IM2: Chapter #34 (Patreon)

Jogging through the jungle, Thorn kept pace with Kroxl, occasionally glancing over at the powerful Axaz warrior. He had not imagined that he would meet the leader of the Silent Guard in the middle of the jungle on the fifth strata, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The Blood Leaf Cult that ruled the third strata was also in charge of providing security on the fourth and fifth strata, and as one of the arbiters, Kroxl was the first to be deployed to fight against threats like the Deva.

Behind them, twenty members of the Silent Guard followed closely, their head to toe dark green armor blending into the dense leaves of the jungle. There were ten adventurers with them, many of whom shot glances at Thorn as they ran. Noticing the looks he was getting, Kroxl spoke up.

“All the reports tell us that you’ve had an exciting time since you left the city. There have been all sorts of wild rumors flying around.”

“Oh? I’ve been a bit disconnected from things,” Thorn said, keeping his voice even. “What is being said?”

“I’ve heard that you betrayed the blacksmith’s guild, and that you stole runes from the artificers. Oh, and that you are responsible for nearly killing Aciakko.”

“Aciakko is in the eighth tier. How am I supposed to have nearly killed her?” Thorn asked, jumping over a low lying log.

“Something about a bomb. Did you feel that blast some time back? That was a ruin collapsing on the fourth strata, and Aciakko got caught in it. When she dragged herself back to Droukna, she had lost a chunk of her tail and one of her legs. Heh, it serves her right.”

Surprised by the animosity present in Kroxl’s voice, Thorn’s head snapped over and he stared at the arbiter. Noticing the look, Kroxel shrugged and showed his teeth.

“You are not the first person Aciakko has hunted down on trumped up charges. She used to be one of us, but betrayed the cult to join that scammer Maido and go diving. If she had not gotten lucky enough to forcefully break through to the eighth tier, she would have already suffered worse than a hurt leg.”

Sensing a story, Thorn was about to ask more but Kroxl changed the subject abruptly, clearly not interested in continuing to talk about it.

“Chances are good she has heard that you’re here, so be careful. She holds grudges. However, not everyone is in on that game, so you don’t need to be afraid. You might get some looks from the adventurers, but Master Assal seems to be pretending she never put out a contract on you and Master Levandi has not shut up about how you and he are going to revolutionize the world. What is all that about, anyway?”

Thorn just shrugged. It had not taken him long to understand that far from being the menacing villain he was expecting, Master Levandi was much more of a nerdy researcher type. The notes they had traded back and forth ranged from insightful to incomprehensible, and apart from Levandi’s penchant for wearing incredibly expensive robes and ignoring his apprentices’ bullying, Thorn quite enjoyed talking to him.

“The ones you need to keep an eye out for are those offworlders,” Kroxl suddenly said, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet. “They’re walking around like they own the place. That’s a big part of why I’m here. They dropped an eighth tier on us and expect us to all bend our tails to them. Hah, thanks to this spear you made me I wouldn’t be afraid to fight three hundred rounds with him, but apparently they have a lot of influence so I’ve got to wait on them.”

Kroxl’s distaste for the Tardoff representative was clear, so Thorn took the opportunity to fish for more information.

“They’re part of the Tardoff challenger clan, right? Why are they here?”

“You don’t know?” Kroxl said, giving Thorn a strange look before coming close and lowering his voice. “They’re hunting you. On the surface, they’re looking into why that explosion happened, but as soon as they heard that there was a giant human on this strata they set off right away. Assal and I deployed to stop the Deva from attacking any more adventurers and to get the captured adventurers back, but those offworlders were only interested in you.”

After running through the jungle for twenty minutes, the party came into a wide clearing. It appeared as if an entire hill had been cleared and transformed into a basic camp. There were hastily thrown together walls and a few dozen tents, along with a wooden building that appeared completely out of place. Ornate pillars and a tile roof made it look like an old palace, but the gilt beams and fluttering tapestries gave it a sense of liveliness that took Thorn by surprise. Seeing where Thorn was looking, Kroxl let out a disdainful hiss.

