Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"Nice necklace, Rena."

"Yeah, I agree. It suits you."

Jen and Lethen complimented Rena on the gift that Lucius had given her. She probably should have taken it off to go to sleep, but she was so happy she could not bare to remove it. Especially since Lucius put it on her himself.

"Thank's! It was a gift from a stray cat." She giggled.

Lucius sighed loudly. "Real original, I'm pretty sure you've NEVER used that line before."

The party laughed together. They had all gotten really close with each other over the last few weeks and interacted with each other like actual friends. They laughed together, argued with each other, and shared many meals at this point. This life was everything that she had dreamed of when she read those stories of adventurers as a young kid.

When she had gotten up in the morning, Jen had once again found them a quest to do, so that's what they were doing now. Unlike entering the city, the line to exit was much faster moving. There was still a line because on exit, any adventurers working quest got priority entry on return so they did not have to get locked out of the city at night due to waiting in the main line.

It still took about twenty minutes to get through that line despite them getting going so early in the morning. In a city as large as this, people were everywhere all of the time. She started to understand why the thought of coming here made Lucius nervous. Honestly the sights, sounds, and smells of the city were overwhelming to even her normal, human senses.

It was hard to imagine what this was like to him.

He had once said he was able to turn the strong parts of those off, but now he really cannot do that anymore. It's like it is permanently on all of the time for him now. Something like that had to be uncomfortable at times…

"Hey, what's the job this time again?" Paul asked Jen.

When she came to them with another job this morning, everyone simply went along with her. It was not until they had actually exited the city that they thought to ask what it was they were even doing.

According to the quest, there was a small hunting camp a few miles east of the city. There were tons of them spread throughout the forest that worked to supply the city with food and materials from the vast Silverthorn forest.

This particular one was dedicated to only hunting down weaker monsters and normal animals for the purposes of food. It was by no means equipped to hunt down tougher monsters like Quillow Beasts.

Many of the hunting camps and villages near the city were similar, since the frequent traffic in and around the city were frequently cleared out by the Adventurer's Guild as part of a long-term contract with city leadership.

The last three scheduled shipments from the village never arrived; neither the goods, nor the people to provide an explanation. Lelvern sent out a representative to check on the status of their promised goods, but that representative also never returned. Next, the guild was contracted to send an investigation team made up of some Novice and Beginner Rankers, but they also never returned.

Because of that, the mission was upgraded to an Intermediate Rank quest, making it eligible for their quest count to get permission for the Grand Raid.

"Has there been instances of a hunting camp going silent before?" Rena asked.

"Not in a while. There have always been signs even when it has. Monster attacks that take places like this out often result in increased activity in the area, but according to reports, there have been no excessive sightings in the area." Jen shared.

She had done a bunch of cursory questioning at the guild the day before when she took the job. While Rena and Lucius were out shopping, Jen was looking into the quest on her own by asking questions of the guild and the city officials who posted the job.

"I can't see, hear, or smell anything out of the ordinary. Most of what I'm picking up are just normal animals. Deer, rabbits, birds, and a few foxes." Lucius advised from the front of the group.

"That makes sense seeing as we are still quite a distance away from the place in question, and even you can't pick up things a few miles out." Paul mentioned.

Lucius did not respond. Technically he could, but only when he went through what he called a 'partial-shift,' which usually only happened when he was exceptionally angry or hurt. Most half-blood beastmen do not have the ability to shift at all, but Lucius was a rarity in that respect.

All it did was sharpen his teeth, senses, and make his eyes take on cat-like pupils. Rena then got lost momentarily in the image of what the boy would look like as a full-blooded beastman with cat ears and a tail…it looked cute…

"Hold on." Lucius held up his fist for everyone to stop moving and talking.

"What's wrong?"

"Shut up a second."

Lucius' ears seemed to twitch and his head swiveled left and right, slowly. Rena watched in real time as the hairs on the exposed parts of his body, the back of his neck and his lower arms, began to stand on end.

A light mist rolled in a second later. It settled gently on the forest floor and did not seem to rise past their ankles.

"Lucius." Jen whispered. "What is going on?"

"I don't know. The mist, its thicker further ahead so I can't see through it. Also, I can't smell anything; not even you guys…I don't like this." His voice was basically a growl at this point. It seemed to Rena that this deprivation of his senses brought out his inner, bestial nature. That happened sometimes when he was extremely uncomfortable too.

"Lucius, you need to calm down. We can still see the way out of the mist, and you can still hear right? Focus on that and help us find the source. This is clearly not a natural mist." Rena whispered in a soothing tone. She noticed his body posture relax a little, but his hair was still standing up on the back of his neck.

She sighed to herself, hoping that it was good enough, and the party advanced deeper into the woods in the direction of the hunter's camp.

It took them traveling for a good, few miles before Rena began to realize something. "Lucius…does this remind you of…"

"The trial, yes."

Jen chimed in, "How so?"

"Listen."

The entire party remained silent, only the sounds of their footsteps indicated there was anything there. "I don't hear anything."

"That's the problem." Rena advised. "There are no bugs, birds, small animals. Other than our footsteps, the forest is completely still. It should not be like this. The only other place is the woods back home."

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