CHAPTER 854: WALKING BANK

Standing in the middle of the street, Alice had a complicated expression on her face.

The Zenia family store.

There wasn’t really anything... ’wrong’ with the store. She just didn’t like the feeling.

The feeling of repulsion. If she could do anything about it, she would either choose to destroy this place or walk away.

But in order to figure out what they’re planning, they needed to buy three things.

First, sa trange merger of different bloods together.

Second, a counter agent.

And lastly, the ’lite’ version of Abyss Blood. High potency but short duration.

They needed to get a sample of all three so they can properly test. And not just one either. They needed around three of each.

"I know there are probably others who are acting like this too. But we should head in soon, people are starting to take notice." Elias furrowed his brows.

Taking a deep breath, Alice sighed and nodded her head.

"I know. Just sorting out a few feelings."

Walking into the store, the immediate sound of chatter dominated her hearing.

People inquiring about what blood to use, what effects they have.

Panicked customers begging for a counter agent to be made.

Employees helping out as many people as possible.

Despite having the Zenia name attached to it, this wasn’t a bad store.

Alice took this moment to have a walk around the store.

’Even if it’s a Zenia store, there are normal people involved with the family as Elias has said. Going the easy route... we’ll probably have to kill them too if they’ve made a contract with the family.’ Alyss sighed.

Their original goal of wiping out the family would’ve been partially achieved through the contracts that they’ve made.

But that would be indiscriminatory and would even kill those like Selen.

As hypocritical as it may be, she’d rather not do that. Only because her friend is involved.

"Hi~ Are you lost? Do you need some help?" A voice called out to Alice as she glanced over.

A woman bent down slightly with Alice’s smile twitched.

"Not a kid, I’m in my 20’s."

"Ah..."

[PFT!]

’HAH!’

’F*ck off.’ Alice groaned inwardly.

"Ah I’m terribly sorry!" The woman apologised, but Alice waved it off.

"I’m a bit curious about some of these products. Can you help me?" Alice asked as the woman nodded.

"With pleasure. How may I help?"

"I just need to know a few things. You see, I studied blood when I was at school and some of these are a bit confusing to me.

"I know that when you mix Abyss Blood, only one effect remains but it’s weaker than before. And since you’re doing the mixtures on the scene, are you able to tell me a little bit about it?" Alice asked.

"Of course, if you can’t tell me because it’s industry secrets or something I understand. I’m just curious."

The woman thought about it for a moment before smiling.

"I’m not too well informed. But we have people responsible for the mixing process in every branch. The same is applied to all of the new services." She explained as Alice folded her arms.

[Depending on how many people they have per branch, aren’t they spreading themselves a little thin?] Cayla frowned.

’Probably. Though I’ll bank on the fact that they wouldn’t need something like that. Remember Suyin? She’s giving us crystals and stuff to deal with Outer Gods when they appear.

’That’s transported through the Void in a vault. So... I’m guessing the people sent to the branches have something similar. They’ll access it when needed. All they need is someone to pass along the message with a slight understanding of the process.’ Alice furrowed her brows.

She doubted that the Zenia family would send important people to every branch.

’Why don’t we kidnap them? It’ll probably be easier to find out about the behind the scenes stuff.’ Alyss suggested.

’I don’t think the guards will sit around if I do something like that.’

’Fair point. Security is surprisingly tight in this city. Do you think it’s a side effect of the Royal family’s caution against the Zenia family?’ Alyss theorised.

’Probably.’

The moment they exited their tavern, Alice could feel eyes watching their movements. Surveillance that was spread throughout the city. No corner was spared and any anything would to happen, the response was fast and snappy.

If she was to cause a single commotion in the shop, the guards will arrive within minutes if not less.

Impressive yet annoying. That’s how Alice would describe it.

Regardless, Alice decided to browse their ware of Abyss Blood for now.

There were a few that caught her eye but most of them was limited to low level beasts. High level ones were either stupidly expensive or completely unavailable.

