CHAPTER 91: CHAPTER 91 - ILLEGAL BAIT

Locking the door to his room behind him, Logan sat down on the couch while Silas and Edric took seats across from him.

"So, what happened?" Edric asked, launching a small hologram to take notes.

Logan’s face shifted to a bitter expression, slowly starting from the beginning.

He talked about Derek’s suspicious behavior and how little he contributed at the start of the dungeon, then paused.

"That’s when it really started," Logan said, clenching his fist tightly. "The first C-rank snow panther we encountered was somewhat special..."

Silas and Edric’s expressions had already turned dark.

Especially Silas seemed to know exactly where this was headed as he clenched his jaw tightly.

"We were walking near the ledge above the snow panthers’ breeding grounds," Logan started, anger flashing through his eyes. "When suddenly that bastard threw some kind of liquid on us."

Edric’s pen halted in the air, glancing at Logan with a grim expression.

"This liquid..." Logan started, shaking his head. "I don’t know what exactly it was, but it seemed to attract all snow panthers in the area."

"We ran as fast as we could while Derek had already disappeared, but one of the panthers was so crazed by the smell that it pulled us off the ledge together with it."

The glass of wine in Silas’s hand shattered, interrupting Logan.

"Did a pure concentrated mana smell come from the liquid?" he asked, a cold expression plastered on his face.

Raising an eyebrow, Logan gave a small nod.

"Those fuckers..." Silas said coldly, crushing his glass into dust.

Edric’s expression also turned extremely dark, quickly writing down what Logan said.

"You both know what that liquid is?" Logan asked, frowning.

Edric nodded, closing his hologram as he leaned forward slightly.

"It’s a special kind of bait," he said coldly. "It was in its experimental phase around eight years ago."

"But a unanimous vote from all SSS and S-rank hunters, along with world governments, shut it down because of how dangerous it was."

Silas nodded, standing up with fury clear in his eyes.

Jaw clenched and fists trembling, Silas left the room without a single word.

Edric nodded slightly, his expression tightening as he glanced at the seething Silas.

"What happened to him?" Logan asked, pushing aside his own anger after clearly sensing something off.

"Just some bad memories of the past," Edric shook his head, sadness flashed past his eyes as he opened the hologram beside him again. "Please continue with your story."

Pointing at Logan’s missing arm. "I especially want to know how that happened."

Logan gave a slight smile, his thoughts drifting to Livia and the moments they survived together.

"We fell several hundreds of feet before crashing into the ice lake," Logan started, slowly continuing without mentioning the mana stones he used for his last-minute dash.

Edric’s dark expression lightened slightly as he heard Logan explain how he managed to escape together with the girl from the Imperial Church.

’What an absurd affinity,’ he thought, writing down notes as Logan spoke. ’For someone with barely any injury experience... enduring that much pain? Honestly impressive.’

’Missing an entire arm and several chunks of flesh from his stomach is clearly not something a normal nineteen-year-old kid just endures.’

Edric glanced at Logan’s missing arm again.

"So... when are you planning to regenerate that, by the way?" he couldn’t help but ask, a strange expression on his face. "If you want, we can always hire a healer to mend your flesh."

Logan shook his head with a smile. "I’ll regenerate it soon enough. No need to pay for a healer that expensive."

’I also can’t let a healer fix it,’ he thought. ’If my arm doesn’t get the exact resistance to fire that it had, I’ll just end up burning it off again.’

Silence fell between them before Edric stood up.

"I’ll leave you alone now," he said, a proud glint in his eyes. "You did an extremely good job in there."

"Thanks," Logan smiled.

"As for Derek," Edric started, surprising Logan with a cruel smile. "We’ll see what we can do."

Logan gave a small nod, watching the smiling Edric leave his room.

’That was a lot,’ he thought, leaning back on his trusted couch.

He thought about Derek and the supposedly banned bait liquid he’d gotten his hands on.

’There’s no way Derek came up with this on his own,’ Logan thought, anger flashing through his eyes as he thought about the Alvarez family. ’But why would he risk it when there’s also an important member of the Imperial Church with me?’

Something didn’t add up, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it yet.

’I won’t be as underprepared as last time,’ he thought, his nails digging deep into his skin until blood leaked out.

He’d never investigated a powerful family before—let alone one like the Alvarez. He had no idea where to even begin.

’I’ll let Edric and Silas look into it for now,’ he thought, glancing at all the missed messages he had. ’I need to focus on my core and on the fast food business.’

Looking at the torn university uniform beside him, Logan smirked as murderous intent flashed past his eyes.

’Once I return back to the university, I’ll get my revenge,’ he thought, clenching his teeth as a wide grin spread on his face. ’It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t get the chance to return him the favour after all.’

’As for his family? I’ll wait to see how the Imperial Church responds before destroying them.’

He had absolutely no mercy left for Derek or his family after the stunt they tried to pull.

Closing his eyes, he forcing his anger down.

Eventually, after calming down, he looked at his core that had almost turned completely silver, outside of a few spots and cracks.

"It won’t take long before I finally get my second affinity," he muttered, opening his eyes to look at his system interface. "By then, I’ll progress much faster than others."

Leaning back on his couch, Logan slowly started going through all the messages he’d missed the past few days from researchers and companies he contacted for deals.

The research teams had already solved most of the technical issues.

Now, all he needed was government approval and finding a few partners to handle transportation between locations.

Switching off the hologram after sending a few messages, a light suddenly popped up in his head as he thought about the system.

"Didn’t the system... also give me a vial of bait," he said, a wide grin growing on his face as he walked to his room. "Maybe I can orchestrate something interesting... just like they did to me."