Chương 97: 10 – GOOD LOOT HUNTING

It was a warm day. The wind bristled through the falling leaves as they changed into their autumn colors. The sun was unburdened by any clouds in the sky, allowing its heat to kiss the skin. Mitas Corlander stared at the sun through deeply tinted sunglasses. He stared for a while as if he were somehow competing with it. But the sun never stopped and never grew tired. Its presence was inevitable. Corlander envisioned that he would be as well one day. Then they would be equals.

"The day is gorgeous," he said. He walked with a cane on a trail outside the mansion. On days like these, he wasn't bothered to show off his age. German was by his side, with a hand underneath his arm for support.

"Is it? I didn't notice."

"That, I suppose, is your problem, German. You fixate so much on reality that you forget the feeling of it. But if there is no feeling, then there is no point because there is no reward. That is why I remind myself with these walks… of what it feels like to be powerless. So that I can rejoice in my progress."

"Were you able to deactivate all of them?"

"No. Just enough to feel the sun again." Corlander removed the gloves from his hands in order to feel the trunk of a tree. The ragged wood slid underneath his skin, but would burn where he touched it.

"In honesty, I'm still growing used to these powers of mine. The more loot I add, the less natural they feel to use. Instead of me flicking my hand as I once did, I now feel like I have to flip through a mental catalog in order to get the power I'm searching for. I'm still not sure of what all my body can handle having activated at once."

"And yet you still seek more?"

"Seeking more than what we have is in the nature of man. I've spent my life seeking everything, and I will die still seeking it. That is my nature, attached to me from my time as a man." He regloved his hand, continuing to walk the dirt path.

"You leave for the Wanderer in the morning, yes?"

"Correct."

"I trust that you'll have everything under control. Keep an eye on that T'balt boy. Make sure you find out exactly how the Redeemer power works and if it's an endeavor we have the ability to pursue."

"Of course," German stopped walking, letting Corlander take a few steps before realizing he was leaning too hard on his cane.

"But before we go, he has a request."

"And what might that be?"

"His bag of loot. Upon our arrival here, I had it confiscated and delivered to you. T'balt believes that in order to face the Wanderer, he'll need whatever it holds." Corlander hesitated.

"That bag had many great treasures in it. You can tell the boy that he'll be compensated on his hunter's card."

"Of course." German closed his eyes in a breath that took effort to swallow.

"You stole them."

"You watch your words. I didn't steal them. He'll be compensated."

"Compensated with what, his last meal?" German snapped and immediately held his breath. The air around him shifted, and suddenly it became hard to stand, as gravity itself had multiplied by twenty. He was forced to his knees, feeling like his stomach wanted to eject out of his mouth. Then suddenly it stopped. Corlander offered him a hand. Once he regained his breath, he took it and stood, dusting off his knees.

"Be careful with your tone…" Corlander turned to walk again, letting German resume his place walking next to him.

"You've been increasingly delinquent lately. Your obsession with that girl is causing you to forget your role." German cleared his throat.

"I apologize if I've been coming off that way. But I'm just doing my job. Making sure your daughter is safe is a part of that job."

"Stepdaughter." His boss replied, correcting the matter-of-fact.

"Yes. Your stepdaughter."

"Your job is what I say it is. You will forget about her… the arranged marriage between you two is voided by this… act of God. Even if you pursue it, there isn't a working government that could put you in my will. She's a waste of time." Corlander put a hand on his shoulder like he was extending an olive branch by saying, "I'll find a better reward for your years of service. If you continue your good work, then it's still possible that the everything I seek will one day be yours."

German wanted to scoff, but his better judgment prevented it.

"I appreciate it, but for now, whatever you have left of his loot will suffice. That is, if you care about adding the Wanderer to your collection." The duffel bag landed flat on the dining table. From what T'balt could see, it looked half empty. His brain told him to expect that. But there was still a bunch of loot left to pick from, so all wasn't lost.

"I tried to get everything but—""It's fine," T'balt cut him off.

"It looks like what I need is still in here. The rest I should be able to trade to get myself some good loot to equip."

"Good."

"Thanks."

