Gregory followed behind Cooper as he sniffed his way down the street. Reginald's presence had been a blessing as the constables instituted a lockdown of the city with surprising speed. His status as a powerful adventurer in Serin allowed him some flexibility. That and some words about the constable general made most of the other constables leave them alone.
Olivander's golem floated through the air beside Gregory, and Reginald took up the rear, keeping an eye out for trouble as they wound their way slowly out of the city.
"How do you float through the air like that? Is it a power?" Gregory asked the golem.
"Kind of! It's just some fancy mana manipulation. I'm pretty light, so it's easy to keep myself afloat."
"Mana manipulation? Like when I draw a ritual?"
"No, nothing like that. How much mana do you have?"
"Sixty-five."
"Ahh, well that explains it! Once you gain one hundred mana, you'll get a new ability."
"I'll be able to fly!?"
"What? No, of course not. You're huge. Unless you have a flying skill? You don't look the type."
"Sadly, no. What will I be able to do?"
"Here, I actually have the ability."
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Mana Manipulation
* Ability
* Your connection to mana allows you to manipulate ambient mana.
* You can temporarily draw more mana from the environment, increasing regeneration.
* You can use mana to apply a small amount of physical force to objects. Strength of the force scales with total maximum mana.
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"That sounds really cool! I don't think either of my parents could do that though."
"It only becomes available if you have a class that specializes in spellcasting."
Gregory noded, imagining what he could do with a power like that.
They approached one of the city gates. There weren't any people crowding to get out, as must have been the case recently because it looked like a mess. The road looked normal, but the grass to either side of the gate and been churned up and there were random belongings dropped here and there just inside the gate and in the ruined grass. Two guards manned the inside of the gate, and two were stationed on lookout platforms just above the gate.
"Hold," one of the guards called. "The city is on lockdown. Citizens are being allowed back in, but no one is being allowed out. Return to your homes, we'll have this mess sorted out soon enough."
Reginald stepped forward, donning his silver rank adventurers badge.
"Guardsmen, I am Reginald Aberson. Constable General McKenzie and High Magus Develie have charged us with an important task. We need to be allowed outside the gate."
The guards on the ground conferred, while the ones on the platforms looked on with curiosity, but they only observed, scanning outside the walls occasionally.
"I'm sorry Mr. Aberson, but we haven't been issued any exceptions. You'll need to wait inside until we get word otherwise."
Reginald scoffed. "And how long will that take!? This is an emergency."
"I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do. We have orders."
Reginald rested his hand on the hilt of the summoned blade he wore at his side. The guards noticed the implied threat immediately, dropping into defensive stances.
"Mr. Aberson. If you cause trouble, you're going to be waiting in the guardhouse dungeons instead of out here. Silver rank or not."
Gregory couldn't tell how strong the four guards at the gate were, but they didn't seem very intimidated by Reginald.
"Wow. There's no need for all that!" Olivander's golem said. "My master sent me to protect and facilitate the mission of these lovely folks. So I'm afraid—"
The golem's eye lenses suddenly shifted from a brightly glowing blue to a hot shining red.
"—that you all just need to go to sleep. Feast on Vitality."
A wave of power rippled out from the golem and streams of red energy flowed back into it, and the four guardsmen immediately dropped to the ground, fast asleep.
Gregory felt a moment of disorientation as the power had passed over him, though it clearly wasn't directed at him.
"There we are!" the golem said cheerfully as its eyes returned to their shining blue.
Reginald just stared at the small figure for a moment, then shuddered and shook his head.
"Should we have done that?" Gregory said.
"I'm sure it's fine," the golem said.
"I think you might be too much like Olivander."
"It doesn't matter," Reginald said. "What's done is done. You didn't hurt them, right?"
"Nope! They're just going to be very tired for a few hours."
"Very well. Cooper? Do you still have the trail?"
Cooper had just been watching the exchange, sure that the humans would figure out whatever it was they needed to figure out.
