Kai stood silently by the ladder, glancing up at the hatch.
“Please don’t steal my clothes…” he frowned.
For a moment, he considered climbing the ladder and fighting them off, assuming it was a thieving vagrant.
Holding the broken table leg in one hand, he picked at part of its splintered end. Most of it was barely holding shape.
“I should at least find a better weapon before I go around picking fights, even if it is a crazed bum.”
As he waited by the ladder, he heard a deep voice. Low enough to hear, but not loud enough to understand. A few moments later, and he heard screams, which were quickly cut short.
Kai’s eyes widened.
“Fuck. Someone was just murdered up there.”
Unfortunately, it reminded him of everything that had happened tonight.
Images flashed through his mind. The attack from the trash pile. His hand covered in blood. The homeless man’s eyes turning lifeless and empty. The deafening silence after he killed another human being.
Shaking his head, he clenched his hands tight, trying to bring his mind back to the present.
“Agh, snap out of it. There will be time to think about it later. Focus. Think.” He whispered to himself.
“Someone came into this random ruined house within an hour of me getting here. In this abandoned part of the city, the chances of that happening are small to none. So either I’m being followed, or someone saw me enter…” Kai’s eyes glanced at the walls with the magic runes.
“Or this damn house alerted them. However, I think the first option is more likely based on the dust and the items here. Even the ink pot is dry. I don’t think they would have left glassware and books lying around, either.” He nodded.
“Come to think of it, in medieval times, wasn’t paper something only the rich could afford? Hmm… I suppose can’t apply the same logic to a world full of magic. There’s poetry books too, so it can’t be that luxurious.” He shrugged.
“Now, someone entered this house, and it seems like they died right after. So perhaps someone else was following them, too… Since the first person came from this ruined house, the second person will probably come here too, searching for more things to steal.”
*Crr~*
Another creak of wood came from upstairs.
“How predictable.” Kai thought. “I guess all I can do is wait for them to leave.”
Glancing around the room, he thought of what he could do in the meantime.
“I suppose I could study these engravings and runes.” He thought, his eyes drifting over the walls.
They were far too elaborate to commit to memory. It was like a grand tapestry of carvings and very specific-looking symbols. Each cut seemed to have deep meaning and precision behind it.
Kai had already read the spirit ward and bug shelling books, trying to commit them to memory, but he knew that he definitely would not remember everything here, and by the looks of it, every marking was important.
“Hmm…” he looked at the table with a pot of dried out ink.
Kai sat down, grabbing the quill and pot, and spat into it as he mixed, trying to bring the ink back from its petrified state. It took a few minutes but looked okay as it mixed.
With the ink ready, he reached for one of the poetry books to write in, but stopped before he even grabbed it.
“If I’m going to carry any books out of here, it will be from those other two.” He nodded, speaking about the practical books he found about spirit wards and bugs.
Kai kept turning pages through the bug shelling book until he found a faded page. Before writing over it, he first studied the page, committing it to memory before drawing over it.
< [Eel Dog] >
[The Eel Dog, also known as goblin dog, is a carnivorous arthropod of medium size; 66 pounds (30 kg).
It lives in a variety of forest habitats and eats a variety of den and earth creatures, including magical types such as goblins, where it gets its common name “goblin dog“.
It practices caecotrophy, consuming a special type of faeces that it produces in the daytime while it sleeps.
Neither Eel’s nor dogs, they have long, slender, scale-covered necks, eel-like heads with unhinged jaws, and the body shape of dogs. Cold-blooded, chitin plates cover their bodies, a tough armor which protects it from…]
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After Kai learnt about the eel dogs, he repeated back to himself their weaknesses, dangers, ways to butcher them, and the best cuts of meat from under their shells.
As he had not been outside the city walls, he didn’t know if the city was in a forest or not, but it was better to be prepared for whatever could be out there. Satisfied with how much he remembered, he finally began.
“Now…” he thought, taking in a deep breath.
Putting the quill to paper, he copied the magical wall engravings. He went slowly with every quill stroke, as he wanted to replicate it some day.
As he copied, he ignored the sounds coming from upstairs. It was mostly just creaking noises as someone moved around junk upstairs, and after some time it stopped.
“Good. Piss off.” Kai thought, getting back to work.
Strangely, a minute later, the noises from upstairs began again, and then abruptly paused.
“Oh, don’t tell me they’re planning to sleep up there?” Kai frowned.
“Oh well. At least I have something productive to do.”
- - -
~Upstairs~
Covered in black robes, two men stood guard, facing the street as they waited, ready for a sneak attack or anything else that could lurk out there.
Finally, one of their hunters appeared from the darkness inside.
“Three, report.” One whispered in a raspy voice.
“Number Four followed tracks into the courtyard. There are two tracks leading into the trap house, and only one leaves. I believe someone ported or warped out.”
“Good. Go and find Number Four. I’ll check for teleport flux.”
“Two, come inside and guard me.”
Number Two nodded, while Number Three left through the window, following Parker and Number Four’s footprints.
Parker had since gathered his seeing sphere, and moving along the street, he wondered why they suddenly went back inside.
“Hmm… it just gets easier.” He thought.
With two of them watching the street, trying to get closer while slipping between the ruins and staying in the shadows was hard, but now it was a piece of cake.
Of course, he wanted to peek through the door, but this could be a trap. People in the den sector survived because, above all else, they were cunning.
However, as a high-ranking bounty hunter, Parker came prepared for most situations, and always kept a few special potions with him.
One potion, which he was reluctant to use, was a tool of the patrol knights.
Patrol soldiers were mostly just peace keepers given a uniform and a sword, but the patrol knights were the genuine force behind the threat, equipped to deal out swift and unrelenting justice. Typically, the knights used this potion right before breaching a building.
“It will be worth it.” He thought, bringing out the potion he purchased from the black market.
The potion was stone-gray, but turned golden yellow after he charged it with mana. It tasted like salt, and Parker crunched his face up as he forced it down his throat.
As it took its effect, three bright lights appeared. Basically, it was the advanced version of his shoe-print potion. Parker could see their mana signatures through the walls, and one man in the center was much brighter than the others.
It could only mean one thing.
“A mage?” He thought, surprised.
You rarely saw a mage in slums, rarer still, in the den sector.
Most of them could establish comfortable lives for themselves with little effort, although some were fanatical, crazed researchers pursuing whatever new energy or power they discovered, letting it consume themselves. Parker assumed this was one of the latter.
While they were dangerous, Parker weighed the cons and pros, and decided he had come too far to give up.
Plus, he also saw a faint light underground, causing his hope to rekindle. It could be a creature, but it could be a basement, with his prize inside.
But first, he had to deal with the enemies, specifically the mage.
“I’ll need to finish him first.”