Lorenzo sipped the tea in the cup. His wounds had already healed, thanks to the Doctors inside the city. Steam wafted from the hot liquid, which warmed his nose. It had a gentle smell of strawberries, which was the taste he had chosen. As soon as he finished the tea he went to his kitchen and took another teabag from the thousands stored in a large shelf, where he had collected every possible tea variety from around the world.
Before he could prepare another cup of tea, a [Message] interrupted him. It requested that he meet with a messenger from Golden Lake, another city on the border. Since the [Message] technique could be infiltrated, it didn’t have the contents of the messenger inside of it, so he would need to meet them directly to know what it was about.
Lorenzo sighed, Can’t even enjoy a cup of tea in peace.
The Chief Guard Captain walked to his wardrobe and wore a red and white suit, which gave him the appearance of a cunning and shrewd merchant. These things didn’t exist twenty years ago. Who even invented them?
Putting his greatsword into his personal pocket dimension, Lorenzo walked out of the house, watching the quiet garden outside of it. He had always loved nature, so he had bought a house in the countryside. Activating [Sky Steps], Lorenzo began running in the air at incredible speeds, eventually reaching the main building of the Ministry of Defence, where the messenger was waiting for him.
Walking past the entrance, he found a young man with long hair and a black and gold suit, carrying a small envelope in his hands. When Lorenzo approached him, the young man turned around and offered his hand for a handshake, which Lorenzo took without hesitation.
“Greetings, esteemed Chief Guard Captain, I’m Marcus from Golden Lake, and-“
Lorenzo chuckled and raised his hand, “Please just call me Lorenzo, nice to meet you too.”
Marcus nodded and continued, “We have received news of… a recent encounter you’ve had. We might want to discuss this more privately,”
Lorenzo narrowed his eyes and nodded. He’s probably talking about that shifting monster. The two men walked to a secluded meeting room in the building and sat down. Lorenzo clasped his hands and waited for the young man to continue.
“We believe you have witnessed the monster we have designated as ‘The Morphing Death’. I assume that you’ve heard of the disaster that killed more than a million people in Golden Lake, correct?”
Lorenzo simply nodded his head and prompted Marcus to continue, “Well, we believe the monster that invaded Iron Feather is the same one. Reports from living witnesses seem to match. We have a Soul signature here, offered by an associate of ours,”
Marcus took out a Soul-Stamp and slid it over to Lorenzo, who took the coin-shaped object with interest. The Soul signature inside of it was indeed that of the monster that had killed the two people in Iron Feather. The old man nodded and slid the soul-Stamp back to Marcus. “It’s the same monster, I can tell you that. Let’s cut to the chase. What do you want from me? Do you want me to hunt it down? I was already planning to do that,”
Marcus shook his head and put his elbows on the table, continuing, “That’s not it. Not the full reason, at least. Lidia of the Golden House has organized a meeting between various people with information about ‘The Morphing Death’, and we wanted to invite you to it. There’ll be plenty of food, high-tier too. We were planning to create a striking group with the most powerful and knowledgeable people we could find, but since the Kingdom was short on high-tier warriors, we needed to take what we could. Do you think you can join at least the meeting?”
Lorenzo took out a bar of hardened bread from his breast pocket and began chewing on it, thinking about his reply, “When is the meeting?”
“In two days, at twenty-seven hours into the day,” Marcus replied while keeping his eyes on Lorenzo.
The old man nodded, “Sure, I can swing by. I can’t promise anything about joining your little squad or whatever, but I can come and listen to what you say,”
Marcus smiled, put the Soul-Stamp back in the envelope, and nodded, “Perfect then. We await your presence, Lorenzo. Have a Safe day,” The young man then walked out of the building and used [Sky Steps], stepping away into the distance. Lorenzo continued munching on the hardened bread while he looked down at the table, humming loudly, The Morphing Death, huh?
- - -
The next two days went by uneventfully for Lorenzo, who spent most of his time engaging in his duty as the Chief Guard Captain and at home, drinking tea. He decided to arrive at Golden Lake earlier than the meeting, so he could travel a bit around the city, since he had been there only once or twice in his childhood. He also wanted to see if they had any exotic teas.
In just a matter of minutes, the tier-thirteen warrior arrived at the gigantic walls of Golden Lake. Why do they even need such massive walls? It just makes it a hassle for people like me to fly over.
Lorenzo ran up into the air until he surpassed the kilometer-tall wall, which he did sneakily so he wouldn’t alert any Air Defense Units or whatever they had there. The first thing that surprised him was the massive buildings, all of them being the size of mansions. Were the houses like this when I was here last time? I really can’t remember.
He noticed a large square in the center of the city, where tens of thousands of people were gathered in a circle around an elevated platform where a young woman was giving a speech. Lorenzo ran closer, eventually joining the crowd, so he could listen to her words. I think she’s the Mayor, I’ve seen her a couple of times in important meetings.
