"I wanted to ask you about the unknown horned monkey I found a bit ago," I said. "You know, the one with the gargoyle leg. Can I see it?"

Levi slipped off my shoulder, down the hardwood floor. Disregarding everyone else, he started exploring the office, poking at the plant vases in the corner of the room and examining the wooden filing cabinets and shelves, all while keeping out of arm's reach of Uncle. He stared at the weapons on the wall, his tongue flicking out in distaste before he moved on. All in all, he felt like this was a terrible cave. It was too bright to hide in.

Uncle glanced at Levi, then focused on me. "Why?"

"I want to see if it has something in it. A little box," I explained, indicating the shape with my hands.. "Flat and rectangular. It's probably buried in its body. Did you find one when you examined it?"

Uncle gave me a curious look. Like he wasn't sure how to answer my question. "No," he said slowly. "I didn't find anything like that, but I also wasn't looking for a box inside the monster either, nor did I have time to poke around."

I nodded, expecting that. I mean, I didn't think I'd find a box in an unknown dragon either. That was purely a mistake. "Can I see the carcass?"

Now that I knew what I was looking for — something hard and flat inside the body — I should be able to find it easily by moving the body around. I paused, realizing how gross that actually was, but how else was I supposed to find it? It can't be any worse than messing with zombie armor or dissecting a monster carcass.

Uncle sighed long and hard. "I can't. It's gone." He tsked in annoyance.

I paused. "Where is it?" His answer didn't actually surprise me. A dedicated group of geneticists studied all new monsters. That was common knowledge, just not where they were located.

He threw his hands in the air in a jerky shrug. "Gone. Gone, gone." At my blank expression, he elaborated. "The next morning I contacted my friends in the Monster Research Department in the Association. They were thrilled, obviously. I did some mild poking around, but didn't want to damage or let the carcass decay too much, so I sent it over soon after. Well, the Eden headquarters caught word almost immediately about the strange, mixed monster. They requested it be sent to them immediately."

My stomach sank. "So it's in Eden?" That was a long way away. Definitely not a day trip. I just got back, Dad would flip if I tried to leave again. Not to mention, Uncle had contacts and some sway with the Association here in Boulder, but how much influence did he have in Eden? It was a whole new ballpark.

Levi appeared from behind a tall vase and lifted his head to look at me, curious about my emotion.

Uncle shook his head again. "No, it's gone. While in transit, monsters attacked the team. They were completely wiped out. The Hunter that carried the carcass in her Items Bag was found without a head. We can't recover that weird monster carcass, no matter what we did."

My lips parted in shock. That's what he meant when he said the unknown's body was gone. It literally didn't exist anymore.

An Items Bag was connected to a Hunter's spirit. Whenever something was put in the bag, that item was converted into magic and stored inside. It didn't have a physical state anymore, not until the owner of the Items Bag took it out. Then the magic converted the stored data into a physical item again. And only the bag's owner could make an item appear and disappear; another person wouldn't access an Items Bag. If the owner died, everything still in the Items Bag disappeared, since it didn't have a physical body anymore.

Which was good, since it made it harder for thieves to kill for items — somewhat — but it also meant that a Hunter's entire fortune disappeared, leaving their surviving family with nothing.

It was also disastrous in cases like now. Items Bags stored everything in suspended animation, so when storing a carcass, it was the best option. I mean, that's how my family transported all our goods, too. It made sense that's how the Association did it. But now that the team died, we were left empty-handed.

I hissed a breath and shoved my hands through my hair. "So there's nothing we can do?" It didn't seem real.

Uncle shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I wish I spent more time studying it. I have a lot on my plate and my friends never let me down before, so I was comfortable letting them do the grizzly work. Even if it was shipped to Eden to be studied, I was okay with that. There's good people there. I just didn't expect this to happen." He looked troubled. "I'm sorry for losing your kill."

