Chapter 70: The Reconnaissance (Patreon)

I dropped Hugo, Elise, and Hemi off at the top of the clock tower first. It was a great spot for Hugo to fly from, and the others could surveil half the town from up there. They were understandably disappointed about being left behind, but couldn’t argue against the fact that the more people were involved, the harder it would be to sneak through town.

Hell, me going alone was hard enough. I had no idea where they were holding Damian prisoner, what they were using to restrain him with, and how many people they had guarding him. I did however have one lead, and that was the merchant Geminy.

As the tavern owner, she was the first to tell me about Damian, and it was possible that she’d learned more since then. So the first course of action would be to get inside her tavern without being seen.

Hemi looked down through the clock tower window and nodded. “You were right. There’s two of them guarding the clock tower door and the town square elevator.”

I nodded. “I’ll steer clear of that area.”

I went inside the elevator and almost pushed the button while thinking about the basement elevator that Earnest had shown me.

I frowned. It didn’t feel right.

Instead, I pushed the button and thought of the first elevator that had dropped me off in the woods. It was a little way out of town, but was far safer. If Martin truly had the town under his control, then he could have easily discovered the basement elevator and set a trap. It would be simple to catch someone who walked out of there off-guard.

No, I’d start a couple of miles away in the woods and carefully make my way to the town.

It was dark when I finally stepped out into the woods. That was good. Curfew wouldn’t be for another four hours and darkness was my friend.

I walked about ten feet before a spear made of light flew straight for my head. I leaned back to dodge it and scanned the forest for the enemy. My perception and dexterity were high enough to dodge more spears if they came, but I couldn’t see the person who’d thrown it. I waited a few moments, but there was no second spear.

I cursed. There wasn’t time for this.

Instead of running in the direction of the spear thrower, I went another way.

Whoever had thrown it was likely one of Martin’s people, which means he has someone stationed at every elevator. As soon as he saw me, the guard had probably notified everyone in party chat to come to this location.

So with that in mind, it was easier just to outrun them. I couldn’t risk using Swiftleaf because god knows how many trees I’d end up slamming into by accident, but my high dexterity stat should suffice.

I ran as fast as I could. Going all out and watching the trees around me blur felt kind of meditative. It was rare that I got to run this fast in a scenario that didn’t involve fleeing for my life or fighting something.

Although, I guess now technically counted as fleeing. But I wasn’t worried about the people in the woods. Anyone Martin would waste stationing out here wouldn’t be much of a threat. It’s just that they had the potential to delay me and keep me busy until Martin or his lieutenants showed up. And that was a fight I wanted to avoid until I’d rescued Damian.

Just to be safe, instead of heading in a straight line for the town, I went south. There were no more spears or attacks of any kind. In fact, the further I traveled, the stranger it seemed that I wasn’t encountering any creatures. My Nights Eye ability gave me perfect night vision and yet the place seemed barren.

Maybe this floor can’t reset like the others? I’d assumed that monsters would spawn infinitely here, but maybe that wasn’t the case. If Martin’s people had culled this floor, then it might put a lot of his people into the mid-teens or higher level wise.

I shook my head. I’m not here to fight fifty people at once. Just find Damian, get in, and get out.

After a few more minutes of running, I managed to reach the edge of the town.

It was an unfamiliar part to me, but I could make out the clock tower in the distance to orient myself. So if the church was on one extreme end of town, then I was currently on the other. I hadn’t spent any time in this section and to make matters worse; it was the half of the town that the clock tower couldn’t see.

I gave the Hugo and the others a heads up on where I was and Hugo said he’d be in the air, which made sense. At this time of night, with his dark feathers, he was practically invisible to most people.

[Hugo: I’m in the sky right now and I can see three patrols moving through different streets carrying torches. All of them look like Martin’s people.]

[Lucas Hudson: Weird. Has he instituted his own curfew? This place used to be so lively at this time.]

[Hugo: Dunno, but there’s nobody else around and no sign of Martin or Anders.]

I moved from building to building, clinging to the shadows and using the small side streets.

Footsteps and voices came from around the corner. I froze in the dark alleyway. Damn it. Hugo was supposed to warn me about this. My cloak should render me invisible to them, but the fact that it could never tell me whether it was working or not, made every attempt a gamble.

[Hugo: There’s four of them, all armed. Should be passing you by now.]

Instead of walking past, they stopped in front of the alleyway. None of them appeared to be looking my way, but it still made me nervous. Alerting people in the forest and outrunning them wasn’t hard. Doing something similar in a town surrounded by people would be significantly tougher.

“I’m tellin ya!” said one guy. “The lack of food is driving me crazy. People will start going into the woods if it continues.”

“Do you want to tell Martin to change his mind?” another asked, as if the idea was humorous.

“Be quiet, both of you!” hissed a third. “You never know who’s listening. We should keep moving.”

“Why?” asked the first man. “There’s no one here and we’ve gone up and down these streets over twenty times. You know, when I thought about living in the post apocalypse, this wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“You won’t be living much longer if you keep this up.”

The others simply left and the man who complained, not wanting to be left out, reluctantly hurried to join them.

[Hugo: What do you think it means?]

[Lucas Hudson: That to everyone’s big surprise, Martin isn’t much of a leader. It is interesting though. If his supporters are weakening, then maybe there’s a way to break the hold he has on them. They see him as a strong protector, but if someone else strong were to come along who also offered them more, it may sway them.]

[Hugo: I thought you didn’t want to do the whole leader thing?]

[Lucas Hudson: I really don’t. It was supposed to be Earnest, but with him gone; I don’t see anyone else.]

I kept moving and was the near the center of town when I heard two patrols converging on my location. I asked Hugo where to go, but he said that he didn’t know.

I frowned.

There were bright lanterns hanging from the merchant stores out front, illuminating everything. I couldn’t stay out on the street and there were no nearby alleyways.

Desperate to hide, I realized that curfew hadn’t set in yet, so I tried one of the doors.

To my surprise, it opened, and I went inside.

The store wasn’t what I expected. It was filled with small stone statues that were only a little bigger than my hand. Some depicted scenes where a woman gracefully bowed to offer aid to a sickly person. Another featured a man with a sadistic grin as he stabbed someone.

They were unsettling, so I tried to ignore them and figure out if this place had a backdoor, when the owner of the store appeared.

He was a thin, gangly man and appeared was almost the right word until I realized he’d walked out of a basement hatch that was behind the counter.

“If it’s not on the shelf, you’ll have to commission me, which costs extra,” he said.

“How much extra?” I asked, deciding to play along for time.

The man shrugged. “Depends on who it is.”

He then suddenly jumped as he’d been kicked and Geminy appeared up from the counter looking annoyed. “Will the both of you stop haggling and get down here? We’ve got more important things to talk about.”