Day two started with us leaving the village dock on a clear, fine morning. I started keeping an eye on Mike and Rob, but they just performed their jobs as crew efficiently and quickly. They both like to take early morning swims. They both had the water essence, so I guess it made sense that they liked being in and on the water.
Mike had water and might, and it smelled like fish essence or something. I couldn’t work out his confluence. Rob had water and wind, but I am not sure what else. They seemed like common essences you would find in someone who worked on ships. They knew what they were doing and seemed competent crew. I guess they were members of the shipping guild. They had used some monster cores to get to bronze. But not as many as others, but it is hard to level unless you are full-time adventuring, and I am sure bronze rankers get paid more than iron rankers.
We made several short stops on the way to the next town.
I thought about Kim’s offer and watched her as well. She knew I was watching, obviously. She has essences and skills I have not come across before. Eye, Magic, Knowledge and Mystic. She has revealed a lot of her Eye skills, and as I think back, a lot of her knowledge skills were seen in play in her planning, calculations and design. She has a lot of knowledge, and I am sure a lot comes from skill books. There is no way she could learn that much otherwise, from herbs to the price of heidels in Vitesse to how to calculate the flotation required to lift a slime the size of a bedroom.
I know two of her magic Skills. She has Tools of the Magister, which means she can use magic tools like vehicles and wands, etc. I discovered that when she was operating a vehicle, she had hired. It is interesting that I have never seen her use a wand, but I bet she has a number on her. She has only ever used a bow when fighting. Then there are those dimensional spaces, which she said was a skill from her magic essence. I have seen her create a mystical shield that stops physical attacks. I don’t know if she has one that negates magical attacks, but I would imagine that is likely. She is to logical to leave a gap like that.
I have no other knowledge of her skills. She is Celestine, and they are orientated toward magic, so I am betting she has a number of spells. She is definitely a merchant through and through. She is very focused on profit. This means she would not pay me without being pretty sure she would need me. She does not waste coins.
What I want to do is send a message to Nia to have her checked out, but that will have to wait until I get back to Stillwater. I need to make this decision before that. I should have had Nia check them all out before this. Never mind for now, I will do it when I get back.
So, I found myself cruising through the dark streets at night. I was moving in parallel with Kim, Mike, and Rob, who were being led to an unknown meeting place by a teenager. I didn’t need to get close at the moment as Bat Kai and Night Kai tracked them, and the other Kais were spread around. There were two others also tracking them.
I had spent the bulk of the remaining time on the ship crafting. The logic was that if I had to get her out of a tight situation, then we would probably be chased. I spent my time crafting things that would hinder people from chasing us. Traps. Lots of traps. I was really pleased with my new Cutting Web and Resin. They made making traps so much quicker and easier.
I could already create braided webs, and nets were fast, and resin bound them together. The Resin could appear at the intersection of the webs to hold the netting quickly, and both the webs and the resin could appear on the shields. If I wanted to add poisons, then I had to do that manually. I mean, when I wanted to add poisons.
I asked Kim what movement skills she had, and she only had one: the Mirage Step from her Mystic confluence. It was like a short-range teleport, leaving an afterimage at her previous location. Attacking the afterimage caused disorientation and held the attacker in place for a couple of seconds. That could be useful. Unfortunately, it had a half-minute cooldown before it could be used again.
Most of my traps were for quick deployment, but if I had the luxury of planning an exit route, I had also prepared for that.
One thing I have learned from Kim was that my stealth was not perfect. I doubt her combination of eye skills was common, but it only took one to see through my stealth. I was relying on Blend, but also on Savage Stalker to make the best use of the terrain and shadows.
One of the people following was moving around and seemed to be looking for other followers. They mostly stuck to the roofs. I felt this was definitely a weak strategy, as the only cover was chimneys. Bat Kai was following this one, but he was sticking below the roofs and hiding in the shadows under the eaves. There were a lot more places to hide below the roofs. I move close enough to sniff him out and get a sense of his stealth and aura. The guy’s arua control was tight, but I felt it needed work for a bronze ranker. He had a lot of monster cores in his aura.
The roof guy had a cloak which helped him merge with the night. I couldn’t tell if it was an essence skill or an item. I think an essence skill as an item would be more consistent. I would guess his focus was on his sight, which would be one reason to stay up high. He didn’t check behind himself often enough.
When he found the other follower, he switched to following him, which meant they were not together. It also meant I could not get close to the other followers. Followers number two stuck to the ground. I couldn’t see how he was tracking the main group as I couldn’t find any familiars, and he always stayed at least two blocks away but kept up with their twisted route. I assume he had tracking skills or an item that did the same.