I paused. Oh, that's right. Although Uncle paid me for it, it was technically my kill. I waved a hand, still frustrated. "No, that's not the problem." But without the body, how could I prove my theory?

Uncle stood up and walked around the desk then leaned on it. "Tell me about the box you wanted to find."

I glanced at the clean wooden desk. "Well, it would be easier to show you, but not here. I did take it out of a monster.."

He nodded in understanding and pushed off the desk. "Let's move to my smithy then."

I glanced at Levi. "Let's go."

Instead of hitching a ride, he chose to slither behind us, ever five feet away.

My lips curled despite the situation. The way Levi acted was just like the first day we bonded. At first, it hurt my feelings, but now his aloofness was funny. Him not hating me anymore helped, although he still wasn't okay with practically every other human. Hopefully, he'd get used to people. Even if he didn't, as long as he didn't injure anyone, he could be as skittish as he wanted.

Uncle opened the smithy doors and walked in.

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Levi stopped at the threshold. His nose wrinkled at the smell, and he curled up, refusing to go in.

I paused just inside. "You can stay outside." I motioned towards the patio. "There's a water feature over there with clean water that you play in. Or you can go visit Shiva in the front. Just don't break anything."

He turned and hurried away, slipping into a bush on the side of the gravel walkway.

Uncle waited for me at the dissecting table.

I hurried over to the table and waved my hand over it. A large metal box appeared on the steel. A trickle of red water leaked from the corner, remnants from the river water that I didn’t manage to get out. The box looked so unassuming, like it had nothing to do with the colossal deathmatch between giants that almost killed me.

"You heard about the dragons' fight in Laramie, right?" I said. When he nodded, I went on. "Well, one dragon was a leviathan. The other was like the unknown horned monkey. The Guide didn't know what it was, and it looked really weird. Like a turtle and a dragon were mashed together. And it was huge. Like, five stories or higher tall. The leviathan managed to kill the unknown, almost dying in the process." And now he was a resentful little blue noodle.

I took out a pair of latex gloves from my Items Bag and slipped them on. Then I took out a Phillips screwdriver and started to loosen the screws on the panel. Uncle saw what I was doing and copied me, loosening the ones on his end.

"I spent the night in an underground cave," I explained as I worked. "The next morning, when I saw the dead dragon’s carcass, I thought of the unknown horned monkey and how excited you were about it. So I got you a sample." I waved my hand. The vial full of blood and tissue that I collected appeared on the table. With a quick hand, I set up the ownership transfer then flipped the screen for Uncle to accept.

His eyes were bright as he picked up the vial and peered into it, moving it around to see inside better. "I'm impressed you could get tissue off an S ranked monster. Their tissue is tough as hell and you don't have the equipment to handle it."

My eyes widened. “S ranked? I thought S rank didn't exist anymore."

S ranked Hunters were the strongest of the strong, a one in ten million phenomenon. They were like walking nukes, able to destroy a city with one move and treated like celebrities, like gods. During the Hunter Era, every country had an S ranked Hunter — the ones that didn't were quickly wiped off the map. The US had twenty-four of them, and one for them, The Noble — Terre's father, saved the world from the Gates. After that, every Hunter's power was cut in half, even the S gods. That's why S gods didn't exist anymore, they were just high A ranked Hunters now.

Uncle shook his head. "Oh, no. S gods still exist. Thankfully, they're content with life and super introverts."

My brows wrinkled, not following his meaning. "Why is that a good thing?"

He looked me dead in the eye. "Because there's no one strong enough to keep them in check. Can you imagine what would happen if they were greedy for power? No one could stop them.” He tapped on the table, thinking. “Thankfully, one of them has a conscience and keeps the other in line."

Uncle knew them really well, I guess. Then again, he established his business during the Hunter Era. He probably made gear for them at least once. Probably still did. But I could ask about that later. If they were such big introverts, they weren't a threat right now. I needed to focus on what was.

