Chapter 49

312.4.74.

All four of the kids passed James' strength test, even though one of them had to cheat a little.

[You have consumed 0.6 kg of blood steel.]

[Result: STR +0.36, END +0.12, STA +0.24, MGC +0.12, EXP +120]

[Temporary result: STR +1.8, END +0.6, STA +1.2]

[Time left: 19:47:12]

As much as he allegedly thought about the test, James simply asked them to punch his hand. Due to Drake's disproportionate strength at the time he ended up hurting his own hand, but because of his also disproportionate stamina he managed to recover during the trip through the sea.

Even though their trip this time around was less luxurious than the cruise ship, they enjoyed it a lot more thanks to their fellow passengers and their noticeably less outstanding qualities.

[Warning: Class 19 entity detected!]

The only warning they received was because of the old captain and the vessel was small enough so that they didn't get it repeatedly like last time.

After getting off the ship, they rented a small van and headed towards their final destination, the Oltenian desert.

The reason of their visit was that Anthony wanted to know more about the mysterious spearhead which, at that moment, was slowly breaking down in Drake's stomach.

The more time passed the more literal some of their ability descriptions seemed to be as the spearhead was still sharp when it got eaten in addition to its material being tailor made to cause lacerations.

The group was heading towards the Republic of Muntenia to get safe access into the region. Oltenia was a disputed territory between Muntenia and the Aegean Empire. The reason of the conflict was varied depending on who you asked. While the government of Muntenia was adamant that they wanted to get their historical territories back, from back when they were called Wallachia. Most people agreed that they wanted it for the region's resources, as their own were running out.

Aegea, who were relatively well off in terms of resources, wanted the area because a lot more of their people were living there and it would have given them a more natural northern border than what they had to work with.

Because the two countries had similar military strength they couldn't just invade the desert out of fear of retaliation. Also, neither of them could get any outside help as any country whose support they would have been interested in declared themselves neutral, recognizing what a mess a potential war would be.

These circumstances led to a decade long stalemate where both countries were blockading off a desert inhabited mostly by goatherds. To our travelers this meant having to get through the border guards who acted like they were on the edge of a war-zone and not an over-sized sandbox.

When they arrived at one of the border checkpoints they had to wait around an hour before meeting place's supervisor. The words "Sir Adrian Capra" were written on his door with big golden letters.

"Good afternoon sir. My name is Anthony Williams. I called you about wanting to write a report about the other side of the border. Could you let us through?"

"Yes, I can. However, there is a small complication. You see, we wish to keep you safe during your travels but we can't afford to send anyone with you. The solution we came up with was this."

He then handed over a piece of paper and a bundle of badges.

"What exactly are these for?"

"Diplomatic immunity. I managed to get you the protection of our country during your visit, the paper serves as a proof of that. The badges are the same our diplomats wear. The Aegeans are paranoid enough to shoot at any unfamiliar faces but they should at least recognize these."

Anthony looked at the generous gifts for a while before picking them up and announcing his leave. The group got back into the van and were let through the gates. Another lengthy drive followed, during which Drake made an observation.

"That Adrian guy was really nice, in spite of his grumpy looks."

No one else got that impression and Anthony chose to explain why that was.

"He just saw an opportunity to get a promotion. Their plan is to get me killed. These badges are like shooting targets in an area like this. If I die here under their protection it would give them a legitimate reason to go to war, alongside some much needed help from the Alliance.

This plan obviously won't work for multiple reasons. One of which is that I'm the least likely person to get killed, no matter what the Aegean military has. Another one is that even if they did, Leon would probably just send them a gift basket as a show of gratitude. The final one is that I thought something like this might happen and called the Aegean forces in advance."

Drake was gloomy for the rest of the trip, which was to be expected. He didn't really have much experience with people being nice to him and had a hard time noticing when it wasn't genuine.

Around sunset they reached one of the few still inhabited villages of the area, where they decided to camp for the night. They briefly greeted the locals and bought some food for dinner. While doing that, they were advised to make a campfire or something similar for the night as some people have recently been taken away by wild animals.

They took the advice even though there weren't supposed to be any predators around large enough to kill a human.

312.4.75.

In the morning the group was woken up by a horrified scream coming from the village. Someone was attacked during the night, behind the village's only pub. The scream that woke them up came from the now widowed wife of the victim.

The scene was not a pretty sight, with claw marks and stains of blood all around. There was also a trail of blood in the sand leading into the desert, which was already scattered by the wind. There was obviously a fight before the death which made the locals even more worried than they already were, because the dead man was allegedly one of their best fighters.

On the scene, Rose found a couple of claws that seemed to belong to a large cat and when she picked up one of them it immediately stuck to her hand. Removing it caused a not too deep but clearly visible tear in her hand which had to be covered up by a glove.

This was exactly what they were looking for and it would have been a really lucky find under less worrying circumstances. However, progress was still progress so they started to gather information which, at that moment, meant observing the claws.

Unlike the spearhead they clearly weren't metallic. This meant that either, whatever was in them could be alloyed with metals or, it was a trait that could manifest itself in any material. Also, because it came from a probably living being and, since animals didn't have any supernatural abilities, whatever it came from either got it from a human or was itself a human.