"I'm doing my job. Make sure you do yours." The next morning, the team was rounded up and set to drive three hours east of the mansion. They didn't take the old convertible that T'balt had borrowed from one of the Acron church members. Instead, they were in a top-of-the-line Corlader truck. It was fitted with fresh leather seats, each one with a built-in heater. It also had some state-of-the-art air conditioning and TV screens on the back of the headrests, with built-in airline-style movies.

Cannon was over the moon when he saw it, boasting that this specific model never got to retail. He and German sparked into an argument over who would get to drive, and of course, German won, considering he actually knew they were going. They packed up the truck as everyone prepared for a long, albeit comfortable drive. It was like riding in a little spot of heaven. Of course, that couldn't last forever. Eventually, they parked on the side of a long trail several miles off-road.

The terrain around them was dominated by exposed bedrock and coarse, fragmented rocks. Like it was all one dried-out great lake. They had stopped where it had become too steep and rocky to continue driving. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. German, eyes red due to his tracking loot, informed them that they would camp out at the top of a hill overlooking the Wanderer's den and wait for it to return.

Cannon was loaded up with a rucksack full of equipment, and they transitioned from a drive into a hike. It took ages to get to a spot of German's liking. What he found was a small plateau, with an overlook on the rocky desert beneath. The land was flat all the way to the horizon, except for one hole in the ground miles away from them. From one of the cases Cannon was carrying, he then assembled a full sniper rifle to perch at the edge of the plateau.

Everyone stared as he put the pieces in the same temperament as someone solving a Rubik's Cube for the hundredth time. He lay supine to put his eye to the scope and stared at that distant hole.

"So is he gonna shoot the thing?" Acelin asked. Ellie's motherly instinct took over as she forced him to look at anything other than the gun.

"Are you serious? How come I can fight demons, but I can't look at a gun?" That's when she hit him with the classic, "because I said so."

"With all this hype, a gun better not be all it takes to kill this thing," Cannon said.

"I wouldn't know," German said.

"But it's our only option for attacking at this range."

"We're attacking it from here?" T'balt said.

"It can teleport. With that in mind, it doesn't matter where we start the fight. I might get lucky with the first shot, but if not, it'll have to come to us where we can set up an ambush using the shot as a lure."

"Oh… I get it." Cannon said.

"Not a bad plan."

"Except that someone has to shoot the shot. And whoever that is takes a chance at dying almost instantly." T'balt added.

"And none of us has handled a gun like that before."

"It's the only plan I have where we might be able to complete our mission and obtain the Wanderer's loot."

"But not the one where you survive." T'balt put his hands in his pockets, twisting his lips in thought.

"When not doing that plan."

"You have a better one then?" He shrugged.

"Not yet. But I'll figure it out. We've got time, right? It won't come back till after nightfall. I'm sure something will come to me." German looked at him sharply before resuming his position staring down his scope.

"I'll be here when you come up with it." Eventually, afternoon turned to evening as the sun started to bear down, leaving them under a brisk orange-violent sky. The team was making food, some old canned refried beans that they had before the Hunter's Club. When they sat down to eat it, they all realized the same thing.

"This tastes like shit."

"Acelin," scolded Ellie.

"He's right. I miss the food at the Hunter's club," Cannon complained, tears in his eyes.

"A man can't survive off this nonsense."

"The food sucks, and it's cold out here," Acelin complained further.

"And who was it that decided to leave their sweater in the car?"

"It was itchy." Acelin rubbed his elbows under his thin, long-sleeved yellow shirt. Ellie ended up giving him her own coat as T'balt and Cannon tried to force down the rest of their canned beans. She looked over to German, still lying on his perch, still like a mannequin.

"You know you don't have to stare at that hole all night. My loot can sense that far, so I'll be able to tell when it shows up. Here." She reached him with a cup of beans.

"I wish we had something better to offer, but…"

"I'm surprised you all still have an appetite," he said.

"Everyone has to eat. Even robots."

"That statement… is incorrect." He scratched his head.

"Regardless, I'll be better off if I eat. But I won't eat whatever that is." German stood, fetching something else out of one of his suitcases. Ellie hoped it wasn't another rifle but was surprised to see him unpack a mobile kitchen. It came with a small stove, frying pans, spatulas, all the essentials.

"What in God's name are you about to do?" She unconsciously asked.

