When the sun rose the next morning, the terrain had changed. From the flat plane laden with straw, they entered a hilly landscape where the grass had more life. These hills were fairly small, but their impact on the carriage was felt; it did not take long for Sage to tire of the constant ups and downs. So annoyed with it she was that she ordered Isaac to slow the carriage to lessen the impact.

  Despite their reduced speed, they were still on schedule. Every time the coach made it to a hill summit, a city entered her view overhead. She could not see the city walls, but that was because the hills ahead obscured them. The Lethian capital seemed to have been built upon these hills, as the buildings were visible in the format where those behind stood on higher ground. The structure at the highest point was what could only be described as a castle, with a temple-looking building just below it. Even from the distance approaching a dozen kilometres, with her improved eyesight she could almost make out the buildings clearly.

  Almost there, she thought before drawing the curtain close and returning to the spellbook.

  The passed days had been spent doing more than trying to land a hit on Isaac. She had familiarised herself with the other 9th Order spells recorded in the book, managing to ingrain [Summon Undead III] and the coveted [Gate]. As for [Earthquake], she had yet to try casting it due to the environmental devastation it would cause; she had decided to learn it after leaving Io.

  This would be her last stop in this country, she had decided. If there was no necromancer in the surrounding, then fuck it; she was going to build up her own undead strengthening method from the scratch. Though, if that was the future that came to pass, she would make sure to pay the Ruphean broker another visit to deliver a quick beating as thanks for him wasting her time.

  Time passed and when she next drew back her curtain, the walls of the city were visible along with the entrance. As with other cities she had travelled to, there stood a line from the gate extending several hundred metres. Seeing it was enough for her to order Isaac to steer the carriage offroad, not caring for the gazes received from other travellers on the road.

  Off the road, the carriage hit a bump every other second, much more than when they had been speeding. This time she endured it until they got to a spot that was reclused enough for there to be no witnesses, though she still looked around to make certain there were no other sentient presences. When she was assured, she ordered the knight to stop the coach before climbing out; Mylah following behind her. Then she told Isaac to unfasten the horse and let it run free, after which she swallowed the carriage with her shadow and dumping it into Nyx’s [Space].

  “I feel uncomfortable looking like this.”

  The statement of course came from Isaac. Instead of his armour, he wore brown woollen pants with a white cotton t-shirt and dark leather boots. The paleness of his skin was such that it challenged his shirt in whiteness, a stark contrast to his jet-black hair and abyssal eyes. Obviously, the man’s eyes were too bizarre to expose in public, so she provided a pair of shades she had bought in Rupheus to conceal them. She had been amazed to see sunglasses in this world, but not really surprised considering people on Aran wore spectacles. Later, after learning of Isaac’s moronic visit to the Guild, she had backtracked to buy them for him. Wearing sunglasses would be conspicuous considering their rarity, but not as much as if the bastard put on a blindfold.

  “Had you not acted impulsively previously, you wouldn’t be feeling like that,” Sage could not help retorting.

  After painting a target on his back in Rupheus, the bastard obviously could not be seen in his armour anymore; which was why she had him change into his current clothes. The fact that he was unhappy about it had little to do with her, considering he was the reason the change had to happen.

  Mylah still wore knee-length shorts and a jersey, though it was a different set than the one she had worn before. The boots on her feet were still the same though.

  “Yes, Isen,” the cat in Mylah’s arms chimed in. “Maybe if you were a good little servant for Master, you wouldn’t be so miserable all the time.”

  Isaac short him a death glare- causing the cat to wince and look away- before returning his gaze to Sage.

  “What about my sword?” he asked.

  “Too well made, too eye-catching,” she replied. “Anyone with a working set of peepers need only take a look to realise that; and need I even mention the black blade?”

  Isaac was not happy if his grunt was any indication; and Sage could not care any less as she grabbed hold of his shoulder, using her other hand to clutch the girl’s one into her own. When she felt she had a firm grip on the two, she {Blink}ed to the foot of the wall.

  Using [Gate] in this situation would have been the preferable option. However, although the sun was just shy of touching the western hills, it was still day and the garrison were likely still vigorously patrolling the wall. If one of them happened to walked by, they would definitely not miss a dark portal appearing out of nowhere. Appearing with {Blink} was the less conspicuous option; she reduced the chance of discovery to zero by combining it with {Invisibility}.

  Whether there was a guard patrol atop of the wall at the spot they appeared, Sage did not know; nor did she care to find out. Still holding onto the other two undead, she activated {Ghostwalk} and passed through the wall.

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  There was nothing much to say about the part of the city they had burst into. It was not rundown, but it was also not luxurious. So, although she could tell it was not one of the good neighbourhoods, she could not tell if it was the middle-class district or the better part of the slums. The place was not deserted either. One of the first things she noticed upon passing through the wall was a group of men hovering around something. Through the gaps of their placement, she could make out a pair of die; they were gambling.

  Immediately she lost interest in them as she proceeded to lead the two to the nearest alley, which she fortunately found unoccupied. Here, she let go of them and subsequently let go of {Invisibility}. Then she looked around again to see there were witnesses. Seeing none, she let out a relieved breath and turned to the duo.

