"Yes yes, I heard you the first time, Liffy! We are currently gathering a fighting force right as we speak. We’ll go clear the Blood Cultists here in the Capital as soon as possible, and we are going to also try and capture them rather than just kill them off. If you say that most of them are mostly innocent idiots, then I’ll just have to take your word for it. But when it comes to your second demand, I have already told you, we can't leave the Capital as of yet!
"The whole situation had gone completely crazy down here! That 4-year old child who was the heir-apparent to the Ming Emperor's Throne has gone missing! All of his retainers and even some of his family members have been found slain within their Mansion, but the child has completely vanished without a trace.
"The Adventurer's Guild and even the Imperials have both asked me to use my special [Skill] so we could take a peek at the events that occurred in the past, but all that we were able to see were just a bunch of heavily masked people dressed in black garbs who performed all of the killings without any mercy and then dragged the princeling away.
"They had absolutely no semblance of identification on themselves, not even a tattoo or a piercing that we could use as a reference point. They all had black eyes, and outside of a few minor differences in their body shapes, they all looked like simple copies of each other, even in the way they behaved and moved.
"These guys were some very high-quality assassins and they knew what they were doing and looking for. We could not find even a single footprint or a stray lock of hair at the crime scene that was left by any of them, so we have no idea in which direction they fled with the princeling."
After hearing such news from Mina, who was still within the Ming Capital City, Lingfeng could only rub his glabella while he stood near the Weirdwood Tree to receive the latest updates, since Trina had already gone back to the Cultist Cave.
The discovery of the two locations belonging to the Blood Brotherhood’s Main Headquarters from the Ming and the Han empires had been indeed a huge bonus, but it did not help with the fact that the news about the Ancient Evil might have already reached the wrong people.
For now, he could only try and use his book smarts to get Mina to pay more attention to the Cultists instead of the missing Princeling, and that could be accomplished by simply solving the child problem faster.
"Shorty...are any of the weapons which have been used during the assault still there? Preferably a weapon that has not been touched by anyone as-of-yet." Lingfeng messaged Mina back while he was gathering up his thoughts, since he did not really know how to explain to the diminutive healer what the crazy girl had previously depicted to him as “crime-scene forensics”.
"Yes...why?"
"Ughf...because…(damnit, how can I explain this)...the crazy girl came up with another one of her weird ideas, and it might even be worth giving it a shot on your side. Do you happen to have any Glowspore Stickydust on you? I remember that you kept some of that stuff for your Alchemy needs."
"Yes, I can get a couple of vials. What for?"
"Well, the girl says that each and every person has these things called “fingerprints”, which are unique identifiers that belong to each and every person. Take a very, very close look at one of your fingers. Do you see those ridged swirling circular patterns that are carved into your flesh? Well, those are your own fingerprints, and that weird set of circular patterns belongs only to yourself.
"There isn't a single other person in the world which has that exact pattern, not even identical twins. Therefore, anytime you touch an item, you leave an impression of those exact patterns made up of your palm-sweat, dirt and grease on the surface of the touched item.
"Of course, they are almost invisible, so nobody has ever paid any attention to them before, but if you carefully disperse a bunch of Glowspore dust on the surface of a suspect object and then infuse the surrounding area with Qi, the spores are going to start glowing and reveal that invisible fingerprint pattern, since they got stuck to the grease when you initially tossed them at the item. After that, you can simply use some paper to make a copy of the entire thing, or find some spell that can do the same thing."
"I see...so if any of the murder weapons at the mansion still have these “fingerprints” pasted upon them, then we might be able to match them to the fingers of a suspicious person."
"Yes, that’s the idea. And it’s not just on the murder weapon. Fingerprints can be found everywhere. On the door frames, near the windows, on any glassware, and generally, on any holdable or touchable item. But they are also quite easy to destroy or compromise because whenever a new person touches the same object, the new impression basically over-writes the old imprint.
"Since you say that a bunch of people from the Imperials’ side and the Adventurer's Guild have come and gone from the crime scene, they have probably already messed up most of the evidence over there."
"Dammit...You might be right about that. All of the doors and the weapon handles have most certainly already been altered. Grr! Why didn't you tell me about such a method earlier?"
"W...h...how the hell do you expect me to...you think I'm some kind of a future seer like the girl? Such a topic or method has never come up in our discussions, so of course I never had the chance to tell you anything about it!!!"
