Chapters 15: Wendy’s Disadvantage.

Having sent the girls away, Aza'zel entered the private military tent and sat down at one of the dim corners away from the tent's entrance. 

He spent but a few minutes running scenarios in his mind about the possible developments and repercussions from the intense conflict between Thorns and Shadows, especially if he wanted to swoop in as a third party when the armed forces arrived. 

However, none of these possibilities were concrete enough due to the absence of some key factors in the equation, such as the attitude of the captain to the armed forces. 

Aza'zel had to consider long and hard about when to advance and when to retreat, lest he disturb the interrelationships between the tri-fronted forces and their delicate balance. 

He slowly closed his eyes while ruminating. 

Half a day later, Aza'zel left the military tent with his harvest of evil blood pearls and headed deeper into the camp, searching for the legislative center responsible for allocating contribution points. 

The tension was quite palpable in the camp as the silence reigned, yet the negative emotions intensified. 

Aza'zel perceived over a dozen killing intent locked gazes on his vitals by merely walking past a few accommodations. 

His code of dress caught the attention of both parties in the camp as it didn't conform with either party, hinting that this young boy was either a catch for grabs or a prey to be done in, depending on which side he leans towards. 

However, Aza'zel maintained a neutral stance as he paced through the camp, not particularly engaging with anyone, hence it was quite difficult to tell which side he leaned toward. As long as he maintained his neutrality for a period, no one would make a move on him. 

Those who impatiently break the hidden rules would be doing the other side a favor by pushing this potential candidate their way. However, if Aza'zel maintained neutrality for too long, he would be offending both sides. 

Many had their eyes on the fortune of contribution points hanging on the young boy's shoulder, but patience was a virtue that not many vultures lacked. 

It was a silent, uneventful trek from the cheap corners of the camp to the legislative center. Rows of vultures stood in inspection at the first inspection line toward the center, and they confiscated his guns and potential weapons for safekeeping. 

The second line featured seasoned soldiers with heavy and measured auras, each clad in uniformed tactical armor, bulletproof visors, and an intercom earpiece connected wirelessly to their tactical wristbands. 

Aza'zel couldn't see them, but he had heard a lot about them from his girls. These were late technology introduced to the Lower Abyss five years ago, in the 10th year of Skysplit. 

Within 10 years, the seven earls had constructed signal towers imbued with the influx of source energy across the Lower Abyss, and the matrix inscribed within each hidden node within the tower facilitated the construction of the incorporeal origin network. 

A network that transcends space and time thanks to the inherent attributes of source energy, and if the volume of energy in the Lower Abyss was dense enough, the network can bypass the higher layers of the abyss and connect directly with the origin network on the Sacred Staircase continent. 

Aza'zel figured that the origin network, just like the holy aria, was an origin spell maintained by a very powerful existence, or at the very least an automated spell on that level. 

As much as he desired for a tactical wristband and its accompanying accessories, these things were very expensive. It costs 10,000 contribution points for a tactical wristband bound to the Earldom of Doom's region. 

This wasn't cost-efficient since Aza'zel never intended to limit his area of operations to the Earldom of Doom, but it was understandable that the Earl of Doom didn't wish for people under his jurisdiction to connect with those across the boundaries. 

The stationed soldiers on the second line of inspection halted Aza'zel in place.

"Name your purpose of visit," said one of the soldiers, his tone quite indifferent. 

"I've come to surrender evil blood pearls," answered the young boy. "In total, I have 200 pearls, which I'd like to deposit under the Watchers." 

The soldier glanced over the young boy's shoulder and noticed the heavy bag. He nodded, as the bag had almost met the limit of its capacity. 

"You don't need to go inside for that," the man replied in a slightly gentler tone as he reached with his hand. 

Aza'zel understood the gesture, so he handed the bag of evil blood pearls over silently. 

The man nodded, handing the bag over to his colleague while addressing Aza'zel, "We will record your contributions in the ledger. If you want to exchange for items, go to the exchange center in about half an hour from now after the processing of contributions is over." 

Aza'zel understood that such things would take time since the official personnel were understaffed. Of course, it could also mean that they're occupied by something else entirely, especially since the camp is expecting the armed forces of the aristocrats to drop by anytime now. 

He didn't complain as he wasn't in a rush to exchange for items. In his mental notes, he remembered that his squad has 2,100 contribution points at the moment. 

He had other things to do for now, such as adjusting his eyes to the real world in preparation to read the manuals for the standard martial stance, the second volume. 

"I understand," Aza'zel nodded to the man and left the inspection line. The vultures by the first inspection line didn't dare play any tricks under the eyes of their superiors and so, the retrieval of the weapons was done smoothly. 

Aza'zel felt the man slipping a torn piece of paper into his hand together with the revolver, and the former paused for a moment in surprise. However, his stiff movement was very brief, and no one had noticed it. 

Aza'zel pursued his lips, knowing that this was someone under Kane, since Wendy was supposedly aware of his condition as a blind young man who couldn't see. 

Passing him notes was outright useless. At the very least, it was useless as of yet. Aza'zel didn't say much and folded the note underneath his sleeve before retreating. 

This gesture alone was a telltale sign of how deep Kane's influence was in this camp in particular, as it wouldn't have been easy to pin one of his underlings into the inspection line. 

Aza'zel wasn't even positive whether or not both men were working under Kane, to begin with. This in itself was a scary thought. 

All of a sudden, he understood why Wendy's activities in the camp were very limited, to the point where she had yet to reach out to him overtly or covertly. 

She must be very paranoid with uncertainty, and that in itself wasn't a good thing since it indicates that Wendy had started a fight from a losing position. 

The more Aza'zel thought about it, the less positive he felt about Wendy's odds, especially after her blunder with Mask. 

He shook his head helplessly, "This wouldn't do, she can't limit her base of operations to the dungeon and Nameless Valley…" 

Aza'zel knew that the foundations were the military camp… Although the odds were very slim, if she had a few dozen men stationed in the camp, there was a slight possibility of them returning to the state when the soldiers marched back. 

Those people are the valuable pieces, not the ones wasting away their lives and energy hard laboring in the dungeons…