Matt had been focused on his magic for the last week. He had leveled up and felt he would be moderately useful in any coming confrontation. Despite the others telling him life was usually good and safe, it had been disproven again and again. Like today.

Their food had been poisoned, and apparently they had been followed when they went out. Worst of all? It appeared that every former slave that Kali had helped start a new life, might be dead and buried already. The swift machinations of a large organization with means, and a terrible goal in mind. Erase them from existence.

As awesome as this world was, sometimes he just hated it. Hated feeling weak and trapped once more. Trapped on this station, unable to take a ship and just leave. No, they would probably have to fight their way out, again, and might just lose someone, again. It just was so unfair. Why did they have to go through so much trouble just because some people didn’t want something to leak out?

Was magic truly disappearing? It sure didn’t feel that way. Maybe it was simply due to some military tests of some sort? Who knew? They were all just guessing at this point. He for one sure hoped magic wasn’t just about to disappear. He was leveling the [Mage] class after all, and wouldn’t it just suck if suddenly he was useless again? No, he couldn’t believe in that.

There had to be a reason, or another explanation to what had happened. If only to alleviate his fears… But he had largely been stuck in this room like Philip, so he had no way to truly know any of what the others discussed, engrossed as he had been in practice. Still, vague as Philip was right now about who he had seen following them, one thing was clear. Someone was after them.

Matt brought his attention back to the present and away from his thoughts to listen in on the ongoing conversation that the others were having. He didn’t really feel included, which made him uncomfortable, but he knew he had isolated himself lately so it wasn’t that strange.

“I’m telling you, we can’t just sit here and bunker up.” Kali was saying.

“If we do, we simply give them time to prepare, plus, they know where to find us.” She added as Philip looked unconvinced.

“Oh, because you think going out right now is safe. I get it, but where, pray tell, do you want us to go? We can’t exactly leave the station apparently.” Philip argued back.

“We can probably leave the station, if we really want to.” Xar added from the side, Philip turned to glare at him.

“If it really is the Crystal Emporium after us, do you really think we can escape from the station?” Philip scoffed at them.

“Well, if you think like that, you might as well lie down and die, no? Plus, we are so far from Dust, I’m not sure how much reach they could have this fast. I doubt there are more than a few agents on the station. Sure they are pulling strings, but they can’t have that many assassins or whatever after us. Not out here in the middle of nowhere.” Kali argued.

“Oh that’s why…” Matt mumbled to himself but louder than he thought as the others turned to him. Kali looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s why they tried to poison us, no? It makes sense. Why go through the trouble if they could just kill us outright? No?” He asked, now very unsure of himself. It had made perfect sense until he had said it out loud.

“The kid’s absolutely right.” Krovukk said, and Matt sighed in relief. The group actually kind of moved slightly to include him in the conversation and Matt sat up straighter, ready to try and help.

“If they felt they had enough manpower to come after us cleanly, they would have. Why try to poison us instead of simply storming the room and making sure we are all dead? It also makes more sense why the others kept finding ‘jobs’ as they could thin out the group way more easily.” Krovukk argued and both Kali and Philip nodded. It did make sense, Matt felt.

But that also implied they had a certain degree of control of the infrastructure without the need for agents per se. Out here they could probably bribe most people he guessed.

“Um, I think the first thing to do is to confirm what we have guessed at. We don’t even know if it’s the Crystal Emporium, or why we are being targeted.” Matt tried timidly. His voice fading at the end.

“Yeah? And how do you propose we do that?” Philip challenged him, arms crossed.

“I-I don’t know?” Was all Matt managed to say. In truth he had some ideas, but he had been taken aback by the harsh tone and unsure if they were good ideas to begin with.

The room fell silent briefly as everyone seemed to ponder what to do. Matt worked through his ideas in his head, trying to muster up the courage to share them with the group, but their serious expressions made him unsure if now was the time. But things weren’t progressing right now, they had been basically talking in circles for almost twenty minutes. They had to do something…

“I-I think we could try to capture one of the people stalking us for starters?” Matt tried timidly. It seemed no one had heard him, so he tried again, a bit louder.

“I think we could try to capture one of the people stalking us.” This time he got Kali’s attention.

“Yeah, the issue is that we might get into an ambush.” She said, while continuing to look like she was thinking about something else.

“Well, if we don’t want to take any risks, why not check archives or something to see if something like this has happened before. There are bound to be some traces, no?” Matt said, more confidently this time.

“That’s actually a good idea. Plus it would get us out of here.” Kali said, looking at the room.

“Xar, do they have some kind of archives in this station?” Kali asked the rat.

“I don’t know… We don’t usually do detective work, you know. More go in, blow shit up and get out.” He shrugged.

“Kro?” She asked, almost pleading for a different answer.

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“Sorry, I don’t know either, but I do know who we could ask, and it should also be the safest place in the station.” He said, to which the group perked up.

“Of course.” Xar said as he facepalmed.

“Can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier.” He added, smiling now.

“What? Going to keep us in the dark much longer?” Philip snapped at them, irritated.

“We should simply go to the adventuring guild.” Krovukk said as he spread his arms out.

“As good an idea as that is for you, I’m a wanted man. Now I know most adventurers aren’t bounty hunters for illegal corporations, but they do exist.” Philip shot down the idea.

“What if you were an adventurer though?” Xar asked.

“He’s right, adventurers never hunt each other. All of you should actually register, because if we are there as a team, we might even get a room for protection if we ask for it. The guild looks out after its own.” Xar explained.

“That’s actually a good idea, but we can’t exactly tell them the Crystal Emporium is after us now can we? Plus, we don’t know that for sure.” Kali said.

