Chapter 85

Philip's business at the party was not over; a single proposal was far from enough. He was troubled and passionately involved in the overall planning of interest distribution, with no time to watch Caroline Cullis's performance. He and these gentlemen would burn the whole night to distribute interests and responsibilities. At the same time, Clayton had arrived home.

Detective Hook's personal belongings were all brought home by him, and the cash and weapons were shared equally with others. The cash on these detectives added up to no more than 50 pounds, but the weapons were quite sophisticated. Clayton suggested that Julius and Barbara take them to practice more with firearms so that they could cooperate with their abilities to exert maximum combat effectiveness. However, Clayton didn't want to think about these things anymore. He hadn't slept for more than half a month, and now he was missing that feeling.

It wasn't exhaustion, but the illusion that he could finally put everything down. Relying only on eating to replenish energy is not entirely a good thing; it means double mental stress, and many bad things cannot find time to be forgotten. He must learn to sleep again. But there were still things to deal with tonight.

Clayton patted the soft mattress lingeringly, sat for a while, and then picked up the suitcase from the ground and brought it to the study. The documents brought by Detective Hook still needed his inspection. When working, he let Clara out of the fish tank to get some air, and by the way, be a companion to chat and relieve boredom. Clayton didn't just read the documents once; he needed to take notes and analyze the action patterns of these people in order to formulate follow-up plans. This was a good habit he learned from an artillery officer who liked to write and draw. Under the gaze of the blonde girl, he flipped through the documents easily.

In addition to Detective Hook's funding application statements, there were also some contents related to clerical work, such as the land environment survey information submitted by Sasa City civil servants to them, and the suburban terrain mapping contents conducted privately by the detectives. It can be seen that the Hook Detective Agency has seriously considered opening a new stronghold in Sasa City, and it is very... uncommercial. In several areas where these detectives focused on measuring, the local slope was relatively high compared to the surroundings, and traffic factors were not well considered. Moreover, the land area they circled was extremely large, even exceeding the drill ground of a battalion—Clayton's calculation was to count the shooting range as well. They didn't want to rent land, but to buy land. The difference between the two is that the former cannot carry out destructive construction on this land, while the latter can.

Compared with commercial land, the terrain chosen by the Hook detectives is more suitable for building military fortresses. Although Clayton was in the cavalry, he could see at a glance the benefits of the place they chose—hills with high slopes, adjacent to forests, although not within the scope of this map, Clayton knew that a stream passed nearby, taking water was very convenient, and the water source was far away from the river mouth, and the location was upstream that would not be polluted. These detectives were trying to prevent unknown forces from attacking them. But this was indeed a normal idea; after all, Clayton did it. Combined with the funding application statements drafted by the detectives, he basically confirmed that there were no lies in what they confessed during the interrogation.

The interesting thing is that the best monster hunter among the Hook detectives did not carry any valuable company documents; he only brought a diary. Clayton flipped through it out of interest, thinking that he could find information about the training methods of monster hunters, or the learning of simple spells, etc., but there were no such things. This monster hunter seemed to have started learning to read and write not long ago. The beginning of the diary was also this spring. He wrote a self-introduction seven times, and none of them was free of typos. The rest of the content was also a description of the weather and the food of the day. Moreover, the recording was relatively frequent at the beginning, and the time interval for writing the diary later became longer and longer. The longest case reached one entry in half a month, but the accuracy of the wording had improved greatly.

Especially the latest diary entry, the content is different from the previous content. When Clayton saw this text, his spirit was refreshed.

"That woman made my badge vibrate. She also realized this, but she didn't care at all, and gave me an extremely evil smile. Of course, I won't be confused by her appearance; she is a monster in human skin! I began to regret it. Why did I take this task? The agency actually signed a long-term contract with the organization behind this woman. For money, don't they even want their souls?"

"She left with other brothers. I don't know what kind of situation they will end up in, but I am sure that as soon as the cooperation ends, they will never hesitate to kill us like slaughtering livestock. As a reward for the disposal of my ancestors and teachers, they will definitely do it! Recently, these monsters have become more and more numerous. It is hard to say that there is no conspiracy brewing."

"I told my companion about her identity, but Sotoka didn't believe me, and Danton thought that those papers written only with pen and ink would have the same binding force on them as humans. As long as they give money, they are customers. Profit-seeking guys! I have no choice. Fortunately, I already know the function of the strange object that the woman asked us to send. This helps to reveal her true identity. Because only parasitic monsters and those druid shapeshifters need it."