"It leads out of the gate. It's old though, so it's a little hard to follow. I don't know exactly what we're looking for, so I can't use Advanced Search. If I activate it based on the reference scent I have, the trail just leads me back to Leviana's house. We just have to rely on my regular tracking ability and new magical tracking ability."
Reginald nodded and they approached the gate.
Gregory and Reginald propped up the guards out of the street. It was dark and people might not see them lying there. They hoped no one would be around anyway. They passed through the gate without any more incident, and Cooper led them immediately off the road, along the wall of the city.
It was mostly open pasture outside the city, but the area they were wandering through was part of a forest that ran right up to the city walls. The moon was high and bright, and enough light came through the tree canopy to allow the humans enough light to see where they were walking. Gregory was glad for that, as he remembered the dungeon cave where he was pretty sure he got a concussion.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The forest continued, but they soon encountered an area where the walls were higher, and the landscape dipped down into a slight valley. Near the bottom they found a drainage pipe coming out of the bottom of the city wall.
"It goes in there."
"Oh, I do not like the look of this," Gregory said. "I'm not even sure if I'll fit in there."
Some unknown liquid was just barely trickling out of the pipe. It didn't smell though, so Gregory assumed this was just connected to the city's storm drains, and not a sophisticated waste management system. He had been in enough "waste processing facilities", as Olivander had once put it, for a lifetime.
"You'll fit, but we should handle this a little more carefully," Reginald said. "I'll take the first position. Cooper, you come behind me and just tell me where to go if we come to any forks. Gregory, you're right behind him, and, uh, I don't know your name, you take the rear."
"I'm thinking, 'Olivander Jr.' What do you all think?" the golem asked.
Gregory started laughing immediately. No one else was laughing, so he got himself back under control quickly.
"As incredibly funny as that would be, I think Olivander might destroy you for that, maybe try something else," Gregory said, wiping his eyes.
"Hmm. Alright then. I'll think about it."
"Alright everyone, let's see what's hiding in the dark."
Reginald pulled out a magical lamp from a dimensional bag, and they entered the depths of Serin.
* * *
Olivander stepped out of a portal and into a chaotic scene inside the Rhodes' manor. House Rhodes people were rushing about, pouring over maps, speaking with a never ending stream of messengers, or just standing around, waiting to be told what to do.
Leviana spotted his portal and rushed over.
"Olivander, what's your plan?"
"I enlisted the help of the most powerful healer I know. She's bringing along her best students, and they'll handle sweeping the city to ensure no mindrot infections go untreated. As for me, I need to know where people fled to, so I can round them up and prevent any secondary outbreaks. Then I need to deal with the Ghoul Mimic domain, assuming my students find it."
Olivander could sense his golem assistant, he reached out with a strand of power and sent a message, asking about their progress. A moment later he received a message in reply.
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We've traced the Ghoul Mimic's scent outside the city, and are currently exploring an underground area. We are moving slowly and carefully, no problems so far! Oh! There are some unconscious guards by the southern gate that someone should check on. -T
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"T?" he asked out loud.
"What?" Leviana asked.
"Nothing. They're still tracking the domain. It seems like you've been busy, what's happening?"
"The constables and city guard have organized a full lockdown, it's been quite effective. People did leave though, so they're going door to door to find out who is missing, ask neighbors where they went, that sort of thing."
"Good. We should send some constables to the southern gate. My golem may have incapacitated some or all of the guards there. They should be fine, but maybe check just in case."
An assistant had been listening nearby, and a nod from Leviana sent them running.
"Efficient."
"It's the house Rhodes specialty. Do I have you at my disposal for a while?"
"Until I need to deal with a nest of Ghouls, yes."
"Come take a look," Leviana said, walking over to a table that had been covered with a huge map of the region. It extended out north to the desert towns just south of Demering, and all the way down to Du'la'melio.
