Chapter 48: State of the Summer Hunt
A few days had passed now since Nioh met with Xenah. The artificial intelligence was good at processing large amounts of information. He finally had a lead and potential targets in his quest for retribution against Intra.
The priority of the moment remained the summer hunt. After the debacle of the first phase of the hunt, the top performers had recused themselves from the competition.
The alliance had lost Pax and the other duke siblings. The direct line of the Glev had lost the twin princes and the charismatic aegis class Iris.
No further information was shared regarding the state of their mutual teams. And their absence since the beginning of the second phase confirmed people’s doubts.
The hunt has slowly lost its appeal as those strong figures went missing.
The second phase also known as the conqueror phase evaluated the ability of the challengers to overtake feral biocores in their own, habitat. It was the central purpose of the hunt. After defending against hordes of low-level biocores, the challenger now had to venture into the unclaimed territories to hunt, the high-grade ones.
It was a ludicrous activity, although dangerous, the monetary benefits alone were staggering. Land deeds, rare biocores, and precious materials were all for grabs.
The two leading teams of the second phase were Cyanide’s group from the Order of the Crow and surprisingly Patrix Glev the grandson of Duke Tush. The absence of the domineering Pax had offered him room to display some skills.
The conquest map showed good progress from the challenger side but for Nioh, the central piece remained Narnia. His original plan has been disrupted by the abrupt departure of his teammates, leaving him no choice but to restrategize. Narnia, a small piece of land in the archipelago but the only one that had a direct stream to every other island. It was a vantage point that allowed for effective navigation of resources and personnel.
Although it had now become a cradle zone for a very powerful biocore, Nioh suspected that the recent changes in the other biocores activity were directly linked to the island.
For the goal of total conquest, it was necessary to overtake Narnia, to reduce the biocores’ influence.