Ch191-See A Man About A Dog (Patreon)

-

-

Ch191-See A Man About A Dog

-

-

The area around the Schlagen mountains was divided into small districts.

At least, that’s what Sylver assumed, given the small flags that every building had on the top left of their door, and that the patrolling guards had an identical symbol on their armor.

To get to Fobur, Sylver and company walked through 4 districts.

And even if someone somehow missed the small flags near the doors, it was impossible to miss the giant line in the road, with one flag symbol on one side, and a different flag symbol on the other. Sylver also noted that the districts weren’t the same size, some were bigger, some were smaller, all in all, it was a miniaturized version of country borders.

Which in Sylver’s opinion was fantastic.

Because that meant that if he wanted to attack a certain region, all he needed to do was figure out who their allies and enemies were, and then he could attack them without any consequences! He just needed to make sure no one seriously strong was allied with the region he wanted to attack.

With Spring’s help, Sylver was able to take a route that avoided the majority of the guards. It did mean he had to stop and wait for a few minutes for a patrol to pass, but it also prevented them from being bothered. Aside from the guards, the streets were completely empty.

By the time they arrived at the location Lola’s notes said Fobur should be at, it was pitch black outside. Faust was awake but seemed to be having trouble moving his limbs, so Sylver kept him up on Mora, who moved him around like a puppet to make him seem more alive. He needed a safe place to meditate, but that wasn’t possible at the moment.

As a general rule, Sylver didn’t believe in luck.

But as stared at the broken-down door, and tried to figure out if Fobur was dead by looking at the blood splatters, he struggled to rationalize his bad luck away.

The likely answer was that talking to Lola, or Salgok, was what had fucked the man up, but it did raise the question…

Why did they wait until now? The blood was so fresh it was almost liquid. It’s been at most 5 hours since the man had been killed or kidnapped. The fact that none of the other houses nearby looked disturbed suggested that it wasn’t random.

Thanks to his shades, Sylver was informed of a hole dug underneath one of the wooden floorboards, that held some kind of box not that long ago. Sylver entered the house and walked into the room in question, and discovered a giant shelf standing in the middle of the room. By the scratches in the polished wood, he got a clearer picture of what had occurred.

A group of thieves entered Fobur’s home, forced him to tell them the location of his safe hidden underneath the giant shelf, and then stole the contents, along with Fobur.

But why would the thieves leave the door broken down? It would take less than 5 seconds to put it back in place, no one would even notice it was broken until they tried to open it.

And why would thieves attack just before nighttime? Wouldn’t they want to use the cover of darkness to escape? They attacked about 2 hours before it was dark enough to be considered night.

More curious was the lack of resistance. The way the blood was splattered around the room seemed to imply Fobur just stood there and took it. He got punched in the face, they broke his arm until the bone came out, and a knife was forced into his knee, and then twisted.

But the height of the blood implied he was standing upright when they did this, he wasn’t tied down to a chair, and his arms didn’t seem to be bound. Did they have someone else as a hostage?

Due to [Advanced Earth Manipulation] Sylver felt something very strange inside one of the walls. As he placed his hand as close to the trace amounts of earth inside the wall, he found a compartment. After a couple of failed attempts to fiddle the lock open, Sylver simply pressed his hand against the wooden wall until he heard a crack.

“Ria, there’s a mechanism inside, would you mind opening it for me please?” Sylver whispered, as he kept his hand on the wall to keep the crack open. The golden part of Ria slithered up his arm and sent a tendril down the tiny crack Sylver had made.

After a couple of seconds, Sylver heard a click up from the lamp on the ceiling, then another near the bed in the corner, and a final click from somewhere near the cupboard near the door, before the compartment opened. Ria slithered back into Sylver’s sleeve, as Sylver swung the small door open, and looked at the inside of it.

There were small pieces of lead strategically placed throughout the gear-filled mechanism, along with a very small glass flask that presumably held an explosive or acid of some kind. Very gently, Sylver removed the tightly bound notebook, along with several sealed letters.

“It’s a simple diary,” Sylver said out loud as if trying to persuade the notebook in question.

He opened it up, and as he had expected, it appeared to be utter nonsense.

Because it was written in fancy fucking code.

“It’s just his super-secret family recipe,” Sylver said to no one in particular, as he flipped through the notebook and didn’t bother stopping at several maps, and a couple house blueprints.