“You’ll meet him soon, I’m sure, but that belongs to Prince Felix Tardoff the somethingth, cousin of someone or another and full time annoyance. Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone. They should be gathered in whatever that monstrosity is called.”

Looking quite put out, Kroxl brought Thorn to the gate of the wooden palace where two large men in armor stood. Kroxl was fairly tall, and with Thorn towering behind him, the two imposing guards were not nearly as imposing as normal. Still, they blocked the way, causing Kroxl to stiffen slightly.

“What are you doing?” Kroxl asked, his tone barely concealing his anger.

“The prince is holding an important meeting and asked not to be disturbed,” one of the guards said. “Once they are done I can send someone to let him know you would like an audience.”

Forcing down his fury, Kroxl held up his hand to stop the twenty Silent Guards who were with him from attacking the disrespectful guard on the spot. The show of restraint only emboldened the guards, however, and they stood a little straighter and held their stances a bit firmer. Eyes narrowing, Kroxl was about to turn around and walk away when a dark haired young man appeared on the other side of the gate, as if he was just walking by. Seeing the arbiter, he waved, putting on a friendly smile.

“Kroxl, we’ve been waiting for you. Why aren’t you coming in?”

Striding over, he didn’t give Kroxl a chance to respond as he looked between the guards and the party, seeming to only now realize what was going on.

“How many times have I told you idiots, Kroxl is an arbiter! He can come and go as he pleases. I’m very sorry, my men are unaccustomed to this world and can’t tell one Axaz from the next. Please forgive them.”

Staring at the still smiling man, Kroxl seemed as if he would continue walking away, but knowing that nothing good would come from antagonizing the Tardoff clan, Kroxl swallowed his anger and gestured for Thorn to follow him. The rest of the Silent Guard stood outside the gate, unable to enter. As Thorn stepped through the gate, the black haired young man seemed to realize his presence for the first time and spoke to him in a flippant voice, all the while staring at Thorn’s impressive height.

“And who are you?”

Unimpressed, Thorn glanced down at him and then followed Kroxl quietly. He had seen the young man waiting behind the fence for the guards to play out the farce with Kroxl before accidentally stumbling upon the scene and couldn’t help but think poorly of him. Taking the dismissive glance Thorn gave him personally, the young man’s eyes flashed with a cruel light and his aura suddenly surged, smashing down on Thorn. Shockingly, he was actually a seventh tier warrior and his aura felt like a biting wind. Guarding against the surge of aura with his own aura, Thorn felt like he was locked in a struggle with a deadly beast, but instead of reacting intensely, he didn’t look over and just spoke one word.

“Pathetic.”

This time, it was the young man who was shocked, as Thorn had taken the full brunt of his aura and shrugged it off like it was nothing. Being a higher tier, he could tell that Thorn was only sixth tier, but it was impossible for him to know that Thorn’s mind and willpower were practically unshakable, allowing the Titan to brush off the pressure. Before he could do anything else, they had arrived at the entrance to the palace, and the young man could only restrain himself, withdrawing his aura as he transformed back into a weak looking dandy.

Striding through the door, Kroxl didn’t bother announcing himself or greeting those inside the room already. Instead, he opened the door with the butt of his spear and walked over to one of the seats along the side of the room. They were all currently filled, but it only took the man sitting in the second seat a moment to realize that remaining seated would be the same as gambling his life. Jumping up like his pants were on fire, he hurried to the side as Kroxel sat down. Left alone in the center of the room, Thorn found himself the subject of everyone’s attention, but he didn’t care one bit as he only had eyes for one person.

Sitting to the left of the head seat, a cold looking beauty was staring straight at him, her golden eyes hiding a million emotions. It only took a moment for all of the emotions to vanish, bringing a smile to Thorn’s face. He had missed Velin terribly, and while he wanted to do nothing more than run over and scoop her up, there were other things to do first. Unseen by everyone apart from Thorn, a faint line of nanites left the top of his staff where Eve was pretending to be a statue and drifted toward Velin.

