The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-225

Chapter 225: Contacting Old Friends

“You need my help? Vivian looked at Hao Ren quizzically. “Do you want to eat something nice for dinner? Or do you want desserts?”

Hao Ren was unsure on how to react. He muttered to himself that this super vampire had really assimilated as a home chef and housemaid. It really does seem like her thinking logic was being bound to the kitchen and it’s immediate surroundings. He simply waved his hand laughing. “No not that. I’m asking if you can get in touch with other supernaturals? Vampires, werewolves whoever. Hell, even spirits or zombies would work. Especially those that you had made an acquintance of.”

Vivian immediately frowned as she heard his request. “I don’t really keep in touch with my kin, most of them are screwed in the head anyway.. The others… I haven’t heard from them in a long long while. Only the recent visit by the Ebbens did they let me on a secret way to reach them.”

Vivian was known as a solitary vampire. From the time human carved the first iconographies on the rocks, she was already with them. In fact, the time she spent with humans far exceeded that of her kind. Her reason was simple. Those jokers are screwed in the head. It was pretty much conflict everywhere for the supernaturals. Vivian preferred the company of the younger, unpredictable and more peaceful (superlatively) humans. Her odd attitude brought her a lot of fame… well famed for being screwed in the head by the rest of her kin. This resulted in Vivian totally going out of touch with the happenings of the supernaturals. She don’t even know where the few remaining Blood Clans are hiding out.

“Totally no way to contact them at all?” Hao Ren looked a little disappointed. He had hoped the only person that he could had count on for the matter was this vampire lady. The idiotic husky, the wandering mistrel, and a demon from the otherworld wouldn’t have much contact with the supernaturals on Earth won’t they?

Vivian noticed the importance that Hao Ren had placed on the matter. After some head scratching she finally nodded. “…. If you insist…perhaps I can try to get in touch with some of those old coots. I know of their whereabouts about ten odd years back. Some of them, being the bums they are, won’t move unless they are targeted by the Demon Hunters. But why are you looking for them?”

“Mission, what else.” Hao Ren sighed. “Both Raven12345 and I feel that the ‘Day of Return’ the supernaturals are talking about have something to do with the crumbling balance in the Dream Plane. But given that we are unable to go into the deep blue, we can only rely of the other supernaturals for more information on the matter. I want to you try to restore contact with them. Forget the sensitive details for now. Just restore contact will do. After that, try to get some information on what are they up to. So that we have a rough idea on what’s going on.”

Vivian pondered for a moment before nodding. “Alright. I don’t really like having anything to do with those lot, but since you are the one asking.”

Hao Ren gave Vivian a grateful look. He knew that she really did not like mingling with other supernaturals. By then, Lily was already at the limit of her excitement and she bounced towards him and grabbed his arm. “Mr Landlord, Mr Landlord! How about me? Do I have a mission to? Let me do something!”

Apparently the dumb husky thought that going on a mission equates fun and was all excited about it. It took Hao Ren a while to figure out what she can do before grabbing a bottle of soda going, “Open your mouth, bite it, and don’t move-”

A loud clack rang and Hao Ren gave a satisfied nod. “Hmm. Yep. That’ll do.”

Indeed it was Lily’s natural talent to be a bottle opener.

Well, Lily subsequent violent protests and tantrums not withstanding, both Becky and Hilda became temporary guests of the house for the night. Thankfully Hao Ren’s place was huge, aside from Vivian occupying the basement, Hao Ren and Lily on the first floor, and Wuyue and Y’zaks on the second floor, there were still three empty rooms left. As time was rather tight, and the other two rooms were stuffed full of junk, Becky and Hilda had to share a room for the night. Surprisingly, both of them had little to say about it. While Hilda was royalty, she was from a place that knew suffering all too well and was already pleased that she had a comfortable room and hearty food to eat. A far better option sleeping in the open over at the Dream Plane. Becky was even more than happy. Her mercenary days had seen her sleeping on branches or in caves.

