A few days had passed since Marcus arrived in Finford. After his battle with Zarcur, Marcus warded his inn room and placed anti-detection wards on himself. He also made sure to have a magic-sensing spell active whenever he was outside, which was most of the time.

In the days following the battle, Marcus mainly took odd jobs here and there, using conjuration to unload cargo, alteration to help construction, or to create and sell rare merchandise. He also used divination to gamble a few times, although that made people a bit suspicious. Still, he was able to make a respectable amount of coin from doing this work.

After a week, Marcus had saved up enough coin to begin purchasing the materials he needed for crafting magic items. As of right now, the only piece of magical equipment he could bring with him was that oversized spear that he carried in an extradimensional space. However potent it was, it would simply not do for him to have a one-use spear as his only magic item. Most adventurers had several magic items, and his goal was to be an adventurer, so he needed to get some magic items.

The morning of his eighth day in Finford, Marcus decided to procure the materials for magic items. He looked through his belongings and adorned his Cerin jacket. It was the disguise he went with the most often, as it made him look like an ordinary merchant and not a powerful mage. Luckily, he also packed his professional Tevarian attire for this outing. As an ordinary merchant wouldn’t be allowed into the Upper Corridor as it was called. Unfortunately, a wealthy Tevarian gentleman would, although he would be met with suspicious looks, he had no other fancy outfits. And so Marcus prepared to head out to the Upper Corridor disguised as a Cerin merchant before becoming a Tevarian gentleman.

Marcus left the inn after having a quick breakfast and made a beeline for an empty alley. After finding one, he immediately climbed up the building and made his way to the Upper Corridor. The city appeared very lively in the morning, standing in stark contrast to its night-time appearance. Market stalls were open and people were trading goods in the market. Sometimes it appeared that the city was doing just fine. Although one thing that caught Marcus’ eye as time went on was that most people only opened their stalls in a few places and often didn’t use the currency.

After about 10 minutes, Marcus arrived just outside the Upper Corridor. The Upper Corridor had 50-foot tall walls of solid stone reinforced with potent wards. He also saw 10 mages standing guard over the entrance to the Upper Corridor. A quick glance at their mana levels indicated they were likely quite potent as well.

After changing into his Tevarian outfit, Marcus dropped to the street outside of the guard’s field of vision. He then got his coin pouch and papers ready. He was hoping he could get into it without trickery or just sneaking in, but that would likely be hopeless. As Marcus approached the gate, one of the guards raised his hand to Marcus and ordered him to stop.

“What do you want?” The guard asked in a demanding tone. He then took a few seconds to examine Marcus. The rest of the guards did not intervene but still examined Marcus.

“My name is Marcus, and I want to enter the Upper Corridor, I have some spells that I want to sell,” Marcus answered. The guard then cast some spells and examined Marcus again.

“What are your qualifications?” The guard asked. Marcus thought a bit before replying.

“I am a Tevarian high mage, my services are more than adequate for the high-class demands of the Upper Corridor,” Marcus replied, trying to appear as proper as possible.

“Ellen, how skilled is a high mage? I don’t really know how Teveria does this,” The guard said, looking at one of his fellow guards.

“A high-mage is skilled enough to pose quite a problem if they try. A high mage focused on war would be able to kill one or two of us before dying,” The guard named Ellen responded.

“Thank you, now Marcus, what are you a high-mage of?” The other guard asked.

“I am a high mage of war, I was certified by my academy four years ago,” Marcus said, declining to reveal his other specialties.

“Can you show us where you have been for the past four years?” Ellen asked.

“I have been traveling the world, I don’t have any documentation,” Marcus replied. I should have just snuck in.

“So you were certified as an extremely powerful mage over four years ago, you specialize in war, you are Tevarian and associated with an academy, and you have no personal history these past four years. There is no way you are not a Tevarian agent or some kind of troublemaker,” The other guard said.

“Very well, I will be off then,” Marcus said and walked off. He then began to think of how he could sneak into the Upper Corridor. He might be able to just fly higher than the walls and teleport into the district that way, bypassing any teleportation barriers. Although that would definitely set off several alarm bells, and he was just a high mage. A high-mages was powerful, yes, but not powerful enough to avoid several other powerful mages hunting them down.

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So that meant he needed a way to break in without triggering any alarms. He could try and convince someone from the Upper Corridor to invite him inside. He could also try to become a guard and sneak in that way. But these ideas would likely not work today. So Marcus decided to just do whatever work he could here, and build a name for himself. He changed back into his merchant disguise and walked away.

As Marcus began wandering the city, looking for some work, he briefly sensed a large mass of mana. The feeling faded almost immediately, but still, Marcus had to investigate. It could be a hostile mage after all, and if so, then that mage could be very skilled.

