Nervin was bored. Samud, the merchant whose business he was supposed to protect, was having questionable success. The current situation with the war and church branding people heretics randomly caused some problems. People doing not exactly legal things were good targets. At any rate, in the past Nervin would have already killed the man and taken whatever he had and ran off. Thats what he was good at - kicking those below him.
Yet, the organization, Shadow Pact, he was working for was protecting their assets. With all the chaos, hunting down the heretics and all that, there was need for protection. Nervin had to agree it was a good solution after the smaller groups he had been part of before could not protect themselves under the heavier security. Any relevant groups came together and one big organization came to be. Of course there was quite a bit of blood spilled, but eventually things settled down. Now there were rules. Required ones, but still rules. Nervin still missed being able to do whatever he wanted.
After Nervin had managed to loot enough materials and was able to reach Condensation stage, he could no longer continue his old style anyway. Anything that mattered to him was already valuable enough that people would care, if he just came in and took everything, murdered people and such.
Hence, he was forced to take work he wouldn't have otherwise taken. Sitting and watching the weakling peddle his goods was not something he enjoyed. The pay Nervin received from Shadow Pact was ... acceptable. Barely.
Then suddenly Nervin watched as some guy, seemingly one of the hunters of the town, stepped into the shop. It was somewhat unusual, but sometimes people wanted to sell things they didn't want people to know they had. In these cases they would seek out Samud's shadowy shop that was just out of sight.
Oftentimes it was weapons, armor and things hunters had. Why the secrecy? Thats because the hunter group likely murdered another group. Nervin might have himself become hunter... hunter of hunters that is, but it was risky and you would often run into beasts. They were strong enough that you would not be able to deceive and kick them while they were down.
Nervin was somewhat surprised as he watched the hunter pull out discreetly a beast core. It was clearly from a Lower Cari. The hunter himself would not have been able to kill a Lower Cari. Where did this Formation stage hunter get such a thing? Perhaps he was there to sell it for his team who had a Condensation stage hunter with them. If that was true, why was he selling it at Samud's shop?
"Nope, this guy must have simply found it somewhere", Nervin decided. "Perhaps this hunter would not be able to safely consume it so he needed to sell it. Still, why here?"
Nervin listened as the hunter tried to question Samud for how much he would be buying other similar items. It became clear that Nervin's assumption of the material source was accurate enough.
"This loser doesn't need any of this", Nervin thought to himself.
As it happens, Nervin now had a potential target to loot. He really liked to steal things. He had always been strong and talented enough to just take what he wanted.
Nervin quietly left a marker on the hunter. He would find out where the hunter was getting his stuff. Then he would decide, if it was worth it.
"There is time after Samud closes his store for the day", Nervin thought as he felt more and more excited to get proper work. "Night is enough for me. No one will know any better once I toss the hunter corpses in the forest. Some beast will have a dinner."
By the time Samud started his daily prayers to Stefinos at evening, Nervin left the store, following the marker.
"Luckily the fellow hasn't gone far", Nerving thought as he sensed the mark inside the inn.
It wasn't the time to barge in and beat the information out so instead Nervin found nearby spot outside and listened. The inn wasn't protected in any way so he could easily listen. He discovered the hunter was together with two more. This wasn't a problem.
Even better, they happened to be discussing their 'finding'. Apparently they had found some stash which seemed abandoned. They were still scared that its owner was still around despite the appearance of the stash. Hence they were trying to sell it in small parts through merchants that were more discreet.
"If they wanted that, they should just go to a temple of Stefinos", Nervin mumbled to himself. "Those damn priests don't ask questions, if there isn't anything too obvious."
As for his goals. He couldn't just murder the hunters right away. He needed to know where the stash was.
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"I'll just follow them after they go out once more", Nervin decided.
He then wondered for a moment what he was going to tell to Samud. He then decided Samud could handle himself for a while when he was gone for some time. He might lose some pay and have to listen to the complaints. That was irrelevant compared to stash of valuable materials. At worst case Samud could easily be bribed silent. Nervin didn't really want to pointlessly anger Shadow Pact as he was doing work for them for the time being. Then again Nervin was getting tired listening to orders so he wanted to act on his own a bit.
Nervin was happy to find that luck was on his side. The hunters were planning on leaving during the night and going to gather more of the stash and sell it in parts. They were also planning to move it entirely elsewhere and separate it in parts. If Nervin had waited longer it would have become far more difficult to get his hands on the goods.
