This should be close enough. I muttered to myself looking up at the darkening sky. I had spent three full days making sure that I had everything prepared for tonight’s activities, not wanting to leave anything to chance.
First, the items that I had acquired from the dungeon. The first set consisted of three rings that I wore on my left hand, and a large black cloak that I wore over my body. These were a ‘set’ of items that each specifically empowered the others, strengthening the stealth enchantments to avoid detection by all four basic energy types.
I could feel my senses dull just slightly when I put these items on, as it felt like they isolated me entirely from the outside world. If not for the second set, I wouldn’t be confident in completing the task I set for myself.
This was also a ‘set’ of items made for each other. They were a pair of dark goggles, two rings on my right hand, and a silver necklace. The dungeon core had been very specific on how I should wear these items to maximize their effects, right down to the order I should activate them.
From what he said, the first set was known as Ekhan’s Invisibility, while the second was known as Ekhan’s Insight. When I asked who this Ekhan person was, the dungeon said that it was the name of a powerful rogue that had stumbled into the wrong dungen in the past. His abilities and items had been analyzed and enhanced, turned into two sets of equipment that showed their true power when worn together.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed a small amount of mana into the cloak first, followed by the necklace and the goggles. The five rings lit up in a soft blue glow beneath the cover of the cloak as my vision began to distort.
Running my thumb over the first ring on my right hand, I adjusted the energy opacity in order to maintain the ability to see my surroundings normally. Then, doing the same with the second ring allowed me to further zoom the sight of the goggles, as if I were injecting ki into my eyes. The only difference here was that the sight was capable of piercing solid objects due to the enchantment on the necklace.
Once I was satisfied with my vision settings, I began to move. My current location was the border of a dense forest, just at the base of a large hill. Atop the hill sat the Chester Manor, a large complex consisting of a wide, two story house and two separate buildings. One was the servant’s quarters, while the other was the storehouse.
For the purpose of my investigation, I decided to start with the storehouse. After emerging from the treeline, I calmly walked towards the hill. Along its base, I could see a shimmering blue field, the sign of a barrier ward.
Adjusting the energy opacity allowed me to make out the patterns of the ward, and allowed me to locate one of its cornerstones. I didn’t need to dismantle the ward in order to get through, but as long as I found this, I could pass undetected.
My thumb ran along the three rings on my left hand as I began walking again, my body passing through the ward without leaving a trace. At a time like this, I was thankful that I did not have a familiar with me. Although they made great company, it was harder to conceal them for operations like this.
Why don’t you have one? The dungeon core spoke up as if reading my mind. He no doubt was, but still. It was most unusual, at this point most adventurers will possess a familiar, no? But not just you, the entire party you went with before did not.
I shook my head, making sure to keep my focus on the job as I continued walking, watching for any other wards. I don’t know about the others, but I used to have one. She was a cute, little fox that I took with me everywhere. A few years back, she died in a hunt, and I survived. The pain was… intense to say the least.
A small shudder ran through me as I recalled the sensation of having a piece of my own soul die. I knew that I could summon a new familiar any time I wanted, but chose not to for a number of reasons. A new familiar would never replace the bond I had built, it wouldn’t erase the pain I felt, and I did not specialize in magic that would require such a thing. Though perhaps, the most important reason was that I began to remember that pain again every time I considered getting a new one.
I see… I apologize for prying. The dungeon spoke up in my mind, before falling silent. By now, I was just arriving at the outer wall of the storehouse. The night guards were standing guard at the doors to all three buildings, vigilantly preventing any thieves from robbing the local lord. I offered a silent prayer for them as I approached out of sight.
When I came before the brick wall, I began adjusting my sight again to peer through the wall. If there was anything truly horrid going on, then this was a logical first step to look for clues. While scanning through the various crates and bags, I made sure to check the floor for any secret passages.
Everything seemed… normal. The bags contained grain, the crates holding fruits and medicinal herbs, with some simply containing piles of quest scrolls. Although I could not directly read the contents of each scroll from my current position, there were some close enough to the edge which I could make out. They simply held farmer’s tools and spare weapons for the soldiers. So far, the only thing that Loren could be considered guilty of was being wealthy…
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Shaking my head, I began walking again. This time, I was moving towards the servant’s quarters. While this area was less likely to possess any damning evidence, I wanted to save the main house for last. Even from the outside, I could see that the place was heavily warded.
