“This is more relaxing than I thought it would be,” Wentian said as he reclined at the edge of the pool.
“I’m glad we can use it,” Joram said, a faint smile on his face.
“Where’d this place even come from?” Wentian asked curiously.
“Ah, not too sure,” Joram lied. “But I thought it would be useful, so I brought it along.”
“Added a few features, eh?” Wentian asked, giving him the side eye.
“Yup,” he replied cheerily. “As nice as it was when I first entered it, I figured a few upgrades wouldn’t go amiss.”
“Hmm,” Wentian hmm’d in thought. “I must say, though, that I don’t mind the modern amenities,” he said, obviously not believing his lie, but letting the subject drop.
Joram just nodded, then leaned back to relax.
‘So, not going to try to peep on us?’ Alicia sent, sounding oddly put out about the prospect.
‘I quite value my life, thank you,’ he replied as he banished the thoughts that invaded his mind at her question.
‘Hmmm, wise,’ she sent back, still not sounding convinced.
‘We can have plenty of time together later,’ he sent back. ‘Besides, every room is soundproofed as well as warded against any form of scrying, so we won’t have to worry about being interrupted.’
There was a pause before Alicia replied, sounding a bit uncertain.
‘That could actually backfire spectacularly,’ she sent. ‘What happens if one of them traps you in their room or something?’
‘I’ll put them to sleep and escape,’ he sent back instantly.
‘Well, if you think things’ll be fine…’ she sent, reluctance heavy in her tone.
‘It’ll be fine,’ he sent back, then reached out to knock on wood.
No need to jynx things.
- - -
He didn’t stay for more than twenty minutes, finding that with his immunity to fire- and thus heat-, the water wasn’t as relaxing as he’d been anticipating.
Joram wasn’t surprised that he was the first one out. So, while he waited, he returned the glasses to the replicator and selected the recycle option, repeating the process until every glass was taken care of. From there, he went back into the house and started arranging things.
He placed the maps on the wall, pinning them in place on the cork-like surface he’d prepared. Next, he pinned up the various requests in order of listed difficulty. He then placed coloured pins on the map, marking out the estimated locations of each request.
When he was done, he looked at the map and its many coloured pins. With the improved sensor suite that Avi had installed, it hadn’t been difficult to get a relatively accurate map compiled then printed off in the Realm. He still wasn’t happy with its resolution, but he was nonetheless grateful to have the map.
Their base camp was located in almost the centre of the pinned-out area. From there, they’d be able to easily finish a few requests per day, leaving them at least a week’s worth of time to relax and have fun either between quests or at the end. Personally, he was partial to taking all the time off at the end, but he’d ask the others anyway.
He retrieved the gate cube from his pocket and pressed two of its other sides. The first one made the entrance invisible, while the other locked it into a one-way portal. In this case, only those inside the space could exit the space, while those outside the space were barred from entering. The outside lock didn’t stop a person like a physical barrier would when they tried to pass through the portal, but instead the would-be intruder would just pass through the space the portal occupied as though it weren’t there.
With that done, he sat down to wait, retrieving the textbook he’d been reading.
* * * * *
The figure stopped before entering the large clearing in the forest, rechecking a small tablet in their hand. Sure enough, the clearing was where the last signal had come from.
They crept up to the edge, keeping low in the ferns to optimize their cover. Once at the very edge of the foliage, the figure stopped and scanned the area with their eyes.
Not finding anything in sight, the figure slowly crept forward on their belly, pausing every few feet to listen and look around to see if anyone had noticed them. Once convinced that their stealth hadn’t been seen through, they would continue their slow approach.
The figure could only shake their head as they thought about the absolutely insane speed Joram and his group had flown at, leaving them almost an hour behind in their arrival. That someone had a flying artifact that was faster than theirs was impressive, to say the least.
The person stopped their slow crawl forward and sniffed the air. Between the last location recorded on the tracker and the scent they’d just caught, they were sure that this was where they landed. With even greater caution than before, they crept their way across the area, looking for tracks.
The shrouded figure eventually came across the indents from the table, then followed the tracks until they suddenly vanished in front of them. Very similar to how their tracks had first appeared when leaving Joram’s flying artifact. Except, this time, there were no tell-tale signs of a large vessels touching down.
