Rise Of The Hoarder

‘My Demon Cores!’

Quickly realizing that I was in danger of losing either my identity or the drops of the prey I slaughtered, my body went into overdrive.

I hurriedly began picking the Demon Cores in a hurry, lightly tapping them and storing them into [Subspace]. This allowed me to take care of a hundred in seconds.

Of course, since the Demon Cores were scattered apart, in some cases atop trees or at a farther distance from the rest, it took a lot of time to gather them all.

“I think I see something over there!” A voice sounded from the direction of Daniel’s approaching group.

“Tch,” I clicked my tongue, working faster to finish taking my loot before the Camp members arrived at the scene.

Fortunately, I concluded my task before they reached me, quickly jumping on a tall tree to escape sight. I climbed frantically, making sure to reach the top so that none of them could see me.

‘Of course, it’ll all be useless if one of them has a Gift that can sense me regardless of distance…’ My thoughts trailed._.

However, I doubted that, since I already went through the list Charles made and there was none of the sort.

From my tall height, I watched the events that occurred below, as Daniel and the remaining members who were with him looked at the crazy sight before them.

Many trees were scarred by the battle that had taken place, and the havoc wreaked around told the story of a very disastrous fight.

Plus, the Demon blood which was still evaporating displayed a gory sight of horror to those who saw.

“W-what is this…?!” Daniel muttered, widening his eyes.

I could tell what was going on in his mind. While the blood of a lot of the Demons had completely vanished, like the first batch, Demon blood belonging to over a hundred was still present. This meant that whatever occurred claimed the lives of at least a hundred of the beasts who had died.

“The blood must belong to Demons since it’s evaporating…” Daniel spoke observantly, moving across the expanse around him.

His feet stepped on twigs, intentionally avoiding the blood of Demons that littered the ground.

“The perpetrator, whoever they are, must have killed the Demons…” He continued.

“But this… this sight means there were over a hundred. Who could have done such? Maybe another Demon is nearby?” A member of the scouts asked.

Daniel shook his head slightly in response.

“There should be more than a hundred Demons dead already. Their blood evaporates, so these must be the most recent deaths. You reported hearing sounds some while back, so if we calculate the time you started hearing the sounds, the fight must have started then… so, a lot of Demons would have long died before we arrived.” He smartly added.

I was a little impressed by Daniel’s deductions. They were apt.

“As for whether they were caused by a Demon, I can’t say for sure… there is no Demon Core present, so whatever killed these Demons must have taken them. The only issue is that only Gifteds require Demon Cores to learn Skills, so they would be useless for other Demons to possess.”

Daniel had a point. Why would a beast painstakingly gather the Demon Cores of its prey? Demons couldn’t learn Skills from Cores, since they already had their own set skills.

“B-but, are we to believe that a Gifted did this?!” The second scout member added, looking perplexed.

At this point, Tasha, who was also among the group sighed. Judging by the expression on her face, I knew she was aware that the perpetrator was me.

For the sake of my alliance with Charles, and our plans, she had to cover up for me.,

“They could have been working in a group. It’s impossible for a Gifted to have caused all this mayhem.” She said, drawing the attention of everyone else to her.

“That’s true… still, to think another group was here. Do you think the other Camps in the area dispatched Subjugation squads like us? If so, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to approach them and form a joint force?” Daniel said, trying to analyze Tasha’s words.

His genuine words made sense, if only they were true. Unfortunately, there was no Subjugation team around other than ours. The other Camps must have not gotten wind of the news yet.

“I doubt they would be willing to cooperate. It’s not like our Camps are on good terms.” Tasha stated.

“True. They could pretend to be on the same side as us, then backstab us later on. Also, the allocation of roles and formation of plans would have to start from scratch. Even the Demon Cores that will be obtained from this Subjugation will be another headache. We should stick to the original plan.”Daniel sighed.

Tasha nodded in agreement, same as everyone else who was present.

“Let’s take a look around. There could be Demon survivors or any clues that will help us to better understand the situation.”

After Daniel made this statement, everyone nodded and began looking around.

Since their levels were low, they all had squinted to see details of the dark area.

‘I clearly remember we brought some flashlights with us, though. Why aren’t they using them?’ I asked myself.

I realized that they had perhaps left it behind so that the other Camp members would be able to see any approaching danger and quickly signal Daniel’s team in case of an emergency.

Daniel and his group could still manage, since they were quite strong, compared to the others.

After searching for some time and seeing nothing, they decided to return to the Camp.

I heaved a sigh of relief, already growing weary of hanging by the branch of a tree while tirelessly watching the group pointlessly search around them.

“They won’t find anything here… however, on their way back to the Camo, if they look at the paths carefully, they’ll see something I especially left behind for their group to find.’ I grinned.

Daniel’s group left, returning to the base we set up, still observing their surrounding. I didn’t wait very long before landing on the ground softly, hardly making a sound.

“Oof. I should head back now…” I muttered.

I had to say, the thrill I just experienced was absolutely worth it. However, with the commotion I caused, it would be best to postpone visiting the Hobgoblin base for another time.

‘I’ve had enough fun for tonight!’