”Hrmphf! I know that...can't a girl simply complain nowadays without being rebuked immediately? Sheesh…
"Actually, come to think of it...we might still have some window frames that have not been touched as of yet, as some of the assassins have come inside of the mansion through them. I should run down there immediately and make sure none of the morons near the crime scene mess up any more of the evidence!"
"Wait! Before you go...When the hell are you guys going to come down here? We've really had some shitty encounters down here as of late. We barely made it out because of the insane methods of the girl! I could really use your healing and support. Many people almost died, you know!"
"I have no idea...I am sorry. If it were up to me, I would simply leave everything down here and just rush over towards your position, but this is more...complicated than I can afford to talk over this connection, especially because of some of the politics involved. I will call you back the instant something changes with the Cultist situation, or we have found something new or relevant. Until then, take care of yourself...and don’t let the crazy girl get into any more trouble. Mina, out."
As the connection from the Weirdwood Tree got cut off, Lingfeng could only keep on massaging his own temples.
So the Ming Child-Emperor had been indeed kidnapped, just as Trina had seen in her weird visions. "Gods dammit all. Only shitty news and happenings occurring everywhere! Not to mention the fucking cave full of Cultists!" The windmage cursed in his mind.
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Lingfeng could still not believe how close they had gotten to being wiped out when he had seen those glowing yellow spores. Those had been some magic-enhanced variant of the spores belonging to the Crocus Virulentiae mushroom, which were bad enough of a fungi pestilence even before being boosted by the magic power of the Dungeon.
The magic strain of the damn thing had been known to kill entire villages at a time, and in the past, it had even been the cause of the downfall of an entire City.
Prodigious use of Fire magic was recommended for getting rid of the damned thing every time it was encountered, as the spores were quite vulnerable to heat, and Lingfeng could even remember that some of the infested villages had even been scorched to ashes together with their still-living inhabitants, just to make sure that the spores did not spread any further.
And yet, the girl had gotten rid of the thing by using only boiling water, her weird spirit manipulators, and large amounts of medicinal alcohol.
It had left Lingfeng thoroughly impressed but also totally shocked and traumatized by the whole operation process. He had never really been a squeamish guy who was too heavily affected by the sight of gore, considering that he had turned into meat-paste a very large amount of creatures throughout his entire career as an adventurer, but seeing that operation procedure being performed on a still-living and breathing patient had left him completely flabbergasted.
He did not think that a normal person could ever go through such a heavily traumatic event like being opened like a clam and still live at the end of it. Yet the crazy girl had done exactly that with the Guardsman and had changed the standards of what could be considered “normal” inside of Lingfeng’s mind once again.
Somehow, Lingfeng wished that he could also pull miracles out of his ass just like the girl seemed to do at every corner. He might even be able to get his friend Tefu, the Head Monk, to stop drinking so much until he passed out under the tables of the inn each and every day if he had the visionary mind of the girl. The Old Head Monk was no Dwarf, so such large quantities of alcohol were most certainly harmful to him.
Maybe…if all of them were to find a proper cleansing spell like the girl was asking for, then that spell might become useful for Tefu, to get him to stop drinking his sorrows away. I mean, there was no point in drinking if he couldn't actually get stone-drunk for the purpose of forgetting whatever was happening around him, so spamming a cleansing spell on him would keep him sober permanently.
Just as Lingfeng was ready to leave the Weirdwood Tree enclosure, he received another message from the girl.
[Liffy...can you please go and inquire with the Mayor how much rice and other foodstuffs the whole village would be willing to spare for general trade purposes? I could use an approximate of our available quantities.]
[Why the hell do you need info about the village’s available food anyway? What are you planning to do with those Cultists?]
[Well, most of them are a bunch of unfortunate idiots that have been heavily influenced and manipulated, so I want to try and get them on our side if possible. Of course, there’s a militant faction in here as well that I’ll probably need to get rid of with your help, but I think we might be able to “recycle” some of these Cultists to join our cause.]
[In my opinion, that sounds like a risky thing to do, but I’ll trust your instincts for now, so I’ll head to the Town Hall right away. Also, Mina says that she’s currently gathering men from the Adventurer’s Guild at the Capital City to take down the Ming Chapter of the Brotherhood, but she also complained to me that she’s also getting heavily nagged by the Imperials and the guys from the Adventurer’s Guild to focus elsewhere. Both organizations are currently forcing her to find out who kidnaped the Child-Emperor, as it turns out that your vision about the attack on his retainers was correct as well.]