Out of curiosity, I activated my karmic vision to investigate the guards as I slipped past them. Thanks to the power of the cloak, nothing short of physical contact or excessive noises would reveal my presence. I was pleased to see that none of the guards showed any overly dark auras. Instead, they were quite bright, something I believed showed them to be good people.
I gave a small smile as I saw the different karmas, before circling around to the back of the servant’s house. This was a facility to house all of the faculty that served the Count, so it was naturally not small by any means, even if the servants did not have the same standard of living as the Count’s own family.
My eyes scanned along the wall, looking for an empty room that I could use to sneak in. Soon enough, I found a second-story bedroom that seemed to lack an occupant. A detail which served my purpose well.
Jumping to the window was no difficult task, though the act did cause enough of a noise that I could hear a guard coming to investigate the disturbance. By the time that he rounded the corner, I had already opened the window and slipped inside.
The inside of the room was… about what one would expect of a servant’s lodging. There was a simple, firm bed, though the blankets were neatly tucked in. There was a dresser along the same wall, which had a small layer of dust on it as well. Clearly, this wasn’t an actively used room, such that they didn’t even bother to regularly clean it.
Shaking my head, I moved towards the door, making sure that the hallway was clear before I carefully opened it and moved out. My first order of business was again to look for any secrets, so I scanned each room as I passed it. However… this ended after only the second room.
The second room that I scanned was another servant’s quarters, though this one was occupied, a young man sleeping soundly within the bed. I didn’t stop at this room because I saw a secret passage or anything like that, though. Instead, I chose to stop here because I realized something important.
After checking the karma of the guards earlier, I had never dismissed my karmic vision. Yet, as I looked at the young man sleeping in the bed, he did not have a single trace of white or black karma along his body. My eyes swept to the next room, my vision zooming past the wall.
A mature felyn woman laid in the next bed, lying on her back just as the young man was. However, once again… not a trace of karma. To confirm, I looked out of the house, at the guard who was investigating the area I jumped from previously. Sure enough, I could see the traces of white and black covering his skin.
What would cause someone to not have any karma? How was that even possible? Again, I shifted, looking into a third room. A young girl, clearly a new hire, slept in an identical position to the other two, and again… no karma.
Every room I looked in, the servants were all lying in the same position in bed. They were on their backs, eyes closed, with their arms at their sides. Not a single one of them were even using the blankets on their beds.
It was natural for me not to know why someone wouldn’t have karma, given that it was a largely unknown subject. However, it was still clearly unnatural for so many people to have zero karma while sleeping in identical positions. If I didn’t see their chests subtly moving, I’d even think that they were all dead.
I gripped my fist, resisting the urge to panic and flee to my dungeon. As it was, I knew that there was something wrong. I didn’t know exactly what the cause of it was yet, but I knew that it could not be good.
There was still one building left to check, and it would hold the answer to the last of the questions on my mind. Was Loren doing this alone, or was her father involved as well? I hadn’t had the chance to scan the Count’s karma ever since gaining the ability to do so, so there was no way for me to determine just how dark it was.
Given that I knew what I was looking for now, I no longer needed to directly enter the main house. Instead, I went back to the window I had entered from, and from there scaled to the roof of the guest house. My eyes focused on the largest building of the property, my right thumb playing over the rings to adjust my vision, my left thumb gently stroking the first ring of that hand.
Soon, I was able to see directly through the wards that had been placed one the walls. Almost immediately, I found the Count’s room, my breath catching in my throat when I caught sight of him. The Count was laying on his back, arms at his side, sleeping atop the bed. Not a trace of karma could be seen on him.
Whatever was happening to the servants had clearly affected the Count as well. As I thought that, a bit of movement in the corner of my sight drew my attention. The room next to the Count’s, Loren’s bedroom. Loren was standing in her room, gently dancing along the floor with something in her hands. It looked like a deep red wig, one that matched the color of Loren’s hair.
A half-turn later into the dance, and I brought my hand up to my mouth, forcing back the urge to vomit. The thing she was dancing with was a head… a human head, the expression warped in pure terror. More importantly, the face, and even the hair looked exactly like Loren herself.
It took me a moment to recover from that realization, and when I did I noticed that ‘Loren’ had stopped dancing. Her back was facing me, a wall between us, yet her head slowly began to turn. It soon snapped back, neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Her eyes were blood red, and she was staring directly towards me.
I felt a chill wash over me, and immediately summoned my AC unit to teleport me back to the dungeon. Looking into those eyes, I couldn’t be sure that she had identified who I was, but I knew for a fact that she knew where I was. And that whatever she was, I did not want to fight her right now.