Chapter 315: 313: Time is short.

It took a day for all members of the Three-Eyed Strangers to realize that something was going on.

While most of the focus and pressure was on the members who had infiltrated other organizations, the rest of the members were also tasked in one way or another in this hunt for clues.

In just a couple of days, those groups who were keeping an eye on the Three-Eyed Strangers had also caught wind of their secret operation.

It was almost impossible to hide an operation this big in scale, but it was also true that no matter how eager these groups were to know what the Three-Eyed Strangers were planning to do, they just did not have any way to find out.

They also didn't want to openly harass their members since the organization was supposedly neutral and no one wanted to make an enemy out of an organization that big in scale for no reason.

At this moment, Ozul sat with his eyes closed on the couch in the inconspicuous corner.

While waiting for any news, all he did was concentrate on manipulating the new power he had gained after becoming whole again. 

Unlike the Ball of Purity, controlling this new shadow-like barrier was harder than he had initially thought.

He stayed with it active for quite a while before getting exhausted and having to retract it. After that, he would continue to meditate until he recovered his stamina before repeating the process.

What he didn't care to notice was how each time he activated this new power of his, everyone in the tower felt an innate fear as if they were being stared at by a predator and they were the prey.

Relatively weaker members suffered so much that they were forced to move out from the tower from time to time.

Complaining to Haley and other higher-ups also didn't solve anything as they could only smile wryly. They were uncomfortable themselves, but they also knew the source of this strange phenomenon and no one was willing to approach Ozul to ask him to stop. 

The only two people who had the courage to approach Ozul refused to disturb him.

Hence, this continued until Ozul became bored and went to the top floor to take a nap which lasted for more than a few days.

Any small pieces of information they regularly received were first passed onto Raven and Blaze to verify, but it never came to the point when the duo had to inform Ozul of their finding.

Just like that, two weeks passed and each day only served to add more to the disappointment of everyone.

Everyone was worried that Ozul might grow impatient any day and they would have to suffer the wrath of a Rank-9 Mage. 

What they didn't know was that if Ozul really took it out on them, they would have to deal with the wrath of something far more powerful than a Rank-10 Mage instead.

Whenever anyone caught the sight of Ozul, they would try to disappear from there as much as they could in fear that he would not call them to ask for progress.

All the higher-ups were frustrated because they had reports and summaries from all the branches. They were all proud to be one of the upper echelons of an organization that stood at the top of the continent among only a few other groups.

Although their strength might not be as strong as the Ashins, the Empire, the Church, or the Mercenary Guild, it didn't matter to them since their main forte was collecting and distributing information. 

But right now, they were stumped at the absence of even a single clue after two whole weeks!

Embarrassment piled up each day to the point when even someone like Oliver was ashamed to face Ozul.

They had received information from the Ashin family regarding the strange pattern they had to search for as well.

However, that piece of clue led them to a dead end as well. 

In short, two weeks was all it took before everyone felt a wall hit their progress. Their main source of information was the streets, but they were not allowed to show the pattern to anyone who hadn't taken the secrecy oath. But those spies in other organizations could only probe so much.

After the headquarters had arranged all the reports from the branches, they began to realize that there wasn't much that they could do except for hoping that a miracle happened and somehow, somewhere, someone from their organization stumbled upon any clue.

Though just as everyone had expected, Ozul came down from his floor and the first thing he did was to look for Raven.

With his overly sharp senses, it wasn't difficult to find her in a room along with Oliver and Haley. 

"Make a brief report. I will be outside," he said and didn't wait for anyone to reply before moving out.

The words he had left in the room caused all three present to take deep breaths; they knew this day was coming, but they could never be ready for it.

****

After about twenty or so minutes, Raven had personally gathered all the reports these past weeks and also gathered the detailed summary of everything just in case.

Everyone halted for a moment when they noticed Raven bringing so many files towards Ozul.

But it didn't take long for everyone to scurry away under Haley's glares who walked behind Raven.

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Raven first handed over the brief report that Ozul had asked for as she stayed there standing with Haley, both anxiously waiting for his reaction.

Ozul quickly read through the report and with a sigh, he put it back on the table.

Before he could even utter a word, as if afraid that he would punish them without even listening to their reasons, Haley quickly alluded, "We have even sent trained teams to pick any clues from the places where our spies hadn't infiltrated, but without disclosing this pattern to the public, there is only so much we can do..."

Her voice slowly diminished as she feared irritating him.

Looking at that emotionless gaze at the file, no one knew how angry he was.

A pin-drop silence prevailed in the hall as even those who were pretending to do their work stopped, anxiously waiting for Ozul's reaction.

The atmosphere had suddenly turned so tense that many prayed in their hearts that this moment permanently froze with them. Maybe at least that would prevent their future hell.

However, the reality was more ruthless. 

Each passing second felt like hours had passed, but the time, as they wished it to be, never froze.

The longer Ozul stayed quiet, the tenser the atmosphere turned.

The calmest among everyone present was Raven, but even she was worried that Ozul was upset this time. 

"It can't be helped then..." Ozul muttered before raising his face to meet Raven's eyes, "You don't have to be secretive about it anymore."

"Hm?"

Not only Raven, but everyone who had paused to embrace ready themselves for Ozul's wrath blinked in confusion.

By the seriousness of his tone when he had issued the order and how he had told for every other operation of the organization to be stopped, everyone understood that this task was very important to him. 

However, what was with his dull response after their utter failure to find anything?

Many of them almost had tears in their eyes.

Their leader had never acted anything like those other high and mighty Rank-9 Mages, and yet they always held such a ruthless image of him.

But they also couldn't be blamed for doing so because how almost no one had ever seen him smiling in the whole organization. Even now, most of them only felt that maybe he was in a good mood and decided to spare them.

Raven was confused by his poor response because she was the only one who knew how much it meant to him.

Despite what everyone thought, Ozul wasn't as irritated to find that the search these past two weeks brought no fruit; he already expected such results.

After giving it extensive thought, he had come to a decision to not hide it anymore.

There was a lot to gain from exposing what he wanted and how desperate he was in search of it, but the downsides of revealing this were also obvious.

In the end, he decided to just go on with it.

At most, he will have to deal with some people.

But maybe, somewhere in this continent, in some conspicuous corner, there would be someone who would have at least a hint to his questions.

And if exposing those symbols to everyone increased the chances of that happening, he was willing to deal with the trouble later on.

'The worst that can happen is someone who I cannot deal with to take an interest in this-' Ozul thought of the possibility but shook his head to shake it off since he only knew of Old Gu on the whole continent who might pose some threat to him.

'But if there is Old Gu... there can be others as well-'

Yet another sigh escaped his lips before he looked towards Raven, "What are you guys standing there for? Get to work... there isn't much time."

The onlookers had yet to accept the reality when his voice woke them up from their stupor. 

Embarrassed, Raven swiftly nodded and raced back, followed by Haley, who gave him a brief bow before leaving.

Although she was surprised to learn that he would suddenly change his mind about keeping it a secret, the fact that he changed his mind only served to show how much it mattered to him.

They had to hurry because time was indeed short; they barely had a month left before the tournament finally started...

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