[Well...shit...I’m truly sorry for that kid. I would not want to be in his shoes. The trauma of seeing your whole family slaughtered in front of your eyes can last for an entire lifetime, and it has the potential to create a twisted personality in him, even if he somehow lives through this entire ordeal. I hope Mina can get him back soon.]
[Yeah, I told her about those fingerprint things you told me about, and I think she got the general idea. She was headed back to the crime scene to try the dust trick when our conversation ended.]
[Good for her, I hope she finds a lead. But enough about that, we should focus on our own problems. I’m going to need you to run some errands by using your flight and wind-speed while I keep bullshitting my way inside of the Cultist group, as I need to find a way to separate the truly guilty people away from the gullible innocents. It’s only the truly condemnable that we need to get rid of.]
[Get rid of? Why and how?]
[Well, to put it simply, I plan to feed the guilty ones to the Dungeon. I told the Cultists that the attunement Orb-like artifact which was used in the summoning could also be used to control the Ancient Evil and that the Orb still remains below the earth in the Old Monastery. Fortunately, they bought the whole story. They are currently arguing about the viability of an attack on the lower levels with their assault team right as we speak, but I don’t think they will go down there for now. Well, at least not until their food supply issues are going to get solved anyway.
[I want to try and get some of the more peaceful Cultists in touch with some of the villagers and try to trade some of the Cultist’s material goods for rice and other commodities. Fortunately, the Mayor doesn’t seem to know who these people are as-of-yet, so the cave Cultists can still pretend to belong to some widely-known and less conspicuous faction from the world. Personally, I suggested that they tell the villagers that they are a small group from the Mages Guild and that they are a team of excavators looking for hidden lost artifacts inside the old Dungeon site, here at the cave.]
[I know that I might sound quite cruel saying this, but why the hell don’t we just get rid of them all? They’re all a bunch of mad Cultists, Trina! All of them have condoned the sacrifice of innocent people! Virgins and Children have been killed because of their actions, even if they did not wield the sacrificial blade with their own hands!]
[Liffy, I know it may seem easier to you as an Adventurer to simply create a pile of bodies and call it a day, but you really need to get out of that mindset. Each person has his own feelings, dreams, ambitions, traumas, regrets, and desires. Each life is precious and should not be so casually thrown away. Each humanoid being has an untapped potential while it still remains alive, and could even change the entire world for the better with some minor luck, but a dead one is nothing but dust in the wind that can’t change anything.]
[That’s some pretentious BS coming out of your mouth, you know! You come and say that every life is precious but then you also come and say “aw yeah, but I’ma get rid these suckers over here in this group, cuz they did some human sacrifices while in their zealot maddened state”, which is the complete opposite! Make up your mind!]
[Ever heard of “shades of gray”, Liffy? Yes, I admit that I’m quite biassed in this case, but I simply cannot overlook what these particular people belonging to the assault team have done in the past.
[I’m usually quite a forgiving person, even when it comes to folk who have taken other humanoid lives, but only if they had some sort of a JUSTIFIABLE reason to do so.
[Heck, just think about it, most adventurers tend to clean out bandit gangs and dens on a regular basis all across the world, and I’m pretty sure that nobody has ever pointed a finger at them and called them “murderers” for doing so.
[As I have said, some people are better off not being around, as having the guilty party still remain alive would cause more harm to the rest of the world than having them pushing up the daisies.
[And when it comes to the guys in the assault team, trust me when I say that they are better off dead. These fuckers have joined the Brotherhood mostly for the fighting aspect that occurs between the dark sects of the underworld, and not for some sort of a lofty goal like “saving the world”.
[In fact, most of them have taken the whole “truth of the world” like a sign that they can do anything they please without getting punished for it, since they know for a fact that there are no REAL Gods that would be able to punish them in the Heavens, or a REAL afterlife to worry about, unlike what most of the world’s religions preach about.
[The make-believe that they have performed all of those murders for a “greater good” is exactly that, just a pretense.
[I can recall these guys totally ENJOYING it when the sacrificed victims screamed and pleaded for their lives before they got killed. I remember it quite clearly from Mr. Vacant’s memories now, as he had been forced to watch helplessly from the sidelines, so I know what I’m talking about here, Liffy. There's no redemption for these dudes, they have simply crossed the line way too deeply, even for my abundantly forgiving tastes. The assault team has to go, so if I am going to get rid of them anyway, I might as well use them as some surgically placed cannon fodder against the Dungeon. Better if they die trying to get to the 16’th level rather than anyone from our side.]