My Last Hunt

Chapter 172: Quest For Three Stones (23)

Quest for Three Stones (23)

Zunal; 

The trap is not enough

It was far expected that the deceptions can expand beyond imaginations and not all the hunters can face them. Qiao was still human but to see an obvious illusion he could not help but shook his head. "The illusions of this world never heard the story of the old grandma from the advanced world, sigh. Let me repeat it then." Qiao stepped back cautiously and side smiled. "There was an old cottage in the ancient city of dead land; people say that they saw an old grandma walking inside the cottage through the window but they warned others that if any one of them happened to see directly in the eyes of the old hag then she would infiltrate the soul and turn it into ghost" till his sentence reached to the last words he was already one step away from the entrance. 

The stone caught the story of the hunter and at the last words; the small figure suddenly turned the face toward the exit of the cottage leaping to stop him from leaving the boundary of the cottage but the hunter already lifted up his second feet and now he was standing outside. 

A huge soaring wave of bastion blasted the cottage into smithereens and the leaves scattered everywhere. The cottage thawed next instant or it dissolved just like another illusion, Qiao cannot bother both possibilities. He was fortunate to decide other way right at the critical point else his consciousness would have been stolen by now. And rest of his life he would be known as mentally discarded human. He heaved a sigh that he was spared from a big trap however now he was seriously inquisitive about the ongoing events which were somehow related to each other. 

He put his hand under his fleece and brought out one of the stones. This was a lower level stone and does not emit any definite aura which could be marked as the characteristic or a special quality of the stone; then he brought out a level six stone that was gotten from the peak level six monster. He scrutinized and observed the difference carefully. Apart from the unique glue; it bears its certain aura which Qiao could clearly feel. His eyes were wide opened now with the anticipation. He felt that same aura when he was inside the cottage and the aura kept lingering until he left the exit. 

"There is some relation between this place and a stone most definitely." He firmly concluded. From level one to level five stones were void of any strange aura and from level six to up all the stones bear the consciousness as well as the strength of the related monster. The aura differs of every stone but it can be felt by any level five or up hunter. It was quite unique revelation for him and he was curious to know more about it. He looked toward where the cottage disappeared but he could not trace the place clearly because the present situation was drastically changing. 

It was already difficult to differentiate among all the illusions as to which one of them was more powerful and which was a trap. The wind again started to blow slowly. It was meant for the hunter because was crudely thinking to follow his instinct and search if there was some powerful stone hidden somewhere among all the illusions. If he could dig it then he might be able to break the illusion. It was one of the boldest ideas that a hunter happened to be trapped inside the illusion came up with. 

Mostly try to get rid and leave and those three hunters were sent to search the reason of weird happenings in the place. Some hunter reported about it and then the Hightown sent his hunter kings. As to why this idea struck in the head of this specific hunter because he heard and also saw that the rare stone's has much value to it and if he could get it then it was equal to strike big in his view. He happened to face a monster which attack with resonance and why hunted it; the spoil was traded with big fortune. 

"Who know if I might be able to meet one of the required stone?" he was self-talking again with anticipation. For him getting the desired stone was challenge ahead and nothing could astray his attention. His daring and bold thoughts were giving itching to someone. It was none other than the stone of illusions who created this big Phantasm to show off its power and strength. The wind that was blowing constantly increased and when Qiao thought to dig the stone; it turned into wind storm. The stone was clearly agitated at the intentions of this hunter. 

Qiao hurriedly put the stones inside his fleece and sheepishly surveyed around; something made his brain clear, his thoughts were being stolen as if someone was reading what was going on in his head. It was the second time that he thought something crude and his surrounding started to show changes; actually sudden changes. He was no more oblivious that the phantasm was intruder but who was behind it with such level of intellect. The leaf city was falling apart in front of his eyes; none of the presented structure escaped the changes not even the skyscrapers. 

The leaves were everywhere in the form of storm and he was standing in the middle of the mess. Finally the illusion vanished. Definitely it was not that the phantasm decided to let go the hunter only it planned to stop the spawning of heavy delirium power. It takes much strength to keep the huge buildings in their shape along with creating coating of further illusions; it would definitely exhaust the stone for no reason since the hunter was unscathed until now. If it wanted to change the scenario then it needed to revert back all the coatings of illusions. 

Now it was same plain ground where Qiao was dragged unwillingly moreover Qiao could feel the presence of other hunter in the vicinity. He thought that perhaps he could meet the other hunter now since he returned back to the starting point. After retracting all the coating of the illusions; the stone was deliberating what to do next to weaken the control of this hunter over his consciousness. During this time; the stone might not bother the hunter or what he wants to do. 'This hunter was a challenge and if the stone cannot defy a simple hunter then how could it claim the real strength' thinking this the stone was probing how to tackle the situation. 

Qiao was moving around to meet any exit or entry points of this phantasm to reach the hunter. With the stone retracting deception; now there were normal illusions of this delirium. The hunter king also sensed the presence of a hunter and thought that perhaps his team member was around. With the several illusions; he understood until now how to act in certain situation presented in front of him. For a hunter king; it was already shameful to remain trapped inside the delirium for more than three days. 

A monster rushed toward him suddenly and dodged by leaping backward; though he has his sword with him but he decided to use it unless it was extremely necessary. 'Using sword was not wise when you don't know who the enemy was' the hunter kept this in his head and remained observing changes in the surrounding. It was helping him understand how the things were going on and how he should act. The monster that leapt at him stopped when it did not meet any weapon in response. Qiao looked back at the hunter. 

It was the same hunter whom he met during an illusion about the gym guy; he could remember just because of the eyes. No matter how strongly this phantasm can create illusion but there was a real loophole or flaw to it. The eyes contact cannot be fully replaced; be it human or hunter. The beastly eyes give off the aura of a monster no matter how neatly the intellect was working behind, it still belong to monster while as the human eyes were more placid in appearance. The hunter king only dodged the monster and then remained alert in case the monster attack again. Also he critically observed the monster. He was looking at the calm eyes and understood that the monster was not real. 

Qiao appeared in front of him as a monster. He was not attacking nonetheless walking and suddenly walked through the exit of the illusion and came in front of the hunter. "You are a hunter. Should we work in collaboration and defeat this phantasm?" he did not know that in front of the hunter he was an illusion of the monster and when he spoke; the hunter could only hear the angry groans of a monster.