"High Magus Giles is doing a circuit around the neighboring towns and villages, letting them know that any travelers from Serin should be turned back, and leaving a pair of guards behind. Are you able to portal to these towns?"
"Only these two," he pointed to two places on the other side of the map from the start of GIles' circuit. "I've only been to a handful of places here. You have guards ready?"
She waved and four men stepped up.
Olivander opened two portals and the men stepped through.
"Well, that's convenient. Giles needed to travel with the men."
"His long distance portal is a special ritual. It's useful, but limited, and there is a high cost. Traveling out there and opening portals between nearby towns is much faster for him than opening portals from here. My portals are skill based and have very few restrictions. Strictly speaking, I don't need to travel to a place in order to portal there, but that's wildly dangerous."
"Alright. I will send word to the High Magus that he can skip those towns. We sent a communication specialist with him for this very reason. Next, we have the potential issue of people who portaled away. I want you to work with the constables in order to find out where people went. I'm working on getting some wagons set up to pick up travelers who will be turned away at these villages as well, so don't worry about them."
Olivander felt a pulse of familiar magic some distance away. He was able to use the source as an anchor.
"Ah, it seems some of our help has arrived."
He opened a portal and Lucindre stepped through, trailed by five students. She had some fresh blood on her robe, and Olivander raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Thank you, Olivander. I can only portal to a particularly seedy tavern in Serin, and it seems I've been away too long, they didn't remember me. Ehehe, they won't be forgetting any time soon! Well besides the one whose head I had to reattach. Really squishy folks down there. They used to be harder. Times change I guess."
"I'm remembering why I never invited you anywhere. Tell me, do you have a secret torture chamber in your home?"
She scowled at Olivander. "First of all, you did invite me, I just always refused. Second, my torture chamber is no secret."
Leviana looked terrified of the old woman in gray robes.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Lucindre, this is Lady Leviana Rhodes. Lady Rhodes, this is High Magus Lucindre, the senior-most member of the High Magi, and a personal friend of my mother. That should tell you all you need to know about her."
"Boy, I will portal you straight into Muriel's bedroom if you don't stop prattling on."
"Why don't I let you two talk? I'm really, very busy right now. If you'll excuse me," Olivander said, stepping backwards into an open portal.
* * *
Olivander moved around Serin speaking with constables and making note of where people were reported to have portaled. He made a few quick trips to places where it was reported the people fleeing had family. Those he found and simply cast "Cure Mindrot" on them, leaving them be when they didn't show any indication of infection.
Once he ran out of leads he could follow — many towns weren't ones he could portal to, — he braved another interaction with Lucindre, portaling her people around the city to conduct cleansing rituals.
It was on the third such ritual that he was observing, when trouble made an appearance.
"That only makes sense, things were going a little too smoothly."
They were in a tightly spaced neighborhood, stone buildings lining the street accompanied by wooden structures behind them. The stone home's yards were consumed to fit a growing population behind fixed walls. He watched as a figure shambled out of one of those wooden homes, covered in blood. The figure, who had once been a man, maybe a miner or blacksmith, locked eyes with Lucindre's student. It raised a hand and a torrent of fire shot out towards the man, who looked on in horror. Lucindre's students were healers, not fighters.
The mindrotted that Gregory had fought in the Demering mines had been lesser goblins, people who hadn't awakened any advanced combat classes, and could hardly do more than swing a club. When more powerful people fell victim to the disease, the effects could be much worse. They had access to all their old powers, and could even cast them all voicelessly, regardless of if they had gained that level of mastery in life. There was some potential for study there, to understand the mechanisms, but Olivander turned off his analytical mind, focusing on the task ahead of him.
This poor man didn't deserve to be studied, or to do whatever it was that he had done inside that home. He deserved peace, and to live out his life. Since neither of those were possible, Olivander would bring him mercy.
A ward snapped up around Lucindre's student, absorbing the entire spell with ease. Olivander appeared behind the mindrotted man, an icy blade in his hand.
"I am sorry."