The person looked around again, then went over the entire site another time, making sure to get an accurate count of the footprints left behind. Oddly, there were seventeen pairs of tracks, one more than there should have been. Was the intel wrong?
But, where were they?
The figure stood up where the tracks vanished and looked around. Just as they summoned their flying treasure, an exquisitely crafted broadsword, they felt a pair of hands grab them from behind as everything went black.
* * * * *
Having finished the master’s textbook on array theory, Joram got up and went outside. Since the girls were still in the bathhouse, he went out the front. No need to get closer to a potential death flag.
His meandering led him to the portal back to the prime. From this side, it was like looking through an open door. So, when he saw a shadowy figure skulking about on the other side, he immediately grew wary.
Joram watched as the person crawled this way and that across the ground, going from place to place. After a few minutes of observing the person, he realized that they were going over his landing site, then where he’d set the table up for the map. Finally, the person got to where the portal was standing and stopped dead.
He tensed then, wondering if they somehow had a way to see the portal. He was about to [Decerebrate] the person when they got up and harumphed. The person looked around, trying to spot anything, but didn’t have any luck.
Joram wondered just who they were, and why they were following his group. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps Emily’s parents were angrier than she’d reported and had sent someone after them. But then he was reminded that a few of the study group came from the nobility, so the possibility that one of their families had sent someone was there.
When the person retrieved an amazing-looking broadsword, he acted.
M3: [Psychic Crush A]
M4: [Microcosm]
M5: [Sleep A]
M6: [Natural Healing]
As his Minds were in the process of manifesting those powers, Joram stepped forward and grabbed the person from behind, wrapping one arm around their torso to pin their arms while his other hand tightly clamped over their mouth. He felt the person stiffen just before the Powers went off.
Joram smiled at a job well done and he slung the person over his shoulder, picked up and stored the broadsword, retrieved the gate cube from his pocket, and unlocked the portal so that he could step back through. Once back inside, he reactivated the lock and made his way back to the house…. Honestly, it was a mansion considering the size and number of rooms it had.
He walked past the circle of couches and bean bag chairs near the front of the room all the way to the centre of the room where he gently deposited the person onto the tatami-like floor. He took a moment to once again take in their attire.
They looked like a ninja. For as much as he wracked his brain, he couldn’t come up with a better description of their outfit. It wasn’t quite like the Clan Protectors he’d seen growing up, having a different cut to the outfit.
Still, they were wearing all black and dark charcoal greys, basically a monochromatic camo. Heck, they even had the bracers, shin guards, and a little heart plate on their chest. Well maybe not so little, as it covered a good deal of their ribcage. Their headwrap and face cover were pretty generic too, leaving out any embellishments that might give someone a clue as to where they might have come from or who they might be affiliated with.
He crouched down and gave them a pat-down, searching for any hidden weapons or magical items. As he did, he noticed a few things. One, they had an impressive number of hidden weapons, poisons, and such. Two, they also carried three different storage-type items. Three… well.
The person was a female.
He retrieved his glasses then gave the woman a quick physical scan while also searching for anything he might have missed.
The results were interesting.
For one, her genetic profile wasn’t one he’d come across yet. Another interesting feature was that her ears were not only pointed, but a good three centimetres longer than Renna’s. The last thing about her physiology that he found was that the skin around her eyes hadn’t been blackened with makeup.
Yet another thing he found was that the small breastplate contained a very minor spatial enchantment that allowed for the backside to contain a bit more room than the armour looked like it should. Lastly, he had also found a few more items he’d missed on his first pass. But, in his defense, they were hidden in places that he hadn’t wanted to touch, for propriety’s sake.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Well, not that she’d be waking up any time soon. [Microcosm] sent the target of the Power into their own permanent dreamworld. Aside from manifesting the Power on them again, only something like [Psychic Chirurgery] or [Reality Revision], both peak level powers, could take her out of that dream world, for not even [Dispel Psionics] or [Unravel Psionics] would dispel the dream world.