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Follower number two did watch their back and suddenly attacked follower number 1. I am pretty sure there was serious damage, but they took off, and a silent running skirmish moved away from Kim. I left them to it. Kai should pick up when the winner gets back.
The group was entering a warehouse district near the outer wall of the town. A lot of caravan companies and warehouses were in the area, and they eventually entered a warehouse. Night Kai went in with them. I circled the block, looking for the best way out.
On the other side of the warehouse was a yard and a road. It appears Kim and her escort entered through the back door of the “Cargo Express” warehouse. Wagons were parked in the yard, some half-loaded. Security guards wandered the yard. I didn’t know if they were aware of what was going on in the warehouse; they were probably paid to turn a blind eye. It would make exiting this way tricky.
I found an alley that split into two. I started setting up traps on one of the side alleys. If I didn’t get used to them, I would have to come back and dismantle them, as these traps would kill Iron ranks and below.
Night Kai told me there were four additional people in the warehouse. One was a Silver ranker, and the others were bronze. Everybody was talking. Kai couldn’t tell me what they were talking about, but everything was calm at the moment.
Kim had a number of surprises on her, so I was confident she could survive for a while if things went bad, even against a silver-ranker. I was the backup to her backup. Therefore, I was not her first backup plan and would only be needed if all else failed. I expected there would be loud fighting, indicating the first backup plan was in action.
My death alley started about fifty meters from the warehouse. It was more than just the alley, as people tended to run along rooftops. I almost wanted to lure the silver ranker in to see how it went. It was designed to injure and delay, giving us time to escape.
Water Kai found a way into the warehouse through sewer pipes. Most businesses here had toilets as there were many pre-iron rankers here.
Bat Kai was on his way back, following Follower #1, who was limping and trying to stop bleeding from his side. The man barged straight into the warehouse. I figured this was probably going to trigger some conflict, so I moved closer to listen.
A deep voice accused, “You had somebody following you!”
Kim countered, “I had nobody following me. If somebody was following me, it would be a competitor of mine or a rival of yours. I hope your man killed them.”
That, right there, is the difference between somebody with the Knowledge Essence and somebody from the Church of Knowledge. Those from the Church of Knowledge would never lie. I suspect those with the knowledge essences are the best liars. It occurred that the same was true with Death Essence. The Church of Death makes spectacular use of it, but so does the Church of Undeath. Opposites using the same essences. I suspect the Church of the Deceiver loves the knowledge essence.
There must have been nonverbal communication, “It seems they got away, but here is a blood trail to follow.” One of the bronze rankers went out at that, probably not needing verbal instructions. “You will stay here until the kill is confirmed.”
“Your man might not even find him. Our business is done, and we will be leaving,” Kim replied in a reasonable voice.
“Our business is not done! Nobody is leaving until I find out who betrayed me.”
“Our boat is leav…”
A thud and silence. Then, “Put the weapons down if you want to live.” I heard the two guards being disarmed by the bronze rankers. I might need to get to where I could see what was happening.
I got a sense from Night Kai that Kim was unconscious. Silver rank speed and strength didn’t even give her a chance to react. She would have usually seen hints, and her intuition would have flared. Maybe it did, but she still had no time to react.
“Bind her. I want to know who else she is selling to. Yes, use the suppression collar. We will get it back when she is dead or firmly in our pocket. If those two move, kill them.”
I guess her backup plan failed before it started. I was moving closer, but very carefully. I directed Mana Kai and the two Chitin Kias to head into the warehouse. I doubted Kim would be out long due to her Bronze rank recovery rates.
I was listening from the bottom of the three-story high warehouse wall, which only had a line of narrow windows just below the roof. When I was reasonably certain there was nobody lurking near, I ran up the wall with Hunters Step, created a foothold with Resin and poked my eye through the window into the warehouse. My Blend was trying to make me look like the wall.
I could only see part of it from the upper-level window. I saw Kim’s feet and Rob and Mike being held at sword point and tangled in wood that seemed to have grown out from the crates behind them. There was definitely somebody with wood essence down there.
I couldn’t see the wounded stealth guy or the silver ranker. I assume they were below me, somewhere hidden by the crates.
Getting her away from the silver ranker is going to be a problem. I wonder if a distraction would work. I prepped the Kais. I had Fire Kai with me, as setting some of the traps alight was part of the plan. I tossed Ardisia onto the roof above the window.
I set a net over the window and grabbed a modified javelin from my Hunters Pack. I then used Mighty Oak, Quick Sharp, and Pierce to send the javelin through the netting and the window. I got one of the bronze rankers in the shoulder. The pressurised bladder of modified slime acid was sprayed out over the whole area, including Mike and Rob. It was bronze-rank acid, and I had intensified it, but it would only have surface effects on bronze rankers, except possibly for the one with the spear in his shoulder.