"Linsey, be careful."
Red Moon reminded Linsey.
Before her voice had finished echoing through the churchyard,
Linsey had already set down Finn's corpse and climbed over the church wall again.
At that moment, a raging fire burned in Linsey's heart. He did not want to waste even a second.
—External interference!—Someone had deliberately reanimated Teacher Finn's body while he was keeping vigil for him!
His eyes were as deep and still as a frozen pool, with flames ready to erupt lurking within them.
Linsey crossed the town through the night, his footsteps striking the roads in hurried, muffled thuds.
He reached Finn's cabin at nearly the fastest speed possible.
But this time, Linsey did not enter.
He did not even step into the yard. Instead, he stood before Finn's home and swept his sharp gaze over the surroundings.
The town was usually exceptionally quiet at night.
But because of Linsey's earlier fight with the Living Corpse, lights were still on in several nearby homes.
Seeing this, Linsey forced himself to calm down and assess the situation.
"Ordinary townsfolk can't affect Essence, so they could never reanimate a corpse. The only person nearby who can use Essence should be Dan..."
"No, it definitely wasn't her!"
Linsey immediately dismissed that unrealistic suspicion.
The Female Hunter had no reason to act tonight and reanimate Finn's corpse.
Then the source of tonight's incident—
"It could only have come from outside."
Linsey formed several guesses in his mind as he quickly circled around to the back of Finn's cabin.
Looking into the distance, the Farmland beneath the night sky was pitch-black.
Perhaps nocturnal animals were still active among the fields, but concealed by the deep darkness, there was nothing to see beyond faint rustling sounds.
So Linsey activated Trace Tracking.
The result was unexpectedly smooth.
The very next second after activating the skill, he found something at the edge of the cabin.
Near Finn's cabin, several strings of blue footprints ran alongside the wall. Following their direction, the blue trail entered the Farmland and extended all the way toward a distant forest.
"..."
"Found you."
Linsey's gaze turned icy as he stepped forward to inspect them carefully.
The tracks had a distinctive shape. Each footprint had five toe marks: four smaller toe-pad prints surrounding a larger central pad, while each toe mark ended in a clear claw trace.
Its overall shape
resembled an enlarged cat paw print, but longer, wider, and flatter.
With that single glance,
Linsey's Habit Survey skill activated as well.
Feeling his Essence being consumed, he immediately checked the Hunting Notes and confirmed the identity of the beast that had left the tracks—an Ice Badger.
"..."
Linsey frowned deeply and remained silent.
The instant he identified the culprit, countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
The first was the frozen Living Corpse that had nearly taken his life three years ago.
Thinking carefully about the details from that day, that thing had also suddenly reanimated only after the Ice Badger appeared.
Now, three years had passed.
Linsey's teacher, Finn's corpse, had likewise been reanimated by this magical beast.
"..."
"Who would believe there wasn't some connection here?"
Linsey's gaze hardened as he raced after the footprints toward the forest.
At the same time, he drew his bow from his Personal Baggage, ensuring that he could attack at any moment once he spotted the enemy.
As he ran, Linsey continued reviewing the Ice Badger entry in his Hunting Notes.
Then he noticed another issue—Kill Achievement: 4/10.
Three years had passed! During those three years, Linsey had hunted with Dan too many times to count. One thing was certain: he had encountered quite a few other kinds of magical beasts in the Hidden Borderlands.
For example, Black Horn Snow Deer, Frozen Wind Sparrows, and Rot Leaf Rabbits.
He had killed at least three to five of each.
But the Ice Badger was different.
Other than the initial four Linsey had killed, he had not killed a single additional one in three whole years! Or, more precisely—
Over those three years, Linsey had not seen even one Ice Badger! He had originally believed this was because, after Linsey and Ju were attacked back then, Dan had killed the Ice Badgers' leader and then vented her anger by clearing out the surrounding area.
But combined with what had happened today,
the Ice Badgers' disappearance over the past three years likely concealed some unknown secret.
"A conspiracy spanning three years..."
Thinking of this, Linsey could not help quickening his pace.
It seemed that tonight was not just about Finn's corpse being reanimated.
Even the grudge from when he had first arrived in the Hidden Borderlands and suffered repeated attacks could be settled today!...
Linsey's figure raced through the dark forest like a cheetah chasing its prey.
This was a contest of endurance and fate.
The Ice Badger's kill count had not yet met the requirements for the Killer level.
