Chapter 52: Demon Hunt Operation

In the days that followed, Lei En maintained a very regular routine.

He would rise at dawn to meditate, train his strength and practice warhammer techniques at the Basil Inn in the morning, go to the House of Violet in the afternoon to practice the keyboard with Viola, and return to the inn at night, immersing himself in Zoltan's mechanical workshop until late at night, hardly ever going back to his own apartment.

Zoltan was very efficient; within a few days he had gathered all the materials Lei En wanted and set to work on his own research.

During this time, Lei En revealed his keyboard skills little by little, progressing so rapidly that Viola grew numb with astonishment. The two also grew increasingly familiar with each other, in a relationship that was more than friends but not yet lovers.

Lei En tried multiple times to probe Viola's true intentions but got nothing; she seemed to have her guard up, or perhaps had made another decision, and the distance could not be closed further.

He was not in a hurry and actually somewhat enjoyed the current state of things.

One thing was unexpected: that Feilis, whether she had not noticed the mountain giant's demon soul was fake, or knew it was impossible to get compensation, surprisingly did not come to the House of Violet to cause trouble.

Since the trade fair, Viola had not seen her, nor the instigator Ga Luo Wei Na.

This surprised both Lei En and Viola.

In Zoltan's courtyard, the sound of splitting air was incessant.

Lei En wore only a white shirt, swinging the refined-iron warhammer so tightly that no wind could pass through, his footwork swift and steady. The heavy hammer appeared very nimble in his hands, yet carried the weight of a mountain, without the slightest sloppiness. Wherever it went, it whipped up waves of dull, fearsome howls.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh...

After swinging it for several minutes in one go, Lei En set down the warhammer, panting slightly, and wiped the sweat from his face.

After over ten days of continuous practice, he had already fully mastered the warhammer techniques, as if he had trained for years, with no trace of awkwardness remaining.

With hammer in hand, he was confident he could match any sword master of the same level.

"I didn't expect you to have such talent with the warhammer as well, not much inferior to your swordsmanship." The Demon Hunter Roger's voice rang out in the courtyard.

"Master Roger, good afternoon." Lei En greeted him with a smile.

He had noticed Roger's presence over ten minutes ago; the man had already been watching from the side for a long time.

During this half-month staying at the Basil Inn, Lei En had only seen Roger a few times. The man was always elusive, holed up in his room during the day with the witch Drella, and often went out at night, nobody knew what he was doing.

Occasionally when Drella was not around, Roger would only play cards with Zoltan, then sleep.

Lei En looked at Roger's appearance and wondered if it was his imagination, but this legendary demon hunter seemed to have lost some weight, and his eye bags were rather heavy, as if from lack of sleep.

A filthy thought immediately flashed through his mind.

"Could he have been drained dry by the witch?"

Roger yawned and said somewhat listlessly, "I used to think it was a pity that you were wasting your great talent for swordsmanship, but now it seems you're more suited to using a warhammer. That's fine too."

His expression showed some relief.

There had never been a demon hunter who used a warhammer in this world. Even the Bear School, renowned for strength and defense, used swords, not warhammers.

If Lei En had truly entered the Wolf School back then and spent all day carrying a warhammer, it would certainly have caused quite a few laughs.

Those old diehards in the Wolf School would absolutely never have accepted it.

Lei En heard the implication in Roger's words and shrugged indifferently; he truly had little affinity with the demon hunter profession.

In fact, no matter what weapon it was, swordsmanship or warhammer, there was no difference to him.

Either way, he was exceptionally gifted.

He suddenly grew interested and asked, "Master Roger, last time we competed in swordsmanship. Would you like to have another match today? I'll use the warhammer against your swordsmanship."

Suitable opponents were hard to find, and it was rare for Roger to be free today.

It was a perfect opportunity to spar with him and test the results of his half-month of warhammer practice.

However, Roger had no interest in this.

He covered his mouth and yawned again, looking sleepy, and shook his head, "Sparring with your warhammer is meaningless. It's all about the same anyway. I need to go catch up on sleep."

Saying that, Roger got up and walked toward his room.

"Alright, we'll try again when there's a chance." Lei En spread his hands helplessly, not pressing the matter.

When Roger reached the door, he seemed to remember something and suddenly turned back, "Since you're so eager to test your skills, come with me on an operation tonight. I finally found a nest of demon spawn, and there are quite a lot of them. You can come be my helper."

Without waiting for Lei En to answer, he added seriously, "Let me make this clear beforehand: hunting demons is not a sword match, and it's certainly no joke. It's very dangerous. I can't fully look after you during combat. You're only level one, and your life could be at risk."

"How dangerous?" Lei En asked cautiously.

He did very much want to participate in hunting demons for the chance to absorb soul power, but if it cost him his life, the loss would outweigh the gain.

You only have DPS when you're alive; if it really doesn't work out, lay low and gain a few levels first.

"Not terribly dangerous. I'm just reminding you." Roger pondered for a few breaths, then nodded, "This nest of demon spawn is only large in number, not truly that powerful. With me watching, given your strength, if you're prepared and careful, it should be no problem."

"Besides, hunting demons earns a bounty, and this time there should be quite a bit."

"If you don't want to come, I'll just take Zoltan instead."

