*Knock* *Knock*
Black Hand heard a knock on the door as he waited eagerly for Isaac to return. “Come in.”
A mercenary came in, shaking and with a pale face. He was clearly afraid to give his boss bad news. “Sir, the scouts can’t find Isaac and anyone of his assassin squad.”
“What?! How is this possible? They can’t just disappear.” Black Hand punched the already partially broken table.
The mercenary knew that his boss would be furious at the loss of one of the best assassin squads, but he had to report everything. “Sir, the scouts have already declared Isaac’s assassin squad death. They found traces of a battle, and probably Shadow with other people killed them.”
Black Hand was furious to hear that his favorite assassin squad had died and the worst, had failed to bring Shadow. He was going to give an order to the mercenary, but he still had something to report.
The mercenary made a confused face as he didn’t know how to explain what the scouts said. “Sir, the scouts said the inn was empty, but they were unable to enter a specific room.”
“Why not? Couldn’t they tear down the wall?”
The mercenary didn’t understand it either. He was only reporting because the scouts who came didn’t want to give such strange news to Black Hand.
“Sir, the scouts said his group tried everything, even explosives. The inn has been destroyed, but that single room is still in one piece. It seems that there is a type of magic barrier, which prevents the wall from being damaged.”
Black Hand was surprised. It would need a high magic barrier to stand from the attacks with magic and explosives of his mercenaries. “Do scouts know if Shadow is in that room?”
“No, Sir, the scouts reported that they found tracks of two groups. There are already men tracking in both directions, and some of them guarding the room.”
Black Hand thought there might be something in the room about Shadow’s group, so they had better put down the barrier. “Send Zerek deal with the barrier. Send three squads to follow one of the groups, and we will track the other.”
Ten minutes later, all the Black Hand Party mercenaries left their mansion.
About fifty, led by an archmage, headed for Aria’s inn.
About a hundred, led by a scout, headed for the other scouts, who tracked Cassidy’s group.
Black Hand led his group with more than two hundred elite mercenaries toward the scouts who tracked Lucien and Astrid.
——————
Lucien wanted to leave the city as soon as possible and meet his women, so he ran with Marie and Anne to the blacksmith.
As the location was close to the guild, they arrived there in less than ten minutes. It was night, and the building was closed, but Marie said that the smith was her friend and would meet them even at night.
After calling for a few seconds, the smithy’s door opened, and they saw Marie’s friend. The woman was dirty with dust and coal. She wore large glasses and a typical blacksmith’s apron.
“Prin- Marie, how are you?” The smith greeted Marie cheerfully.
“Rebecca! It’s all okay with me, but we need to buy some arrows from you. Can we come in?”
“Come in.” Rebecca led Lucien’s group into the smithy. It was a large store full of shelves with weapons and armors. Rebecca took off her glasses, revealing her beautiful green eyes. She had long and light brown hair and looked about 25 years old.
Lucien wasted no time and immediately spoke of his reason for going there. “I need very durable arrows because normal arrows break before I can use them on my bow.”
Rebecca was confused about how this bow would be. Lucien quickly took the bow from his storage ring and handed it to her.
She tried to tension the bow, but even with her high strength, she was unable to tension more than 2/10 of the bow. “It really is an excellent bow! You were lucky because I have exactly what you need.”
Rebecca started to look in boxes and cabinets, and then she returned to Lucien with a large rectangular box.
“I made these arrows with black steel from the Freelands. I intended to make arrows capable of piercing any armor, and I succeeded. But the result is very expensive, so nobody ever wanted to buy them…”
Lucien opened the box and saw about a hundred black arrows made of shiny metal with black feathers at one end. He took one and tried to use it on his golden bow.
The arrow was heavier than the regular ones but did not break when he forced it. Lucien was stronger than the last time he tried to use the bow and was now able to tension the string by approximately 7/10 of the limit.
“Very good!” Lucien was very happy with the result and cannot help praising Rebecca while trying the black arrow in the bow, without shooting of course.
Rebecca was also happy, but she wasn’t sure if he would buy the arrows. “I can’t sell for less than ten silver coins because that black metal is very expensive…”
Lucien learned from Mia that at Portgreen, they used standard coins. A gold coin was equivalent to 100 silver coins, and each silver coin was equal to 100 bronze coins.
He could exchange anything valuable for coins at various locations in the city and also in the guild, but he hadn’t had time for that yet.
Lucien had some standard coins that they looted from the mercenaries of Brian and Isaac’s group, but he didn’t want to use these and thought about using the gold coins from the bronze chest.
“How many arrows would you sell for this coin?” He took a coin out of the chest and gave it to Rebecca to check.
Rebecca looked at the unmarked gold coin and realized that it was much heavier than a standard gold coin. “This coin is worth about four standard gold coins so that I can sell you forty arrows for it.”
The bronze chest was large and should have more than a thousand coins in addition to the various jewels, so he took out ten coins and put them on the counter in front of Rebecca.
Rebecca was surprised as that amount was worth forty gold coins in addition to the coin that was already in her hand. “I only made a hundred arrows because I wasn’t sure if someone would buy them…”
Lucien put the box of arrows in his storage ring while smiling at Rebecca. “I will need more of these arrows, so consider these coins an advance payment. Make a thousand arrows if you can, and I’ll pay you more when I come to get them!”
Rebecca was obviously happy with such a large order and accepted the coins. Lucien was in a hurry, but now that he was in a blacksmith, he couldn’t help thinking about his women.
