I returned to the casino, doing my best to ignore Zolast's constant teasing about my failure. He was teasing rather than stressing, because he knew that, regardless of the circumstances, a confrontation was inevitable.
I sent a quick letter to Karak, asking him to observe them and send me a message as they were leaving.
Then turned my attention to the analysis of their surprising decision to tempt us to betray the duke.
Especially since, from the outside, our guild appeared easy to deal with, making the promise of the reward for our betrayal surprisingly large, meaning there were other considerations in play forcing them to move fast.
Our complicated situation suddenly had another player.
An unsettling realization. At least, we had learned the true identity of the mysterious supporter of the Night Blades, leaving only the Greens' to discover. But, whoever was behind the Greens, they were more interested in dealing with the Duke without leaving any evidence of him.
Which left some interesting possibilities that I wanted to dig into, but I was simply too busy with addressing everything else.
With Karak there to observe the building to catch them leaving, I went to the hidden training room under the casino, Limenta appearing next to me soon after. I said nothing as I threw him a staff, fast enough to kill an ordinary person, but he grabbed it easily.
"Not bad," I said to him as I watched the way he moved. His movement was still a bit choppy, but considering that he had doubled his level while also receiving an ability that tripled the effectiveness of his skills, it was more than understandable. "Let's train."
Since the assassin class lacked Strength, I didn't use mine either, relying aggressively on my Agility instead.
And, for once, I found myself on the back foot. My Awakened Agility should have given me the advantage, but his class granted him two points of Agility with each level up, which meant his current agility was a hundred and twenty, almost triple mine.
As we practiced, his choppiness disappeared shockingly fast, forcing me to rely harder and harder on my Speed to stay untouched, challenging him in the process.
Ignoring the temptation to assign points to Agility, I decided to change my fighting style, adding more Strength to my blows, slowly challenging him until he stopped blocking my attacks completely, relying on parrying and dodging instead. "Better. Play to your advantage," I warned as we continued sparring, suppressing my Speed for Strength to force him to adapt to different approaches.
He was good … and he would be even better if we could actually get that promised reward of Master skills.
I might be reluctant to use those skills myself because of my unconventional stat combination — I didn't need to get better at dueling at the cost of making my hunting harder — but for Limenta and Mahruss, it would make a great difference.
It was a pity that awakening Life Elevation came with a cost I wasn't willing to pay for a lot of people.
"That's enough," I said as I called for us to stop. I would have loved to spend the whole day training him, but I had just received a magical warning from Karak, signaling that the targets were on the move. "I have another mission for you. Coordinate with Mahruss and Karak again, and ask them to start patrolling the town and the immediate surroundings more."
"Cultists?" he asked.
"Not this time," I answered. "Political troubles instead," I said, giving him a small summary. "
"Do you want me to join the patrols?" he asked.
"No, your main focus is still the recruitment and establishing those blacksmith cells. I need you to stay close in case of an emergency that I'm not close enough to intervene."
"It sounds messy," Limenta commented.
"Politics always are," I said as I left the training room, and followed Karak's message to catch up with our mysterious partners. There were nine people in their group. The man I had talked to at the center, and the eight men that surrounded him professionally. Bodyguards, and if I had learned anything about measuring the capabilities of the people … quite strong ones.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I didn't dare to get too close once they left the town. It was reasonable to assume that at least one of the bodyguards had high Perception, and, if my suspicions about their faction were correct, I expected them to be familiar with dealing with Concealment.
Therefore, I stayed at a distance as I watched them move away from the town before a flying cart landed to pick them up. I stayed on their tail, but put as great of a distance as possible, though their destination surprised me.
They went over the sea. Curious, I followed them, by diving a little down the surface — at this point, too familiar with the depths of the sea to fear the risks — until we were almost thirty miles outside the coast, before they went into a Flying Fortress, one that was slowly moving toward the mainland.
Decorated with the flags of the royal family of Somaton.
