Science/Magic 124 The Plan

But when they arrived there, a problem surged.

"Who are you!?" Illina, the wolf girl, growled threateningly to the group when she saw them.

Liu Ying was startled. But in the next second, her face morphed into a scowl.

"Is this your way to greet your allies? If you are going to behave like this, then we better leave."

Illina snorted. "Who do you think you are fooling? Even if you look the same, you can't fool my nose! Tell me who are you!? What did you do to them!?"

Liu Ying was startled. But one second later, she understood the situation.

Turning around, she looked at Bloed and found him smiling. Instantly, her suspicions were confirmed.

"You… So that was that potion's use."

"Well, I don't like to repeat my mistakes. Besides, it was pretty easy. I just changed the chemical composition of our sweat temporarily so the scent produced when bacteria decompose it is different than normal."

Liu Ying did not know what to say. It was the first time she heard that body smell could be changed.

Unfortunately, this method was not very useful in Regina. Regina was not human, but a Valkyrie. Sweat was something she did not need to worry about.

But Regina had other ways to go around it. She simply created as an invisible layer of energy around her skin to block her body smell from spreading out. Like this, she did not have to worry about being tracked.

That was Bloed countermeasure for the beastmen's scent tracking.

Now that he confirmed it worked, Bloed would make sure that a situation like yesterday where they were discovered through their scent wasn't repeated.

Bloed and the others took a while to clear the misunderstanding with Illina. In the end, although Illina was a bit disbelieving of the fact that they managed to alter their body smell, she did not have more options to believe them.

Thus, they were once more brought to Javelin.

"You are here. Sorry for the commotion of before."

Bloed shook his head. "Don���t worry. It was partially our fault after all."

Javelin did not insist on the topic. Instead, he went straight to today's main issue.

"I assume that you are agreeing with our request now that you are here, right?"

Bloed nodded. "In exchange, we want all the information you have about Academy City and the slavers. Also, you promised a separate reward before, so I'm looking towards that."

"Don't worry. If you do a good job, I don't mind being generous."

Javelin then invited Bloed and the girls to sit and started his explanation.

"The name of the target is Bernard, a recognized merchant in the city. Through some sources, we know he is the person behind the slavers. He pays them a sizeable amount of money for the slaves captured and then sells them in illegals auctions to the best bidder.

"Unfortunately, Bernard is more of a behind-scenes boss. He never interacts directly with the slaves and never appears in the place of the auction. In fact, these auctions have been cracked several times by the city lord's men, but they have never found evidence that can incriminate Bernard."

Bloed furrowed his brows. "How hard is to catch him?"

"That is a problem." Javelin said. "Bernard is very rich and with a wide range of connections, and he is also very wary. He is always accompanied by several bodyguards, one of them an Rank practitioner. In other words, attacking him directly is not a good idea."

Bloed frowned. An Rank practitioner. He didn't want to fight someone like that again anytime soon.

Javelin noticed Bloed expression and smiled. "Don't worry, we are not planning to face him either. An Rank practitioner is too much of a variable, so unless we are 100% certain that we can kill him, it's better not to provoke him."

Bloed nodded. "Then, what is the plan?"

"As I told you, our goal is to rescue the person that was kidnapped, not to kill Bernard. At the start, we tried to keep an eye in Bernard until he led us to the place where our person is kidnapped. But as I told you, neither Bernard nor his direct subordinates are directly involved in the kidnappings. He is only responsible for moving the money.

"Thus, we hit a deadlock. Fortunately, one of my men managed to get a valuable piece of information recently."

Javelin then narrowed his eyes and received a document from the lizardkin girl beside him. "In two nights, he will meet with several important and secretive people. We don't know their identities, but we think they are directly related to the kidnappings."

Liu Ying frowned. "Do you plan to spy on their meeting?"

Javelin nodded. "We want to identify his partners and see if we can use them as a lead to reach the place where the people they catch are kept. But…"

Javelin showed them the document he received before.

"The problem is, we can't find a way to infiltrate the place where they will have the meeting."

Bloed read the document. It was about an establishment in the city called 'Auspicious Night'.

Auspicious Night was a very famous and high-class night club. It was a place where important people gathered to discuss business and secret meetings.

Your identity, who did you meet with, what were you speaking about, everything was kept a secret.

The people working in this place were strictly selected. Every one of them was incredibly loyal, and in fact, 'Auspicious Night' boosted a reputation of more than ten years without any leaked secret.

It's said that there are several Ranks guarding the place in case of any unexpected situation.

Thus, infiltrating 'Auspicious Night' was almost impossible.

"We thought about tailing each person that enters Auspicious Night that night, but Auspicious Night receives around one hundred customers every night, thus it's virtually impossible to tail every one of them. if we have more time we would have considered that option, but to be honest, we are short of time." Javelin said with a helpless expression.

"Then, you only need a way to infiltrate inside their private gathering, right?" Bloed asked.

Javelin nodded. "Do you have an idea?"

Bloed thought for a moment before nodding. "I have a way. You probably already noticed it, but our current faces and hair color are fake. Moreover, if I want, I can alter my face to copy anyone else easily." He would need to modify the appearance-changing device slightly, but Bloed could do that in a few hours.

Javelin was startled. "Is that true?"

"There is no reason to lie to you." Bloed said calmly. "Thus, if we manage to identify who are the people in charge of serving in Bernard's meeting, we can find people with similar builds to replace them. We only need to take the originals out of the picture and replace them."

Javelin put on a serious expression and considered Bloed's words. After thinking for a few seconds, he nodded.

"If your words are right, then that is… doable. At least, I think we have a considerable chance of success."

Bloed nodded. "Perfect. If we manage to enter the room of the meeting, then I have a method to hear their conversation even after we leave."

Javelin showed a surprised expression. "Is that method safe? Bernard is a very wary person. I'm sure he will have someone casting detecting magic constantly to find anything unusual."

Bloed smiled. He had already taken that into account. That was the reason he did not suggest turning invisible to hear their conversation.

Besides, an Rank practitioner had very sharp senses. Maybe he would detect Bloed if he tried to approach even when invisible.

But his listening devices were different. At least, they were not something that could be detected with the current systems of magic.

"Don't worry, I'm confident they will not find anything."

When Javelin heard that answer, his lips curved into a wide smile.

"It looks like I was right when I suggested cooperating with you."

Thus, the plan for that day was agreed upon.

...

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Chapter end