PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

From Elaisa’s mouth, Desmond knew he had been fortunate on his first trip to other worlds. Where he found valuable resources of various kinds in large quantities. Despite Desmond’s notion of bad luck, the reality was quite the opposite. In a way, his recent bad luck could be considered a kind of compensation, but he wasn’t entirely convinced.

According to the data that Elaisa provided about this world, the resources should be abundant and applied to flora, fauna, and mineral resources. But based on Desmond’s observations and experiences, there was something off about the world of Veritas. The resources could hardly be considered suitable for a world with a rich environment in Mana, Arcana, and Aura.

One possible explanation would be that many of the resources in this world were in special forms, such as the unique magical ores in these mines, which sounded quite feasible. However, Desmond was still a bit suspicious, mainly because of all the powerful beasts he had fought; few of them were worth anything.

“Forget it; there’s no point in thinking about it too much.” Desmond commented to herself after letting out a tired sigh.

Desmond put his suspicions aside to concentrate on a more critical matter; the nest of armored armadillos. Unfortunately, Desmond didn’t get any more information about these beasts. He didn’t know if there was a method to track down their nest, but he wasn’t without means either.

“At least there’s no one here to see me. I really hate using this thing.” Desmond exclaimed in some exasperation as he gathered up his right sleeve, revealing the ring-shaped tattoo around his wrist. Pointing his right hand at one of the armadillo corpses, Desmond spoke.

“Black and white, good and evil, truths and lies intertwined.” Starting with the same verse as always, the black and white feathers on his wrist gave off an ethereal glow but did nothing else, as if waiting for Desmond to use his words to give him a command.

“Lost origins, endings without beginnings, death without life, show me the way. In a world of illusions, only I hold the truth. .”

.....

A small stream of black and white feathers flutters off Desmond’s wrist, like a mischievous girl wanting her father’s attention, dancing in the air, guiding Desmond to his destination.

Desmond was grateful he had the patience and willpower to practice this law that forced him to act like an overly philosophical poet every time he used it. As a result of his training, Desmond had learned at least half a dozen convenient tricks, things he could do much more steadily compared to trying to improvise something.

After all, with the way Desmond’s Law of Contradiction worked, almost anything was theoretically possible, but putting it into practice was something else entirely. The law of contradiction had many restrictions, conditions, and costs, making it much more difficult to use than one might think.

To some extent, Desmond was still quite satisfied with this arcane law. At least with it, he wouldn’t have to get little arcane tools for every little thing he couldn’t do with his other abilities, like opening doors or tracking creatures.

Also, Desmond got the law of contradiction entirely for free. It was literally a random side effect when he absorbed Zero’s bestial soul. Since even getting such an excellent bestial soul was already a blessing, Desmond would have to be the most miserable person in the universe to complain about it.

Following the trail of black and white feathers, Desmond made his way through the massive cavern, eventually coming to the front of what looked like a rock wall. Seeing the trail curve behind a huge rock, Desmond followed the trail, finding a hidden passage behind it.

“Those armadillos are smarter than they seem. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed they would hide the entrance to their lair so cunningly.”

Desmond continued down the passage by making a comment to himself to ease the silence. The air in the tunnel was more stifling and humid than in the cavern behind it, but Desmond didn’t mind.

A couple of minutes passed before Desmond saw some light that did not belong to the flashlight he was carrying. Desmond took a while to adjust to the new light source, becoming quite suspicious when he noticed there were disturbances in the shadows as if the light source were in motion.

As he advanced, Desmond held his breath and his mana fluctuations, keeping his movements as quiet as possible. His caution turned out to be well deserved, as the corridor ended in a relatively sizeable natural cave where he awaited another armored armadillo.

Similar to the leader of the armored armadillos, the animal in the cave was a unique variant. Something quite evident given its luminescent scales. Desmond quickly scanned the surroundings, hoping not to find hatchlings of these creatures, as he didn’t like the idea of ??killing beasts in their infant stage. Luckily for Desmond, the luminescent armadillo was the only living creature in the cave.

Too tired to be in the mood to enjoy another battle, Desmond went for a quick kill, using his sword. With the edge of the sword, , as well as Desmond’s exquisite swordsmanship, it took only a moment for the luminescent armadillo to collapse into two separate parts.

Satisfied with the result, Desmond couldn’t help but comment. “Worthy of a superior sword, I didn’t feel the slightest resistance as I sliced ??through its defensive scales.”

With his keen senses, Desmond caught the moment when the edge of his sword met the hard scales of the armadillo; to his surprise, the robust scales were of no use. In a way, Desmond shouldn’t have been that surprised, considering his sword was right on the threshold that separated the three-star class and the four-star class.

Although surprised at how easy it was to kill the last of the armadillos, Desmond didn’t overthink it. Or, instead couldn’t think about it anymore as his eyes were immediately drawn to the radiant glows in the room’s background.

As Desmond entered the cave, he began to notice certain details of the place. From the way, the ground was arranged and the excavation marks, it was safe to say that this cave was not natural but rather something made by the armored armadillo family.

There were markings on the ground delimiting some parts; the armadillos had marked their resting areas, like the concept of a room for a human being. Desmond didn’t find it strange that the marked area at the bottom was much larger. This should belong to the pack’s leader, which explains why the treasures were in this part of the cave.

Although Desmond tried to be patient, that slightly more reckless and wild part of him just wanted to run to see what treasures there were to loot. Luckily the cave was tiny, so there was no need to change his focus before he encountered the gems he was looking for.

To be honest, Desmond was slightly disappointed to see a pile of rocks with only three clearly valuable shiny stones. But thinking about it again, the precious gems in these mines, although numerous, could still be considered rare and valuable treasures. They were not that easy to find; moreover, this family of armadillos was far from the only group of subterranean beasts in the place.

“Sometimes it’s not good to be too greedy.” Desmond reminded himself.

Shaking off that feeling of disappointment, Desmond paid more attention to the three gems on the rock pile. The first gem looked like a thin bar of silver, gleaming and pristine. If it hadn’t been for that sparkle so characteristic of gems, someone might have mistaken the gem for a piece of metal. An interesting thing was that the gem seemed to have liquid silver inside, which moved and flowed at will.

The second gem was even more peculiar. It was red like blood and had an elaborate shape that one would never expect to see born from the hands of nature but from a famous sculptor. The second gem looked like a pair of red vines with thorns intertwined.

The third gem was less brilliant and extravagant than the other two. Even though its size was smaller, it looked like a small orange marble that glowed with warm light. From the energy fluctuations, Desmond could tell that this gem was, without a doubt, the weakest of the three gems. Which also explained why it was lying on the side of the rock pile instead of sitting on top.

Somewhat impatiently, Desmond was about to use the hunter’s book to analyze the three gems when he was interrupted by a sharp tremor. The entire cave shook, the loud sound of rock being torn apart filling Desmond’s ears. For a second, he thought he might die entombed.

Desmond was already preparing to use his emergency trump card to get out of the place, not caring to leave the treasures behind. Still, before he did, the shaking stopped. Desmond kept a hand close to his chest as if preparing to grab something, but his posture relaxed after waiting a few seconds.

“For a second, I thought my bad luck was acting up again, but it seems the source of the tremor is nowhere near.”

As Desmond breathed a sigh of relief, a blue glow in the corner of his vision caught his attention. Desmond turned around and saw the pile of rocks that had previously held the three gems collapse. And below where it lay, he saw the surface of a blue gem buried a few inches below loose soil.