Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1190: Sneaking Around the Camp, Moving Fast

Now back to the duo...

"I buried them in a cave that we used to use as a hideout when we were living here," Lythero informed Zhen Liu.

At this point in time, the duo had gotten closer to the lake’s shore but made sure to position themselves far enough from the hunting camp in order to not get caught or noticed.

"A cave?," Zhen Liu asked while making it obvious that he was looking around. "I don’t see many rock formations that can serve as the basis for a cave around here..."

"Okay, maybe I misspoke, by cave I mean, the root space that exist underneath large trees."

"Ah! Okay, that makes significantly more sense," Lythero nodded in understanding. "So which tree is it exactly? Because we are in a jungle, and you know the old saying about how one can miss the whole forest when focusing on a tree..."

"I know," Lythero agreed. "I made sure to leave a mark on the tree with a cross so I wouldn’t forget about it...and it’s right over there."

"Huh?"

When Zhen Liu looked where Lythero was pointing he was sincerely hoping that it was somewhere nowhere near that old man that had almost decapitated him with a sesame seed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Because the direction he was pointing towards was directly next to the hunting camp. In fact, if Zhen Liu wasn’t seeing things, there were a pair of guards protecting the aforementioned marked tree.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? It’s over there? Really?"

"Yes."

"Great..."

Evidently, Zhen Liu wasn’t just upset because the tree was located directly next to the hunting camp he wanted to avoid, but because he knew why they were there in the first place thanks to the zakos.

Under different circumstances, these reasons would’ve been irrelevant. But because he knew Lythero, well...

"Just to double check, you haven’t been to this lake in years, yes?"

"The last time I was here was when I buried my masters," Lythero answered.

"Wonderful..."

By using a combination of eavesdropping and document pilfering, the zakos had managed to learn a lot about this hunting party...up until Zhen Liu almost got his brain blasted open.

Regardless, he learned that this hunt was organized by the Strummata Household of the Erupting Dawn Empire, that they had brought a member of the ruling dynasty along as a means of improving relations between the two and that their hunting quarry was something known as a Forged Feather Dragon Vulture.

Zhen Liu had never heard of this creature up until now and would normally default to Logos and Pathos to give them the information he needed in situations like this.

But that wasn’t an option right now.

Thankfully, the zakos had managed to find a couple sparse records about what kind of creature this Forged Feather Dragon Vulture was.

What he found though wasn’t exactly reassuring to read.

...

Name: Forged Feather Dragon Vulture

Affinity: Metal/Fire/Death

Bloodline limit: Eighth tier.

Features: Vulture Fire, Fire Immunity, Heat Immunity, Metallic Coating, Burning Skin.

Description:

As the name implies, Forged Feather Dragon Vultures are known to literally "forge" their own feathers in order to protect their surprisingly fragile but burning hot bodies.

There are precisely two places that these dragon vultures tend to nest in in order to create their armored feathers.

They’ll either gather in places that have metal ore deposits and use their flames to actively metal down the ore into slightly usable slag, or they’ll nest near abandoned battlefields and harvest the broken weapons and armor to make their feathers.

This behavior had led to an interesting observation amongst scholars and hunters though: the quality of the feathers directly correlated with the strength of the dragon vulture.

In other words, if one wanted to know where one could find a deposit of rare aether empowered ores or the location of a possible set of ruins full of powerful aether treasures, one just had to find the dragon vultures.

And if no such resources or treasures could be found in such locations, that was fine too.

After all, the feathers of a Forged Feather Dragon Vulture were essentially a potent alloy onto itself anyways.

And if one was incredibly fortunate, they’d be able to extract the aether treasures that had become melted into the feathers.

...

’Why does this information feel incomplete as all hell though?,’ Zhen Liu mentally griped as he went over the information in his head.

It felt weird only having source of information to work with as opposed to the multiple sources that Logos and Pathos would normally feed him directly.