Becky was still overwhelmed by a sense of excitement and adventure. She was extremely curious about everything on Earth that her adventurous spirit was burning hot. She barely slept for the night and the next day appeared so red-eyed that Hao Ren got a shock. “….Do you have a habit of going berserk after waking up?”

“Oh shut up, I’m a Spellsword, not a Berserker.” Becky glared at Hao Ren for a bit before approaching the group excitedly. “Oh yeah, you’re bring me out today right? Nangong Wuyue said something about buying me some lawngeyray…..”

“Okay okay, sure. I remember. Please calm down, jeez.” Hao Ren avoided Becky’s fiery gaze as he recalled the various plans that were put on hold because of the events that had happened. He first went to Y’zaks who was feeding Rollie in a corner. (He looked more like he was torturing the cat from an untrained eye). “Big guy, follow me out today. We’ll get you some winter clothings.”

Y’zaks was still clad in his self-fitting outfit. While the clothes would last forever, Hao Ren felt that it was time for the big man to get some better clothes.

“Whether it’s cold or not, that’s secondary. You stick out too much like a sore thumb.” Hao Ren lamented as he looked at Y’zaks clothings. “If you were to go out wearing like this. Chances are the old folks by the street would take you for someone who had just broke out of prison.”

Y’zaks simply smiled. “Even when I’m dressed in a full suit I still look like a prison escapee. Oh.. that Nangong girl even said I looked the part of a prison breaker….”

“….”

Seems like the big dude does have some self-awareness. Then by jove why didn’t you change that look of yours when you morphed?

As Hao Ren’s blunt words were well-intentioned, plus all the cost incurred here could simply be claimed from Raven12345, Y’zaks simply just went with the idea. After thanking Hao Ren for the gesture he asked when they were leaving. Hao Ren then said that they will have to bring Vivian along. He wanted to get something for her too.

He then made his way to the basement where the vampire lived. As he opened the door he was accosted by a dozen of small bats and got a shock of his life. After composing himself, he saw that Vivian was sitted on her study casting some sort of spell: She had summoned plenty of bats, and had them lined up in front of her to be ‘annoited’. Floating around her was a few blood orbs made out of fresh blood, from it a crimson mist was drawn and imprinted on the wings of the bats. Hao Ren simply just grabbed one that fly past him (it was pretty easy, these creatures were not particularly adept at resisting or dodging) and noticed that Letta Runes and some other special symbols were etched on its wings.

“What are you doing?” Hao Ren asked.

“Weren’t you asking me to contact those supernaturals?” Vivian replied without even lifting her head as she continued imprinting the bats with runes. “Those old coots are pretty good at hiding. Especially after the purges the Demon Hunters had pulled off. They are pretty weary of outsiders and the way we communicate is rather different. These bats here are a specialty of a Blood Clan. They carry a small imprint of my will and message. No one else can replicate that. Even if they were to run into danger, they’ll simply disintegrate into mist. Pretty safe.”

Hao Ren then realised that Vivian had already started sending out her missives. While she may look reluctant on the surface, as long as she had promised someone something, the vampire would do her best to accomplish it. Her pride demanded it. But seeing the bats flying around the room had Hao Ren confused, “How are you getting them to those old friends? Can they fly across the globe?”

Vivian nodded matter-of-factly. “Of course they could. But I’m trying to contact those within the Eurasia region first. Then only try my luck on those accross the Pacific. I’m a rather famous person after all, if I were to go all out some of them might take it the wrong way.”

“Fly across? The whole Eurasia?” Hao Ren was dumbstruck.

He looked at the palm-sized bat in his hand. They looked almost indistinguishable from your normal bats. He really wondered how long would they take to even go across such wide a landmass. Vivian simply waved him off. “What do you expect then? This is the most convenient of methods. You can’t have me running all over the place can’t you?”

Well, truth be told, it was indeed convenient. But Hao Ren always felt that something better could be done. It took him a good while before it struck him like a eureka. “You ever heard of express delivery?”

By the time Vivian had managed to react to what Hao Ren said, her stunned look was all too apparent. “Wow… that’s rather ingenious…”