“True, they will use truth spells too to make sure we aren’t making shit up.” Xar added.

“What if we just tell them what we know?” Matt said, surprising them by his intervention once more. They turned to him and he got self conscious, paused for a bit before continuing.

“All that we know is that someone tried to poison us with that.” He said pointing.

“We can bring some for them to check, and also say we think it is because we know some sensitive information, without saying what it is, but we are unsure as of yet who exactly is after us?” He suggested.

“Kid’s a genius.” Xar said with a smile, before continuing.

“He is completely right, if we phrase it correctly, not only will we be telling the complete truth, we can even say we cannot divulge the information for fear of what it could do. Because let's be real, if the Crystal Emporium comes crashing down, I’m not sure the adventurers guild out here will help us for long. If we were on Dust, it might be different, but out here?” He finished.

“Alright, it’s settled then, you are all going to become adventurers.” Krovukk grinned at the three of them. It almost looked like his eyes were glinting with something.

“I don’t have a say in this?” Philip asked, outraged.

“Well, we are going.” Kali said, pointing to the rest of them, including Matt.

“You are free to stay here if you want.” She said nonchalantly.

The group already moved towards the door. Krovukk took the lead, peeking into the hallway before doing an all clear sign. Matt was impressed by the decisiveness. Once they were decided, these people did not hesitate. They hadn’t even come to the magical elevator that Philip was already running up to them to catch up.

“Well, not like I have a choice here, right?” He asked no one in particular.

************************

“The targets are moving out.” A man clad in ordinary clothing said into an enchanted rock. He kept feeling like one of them had seen him, as he looked around angrily. But then his fear was relieved when the man pointed angrily at someone else, clearly talking about something unrelated.

The poison hadn’t worked, which meant they had work to do now. It was obvious in hindsight that poison wouldn’t work. It had been wishful thinking of them. They were up against adventurers, who now were clearly alerted. Not their favored targets, adventurers aware of danger.

On the other hand this job also paid a whole lot more than usual, which made sense. Most jobs were dangerous for several different reasons, but rarely was it death in combat that was the risk. Usually the danger was simply to be discovered and get a bounty or something. Which you could make go away if you paid enough. This time? They were truly risking their lives, which was also the reason they had wanted an easy way out. He regretted letting the others persuade him to try the poison. He had known it was a bad idea.

Now, the real issue was, what were they going to do? He continued to follow them from a distance as they walked, clearly on their guard. They hadn’t been in a very central part of the station, but now they were clearly going towards the center. The truth was that it might not matter. They would set up an ambush before they hit the busier streets.

It wasn’t easy, setting up an ambush, especially not at this hour, too many people about. Which was why they needed some time to clear a street and set something up while he was keeping an eye on them. If worse came to worst, they would just call it off if they took a strange route where they hadn’t set up, but that didn’t look to be the case so far. They were clearly on a course and going as straight as possible.

Maybe they didn’t think they were being followed? The different agents had been unsure if they had been spotted or not. Some of their skills seemed to think so, but the targets themselves seemed blissfully unaware, which meant someone else had noticed them being shady. But who?

He just hoped it wouldn’t matter, as he heard the others organizing a particular empty street into a deadly ambush. They were only a few minutes away now, if they stayed their course. He stayed quite far behind them, the crowd thinning in this particular area. It would be close to perfect for something set up so quickly.

He heard everyone get ready to pounce in his earpiece. He accelerated himself to box them in, an unseen dagger in their backs. Maybe the poison hadn’t worked, but this would be easy pickings.

The one in charge of the ambush signaled the go ahead and he held his breath as he tried to catch up, he had lost sight of them behind a corner, the corner just before the ambush. There was silence in the earpiece as it was useless during a fight, with all the noise, it would only disorient them to hear someone yelling in their ears, but that also meant he had no idea how the first clash had gone.

Finally catching up, he turned the corner only to see the adventurers in a circle formation, barely a scratch on them, with one boy shining light in their two agent’s eyes, another two agents split in two and losing their innards and blood on the floor, another that had become meat paste on the floor and walls and the last one in the hands of the girl, choking in her apparently deadly grip, flailing for his life before being put unconscious by a headbut.

This had been too fast. They had clearly been ready and prepared themselves. He only saw a few superficial cuts here and there, but nothing major. The real issue now was that they all turned to him, and he froze for a second.

It didn’t make any sense, the battle had been over in a few seconds. It was too fast. How high level were they? Of course they knew that two of them were silver adventurers, who had apparently recently passed level twenty, but the others were supposed to be nobodies.

This? It looked more like all of them were silver rank at least, with the two veterans probably level 30, how else could he explain how fast they had failed? Their info had been three months old at most. How had they leveled so much so fast?

Recovering his wits a bit late, he turned around to make a run for it. He had seen in their eyes that they knew that he was with the others and he didn’t intend to end up like them. Behind him, he heard footsteps heavily impacting the floor in a fast rhythm.

As soon as he turned a corner with a few people he used his best escape skill, [One With The Crowd], his appearance changed to blend in with the others, and the skill also made him harder to look at naturally. Their eyes would gravitate towards the others making him able to easily sneak away.

But something was wrong, and he could see the girl behind him run straight at him, eyes locked on him. How had she seen through his skill so easily? Still, he was probably faster thanks to not only his class, but a variety of skills.

[Agile Leap], [Lesser Dextery] and other skills helped him climb over obstacles and run up on a rather low balcony. After running away for about more five minutes, he felt like he had lost her. Sweating at having used most of his skills, he looked around, looked down from the roof he was currently on, only to see the woman below, looking straight up at him.

How in the system’s name was she doing it?