That said, he’d also used [Sleep] on her because anyone in a [Microcosm] made the same kind of noises that someone would if they were having an especially emotional dream. So, [Sleep] because it put the target into a restful, and disturbance-free slumber.
He considered his options as he sat back on his heels, watching her breath.
The three main categories he could think of were: interrogation, death, or letting her go on her merry way after removing [Microcosm], wiping her recent memories, and dumping her somewhere relatively safe.
The interrogation had a few avenues of pursuit. He could just mundanely torture her to get that he wanted to know. But that had more than a few drawbacks that he didn’t like. Like his aversion to such a thing and its inherent unreliability.
The other route for interrogation was to just rifle through her mind to get what he wanted to know. Again, it wasn’t something he wanted to do given his views on privacy and such. But he could definitely do it.
The death route was pretty straightforward. He could either dump her somewhere and let nature take its course, in the form of her dying from dehydration or being eaten by something that came across her that decided that she’d make a good snack.
The last option wasn’t one he was likely to choose given that she had been sent after one of them. Sure, he might do it after he got what he needed from her, but not before.
All that taken into consideration, he had a few more considerations to go through.
Would he hide her away from the others to interrogate her in secret? Should he tell them about her, what he’d found on her, and what she’d been doing when he’d found her? Would he make it a group discussion? Let them all decide what to do with the ninja? Or should he just keep it to his inner circle?
He felt that any route he took came with its own problems.
Shaking his head, he drew her into the Network and promptly muted her so that nothing could leak from her connection into the rest of the Network. Once she was in, he also manifested [Sustenance] on her and set a mental reminder to renew the Power every day until she could once again care for herself. He didn’t want to accidentally kill her, after all.
Joram then paid attention to his field of perception and found that the study group was slowly leaving the changeroom to gather in the lobby of the bathhouse to have a glass of milk. Which meant that he needed to decide what to do with the ninja sooner rather than later.
He quickly stored away her many items into his Realm, including her storage items. He hadn’t bothered taking off her breastplate, as that seemed a bit much for the moment. As the first person, Sophia, started heading back to the house, Joram made his decision.
It took another ten minutes for everyone to gather in the living room. He had to, once again, beg off their questions until everyone was present.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about this before?’ Alicia asked, sounding both a bit angry and a bit hurt.
‘I was still contemplating what to do about her,’ he sent back apologetically. ‘This is kind of a first for me.’
‘Fine. But immediately tell me if something like this happens again,’ she sent, sounding only slightly less annoyed with him.
‘Promise!’
Once everyone was present, and after having noted everyone’s reactions to seeing the ninja, he spoke.
“So, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I found this person literally sniffing around out base camp,” he said, motioning vaguely at the supine woman. “Does anyone have any ideas as to where she came from or why she’s here?”
Of them all, only the nobles and princesses seemed to show the most reaction, or distinctly no reaction, to his question.
Alyraele only frowned and shook her head, seeming to be genuinely at a loss even though she seemed to recognize a spy/assassin when she saw one.
Renna had been frowning most of the time. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the woman being a ninja, or because her eyes were drawn to the ninja’s exposed shin around her eyes. If the popular narrative of elves back home had any basis from here, then that would explain the frowns and slightly furrowed brows.
Both Faenwyn and Kassandra shook their heads, though Kassandra seemed more curious than afraid of the ninja.
Emily, though, looked uncertain. She was chewing her lower lip as she looked at the ninja. Her agitation went so far as to cause her tail to twitch slightly every now and then, while her ears were slightly turned back from how they normally sat.
Jae-Eun also appeared shocked when she first saw the ninja, but soon calmed when Aya placed a hand on her shoulder. That said, Aya had stared daggers at the ninja at first, but had quickly regained her work face. Which meant that she once again looked like a murder machine ready to get to business at the drop of a hat.
“Any ideas, Emily?” He asked as he turned to look at her directly.
“Well, if my father was annoyed enough at my leaving, he might have sent someone to either watch over me or bring me back,” she said a bit uncertainly.
“Is that likely?” He asked, prompting her to continue with her thoughts.
“Not very, no. Given that they placed me in your care, I don’t think that mother would allow such a thing,” she said, getting more than a few reactions from the other young women present.
