Chapter 83: Nibble Hands

A week quickly passes. Zaos returned to the small settlement in search of the famous information broker; Night Owl.

He walked deep into the snow-filled settlement before arriving at a simple wooden hut. As if sensing his presence, the door to the wooden hut swung open, and the Night Owl behind it greeted Zaos.

"You came just in time, I received the final bits of information a few minutes ago," She spoke with a proud smile as she gestured for Zaos to enter.

Zaos replied with a calm nod. He entered the hut and took a seat on one of the wooden benches inside.

Night Owl sat at the bench opposite him and passed him a few papers from across the desk separating them.

"All the things you need are in there. The balance payment is thirteen good-quality mana gems, so the total is twenty-eight good-quality mana gems," She said plainly.

Zaos struggled to maintain his calm expression. The final price was a bit above the initial estimate, causing Zaos to feel pain in his heart.

[Hopefully, I can get back this investment from the bandit groups' treasure stashes,] He sighed inwardly before shifting his attention to the documents in front of him.

As he browsed through the documents, Zaos was unable to control his expression and revealed a trace of shock.

[Such detail…] He exclaimed inwardly in surprise. The documents he held contained the names of all influential members of the various bandit groups he asked for. It also contained their hobbies, their movement patterns in the last few days, and the individuals they regularly interacted with.

[If all this information is correct, then I will have an easier time choosing my targets! To be able to gather so much in under a week, she certainly deserves her reputation,]

As Zaos was lost in his thoughts while gazing at the detailed report, the female information broker's voice reached his ears.

"Hey! Haven't you seen enough? Hand over the balance payment!" Her tone portrayed her displeasure.

Zaos' attention was quickly drawn over to her. He gave an apologetic smile and passed her the thirteen mana gems. The grievance in his heart had dissipated immensely after seeing the results of the investigation.

After receiving the mana gems, Night Owl's expression eased up as she asked in a lighter tone.

"Is there anything else you need?" She placed her arms on the table as she inquired. A smug smile hung on her lips, Zaos' earlier display of shock greatly pleased her.

"That will be all," Zaos replied. He stood from his seat and gestured at the door, "I will take my leave now," He said without much of an expression.

Night Owl didn't persuade him, she escorted him to the door and sent him off.

Once he exited the hut, Zaos made his way back to his main hideout underground. Immediately he arrived via teleportation, Zaos took out the documents and studied them closely.

[Out of five groups listed here, two are suspicious based on their members' movement patterns. I am left with two medium-sized groups and one small group…]

Zaos nodded his head. These results were satisfactory as medium-sized bandit groups contained roughly a hundred members while small-sized groups consisted of about fifty members. As long as he could devour these mixed groups of elves, his edict rune cultivation progress would proceed speedily.

[I can always search for more bandits later,] With such thoughts, Zaos made his preparations for the operation.

He spent half a day making sufficient plans for the hunt based on the information he had before departing swiftly. His first destination was the publicly known base of the infamous bandit group; Nibble Hands. Their camp was located on a famous hill in the northern area of the Dark-elf tribe.

The hill was known for its relation to the Nibble Hands bandit group and also because of the large number of flying-type beasts in its vicinity. These beasts were the subsidiary to the nibble hands bandit group due to a fruitful encounter their leader had in his early years.

Whenever a group of mercenaries evaded the hill, they would have to face the counterattack of both elf and beast which led to huge casualties on the evading side. Because of this, the Nibble Hands bandit group was usually ignored by mercenaries and bounty hunters.

Unfortunately, their stable life had come to an end as they had caught the attention of a desperate and powerful enemy…

As Zaos approached the sparsely vegetated hill after a day of travel, he heard the cry of multiple avian species.

He wasn't flustered as he was currently employing his invisibility, instead, he looked in awe at the large number of winged beasts flying above the snowy hill.

[Elmors… truly majestic creatures,] Zaos sighed in wonder.

Elmor were beasts resembling golden eagles but were two times their size and had two pairs of wings.

Alone, an Elmor was incapable of harming an elf as they were not Savage Beasts, however, the large dark cloud above formed from multiple Elmors could not be underestimated.

[Once I dispatch the bandit group leader and his pet, these Elmors will scatter. I can freely finish off the rest of the bandit group then,] Zaos analysed as he walked up the hill.

He felt no fear towards this mass of Elmors as he had a lot of means at his disposal in case the situation devolved. His only concern was that the birds would hinder him from achieving his goal. So, to not attract the attention of the large flock above, Zaos opted against killing elves he encountered on the way to the camp.

The scouts situated around the base of the hill and the central region were oblivious to the fact that a great enemy had already invaded their territory. But, this was also a good thing as their lives were spared for the moment as Zaos arrived before their camp.

His gaze lingered on the crudely built wooden hut for a little while before he headed to a particular one.

The hut was a bit larger than most, but it shared the same level of simplicity as the others. What made this particular hut important to Zaos was its owner; the Sky Lord.

Sky Lord was the title appointed to the leader of the Nibble Hands bandit group by the masses because of his army of Elmors.

According to the information Zaos received, Sky Lord should currently be home as he rested for the day.

Zaos proceeded forward, his goal was to confirm the authenticity of the information on him by seeing the target. If everything turned out to be accurate, he would strike and move on to the next victim.