Liam felt a powerful pressure fill the entire room as Lady Arachne chanted her words. The power that pressed down on him almost made him buckle and drop to his knees before compressing right into the black pocket watch and releasing Liam from its hold.
The spiderweb resting on the pocket watch rippled as if it had come to life. A small spider suddenly appeared out of nowhere and made its way to the middle of the web. Liam recognized the fiddle symbol on its back. After a few seconds had passed, a click echoed from the object before opening up.
Liam could feel his heart thumping hard against his chest from the excitement of what had just happened. It felt like he had just downed an energy drink and was full of adrenaline. He focused on the object that rested on Lady Arachne’s palm as she pushed it out for Liam to take.
He slowly and cautiously reached out and grabbed it. He knew it was stupid that he did that, but a small part of him felt like he would spook it and it would grow legs and swiftly run off.
Liam looked at the open section of the pocket watch. The inside of the lid had a web-like design just like the outside. To Liam’s surprise, the spider that appeared on the outside made its way to the web inside, looked down at where the clock would normally be, but instead of an analogy clock ticking away, a black glass stared back at Liam. Liam frowned at this. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but a blank area wasn’t it.
He was about to ask if he had received a broken pocket watch, but then the spider that was resting on the web made its way down towards the blank area. As soon as it reached the edge, the spider suddenly entered the darkened area and disappeared. Two seconds later words suddenly appeared.
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“Good evening Phantom Cat. I am your Support Spider, Silky.”
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Liam’s eyes widened as he read the message. He was about to say something, but the words disappeared and were replaced with more text.
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“I am here to help you keep track of the missions you are currently taking on…”
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The text faded away and were replaced with new ones.
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“Missions you have completed, types of missions you normally take, items you make for the Association…”
“Help you locate any branches closest to you, validate your identity to the branches, pass along messages from Branch Legs, and more…”
“If you have any questions please feel free to ask me. I look forward to our fruitful cooperation. – Silky.”
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"I look forward to your help and guidance for the future as well. Glad to make your acquaintance Silky,” Liam greeted, feeling a bit weird talking to a spider through a pocket watch. It felt like the more the days went by in this world, the less his old normalcy was disappearing. He thought he had passed this point thanks to the Tutorial Area, but here he stood…surprised and confused even more than he was moments before. A sudden thought came to mind as he stared at the pocket watch. “Um I do have a question…Are you a living creature or an item? Also, do you eat? If so what do I need to feed you?”
The people around him let out a round of laughter as he asked these questions. Liam felt both annoyed and embarrassed. He wasn’t sure if he asked a dumb question or not, but their reactions made him feel like he did.
Lady Arachne answered his questions before Silky did. “Silky is a Mana created organism that is both alive yet not alive.” She saw the confused expression on Liam’s face and continued, “I can’t go through the entire process of how since the creator is a stickler on how he and his apprentices make these Web Watches, but Silky is a creature that is made thanks to the combination of Artificery, Enchantments, Rune Crafting, and Ritual Magic. Support Spiders though aren’t entirely alive when they finish making the Web Watch. They come alive when a Web Watch receives both the Web Name of the member they will be helping and the mana of that member. In a way she is alive thanks to your mana and can stay alive through you feeding her mana every now and then.”
Liam felt intrigued by this and really wanted to learn more. However, he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get any answers, so he decided to put that on the backburner for now. Instead he stared at his Web Watch…He felt the name was both kind of funny and kind of matched the theme the Fiddler’s Spider Web was going with. “So you’re saying I helped create her with my mana?”
Lady Arachne nodded.
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“You can say that, yes. I would not be here today without your help. – Silky.”
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Liam nodded. Another question came to mind as he asked, “Since you are alive what would happen if I place you in my inventory or a bag that has inventory space in it? Would that harm you?”
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“While it would not harm or kill me, I would like to ask for you to not place me in there for extended periods of time…”
“As I am a Support Spider, I cannot relay emergency missions, summons, or messages to you while inside any subspace you are not currently located…”
“I also can not inform you of things like locations of Fiddler’s Spider Web locations or detection of other Fiddler’s Spider Web members close by. – Silky.”
