City of Ravens (11)

When I got back, Emily was still wired in and ignoring me. It wasn't a problem, as long as she kept working on the symbols.

I didn't waste time and began to condensate my soul. The process didn't change, and the headache still hurt like hell.

After a few hours I was done condensing my soul, and I felt my stomach changing into a black hole as I became hungry as a wolf. It was morning, and after visiting a few restaurants and filling my stomach, I went to sell the leather of the Orthrus.

Back at the apartment, I got ready to leave for the hunting grounds since I had a fight next week increasing my strength was the best choice. With the papers I had from the doctor, I could extend the deadline of the fight at any time.

Before leaving I went to Emily, she again was wired in, with headphones on and typing rapidly on her keyboard. She was wearing a t-shirt and shorts; her hairs were a mess, but that didn't change her beautiful looks.

When I took her headphones off, she got startled and looked at me confused. "What?" she said.

"How is your work going?"

"Good. I'm on the right track, only a few pieces are missing, and I will be able to translate it, at least partially. And since you are here, I should probably tell you. In elven… no ten days there is an exhibit in the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History. I will need you to go there. Nothing complicated just taking a few pictures of an ancient tablet."

"Sure. But there is something I need you to do, or at least try to do. Find someone that can get information of Alexander Novakovic. Through 'Unofficial' channels. Can you do that?"

"Hmm… Maybe. Ever since I started working on that text, I picked up a few skills. I can only assure you I will try."

"That's good enough. Thanks."

"Not a problem, just don't forget about the exhibit in ten days."

I wasn't expecting to get many results from Emily, she wasn't a professional, but anything could help and with my time limit.

After doing this, I left for the hunting grounds. The plan was to kill monsters, take their souls, and increase my strength!

I wasn't aiming for any particular monsters, so I ended up killing goblins as they were everywhere. After killing one group and taking all of their souls, which amounted to twelve I sat in between the branches of a tree and began to extract their soul essence.

The process was smooth, and after thirty minutes my soul grew substantially. The growth was tremendous! I was a third of the way to reach the limit! Feeling the power I gained, I went down and search for new pray!

---

When Dominque left I put back my headphones and started to search the internet. After what happened last time, before searching for any information about the symbols on Dominique's arm, I learned how to hide myself on the internet.

It took me a bit, but with the help of a few nice people from a forum, I stumbled upon while doing research on the subject I now knew how to make myself invisible on the internet. The whole thing was fun since learning was my passion form young age, only if not form my family…

Either way, I now knew how to do a lot more on the internet but finding information about someone only with their name… that wasn't in my skill set. So I logged on the forum and posted a message, 'Need to find information about Alexander Novakovic. Can anyone help?'

Almost immediately I got a response.

'[R@] – Can you give more information, there are thousands of them.'

'[£MM902] – nothing certain, most likely he is in Canada, Algonquin town.'

'[ManiaK] – Got one. He is registered in the MCA. He challenged some dude because he stole his girlfriend LOL.'

'[R@] – he went to some backwater Uni for artists. Nearly failed. From what it looks like he bought his way into the Uni, not the smartest chap.'

'[ONI123] – Check this out! https://youtu.be/o1eHKf-dMwo. He took a bath in the sewage! Naked!'

'[ManiaK] – Lol.'

'[R@] – nice one.'

'[£MM902] – Can you guys send me the files?'

'[R@] – sure, remember to access them through the 'Forum' server. The FBI will know that it was as that hacked the MCA if they find them. Btw, why the sudden interest in the guy?'

'[ONI123] – Boyfriend?'

'[£MM902] – Friends request.'

'[R@] – be careful then. This Alexander seems to have a connection with some gang from Ottawa. They are only a bunch of bullies but still…'

'[£MM902] – What gang?'

'[R@] – Killer Apes. I hacked his phone, and the boss of Killer Apes, Nate McDade told him to challenge Dominque Blake. And as far as I can tell from your IP address, it looks like you are staying at the room he is renting.'

Nate?! That bastard! He is going after Dominque! Did he find out that I'm here with him? That shouldn't be possible.

'[£MM902] – When did he do it?'

'[R@] – the challenge papers were submitted nine days ago. But there is something wrong with the papers. They were approved too fast, and with the reason, he gave it doesn't make sense that it was even considered.'

'[£MM902] – U mean that someone manipulated the process?'

'[R@] – Something like that. There is no trace of it on the servers, someone approved in person.'

'[£MM902] – Thanks, you guys helped me a lot.'

'[ONI123] – No problem.'

'[ManiaK] – It was a pleasure.'

'[R@] – It's ok, just remember to be careful.'

With their help, I now had 300 pages of information about Alexander Novakovic. From the birth certificate to the paper he wrote in college. Everything that was on the internet that he was connected to was here.

I started from the massages that he exchanged with Nate. And from them, it looked like he is working for him. After Dominque beat up his thugs, he must've investigated him. Then told Alexander to challenge him. He must have some connections in the MCA to have that challenge approved.

As for Alexander Novakovic, 25 years old, born in Belarus, migrated when he was 5. His father worked for a large company, Mother stayed at home and took care of him. Both parents died in a car accident when he was 20. At the time he was already attending the university, which appeared to be already fully paid.

It looks like his father made a sizable donation to the university when he was entering it. He barely passed after which he joined the MCA, and spent a few months doing that. Then somehow, he met with Nate that hired him and since then worked for him.

In his MCA file, it appears that he made quite a few challenges, all with weird or nonsensical reason. As far as I know, most challenges have a much better reason, like 'He caused the death of my [someone important].' But not him.

The most recent challenge was to Dominique, which was set to be next week. It appears that Nate told him to challenge Dominque to 'teach him a lesson.'

As he became an artist five years ago, his strength should be much higher then Dominique's. Based on the files from the MCA, he completed multiple missions that were aimed at rarer and stronger monsters.

Usually, the MCA issues missions for monsters that have a high reproduction rate, these are always up. Missions for other monsters show up when the population of a monster increases and needs to be decreased. It happens continuously with how many monsters there are.

This information can't be a 100% sure confirmation of his strength though. Other than controlling their population, monsters are also killed for their materials. A lot of people do that, and thanks to that the MCA can cut down their expenses while monster population stays under control.

This means that Alexander is stronger than the records of the MCA. Which show that he can kill a Vrykolakas. I don't know how strong Dominque is… but that fight doesn't seem fair.