Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 261

“Because of me,” Hildegarde pointed her finger in her face and repeated Mane’s words? She didn’t understand what Mane was getting at.

Mane sighed when he noticed her clueless expression. He decided that it was time he told her why he was so insistent that Edict was available on this planet.

“Have you never wondered why you could fly,” Mane started? “Have you ever considered why you are able to hide yourself from the perception of others even without doing anything,” he continued.

“You could say that the concealment is natural because of the Dreamscape’s system. But what kind of system doesn’t have a power unit” Mane started his monologue. Hildegarde was stunned into silence by his words.

That’s right. Why had she never thought of how all these were possible? If it was another testing ground, it would be only natural that flying and concealment would be available to her. After all, all the other worlds have Edict. And most of them had Chaos too. But this planet was different. This was a testing ground without any Chaos. This was a world without any Edict. So how was she able to fly? Why did she still have her power? How could she perform Elemental Conversion? And how did she conceal herself?

“Before we came here, when we were still stuck in that strange realm that belongs to you fairies, I could still access Edict. Chaos was at my beck and call. I even put a tracker on you with my abilities as a scholar. Tracking requires Edict. Meaning that the Dreamscape uses the same energy system the True Universe uses. But it isn’t so here. There is no Edict. Chaos sleeps and my abilities are sealed. But is it really so? If you still possess your abilities, doesn’t that mean that there is something missing? There must be something I’m not seeing. There must be something I’m lacking. No, it should rather be that there is something I have gained that has made me insensitive to the energy that has been with me since I was 6”

“What are you saying Mane? Are you saying that Edict and Chaos are present, but hidden?” Hildegarde interrupted.

“No,” Mane shook his head. “That was my first conjecture. And I didn’t fail to tell you about it”

Hildegarde nodded her little head. It was true that Mane’s first thought was that there was energy on this planet. Mane initially thought that Edict and Chaos existed, but were hidden. So it was unlikely that was what he was thinking.

“So what exactly do you think is happening here,” Hildegarde furrowed her brows and asked?

“What I’m saying is this: There is Edict and Chaos. That much is true. This planet is filled with them. And it isn’t hidden either. That is why you are able to still function as normally as you have all this while” Mane stated with confidence.

“So if this world is filled with Edict and Chaos, then why can’t you access it,” Hildegarde asked the crucial question? If things were as Mane was saying, then why wasn’t he able to use Edict? Why couldn’t he regain his approval from Chaos? And why wasn’t anyone from this world capable of displaying any wielding abilities?

“Simple. Because this world has placed a restriction on me. In fact, it has placed a restriction on the entire population” Mane announced with a slight smile gracing his lips.

“I still don’t understand,” Hildegarde frankly told Mane that she was at a loss. “This world has an incomplete World Will, so how can a restriction be placed on them,” she wondered?

“Have you ever wondered why I was given a different body from my real one,” Mane didn’t answer Hildegarde’s question? Rather, he posed a question of his own.

“I told you already. It is standard procedure,” Hildegarde frowned and replied.

“You did tell me. You said that the bodies we use in the test are similar to our real bodies, and that the faster we get accustomed to the body, the better our soul-body integration.” Mane smiled.

“Exactly,” Hildegarde nodded.

“But you also stated that cases like mine where the tested is given a body that is older or younger than his/her actual body is rare,” Mane continued.

“I did,” Hildegarde confessed. She did tell him that.

“But the thing is, you have never been the chaperone for any of these people. You have only heard about it. So, who did you hear about it from?” Mane smiled and asked.

“Of course I heard it from…” Hildegarde started, but her words trailed off at the end. She had a blank look on her face, and then her eyes finally lit up as she seemed to realize something.

“It was just gossip, wasn’t it? None of those you heard it from witnessed it themselves. My guess is, that only happens when a person unlocks the final few levels of difficulty. And since the final few levels of difficulty are classified information, there is no way your leaders would allow information like that to be spread so recklessly” Mane proposed his hypothesis.

