I am being followed. Something must have been triggered a scouting group following me, but I have not really a clue what especially has made me a target. There are some possibilities, but nothing I can directly pinpoint.
While walking, one takes the front and travels closer to me while his members fan out to different vantage points, not suspicious at all, you idiots. How about you shout out ‘we wanna rob you’, while you are at it.
“Fellow Merc, would you wait a bit. You are too close to the forbidden reaches.”
So what, I do not care about the imaginary boundary.
“Sorry, I have no time to waste.”
“I said stop or my friends show you their archery!”
Annoying. But maybe I can experiment finally with something, I wanted to use for a long time. Stopping and turning around the bandit rather brazenly shows his face like it is no concern of him being identified. Clean shaven, so it should not be a desperate attempt to just rob me as I am alone.
“What do you want?”
Smiling, this guy thinks he is in the superior position.
“First of all we want to know where you are going, and after that you might leave your Backpack. Your life is worth more than a few items, don’t you think?”
The backpack is a ruse… They are too wealthy to want my supplies, they want to know where I came from. This removes the small scuffle in the alley, and attempts to identify me as a spy. So it should be an Item I sold. The magical radish should be the the culprit.
“And why does the Order of Kindek want to know where I go?”
Slight twitch was seen, but else he has a rather good poker face.
“Think what you want, do you comply?”
Slowly grabbing the hilt of my sword.
“And what if I just fight?”
“With a backpack still on? Are you an amateur?”
Even his members chuckle lightly in the background. I am weighed down and so I am theoretically at a disadvantage. Still I draw it and lunge with a sideswipe.
“You Idio…”
The Idiot is you, blocking my sword with your gauntlet and trying to draw your own sword. His friends ready to fire, but let their arrows fire in the wrong direction, as the lightning blinded them and the thunder roar disorients them.
While his muscles are locked I pierce my sword in his stomach and cook his innards with another lightning strike, before activating the cape and vanishing into the shadows of the smoking carcass.
“Mage!”
“Find him!”
Try all you want, I am in this twilight between the trees invisible. Remembers me kind of a movie where an invisible hunter stalks some Soldiers. In the end it died from the last Soldier, so I take this as my queue to just leave them right now and travel back home.
…
Sneaking away took a bit of time, but after an hour I could remove my stealth and start walking again. The next town should not be again Kilt, as I am on the blacklist if they were really from the Kindek Order.
The Order of ‘Kindek the kinetic’ is normally rather tame, as their Order is only able to work a resource outpost. Well if worst comes to worst I go down right to Malek next time. Malek is way bigger and much more important as it borders not only the Forest, it corners the south kingdom and the Merchants border is the closest to Malek, so the business is booming.
While walking I review the efficiency of the gauntlet. The electricity should have been only close to deadly, but by touching the Mana of the man it increased in power tremendously. My original plan was to shock him, evade the arrows and kill him from the side, but with the extreme effect I just cooked him inside out. The smoke coming from his body was hiding my escape, so it was even easier getting into the shadows. As the others were far away anyway, they would have lost my sight right after the first corner, but the smokescreen effect was helpful.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Sadly I could not take back the corpse to look up the damage. I should have tested the Weapon on monsters first and not only on dummies.
…
Getting home with the last ray of sunlight shows it is really better to rest before overusing the muscles. I do not have the heightened stimuli of pain inside the bodies, so it is rather hard to understand how to be careful and not overstrain them. At least I remember to regularly drink liquid for not accidentally die of thirst.
Through the gates I see Snow hopping over and greeting Ava. Petting her head she squeaks in delight. The commotion also draws Leafy from the Gazebo.
“Welcome home Lord. How was the journey?”
“It had its up and downs. The radishes seem to be worth heavy coin. For now it might be okay to sell one or two, but they draw attention. Bad attention.”
“Did something happen?”
“Some Bandits. Nothing directly worrying, I escaped fast.”
“By the way, you are not wearing your mask anymore?”
