benefits.
Chromie had never been someone who adhered strictly to law and order, he wanted to obtain the Gear of Impurity. With how alluring the Gear was to members of the Hermit Order, he might be able to use it as a bargaining chip to obtain information regarding Olga, or perhaps even rescue her.
After all, the only person he had owed anything to up to this point was Olga.
Having sacrificed so many things, Chromie was no longer an ordinary person, or at least he believed so. After fulfilling his late father's wishes, he now no longer had a goal to strive towards in life.
"Olga…" a complicated look flashed through Chromie's eyes, after which he discarded these extraneous thoughts and raised his sword to slice a supernatural creature who suddenly jumped at him in half.
As he turned the corner, he found a large number of mutated creatures that had completely blocked off this part of the sewers. He took notice of their unnaturally large numbers as well as their frenzied red eyes, then proceeded to spend the time and effort to kill every single last mutated creature that stood in his way.
These mutated creatures weren't particularly powerful, but they had strength in number and had entered a berserk state for some reason. If he didn't have the environmental advantage of the underground sewer, Chromie might not have been able to clean out all of these supernatural creatures.
After wasting that much time, whoever obtained the Gear must have already fled faraway.
However, it's not too late yet.
Chromie began to carefully observe his surroundings. Within the dimly lit sewers, if Chromie didn't have the vision from Fearless Spirit, he might not have been able to discover the substance that was plastered on the small cracks in the wall.
"Some sort of drug created from fixing herbs and flesh?" Chromie observed it, then lightly sniffed it with his nose.
He couldn't smell anything, but some spirit remained within this substance, which he was able to use his ability on.
Entering his Spirit Vision state, Chromie soon saw the entire process of this drug's creation.
"Found you!" Chromie grinned as he saw Darr within his Spirit Vision.
The other party's means were incredibly advanced, if Chromie didn't happen to be fighting against the Apparition user just earlier and discovered that he was already dead, as well as possessing the Spirit Vision ability, he would surely have been deceived and lost the other party's tracks. After all, this was what the sewers were famous for.
"And he's only a teenager as well, how terrifying" Chromie sighed, then continued his pursuit.
Regardless of what happened, he must obtain the Gear as a bargaining chip. Furthermore, since he saw the same two teenagers who took Olga's soul in his Spirit Vision, he had one more reason to not give up the pursuit.