“I see,” Hildegarde nodded excitedly like she had been fed an energy drink and her energy levels were off the charts. The rigorous shaking of her head almost caused her to fall off Mane’s shoulder.

“You’re saying that something like this is only possible after one unlocks the higher levels, and that the higher ups intentionally allowed this information to spread. But why would they do that?” Hildegarde wondered

“Well, you are correct, but not entirely correct. It is true that your higher ups allowed this information to spread. As for the reason, I would get to it in a bit. But it isn’t entirely true that forcing the tested to use older or younger bodies is the norm after the Very High level. My guess is, only Chaos and Origin have this strange rule imposed on them” Mane said

“Why do you think so,” Hildegarde was curious? She was the chaperone, but Mane seemed to know much more about the Dreamscape than she did. She would have been embarrassed if it was any other tested. But the person she was facing was no ordinary person. This person was the Supreme! The one destined to hold the entire fate of the universe in his hands. He may be young now, but that was his destiny. It wasn’t a shame to be bested by him.

“Because of their expressions when they were discussing whether or not you were good enough to be my chaperone. Most of them concealed it well, but I could still see it. No, rather, I could smell it. The disgusting aroma of greed was around them. They each thought that as long as they were my chaperone, they could reveal this secret to me in a subtle way. After all, using an older or younger body would make soul-body integration far more difficult than it is supposed to be. So letting me know that this was only a special case would allow me to have a good impression of them. It wouldn’t be breaking the rules since knowing this wouldn’t do anything for me. So it would be a perfect way for getting into the good books of a prodigy”

“I get it know. So they allowed us to gossip about this so that they would be able to get into the good books of whoever would be able to unlock the higher stages” Hildegarde sighed as she realized that the higher ups were much more disgusting than she thought.

“No,” Mane denied. “Although they are greedy, that wasn’t the main reason for their action. For their plot to be effective, the tested must be with a lower level fairy first, so that they would get the false information, and then be replaced later by a higher level fairy so that the tested would be more grateful to hear the truth. When they wanted to replace you, I’m sure they would have convinced me that they would provide me with someone who would be more than willing to share more information. A person who has a bad record for disclosing sensitive information, so that they would replace this person midway. But it seemed that the Fairy King and a few of the Elders weren’t fans of this plan. So you, a fairy known for her stellar scores was sent instead”

Mane’s words made Hildegarde smile in relief. It was good to know that her race wasn’t as corrupt as she thought. At least there were a few good ones.

“The main idea was to hide the truth about Edict and Chaos. If I had my original body cloned for the test, I would have been able to sense Edict since I have been doused in it from my childhood”

“You are still a child,” Hildegarde interrupted. Mane ignored her and continued, “They gave me a body similar to mine, but of the same constitution as those of this world. A defective body that couldn’t sense Chaos. A body that had no connection to Edict”

“If I am not wrong, there is a way to break this defectiveness” Mane said with a smile.

“Oh? How?” Hildegarde asked, her eyes wide open with curiosity.

“Savior”

That was Mane’s guess. Although those who took Savior only had a ten percent chance of awakening an ability, Mane knew it was the key. There was such a low percentage of success because Savior caused a Bloodline Awakening. So if a person didn’t have a bloodline, they would awaken no ability. The abilities that it awakened were likely to be glows. But Mane reckoned that whether a person awakened an ability after consuming Savior or not, they would have the qualifications to become wielders. Unfortunately, this world didn’t have any wielding manuals so even when someone took Savior, they wouldn’t know what the strange energy they felt around them was. And they wouldn’t be able to use it.

“So if you knew, why did you keep on meditating,” Hildegarde asked?

“I only just figured it out,” Mane confessed.

“I see. What are you going to do now? The books Dan gave you indicated that Savior was no longer available.”

“I don’t know,” Mane confessed that he was out of sorts. “But if I have any chance at acquiring it, Dan is the key”