Marcus quickly cast another spell to expand his search once more and found the same signature reading loud and clear, as well as five more signatures. Marcus immediately looked in the direction of the signatures and began to approach. Six mages of this magnitude were likely working together, and if so, they could be dangerous. As all of them were pushing the upper limits on the mana a normal mage had, and one of them could be a weak high mage. If just of them had a manifestation, things could be really ugly.

As Marcus approached the signatures, they immediately started rapidly moving around, closing in on Marcus. So they also sensed me. There are far too many bystanders for me to allow a fight. So Marcus jumped onto a building and began to run away. The signatures immediately began to chase after him.

After putting a bit of distance between himself and his pursuers, Marcus changed course toward the abandoned part of the city where he first encountered the Finford Council. If a fight were to happen, at least he wouldn’t have to hold back. He might even be able to use his spear if truly desperate.

As Marcus made his way to the abandoned district, his pursuers began to spread out and pick up speed. I’m running across rooftops faster than a horse, how are they keeping up with me? Within two minutes, the pursuers had gained enough distance for Marcus to clearly see them.

They were also running along the rooftops, and all of them had different colored sparks radiating from their body. So all of them can hasten themselves. One of them had red sparks, a second blue, a third green, a fourth purple, a fifth orange, and a sixth cyan. Six opponents who can independently hasten themselves, fabulous. Suddenly, the one with orange sparks halted and their mana signature intensified.

Realizing they were casting a powerful spell, Marcus overloaded his haste with mana, it would cut down on the spell's duration but tremendously strengthen it. Marcus felt a surge of energy as he sprinted with renewed vigor, but his opponent only further intensified their mana.

A burst of orange light emerged from their arms as a bolt of brilliant energy arced toward Marcus. The bolt traveled extremely fast and caught up to Marcus in less than two seconds. Marcus clasped his hands together and teleported beneath the bolt to dodge. The bolt dropped down, slamming into Marcus and driving into the street below. Marcus barely managed to strengthen his body.

Marcus surveyed the area, panicked bystanders either froze in shock or started running as far away from Marcus as possible. Just as Marcus regained his footing, a series of spectral red daggers pelted the area. Marcus placed his hands on the ground and raised a ring of stone to protect himself. Although Marcus emerged unscathed, many of the bystanders were caught in the attack, falling prey to a merciless barrage of daggers.

Once the attack subsided, Marcus could see his assailants standing on the rooftops, and they had surrounded him. Two of his assailants jumped down towards him; One was covered in green sparks and holding a spectral red blade, and the other was covered in red sparks, and surrounded by more of those spectral red weapons.

Marcus hardened his ring of stone, before firing off some of his ring as shards of jagged rocks. The assassins didn’t bother dodging, and a barrier of cyan energy intercepted the shards, as they harmlessly collided into the wall. The barrier lowered, and the green assassin rushed toward Marcus while the red assassin threw more spectral daggers. As Marcus dodged the volley of daggers or blocked them with his ring, the green assassin quickly closed in and tried to stab Marcus.

Marcus sidestepped the strike and lunged at the assassin, arm outstretched. He made contact with the assailant's head and tried to disintegrate him with an alteration spell. However, a series of cyan glyphs appeared on the assailant's head, blocking the spell. Marcus quickly realized that they had warded themselves against alteration magic in preparation, probably conjuration magic as well. But Marcus couldn’t ponder this for long, as the green assailant grabbed Marcus’ arm and tried to stab him.

Marcus used his other hand to direct his ring to deflect the sword and then conquered a torrent of water, aimed at the green assassin. The assassin dodged the strike with speed that defied logic and Marcus raised his ring to deflect more spectral weapons.

The red assassin created a spectral spear and charged at Marcus. Marcus returned the gesture and charged at the assassin. The was fast, but not as fast as the green assassin or Marcus, and had no defenses, an easy target.

Right before Marcus could finish off the assassin with his ring, the red assassin vanished in a puff of blue mist. In place their place, the green assassin emerged and sliced at Marcus’ head. Marcus immediately clasped his hands together and teleported behind the red assassin.

Before Marcus could launch an attack on the red assassin, or even move from where he arrived, an orange beam of energy pierced his stone ring, and took off his right arm. The red assassin followed suit and launched a barrage of spectral weapons at Marcus.

Marcus barely managed to deflect the weapons with his shattered ring, and the green assassin was closing in. Marcus once again summoned a torrent of water to attack the assassins. The attack was almost immediately blocked by another wall of cyan energy. This was the final confirmation to Marcus. The purple assassin, who had been idle this entire fight, was a precognitive mage who knew his moves in advance and told them to their team.

Although Marcus didn’t like using his precognition, he was left with little choice. He had already lost an arm, his pocket dimension took too long to use, his spear would kill far too many civilians, and his manifestation was off-limits.

And so Marcus cast his precognition spell and saw aid on the horizon.