Werewolves also belong to shapeshifters. Clayton was immediately curious about this strange object that the detectives were about to transport to Sasa City, but the diary did not answer it later.

"I will get out, but before that, I must guard against that monster coming back to contact us and instill those dangerous and corrupt thoughts. Or empty our internal organs while it is quiet at night. From now on, I will not sleep all night, use wake-up potions to survive this period, until the subsequent brothers arrive here. This may be the last time I perform a mission, unless the boss changes his mind. Although earning a lot in the city, it is not better than the countryside at all."

Seeing this, the lieutenant regretted letting that monster hunter die, although it was not his own hand.

"My arrows are ready, but something is still missing. The forest is very dangerous now. Those government officials told us that the soldiers were cleaning up those disgusting dark creatures, so they couldn't go there to collect medicine. Tomorrow I will find a way to get some monkshood from the pharmacy to apply on the arrowhead, but they probably won't be willing to sell it to me. The money on me is not much..."

The handwriting stopped here, and the date of this diary entry is yesterday. The monster hunter who was determined to deal with the Spider Priest was waiting, but what he got was Clayton and his party. However, they really couldn't win this combat power. From the diary, it can be seen that this monster hunter discriminates against all Darkspawn equally. As long as he finds that they are monsters and the agency does not have a mandatory task, I am afraid he would not mind pulling his companions to give them a few bullets.

Clayton felt very sorry for such an attitude; he felt that he was still a good person. Putting down the documents, Clayton played with the badge and sleeve arrow removed from the dead monster hunter. The badge was still vibrating at first, but it stopped after vibrating for an hour. Clayton believed that its operation also needs to consume some energy, just like electricity, but machines lacking electricity can be solved by power generation, but this badge does not know where it can be recharged. Carrying this badge might be useless, but Julius can take it to find Athena Baluge. After all, this young mage is still a human.

Putting down the badge, he turned to pick up the sleeve arrow device with amazing power. The silver metal main body is like several drawing compasses cut together, but no more than 20 cm long. There are several exposed gears used to adjust the tension of the strings inside, as well as the card slot width of the special arrows. As long as the length is not excessive, most slender objects can be stuffed in as arrows. Clayton hung his and Clara's dinner beef on the doorknob, wound the sleeve arrow mechanism, stuffed a pencil into it, and then stood on the other side of the room aimed at the beef and triggered it.

Across a distance of seven yards, the pencil stabbed into the beef at once. He brought the beef back to the table and confirmed that the depth of the wound exceeded two centimeters. Because what he took out was hard frozen beef, it might be deeper if stabbed on a person. It is amazing that a mechanical device less than ten centimeters long can accelerate a light object like a pencil to enough to kill. Hearing the pleasant sound of the mechanism spring, the wound on his face reduced the pain. Even for a man who loves peace, his love for weapons will not decrease. With this almost silent long-range weapon, he can kill the target even in the busy city during the day.

Clayton played with the sleeve arrow for a while, but suddenly found that the surroundings were unusually quiet. At the same time before, Clara showed the ability to keep talking—although there were not many profound insights. He stared at Clara, the latter frowned, thinking about something sadly. This expression should not appear on the face of a little girl whose mental age does not exceed ten years old.

"What is Clara thinking about?"

He tore a piece of beef and put it to the mouth of the head. Clara chewed while vaguely answering him: "Clara is thinking about what to say to Mom."

Clayton was startled and stuffed a piece of raw meat into his mouth: "This was a topic early yesterday morning. haven't you thought about it yet?"

"Clara can't think of it..."

It can be seen that Clara is really very distressed. Her innocent blue eyes looked at the werewolf.

"What would Clayton say to Clayton's mom?"

Clayton almost choked; his parents passed away a long time ago. However, Clara didn't know this; she should just want to ask what topics would be discussed after relatives reunited. But unfortunately, Clayton is also a person who is not good at words. Let him say it. Most of the topics are related to eating, either what dish his mother will make for the next meal, or the novel snacks he brought back to share, otherwise he will immediately participate in labor, help herd sheep, milk cows.

He desperately recalled the speeches of Ulun, who was good at literature, in this situation, but he was embarrassed to say them. He is really not the kind of person who will express his emotions. Ulun's way is something he can never do. No matter whether it is expressed in a straightforward or modified way, he will feel ashamed.

"I will ask her, what to eat for dinner?" Clayton finally said to Clara in despair. Clara opened her eyes wide, showing a very surprised look, but did not laugh at him.

"Clayton, don't you need to cook by yourself?"