Sitting in the head seat, to Velin’s right, was a pompous middle-aged man with a slightly protruding belly and a receding hairline. It was clear from the way he held himself that he clearly considered himself to be above everyone else present, but that feeling was not entirely without merit. Even without Eve’s help Thorn could sense the power coming off of him. He had fought with Aciakko enough to know that he was looking at Prince Felix, the eighth tier representative of the Tardoff clan.

“Are you the one…”

“Thorn!”

Jumping to his feet, Master Artificer Levandi looked like he had been struck by lightning. A wild expression of joy appeared on his face and he pulled a handful of wrinkled papers out of his gem encrusted robe, waving them in the air.

“I have been looking everywhere for you! We even hired the adventurer’s guild to find you! Where have you been? Progress has been delayed on our project because I wanted to talk to you about these figures you sent me. Genius, real genius. I can’t believe how that mind of yours works.”

“Hello, Master Levandi,” Thorn said, bowing his head slightly before turning his attention to the two guild masters who sat next to the overexcited artificer. “Master Fitzburn, Master Assal. Nice to see you both again.”

“Hello, Thorn.”

“Master Thorn.”

Finally, turning to Velin, whose brow was slightly furrowed, Thorn bowed again, this time deeper.

“Hello, Velin.”

“Hello, Thorn. It is good to see you after so long.”

“It is. I’ve missed you and the gang. I really want to catch up, but before that, I have something to report, so give me a minute.”

Flashing a smile that was so brilliant it stunned everyone looking at her, Velin nodded and gestured for Thorn to continue. While Master Assal and Arbiter Silentleaf completely ignored the growing irritation on Prince Felix’s face, Guild Master Fitzburn seemed much more sensitive to it and hurried to introduce Thorn to the prince.

“My lord, forgive us. You know how it is to see an old friend after a long time. This is Forge Master Thorn. Thorn, allow me to introduce you to Prince Felix Tardoff of Haer Tardoff’s line.”

Waiting for Thorn’s bow, the prince looked up slightly, as if bored. When all he got was a casual nod, and a dull hello, his calm facade nearly cracked. A violent aura started to leak out of the prince, but Thorn was in too much of a rush to care. Cutting directly to the chase, he tapped his staff on the ground, causing a small cloud of dust to rise. Controlling it, he pulled it into an image that captured Ingo Va’galsh’s image.

“This is the second Flesh Hunter of the Tower of the Deva, our enemy. He has captured a number of adventurers and continues to plunder our world. He is only in the sixth tier, but according to what I’ve learned, the camp has two eighth tier guardians. Unless you have more people coming, our side is the weaker one. Additionally, they will likely fire their portal in the next twenty-four hours, sending the first batch of captives through. If we are going to act, we should act fast.”

Leaning forward, Guild Master Fitzburn spoke up, cutting off the prince who had just opened his mouth.

“Do you know what Deva this Flesh Hunter serves under? That will help us understand what sort of countermeasures to come up with.”

“The Third Deva. His soldiers wear rune enhanced armor that is enough to bump their strength by a full tier. There are around two hundred total soldiers broken down into squads of ten, with one hundred and fifty of them being foot soldiers, and the other fifty wielding enhanced crossbows.”

With a low hiss, Kroxl shook his head.

“That is a lot more like a war force than a raiding party. Are you sure that they are just here to raid?”

“That was the order that the basic infantry seem to be following. We’d probably have to capture their commander to find out for sure.”

“That doesn’t bode well for our exchange, does it?” Fitzburn said, chewing on the end of his mustache.

“No, it doesn’t, though you never know with Deva scum,” Master Assal said with a shake of her head. “Hopefully the commander is sufficiently interested in gems that we can make the whole problem go away.”

“Even with two tier eights we can still crush them with ease,” the prince said, finally getting a word in.

Silence fell over the room at his proud declaration, but he didn’t even blink as everyone stared at him. Instead, he took the chance to return the subject to what he actually wanted to talk about.

“You - Thorn. Thank you for bringing us this information, but before we address that, I believe we have some business to settle. Am I correct that you are Thorn Greymane, Avatar of Hati, Stone King of Angoril?”