In the end, Alice bought three different blood mixtures, all with completely different effects.

Looking at her pouch that was now clearly lacking a few coins, Alice let out a deep sigh.

"I’m poor again." She groaned.

Of course, she had enough mead money. Just not enough to do clothes shopping or important expenses on top of that.

[Most would argue that the latter is more important than the former or even mead at that.] Cayla sighed while staring at Alice with a neutral expression.

She wasn’t poor. She had more than enough money in reality.

The only issue was... when considering her mead expenses and how much she likes to drink and horde, no amount of money was going to be enough.

’We can always take some jobs at the Hunters Guild if needed.’ Alyss reminded.

’True. I also need to renew my license since it’s a tad outdated. Once I do, getting a high level job that pays well shouldn’t be an issue. But... Do you think they’ll find my improvement suspicious?’ Alice scratched her hair.

Most people would usually take a long time for their Sigils.

They need to train to change the selection of beasts, find a shaman or a natural communion point to designate their targets then find the corresponding beast and it’s location.

If they’re unlucky, they could be stuck and miss out on the kill. Or, on the way there, the kill is stolen from them so they’ll have to track a new one down.

The process of finding the right beast and tracking them down was a long an arduous one.

One that Alice skips using Cayla because she can simply designate whatever she finds interesting as her target.

Take the Tenebris for example. She wasn’t even thinking of going after that kind of beast.

But there was a flood of beasts and she just happened to be there.

Thus skipping the annoyance and immediately setting her bounty.

Saving time was one of the biggest benefits of Cayla.

Though... considering what it was like in the past where everyone can set or even revoke their bounties... Alice couldn’t help but wonder if that kind of power will be available for her in the future.

"I was wondering why I saw a kid staring at their wallet. So it was just you. Need some cash?" Elias asked from behind as Alice glanced back.

"Maybe. I bought three samples for now but they’re more expensive than I thought." Alice groaned, showing the vials that she bought.

"Hm? You should’ve just told me. How much did they cost?" Elias asked, reaching into his inner pocket and tossing over a pouch.

Catching it, Alice raised her eyebrow and opened it slightly.

"!?!?!?!?"

Platina.

Just Platina.

No silver, no gold.

Only the highest denomination of currency.

In front of her stood one of the richest people she has ever laid her eyes on.

"What? There are benefits when it comes to healing people sometimes. I just so happened to heal a wealthy dude a few years back. Haven’t struggled with buying anything since." Elias explained.

"Ahem, would you like to develop some mead with me? We can use that funding for a great cause." Alice grinned as Elias rolled his eyes.

"Just because I have money doesn’t mean we should spend it however we want. Let’s just buy what’s needed and leave." He pushed Alice’s head away.

"Boring." Alice stuck out her tongue.

But now that she knows they have a literal walking bank with them, she didn’t hold back.

She looked for the most strange and contrasting blood types to fuse and requested it.

Abilities such as being able to summon flames but fusing it with one that extinguishes all flames.

Or perhaps a siren based ability that made one infatuated while merged with one that forced berserk. Would they be angry but in love?

Speak words of love while trying to punch you?

Alice wanted to see how well the Zenia family was able to fuse these strange abilities together. Whether or not they would still cancel out or take effect in the strangest possible ways.

Only by going through all of the options can she determine what kind of mixing agent they have concocted and determine their progress.

Progress towards recreating her blood and her powers.

With the samples now acquired, same with the lite version of the blood, the only thing left was to see the Counter Agents.

In order to get one, they must either bring the victim here or explain the issue in full detail.

What blood has been drunk and the side effects that’s manifested within the body.

The only issue was...

Where will they find the victim?

Alice wouldn’t manifest something like that easily and even if she did, it’ll mean exposing her blood to them.

’Wait a second...’ Alice slowly widened her eyes.

’Have we even seen a person with a side effect on the streets since we’ve arrived?’