On Planet Xenomorth 1, Ringo's clone was holding the fruit called the Tear of Osys, its evolutionary energy constantly searching for the fruit's genes.
Ringo had no idea how the wizards on that planet did it, but they basically encoded the gene for that thing.
Something seemed useful, until Ringo discovered it was just random information, something else seemed useless, but only became useful with three other different components.
The only clear part was the energy retention effect, but that wasn't what Ringo was after, he could only sigh and drag Emma along to work with him.
Emma was intrigued by the fruit as soon as she saw it, but when she heard Ringo describing its characteristics and genetic code, she was even more shocked and curious.
Thus, Ringo was dragged along to help Emma "read" the information while Emma was responsible for "decoding" it.
The pair quickly lost their way in the work, but judging by the speed, a viable result wouldn't come anytime soon.
//-//
When Black Spider returned to retrieve the Eclipse Arrow, he wasn't expecting much, after all, it was clear that the chance of getting it wasn't high. He didn't even use his future vision to see the result, treating it as a simple trip.
At the very least, if things went wrong, he hoped that the alchemist Avens would feel he owed him something, this connection could be useful in the future.
Of course, the price he paid for that connection wasn't cheap at all.
When he entered the store, the human sales assistant saw him and her expression changed to excitement, she rushed towards him. -Sir, Lady Demeria already told me you can go straight in, the location is the same.
Black Spider stopped, nodded, and headed towards the interior of the shop. When he reached Demeria's Forge, she was already hammering something, she didn't notice his approach this time, completely focused.
She took her time, and Black Spider didn't rush her. After two hours, she finally finished the blade. It was a bastard sword this time, even without the hilt, it was still possible to discern its size, too large to be a one-handed sword, too small to be a two-handed sword.
She turned to Black Spider, whom she had noticed some time ago, and was pleased that he hadn't interrupted her.
She put the blade aside, went to a nearby chest, opened it, and took out something wrapped in a bright golden cloth.
She took the cloth to Black Spider and opened it, the man looked at the arrow in front of him with interest.
The shaft was made of wood and the feathers were white, runes engraved and glowing faintly all over the shaft, only the metallic arrowhead was shaped like a drill, but even in the face of this, Black Spider didn't sense any of its energy.
To Black Spider, it looked like an ordinary arrow, albeit a slightly more elaborate one, he almost thought she was deceiving him.
-It looks like a regular arrow until the enchantment is activated, but once activated, you have up to 10 seconds to shoot, or it will explode in your hand.- Demeria said, seemingly anticipating his thoughts.
She handed Black Spider a piece of paper containing a 10-line enchantment. Black Spider blinked. -"This thing is really powerful, but the time it takes to activate it and then to fire it..." - shrugging. - "This thing could only serve as another difficult-to-use trump card."
As for whether it was real... Ringo's clone used his vision of the future, he saw himself leaving the planet on the Trihexa, then he saw himself pointing a bow made of energy with the eclipse arrow already ready, aiming directly at Juberly Hub, then all he saw was an area of total darkness, and finally, there was nothing.
Black Spider blinked.
Looking at the arrow, he swallowed hard, there were several Grade A Supers in that place, but that single glimpse into the future showed no survivors.
In the end, he thanked Demeria and left soon after. He still felt that it wouldn't be the last time he saw her, though he didn't know where that feeling had come from.
Shaking his head, Black Spider put away the arrow and returned to the Trihexa.
-Can we go now?- Elesis asked irritably. If she didn't know Black Spider had a good reputation, she would have already contacted the mercenary union to complain.
Black Spider sighed, he wanted to wait for the bow, but this woman was in too much of a hurry.
-Do we know where they are?- Black Spider asked Vanessa.
Vanessa shook her head. -They're always on the move, they're enemies of many civilizations, and they're also very good at hiding.
-So, do you have any items belonging to anyone from Triple Tide?- Black Spider asked, considering using Korak's curses to locate them.
Elesis shook her head too, she had nothing.
Black Spider sighed thoughtfully, he began to use his future vision, seeing himself searching for the Triple Tide. He stood there for a long time, leaving Elesis confused, but it was Rick who spoke. - The captain is a seer.
Elesis blinked, slightly surprised, but nodded, sensing that with this ability, it would be easier to find her enemy.
Black Spider stood like that for a long moment before finally stopping, he had found them.
-They're in the Shattered Star Ring, to be more precise, in the Colton star cluster, in the Hyde star system.- He said, a little surprised, but not too much. This also surprised the group around him, only Elesis was confused.
-We just got out of there.- Rick sighed, running a hand through his hair. He hated the atmosphere in Kandor, which is why he didn't have a good impression of Hyde.
Black Spider couldn't do much about it either, Hyde was teeming with galactic criminals and mercenaries, and the chaotic environment was very useful for both sides.
There have even been cases of criminals accepting requests from advanced civilizations to lure their enemies into traps, making the criminal act against the opposing side. The criminal flees to another area while the enemy civilization pursues them, and in the end, the civilization that hired the pirates uses a surplus of troops to easily defeat the enemies.
After this happened a few times, civilizations had to take even small pirates seriously, but spending so much manpower chasing them left their fortresses empty, at which point the opposing civilization would simply attack their base.
This is how mercenaries became useful, hiring them for high prices to pursue pirates. If it was an ambush, only the mercenaries would suffer losses, but since the profit was high, there were still many mercenaries who accepted these missions.
In the end, this only made Hyde more chaotic.
Even so, with that in mind, they were ready to move.
However, Black Spider didn't want to make the whole trip again, it would be a waste of time, so he used plan B.
Black Spider paid a wizard to shrink Trihexa to the size of a basketball, it cost 15,000 Enas, not cheap, and the spell would only last a few hours, but it was enough.
Then he had the clone in Kandor go into space and open a teleportation scroll at the star cluster level, hundreds of thousands more Enas were thrown in the trash, but if he could burn money to save time, he would.
Upon reaching Kandor's orbit, the group passed through, wearing spacesuits, except for Black Spider, who could survive in space. Korak released the ship's spell, and that was it, they had saved a good amount of travel time.
The clone returned to Kandor, while the group, aboard the Trihexa, headed towards where Black Spider had seen them.
A planet called Targatro, a lawless den in the central part of Hyde, fortunately it was near Kandor.