Dark King

After the carriage left Dudian held Old Fulin's arm and helped him to walk back to study room. Old Fulin put the contract into the drawer and looked at Dudian.: "We have enough money to rent an underground passage to the outside. How is the state of your readjustment? When would you be in good state to go out to hunt?"

Dudian thought for a moment and replied.: "In few days."

"Well you get prepared while I go to see Holy Church and choose a channel which is close to our estate." Old Fulin slightly nodded.: "But you have to consider this matter clearly. Once we rent the underground passage this hundred thousand gold coins will be gone."

Dudian faintly smiled.: "Why should I be reluctant?"

"I am reluctant." Old Fulin smiled and looked at Dudian's eyes.: "It's a very big amount of money. I don't know its right or wrong to bet on you. I hope I haven't chosen the wrong person."

"You have no choice even if you had made the wrong decision." Dudian coldly said.

Old patriarch sighed and didn't talk anymore.

...

...

As they had the money to rent a passage to the outside, Dudian also began to prepare his own equipment. He was going to use arrows and bow made for intermediate knights. 'Temple of Elements' sold armor for hunters. The price for an armor for primary hunter was ten gold coins while it would cost hundred gold coins to buy an armor which was suitable for intermediate hunters. The armors provided by the 'Temple of Elements' were standard black armors which would fit the body as if it was glued to it. It had anti-radiation protection too.

"I should get bow, storage bags, folded bags and I should buy a set of advanced hunter armor. I will be able to take 20kg of gunpowder. The problem with gunpowder is that its still a bit weak but the sound of explosion is to loud. It would lead other monsters over so it has to be the last resort. I have to rely on bow and arrows. Maybe I should get custom forged fine iron arrows."

Dudian rode to a blacksmith shop in the Yard town. He ordered a set of arrows and wrote down the required materials to be used in forging them. He paid a deposit.

Afternoon.

Old Fulin's carriage came back.

Dudian sense his smell and rushed to the hall. He was about to ask him about details when he saw that Old Fulin's face had turned ugly.: "What happened? The price has gone up?"

Old Fulin looked at him in a complicated manner. He slowly shook his head and told to him.: "Let's go upstairs."

Dudian helped him to second floor.

As Dudian closed the door, Fulin sighed deeply.: "The price to rent the underground passage has not changed. The problem is that Holy Church has 18 underground channels that lead to outside. The other consortiums and the military have rented one or two and some of them have even rented out three undergound passages. Now there are only three passages left."

Dudian was stunned as he didn't expect that there would be not so many passages.: "Three left. So don't they want to rent them?"

Old Fulin smiled wryly.: "It's not that they don't want to rent but no one is willing to rent! All three of them are abandoned passages. First one has a lake outside of it. According to Holy Church that lake is full of ferocious monsters. Some amphibious beasts usually lay around just outside the iron gate. So you will be facing monster attacks as soon as you leave from the other side. No one is renting."

Dudian knew that there was no way to hunt monsters underwater. Even poisoning the lake would be difficult. If the lake is too large, it would be almost impossible to find such a strong toxin to poison all the monsters. Moreover, because of poisoning some monsters could go through mutation and evolve into much better variation. Actually, there could be some powerful monsters which are not afraid of poision. There had been animals such as toads and lizards back in the old era who were not afraid of poision. They would feen on poisonous snakes.

"The second passage leads to a wasteland. There is a mountain outside the channel. But all other areas are just plain desert. There is no good habitat for monsters to survive. The ones living in there are very poisonous ones which are very troublesome to hunt. So no consortium is willing to rent it. " Old Fulin sighed.: "As for the third passage. The Holy Church said that they would close it down for good."

"Why?" Dudian asked the question.

Old Fulin smiled.: "This passage leads to ruins as the others. But I was told that the monsters active in this region are at very rightening levels. They are comparable to area 'zero's of other consortiums. Unless a squadron of senior hunters is sent then something can be harvested from there. Otherwise there is nothing but death awaits us there!"

"About ten years ago Husheng consortium had rented this passage. They had sent a team consisting of three senior hunters and two intermediate hunters to hunt there. The result was unimaginable. Only one of the senior hunters was able to escape and return. However his body was so seriously injured that he was considered to have a mid-level hunter's combat power by the Huashen consortium. It took the hunter few years to heal the injuries. Moreover, afterwards he never went to hunt outside the giant wall but preferred to teach at Hunter School."

"This incident disturbed Huasheng consortium and since then there is no consortium to rent this passage. Additionally, Huasheng consortium's financial situation was affected by the incident a lot. Originally they were ranked one of the top three consortia's and now they are arranged at the bottom position!"

Old Fulin was depressed and sighed as he spoke of the incident.

Dudian's face also changed. He was aware that some very frightening monsters had to live outside the passage so that one senior hunter was able to flee back.

"We can wait for some time and see if there would be a chance to rent another passage in the future. We can build up our resources slowly." Old Fulin tried to sweet talk and persuade Dudian.

However, Dudian was deep in his thoughts. It seemed he wasn't even aware that Old Fulin was talking. A moment later he turned to Old Fulin.: "We will rent the third passage."

Old Fulin was surprised as his eyes went wide.: "Y-you! What did you say?"

"Rent the third passage!" Dudian's eyes were firm as he once more repeated his decision.

Old Fulin knew that he didn't hear wrong words but he couldn't control his emotions as he almost jumped. He loudly said.: "Didn't you hear what I was talking about now? Do you think I was trying to cheat you?"

Dudian waved and gestured him to be quite so that the servants outside wouldn't hear them. He whispered.: "This is the golden opportunity!"