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Liam’s brow raised at that last message. “You can detect when another Fiddler’s Spider Web member is close by?”
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“Yes. While I won’t be able to tell you their exact location, I can inform you that one is close by and how many are. – Silky.”
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“How?” Liam questioned as he looked up at the others.
“Support Spiders inside the Web Watches can communicate with each other through their own means,” Noxi informed.
“They won’t be able to tell you where the others are due to privacy reasons, but they can let you know who is close by,” Orchid added.
“That function is there so if a member is currently taking on a mission and needs help with it they can see if the member close by is one who is capable of helping or not,” Silent Saboteur finished.
“That’s pretty cool,” Liam said.
“I guess it is,” Lady Arachne stated with a smile. She then turned serious as she added, “As excited as you are I am going to have to ask you to continue discovering what Silky can do later.”
Liam felt a shift all around him. He looked at the shorter woman before looking at everyone else. He could see their playful demeanors turn to a neutral expression. He looked back at his Web Watch and asked, “Silky, do you mind if we continue this later?”
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“Not at all Phantom Cat. I will be awaiting your return. Please place me in a spot where I can easily reach out to you if something arises. – Silky.”
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“Will do,” Liam stated as he watched the spider reappear out from the darkened area and slowly make her way towards the outside of the pocket watch lid. Once she made it there, he closed the Web Watch and placed it in a pocket on his pants. He then looked at Lady Arachne and followed everyone through a door that Noxi had opened.
The area they had arrived to was the meeting room they were in earlier that day. Liam took a spot next to Noxi as everyone sat in the same spot as earlier. The only difference this time was Midnight Claw had joined them and took the empty spot next to Liam.
After everyone sat down they all looked at Liam while Lady Arachne started, “Now, we were informed you believe you have found the information our client has been searching for. I ask you reveal what you have found and explain what makes you believe the claim you have made.”
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Liam took a gulp before saying, “If it’s alright with all of you, I’d like to tell you what I also found from listening to the guards as well.”
Lady Arachne nodded as she stated, “Granted.”
Liam had told everyone what he had heard while hiding in the shadow. He told them how the employees had some grumblings because Fred, the Head Security of the building, had increased security measures due to believing something was going on in the city.
After he was done telling them this, Silent Saboteur commented, “While that’s some interesting information to have gathered, hearsay and guesses doesn’t really help with what your mission entailed.”
“I would agree with you on that, but I have more that happened later, which I will tell you after I show you what I had found in the office,” Liam replied. Everyone raised a brow as they looked at one another. “After I had reached the floor that held all the New Arrival Agents, I made my way towards the Head New Arrival Agent Office. The one we decided to search first. When I reached the door I found it to be locked.”
“Locked?” Orchid questioned. “I thought all the doors on that floor were unlocked?”
Liam nodded, agreeing that they had believed that as well. He then explained that he had to slip through the door using an ability without damaging the door. “After searching the entire room finding nothing I went to the desk and found a hidden door in one of the top drawers. There I found a steel case with a few folders.”
Liam pulled out all but one folder. He then placed them at the middle of the table for everyone to see. He then spread them out and stated, “I didn’t get to look at all of them. I did get to search one though.” He grabbed the folder that had the words Targets labeled on the front. “This folder holds pages of people. At first they looked to be random people. I didn’t think there was anything that really stood out as I went through each page. That was, albeit, until I reached the last page.”
Everyone took their eyes off the folder and looked at Liam once more.
“The last page has certain information about the boy we talked about that had gotten attacked the other day,” Liam stated as he looked at them. “After looking over his profile I realized there was something that was nagging at me. I looked back at all the other pages and found something that linked them all together.”
Liam slid the folder over to Lady Arachne. Curious, she opened the folder and looked over the first page. Liam saw the confused look on her face just by her lips. She looked over the next page and skimmed it, then the next. Liam could see she wasn’t looking at what he had once he had found it.
Before she could ask the question he knew she would have, Liam suggested, “Please look at the sections: Races, Crafts, Party Members, Family Members, and New Arrival or Born on Paracosm.”
Lady Arachne looked at Liam then back at the three pages and focused on the sections Liam had suggested. He noticed the realization she had come to as she searched every page after that.
