"How many mana potions are left?" Souta asked.
"I only have four left," Amanda answered.
Hearing her words, Souta couldn't help but sigh. Using mana to cover his best feram was consuming a bunch of mana potions. He had no choice but to do it since he didn't want other people to know his monster identity. He's been filling up his parasite with mana before leaking it out around his body to disrupt the senses of those One Shackle Realm experts. Or else, they would recognize his energy just like how Edward from Shimpan Family realized his identity.
"It seems that we need to restock our potion here," Souta muttered.
Both of them entered Burluk City. It was a city smaller than Ladros City yet its population was higher. The only difference was the power level of the experts here. Naturally, Burluk City wouldn't even be able to resist an attack from the Deadly Sins. The City Lord's forces, some incredibly powerful nobles, and the teachers of the institute managed to resist the attack from Seven-Circle Officers and below. Those officers were equivalent to Hero-rank and SSS-rank.
It was easy to say that the officers that attacked Ladros City would easily dismantle the Red Matter Association. Avron would be able to kill three or four officers thanks to the power of Project Sicily but that's it. He wouldn't be able to fight all those officers alone even with the help of his entire organization.
Souta and Amanda separated and gathered information. They met up in a small restaurant after three hours of intel gathering. They learned the basics of this land and the current and recent events that happened in the past few months.
"It's quite interesting here." Souta laughed lightly. He could feel many jealous gazes were directed at him.
"In my opinion, it's quite bad. I want to level this city." Amanda commented.
Souta laughed at her words.
He had an average face and aura but Amanda still had that striking beauty despite concealing it with the parasite. Coupled with her temperament, a lot of men wanted to strike up a conversation with her.
Of course, Amanda showed a little bit of her killing intent to those men to prevent them from approaching her. She even wanted to murder those people that look at her with lewd eyes. She was a former leader of an underground organization and murdered a lot of people before she regained her memories. Yet, she couldn't kill them even if she was stronger than them. She could only sigh helplessly and ignore those men.
It would create trouble if she killed people. Plus, the ruling faction of this city was a Church so killing would undoubtedly gather the attention of those priests.
"I haven't felt this since I was in Ladros City. This is such a great feeling. The jealousy of others is amazing. I feel so blessed. Haha..." Souta laughed but some sort of field blocked his words from reaching other people.
He stroke his chin. 'I wonder what the girls are doing right now.' He could remember the jealousy of his schoolmates when he gained a fan club.
He smiled and shook his head. He would ask Lynn about them later when he had a chance. For now, he should focus on the things in front of him.
"How is it? The intel." Souta asked.
Amanda turned serious and slowly explained what she gathered.
Burluk was situated on the edge of the Spring Land. It was a land just beside the Mine Valley. In this land, there was a ruling nation called Heiro Kingdom. The kingdom was still powerful but its scope of influence had deteriorated. Various organizations rose and fought for dominance, this led to the current situation where the kingdom decided to pull back its army and guard its territory.
The war was far from Burluk City but the hands of various organizations reached this place. They didn't fight. Instead, they set up a recruitment post to increase their manpower. Just by joining these organizations, people would be able to receive various benefits that could even entice those wandering mercenaries.
"What should we do? Should we send some of our forces here?" Amanda asked.
Souta stroke his chin and asked, "What do you think?"
"Hmm... I think that we should join one of these organizations. That way, we'll gather info that we couldn't get from ordinary people." Amanda said after contemplating for a while.
"Okay, let's do that." Souta gazed at her.
"Are you sure?" Amanda asked.
"Yes, the Murder Society is a secret organization that ordinary people didn't know." Souta paused before he added, "We could also move the entire force to gather everyone's attention."
"If that's the case then let's send the Noxious Corps. They will be able to move in the dark and if someone discovered them, they could simply say different names since a sudden rise of a certain organization are not unheard of in this land." Amanda said.
That was the case in Spring Land. Various organizations rose and fallen in the past few months so if one organization suddenly rose, it wouldn't gather too much attention.
"Okay, I'll inform Alice." Souta nodded.
"That Third Head simply wanted to take it easy. She said that she'll help you but she only took the Mine Valley as her investigation area while we..." Amanda complained.
"It's fine." Souta waved his hand. It's better than doing it alone. At least, there's someone who'll investigate the Mine Valley.
The two finished their meal before they left the restaurant. They went to the plaza and looked at the recruitment post of various organizations. They were trying to find a suitable organization that they could infiltrate.
Souta and Amanda chose different organizations. It's faster if they were going to work in different groups. Although they were in different groups, they were still in the Spring Land. They could contact each other easily.
They were prepared. As long as they discovered the culprit, they would mobilize the force of Astros to apprehend them. That's what Souta wanted, to complete the quest that he triggered.
Souta joined the group called Mince Hand. What an ominous name! But this group had its own history in Spring Land. It was founded a hundred years ago so Souta wanted to learn its detailed history.
The procedure to enter was easy. It was fast as the organization was recruiting a bunch of people to fight. They wanted to rise like other groups. Although it has a long history, the power of Mince Hand was low. This was also the reason why Souta could join this group easily.
Those big organizations were strict in their recruitment. Souta wouldn't be able to pass since they would verify his identity. But a small group like Mince Hand was quite lax in their recruitment, a small identity was all he needed.
Where he got his identity? It's simple. Souta killed a random thug and changed the layers of skin on his face similar to that thug. Although he couldn't copy the energy signature since it was unique, a small organization didn't have any tools to verify it so he got recruited without any problems.
"I've filled up all the slots. We'll depart tomorrow morning so rest properly." A middle-aged man said with a smile. He introduced himself as Chun, an instructor in Mince Hand.
"Yes, Instructor." Everyone replied.
Souta looked around. He found that the people that joined the Mince Hand were quite a lot. A total of twenty-four people and most of their power levels were low. Some of them haven't even started to train.
Aside from the twenty-four recruits, there were one instructor and ten senior apprentices.
"Senior Heili," Souta called one of the senior apprentices.
"What is it?" A tall woman with long blonde hair asked.
"Where's our headquarters?" Souta asked.
"Oh, Instructor Chun forgot to tell you about it? Our headquarters is in Beinu City, it will take us two days before we arrive there." Heili patiently explained to Souta.
"I see. Many thanks, Senior Heili." Souta slightly bowed his head.
"It's nothing. If you have any questions you can ask me or your other seniors." Heili smiled gently.
Souta went back to the inn. After he set up the barrier, he closed his eyes and entered Saya's inner consciousness. He trained his skills and only stopped when it was morning.
'I can feel it...' Souta opened his eyes and glanced at his hands.
'You're close to mastering half of the Vajra Extremity.' Saya said to him.
'Yeah, I feel like I can reach the next level soon.' Souta replied to her before glancing at the system. The mastery of his Archetype was at 49%. Just a little bit more and he would be able to break through 50%.
At that time, the power of Archetype would undergo a qualitative change. He would be able to exhibit more power and all the forms that he could use would undergo an upgrade.
'I'm looking forward to using this to those people who tried to frame me up.'
