They left. The military and the officials. There were only a few that stayed behind to meet the most famous person the last few days.
A military general. A scientist in a white coat. And a well-dressed man in a black suit.
"Hello, Mr. Blackburn. I am General Samuel J. Dragovic. This is Doctor Bruce Avaline, the brightest mind in the world. And that is Dwayne Xolotl, leader of the Free-trade world."
The general was tall and big. A humanoid walking tank with an eye patch covering his left. The scientist had a crazy head of white hair, like a true mad scientist that Carter always saw in his movies. Dwayne was a tame, reserved man.
"The military power. The intelligence aspect. And the wealth of the world. What do you want from me? If it is my power, you are free to try."
Carter placed the Prisoner on the ground. It stood on its own.
General Dragovic shook his head, "No need. I already heard what it did to its wielder. You are a very strong man, Blackburn. And I meant your will. Not your power."
"So? What is it that you want? I need to lead my Invokers on a hunt. Any minutes we waste, another innocent life might be lost."
"We'll be brief, sir Knight." Dr. Avaline adjusted his glasses.
"You can just call me Zen."
"Alright, Zen. We want to know how someone can become an Eldritch Knight and what is the qualification. From what we uncovered from the ancient texts, these legendary races of warriors seem to be very wary of outsiders.
But I assure you. With your cooperation, we can create more Eldritch Knights. We can save more lives. Even ending the war on Terror is a possibility."
Dwayne Xolots jumped in at the end to add a very important factor, "Of course. This is a question, not a demand. We would like you to think about it."
Carter frowned. He acted like he was considering something very serious in his mind.
'What am I going to do now? I can't create more Eldritch Knights and definitely can't show them how. I need to find a way to keep the illusion alive.'
The truth was, he was cursing within. He had to figure out a way to convince the three leaders to stop thinking about this.
He decided to buy some time first.
"Becoming an Eldritch Knight needs a strong mind. Gather the men and women with the strongest will you can find. I will meet them."
"And if they satisfy you?" General Dragovic said.
"I will give them a chance."
The three leaders nodded, "That is all we want."
Finally, they left.
Neros and Piper watched as the three leaders disappeared.
"This world is so complex." Quill whispered to Nina, "This might be a Rank-3 world, no joke."
Rank-3 World meant a world with a lot of Elite-Rank entities.
Rank-2 consisted of most Awaken-Rank entities.
Rank-1 was Carter's original world, the 21st century of Earth without any supernatural entity.
Carter heard what Quill said with his high perception.
'Ugh! I wish this was a Rank-3 world, Quill. Then I can find much more powerful skins.' Carter silently contemplated.
"The night is still young. Let's go, I'll teach you how to work with an Eldritch Knight."
Carter led the group away. He wanted to hunt some Terrors and also to raise his synchronization.
The Actor thought that 100% of synchronization was it. But the Synchronization kept rising past 100. The Skin System was surprisingly unresponsive when Carter asked what it was about.
Since the System wouldn't tell him, Carter decided to find out on his own.
Through the hunt, Carter learned more about the true nature of the Invokers. He didn't ask anything of course, that would blow his cover. He only observed.
The Invokers seemed to be able to literally 'invoke' any type of energy into a projection. They called this 'spell'.
However, their spells were different from what Carter was familiar with. Invoker's spells were usually a manipulation of an energy.
Like Neros. He used fire. He could conjure fire and make it transform into animals. He was also well-versed in defensive spells like force barriers, which was related to kinetic energy.
Piper was plant. She liked to conjure vines and plant-type projection that helped her in a fight. She had less destructive power than Neros but her power was more versatile.
'I want to have an Invoker Skin so bad. If I have one, I can understand thoroughly how they operate.'
Each Invoker was a person of interest inside Terrorstate. Anyone that went missing would cause quite a ruckus. Carter wouldn't go around killing Invokers just because of a skin.
That would bring him much more trouble than benefits.
Surprisingly, the two Invokers covered Carter's weakness. Because Carter's attack was mostly melee-range, the Invokers would take care of long-range.
Neros could keep the farther enemies at bay. Piper could slow them down or root them for Carter to catch.
They felt perfectly together like they were meant to.
"You weren't wrong when you said Invokers need their Knight. I've never experienced a hunt as easy as this." Neros said.
'I am surprised too.' Carter could only blame the brilliance to the Skin System.
Nina and Quill were basically supporters in the group. They would provide cover fire when needed, although extremely rare. And would take the scout role while Carter and the Invokers were busy fighting.
In the beginning, Carter wanted to recruit them because he didn't want to kill them. They did not treat him badly before and letting them go would be a waste. The two former Cyber Slaves actively found a role to fill in to show their usefulness.
The habit was probably around from their time as the Cyber Slaves.
Carter acquired quite a few Synchronization percentages and Prime Coins.
[Current Synchronization]: 137.4%
Along with that, he acquired a lot of Terror Skin Shards.
[Total Skin Shards]:
- 28 Minor Terror Skin Shards (Awaken)
- 19 Medium Terror Skin Shards (Awaken)
- 9 Major Terror Skin Shards (Awaken)
- 2 Minor Cyber Slave Skin Shard (Mortal)
Then they arrived at a cemetery.
"The Butcher is probably inside." Neros said grimly.
"A butcher?" Carter raised an eyebrow.
"The Butcher. Not a butcher. It's a Peak Terror. Very strong." Piper said.
"Ah. Another one of those. I killed one in the city. It had a wolfhead." Carter said nonchalantly.
"That's the one in the video, right?" Neros said. "It has been terrorizing the city for a while now. It's good that you finally put an end to it."
"The video?" Carter pretended to be surprised. He knew exactly what he was referring to. But Zeneros Blackburn didn't use the internet so he must stay in character.
"Yeah. Someone got your footage fighting the wolf in a hideout. It's all over the internet right now." Neros said.
"Ah. It's probably a young man I rescued. Well. I don't care either way.
Are you guys ready to kill your first Peak Terror?"
"I am never more ready." Neros smiled.
Piper nodded with determination.