“As you all know, a couple of weeks ago, a monster infiltrated Golden Lake with the desire to spread chaos and death. It used some kind of ability, and it killed more than a million citizens of our magnificent city,” She paused a moment to wipe under her eye with a handkerchief and continued, “I pray that the Souls of the deceased join the Gods above in eternal peace. I know that some of you lost family members, friends, or perhaps partners. And I, Lidia of the Golden House, can tell you this. I will do everything in my power as the mayor of this city to track down and hunt that foul beast, once and for all, to allow you to finally sleep peacefully at night. May my head roll on the ground if I don’t keep my word,”
Lidia then gave some finishing words and began walking off the stage, joining Marcus and entering some other building in the distance. The crowd clapped excitedly and dispersed soon after. Interesting. That thing killed more than a million people. I wonder why? It didn’t seem like the type of creature to massacre everyone around it.
Lorenzo stopped by some street food vendors to try some local foods. Most of them were decent, but when he saw one of them sell warm tea, he knew he had to try it. A teenage boy stood on the other side of the cart, where a large pot of hot water stood by a box with many cups of wood and teabags.
“Good evening sir! What can I get you?” The teenager asked with a smile.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Lorenzo rubbed his chin and asked, “What flavors do you have?”
“Anything you can imagine is probably here! If not, I have a special technique passed down from my dad’s family to create personalized tea types.”
Lorenzo hummed and thought about it, I think I must have tried everything, so I don’t know what I should get. Maybe some-huh?
A tea bag on the side caught his attention, one called ‘meat-flavored tea’. Lorenzo pointed at it and asked, “What is that?”
The teenager replied, “You have good eyes, sir! That’s tea coming from the leaves of a carnivorous beast, which is part plant and part beast,”
“I’ll get that one,”
- - -
Lorenzo walked over to the meeting room, his nose scrunched up and his brows furrowed. The meat-flavored tea had been the most disgusting thing he had ever tried. The meeting place had an attendant outside with a sheet of paper, waiting patiently. Lorenzo approached and told about his invitation, to which the servant bowed deeply and asked Lorenzo to follow him to the meeting room. He was escorted to a small, ornate meeting room similar to the one he had talked with Marcus, just with more pretentious decorations decorating the chairs and the large table. Twelve seats.
At the head of the table, the mayor of Golden Lake sat with a frown. He had been the first to get there, as there was no one else. Lidia got up and walked over to Lorenzo, giving a slight bow and saying, “Welcome to our humble meeting, Chief Guard Captain. Please take whatever seat you desire,”
He nodded in response and sat down on a random chair. Silence dominated the room, until Lorenzo began, “What exactly do you want to discuss?”
Lidia smiled and replied, “We should wait for the others before we start any conversations,”
Lorenzo sighed and took out a bar of hardened bread from his inside pocket. He could see Lidia’s eyebrow twitch at the crumbs falling on the table, but he didn’t care too much. Marcus entered the room soon after, sitting beside Lidia. Some people began entering, and they were a large man with a large scar on his forehead, who was accompanying another pale man with limbs made of Influence. He’s using [Limb Interim]. Not bad.
After that, a bored-looking Guard and a young girl with short brown hair and large glasses with a large coat entered, and Lidia finally clapped, signaling the start of their meeting, “Welcome everyone, thank you for coming. I don’t want to waste any time, so I’ll be brief. The monster that caused the Golden Lake Disaster is still out there, causing havoc and destruction. Additionally, it even managed to infiltrate our city a second time, to kidnap three people. One of them is Number Two over there, who luckily managed to survive thanks to Number One,” She said while looking at the scarred man and the pale one.
Number One coughed and said, “It wasn’t luck. It was me who rescued him from the Fortress of the Monster Army,”
Lidia nodded, “Of course, my apologies. Furthermore, reports have arrived about the monster’s appearance in Iron Feather, and for that, I’d like to get Chief Guard Captain Lorenzo’s perspective on this event,”
Everyone’s eyes went to Lorenzo, so he sighed, put his elbows on the table, and began speaking, his gaze sweeping around the table, “A few days ago a monster killed a Guard at one of the Gates to Iron Feather, and just a few hours later, the champion of the Iron Arena was kidnapped and killed. I have personally confirmed that the monster is the same as the one that invaded Golden Lake. I would also like to give a general overview of the monster’s characteristics,” He then looked at Lidia, as if asking for permission to speak. She was the head of the meeting, after all. She nodded.
“The Morphing Death is able to change shape without any conditions or drawbacks, in a matter of seconds. It was reported to take the shape of a wyvern, and I also saw it in the form of a quadrupedal beast. Any physical attacks seemed useless, as one of my Guards reported that ‘all their attacks went through the monster like it was made of water’. Any damage inflicted, mostly with ranged Influence-based attacks, was immediately regenerated in seconds.”
The pale man said, “We have seen it take the shape of a horse-like beast and a massive ant with a golden shell. Before torturing me, it told me that it had the ability to steal other abilities, as long as it could understand them fully. It was able to kill and steal the abilities of two of our associates already,” Number Two then closed his head and breathed loudly through his nose. Number One patted him on the shoulder.