“A family recipe so secret that he had a decoy hiding spot made?” Ria asked without a hint of sarcasm, as Sylver rolled his eyes and didn’t even bother trying to open the letters because he could hear a strange powder moving around inside.

There was probably a special way of opening them, or possibly they needed to be soaked in something first, and would otherwise explode. There was enough lead powder mixed into whatever was inside the envelopes that Sylver left them alone.

“And didn’t give up even under torture. See that blood splatter inside that hole?” Sylver asked as he pointed towards the hole in the ground where Fobur’s safe had supposedly been.

“It’s on the inside… They kept torturing him for information even after they got it open,” Ria said as Sylver nodded and gently closed the door to the secret compartment inside the wall.

He was even able to use [Chloromancy] to repair the crack he had made.

Sylver felt the book he had moved down towards his left pocket move up his side and then watched as Ria’s tendril pulled it out into the open and all but shoved the map inside the notebook into Sylver’s face.

“There are 4 marked houses on this. We should start with the biggest,” Ria suggested, as Sylver used his hand to move the book a little bit away from his face.

“Or we can find a homeless person, and have him tell us all the local knowledge we need to know,” Sylver countered and could feel Ria freeze up.

“But what about Fobur?” Ria asked as Sylver reached out with his hand to shut the book and map.

“What about him?” Sylver asked, as he pushed the book and Ria’s tendril into his robe, and moved it back where he had put it the first time.

“Aren’t we going to rescue him?” Ria asked, as Sylver shook his head and did his best not to sound condescending.

“Why are we here Ria? We’re not sightseeing, we’re not on vacation, we aren’t here to compete in a pie-eating contest, why are we here?” Sylver asked, and failed to make his question not sound condescending.

Even Spring thought he was being a dick. But Ria didn’t seem to think so, she either ignored it, or Sylver didn’t sound condescending enough for her to understand that was what he was doing.

“To find Edmund?” Ria asked as Sylver nodded.

“Will rescuing Fobur help or hinder us in finding Edmund?” Sylver asked.

Ria paused to think it over, as Sylver inspected a few other aspects of the house, but didn’t find anything of interest.

“It would hinder us... It’s hard to say how much he knows or would be able to help, but given that he’s weak enough to be kidnapped in such a way suggests he isn’t all that well connected. Then you have whatever the coded notebook and letters are about. Tracking him would be easy using his blood, but then what do we do if he was kidnapped by someone powerful?” Ria thought out loud, and a smile crept onto Sylver’s face as she did as he had tried to teach her and used her head.

“Yes. For all we know the king of a powerful district kidnapped him, and by pissing him off with our rescue, we could turn the rest of the districts against us. I’ll gather his blood, just in case we do need him, but for now, we’re going to wait for Spring to find us a homeless gentleman to talk to,” Sylver explained, as he did as he said, and made several blood splatters float up into the air and gathered them into a sphere.

He moved the sphere of blood into a flask and hid it inside his robe.

“What if they kill him? Ah, no, never mind, the only way to stop that is to rescue him, which you have already decided isn’t worth the effort,” Ria said, as Sylver stepped out of the house and then walked around it just to make sure he hadn’t missed something.

“You said that in a strange tone. “Isn’t worth the effort.” I’ve been open and honest with you Ria, and while I’m not going to force you, I don’t believe I’ve done anything that would make you believe I will punish you for disagreeing with me. If you have something to say, please do,” Sylver said, as he finished his walk and returned to Mora.

Ria was silent while Sylver and his mighty steed walked down the dark road, while Spring was busy searching for someone sleeping on the street, or in a makeshift tent. Sylver was fine with anyone, as long as they were in a bad position that would take little effort to solve. He wasn’t sure how much value gold coins held in this area, but he didn’t think it would be worthless.

“I can’t think of a good word, but this feels… We’re abandoning him,” Ria said, while Sylver and company stopped to let a group of guards pass.

They were always in at least a group of 3, Sylver hadn’t seen a guard alone even once since coming in here.

“Abandoning implies we had a duty to help him. If I told Ruslana’s dark elves to go pound sand after bringing them here, that would be abandoning. This is called keeping your priorities in order… I feel like we’ve already had this conversation… Yes, we did, when we first met. You said it “felt cruel.” Does it still feel cruel, even though you understand why I’m doing this?” Sylver asked, and could feel a nod from Ria.

