On the sixth day of my — extremely unsuccessful — imprisonment, the men of the second prince finally made a move. They were patient … a bit too much, even, as it was two days since I agreed to the offer of the guild leader and started working on repairing the spear.
Well, to be more accurate, I was looking like I was trying to repair. With my full abilities and previous experience, it would take minutes for me to properly repair it, and a few days to improve the design significantly.
Storing Divine Spark was kind of my expertise at this point.
The spy approached me just as I walked out to a garden, enjoying the grass under my feet — an arrangement to reward me for my cooperation. He was wearing a black and gray uniform, dressed as a guard without a rank.
“We meet again,” he said.
“Yes, and I can’t say that I’m happy with it,” I answered, looking dissatisfied. “You were supposed to be here when I arrived to help me, but instead, I ended up imprisoned. I can’t say I’m happy with the cooperation abilities of the crown prince.”
“Oh, I can just go and leave you to the mercy of the fourth prince if that’s what you wish,” he said, threatening me directly.
Ordinarily, it was not an attitude I would appreciate. However, his smugness was more promising than annoying. Such a confrontational attitude implied that they were feeling the pressure. “Wait,” I said, pushing an appropriate amount of panic to my tone. “Just because you failed once doesn’t mean I want to kick you out.”
“As you wish,” he said, nodding with a slight smile, avoiding to mention my sharp twist. “We are ready to act if you’re ready to act.”
“When?” I asked.
“Whenever you think you can bring us the spear. We couldn’t enter the inner sanctum, but we managed to take control of the perimeter defenses. We can use the opportunity to get away the moment you’re ready.”
I nodded. “Tonight,” I said with a determined tone. “I’m bored of being a prisoner, and I want to escape.”
“Are you sure you can take the spear,” he said. “What if they notice the absence of the spear before you can leave the inner sanctum. You wouldn’t want to anger the crown prince with such a great mistake.”
“Don’t worry, I already forgot a replica,” I said as I reached into my pocket and passed a spearhead to him. “I just need to craft a broken handle and switch it. They are not even searching for me.”
He looked suspicious. “How did you manage to forge it. I doubt they have given you a personal forge.”
“Of course not. I just said that I needed to forge a copy of the weapon several times in order to get a better sense of its construction. Stealing one of the copies while melting the rest was easy.”
“Not bad,” the spy said. “Too bad you don’t have appropriate skills. You would have made an incredible work partner.”
I shrugged. “I’m glad with my skills. I don’t want to be a snake,” I said, delivering one last insult as he walked away. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have done so, as angering the people I was supposed to be relying on.
Luckily, I had no intention of cooperating with them. Not because of what I suspected to be their intentional information leakage that removed any possibility of working together with the fourth prince. That was easy to ignore, as betrayal from the people I didn’t trust in the first place was meaningless.
No, I wanted to get rid of him to look more committed to the path the guild leader had created for me.
So, as I went back to the forging room, I found him. “I just had a little birdie that came to me with an offer,” I said. “My freedom, in exchange for the spear.”
“That’s interesting,” he said as he glanced at me, raising his head from the repair plans he had been examining. They were mostly drawn by me, and I made sure to keep those plans workable, but ultimately too complex to be really practical, with several weaknesses.
It might be something I could create easily, but no need to empower my enemies any more than necessary.
“Interesting how?” I asked.
“Well, it’s an opportunity to get free. I thought that you would take it rather than trust our offer.”
I shrugged. “It’s not that I trust you, but I trust a bunch of spies with a very convenient offer even less. Add in the high chance of failure,” I added, letting my words linger.
He tossed his head back and laughed. “And, what do you have planned.”
“I plan nothing,” I said as I pulled a spearhead from my pocket. “Just find an agent to disguise as me and pass it to them, use their movements to clean their operation. I’ll be in the forge, where it’s safe.”
“And how do you know whether this place is safe?” he asked.
“If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t have bothered with me and would have stolen the spear directly,” I said. It was not as simple as I implied, but it was still logical enough to avoid suspicion. “Now, do you want to continue working, or do you want to chat,” I said as I returned to work.
He took a step back, surprised at my outburst. For a moment, he stood still uncertain of how to reply. “It’s good to see you so enthusiastic about it,” he said.
“Of course. I think we can finish it in a few days if we work hard. Maybe even tonight if can come up with a breakthrough. I don’t have time to waste with political nonsense,” I said, once again relying on the supposed passion of a legendary blacksmith.
He stared at me for a while before he shook his head, no doubt underestimating me even further after my ‘simple’ explanation. “I just need to arrange the plan,” he said as he walked away, leaving me alone.
I acted like I was focused on my work, even as I subtly cast several spells, preparing for the next stage. I wanted to use the upcoming battle to expand my control over the wards. Admittedly, it was not one of the main reasons for the plan, but just a side benefit.
Mostly because I couldn’t plan for it. Most of the places were not like my prison cell, with little active supervision. The other locations had several mages constantly maintaining the wards, making infiltration a troubling challenge.
This was particularly true for the forging room.
I hoped the upcoming battle created enough commotion to allow me to sneak inside. The spy looked desperate enough … and if he failed, it was not exactly a problem either.
The guild leader returned not too long after, and we started working. Soon, I grabbed several monster parts, and started forging them into one big entity. “… I don’t think it’ll work like this. You’ll overload the nodes,” he said.
“Trust me,” I answered as I continued to slam my hammer. He was used to my sudden bouts of inspiration, so he let that slide, unaware the only reason I was going through a dangerous explosive process was to fill the room with excess mana.
Preparing for the commotion.
With my mana in place, even if the battle was less damaging than I predicted, I should be able to make some progress.
I lost myself in my pretend work, working more and more fervor, looking lost in my beats … and soon, a sudden flicker hit the wards.
The battle started. I used the mana I had already spread into the room into the ward, using the lack of attention from the mages responsible for the operation. Their attention had turned to the perimeter, while I slowly sneaked into the core of the wards, slowly adding my own layers to the structure, betting on the fact that they were not created by the others.
It was a challenging affair … until the spies of the second prince surprised me by triggering several explosions throughout the facility. Mostly outer structure, but enough to earn the focus of the other mages almost immediately.
And, as a result, their attention slipped. Not one to miss such opportunities, I let my mana spread, infecting the wards like a particularly aggressive disease. With that, I had the keys to the defense. I didn’t use them other than watching the agents of the second prince being mowed down like grass, helpless to resist.
It was fun to watch my enemies being killed by my other enemies. It was efficient.
I ignored that as I continued forging. With the wards under my control, there was no point in delaying the work. Toward midnight, I slammed my hammer on the spear for one last time. “Finally complete,” I said as I pulled back.
“Fascinating,” the guild leader said, his greed almost physical as he wrapped his hands around the broken handle. At that moment, his greed-fueled his jealously further, and in real-time, I could see him coming to a decision.
He just didn’t give that order immediately. “Amazing work,” he said. “You should go rest. We have a week to prepare before the representative from that mysterious organization arrives.”
“Of course,” I said, using my apparent exhaustion as a reason to miss the obviousness of his lie.
Yet, even as the guards escorted me to my room, I continued observing him through the wards. He was rather purposeful as he dashed away.
I wondered exactly what he was planning to do with that spear.
—
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 62
Endurance: 73 Wisdom: 45}
{Purified Divine Spark: 58410}
{Pseudo-HP: 15000 Mana: 20000}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10
Knowledge - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge}