“I believe it is now tier-four. I also witnessed the monster utilize the ability of the Iron Champion, which allows it to teleport around,” Lorenzo said, and after looking at ‘Number One’ and ‘Number Two’, he asked, “May I know who these two people are?”
Lidia frowned and nodded, gesturing for the two men to introduce themselves. Lorenzo was sitting on the opposite side of them, so he could see their facial expressions in their entirety.
Number Two was the one to start, and he looked at Number One, who nodded at him with closed eyes, “We are…we were a group of people who specialized in trading…certain goods. You might know about ‘Otherworlders’, individuals born in another world. We took it upon ourselves to rescue these people, both for themselves and for others, as they usually grow stronger much faster than non-otherworlders. After that, we gave them to better-qualified important figures to take care of them. We did work under the shadows, so we weren’t well-known in the Kingdom,”
Lorenzo’s eyes flew open and a vein began bulging on his forehead, so he spoke with slow and accentuated words “Are you saying that you’re a criminal group?”
Number One locked his eyes with Lorenzo and replied, “I wouldn’t use such crude descriptions. We prevented the ticking time bombs that are Otherworlders from exploding. I would consider that quite the opposite of ‘criminal’,”
Lorenzo stood up, eyes penetrating the man in front of him, “It sounds like you were trafficking people to me.”
Number One stood up as well, and their two Souls released their Influence around the room. Everyone gasped and dropped to the ground in pain, holding their chest, while Lorenzo and the scarred man continued looking at each other, their Souls begging for a fight.
Lidia found the strength to get up and spoke, “Please listen to me, sir Lorenzo! Calm down, please, if you two fight thousands will die from collateral damage!”
Lorenzo gritted his teeth at the man in front of him and sat back down, stopping the release of his Influence around the room. Lost my cool there.
Number One sat down immediately after, and everyone slowly returned to their seats, much more cautious about the two high-tiers. Lidia sighed and continued, “Me and Marcus collected information on Number One’s group, and we realized that there were more advantages to working with them than prosecuting them,”
Lorenzo’s eyes flew open, and he asked, “You’ll work with such criminals?”
She frowned and continued, “Let’s move on, please. We were talking about the monster’s ability,”
Lorenzo sighed and nodded, trusting in Lidia’s judgment, “Right. From what Number Two told us, it seems like it can gather multiple abilities. I saw it accompanied by two other monsters, both tier-four, and a bunch of humans, all of them tier-zero, weirdly enough. One of the two monsters was a Deathworm, probably with an Earth-affinity since it had multiple Earth constructs, and another plant monster that I’ve never seen before. That one wielded a katana, and had most likely a water affinity,”
The people present in the room frowned at Lorenzo’s words. Monsters that used tools and weapons became exponentially more dangerous as they tiered up.
Lidia nodded and pointed at the people who hadn’t spoken yet, those being the bored guard and the pale girl. “You two were invited as you reported witnessing a similar monster. May you elaborate on that?”
The bored guard nodded and replied, “An armored warrior entered the city weeks ago, and when he moved out, I took down a wyvern. He asked to analyze it, so I let him. After that, a Tribulation struck him, and I investigated. The warrior was replaced by a shiny, metal sphere that rolled on the ground and made a new body. I wanted to capture it, but it somehow commanded another Tribulation to strike him, so I threw him as far away as possible from the city,”
Lidia then asked, “How big was the Tribulation?”
“Not too big, but it would have killed me if it had hit me directly,”
“So, it wasn’t big enough to kill a million people?”
The guard shook his head. Lidia sighed and continued, “It means that it was a Tribulation, not a technique. It explains a lot. But the fact that he can control them, and the fact that they got stronger, is terrible news. What about you, Miss Crema, what can you tell us?”
The pale girl with glasses nodded and spoke, keeping her eyes low, “I think I saw the same monster because one day, when I was conducting some experiments on an artifact, my colleague joined me, but he was acting weirdly so I called the guard. The monster then escaped and it killed the guard outside the building. The Guard had an ability about drawing cards, if you need to know,”
Lidia nodded once again and thanked the two witnesses, asking them to leave. The remaining five people looked at each other with nervous eyes. Lorenzo asked, “Why are we even putting so much effort into hunting down a tier-four? I could go on my own,”
Lidia shook her head, “We lost many people due to that creature, we can’t risk losing another one, especially someone at your level. We can’t take any risks,”
“I wanted to say another thing,” Lorenzo started, “After I saw the monster face to face, I was heavily injured, as I had just killed General Espanto and three other plant monsters under him. Additionally, it was close to the Unsafe Hours, and I could feel the presence of one of the Great cataclysms, which I’m not sure if you know about, but they’re essentially the strongest entities in the Unsafe Hours. I think we should first find out if the monster is alive at all before putting in more effort,”
The group continued their discussion throughout the day, talking about possible plans to eliminate the Morphing Death, while eating food all the while.