“Makes sense,” he said, trying very hard to ignore the pointed looks he was getting. “Does anyone else have any ideas?” He asked, looking directly at Aya, who then turned her gaze away from him.
There were a few comments, but all basically said that they had no clue why that person was there.
“What about you?” Kassandra asked, redirecting the question at him.
“Ah…” he said, once again going through the possibilities in his head. “Well, there was that prat who tried to frame me after he broke his hand punching me.”
“You mean Garros Arabanise?” Alyraele asked, trying not to look shocked at his words while also trying not to show her amusement.
Joram looked over to Mo Yu and got a nod.
“Yeah, that would be him,” he said, nodding. “Now that I’m out of the Academy for a while, he may have taken the opportunity to finally try to exact revenge for his but-hurt pride,” he said, getting a few snorts of laughter from them.
“From what I know of him, that would make sense,” Alyraele said musingly. “But, why wait so long?”
“Considering that he’s got a faulty personality, I can’t even guess,” Joram said with a shrug, getting a few giggles this time, which led him to believe that he was relatively well-known and not much liked.
“Well, why don’t we ask this… person ourselves? Couldn’t we at least get some information from her?” Gabrielle asked, voicing the obvious question for everyone.
“That probably won’t work,” Aya piped in reluctantly. “It’s a common practice to make any spies or assassins like these a slave. Which means that they’ll be bound to not share anything about their owner, organization, clients, or missions to anyone that their owner doesn’t approve of.”
He noticed Kassandra, Jezira, and Jae-Eun nod to that.
“Anyone familiar with slavery seals?” He asked, hoping that someone else would be.
He’d studied them a bit, but he didn’t consider himself to be very proficient with them. Especially since he’d never experimented by casting those spells on anyone.
Joram would have liked to say that Kassandra’s raised hand surprised him, but given the stereotypes surrounding Succubae, he really wasn’t. Once Kassandra had her hand raised, Jezira also raised her hand.
“All right,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I know that most slavery seals leave a visible mark on the target for easy identification. But I also know that some can be hidden, which makes things more complicated,” he said, getting nods from a few others.
“So, do you know any spells that can detect a slavery seal?” He asked Kassandra.
“Hmm, one. But I would need to create an array first, then place her inside for it to work,” she replied.
Joram looked around, noting that the living room wasn’t exactly the best place to draw an array given the tatami flooring.
“Let’s head outside,” he said, then stood up while slinging the ninja over his shoulder. “There’s a flat area out there that might work.”
As they went, Joram questioned Kassandra about the ritual. It wasn’t terribly complicated, but it would require T3 crystals to work. And since she hadn’t reached Tier 5 yet, nor was he willing to come clean about his own cultivation, he would need to provide the seven T3LGCs.
It wasn’t that she, or any of the other nobles, were poor, but none of them carried any currency on them, preferring to use their student/bank cards.
He briefly wondered at the parallel with how people dealt with money back in his hometown on Earth. Most people no longer carried anything more than pocket change on them, also preferring to “tap” for their purchases.
Coming back to the moment, he summoned the seven coins and placed them in their designated spots around the magic circle. Yeah, when an array was drawn out for a ritual, it very much looked like the popular magic circles portrayed in pop culture. If one just manually cast a spell, then you didn’t get the circle.
But seeing as how Kassandra couldn’t cast the spell herself, the ritual circle/array was needed. It was actually very useful for someone who had the knowledge of a spell but lacked the power to cast it. Which, once again, got him thinking.
But he quickly stopped. Mostly because of the situation, but also due to how crazy expensive it would be to fuel any spells he couldn’t cast himself with Crystals. Tier 4 Mana was no joke.
One thing that he appreciated as Kassandra started the ritual was that there was no “chanting” requirement. Not that people didn’t do so when casting spells. On the contrary, most people did. But it wasn’t a requirement of casting spells. It was more a mnemonic aid.
Spells got very complicated as they went up in Tiers, and having something to help a person remember the spells they learned, and to help visualize the desired outcome, was very helpful. To most.
He came back to the moment once more when Kassandra finished activating the ritual and saw a glowing spot on the woman’s abdomen just below her navel. It was so bright that it shone through her clothing, giving her monochromatic clothing a crimson hue.