SHIT! Forgot to put on the mask! Why do I not remember such simple things earlier? While revisiting the whole thing, I have forgotten this aspect completely.
Sigh “I forgot. Well now you see that face. It is not my true face though. I might look different sometimes, so try to not be too startled.”
“I understand Lord.”
Hope she thinks I am a shapeshifter or something in the category. If she knows I have a storage full of bodies to wear, it will be awkward.
“Did someone come after I left or while I was away?”
Of course someone came, I saw it.
“Yes, as you expected Lord, the Roots are still careful with their approach. My hope is for your understanding, that this is only our careful Nature and no hidden agenda.”
“Yeah, I know. They hate contact with other species, and keep to themselves. If you weren’t here I would only know they are watching, but not exactly where.”
It is true, they are masters of stealth, given they do not want anyone know their existence in the first place. Other elves might not be this heavily defined on secrecy, but are still known for their ability to blend into the forest, what shows how over the top Roots are.
“I am sorry for the inconvenience Lord Null.”
“Nothing to worry about. So long as they do not take something from me, I am content.”
“...take?”
“Huh? Ah, it is nothing. I just hate when things get taken from me. I might get cranky.”
“Understood, Lord Null.”
…
I am an Idiot. Yep I did it again, I forgot something simple. The water in the cistern in front of the Village is now completely saturated with Mana, too. Why? I made a tunnel to the mill for removal of mud. The water streams are connected!
While the water slowly gives off Mana, the Water is slightly less infused, but that does not mean much. I create some water urns to store water for later, so the Mana dissipates from it by itself.
What I do right now is to make transporting Mana into the forest easier. A tunnel is connecting the waterway with the Moat in front of my tunnel. Right below it I create a new waterway out of the crater into the Forest. The water overflows right into this tunnel and makes it out through it. This is the theory, now to the practice. While I hammer away on the now more usable strangely blue iron anvil I hammer a pick and shovel for further aligning the waterways outside the Crater. As I can just do my work inside with just thinking about it, outside I have to do it myself.
…
A rather crude pick and shovel made it easier to create some grooves inside the earth for the water to dissipate. It would go into the woods anyway, as the way into the forest is slightly going down, but it is not enough to not overflow the nine trees right in front. Whatever happens, those nine should be honored, so I dig grooves between those trees to let it not accumulate and drown the roots.
As I have no Idea what I am doing, I just hope I do the right thing. It is hard work and will take time.
…
Four days I worked on this whole thing. Laying stones on the sides to help the water go around the trees and not over them, making channels in different directions into the forest for a few hundred meters, making it end on the lowest point possible and even thinking of a runic circle around the tunnel entrance infused with the residual mana of the water to create a slight mana flow to not let the Bubble close somehow. Now the removal of the Mana is automatic. I FINALLY do not have to think about it anymore. Never thought it would be automatic in the end. I can stop the mental automation and use it for something else.
While drinking the tea Leafy made for me, I notice a presence enter my Domain. It is a scout from the Roots, obviously visiting Leafy. First he searches her at the gazebo, but right now she is at the gardens. Unsure he stealthily searches forwards until he notices her.
Rushing to her side, he opens the pouch and takes out three leafs. This time she has three letters, well she said she would like some penpals between her friends, so it is at least something.
“Thank you. Do you want to drink tea, before you leave again?”
“Orders to neither dawdle or talk to much, sorry.”
“I understand, good bye.”
Nodding he runs out the Village right into the tunnel. Seems like he was ordered to be tight lipped for some reason. Distrust can not be cleared that easily it seems… on both sides.
The first thing Leafy did was leave the Gardens be and came to the Mansion. Knocking she enters and brings me first message before even looking at the Letters.
“Lord, I have gotten letters from my people. This time they are three different sender, let me see. Um… what?”
“Is something wrong?”
“Uh, no no, just… One is from my Mother again and another from Shimmering Petal, you have already met, but the third is… from the Queen Mother?”