Lei En's eyes lit up—there was actually money to be made. Roger, as a legendary demon hunter with rich experience, said he could go, so there was nothing to fear.

Having a legendary powerhouse leading the way while he followed and learned combat experience—opportunities like this were rare.

Lei En had been considering where to go to absorb souls, and now it seemed that hunting demons was the safest method: he could recharge himself and earn a bounty at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.

"Alright, I'll go with you." He agreed immediately.

"Get ready, rest enough during the day, and we set out late at night. I'll call you when it's time." Roger dropped these words and entered his room, soon followed by the sound of snoring.

After washing up, Lei En went to the House of Violet in the afternoon to practice as usual.

When Viola heard he was going to hunt demons at night, she said nothing, only giving him a well-fitted set of light armor, very similar to Roger's—a combination of leather and chainmail, relatively light with decent defense. Since it was not enchanted, the price was not very high, so he accepted it.

After practicing and returning to the inn, Lei En ate dinner and dove into the mechanical workshop in the backyard.

On the workshop table lay a pile of parts.

Lei En assembled them rapidly, and in less than half a minute, a short-barreled shotgun was complete.

The prototype of this gun was the Remington TAC-13, but it was not identical, rather the result of his own modifications: the gun body was significantly shortened and more compact, only half a meter long from end to end. It could be fired with just one hand, and he had also made a holster to hang on the outside of his thigh, convenient to carry and ready to draw and fire at any time.

Shortening the gun body also reduced the magazine capacity to five rounds.

However, the bullets' power had increased. After researching for a long time, Lei En finally formulated smokeless powder through the solvent method and produced a batch of brand-new bullets.

This batch of bullets was plentiful, over a hundred in total.

Lei En did not plan to bring all the bullets; he only filled a single belt ammunition chain, thirty rounds in total.

Besides the gun and bullets, Lei En also used the remaining gunpowder to make a few hand grenades. Since there was no suitable testing ground, their power had not yet been tested, but after some thought, he brought them along anyway.

Lei En had originally wanted to develop a firearm that could be combined with a soul gun, but making a soul gun required relevant rune knowledge in addition to mechanical skill.

He knew almost nothing about this field, so he just set it aside for now.

Zoltan had mentioned he could teach rune knowledge, but it would cost money, and it was not cheap. Lei En did not have much money left and still needed to save some for buying other materials, so he could only consider it later.

After packing his equipment and weapons, Lei En returned to his room and lay down to rest.

Late at night, while asleep, he heard footsteps outside the door. He immediately got up and opened it, and saw Roger looking surprised.

"Not bad alertness," Roger said flatly.

He looked much better than during the day, wearing light armor with two cross swords on his back, and the leather pouch at his waist bulging with supplies.

"Wait for me a moment."

Lei En returned to his room. He was already wearing the leather chainmail, hung the war hammer on his back, tucked the shotgun into the holster on the outside of his thigh, wrapped the ammunition chain around his waist, stuffed three hand grenades into his trouser pockets, and came out quickly.

Roger looked at the fully armed Lei En and nodded in satisfaction.

However, when he saw the shotgun, he reminded him, "Tonight's hunt is in the city. Try not to fire your gun, so as not to alert too many people and make things difficult to handle."

"Understood."

Lei En caught the implication. "Try not to fire" actually meant firing was acceptable, just that it might cause some trouble afterward.

The two went downstairs and walked out of the inn under the puzzled gazes of the card players in the hall.

Roger led the way. He was very fast, with night vision ability and extremely keen senses, always managing to avoid potential threats one step ahead, and smoothly left the slum district.

Lei En ran at full speed and only barely managed to keep up.

They headed north, then turned west into Honeyton District, and finally stopped outside a very inconspicuous house.

Lei En observed the surroundings. This place was only one street away from the slum district.

He quietly activated the Voice of All Things and immediately heard something unusual. There were many sounds inside the house, a dozen or so men and women. It was the dead of night, yet these people were highly excited, all kinds of chaotic sounds mixed together—music, lovemaking, conversation—like a lively party was being held.

But from the outside, the house was pitch black, as if the owner had long since gone to sleep.

"What the hell is this?" Lei En muttered to himself.

Hidden in the shadows of the street corner, Roger fished two small glass bottles from his pouch, tilted his head and gulped down one himself, then handed the remaining bottle to Lei En and said, "Drink it."

Lei En took the bottle and saw a dark, viscous liquid inside. He unscrewed the cap and smelled a foul, fishy stench, but without hesitation, he tilted his head and drank it in one gulp.

The foul liquid entered his throat, spicy and choking, and he almost threw it up.

Soon, Lei En felt a sinister energy permeating his body, rapidly spreading throughout him. The blood vessels on the back of his hand bulged, with black things faintly spreading within them. His whole body went numb, with a slight swelling pain.

After a dozen seconds, everything returned to normal, and no abnormality could be seen on the surface.

During this time, Roger took out a bottle of sword oil and applied it to his silver sword, making the runes on the blade become obscure and exuding a sharp aura.

After finishing all this, Roger held the sword and said, "I'll go in first. Follow behind me."

Lei En nodded silently, took the war hammer off his back, and gripped it in his hand.