After a few seconds had passed she looked back at Liam and stated, “They’re all Half Breeds, Crafters in multiple areas, and have no known party or family members.”
“Yes,” Liam nodded. “You can also see that some have the words in red ink on the status section saying Deceased or black ink saying Alive and Cooperating.”
Everyone else in the room frowned or grew confused, but as Lady Arachne passed the folder around, they too, started to understand.
“New Arrivals are being targeted. Specifically crafters who are half breeds,” Noxi stated.
“But why though?” Orchid asked.
Liam shrugged. “I don’t know that entirely, but I believe one of these folders holds the key to that answer.”
Midnight Claw looked at him with a brow raised and asked, “What makes you think that?”
“I’ll get to that in just a moment,” Liam answered as he looked back at the others. “Before looking at the other folders I feel that I need to tell you what happened while I was looking through that folder.”
Everyone’s attention was focused on him. Not wanting to hold back any longer, Liam went into full detail on what had happened when the Lion-folk arrived. He told them about the man being able to enter the room with a key, about how Fred arrived and the weird reaction the Lion-folk had as well as what he had said.
“What that Lion-folk, Zareth, said is a bit disturbing,” Silent Saboteur stated.
“I agree,” Orchid nodded. “It sounds a lot like the words a certain cult would say. However, it is strange coming from a Beast-kin, especially a Lion-folk, since they hate that cult the most. Also, what do you think Fred meant by that?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Midnight Claw jumped in. “But it sounds like he’s been looking into the matter recently from his end and he might know something more.”
Lady Arachne stared at Liam and asked, “You’re sure he was able to sense where you were while you were behind him?”
“I’m not one hundred percent sure if it was me he was sensing or something else entirely since he could find where exactly I was,” Liam pointed out. “He seemed to only have a feel when I wasn’t crouching and was standing behind him.”
“Hm,” Lady Arachne muttered as she brought a hand to her chin.
“While those are some good questions to ask, I believe we aren’t asking the most important question here,” Noxi suddenly stated before looking at Liam. “You said he grabbed the steel case that held these folders, right? Did the man not tell there was nothing in there by how light it was?”
Liam smiled at that questioned. He had forgotten to tell them what he did. “He couldn’t tell that the original folders were not in there.”
“Why not?” Orchid asked.
“I placed different folders inside the steel case,” Liam stated with a grin.
Lady Arachne looked like she understood where Noxi was going with this as she shook her head. “If he was sent to retrieve that steel case and you swapped out the folders that were in there for other folders then that means they will know someone had stolen them.” She gave Liam an approving nod. “While I applaud you for doing that, I believe this might be a good time to mention that when you get the chance you should probably get some Copy Magic so next time you can make a copy of all this information.”
Liam was confused as to why she had mentioned this, but before he could ask she explained, “Now the people involved know someone is on to them. I don’t know what kind of repercussions that will bring, but they will be on high alert now.”
Liam could understand what she meant and shook his head. He didn’t know there was magic called Copy Magic. “What does Copy Magic do?”
“It allows the caster to make duplicate copies of papers and their contents,” Lady Arachne stated. “It is meant for office workers, but those in our field use it to make copies of information we try to steal for our clients.”
“How would the client know that the information gathered through that method is legit?” Liam asked.
“It’s because of the nature of the magic,” Silent Saboteur chimed in. After receiving a puzzled look from Liam, he added, “The contents procured through Copy Magic is a secured and trusted method because you can only use it on information that existed on the original paper. You cannot write new information or omit certain information on the copied paper.”
Liam was impressed with what was explained. If what he said was true then he could understand why Copy Magic was a trusted method in gathering documents and information. A thought popped up as he thought about the method and using it on the contents in these folders. While it would work on majority of the folders, he wasn’t sure if it would work on one of them.
“Can Copy Magic work on folders that have protection magic on them?” Liam asked.
Curious why he was asking this, Silent Saboteur answered, “No. Papers or folders that have protection magic on them will rebuff the magic or in some cases it would destroy the entire thing…Why do you ask?”