So even though Linsey could find the fresh tracks left on the ground in complete darkness,
as time passed, those blue markings gradually began to fade.
Keeping the skill active constantly, Linsey could feel his Life Source Material steadily draining away.
Trace Tracking was an active skill with an exceptionally powerful effect.
But the price was Essence consumption, and for Linsey, exhausting his Life Source Material was equivalent to facing the threat of death.
But he did not dare stop.
At least not until the very last moment before the Essence in his body was completely depleted, and not before he found tonight's culprit.
He absolutely would not stop! At that moment, Linsey saw nothing but the blue footprints continuing ahead of him.
He crossed hills, skirted trees, smashed through bushes, and passed through every difficult stretch of terrain in the most time-efficient way possible.
He had only one goal: reach his target as quickly as possible.
Before his Essence ran out!
For the first quarter of an hour, Linsey found nothing.
The marks on the ground seemed to stretch forward without purpose.
But he remained completely unmoved. His heart was as calm as water as he continued tracking at top speed.
Rustle, rustle, rustle—
Finally, after half an hour,
Linsey, whose hearing was sharper than an ordinary person's, noticed a faint sound from ahead. It seemed to be claws scraping against wood! "..."
He immediately slowed his pace.
After tracking this far, Linsey's Habit Survey ability had also added several new details beneath the Ice Badger entry in his Hunting Notes.
For example—nocturnal, keen eyesight, somewhat poor sense of smell.
Using the cover of the surrounding woods and darkness, Linsey avoided the dead branches and fallen leaves on the ground, slowly approaching without making a sound.
Before long, he saw where the blue footprints ended.
—Ice Badgers.
—There were three whole Ice Badgers there!
They were gathered together, their brown-black fur rolling across the ground as they tore apart several pinecones they had just knocked from a tree.
"..."
Linsey held his breath, his right hand already gripping the fletching of an arrow.
The thought that these were the "culprits" behind his teacher's corpse being reanimated made fury erupt in his chest.
But he held himself back.
Linsey clenched his fist so tightly that the fletching of one arrow was pressed flat against its shaft.
Killing these three Ice Badgers would only provide momentary satisfaction.
What he truly wanted to find was not merely these three Ice Badgers, but the mastermind controlling them from behind the scenes! As long as he remained undetected and continued tracking them,
sooner or later, he could...
"Awoo!"
Suddenly, the three Ice Badgers stopped tearing at the pinecones.
One of them even turned directly toward Linsey and poked out its head, as though inspecting something! "You brought this on yourself!"
Linsey's gaze instantly sharpened.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately nocked an arrow.
A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.
Since he had already been discovered, these three Ice Badgers could no longer lead him to the truth behind the scenes. There was no reason to remain silent now.
Even if they were corpses, he had to leave these Ice Badgers behind first!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In an instant, Linsey activated Quick Shot.
Three arrows flew almost end to end, shooting toward the three Ice Badgers like lightning forming a single straight line.
Two muffled thunks rang out.
The two slow-reacting Ice Badgers were struck by arrows and immediately began struggling painfully on the ground.
Only the last one escaped. It had already been facing Linsey, and the arrow aimed at it was the very one whose fletching Linsey had nearly crushed.
So the instant the arrow flew toward it, it leaped aside and avoided the lethal glint. Then the Ice Badger raised its head, preparing to release Ice Cones in retaliation.
But Linsey was faster!
Before the Ice Badger could finish casting, a dark shadow engulfed it.
The Ice Badger that had narrowly escaped had only just landed when Linsey himself burst from the woods.
At an unimaginable speed, he knocked the Ice Badger to the ground with a knee strike.
Before the magical beast could even cry out,
he pulled a small knife from his Personal Baggage and drove it into the Ice Badger's neck, ending its life.
"Phew—"
Linsey exhaled, but his fists remained clenched and his face was still clouded with worry.
Forced by the fact that the enemy had discovered him,
he chose to kill the three Ice Badgers. But that also meant he had failed to uncover the true culprit behind them.
He had clearly followed the records in the Hunting Notes, deliberately staying outside the Ice Badgers' field of vision and making no sound.
How had such low-intelligence magical beasts discovered him while their backs were turned...
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Linsey froze.
Because after killing the three Ice Badgers that had reanimated Finn as a Living Corpse,
he discovered a new message on his Game Player panel.
Task Completed Third Module Unlocked Essence Infusion Successful Simulation Management Module Logged In
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