Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 596: Disciplinary action Part 2

As soon as they exited the airport, Luna, Nika and Medusa started walking on three different directions with confidence. Luna followed a faint flowery scent that reminded her of Ciara, the dryad girl who accompanied on the only expedition she had ever led, while Medusa simply walked at a random direction.

"Uhm... that's not the way." Luna informed prompting Medusa to apologize and start following her, but Nika didn't.

"We need to make a quick stop by the east gate before going downtown." Nika said.

"But, that's not the way." Luna insisted. While she wasn't the leader of the party, her role as a tracker turned her into the most important member until they found the Dolminico family.

"Don't you find it odd that they haven't come to pay the debt they owe us? They know we're here and Mister Alessandro promised he would have the payment delivered to Uriel as soon as possible, that's one of the reasons why we're staying in this city."

"Yes, it is... odd." Luna placed her hand on her chin in a pensive gesture, despite her face remaining bare of emotion.

"Now that you mention it, Mister Alessandro was really nice to uncle Jon and me without asking for anything in return. He didn't strike me as a cheapskate either so there must be a reason why he failed to pay, maybe something happened to him."

"Whatever the case, we need information and I know who might be helpful." Nika said with a smirk.

After arriving at the east gate, finding the person she was looking for was a matter of minutes. Catching her and taking her to a secluded alley was actually even easier and the poor woman found herself surrounded by the three huntresses before taking notice of how did it happen.

"You again!?" The woman let out in a vicious tone of voice, then added. "I didn't steal anything this time, just let me go."

"We're here because we need information and we're willing to pay handsomely for your troubles." Nika saw the greed lighting up on her eyes in a fashion much similar to what she had seen on Uriel so many times in the past.

"Why didn't you say so from the beginning? I'll gladly tour you around the city and..."

"We're not tourists. Tell us everything you know about the Dolminico family." Medusa cut her short.

"Oh! I'm not messing with them! What use is money when I'll drop dead before getting to spend it?"

"Shut up and spill the beans!" Nika raised her voice.

"You want me to shut up or to speak? Anyway, you're nowhere near as scary as you think you are." The woman sneered and kept a smug attitude. In response, Nika remained silent and channeled her flux energy for a second making the shadows dance behind her to intimidate the girl.

Being a street thief was a dangerous job and more than once she had found herself in trouble, it was even the second time she met Nika which made her trait less scary. It was only after she felt the poke of Nika's shadowy tendrils that she changed her attitude and started speaking.

"From the minute they set foot in this city everything changed here. They took over the crime in this city by taking down other gangs and merging with others and now they're involved in everything, but that's not even the worst part."

"It isn't?" Medusa had a hard time believing that Mister Alessandro would be capable of doing something like that, even when the man told her he was a crime lord himself.

"There are rumors going around about this weird substance they're selling..."

"Uh-oh, we might be in trouble. What is that substance?" Luna cut her short when she realized that she didn't follow up on the investigation about the plants they brought back from their expedition.

"I never tried it myself, but from what I've heard..."

"That's not what we want to know, we need to know where to find their leader." Nika cut her short this time.

"This, uhh... might be important." Luna informed, but Nika shook her head.

"As I was saying..."

"Shush, we're in a rush."

"Do you want me to answer or not?" The girl scoffed in annoyance after being talked over so many times.

"Where is he!?" Nika shouted making the girl shiver in fear. She needed to muster all of her will power just to point in the general direction and the huntresses disappeared in the blink of an eye releasing her from the pressure she had been enduring up until that point.

The biggest regret of her life was the day she chose to pick Uriel's pocket which caused her to stumble upon these dangerous people. She didn't know much about them, other than they possessed a zeppelin and were far stronger than the average hunter.

As luck would have it, it was the same direction Medusa was going towards when she first stepped out of the airport which left Luna somewhat disappointed that her nose failed her, but also glad that they didn't waste all morning following a false lead.

Thankfully,l it wasn't long until the opportunity to redeem herself arose, as Luna's keen sense of smell soon picked up on the same flowery scent and other strange aromas she suspected could belong to other hybrids. It was impossible for her to know for sure since he had little to no opportunities to study them, but it was better than nothing.

Nika scanned the buildings looking for anything suspicious which would have made Medusa feel worthless since she lacked her sense of sight, if not for her now sharper than ever hearing. She focused on the conversations around her while trying to identify anything that could be of use.

Despite their best efforts, after an entire our of wandering around in the neighborhood without any results they had to make a pause to rest. Contrary to what they first expected, it wasn't the lack of clues what made their investigation more difficult but the opposite.

Now that they were actively searching for hybrids they realized that they were present everywhere in the megacity. Luna could sense the strange smells coming off from any corner and Nika noticed how some of the hybrids didn't even bother covering the body features that told them apart from humans.

"They're everywhere. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack." It was so obvious that Nika couldn't help but blame herself for not realizing it earlier. The reason why people in Hollywood megacity were so beautiful wasn't that they were all hunters at the heavenly rank, but that a great portion of its inhabitants were actually hybrids disguising as hunters.

People with animal like tails, beastly fangs, strange eyes and even scaly skin, they were absolutely everywhere.

"Yes." Luna nodded. Every minute she spent away from her research was a waste of time and she would rather spend the day shut in her room reading through the same books over and over, though now she pondered if Uriel sent her on this mission to give her an opportunity to study hybrids.

"Maybe we should interrogate a random hybrid." Nika gazed at a burly man with gills on his neck and webbed palms like those of a duck.

"Asking around would only make us look suspicious and it won't be long until they call the authorities on us. We're looking at this the wrong way. Why are we looking for hybrids? We should be looking for a crime organization." Medusa said as an idea took form in her mind.

"What do you propose then?" Nika asked, but not before giving the man that was now walking towards him the finger to make it clear she wasn't interested in him.

"There's a few ways we could do it, like searching for the shabbiest, shadiest and dirtiest establishment we could find. But since you mentioned the needle in a haystack metaphor, the fastest way to do it would be to use a magnet."

"I like your thinking." Nika nodded.

"I... uhm... don't understand."

"She's saying that we should commit crimes. That way, the Dolminicos will approach us on their own."

"No," Medusa shook her head. "that will raise too much attention and not just from the Dolminicos. We should offer our services, this way they'll see us as competence. Didn't you hear what that girl said?

The Dolminicos defeated rival gangs and merged with others, we should..." Before Medusa could finish her sentence, the man at whom Nika gave the finger showed up with four of his friends and surrounded the group. Medusa couldn't see them, but she could clearly sense their presence since each of them was a hunter at the ascended level.

"You look so fine you'd be a nine if not for your rude attitude." The burly man said with the wide grin of a shark.

"Who the f... mhm, hmph!" An offended Nika attempted to swear at the man for calling her a nine, on her mind she could only be a ten and she was willing to show him his mistake, but Nika stopped her.

"Please forgive my friend, we're new in the city and looking for a job that pays well." Medusa said with a charming smile.

"Huh?" The man tilted his head in confusion, which turned to shock when Luna for the first time in her life caught wind of her friend's intention and spoke the following.

"We are prostitutes."