“From the magic present in the flesh alone, I can tell that this unknown dragon was also an S ranked monster.” Uncle tapped on the glass side. “S stands for superior. Technically, it just means stronger than everyone else. Although Hunters and monsters aren’t as strong as they once were, there are still stronger-than-normal beings.”

“Like Terre,” I commented, thinking of his unusual and super powerful aura.

Uncle hummed under his breath, neither confirming nor denying it. “Although there are some that make Terre look like a baby.” Uncle accepted ownership of the vial and stored it in his Items Bag. "Thank you for trusting me again," he said with all seriousness. "After losing your last, I wouldn't blame you for taking it somewhere else. I will personally guarantee that nothing happens to this sample."

“It’s the only sample left,” I said, remembering what Terre said. “Somehow, the unknown dragon’s carcass disappeared.”

Uncle paused. “What?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know exactly, just what Terre said. I mean the thing was huge. Huge, huge. And if it was an S ranked monster like you said, not a lot of things could tear through the meat enough to eat it. But somehow, between the time when I left the city in the morning, and Terre showed up in the city that night, the carcass disappeared. He never saw it. But it was completely intact when I left.” I looked at him stumped. “I honestly don’t know where it went. The only proof that backs up my story about it is that vial.” I motioned to Uncle’s Items Bag earring. “Well, that vial and this box.” I tapped on the metal surface.

He was silent for a minute, his brows pinched in deep thought. "I see. Well, there are three Hunter Association reports from your teammates talking about the incident — you know, the ones reporting your death — so it’s not completely undocumented. But if the actual carcass is gone now, that means this sample is irreplaceable. I might divide it and only let the Association half of it. What they don't know won't kill them, right?"

"Right," I said and wedged the tip of my screwdriver into the side of the panel to lift it. "When I was getting the samples, I noticed this box buried in its chest cavity."

Uncle looked impressed. "The chest cavity, huh? I bet it was huge. My little warrior princess has a stomach of steel."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, Terre thought it was impressive when I was messing with zombie armor. Oh, I'll tell you more about that later. Anyway," I opened the lid, "this is what I found inside."

It was just like I found it, with a single leviathan scale and a motherboard attached to the bottom.

"This scale..." Uncle picked it up and carefully examined it.

I nodded. "The unknown dragon acted really weird. Driven. It hunted the leviathan for hundreds of miles. I know dragons have huge territories, but not that big. I think the unknown dragon was compelled to go after the leviathan," I explained slowly and pointed to the scale. "I think this box is the reason. I bet a box like this, only smaller, was in the unknown horned monkey. When I stumbled across it, it was cannibalizing the horned monkeys. And that’s not normal behavior for horned monkeys." I stared at him like a student waiting for the teacher to grade their performance. Please don't let him think I was stupid and completely wrong.

Uncle hummed under his breath. He carefully set the scale down like it was spun glass and not nearly indestructible S ranked material. He leaned close to the electrical circuit board attached to the corner of the box and touched the red light on top then slid his fingers over the circuit. "Your theory is sound." He tapped on the corner of it, pointing to a tiny glass shard I didn't notice before. "I don’t know what all this is for yet, but I do know what this is. It’s a magic stone."

"It is?" I leaned in, squinting. Sure like he said, there was a slight sparkle about the clear shard. "I can't believe I missed it."

"I can," Uncle tsked, but he didn't sound disappointed in me. He touched the shard and discharged a small burst of magic into it. Instantly, the shard lit up like a Christmas light. "The magic inside is camouflaged. A slow ranked Hunter would never see the augmented magic inside without help. It's very well done, actually."

Magic pulsed from the stone, washing over me. A pressure grew in my chest, making it hard to breathe. I shifted in agitation, trying to control the irrational anxiety that swamped my mind. This wasn't natural. "What kind of augment magic?" I asked, shifting back a little.

"Berserk," Uncle said heavily.