“Just because it makes sense, doesn’t make it right,” Ria offered, and the sincerity with which she said it made Sylver take her seriously and not roll his eyes.

“Being “right” and “good” is a privilege reserved for the strong. Edmund is a “good” person because he doesn’t have to sacrifice anything, he doesn’t have to compromise, he’s strong enough that he can do things “the right way.” If I was powerful enough to win every fight I fought, there wouldn’t be any reason for me to do the things I do,” Sylver said and had a sudden reminder of that ever so brief moment when he thought about turning over a new leaf.

Back when he was inside one of Tulli’s blood vessels and was hesitating to use a mask made out of a dead man’s face. Except unlike the last time, there was no warm feeling associated with the thought, just an acrid burning deep inside his chest.

“I recognize that the rules of this world are different from the ones in my world. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with them,” Ria said, as Sylver shook his head.

“I never said you did. But I’ll repeat what I’m sure you already know. I don’t care about how I get what I want, so long as I get it. I’d burn this whole haystack of a city to fine ash if it meant finding the Edmund needle. Now, I’m speaking metaphorically here, but I do mean it. In my eyes, this whole city, in exchange for Edmund, is a very fair trade,” Sylver explained, as Ria’s soul began to emit an emotion he couldn’t quite put into words.

“A whole city worth of people, in exchange for 1 man,” Ria said.

Sylver shook his head.

“A whole city worth of people, in exchange for the brother I love more than anything in this world. But you shouldn’t be upset about it because I love you too. But as you might have noticed, the problem with loving someone is that you have to be prepared to annihilate everything trying to harm them.

“Because if you’re not, that means you don’t love them enough to kill, slaughter, or torture to protect them. And I love my people Ria. With all three of my hearts. I love them so much I’m ready and willing to do whatever is necessary to keep them safe,” Sylver explained and had to cut the conversation short as Spring found someone sleeping in a patch of bushes.

Sylver didn’t even need to guide Mora as to where to go, because she knew instinctively through their connection.

He could feel that there was a question Ria was afraid of asking because she already knew the answer.

If Sylver had to choose between her and Edmund, who would he choose?

The answer Ria assumed was that Sylver would discard her with the same casualness he left Fobur to his fate.

But the real answer is that Sylver would never need to do that.

Because if Ria paid attention she would have noticed that Sylver’s companions were an unkillable shade, an unkillable horse, an unkillable man, and an unkillable golem thing. All of which could get hurt, even torn apart, but at the exact same time could very easily be brought back to life.

The most vulnerable one in the group was Ria.

Because if she lost a piece of her liquid gold body, Sylver had no idea what to do to get it back. Ria had explained that she had a way of converting a combination of metals into more of herself, but the process required a huge amount of energy, which Sylver didn’t have anywhere near enough.

Once Edmund was safe, Sylver had it on his to-do list to figure out a way to get Ria to make more of herself. Lola was already looking for the metals Ria requested, but there was a simple issue of supply, regardless of how much money was thrown at the problem.

As Sylver approached the bushes in which the homeless man slept, he heard a deep growling sound. As he took another step towards the bushes, the growling became louder.

Ever so gently Sylver used [Deadly Darkness] to poke the man on the cheek. Even though Sylver hadn’t moved a muscle, the dog sitting on top of the man barked at him. The area they were in was thankfully deserted, but the bark was loud, and would probably travel a fair distance.

As he took another step towards the man, the growling became loud enough that Sylver struggled to believe Spring’s description of a cat-sized beast. It sounded way bigger.

As Sylver took another step towards the man and his animal, he felt a burning sensation uncomfortably close to the place he least wanted to feel a burning sensation.

He looked down and felt an enormous gash on his inner thigh, that matched perfectly to what a bite from a small canine would look and feel like. The beast seems to be able to bite without having to touch him.

Sylver remained where he was and contemplated his next move.

While he did this, Mora put Faust down onto the grassy ground, and in a single dead silent jump landed between Sylver and the snarling beast. She lowered her head and made a clicking noise with her teeth towards the small animal.

She clicked her teeth for a couple of seconds, and then the growling stopped completely.

A small creature with patched fur that could loosely be described as doglike came out of the bushes and walked a short distance away from them.

Sylver experimentally reached out with his hand towards the bushes the animal had been sitting in, but it just continued to sit there, staring at him.

