Abyssal Awakening

"Whatever the traders were bringing over, it allowed Lorien to become a minion of the Outer Gods. The traders are also minions which is why they look all f*cked up." Alice began to explain.

She told Minerva and Darrow most of what she knew except the fact that she had Eldritch energy in her body.

The more he listened, the more serious Darrow's expression became.

Especially the fact that Eldritch energy twists the existing powers in horrendous ways.

If there were truly traders trying to spread this kind of parasite throughout their world, then it's best he get others to help track them down as well.

"That's pretty much everything I know. How is it? Pretty good gift no?" Alice spun the pouch around her finger while releasing Minerva from her bindings.

"I wouldn't say it's a good gift considering the nature of the contents, but it's indeed important information." Darrow nodded with a sigh.

"I'm going to be travelling east in a few days. Since the traders came from overseas, I believe I should be able to get some information on them. Do you have a method of communication? Maybe through a Void Hawk or something?"

Leaning back, Darrow thought for a moment before opening his mouth.

"So you want to exchange information?" He asked as Alice stuck out her tongue.

"Was it that obvious?"

"I could see it from a mile away. But alright, I can do that. I do owe your friend my life after all. Without her, I don't think any of us would be leaving the Void." Darrow chuckled.

"Leave something I can track you down with and I'll have the Void Hawk find you when I have new information. And if you have any information for me, just tie it to the Void Hawk once you wrote it down and I'll receive it when it gets back."

Nodding her head, Alice snapped her finger and made an orb of blood.

"Don't eat it, it's basically extra potent poison that'll kill you. Use this to track me down."

Accepting the orb, Darrow handed Alice a strange silver coin from his drawer.

"Use this when you travel east. Find the fastest route and this'll give you a free ride."

"Don't mind if I do then." Picking up the silver coin, Alice prepared to leave when she felt Minerva's stare on her back.

"Something you wanna say, G.G?" Alice glanced back.

"G.G?" Minerva furrowed her brows.

"Yeah, gun girl. Well? I haven't got all day." Alice tapped her fingers impatiently. She still needed to go sign up for the arena and get Arwen's maid outfit.

Clicking her tongue, Minerva shook her head as Alice made another portal and left the room without saying anything.

"Are you sure you don't want to ask her?" Darrow asked with a knowing smile.

"And do what with it? It's not like she'll go out of her way to help me. We barely know each other after all." Minerva folded her arms in annoyance.

"My my~ Clearly you don't understand me very well G.G. With the right coin, I can help out with a lot of things." Alice dropped down from the ceiling, wrapping her arms around Minerva's shoulder with a grin.

"F*CK!!! If you're gonna leave, leave!" Minerva cried out in shock and annoyance as she wasn't prepared for Alice to reappear.

"So what's this about then?" Alice asked, turning her gaze to Darrow while jumping away from Minerva.

"She's looking for a friend of hers from a few years back who journeyed east. But something happened and they lost contact." Darrow was about to continue explaining when Minerva shook her head.

"Tsk, I'll say it since it's my request. Her name's Hua, we met a few years back when she came over and became friends. Knowing her, she wouldn't drop contact without warning. I… I don't know if she died or whatever but apparently she became quite famous in the East before disappearing. Can you look for her for me?" Minerva asked as Alice scratched her chin.

"Do you have anything else other than a name? I'm not sure how common or uncommon the name Hua is over there."

"Ah! Give me a moment." Without explaining further, Minerva ran out of the room while Alice and Darrow blinked their eyes before shrugging.

Seeing each other do the same action, the two couldn't help but laugh.

Chatting for a bit, Alice eventually recommended him to visit Tristan's Inn since he has good alcohol.

Thinking back, Alice couldn't help but be a little reluctant since travelling east meant that he couldn't drink his beverages anymore. But it wasn't like Alice could follow him around.

Especially since he's the Cardinal of the Church of the Moon. Being near him, while he's on duty, would simply be inviting danger.

A situation that Alice wanted to avoid at all cost at least right now. She had no way to deal with the Apostles of Lumiria not to mention the Goddess herself.

Darrow was a little surprised to hear that the Cardinal had opened his own Inn but it wouldn't hurt to give the drinks a try.

"You might want to give him a heads up when it comes to maintaining that Inn though. The Inn owners around the port don't exactly play fair with newcomers. Each of them had to compete with one another to get to where they are today." He warned as Alice waved her hand dismissively.

"He already knows. Hell, I'm even helping him do advertisements later."

"Advertisements?" Darrow raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. I won't spoil it since you'll probably hear about it later." Alice grinned.

Since Arwen wanted her to wear the maid outfit in the arena, she might as well broadcast information about the Inn when she wins. It's not like the arena owners can stop her from saying stuff during the fight after all.

If anything, it's a testament to her strength that she has the liberty to shout adverts in a duel.

"Sorry for the wait!" Minerva burst into the room as Alice glanced over.

"Took you long enough G.G. I was thinking if I should leave or not since I'm a busy woman. This delay is gonna cost ya extra." Alice winked as Minerva rolled her eyes before pulling out a strange small red rope that was tied into a knot.

The knot had a single jade coin attached to it with a strange character on the surface.

"She used to wear two of these in a twin tail. But after she gave me this one, she changed her hairstyle to a ponytail. It's a unique ornament that her parents gave her so she should still have it.

"It's been a while so her appearance might've changed since I last saw her." Minerva explained as she traced her finger over the knot.

With the Abyss Blood being able to modify appearances through side effects, it was hard to say that someone would look exactly the same after a few months.

"But if it does help, she had dark red hair and red eyes. She was about… half a head smaller than me?" Minerva tapped her chin, trying to recall Hua's height.

"So about the same size as me then? Seems easy enough." Alice leaned forward and observed the knot.

Aside from the jade coin with a character engraved on it, there wasn't exactly anything special about the ornament. If anything, it looked like something you could buy down the road. But if Minerva said that it should be unique then so be it.

"Now then, shall we talk about payment?" Alice grinned.

At the end of the day, she was giving Minerva a hand for more coin.

100 Platina might be a lot but to fund her shopping spree, mead requirements and other necessities? It was far from enough.

Seeing the familiar glint in Alice's eyes, Minerva recalled the contract she had made with Alice before and felt a bad feeling rising in her chest.

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Discover hidden tales at empire

With some new funds queued up for the future, Alice left Pirate Bay happily as it was now time for her to sign up for the arena.

She still wanted to take this chance and experience the mixture of martial arts and Sigil powers for herself before travelling east.

That way, she'll be able to prepare herself to a certain extent.

Cayla didn't have up to date information about this either since not many people could show off their powers before Kaden simply killed them through brute force or cursed them to death.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

And in the situation where he didn't need to do either, you'll be lucky if he even entertained the idea of giving you a spar.

After getting the maid outfit, Alice quickly signed up for the highlight fight of the arena tonight since her opponent was apparently a strong fighter hailing from the east.

While she wasn't sure about how well they'll be able to demonstrate the martial arts, Alice hoped that she wouldn't be disappointed.

And with that in mind, the best person to take over the close quarters battle to draw out the techniques would be Alyss.

Of course, Alyss was rather embarrassed about the maid outfit and refused to fight in it. However, when Alice mentioned that if Alyss didn't want to wear it while fighting them she'll have to tell Arwen personally.

Thinking it would be an easy task, Alyss tried to say no to Arwen but was instead hit with the lethal combination of puppy dog eyes and pleading.

It was super effective and now Alyss stood in the arena while wearing the maid outfit.

'See? The spectators love it.' Alice grinned.

'F*ck you.'