[Advanced Running] is now level 25. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 50% and decreases stamina used while running by 20%.
“Hello William.” The sound resounded through my apartment. My eyes were still foggy from being woken up in the middle of the night. My heart started pounding and shivers went down my spine.
“Alex?” I asked, the voice sounded similar. I laid on the bed not daring to make a move, if he came here to kill me I had no chance to run. Few more seconds bought with compliance would be worth it.
“We need to speak with just the two of us. Without anyone knowing that we did so.” I sighed, it seemed that I would live for another day. My eyes got used to the darkness and I could finally see Alex. He was walking towards the kitchen, the only room that had no windows, that and a bathroom. My heartbeat got steadier, the fear subsidized. I sighed again.
The light in the kitchen was on when I entered, Alex was leaning at the kitchen countertop watching me. “Sorry for waking you up.” He wasn’t really sorry, even a small smile was present on his lips. The smile was as fake as any other that Alex showed me ever since I met him, and I have seen quite a lot of them when we were together at the convoy. It was similar to the one that my sister often used, the kind that a sociopath uses to blend in.
“We interrogated Arthur.” Alex started when I sat down on the chair near the table. “The rat?” I asked, interested in the answer.
“Found and taken care of.” He touched his short sword hilt with a finger while speaking. Oh.
“It is his backer that is quite a problem.” The whistle started blowing announcing that water was boiling. “Tea?” Alex asked as he turned the gas off, I nodded.
“Kashmir Zulko.” He spoke again, I didn’t know that name. “Close friend to general Roxton.” Oh, the friend of the new ‘Great Leader’. “Zulko is the man that hired Blyaza’s group, he wants to take over Park City. Nothing new but he has unofficial Army support.” That seemed bad, perhaps it is time to leave.
“Why meet in this way to tell me this?” I asked, there had to be more. Alex stayed silent and continued making us tea, he spoke a minute later as he sat down on the chair opposite mine. “Your tea.”
“Thank you.” I expected him to say something else with all this tension that he created.
“The ‘rich snob’ offered us quite a lot of money for our loyalty in the coming weeks.” I took a sip of the tea, trying to act nonchalant. It was good tea. “The money for us to pay for our own funeral.” Alex added with no emotion in his voice.
“Are we running?” It was the best option, why bother with a failed nation and die for someone else? I had no intention to do so, hopefully the rest of the guild did too.
“Yes.” Alex answered and took a sip of the tea, he grimaced as he did so clearly not liking it. “There are a few problems though.” I raised my eyebrow at that. “Problems?” I inquired to keep the conversation going.
“We have more rats than expected, this time it’s the Army rats.” There were only forty three official members, well forty two without the one that probably was killed by Alex that night. Does he think that I’m giving information to the Army?
I spoke nothing and waited. Alex took another sip of the tea and looked at me, he spoke after a while that seemed to last a few minutes.
“You have a contact in the army according to Joah. Is it possible for your contact to help us?” He meant Jake.
“No.” I answered simply by making Alex raise an eyebrow, I continued quickly before he misunderstood it. “He is a friend that just sends me useful information, he wouldn’t go against the Army, especially now.” Jake stopped to send me information regarding the Army once general Roxton named himself the president. Alex nodded and took another sip of his tea, this time his grimace was more pronounced.
“We will leave Park City entirely, it has become too dangerous here. I will try to clean the guild from the rats for the next few days, then we will move.” He stood up and took his empty glass to the sink and started cleaning it. “Your help will be appreciated, your high dexterity would be of use to us. There are some people that I would have you follow.” Alex spoke and handed me a few pages with names and addresses.
Espionage was quite an easy job, especially when getting caught would only mean that the person in question would know that we know. “Count me in.” I said. Alex left the apartment soon after, but not before giving me another new phone meant for contact with only him.
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[Path of the Shadow] opened.
Stalking people that you used to chat with only through group chat felt wrong, even if the person that I stalked now was only meditating. It was what most people did these days, spending most of their days meditating. It was an easy way to gain path points, especially if one had a large supply of cores.
Two days of following two different people resulted in nothing really. 'We are meeting at the gym, grab the two you were following and head there.' Alex texted me on the phone, my third one that was meant to be used for contact with Alex only. It was hard to differentiate my phone's sometimes.