"Cook," German said flatly. Another one of his bags turned out to be a cooler with raw steaks, vegetables, and spices. Everyone started drooling over German's shoulder, watching him work, and half an hour later, they had five plates of bunless steak burgers, topped with cheese, tomato, and wrapped in lettuce. Ellie took the first bite.

"Oh God, this is better than sex." T'balt batted an eye at her choice of words. But then he took a bite.

"You're right. It totally is." Ellie batted an eye back.

"I've never had sex before, but this is really good," Acelin said after taking his bite. Ellie's face immediately shot tomato red.

"Yeah. Who knew the playboy was a chef in disguise?" Cannon ate his all in two bites.

"Who knew you could make all this with a little mobile kitchen?" German ate his burger elegantly, as if spilling a single drop of it would've ruined it all. He set his plate back down gently.

"I've served a lot of long hours for Mitas Corlander. That meant organizing his meetings, filing his files, and sometimes cooking his meals. Also, my own when I couldn't afford to eat where he did."

"You sound like a real right-hand man," Cannon responded.

"Much more than that," German sighed.

"I've served Corlander for my entire working life in some manner or another."

"Why does it sound like you regret that?" asked T'balt.

"As a business, you grow to care only about one thing. Profit. Not because you're evil, but because that's the only thing people around you care about. The only way they know how to measure efficiency is. I've seen thousands come and go under Corlander's employ. Those who couldn't deliver his profit. But I was the one who stayed because I could make his miracles happen. I can see the flaws in something and eradicate them. And he liked that. So much so that he branded me." He pointed to the diamond mark on his face.

"Because no one else would want a businessman with a face tattoo, no matter how small. It was unprofessional. But I didn't care, of course. With Corlander, my future was paid for. But that was in the business world. This world hasn't been that for months now. And I realize that it's truly led to nothing. The world is over, and anything I ever hoped for is gone. The man doesn't even care if I live or die, as long as he gets what he wants. So most of my life has been a waste of time."

"So why are you still with him?" Ellie asked.

"Sunk cost fallacy. Life comes with sacrifices. A successful career often means neglecting one's familial needs. There isn't anything I'm willing to turn to otherwise." He looked around at all of them.

"Don't take me telling you this as a token of friendship or anything like that. This is just a safe confession to those who will either be dead or gone in the next few hours." T'balt smiled.

"My team doesn't die. You won't either," he stood.

"Here's the plan, everyone." He started laying out the groundwork to everyone in intricate detail, filled with knowledge that even German wouldn't have had any business knowing. He spoke it so confidently, like he had been planning it for years. German couldn't believe his ears.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah. Can I have a new shirt? This one's itchy." Acelin scratched himself underneath his long red sweater. T'balt groaned.

"There's no pleasing you, is there?" He approached German then, holding a piece of loot in his hand.

"Remind us what loot you have?"

"I never told you," he said, confused.

"Tell us anyway."

"Fine. I suppose I have no reason to hide it at this point. I have a stack of two. The first is a tracking loot. The second is a ahem…" he coughed.

"Telepathic communication loot."

"Wait? What?" Ellie reacted.

"What's that mean?" asked Acelin. T'balt answered.

"It means he can read our minds and talk to us without opening his mouth."

"The whole time?" Cannon's face flushed red.

"Okay. Let's establish a fine line between thoughts and actions. I'm a man, and I have thoughts, and I'm not ashamed of it. Especially when it's been a while."

"It's selective," German said calmly, but somehow still giving the impression that he was disgusted. He looked back at T'balt, who was holding a piece of loot in front of him.

"This is the hypersensitivity loot. I usually give it to Ellie, but it's better if you use it for your third slot." He looked at the woman, who gave him an affirming nod.

"You mean?"

"The beast can teleport instantly. Her mouth won't be able to move fast enough to tell us what we need to know. Take it and get used to it fast. We don't have a lot of time." German grabbed the thing, not because he agreed or because he even fully processed what T'balt had said, but because the man was so certain. When powerful people speak. It's best to be quiet and listen. T'balt stood at the edge of the cliff watching the den of the beast in the distance.

Just then, the ground began to shake, and clouds darkened the moonlight.

"Alright, everyone. It's here."