[??? –??? – ???]
[HP: 16,444 – 59%]
[MP: 0 – 100%]
[Stamina: 51,755 – 74%]
[Corpse – Inferior]
[Soul – N/A]

So at full health, it would have around 35,000 HP…

Sylver took a very small step towards the bushes, and the animal merely continued to look at him. Mora stomped her hoof and somehow managed to convey the idea that Sylver had nothing to worry about.

Slightly more relaxed, Sylver used [Chloromancy] to part the bushes, and found an unconscious man laying on his back and using what appeared to be a dirty towel as a pillow.

His left arm was missing, including his elbow, and he had just enough left to still call it a limb. The same was true for his right leg, except the way it was contorted seemed to imply it had been twisted until it ripped off, as opposed to simply cut off.

Sylver kept one eye on the animal staring at him, as he slowly walked towards the man.

There was an empty bottle next to him, Sylver floated it over into his hand, and brought it up to his nose. It smelled like sour wine, but there was something else there, that Sylver couldn’t identify, but could tell wasn’t good for your health. He crouched so he didn’t have to lean.

Sylver put the bottle back down and very gently placed his hand on the man’s forehead.

Sylver removed his hand after 5 seconds and silently tapped out a message to Spring.

“Did you by any chance find any other homeless people?” Sylver asked the shade.

“Not within a 50-kilometer radius. Why?” Spring asked, as Sylver removed his backpack, undid the clasps on it, and started searching through it.

“Did you not find that the least bit strange?” Sylver asked, in a tone that suggested that he personally found it quite strange.

“Let me guess… He used to be a very powerful warrior, and given the amount of damage done to his body, shouldn’t be alive, but somehow is?” Spring guessed, as Sylver found the two flasks he had been looking for, and gently swirled them around as he summoned a third flask from his [Bound Bones] storage.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. That’s word for word what I was thinking. Almost as if you read my mind,” Sylver said calmly, as he used his shadow to remove the corks from the two beakers and carefully poured about 4 drops each into the empty flask.

“I’ll keep searching, but don’t get your hopes up,” Spring said, as he split himself up over and over, as he sent the shades out to help him search.

“Don’t worry about that, my hopes haven’t been up for a very long time. Even as I’m about to wake him up, I half expect him to be psychotic,” Sylver explained, as he gently lifted the man’s right hand, and held the man’s middle finger over the rim of the flask.

The hand Sylver was using to hold the man’s hand began to glow a weak golden light, as he gently turned the flask over while keeping the man’s finger pressed up against the rim. As if it was attached to a hose, the flask went from almost completely empty, to filled to the very top with blood.

Sylver kept the man’s now pale finger up against the rim, as he swirled the upside-down flask around, and waited for a couple of seconds. A dark brown clump formed at the top, and as the amount of blood in the flask was reduced, the clump continued floating at the top.

As the clump of brown got stuck in the flask’s neck, Sylver turned it and the man’s finger around, and used his [Deadly Darkness] shadow to temporarily plug the hole in the man’s finger. Sylver incinerated the remaining contents of the flask and allowed the empty flask to disappear down a hole he had made.

Sylver just finished wrapping the man’s finger when his eyes shot open, and he stared at him.

“Hello,” Sylver said to the now wide-awake man.

He didn’t move his hand out of Sylver’s grip and didn’t seem to be breathing.

“Would you be interested in a warm meal, a warm place to sleep, and possibly some new clothing?” Sylver offered gently and calmly, and something akin to a smile appeared on the man’s face.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” the man asked, with a hard to describe accent.

He spoke as if every word was an order, but without the oomph.

“I am not, no. I need help learning the local culture, laws, and the person who was supposed to help me is otherwise occupied,” Sylver explained as the man nodded at him.

“I want 50 grams of red Jade,” the man said.

Sylver pretended to reach into his pocket as he summoned 4 gold coins into his hand and spread them out between his fingers.

“How much is that in gold?” Sylver asked the man and tensed as the man’s soul reacted.

He started to laugh, directly into Sylver’s face, and Sylver was fairly certain his doglike companion did the same.

“Wow… You’re really not from here… You’ll get killed if I leave you alone…” the man said, as he lay there in his own sick, with a filthy towel for a pillow, and had a tone of pity for Sylver.

Sylver reached into his robe again and produced a small diamond-encrusted ring. The man’s smile disappeared and was replaced by shock.