I jumped down the block and within a minute I was atop a block that was a few hundreds meters away. "Yo." The guild member was startled out of meditation.
"How many times did I t…" He paused an angry rant as he looked at me. "You are not Joah." He stated.
"Name is William." The man made an 'ah' sound. "We are to have a guild meeting, follow me." There was no need for more words, I made it to the edge of a forty meter tall apartment building and jumped. A second, two and I was already at the bottom looking up. The guild member followed, he jumped and mana swirled around him making his descent slower… much slower. In half a minute he touched the ground, my eyebrows raised quite high at him. "You are not a courier, right?"
"No." He simply responded and we left, walking towards the next guild member. Ever so slowly.
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The gym was in the same building that I was in earlier while trying to look for a group to join, it seemed that the group of wannabe great warriors moved, or more likely was disbanded or just died, a lot of people were dying these days. "Finally here." Joah said as me and two others entered the main hall, a smirk visible on his face.
There were twenty others or so in the building, either some are yet to arrive or there were more rats than expected. "Now that we are all here there is something I need to tell you." An older man said, to his right was Alex.
Joah came closer and whispered in my ear. "It's Thomas, Alex's father and founder of the guild, he used to be the butchery owner." I didn't really care, well maybe a little bit.
"The guild from now on is disbanded." Well that was surprising. I looked over to Joah and he too looked like he didn't know. "As the entire concept of our organization will change we wish to start anew. Under president Roxton command." Wow.
There was some outcry from a few of the members, claiming a need for democracy and the like. Discussion that followed between the twenty something gathered men and women was lengthy and despite being dramatic, it was also boring so I just stood to the side and spoke with Joah.
Out of twenty five only nine stayed, Thomas the founder, Alex his son, Joah, me, the rest of the people who took part in the ambush on Andrey the spearman, or was it Antony… and some two women I have never seen.
"It doesn't really matter who we work for, doesn't it?" Joah asked, though I don't know if it was directed to me or himself. Alex overheard it as he was coming closer.
"Sorry, it happened too fast, we couldn't inform you. We need to leave the city tonight either way, but rather than running from the army backed group we are running from the rich snob." He looked apologetic, somewhat. "Then we are going to the capital itself." Nope.
"I would rather not." I said to Alex, making Joah laugh briefly. "The coast is not the place that I would like to be at." Alex seemed to understand.
"We still need runners, more than before in fact, you will only see the capital briefly and operate inland most of the time." I worried, giant monsters of the seas were… giant. Fear was a rational outcome. On the other hand, to see those giants up close, well… close enough to see them at least and far enough not to be stomped on by them.
“Fine, but don’t expect me to fight.” Alex smiled, it seemed that for some reason I was quite important in their group, not because of my fighting capabilities but because I had almost none. The only reason I don’t fear dogs or even bear-like monsters is because I am faster than them, not stronger. Lock me in a room with four dogs and I would bet my crystals on the dogs.
There were families that would go with us, the travel would be quite fast though as the guild secured quite a bit of fuel and trucks for the move. The plan was to get to Gavensburg in three days at most.
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A woman was tending to the flowers on her front yard as I approached, still clothed in military gear though sport bandages were added to make a slight distinction in looks and to add firmness in places of the outfit and to decrease loose ends the outfit had. She noticed me as I made it within three meters to her and was standing in her lawn. “Yes?” She asked though she backed away slightly, visibly wary of me, not that I was surprised.
“Is your son home?” Her slightly wary look changed into one that expressed a bit more worry, what did she think I wanted from them? My musings were cut short as the doors to the building opened and out came the same boy I saved some time ago, only this time he had moro clothing similar to mine. It made me groan out loud. What was the boy's name again?
“Mister you came!” The boy shouted, though he was around 15 or so, more of a teen really than a boy. He didn’t stop at five meters away, nor at three meters away and at that point he lunged at me, not to attack me but worse, to hug me.
My superior speed saved me once again as the boy sailed past me and into the grass. He got faster at least, at least a little bit. “There will be fighting soon in Park City, I’m moving towards the Capital, wanna tag along?”