"So, what now? Go back to sleep?"

Aston asked Chris. The night was still young as the low-hanging moon just came up a few hours prior. I answered Aston's question before Chris could reply.

"I doubt that either of you could sleep after what had happened."

"But it's still too early to set off now. By the time we reached the habitat of the wolves, it will still be long before dawn. They will still be in their homes and it isn’t an easy task to take them on when they are so concentrated."

"If you would, we could take a slight detour."

"To?"

They acted cautiously to my suggestion. They still didn't believe that I lacked the intentions to harm them. At least for the time being.

"Where he came from."

I said as I pointed to myself. Their interest seemed to be aroused. I pushed them over the cliff by saying,

"It is towards the northeast. Aren’t the wolves directly north of here? This little detour will allow you to see something interesting. I promise."

"Fine, we'll follow you. Lead the way."

Aston fell to my bait and Chris didn’t voice his objections. I cheerfully lead them to the campsite of the other party, knowing that I had succeeded in my attempt to lure them. They followed me cautiously while keeping a lookout for any possible danger. I doubt the chances of there being beasts that we couldn’t handle. I spread my spores all the same as a precaution.

When we arrived at the campsite, they figured out my definition of interesting. There were two men lying down there, brutally murdered with multiple stab wounds spread across their torso and neck. Chris stared at me accusingly. I answered back with a friendly smile,

"I hadn't possessed him at that point in time yet. He murdered them during their sleep willingly. I also don't know the reason for him doing this."

Frustrated by the murders which seemed to lack reason, the two of them were feeling anger for the deceased. Looking like they might be motivated to help find out the truth, I got them to assist me.

"This is why I bought the two of you here, to find out what happened. Search for clues as to who Cliff and these two really are and the reason for killing them. Loot their bodies at the same time as their equipments might be worth something. I don’t think either of you are against looting the dead?"

I had to get this done as soon as possible. I didn't want to have an unknown factor which could mean danger for us. It gotten even more urgent to solve this mystery since I am using his body. I couldn't access Cliff's memory to find out the answers that I seek as possession and taking over a body has it's differences.

Possession is more like influencing the person to do what I wanted him to do. That was why I needed to overpowered his will in order to possess him. Take over works in the sense that there are no will requirements. The mind is already dead, I don't need to fight any will to take over the body. I don't know if there are any other requirements for taking over body at the moment.

They wasn’t against looting the dead. They must have had their fair share of experience and were not so ignorant to put respect over the dead over items that could be reuse. We started our hunt for clues and found a note within minutes. Chris motioned us to go over to him as he read the note.

"Eh? Wolf extermination request? It's the same as the one that we have. How could that be possible?"

Aston asked, more to himself then to actually seek for an answer. I questioned back,

"Why not?"

"The same request wouldn't be given out more than once unless at least one requirement was met. Passing the given deadline, death of request receivers, too hard for a single party, or repeatable material requests. The deaths are proven by giving their guild cards over to the guild.”

"Let me guess. The third one doesn't work as the wolves are too weak. Fourth doesn't work either as this is an extermination request. Lastly, they were only slightly ahead of you, the deadline shouldn't have past so fast, ruling out one. Leaving it with number two as a possibility."

"Or the guild could have messed up the request somewhere, which was unheard of."

Aston added on to my explanation.

"The simplest method to find out is to check if they still have their guild cards."

I suggested after taking out Cliff's card from my pocket for reference. They agreed to my suggestion and 15 minutes later, the cards still weren't found in the surrounding. I took the opportunity to search my own body for a clue instead of the surrounding like the other two. I could have missed out something earlier as the man was an assassin. He could have hidden weapons and other items on himself that couldn't be easily found.

"My best guess would be that these two wanted to fake their death, so they seeked the assistance of Cliff. Not knowing that someone actually wanted Cliff to kill them."

I spoke the 'guess' that I had casually. Chris questioned,

"How are you so sure?"

I waved a small piece of letter in my hand and then read out the content.

"To C,

I will be sending your way two targets. They believed that they are being assisted to fake their death but you're going to kill them. You don't have to make it seems natural, you just have to kill them deep within the forest. Let it take time for others to verify the information.

By M"

"That sounds, a bit, err..."

Aston didn't know to react to the information. Chris seemed more calmed.

"So that means Cliff is either a freelance assassin or has this 'M' person as his boss. These two were just targets which we don't have information on."

"Well, duh. Cliff does have the [Assassination] skill tree after all."

I answered, a bit surprised at the need for such inferring from Chris.

"Wait, you could see what skill tree Cliff has!? Can you tell his stats too?"

Suddenly Chris went from like the calm sea breeze to a raging thunderstorm. I was shocked by his changed in attitude. I could only answer him obediently.

"Yes? His strength is 20, dex- Wait a moment, why do I even need to tell you this!?"

"Oh my god, that is so awesome! Other than the statues crystals in capital cities, there are only a handful of people that could see full statues! Obviously th-"

Seeing Chris fanboying until that extend, I really didn't know how to react. I turned over to Aston and saw that he had face palmed. Sensing that I couldn't stop Chris while he was in the middle of his speech, I turned over to Aston for an explanation.

"He becomes like that whenever he found anything rare or unique. Your ability to view full status is shared by less than 10 in the country. Those that are recognised that is. There are a lot more of the incomplete ones. The number is still below a thousand."

"That explains a lot. Do you think it is possible to stop his rampage?"

"Not for the next 2 hours from my experience."

Aston and I could only sigh and continue our journey to the wolves’s habitat while Chris remains in that state.

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Author's Notes: I wrote the whole of this chapter while I'm still having the headache and fever I mentioned on chapter 7. I don't know if I had went crazy but I decided to change the serious mode(or at least to me) to something comedic(or maybe stupid to some?). I may not be in my right mind when I wrote this but please do tell if it's good.

The main reason that I tried to keep the story on serious mode most if not all the time is due to my humor. Some found me funny(when I wasn't even trying), most found me not(when I am trying). I may have a natural sense of humor that gets destroyed when I attempt to be funny. Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter. Constructive criticism(on the story, grammar and even humor) will be appreciated.