Useful Minion

The hunting of Underwood Elves was a lucrative business.

Since the public belief was that they weren’t sapient, many disciples from the righteous sects saw no problem in hunting them and gathering their remains to then sell at a high price.

Underwood Elves weren’t just desired goods. They were incredibly rare as well. They could not be brought out of the realm whilst still alive, so samples of this desired being only appeared on the market every fifty years. This led the prices to skyrocket, especially as those in possession of such things did not hesitate to dip into some good old price gouging.

How one hunted this specific species of elf was rather simple. You did not seek out those who were invisible and outside of their villages. You sought the village itself and stormed it, aiming to strike the unsuspecting elves whilst they were just going about their day and before they could turn invisible.

You would snatch a few and then take off running, because if a group of them turned invisible and decided to attack, there wasn't much that you could do against them. You’ll likely just end up stabbed over a dozen times without being able to fight back.

However, even though the areas their village is situated in is always noticeable, as the forest changes appearance completely, it was still challenging to find them. Their villages are always protected by an array that turns the village invisible to outsiders. Therefore, one needed to guess correctly before rushing in.

It's a tough gig, but the money is worth it.

Edrick heard word from Daklaiel only ten minutes after sending his two servants away. Zhujing did not approach them since they weren’t close to an Underwood Elf village yet.

Upon arriving, Anoteros was quick to size them up. This was a rather large group, containing more than ten disciples. All of them from the inner ring, except for their leader, who wore robes indicating his status as a core disciple. Although the disciple statuses weren’t the same from sect to sect, a core disciple was still a threat.

These were all from Wolf Mountain...

Despite the name, the techniques practised there did not relate to wolves at all. They were similar to Seclusion Underground in that regard. They did not have a clear theme, meaning that it was impossible to make good guesses as to what sort of techniques any of those disciples might be wielding.

But that was fine. Edrick was resourceful, and he, along with his two servants, simply remained hidden, tailing the group from a distance. They did so for hours until the grey-robed disciples ran into an Underwood. Anoteros did not intervene and simply stayed concealed, even as they eventually devised a plan and ran into the Underwood.

That was the most basic method. The array was merely one that concealed, so if you had a big enough group, you could just form a line and run forward to have a good chance of finding the village. Those who find it would just shout, and all would converge to attack.

This is exactly what happened. Under the guidance of the core disciple, they all managed to bring back nearly ten corpses, carrying them as they took off running out of the Underwood. They didn’t know if they were being pursued by invisible elves, so they ran and ran to the point of exhaustion.

By that point, night was falling.

“Let’s set up camp for the night. We can’t keep going like this anyway… Any random beast could deal some serious damage with how exhausted we are” the core disciple took charge as per usual. With everyone out of breath, no one disagreed to take a rest, even if everyone worried about an invisible dagger slitting their throats out of nowhere.

They would just collapse if they kept going, and in the night, getting ambushed by a predator would spell certain death. That was without mentioning that a few of them needed medical attention, having been wounded during the raid.

The group decided to bring out a big pot and make a stew with some of the beast meat they had left from previous encounters. This made Edrick smile as he watched behind a tree.

“Daklaiel, it’s up to you. Do not disappoint me” Anoteros brought out a small vial of sorts from one of his pockets. His servant took it, feeling a knot in his throat. The simple implication that failure could have consequences frightened him to no end, and even Zhujing, who wasn’t involved, felt a cold sweat run down his spine.

The elf nodded and turned invisible.

As he remembered what had gotten him caught during his first encounter with his master, he knew to be careful.

As night had fallen, the forest was quiet. Any sound he made would be clearly audible. Furthermore, those people were on guard against Underwood Elves like himself, so they wouldn’t just assume it was nothing if they heard something suspicious.

The inner disciples were wary, but more focused on the wounded and on the brewing stew than anything else. The real obstacle was the core disciple.

Compared to the Myriad-Arm Sect, a core disciple from Wolf Mountain wasn’t as scary. This was because there were ‘True Disciples’ above them. The ranking system was not the same. The qualifications needed to be admitted into the core circle of the sect were lower, but it was still a notch above inner disciples of any other sect, nonetheless.

Moreover, this man’s techniques were a mystery. He could have one that heightened his senses or granted him a way to feel oncoming danger.

Daklaiel needed to be stealthier than he had ever been before. He could not afford to fail his master. That would be the most shameful thing of his entire life.

One step, two steps… The elf was right next to the humans now. If one of them made a sudden motion, they could very well bump into him, so he had to be swift to reduce the chances of such a thing happening.

His attention was placed on the core disciple, who merely stirred the stew before sitting down. Thankfully, he was more worried about the darkness beyond their campfire than what was right next to him.

Indeed, the darkness was deep as he had taken steps to make sure that the campfire was as discreet as possible. He had lit it up using special logs from outside the realm that did not produce any smoke, and even made it in a way that made the light it produced as minimal as possible.

He was worried about potential pursuers.

No one noticed anything as Daklaiel poured the contents of a small vial into the stew.

A small, powder-like substance drifted into the meal and dissolved without leaving a trace.

The elf stepped away, feeling his heart beating inside his chest harder than ever as he arrived before Edrick and knelt, handing the empty vial back.

“Good job. Now we just need to wait…”