“You’re from the south. I didn’t think the stories were true,” the man said under his breath, as Sylver reached into his robe again and produced a second diamond-encrusted ring.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

“You could try to attack me and steal this from me, sure. Or, you could work for me, and by the time I leave, maybe, you’ll have a full set of arms and legs,” Sylver offered, as he gestured at the man’s two missing limbs.

The man didn’t look away from the two rings in Sylver’s hands once and even attempted to sit up. He reached up and placed his hand over Sylver’s and pushed it backward.

“Don’t show these to anyone. And don’t let anyone know you have gold, it's contraband for anyone who isn’t royalty. And the other one, that white metal,” the man said, as Sylver did as he suggested disappeared the gold diamond-encrusted rings into his robe.

“Silver?” Sylver offered and produced a single silver coin to make sure. The man almost crawled away from him, and even the animal Mora had pacified growled for a second.

“What do you want from me?” the man asked, as he managed to expertly stand up onto one foot and didn’t even bother using the bush’s branches to steady himself.

He had perfect balance.

“I want to know the rules and laws of this land. And I want to know what not to say, and what not to do, so as not to end up killed,” Sylver explained, as the man stared at him.

He was dead silent for roughly 30 seconds, while Sylver just stood there staring back at him.

“A featherless goose has claimed a maize field near the Red Earth sect. If you defeat it they will pay you 3 grams of green jade. Once you have that, I want 50 grams of red jade, and however much it costs to heal Dog,” the man responded, and gestured with his stump towards the dog, aptly named Dog.

Sylver thought it over for a moment and shrugged his shoulders.

“How about this… Is there a sect that doesn’t have any allies, only enemies? One that, hypothetically, could be robbed without anyone raising a fuss?” Sylver asked, and the man’s face hardened at his words.

“And if there is?” the man asked.

“I would like to visit it, and gather the resources I need from it,” Sylver said and could feel a not very positive reaction from Ria.

A good minute passed, during which the man looked Sylver up and down, and finally hopped over to Dog. He sat down next to the animal, lifted it into his lap, and started scratching it behind the ears while he continued to stare at Sylver.

“There is a sect that makes its living by stealing from the other sects. If someone were to attack and steal from it, I do not believe that any of their neighboring sects would protest,” the man explained.

Sylver had a thought while the man was talking, and reached into his robe and produced a small piece of ruby, that he had removed from a ring and kept to use as a spell component.

“Is this what you meant by red jade, by any chance?” Sylver asked, as the man's eyes locked onto the red stone.

Sylver searched around in his [Bound Bones] storage and produced enough rubies to cover half of his palm.

He lifted his hand up and down and did his best to feel out the weight in his hand.

“This is about 20 grams. They’re yours if you can guide me to the sect. And I’ll pay you the rest once I’m done with them,” Sylver explained, as he made the rubies float around in a clump above his hand.

The man stared at the rubies for a while, and then went back to staring at Sylver.

“Their sect leader is estimated to be level 250. And they are infamous for using deadly poison,” the man explained, and Sylver couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m sure I’ll figure something out. So?” Sylver asked as the clump of rubies floated over to the man.

He reached out with his hand, took two small stones, and just stared at them in his hand as if he was waiting to wake up from a dream. He closed his fist and then hid them inside a small chewed-up satchel that was hidden within his jacket.

The man continued to pet Dog and finally looked up at Sylver.

“Dog likes you. I’ll show you the way. If you survive we can talk,” the man said, as he stretched out his hand, to shake.

“I’m glad to hear it. Sylver,” Sylver said, as the man’s lips curled into an odd smile.

“Like the necromancer?” the man asked, and Sylver felt all of his hearts skip a beat. “The one who defeated 10 rebel armies, with the shadows of his companions,” the man explained, as Sylver’s hearts went back to their normal beats.

“Just a coincidence,” Sylver offered with his friendliest smile.

“That’s a shame,” the man said as he grabbed Sylver by the hand and shook it, as he stood up without any help, and adjusted his belt. “You would have probably been invited into the emperor’s court if you were the fabled defender,” the man said, and Sylver could only shrug in response.

“Xalibur,” the man, Xalibur, said.

“Lead the way, Xalibur,” Sylver said as the man somehow managed to hop in such a way that if you only saw the top half of him, you would have thought he had two working legs.

Sylver took Mora by the rein and followed behind the man.

NEXT CHAPTER