“Make sure to cover your face well.” Gilma warned. “These sharks don't need an emblem to smell noble blood, and the moment they catch a whiff,...”

She looked over her shoulder, the previous warmth that remained in her eyes even when I was at her mercy suddenly was no more.

“They'll rip you apart without mercy.”

I felt a shiver crawl down my spine. I instinctively pulled down my hood, lowering my head further to hide my face as I followed behind her.

We walked in silence through the streets. It was also bustling, with an even more diverse range of people walking through the streets.

Haggling, cursing, fighting and drinking and all sorts of debauchery took place, some without censoring of any kind.

I made sure not to look for too long, I've read about those that can sense the gaze of others on them. If magic is possible, then that should too and I wasn't about to attract any unwanted attention to myself.

“Can I ask a question?” I asked, my voice lower than it probably should.

“You don't have to worry about how you act as long as you avoid drawing attention to yourself.” Gilma chuckled.

“In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of suspicious people here.”

That's right, although this place looked no different from the market above, it ultimately wasn't. This was the underworld, the underground city that bellied the city of gold.

In here, even seeing the most heinous criminal wasn't anything surprising. This was their turf.

“Direwolves… is there anything special about them?” I asked.

Since there was nothing to do, and I was too worried about my life to concentrate on sightseeing, I decided to ask a question that has been bothering me.

“Those thugs seemed particularly scared of them.”

“We all are.” Gilma replied. “Have you heard of Whitebridge?”

Whitebridge was a city located towards the north of Nerathia. It used to be quite the bustling city until there was a dungeon break.

Just like most magical worlds, dungeons exist here too. They usually form at secluded places with deep history which was why no one expected the break to happen at the very center of a city.

It was a powerful one and it apparently took seven mages and knights of the second class to close it.

“Yes.” I nodded my head in reply. The event was one so great, even though the previous me didn't care much about what happened in other cities, the memory was branded deep enough for me to remember vividly.

“Well, a lot of people knew the outcome of the event, what a lot of them don't know though, is exactly how the event played out.”

I furrowed my brows, I didn't need to be a genius to know that this definitely had to do with direwolves.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But a pack of direwolves could easily be taken care of by a seventh class mage or knight, no matter how much they were, a dungeon spawning direwolves can't be classified as ‘powerful’.

“Direwolves aren't that powerful…” I stated.

“That's what we all thought…”

I could hear it, the lingering fear in Gilma’s voice. My eyes narrowed,

‘It seems she has an even deeper background than I imagined. Now I'm even more thrilled to meet this old man.’

I didn't ask more about it, but I made a mental note to do further research on Whitebridge.

We walked for quite a while, heading deeper and deeper, past the marketplace and firmly into what I assumed to be the slum areas of Mazar.

And even after arriving at the slums, we headed deeper and deeper. By now, I was beginning to suspect we might not even be in Mazar anymore.

“Tired?” Gilma asked with a smirk.

I was tired. Unlike the previous me, this body wasn't used to all this trekking. But it wasn't anything I couldn't get used to.

I've walked farther.

“A bit.” I replied.

“Don't worry, we are already here. You can raise your head.”

I finally lifted my head to look past Gilma's broad back, my gaze landing in a small building in front.

It was old and plain, but it looked far better than most of the buildings I saw on my way here. It was obvious at a glance that whoever was staying here was quite the person.

“Stick close.” Gilma said as she marched for the door. The moment she arrived at it, her body suddenly moved and she brought her heels down in the wooden structure.

Bam~

The door burst open and there was a flash, a blade of silver was heading straight for Gilma and it was so fast, I only instinctively knew it was a blade.

Gilma didn't panic, instead, her leg which remained on the ground twisted, sending motion through her whole body as she attacked her assailant with the same leg she used to kick the door down.

‘She knew the attack was coming!’

Clang~

Her boot heels were metal and they made a resounding noise as they clashed with the blade.

Gilma swiftly brought her leg down, stamping on the floor and accelerating towards a new figure that I could now see all of a sudden.

It was a young girl, no older than I was, possibly younger. She had dark hair and red eyes, her lean frame twisting as she retreated from the charging Gilma.

She was pretty.

But unfortunately, her age didn't give her the speed edge one would have expected her to have as Gilma all but vanished from before me and appeared before the poor girl.

Bang~

All it took was a blink. I merely blinked and the young girl was on the floor, subjected to Gilma's mercy.

There was silence for a moment before Gilma stepped back and reached out,

“You've improved.” She smiled.

“Tsk, you could have gone easy on the slamming. It was totally unnecessary.”

The rudeness in her voice was so thick, I could feel myself getting headaches for whatever future interactions we might possibly have.

“If I was an enemy, you would be dead. Until you can knock me down, nothing is unnecessary.” Gilma replied as she walked past the young girl.

“Where's the old man?”

“He's barely older than you though.” the young lady muttered.

“What did you say?” Gilma asked with a smile but I felt shivers. The young lady obviously did too because she hurriedly retreated.

“Where else would he be if he didn't study?” her expression was one of indignation. “What's with you suddenly asking?”

“Well, I brought him a present.” Gilma replied, gesturing towards me.

The young lady looked at me, her brows furrowed. Her expression seemed to say ‘all I see is a puny brat’ and it wasn't just my imagination!

“He's the Hollow count.”

“No way!”