A small part of him found it mildly refreshing to not have a pair of smart mouth spirits talking in his head, but an even greater part was actively missing their commentary, inputs and insight.

Regardless, since he had nothing else to go off of other than whatever knowledge he had on hand and his own wits, Zhen Liu figured he might as well roll with it.

"Alright, Lythero, I have an idea of what we can do to get inside of that tree hollow, but I have some questions that need to be answered before we do anything."

"Okay?," Lythero asked, mildly afraid of Zhen Liu’s questions.

He had witnessed firsthand how he used them to cause three fully grown men to cry like babies, and drive the leaders of the Cortez Company to essentially lose their shit. However, he was an ally so these questions shouldn’t be that bad...right?

"First off, are there any mindlessly violent, dangerous and/or reckless aether beasts in the area that can be used as a means of distraction?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Giant hornets, angry boars, a colony of vicious man-eating monkeys that puppet the bodies of larger creatures in order to scare off or potentially kill larger prey?," Zhen Liu listed off in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "Alternatively, a giant anaconda that has been fed a fuckton of illegal narcotics?"

"Why...why were those last two so specific?"

"Don’t worry about it," Zhen Liu replied. "Are any of those applicable?"

"Uh...I do remember seeing something like those near us...maybe," Lythero shrugged.

"Better than nothing," Zhen Liu sighed."Following up on that, how confident are you in your ability to be sneaky and knock a motherfucker out in one blow? Choking out counts."

"Uh...I was taught a couple of stealth techniques by Master Cobra and Coyote."

"Good, good...," Zhen Liu nodded as it appeared that his first plan was more or less cemented. "Now other than that, and I need you rack your brain on this one, do you remember any other way to get into that hollow without having to go near that hunting camp at all?"

"Uhhh..."

If Zhen Liu had asked this question a couple days ago, he would’ve been informed that Lythero didn’t remember.

However, thanks to his decision in restoring Lythero’s cultivation, the answer he received was significantly more positive.

"Actually...yes."

"Figur-wait, really?"

"There was this pool of water in there that we used to get drinking water and occasionally do in-door fishing. I recall that Master Panther said that the pool was actually connected to the main lake via some underground channel or something like that. We never actually confirmed the connection to the lake because of laziness, but...if it is connected, we could technically just find it while swimming through the lake."

"That...hmmm."

Zhen Liu’s initial plan was to rile up a nearby aether beast and use them as a distraction so that he and Lythero could sneakily take out the guards and sneak into the root cavern.

But now that he knew that there wasn’t underwater tunnel that completely bypassed these hunters...he started thinking of a less dangerous plan.

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It just hinged on an entirely different factor.

"Okay, new plan but it requires me to ask something that is mildly embarrassing."

"Embarrassing...how?"

"Do you know how to swim?"

"Oh...yeah."

"Excellent..."

And with that confirmation, Zhen Liu decided to go with the plan that involved the least amount of violence...mostly.

"Now then," Zhen Liu began to say as he withdrew from his pouch a couple of wooden zako marbles. "Do you remember which direction those aformentioned dangerous beasts lived in?"

...Couple minutes later...

"Hmmm! Who knew that whole roasted alligator was so tender!," Princess Giobana praised. "My compliments to the chef."

"Thank you, milady."

"The cocktail could use some work," Gera commented as he swirled a glass containing a milky orange liquid. "It needs a touch of...sweetness."

"Well, we did want to add drops of fresh honey, but we ran out after breakfast this morning. We have sent out scouts to try and secure some fresh honeycombs."

"Excellent."

The schedule for the Strummata hunting party was relatively straightforward.

After lunch, they would send in some scouts to rile the Forged Feather Dragon Vulture into action and lure it out into the open.

After that, they would-

THUMP!

"Huh?"

A strange, large yellow lump suddenly landed in the middle of the hunting camp, causing nearby soldiers to stop what they were doing to figure out what had just happened.

(Un)Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to wait long.

"Why do I hear...buzzing?"