Chapter 63: Ancient Map

The small group of bounty hunters hid behind a bush as they observed the cave in the distance.

They watched in silence for a few minutes before the leader of the group gave his orders through hand gestures. The rest of the group nodded in understanding and swiftly took action, they drew their weapons and their figures melded into the darkness of the forest.

Zaos continued to observe their actions silently. His sharp senses made it easy for him to track their positions even though they had employed concealment techniques.

He watched as the group stealthily entered the cave and a few sounds later, the sounds of fighting could be heard.

He waited at his position until the sounds died down and the life force of one of the participants was snuffed out. He managed to discern this by listening to the heartbeats in the cave, at the beginning of the battle there were four, yet only three remained at the moment.

Seizing the moment when the group was relatively relaxed, Zaos swiftly made his way into the cave.

The sight that greeted him was a damp cave the size of a spacious room. Three figures hurdled over the corpse of an individual with long wavy dark hair, skinny physique, and a small stature.

Immediately Zaos identified the corpse, he sprung to action. He drew a sleek dark-colored short sword from its sheath and slashed at the neck of the group leader.

In an instant, the head of the group leader flew off his neck and dropped to the ground with a thud.

The rest of the group was too stunned to understand what had occurred as they watched in shock as blood spewed out of their leader's now headless corpse.

Zaos didn't give them any time to recover, he swiftly drove his short sword into the chest of the other male dark elf, and with a slashing motion, he hacked him in two.

The female dark elf watched on in terror as an invisible entity mutilated her companions. However, her survival instincts soon kicked in when she felt killing intent directed in her direction.

Hastily activating her elemental weave, she chose to employ two techniques unique to dark elves; concealment and subterfuge. These were the first two properties of the Darkness Edict Rune.

Using concealment, she blended into the dark atmosphere of the environment, then she swiftly employed her subterfuge ability to create multiple clones of herself that scattered in different directions from her main body.

This technique she employed was similar to what Shadow had used when facing Zaos a few months ago. Subterfuge was in essence, the ability to create illusions to trick the enemy's senses.

Yet, unfortunately for her, her opponent could directly counter her abilities.

Without bothering to activate an elemental weave to dispel the fake clones, Zaos headed straight for the female dark elf.

His actions were swift and precise as before the female bounty hunter could react, her head was already sent flying.

Once her decapitated head hit the ground, the clones she had conjured dispersed into thin air.

It was then that Zaos deactivated his invisibility and sheathed his weapon.

While walking towards Zente's corpse, Zaos thought, [I am becoming more proficient with the short sword…]

After Zaos decided to adopt the identity of Volron, he realized that they both utilized different weapons. Volron utilized a short sword while Zaos wielded twin daggers.

Unwilling to search for another target due to this small detail, Zaos chose to switch to a short sword as his choice of weapon. This was to avoid creating an abnormality in the identity's actions, he also wished to gain proficiency in multiple weapons to make his future disguises more authentic.

Zaos arrived before Zente's corpse and couldn't help but smirk. If he had continued to hunt solo, then he might have missed the opportunity to claim this bounty.

[But this was somewhat disappointing. I was expecting more from him but I guess being injured and then ambushed by three high elves was too much for him,] Zaos crouched and began looting the corpse.

He found some basic living supplies, 10 good quality mana gems, and a beast skin scroll.

Zaos tossed the other items to the side and scrutinized the scroll with interest. On the scroll was a map showing the route toward a city known as Grangor.

Zaos who had read most of the information on the cities located in the Dark-elf tribe, was puzzled, he had never heard of such a city.

[An ancient city?] Zaos guessed due to the material used in the creation of the map. Beast skin scrolls were long since abandoned with the invention of paper.

[Did he find it at a fruitful encounter or is this the item he stole from the Satron clan? If it's the latter, then the Satron clan suffered a loss this time,] Zaos pocketed the map.

After gazing at the lifeless body of Zente for a while, Zaos made a decision.

[I won't claim this bounty. If the map is from the Satron clan I will effectively put a target on my back even if I return it,]

The Satron clan was a powerful Elite clan in the Dark-elf tribe. They were also one of the many clans responsible for protecting the borders of the tribe.

As a guardian clan, they were currently engaged in a war with the light mystics so the situation in the clan was quite chaotic. Zente had probably utilized this opportunity to steal the map before making a hasty escape.

Normally, the clan would have dispatched their troops to retrieve the item but, they were currently engaged in a fierce war that they couldn't abandon. This led them to seek the aid of bounty hunters to eliminate or capture the target.

Most bounty hunters were interested in the reward so they wouldn't forsake it for a map of unknown origins, yet Zaos was different. He had enough funds to last him a long time, and he was keen enough to know that the Satron clan might try to silence him since the information contained in the map was delicate.

[A regular bounty hunter wouldn't be able to recognize the uniqueness of this map since they lack knowledge on such topics. That's probably what the Satron clan was thinking when they issued this bounty…] Zaos shook his head as he made his way to the other corpses.

After looting them too, he ended up with 40 good-quality mana gems, some food, and a few other useless items carried by the elves.

Zaos pocketed the Mana gems and the food before clearing the scene of his presence.

It didn't take him long to complete this task, and in a short while, he was exiting the scene.