Kai went through the cabinet, bringing out everything and putting it on the table.

He was glad to find that books were not the only thing hiding inside.

In fact, there was something in there he recognized.

It was a small black pyramid with a string coming out of the top, attached to another small black pyramid.

Kai had seen this within the offices of the cult, and functionally, it was a desk ornament.

After channeling mana into it, one pyramid was supposed to float upside down above the other, and the string connecting them turned invisible.

He guessed it was a common item, but was interested in it for its use of magic. Anything that had to do with magic seemed interesting to him, and this small ornament displayed both anti-gravity and invisibility.

As for the books Kai found, they had nothing to do with magic at all. A part of him was hoping to find a beginner magic training manual, or something similar, but knew it was nothing but a hopeful wish. Finding a beginner magic book in a place like this? Well, Kai knew he was not living in a fantasy.

The books were a mix of poetry along with some about an unknown god. The only practical ones were, really, not so practical to Kai:

[Shelling Arthropods and Insects]

[Base Material Theory for Spirit Wards]

The first book was about skinning - or ‘shelling’ - human sized bugs, and extracting the most useful parts from a range of different shell-covered body types.

The second was about using mana to determine what sort of ingredients would be useful for a certain type of potion. A ‘spirit ward’.

Kai read and tried to memorize them. It was better to know than to know nothing, besides; he had nothing else to do.

“If they’re important enough to write a book about, then they’re worth reading at the very least… right?” he shrugged, sitting down at the table and beginning.

As Kai quietly read, he suddenly heard a creak of wood upstairs. Something heavy was moving above.

“Fuck.” he thought, looking up.

The roof above him was stone, while the wooden hatch was much too sturdy to make a creaking noise.

A hopeless regret tinged Kai’s heart.

“There’s only one thing that could have been,” he thought.

The remains of the wooden table, which still had his shirt and gray coat, splayed across them as they dried out.

Right now, Kai was kicking himself for not having the foresight to bring them down with him. His upper body was dry now, but all he had on were his black pants and brown leather shoes.

Basically, he was half-naked. Not a good thing to be in a semi-medieval city, as it will attract glares of shame and despise.

“Please don’t rob me… please don’t rob me…” were his only thoughts, though he remained hidden and still.

However, a part of him knew there was no hope for his clothes; having seen the dilapidated, ruinous city, he knew it would be a miracle if his clothes weren’t stolen.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. A muffled, deep voice… followed by a distant pained cry.

- - - Five minutes Prior - - -

Parker followed Kai’s tracks, ignoring the storm and the piercing cold as he knew he was close.

The tracks turned and curved more instead of being straight and decisive, meaning that Kai was less focused on fleeing.

“He’s looking for something…”

The smile of a hungry beast appeared on Parker’s face as he followed a little more quickly.

Feeling the coldness seeping into his knees, it wasn’t a stretch for Parker to realize that Kai was looking for somewhere to wait out the storm.

As for his upper body, his hardened leather armor had a simple enchantment which resisted both cold and heat, making the icy rain not so dire.

The tracks led along a street and through another alley. Through the other side of the alley, though, Parker paused.

The tracks led across the muddy street into a building - but they were not the only tracks leading there.

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Two more fresh sets of shoe-prints appeared, and in the building's doorway was a man’s back. He seemed to block the exit, which was why he wasn’t facing into the street.

“Curses, they may have found Kai. I might be too late…”

Still, it was a perfect opportunity for a sneak attack, and Parker would not let it go.

Parker lightly tapped across the street, making no noticeable noise in the pouring rain.

The burly thug didn’t hear a thing as he drew near.

With the needle-dagger in hand, he plunged it into the back of the man at the door and immediately used his dash spell, disappearing in a blur and hiding behind a nearby collapsed wall.

The large man turned around but was so slow that he didn’t even see the blur of Parker’s dash spell. Taking a step back, he disappeared into the darkness of the building.

- - - Inside the building - - -

“Something just attacked me. This might be a counter-trap. Let’s move.” a man said in a deep raspy voice.

Dressed in black wrappings covering his slender body, the other man nodded back.

Both of them quickly left, running out into the rain and darkness.

Parker watched with an expectant smile, “Three… two… one…”

“GRAHH!!”

Suddenly the man yelled in pain; a large wound suddenly burst open with blood on his back, gushing out into the street. He dropped to his knees as his spine was severed.

The magical ability of Parker’s dagger had triggered. The tiny prick opened into a hole the size of a great sword.

The second man looked around, shocked, trying to see if they were being attacked as he grit his teeth.

Nothing but rain and empty, dark streets.

Unfortunately for the wounded man, he was too loud; he could attract the attention of others. The slender, black-wrapped man did a spin-kick, and landed his heel on his head. It knocked him unconscious.

The black-wrapped man looked around, scanning for any threats, wondering how his partner was attacked, and what attacked. There was also the chance that new threats would come, responding to the screams. He didn’t have time.

Decisively, he grabbed his partner’s body and sprinted away into the night.

Parker almost felt amused, but noted how quickly they had disappeared after his initial attack. Standing around and trying to find an unknown threat before fighting it would have been a foolish thing to do.

“Fight or flight,” Parker nodded, “choosing either could cause death, but anything in between would make it a certainty…”

Parker left his cover, but placed his seeing sphere down to watch the entrance. He wouldn’t make the same mistake that the other two did.

Following Kai’s footprints, he crept towards the building.

The dead bugs were the first thing he noticed before entering the building.

“Plegia Isopods?” He raised a brow, surprised to find these bugs here, of all places. The last time he saw them was years ago, when he was in an aquatic dungeon.

“Mysteries of the den sector…” he thought, shaking his head and following Kai’s shoe-prints inside.

The two men before him would have secured the house, so he took little caution when looking around.

Kai’s shoe-prints led to the second room and back. Many of the prints seemed random, and some were even on the collapsed table.

In the mess of prints, it was hard to see where they started and ended.

Yet Parker had to look through them anyway, as there were no shoe-prints leading away from this mess. Unlike the fresh white prints left by the two men, Kai’s prints were a few shades darker at this point.

“Where the hell is he…” Parker frowned.

“Could they have turned him to dust?” he wondered. It was like Kai had disappeared.

Suddenly, Parker stopped searching.

In his eye-link with the seeing sphere, he could see some black-clad figures stealthily moving up the street.

“So… they’ve come back. And in greater numbers.”