He told Rebecca to write the measurements of Mia, Astrid, and Cassidy. He easily knew all sizes of them as he had touched them many times…
Then he pointed at Marie and Anne while asking Rebecca. “How much does it cost to make the best armor possible for me, the women I told you about and them?”
Before Rebecca could answer, Anne was the first to speak. “You don’t have to do this, Lucien. My current armor is fine.”
Marie also agreed with Anne, but in her mind, she was very curious about who is the third woman that Lucien said to Rebecca.
“It’s just a gift.” Lucien smiled kindly at the girls, and Marie couldn’t help but curse in her mid how he could change his personality so quickly.
Lucien reached an agreement with Rebecca for her to make new armor for Lucien’s women. He asked a light armor to Mia as she fights like a rogue style; medium armor for Astrid and Cassidy as he did not know their preferences…
For him, it was a medium armor similar to the one he was wearing now. Rebecca was an excellent blacksmith, but she wasn’t sure if she could make a better armor than the one he was wearing.
The black armor that Lucien took from Brian was very good, but if Rebecca used more of the rare black steel, the end result could be excellent.
Anne asked for medium armor because she was a dueler; Marie asked for super-light clothes because she was a wizard.
Lucien hadn’t forgotten about Maggie and Aria, but he didn’t know if Maggie would be one of his women and if Aria knew how to fight. Anyway, they were part of his group now, so he ordered Rebecca to make armor for them too. He didn’t know their exact measurements, so he could only speculate.
After Lucien gave Rebecca several gold coins, he was about to leave the smithy but remembered seeing Cassidy with a steel greatsword, which was probably given to her by Mia. Then he asked Rebecca if she had any high-quality greatsword ready to sell.
Rebecca realized that Lucien was in a hurry, so she acted quickly and brought a large yellowish steel greatsword that has 120 centimeters of blade and 30 centimeters of handle.
“This greatsword is made of Orichalcum. It is the best greatsword I have to sell now, and it will undoubtedly be to your liking.”
Lucien paid for the greatsword and thanked Rebecca for everything. She requested for at least a month to be able to do everything Lucien demanded. She would use all the time to do his order, but it was still a lot to do.
Of course, she was very excited because she had never received so much gold in one order before. Lucien paid more than two hundred gold coins, but he didn’t regret it because his women’s equipment was more important than his. Plus, that only reduce by 2/10 of the number of coins in the chest.
Lucien thought Astrid was already done with her business at the guild. He returned quickly with the girls, and the total time at the blacksmith was no more than half an hour.
“Lucien!” Entering the guild hall, he saw Astrid, who called to him as she descended the stairs.
Astrid approached and threw a card at him. Lucien took it and saw it was his adventurer ID card. “Thank you, Ravenous. Are you ready to go?”
Lucien could not call Astrid by her real name within the guild as they did not know who their enemies would be. The dead Queen’s subject was known to everyone, so keeping things secret was the best option.
Astrid said that everything was ready for them to go. Anne took Lucien’s arm and said that she had everything she needed in her magic backpack. But Marie still hadn’t made up her mind.
Lucien spoke seriously not only to Marie but also to Anne. “If you come with me, it will be dangerous sometimes, but I promise you will not regret it.”
Anne had no doubts about her feelings and squeezed Lucien’s arm, making her point clear.
Marie was nervous again. Her rational thoughts conflicted with her feelings. Then she thought aloud at her sister’s warning. “A woman who never smiles…”
Marie looked at Lucien and remembered how good it was when he patted her on the head while they hugged and made the decision to follow her heart’s desire. “I’ll go with you… Please take care of me!!!”
Lucien found the flushed Marie very cute and couldn’t resist hugging her while Anne and Astrid rolled their eyes.
“So… let’s go.”
They didn’t know where they were going, but that wasn’t exactly bad. They would meet the rest of the group outside the city and find their way to reach enough power to make the world move and not the world to move them.
—————–
As Lucien and the girls headed out of town, the group of mercenaries led by the Archmage Zerek arrived at Aria’s inn.
At least what’s left of the inn… The place was a total mess, and within 200 meters, there was only one building standing. A single room of less than ten square meters in the middle of the ruins in what was once the inn.
Zerek saw some mercenaries hitting the wall of the room with hammers, but they were unable to cause any damage to the wall. The blows made no noise while the room remained intact.
Zerek was a famous Erath Archmage who studied for many years and knew many spells, but he couldn’t feel any mana or barrier coming from the room. “What the fuck?!”
He scanned the room for a few minutes and tried to use some spells and items but was unable to make any changes on the wall.
Zerek was sure that anything in the room was very rare and valuable. He received the mission to tear down that wall, but now he wanted to do it for himself.
“Stay away from the room; I’m going to use the earthquake spell,” Zerek warned the other mercenaries while he started making symbols on the ground with his staff.
It took Zerek almost a minute to make the symbols on the ground 300 meters from the room, then a brown light shone, and the ground began to shake.
He didn’t want to destroy the city, and his spell has power only to deal damage within 300 meters. The ground shook more intensely in the middle of the spell effect area, precisely in the room.
After a few seconds of earth-shaking, a hole opened under the room and made the building sink, but incredibly the wall did not break while sinking into the ground.
Zerek and the mercenaries were surprised at the resistance of the wall, but then they became really shocked when they heard a loud voice coming from inside the hole.
“Why do you want to bother me that much?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”