  “Well, I’ll parting with you guys here,” she stated, taking out a coin pouch and tossing it to the knight. The purse contained twenty gold coins, enough to live comfortably for a year. “Keep the child fed, and don’t go causing any trouble. And Nyx, you’re coming with me.”

  Her announcement caught both the knight and the girl off guard, such that Mylah’s jaw slackened while Isaac’s brow creased. As for the familiar, he jumped out of Mylah’s arms and settled into her shadow without saying anything.

  “You’re leaving?” Isaac asked, incredulous; “where to?”

  “To do what I came to do,” she responded. Although she did not show it, she was really fed up with Lethia. That was why she had decided to hurry with her search and leave when its complete; whether she succeeded or not. “Again, do not make trouble for me. I won’t be gone more than a couple hours, at most a day.”

  She gave him an intense stare as she said it, to show him how serious she was. Io, of all the cities in Lethia, was the one place where they should not start trouble. With the city’s ruler- the country’s king- being a Transcendent, he was the last person whose eyes she wanted to attract. Her current level was just shy of Transcendence, but the gap between the two was a chasm. How deep that chasm was; she had no desire to find out until she was ready to cross it herself.

  She left the two before any more words could be exchanged, her destination clear; the Mercenary Guild. However, unlike the Isaac, she was not going to bother the receptionist. She was just going to enter the place, listen to some gossip and look at assignments on the board. If she acted like she belonged, no one would question her presence.

  With the help of random strangers, it only took her thirty minutes before she was standing in front of the Io branch. It was certainly bigger than other Guild branches she had seen; though to be fair, the only other city’s branch she had seen was Tiih’s, a smaller city than the Lethian capital.

  She stood in front of it and took one deep breath before deciding to enter.

  The inside was a large hall with dozens of tables where individuals clad in all sorts of eccentric armours convened. This place, like the one she had visited in Nervahn, doubled as a tavern; so there were tavern girls rushing all over the place carrying trays of food and jugs of alcohol whilst they did their best to avoid some mercenaries’ gropy hands.

  Many of these convening mercenaries were so loud their voices carried over the entire place; one of the noisiest being a red-haired man in similarly coloured scale armour. At this table sat five other strangely dressed fellows, all of whom listened to his drunken ramblings with sheepish grins. The man was likely the leader of their gathering, considering the fact that he had a Grade 2 body while the others capped at Grade 3. His was one of the more impressive physiques in the place, Sage realised as she looked around. She spotted only five others who matched him, with only a single person surpassing him.

  The person with a physique above the red-haired man’s was a dwarf clad in greyish black armour. He was the classic type dwarf with a black beard that flowed from half his face to below his waist; Sage could not tell its exact length since the table obscured her view of the rest of his body.

  Race: Dwarf (Human)

  Physique: Grade 1

  Mana: H (White)

  Sitting opposite him was a woman, also of dwarven heritage. Since she was facing away from the man, Sage was not able to see her face, but activating {Index} while gazing at the back of her shaggy brown head offered up her information nonetheless.

  Race: Dwarf (Human)

  Physique: Grade 5

  Mana: B (Blue)

  She was one of only four people in Sage’s sights with active mana, and the one with the highest attainment. None of the other three were higher than the 3rd Order, but their physiques were all above than Grade 5. Considering the type of land Sage was in, by her guess the three were actual mercenaries while the dwarf woman was an alchemist who moonlighted as a mercenary. Also, the amount of contact between the two dwarves was too close to be only companions.

  After staring at them for a while, Sage withdrew her gaze and looked elsewhere. She also started paying attention to the rumours being filed around the place. One of the more coherent ones had to do with a four-star mercenary seducing a marquis’ daughter; he was currently rotting in the dungeons. Another was about zombie sightings in the mountains of north-east of Io. The loudest topic in the place was about a parade to be held the next day in celebration of the forty-seventh anniversary of the king’s marriage to the bishop of the Vestravan church.

  The one that caught her ears was the second rumour. That Harn guy was not lying about that it seemed.

  She filtered through a couple more gossip topics, none of which were worth remembering, as she made her way to the noticeboard. There were several people standing around the board when she got there, all of whom towered over her. Due to her height disadvantage, she had to wait patiently until they were done eyeing the board and before she got her turn. She pushed her dissatisfaction down as she moved around their departing forms.

  The first notice to catch her attention was of course her wanted poster. Having seen it already though, she did not linger on it.

  The second posting that caught her attention was an inquiry on an individual clad in full black armour. This one had a reference from Rupheus of course, since they were clearly the ones looking for the bastard.

  After skimming through a bunch of other notices, some of which were requests for combat tutors while others were basically asking for glorified fumigators, she spotted the one she wanted.

  Investigate the north-east of Io. Solve the zombie sightings.

  Reward: 150 silvers.

  A really cheap job for one to be risking their life for, especially if the reward had to be split between a party. Not that she cared about the reward; she could not even claim it. However, the fact that the Guild had hung a mission to check out the place meant there was something there.

  Feeling assured, Sage turned and made for the exit.

  However, she did not make it far when a trio blocked her path, two men and a woman; all unsurprisingly taller than her.

  “You are going to look for the undead right?” the man in front asked, flashing a smile meant to… charm her? “We’re going there too. Wanna join us?”