The fortress was floating slower than I had expected, almost like it was trying to make a point … but exactly what that point was, I didn't know. It might be a promise of help or a subtle threat. Maybe a combination …
Either way, it was not something I could be bothering. Instead, I dove into the depths of the sea and started hunting once more. Ironically, this time, the carcasses were even more important than the Ability Stones.
The decision to scale the forging operations would mean a significant increase in the consumption of Lord Beast meat, and since I was here, there was no harm in pushing the limits further.
With the decision made, I spent the whole day in the sea, hunting Lord Beasts aggressively before piling them in an underwater cave, taking the risk that it would stay undetected for half a day. However, I was glad that I had established a proper smuggling route because wasting all these carcasses would have been painful.
Particularly since my hunting efficiency had been increased significantly thanks to not only the Life Elevation, but also due to my Strength, which I had increased to deal with the summoned beasts more easily. It also made dealing with the Lord Beasts easier.
Pity that even in the sea, where they were more abundant, finding them took far more time than anything else.
Still, when the night fell, I was at the shore, watching Takis and several of his most trusted fighters — checked by Zolast to make sure — each dressed as Iron Traders, rapidly butchered and placed the lord beasts into the crates while staying in a cave.
No one other than Takis dared to approach me. I didn't blame them. A figure cloaked in black, surrounded by a pile of Lord Beast carcasses, was an intimidating sight.
Trusting them to handle the operation was a risk I wasn't willing to take before, but the establishment of the church changed the equation. I still wanted to keep it hidden if possible, but even if we were caught, we could now claim that it was official church business.
The ability to import thirty Lord Beasts — as no one would assume they were just hunted in less than a day — would imply that our Church had sufficiently intimidating connections, which would be enough to make our potential enemies cautious.
Hopefully.
"Don't forget to trigger an alarm in case of an emergency, and either I or Zolast will come to support you," I warned Takis. "I don't want you to take any unnecessary risks, alright?"
"Yes, boss," Takis said, but his voice trembled a bit. He was clearly not used to referring to me with anything other than a noble title.
Well, he would get used to it.
With that done, I moved back to Town Yoentia, where Zolast had already returned to discuss the latest developments.
"So, Kingdom of Somaton," he said the moment I entered. In front of him, there was a box filled with skill stones, each glowing brighter than what I was used to.
"Hello to you as well, my friend," I answered, but I didn't wait before reaching for the drink that was waiting for me. "Delicious as always," I complimented. Zolast nodded. I continued, "Yes, it looks like we have a proper enemy kingdom poking around. And, they are willing to pay a really impressive price for it."
"That's one way of saying that," Zolast replied.
"Please tell me they are mostly fake, or that there's a trap," I asked.
"No," Zolast said with a sigh. "Four hundred master skills, every single one genuine, all perfect for combat, and the magic skills are particularly exquisite. Some are good enough that I have never managed to acquire them even when I was a high priest."
"So, they are taking this seriously. That's not good news."
"No, it's not," Zolast agreed. "They are not going to take our betrayal well."
"No, they will not," I answered, matching his exhausted sigh. l was glad that he didn't even bother asking whether maybe we should change sides and start working with them, a decision that would have been both morally repugnant and practically unwise.
"It's a big investment," Zolast commented. "Clearly, they want to use our guild for a different aim once we abandon the town. They will retaliate once they realize we tricked them."
"At least the ploy to sabotage the dungeon gives us a week. Which, with my increased hunting capability, should be enough to bring me to level eighty instead. And, Limenta has already managed to find twenty new blacksmiths that could be brought up to speed by Launara. Combined, it should be enough to weather the storm."
"Only because they can't do much in the depths of another kingdom. The Ralum family wouldn't just let another kingdom do what they wanted without a limit."
I sighed. I was sincerely hoping that Zolast was correct on the issue, but ultimately, it depended on why they were here. Ironically, I hoped that they were here for the 'hero' only … but I feared that they had their designs for the breach.
"We'll see," I said. "But just to be on the safe side, make sure Launara gets her promotion tonight before you start upgrading the dungeon. We have a week before they start to get suspicious. Let's use it well."
Zolast nodded, and I left after finishing my drink.
I still had leveling to do.