It did not take long until three hunters left from the inn. Nervin quietly followed them from a distance he knew their senses wouldn't reach. Once he had the location he would kill the hunters immediately. It was more than likely they wouldn't ever even know what hit them.
In fact, Nervin was pretty sure only danger to him would be some random higher beast such as a Lower Cari. Yet, the hunters he was after were unlikely to go so deep in the forest. Chance of running into such a beast was very small. Nervin wasn't exactly very experienced dealing with beasts, but he expected it shouldn't be a problem. A bit of danger was worth it.
Its not like this trip was a long hunting expedition anyway.
The hunters were annoyingly careful, though. At first Nervin had thought he had been discovered somehow, but then he realized they were just being careful in the forest with all the beasts around. Indeed, Nervin was able to hear and see many. Most of them were weaklings and at most Dire Beasts. No High Beast had come bothering neither him or the hunters. Most likely they were not yet deep enough in the forest.
Eventually the hunters slowed down and started talking to each other something like 'we are here'. Nervin prepared to attack as soon as he could see the goods. It seemed the hunters were going towards some cave that seemed empty. Probably some beast had lived in it, but now as far as Nervin could tell, it was empty.
He followed the hunters once they entered the cave. He planned to kill them there.
"I'll just beat out the information from them, if the materials aren't there", Nervin thought to himself. He was very familiar to beating things out of people.
Then suddenly Nervin ran into a problem. He suddenly felt he couldn't move his legs.
"What?" Was Nervin's first thought, but then he quickly realized he had stepped into a trap.
He soon discovered that the feeling was quickly spreading and, no matter how much he fought back, he was losing. Tingling sensation soon covered his entire body.
"What is this!" Nervin was screaming in his mind. Nothing he did would push away the effect that was keeping him still. "Was this some trap left by the owner of whatever stash these weaklings found?! How did they then walk through it?"
What had gone wrong? Had they noticed him somehow and then led him to the trap to get rid of him?
"No, something is off", Nervin realized.
The group of hunters were now silently standing about and doing nothing. Nervin could then hear steps behind himself, but there was no way to turn and see. His mana senses were also bound inside himself. Yet, the steps were heavy and he was able to determine there were more than two feet.
"Its a beast", Nervin cursed in his mind. "Perhaps it is affected whatever this is. If thats not the case, its probably going to ... eat me."
Nervin was becoming more certain of this possibility. The steps stopped and this could mean it was standing there just like the hunters. He did not want to suffer the same fate so he fought back against the force with all his might, but with no success.
"Wonderful", someone behind him said. "It works even against stronger humans perfectly."
Was there someone with the beast? The voice was strange.
"This formation can hold even Lower Cari easily, but humans have better control of mana", the voice continued. "It seems at least you are unable to break free. The power output did not even go near critical levels. You aren't even weakened in any way. The others before were beaten and defeated."
The steps continued and soon a bird type beast with bright golden feathers appeared in front of Nervin. He did not know what species it was, but he was absolutely certain this kind of beast was extremely unusual. The hunters might know, but he didn't.
Speaking of the hunters, they were still standing about doing nothing. They were not even slightest bit concerned that a beast that could butcher them in blink of an eye was just prancing about. Things were very wrong.
Then Nervin discovered he was in a deep shit. Extremely so.
The golden bird pulled out a blade that appeared very much like a human had made it. It was unusually shaped. Yet, before Nervin had time to make even more observations, he could see it begin glow brightly with a sickly green glow.
"Vengeance mana?!?" Nervin shouted in his mind and attempted to trash about once more, but it was a futile effort.
Nervin was well aware what vengeance mana was and what it meant. This goddamn bird was insane. Nervin knew very well what kind of people used vengeance mana since he had personally been target quite a few of them. He had pissed off quite a few people over time. Each of those lunatics that had come after him had nearly been his end and havoc they caused, before he managed to put them down, was costly.
Nervin had no time to think about that since the bird suddenly stabbed him with the vengeance mana infused blade.
Agony filled Nervin's entire consciousness.
-----
Kaden looked over his work after he was done with the Condensation stage human. There were no mistakes. This human standing before him was his first actual Condensation stage slave that he could use for his own purposes. He could even conduct more tests since this one was going to live longer than the ones he immediately used for Korkud's games at the border.
"I may be able to start acting soon", Kaden thought to himself.