The dark aura the puppeteer had left behind broke off less than a kilometer into the woods.
Yūki stood before a hollowed-out tree, looking at a few rotten ropes, two broken wooden crates, and a pot of black sludge that had already dried out inside the hollow.
"This is its lair?"
Snowstorm Princess stood on tiptoe to peek into the pot, then immediately covered her nose and backed away.
"It stinks! What does it usually eat?"
Yūki used a twig to lift an unidentified object beside the pot, studied it for two seconds, then put it back exactly where it had been.
"Don't ask. Learn too much, and lunch will have complaints."
This was clearly just a temporary stopping place for the puppeteer.
There was no black gate, no spatial device, not even a single hidden card.
After searching both crates down to the bottom, they found only half a bag of moldy bone meal and three teeth of unknown ownership.
Yūki had originally held out a little hope for the divine emissary's lair.
Now it seemed he had gotten his hopes up too soon.
Silent Magician walked to the other side of the tree hollow and pointed her staff at the ground.
Several drag marks stretched north from there, with a few pale golden feathers scattered beside them.
"Some spirits were taken away."
"Holy Spirit City happens to be north."
Yūki tossed the twig away. "Fine. The lair didn't drop a town portal scroll, so we'll have to head to the main city and find a quest NPC."
Snowstorm Princess followed beside him and asked earnestly, "What kind of spirit is a quest NPC?"
"A kind that knows a lot and likes to ask you for a favor before it talks."
"Doesn't that make it a bad spirit?"
"Sometimes