I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 136: Stepping It Up (Patreon)

The next morning, the children woke up excited.

The previous night had been incredible. Over at Wilbur's safe house, they'd witnessed a werewolf fighting Vampires, while Emma's group had seen Watson battling the bats.

The kids had loved every second of it, and so had the camera crew. Dylan hadn't even slept all night. He'd spent the entire time imagining how popular the show was going to be once it aired.

Still, he hadn't forgotten his job.

Once all the children were awake, he brought out breakfast and showed them how to use the tools inside the cabin to heat their food.

After everyone had eaten, it was time for the next phase.

The children gathered in front of the safe house and waited for Liam.

A few minutes later, Liam arrived wearing a thick coat. Looking at the sleepy children, he turned toward the camera.

"Looks like last night's battle was so exciting that the kids couldn't sleep."

Then he walked over to them.

"Want to know what happened last night?"

"Yes!"

The children shouted in unison.

"All right, then let me explain. There's a werewolf living in this forest. It picked up your scent after you arrived. Every night, its strength increases dramatically, and that's when it comes looking for you.

"Just as it was about to break through your door, its arch-enemy, a Vampire, showed up. The two of them fought right outside your safe house."

The children gasped repeatedly as they listened.

Liam continued,

"But the werewolf was badly injured during the fight, so during the day, it'll return to its resting place to recover. Your job is to search for clues about the werewolf while it's still daylight.

"Once you've gathered enough clues, you'll unlock the werewolf trap and the location of its lair."

The children nodded.

One of them raised a question.

"What happens if we don't collect all the clues today?"

"Then you'll have to retreat back to the safe house. The werewolf will attack again at night.

"And as more time passes, its wounds will gradually heal. Once it's fully recovered, it'll be strong enough to destroy the cabin. If that happens, your mission fails."

The children nodded seriously.

Once Liam was sure they understood, he went over to Emma's group and explained the same rules to them.

Emma listened with some skepticism.

She was almost certain she'd seen Watson last night, and the fight had looked far too real to be staged for a television show.

Still, none of the other children seemed suspicious, so she decided to leave it alone for now.

Worst case, she'd ask Liam about it after the show was over.

Once Liam finished explaining everything, the two groups began planning their next moves.

Wilbur told his teammates,

"Some of us should stay here and repair the cabin. The rest can come with me to look for clues.

"That way, we can make progress on both at the same time."

Emma gave her own team different instructions.

"We'll all search for clues together first. Once it gets later, we'll come back and repair the cabin.

"We'll be stronger if we stay together instead of splitting up."

Their different personalities led them to make completely different choices.

Even so, both groups set out at nearly the same time.

After briefing the children, Liam returned to the staff rest area.

Wolf was resting there as well.

His injuries from the previous night hadn't been particularly serious. Most were just scratches and superficial wounds.

Werewolves were naturally tough, so after disinfecting the injuries and wrapping them in bandages, he was already doing fine.

"How are your wounds?"

Wolf gave Liam a strange look.

"I'm fine. I got extra pay, after all. But how the hell are you doing that?"

He'd assumed injuries as severe as Liam's would leave him bedridden for at least ten days, maybe even two weeks.

When Wolf woke up that morning, he'd been convinced the entire production would have to stop.

Instead, Liam was already walking around again.

He was covered in bandages, but he'd simply hidden most of them under his coat.

Liam waved a hand dismissively.

"My injuries weren't actually that serious. Besides, my body isn't quite the same as an ordinary person's."

Wolf looked him over and nodded.

"Yeah. Definitely not ordinary."

"All right, enough chatting. We need to prepare for today's shoot."

Liam pulled out a box.

Wolf leaned over curiously.

"Isn't that my fur?"

"Yep. I asked a friend to collect it last night. It'll make perfect evidence for the kids to find. You don't mind, do you?"

"You could've just plucked some straight off me."

Once everything was settled, the two headed out together.

Liam had designed three separate routes for the children.

Each route led to one of the three components needed to assemble the werewolf trap.

Once a team collected and assembled all three pieces, the final route would unlock and lead them directly to the werewolf's location.

By the end of the first day, Wilbur's team had found one component.

Emma's group, thanks to keeping everyone together, had found two.

But Emma had been too eager to find the second piece.

Because of that, they hadn't left themselves enough time to repair the cabin before nightfall.

"Damn it. We got way too caught up looking for that second piece."

Emma frantically tried to patch the cabin while the other children scrambled around nailing planks into place.

At that moment, Liam and Wolf arrived outside Emma's safe house.

Wolf asked,

"How hard should I go tonight?"

"Turn it up."

"Heh heh. Got it."

Wolf immediately transformed into a werewolf, leaped onto the safe house, and started pounding on it wildly.

The entire cabin shook violently.

By the time he was done, several large holes had been smashed into it.

Emma looked absolutely miserable.

Wolf, meanwhile, walked away looking thoroughly satisfied.

At the same time, Liam opened his Events Logbook.

[Vampire]

[Event Level: A]

[Exploration Progress: 20% (Phase 1: 100%)]

[Reward: Spiritual Burst (Allows spiritual energy to be gathered together and released all at once)]

[Same-Type Reward Detected]

[Spiritual Burst and Assassination Merged]

[Spiritual Burst: Allows spiritual energy to be gathered together and released all at once (accelerates spiritual energy accumulation) (Upgradable)]

Liam looked at the ability with satisfaction.

He'd been lacking a strong burst attack.

He moved to an isolated part of the forest, far away from everyone else, and pulled out a handgun.

Then he transformed it into a light gun.

Next, he poured all the spiritual energy stored through [Energy Accumulation] into the weapon.

The gun began glowing faintly.

Liam aimed at a tree trunk.

"ZAP!"

A brilliant beam of light shot forward.

Liam immediately walked over to inspect the tree.

There was now a hole about three centimeters wide through the trunk, with the edges still glowing from the heat.

Doesn't seem that powerful.

Then Liam walked around to the other side.

There was another hole.

The beam had gone straight through the entire tree.

He followed its path and found the same kind of hole in another tree farther ahead.

Then another.

And another.

Liam kept walking.

The beam had pierced through more than a dozen tree trunks before finally striking a large rock.

He inspected the hole in the stone.

It extended so deep that he couldn't see the bottom.

Liam walked around to the other side.

The beam hadn't made it all the way through.

Looking at the results, he nodded with satisfaction.

The amount of spiritual energy he'd poured into that shot would normally have been enough for more than a hundred regular shots.

For this kind of power, the cost was more than worth it.

Those Vampires hadn't died for nothing.

By the third day, the children had already grown accustomed to the nighttime attacks.

This time, they'd managed to get a full night's sleep.

After Liam told both teams their current progress, Wilbur and Emma once again made different choices.