Another reason Charlot Mecklenburg chose to embark on this expedition was that he had recently made significant progress in his studies of the Agmirlas Labyrinth and needed a suitable location to test his theories. Machubi served as the perfect testing ground.
To maintain order among the diverse group of adventurers, Charlot adjusted the team structure during their journey. He justified this by saying, “We may encounter danger along the way; we need a proper combat formation.” He gathered the leaders of the dozen or so smaller adventurer teams and reorganized the remaining members into two groups based on gender. Male adventurers were tasked with handling supplies, while female adventurers were responsible for food and water.
Charlot’s reorganization was neither drastic nor permanent, and he framed it as a temporary adjustment, so no one opposed the changes.
In smaller adventurer teams, the team leader was often the strongest member and the core of the group. The rest of the team usually depended heavily on their leader.
By temporarily separating the team leaders from their members, Charlot naturally weakened their influence while slightly enhancing his own authority. This gave him a modest level of control over the group.
With more than a hundred adventurers, this temporary team had already reached the size of a medium-to-large adventuring group, requiring attention to numerous details. Throughout the journey, Charlot seized every opportunity to consolidate his leadership.
After traveling for a day, the group decided to rest at a small village called Maple Leaf Village. The village was too small to accommodate so many people, and fearing potential robbery, the villagers refused to let the adventurers stay.
Charlot once again displayed his adept social skills. After negotiating with the villagers, he arranged for the female adventurers to rest inside the village while he and the male adventurers set up camp outside.
No sooner had Charlot settled everything than a group of individuals dressed in black coats appeared from the direction they had come.
“Members of the Fierce Horse Detective Agency?!”
The distinctive black coats of the Fierce Horse detectives made them instantly recognizable.
Charlot had previously encountered these detectives in the village where he had clashed with the Giant Axe Adventurer Team. After parting ways, he thought he had avoided further trouble. However, the detectives had caught up.
Charlot calculated inwardly, “This group of adventurers is unreliable. If a conflict breaks out, they may not side with me. I must strike first and give them a strong reason to fight.”
Summoning the leaders of the smaller adventurer teams, Charlot whispered, “These people are detectives hired by my cousin. They’re also heading to Machubi. If they find the treasure first, we’ll come back empty-handed and have to watch them get rich.”
“I cannot allow that to happen. That treasure belongs to us.”
“We outnumber them. Let’s capture these detectives alive and hold them until we find the treasure. Then we can release them.”
Most adventurers were reluctant to provoke powerful organizations. The Fierce Horse Detective Agency employed over a hundred detectives, along with two to three hundred assistants and numerous apprentices. Among them were over a dozen Transcendents. Small adventurer teams wouldn’t dare engage them in a direct confrontation.
Moreover, the agency’s leader, Aubrey Tildon Atwood, was a renowned high-ranking Transcendent known throughout the Fars Empire for his formidable abilities and cunning.
While none of the adventurer leaders dared to outright kill members of the Fierce Horse Detective Agency, Charlot’s suggestion to capture the detectives temporarily sparked interest. After all, their group did have the advantage in numbers.
A leader named Yas said, “There are only seven of them, but at least two of them are Transcendents! Especially their leader, Winterburn—I know him. He’s a Fourth-Tier Transcendent and a genuine Flame Dragon Knight.”
Charlot smiled faintly and said, “I’ll take care of him. I just need five of you to assist me.”
Charlot’s willingness to take on the most challenging opponent convinced the leaders. Under Charlot’s direction, they assembled their strongest fighters and quickly divided the other detectives as targets.
Winterburn, with his stern expression, was deeply frustrated. The agency’s diviners had proven far less effective than Wells, their seer. He was now certain they had lost the target and failed the mission.
Not only had they failed to capture Charlot, but they had also lost an important Transcendent detective. This mission was a financial loss for the Fierce Horse Detective Agency. Wells’s role as a seer was irreplaceable, and many cases relied on his unique abilities. The agency wouldn’t be able to find another Transcendent with his skills in the short term.
As Winterburn observed the mid-sized adventurer group in the distance, he was unimpressed. As a seasoned detective of the Fierce Horse Agency, he had no reason to fear this ragtag band, especially since there was no apparent conflict between them.
Just as Winterburn prepared to bypass the group, someone called out, “Is that Mr. Winterburn?”
Despite his honed battle energy, Winterburn lacked night vision. Unfamiliar with the voice, he hesitated momentarily before responding, “That’s me!”
Being a veteran detective, Winterburn remained vigilant, his guard unwavering.
Then the voice declared, “So, you’re the one who seduced my wife?”
Suddenly, a dozen men surged forward. Winterburn was taken aback. “When did I seduce so many men’s wives?!”
Though Charlot had confidently declared he would handle Winterburn, he seized the opportunity created by the chaos to draw his Vampiric Rapier, Bloodrose, and thrust it at Addison.
Even the Fierce Horse Detective Agency couldn’t field Transcendents everywhere. Among the seven detectives chasing Charlot, only Winterburn and Addison were Transcendents.
Having grown up reading stratagem books like The Thirty-Six Stratagems, Charlot had long decided on his approach: eliminate Addison first. Without this Transcendent Knight, Winterburn would be left struggling alone, significantly reducing the trouble they posed.
Addison was caught off guard by Charlot’s attack. A Third-Tier Knight, he reacted swiftly, drawing his sword to parry Charlot’s strike. However, he hadn’t expected Charlot’s ruthlessness—Charlot pulled out his Magnum Mauler and fired twelve consecutive shots, forcing Addison to roar and unleash a fiery vortex of battle energy. The swirling flames narrowly deflected the bullets.
Charlot had anticipated this outcome. Knights’ battle energy could form a protective shield, but its strength wasn’t uniform. While Addison concentrated his defense on the bullets coming at him, his back was left relatively exposed.
As Charlot fired, he planted Bloodrose into the ground and activated his Eye of Insight. Spotting the weakest point in Addison’s fiery shield, he hurled his Vampiric Axe.
Guided by his Bloodfire Qi, the Vampiric Axe arced through the air in an uncanny trajectory, breaking through Addison’s fiery shield.
In the days since their last encounter, Charlot had advanced by a tier, enhancing the power of his Bloodfire Qi. The strike was far stronger than before, and the axe embedded itself three inches into Addison’s skull.