Liam nodded as he thought about it. He then replied as he looked at the man before looking at Lady Arachne, “It was probably a good idea that I didn’t have Copy Magic. One of the folders holds Protection Magic.”
Lady Arachne and the others looked at Liam then back at the folders spread out. they tried to find the one he was talking about. After they couldn’t find it Orchid stated, “I don’t see any with that kind of magic placed on it.”
“That’s because it’s not on the table,” Liam said as he reached inside his inventory and pulled out a folder. He held it in his hand so the others could see the label on it. He looked at Midnight Claw and said, “Going back to your question about how I believe that one of these holds the key to the answer. This folder is the reason why I think that. Its title is Project S.I.V. Retrieval. I don’t know what S.I.V stands for, but I don’t think its pleasant.”
Each of the Legs stared at the folder. The lower numbered Legs looked at each other before looking at Lady Arachne. Silent Saboteur was the one to ask the question they all were silently communicating to each other, “Should I send a message out to Cryptic Wing?”
Lady Arachne turned her gaze over to him and informed, “No need. I received word he was already on his way back from his mission and should arrive by tomorrow.”
Confused on who this Cryptic Wing person was, Liam looked at Noxi and raised a brow.
Understanding what Liam was asking, the man explained, “Cryptic Wing is the Eighth Leg. He is the best when it comes to lifting Protection Magic placed on objects like this.”
Liam nodded, understanding what he said. He was also relieved to hear that there was someone in the association who could break that type of magic. Liam was about to dive into some of his current thoughts but stopped as Lady Arachne started back up.
“Phantom Cat,” the short woman started. “This is excellent work for your first mission. While we know the task and the nature of the mission was not something that started with you; We can all agree that you played a magnificent role in aiding your fellow Fiddler’s Spider Web members by retrieving this information. While the client won’t be able to reward you on their part since they were not aware of your participation, I wish to reward you with a couple of things. Please come here tomorrow around noon to receive them.”
Liam nodded. He understood what she was saying and was grateful that even though he couldn’t receive anything from the mission rewards, Lady Arachne herself was still willing to reward him.
“As for Echo Talon and Silent Paw,” Lady Arachne continued as she looked at the two. “I thank you both for going along with my request allowing our newest member to help you and for aiding him on a successful mission. We will be informing the client about what was found, and you will receive the mission reward after this Protection Magic on this file has been lifted. Please come around noon as well.”
“Yes, Lady Arachne,” Echo Talon and Silent Paw stated in unison as they bowed to her.
“Good work everyone. You are dismissed for the night,” Lady Arachne stated with an authoritative voice.
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Liam let out a long breath of air as he stood under the hot water in the shower in the room at the inn he was using as a cover. He decided to wash up before making his way back to the forested area where Uncle Naro was probably waiting for him.
As he stood there he allowed his mind to wander. He thought about everything that had happened the past few hours. He had learned some things that brought light as to why he was being targeted, but at the same time he didn’t know exactly why. Why did they need crafters who dabbled in more than one area of crafting? Why were they going after just half breeds?
There were so many questions that he didn’t know where to begin. However, there was one major question he had on his mind that he couldn’t stop thinking about. Who exactly is Lucy and how has she been getting away with all this?
He had a weird feeling about her ever since she was overly friendly with him on his first day and offered to pay for a room for a few days. That feeling grew a bit more during that incident at the Crafter’s Association when she arrived and revealed she had more information about him he had only told Lyca. That thought shifted his attention on the man. Was he in on all of this? If so then he couldn’t be trusted either.
“Just goes to show that I need to question everyone no matter how harmless or nice they are,” Liam quietly muttered as he turned the shower off. He got out and dried himself off. After putting his clothes on, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as his Danger Sense prickled against his skin.
He was on high alert as he scanned the room. The way his Danger Sense was acting wasn’t the normal way it would that told him a deadly attack was coming. Instead, this felt like something or someone dangerous was close by.
He was about to call out in the room, but stopped as a knock came from the door. Liam’s eyes locked on the door. He didn’t say anything, but that didn’t stop whoever was on the other side.
“Good evening Mr. Liam,” a familiar feminine voice called out.
Liam could feel his heart thumping hard against his chest as he recognized the voice.
It was Lucy.