Viladore watched Jay exit the guild as his black cube stopped growing again. He overheard the conversation between Lara and Jay as he had his own listening device in the room.
“Fuck… dammit, fuck… what do I do.” he gritted his teeth.
His future was slowly walking right out of the guild; his mind was running as it looked for ideas.
Suddenly his lips curled into an evil grin.
“Well, as it turns out, giving him the goblin wand came with some strings attached.” he grinned, “I am so generous… but I’ll need something else to evoke a reaction from the mage hunters…”
Viladore began writing a formal letter to Sullivan alleging Jay’s thievery. After dropping off the letter at Sullivan’s door, he planned to inform the mage hunters. He would have told the mage hunters first, but this was part of the current operating procedure.
Viladore believed that if he quickly told the mage hunters about Sullivan’s inaction, then Sullivan wouldn’t be able to do anything and Jay would be brought back to the guild - made to give him back the goblin wand and then held there for a few days.
He planned to accuse Jay of stealing something from the mage hunters too, which would be enough for them to spur into action rather than letting the local guards handle it.
This wasn’t the end goal of Viladore’s scheme, but he believed it would give himself more time to think of another plan to keep Jay there indefinitely.
[600 Exp]
The exp from the dying silt-wolves relieved some of the tension Jay was feeling, though it seemed the pace of the skeletons was slow as the heavy-armour skeleton was made to march at the front.
As Jay walked towards the gate, he unconsciously quickened his pace a little; the slightest shiver travelling down his back - though he had other things on his mind.
“I want to stop at the wolf’s quarry and pick up the skeletons and all their freshly-crafted weapons, but it’s on the north-west side of town. It'll take too long…”
It was a little disappointing, but he could craft more weapons for them anyway.
“Besides, that woman sounded urgent, so I’ll only stop at the butchery and pick up the gold. It’s along the way anyway.”
“A quick in and out, then I’ll be gone.” he nodded as he went down the hill.
As Jay looked over Losla and its cobblestone streets for perhaps the very last time, he felt somewhat melancholic. He was tempted to slow down and start reminiscing about his hometown, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that he couldn’t really pinpoint many good memories.
In Losla, his life had just been a constant struggle as he worked by himself as an underage butcher, and then as a dangerous adventure when he received his class.
No one had seemed to ever care about him; this realisation however almost felt freeing to his heart.
“Oh yeah…” he thought, realising that his life in Losla had kind of sucked.
“Actually, fuck this town. I can’t remember the last time someone helped me with anything.” he sped up even more as he walked.
“People were buying my meat and never so much as cared that they were buying it from a child. I even gave discounts to those in need...”
“And sure, some would smile, fewer still would ask how I’m going - it seems like no one really cared…”
“When I became a higher level, people started looking at me but hardly anyone approached… those who did only wanted a favour” he pursed his lips.
“I think I’m just about done with helping others and receiving nothing in return… I won’t be like that anymore.”
“Besides, now that I’m getting stronger, people need me and I don’t need them,” he nodded.
As Jay walked out of sight of the association he finally checked the items he found under the pillow.
<[Warp Disruptor]>
[~Charged~]
[Prevents warp, teleportation and trans-reality effects]
[Requires mana to function]
[Current charge: Can disrupt (7) times]
“Anti-teleport huh. Strange. Why would they give me this?”
It didn’t really make sense to Jay. Wasn’t he supposed to be leaving today? - If anything, he expected something to help with teleporting rather than to block it.
With a shrug he stored it away anyway and checked the purple crystal.
<[Stealth Shard]>
[~Attuned~]
[~Uncharged~]
[Can be attuned to another stealth shard, forming a connection.]
[Exchanged Senses - activated when charged with mana]
[Exchanged Senses: no longer visible, but can now communicate]
Next, he began to add mana to the purple crystal.
“Cool…” he watched as it became black and then vanished from sight - though he could still feel its weight in his hand.
For some reason he almost felt dizzy while holding it but seeing nothing, it was like his brain couldn’t make sense of it so he looked away.
“Hello?” he spoke right into it.
Thankfully he did everything correctly as Lara responded shortly after.
“Hey Jay. Store the crystal in your inventory and you should be able to hear my voice in your head. To talk back to me, you will need to take the crystal out again though.”
“Got it. I’m on my way now unless you have any other instructions.” he then stashed it away as Lara said nothing in response.
As Jay approached Losla he saw more of the black guards.
There were a few other villagers walking around the streets now, so he felt safe trying one of his new abilities: mark.
When the guard had their back turned, Jay stared at him and thought “MARK” in his mind.
Suddenly, a long red strand of energy grew out of Jay’s body and attached to the guard.
“Shit…” Jay paused in shock, seeing the large red strand between him and the guard. He thought this was his end.
How could the skill say ‘undetectable’ and do something as flashy as this?
As Jay watched though, people seemed to ignore it though; they kept going about their business as if nothing was happening.
Some of them even walked right through the strand, passing harmlessly through it.
Jay sighed in relief as he realised only he could see it.
Thankfully the mage hunter didn’t turn around either, so it seemed that it truly was ‘undetectable’.
Slowly, the red strand left Jay and coiled around the guard before disappearing.
Jay kept walking past as innocently as he could - but now there was a difference: he could sense the guard.
Similar to his necrotic sense skill, he knew exactly where the guard was even while he wasn’t looking at him.
While couldn’t sense which direction the guard was looking, he was nevertheless satisfied with the skill.
Besides, one maximum mana to track an enemy was an excellent trade-off.
“I guess it would be ten mana if I used all the marks, but that’s fine.” he nodded with a sneaky smile.
As Jay looked over the mark skill it was now at 1/10 marks. He realised the skill didn’t have a level, so unfortunately, he could only have ten active marks at once.
He had a cheeky smile as he thought about marking every human in sight, but he thought that it was probably best that he couldn’t.
Still, as he passed through Losla, he saw a few more guards, and added two more marks.
Jay ducked around a corner and his butchery shop was in sight - but he sensed something wrong: One of the marks was moving towards him, and at a high speed too.
Beginning to panic a little he looked around for somewhere to hide. A small alleyway on the other side of the street.
He dashed into the alley; it was some trash piled up on one side, along with a stray cat which quickly scurried away, startled as Jay charged in.
The mark was already in the street, and Jay thought he was too slow, though to Jay’s surprise the mark passed by the alleyway. A small puff of wind entered the alleyway as the mage hunter passed by at high speed.
Jay released a heavy breath as he felt like death passed over him.
He stared back into the street, wondering what the hell was happening to make the mage hunter speed through the streets so quickly… and coincidentally in his direction. He definitely wouldn’t have seen them coming if he didn’t use the mark skill, but even with the warning it wasn’t enough to evade; he was simply ignored as it seemed the mage hunter had other priorities.
He sensed the black guard speeding down the street, so slowly, he crept to the end of the passage and peeked around the corner. He expected it to be out of sight by the time he got there, though it seemed that it suddenly stopped.
“...” Jay hoped it was a mere coincidence the mage hunter stopped right outside of his butchery.
