Chapter 32. Return "Come out and help me. Just staring won't lead to anything," I shouted. I already knew they were there, but this was the first time in a while I had the chance to move my body. "Did you know that we were watching?" Arthur was the one who asked. The twins looked surprised but the six volunteers looked scared. "My senses are sharp. Does anyone know how to butcher animals?" "I- I do," someone said. "My family owned a butchery, but we never cut a wolf up." "Just remove the skin and some of its meat that should be edible. I don't need you to take the whole torso apart." "I wi- will try." "We have finally returned." "Not that we did much." The volunteers talked among themselves, but they too stopped. Something had happened while we were gone and it was not good. There were a lot of people injured. "Henry! What happened?" I shouted, but no one replied. Underling A slowly came out from a building with an ashen look on its face. "Henry is not here anymore." "Did he die? Who killed him?" "Die? Killed? That bastard didn't freaking die, he betrayed us. He was a part of the Syndicate all this time, probably just waiting for you to go away for a long duration. The moment you were gone some people invaded. They took all of our food and some people with them, women mostly." 'I... did not expect this,' "Was Henry the only one, or were there more people?" I asked. "There were." "Do you know where they went or anything related to them?" That food was precious. That was nearly three weeks' worth of food and there were not that many places remaining from where we could get more. That was why I wanted to try eating the monster meat. Was it edible or not. Wait- "Arthur, what did you mainly eat in the trial?" "We mainly grew our food. The land was rich in mana so we always got a faster and better yield than normal times. As for meat, only those above level fifteen were able to eat it. Not everyone below it was able safely to take it." 'So the meat is edible, we won't have food shortage but still.' "They went deeper into the city, that is all I know. I do have a knife with Henry's blood on it. I injured him slightly. Don't know if this helps but it hasn't been long since they left." "Let's go and pay Henry a visit." 'I don't like backstabbers.' But how do I find them, that was the question. They were smart enough to plan for so many days, waiting for the biggest threat, me, to be out of the picture and only act when they were sure to succeed. They wouldn't just let everybody know their direction. I could be overthinking this but I don't believe they would be so foolish. So the only lead we had was that blood. And what was my second class? Blood Mage. Surely I could do something about this. The only thing that could help me were skills and I had plenty of them to choose from. I once again saw a hundred active skills and a hundred passive skills. There was a lot to choose from but I already knew what I wanted. A healing skill, a tracking skill for this situation, some magic, and if possible more perception booster. But it looks like things don't always happen the way you want them to. There was not a single healing skill in the entire list, but there was something close to it. [Clot] [Use mana to clot the blood near wounds to stop bleeding. The amount of mana depends on the size of the wound.] This was a healing skill if wanted it to be. You just need a high blood recovery rate and apparently, you had that skill too. [Blood Recovery] [Increase the amount of blood generation for a small amount of time by using mana. The skills keep using mana until you run out of mana or recover all the lost blood.] Looks like I found my two active skills. Now all that was left is a tracking skill and a perception-related skill. There was a tracking skill but it was a little weird. [Aroma of Blood] [Gain the ability to recognize the differences in the blood of different people by smell.] And another weird skill [Blood Sight] [Gain the ability to sense blood more accurately and see its flow.] I did not clearly understand what 'see its flow' meant here but sense blood did sound more important than what was being portrayed here. Both of them were good tracking skills so instead of choosing one, I chose both. Imagine how well they worked together. You sense where blood is, see its flow and then you differentiate by smell. Now no prey is capable of escaping me. "Give me the knife." Underling A handed me the knife, I closed my eyes and sniffed the blood that was present on it. The people near me were taken back a little after registering my action, but the action's purpose had been fulfilled. I was able to make out a scent that was present in the air. It was similar to how you were able to recognize various aromas of different spices or food. And the scent was leading me in a certain direction. "We have been going around in a circle for the past few minutes, crossing the same place again and again. Are you sure they followed this path?" They did go back in a roundabout manner, just as I had expected. They must have done this many times, seeing how know to confuse the people following them and trick them. "Just keep following me. If you don't shut up and let me concentrate, we won't be able to get your wife back." The man that was complaining was the one who had his wife abducted. He was scared for his wife but he needed to keep quiet or I won't be of any help once I lose this scent.