Joram stepped forward and crouched down beside the woman and tugged her shirt aside so that he could see the mark. As he took in the strange symbol, he also perceived the reactions of his companions.
The young women who he knew had a “thing” for him all frowned when he revealed the woman’s belly. Renna frowned, her brows lowering as her mouth opened briefly before closing again.
The non-nobles looked curious, though also a bit scandalized at his actions. Faenwyn practically started to snarl, her lips pulled back so far that almost every tooth in her mouth could be seen. She had some impressive incisors.
Both Emily and Kassandra frowned at the sight of the slavery mark, probably recognizing it.
For his part, Joram was a bit beside himself at meeting his first dark elf. Sure, seeing the dark skin around her eyes had been one thing. It could have very well been a tattoo or something. But seeing the same skin tone on her abdomen confirmed it for him. A dark elf.
Also, a slave.
He peered at the mark and its placement. It was surely tied to her core, making the slavery seal the most insidious of its kind. If a slavery seal was placed on a person’s core, it gave the “owner” unparalleled control over the “slave”. With that kind of control, for the “owner”, it was easier than farting to kill the “slave”. Or just torture them.
You know, typical bad-guy stuff.
Looking at the slavery seal, Joram found that he was much angrier than he thought he’d be. Freedom to live one’s life how they chose was so ingrained in him that he was becoming nauseated looking at the seal.
* * * * *
Emily looked down at the Belladonna and found that her first meeting with one wasn’t as lethal as she’d imagined it would be. Their reputation of being almost perfect assassins and spies was certainly well-deserved. Since their first appearance, the organization had grown tremendously.
As far as she knew, the Belladonnas’ reach now spanned across both continents. They weren’t cheap to hire, nor were they, supposedly, easy to get in contact with. There were no few powers out there that wanted their organization wiped from existence, so contacting one of their representatives was understandably difficult.
That Joram had captured one was beyond remarkable. She couldn’t get a feel for the woman’s cultivation level, which either meant that Joram hadn’t removed an aura shroud, or she was in the 5th Tier. Which also raised many questions.
Just who could afford to hire a 5th Tier Belladonna? Who had she been sent after? Was her mission to just gather information on them? Or was she sent to kill one of them? All of them? Their questing expedition, or field trip as Joram called it, was the perfect time to get rid of one, or all, of them.
Joram had reminded them of his… dispute with Garros Arabanise. But was that silk pants canny enough to get in contact with the Belladonnas? Or had it been his father? They were surely in a financial position to be able to hire the Belladonnas, but a Tier 5 agent should have cost a fortune, even for House Arabanise.
She glanced over at Kassandra and wondered if the other princess’s position in her empire was secure. Surely, a third princess wasn’t a threat to anyone actually vying for the throne.
Then a chill went up her spine as she felt a familiar aura spike in intensity. She looked over to where Joram crouched beside the Belladonna, her eyes widening in shock as she reflexively took a few steps back with everyone else.
Joram’s battle aura had sprung to life, his jade fire/lighting aura more intense than she’d ever seen it. But that wasn’t what had caused her to step back. It was the murderous intent that flooded his aura that scared her.
* * * * *
The chill that ran down Mo Yu’s spine was both familiar and alien to her. She’d felt Joram’s murderous intent back on the ship when Garros has accosted her. She’d also felt his battle aura twice now. But to have them combined scared her more than she’d thought possible.
Amongst them all, only Alicia stood her ground when the aura hit them. She knew that they were close, and that they shared a deeper connection than any of the rest of them. But she still feared for her safety.
On the ship, Joram’s fury had been a cold and calculating thing. This time, it felt more… primal. As though the very heavens were about to open and rain destruction down upon their heads.
Mo Yu tried to swallow, but found that her mouth was too dry. She wanted to approach Joram, but couldn’t make her legs move.
She wanted to ask Joram what had pulled such a reaction from him, but found that she couldn’t speak.
Then his aura changed, and her stomach clenched. She couldn’t say what it was that she felt, but she suddenly felt very, very small and incredibly vulnerable as the energy washed over her.