And then it was his turn. Vacuse wore the ring and pictured what he wanted in his mind. He didn’t even feel the process when he changed, but he knew he had.
He looked down at himself and nodded in satisfaction.
Lady Slave raised a brow. "I didn’t think you would go for sothing like this. Not that bad, I’ll say."
Vacuse had turned into a round man. His skin was flabby and his face chubby, with small dark eyes set in the folds of his skin. It was strange, as he could feel both his old and new form overlapping.
Even more, it shielded his power from sensing.
The glamour was an interesting enchantnt—and expensive too, enough to clear all of Vacuse’s new shiny gold just to get three—but he was satisfied with the trade-in.
He was most satisfied.
And since they had already stocked up on food, there was nothing in particular to worry about other than to set off on their journey through the mountains.
"Alright, Yutaka!" Vacuse’s voice had even changed; it was now soft and carried a hint of femininity. "Let’s go! From now on, I’m a rchant on my way to Umbracrypt, and Lady Maraget is my warrior!"
Yutaka nodded and bowed. "I have also made complete preparations on my side. With my plans, we only have to stop and hunt in four territories before reaching the middle of the mountains. I’ve already put so funds aside for the permissions!"
Vacuse clapped his now flabby hands. "Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!"
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
"Their trail ended here, my lord Valthorne." The voice was trying its best to be nonchalant, but fear clung to it like its only skin. "And from the estimation, it must have been a week or more since the battle happened here."
The voice belonged to the Manager of the guides in Gloomspire. And it was strange indeed that this man would move out of Gloomspire just to attend to a lord personally, as if he were still an active guide leading people in the mountains.
Even more strange was the elderly man beside him with a long white beard. It was none other than the leader of the Gloomspire gang! Even he was there!
And why would they not be there? Beside them, looking at everything with irritation, was a man they dared not look in the face. Standing there, everything seed to tilt toward the man as if the world itself acknowledged him.
It was the fifth-circle Magus, Lord Magus Valthorne. He looked at everything around him with disapproval, as if being in the tunnel was an offense. "I can see that much, Manager! What I want to know, and still don’t understand, is how you let such people leave your area of surveillance?"
The manager began to sweat. In truth, the mountains and everything living in them were difficult to wipe out, and the gangs had ford so kind of power structure for themselves. At the sa ti, they knew to fear the two academies on whose land they stayed.
For a fifth-circle Magus to enter the mountains was unheard of, even at the ti when the two academies were at war with the mountains. But here he was, one in the flesh. A very irritated one at that.
But who would have thought that those two hunters—that blind guy—were the ones who killed the fad dream beast of the Eboncrypt! They had such a treasure in their hands!
But then again, the manager had even dispatched a squad because of this sa suspicion of his, and yet, the squads were dead—sothing that didn’t happen often.
The manager swallowed. "We did have them under surveillance, but I never thought that... they could kill my spy. They are the best under these mountains! This is how we lost them!"
Magus Valthorne sneered, and his lips curled in disgust. He turned away and began to search on his own, shoving anyone that got in his way roughly.
It wasn’t just the three of them who were there. The gangs and the guides had brought their best with them, not to ntion the force that followed Magus Valthorne.
In fact, the manager was investing in the matter so much that he had received permission from his leadership and brought another squad. This ti, they were in the third circle—not only because the hunters had escaped or because the Eboncrypt was after them,
but because they had killed squad mbers. All of them, without leaving a single one alive. How did they do sothing like that?
Suddenly, Magus Valthorne froze. It was so sudden that everyone in the tunnel sucked in a sharp breath and felt chills down their spines. Unconsciously, just like the world, they had also tilted toward the most powerful person among them, and as such, his reaction was noticed imdiately.
Green darkness boiled around the Magus, and one of his undead stood on his shoulder. It was his fairy.
Magus Valthorne gestured. "Can you still feel it? There’s a death thread that disappeared here. Unlike the other dead we’ve configured, this one wasn’t too fast to catch."
The undead fairy flew into the air with buzzing wings and began to make grand gestures with its fingers. Before long, a coiling bit of translucent green energy hovered in the air.
Magus Valthorne’s eyes lit up, and he smiled. "Good! Good! Connect with the other dead. We should see one that wasn’t destroyed!"
As a necromancer, Magus Valthorne could tell when sothing had died in a place, depending on the passage of ti and the power level of the said dead thing. Also, depending, he could track it.
But that was assuming that the body hadn’t been destroyed.
Before long, though, he let out a grin as he found what he was looking for. "Out of five bodies, only one wasn’t destroyed, but it’s in a very strange state. I can’t seem to track it."
The Magus then turned to the Manager. "You there. You know sothing about this, right? The people that died here. I need people like them, with the sa kind of power, to track the body... don’t worry, I’ll pay you!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)