128 Shady Dealings Part 1

Twilight's Academy, Delmar City

In District 0 where only official Mages, cultivators, and those associated with them are allowed to purchase property and live stands the Twilight Academy. Twilight Academy was build to nurture the most promising apprentice mages from various clans associated with Delmar City.

Inside of its magnificent walls rich with history Linda was standing alone in a grand hallway that had jewel-encrusted chandeliers and a velvet rug covering the floor. Linda knocked on the door in front of her and waited for a reply from the person in the room.

The dorm room she knocked on belong to Ferrise. Him and Linda had recently come back from there hunting trip and each took the time take care of their own business. Ferrise immediately parted with Linda tend to his wounds, but after he got back all he could do was stabilize himself and not regrow the pound of flesh Krug shot off of him.

Most of the students who supply the means to do so had taken missions far away from Delmar City to escape the war. The ones who were still left already sold out all their Goods to trade. The war has severely limited his options. Before healing such a wound would have been no trouble at all so long as he had the money. But now you needed more then money to get what you want. The wound wasn't life threatening but it was a glaring weak point that he did not want to leave unattended.

When Ferrise heard knocking on his door he stopped tending to his wound to open it. Once you Ferrise saw it was only Linda he let her in.

"So, did you find someone that had what I need?". Ferrise hoped for good new, but received the worst new possible for him do hear.

"I found out that there was someone that recently still had what you needed, but a problem arose before I could acquire it".

"What kind of problem?".

Linda took a second and cautiously replied, "the Maverick kind"

Once the word Maverick slipped threw Linda's mouth Ferrise lost his cool and broke the chair he was next to along with some other things in the room. Howell Maverick is an advanced apprentice just like Ferrise and linda who has almost reached the peak of apprentice grade, but unlike them in the school he is well known for being cold hearted and manipulative. He has tormented many other students at the academy by abusing the school rules to the maximum.

Many students have confronted maverick before of which none have ended well. If you bother Maverick to much he will find an excuse to out right kill you in front of everyone or make you suffer a humiliation worse then death. Jasper was living proof of what could happen to someone when they cross paths with Maverick.

During a tournament at Twilight Academy Maverick had the honor of facing Maverick. The second it started Maverick unleashed a hail storm of attacks that gave him an opening to cut Jasper's throat. Because of the rules set in place the only way that the battle would stop was if the opponent gave up, was out of bounds, or if the the opponent was unconscious.

Maverick purposly slit Jasper's throat to remove on of his options and because he had plenty of ways to keep Jasper alive and conscious. The battle didn't end till every inch of the stage was covered in Jasper's blood. After the match ended everyone else was forced to continue the match on the blood stained ring. No one wanted to challenge Maverick after that except a few easily winning him the tournament.

"What did he do this time?".

Ferrise knew when Maverick's name was attached to something that it wasn't going to be good so he braced himself for what Linda was going to say next.

"Maverick accused the person who had what you needed of robbery and took most of his stuff as compensation. The evidence he had was solid even the teachers admitted they would find it hard pressed to make someone look anymore guilty".

"That bastard is at it again with his tricks. He's the worst kind of opponent for people like us because everything he does is fair and legal. That crafty devil knows now bounds if I could kill him I would, but the way he fights make him difficult to deal with". Dealing with Maverick brought endless headaches to Ferrise. To alleviate the pain Ferrise forgot about Maverick and focused on problems that he had the ability to solve.

"Linda how many underground trade gatherings do you know about I need to go to all of them to boost the chances of finding what I want".

"I know of a couple, but that info's going to cost you". Linda and Ferrise weren't friends they supported each other because of mutual benefit.

"I can pay you no problem, but we have to talk about the issue about our group because Jasper's dead we need someone to take his place, any recommendations?".

"I know a few people we can choose from".

"Good that makes this easy".

...

Inside of a different room on the other side of the Twilight Academy sparks produced from someone welding flew sporadically all around. All kinds of complicated machinery, blueprints and scrap metal could be found all around the room. The man who was welding stopped when an alert on his computer monitor caught his attention.

The welder took of his welding face mask, gloves, and apron to comfortably interact with the computer fully displaying his face. It was a face everyone in Twilight Academy knew and disliked because it was Maverick's.

Maverick wasn't handsome, but he most definitely wasn't ugly. He was average in every as spect. Maverick had long dark hair that reached his waist, a common looking face, and dark eyes.

Maverick watched the video that played on his monitor with a devious smile on his face. He placed micro cameras all over and in many of the students dorms. The information he gathered on everyone in the academy was plentiful it didn't matter if it was about specific items someone had or bathroom habits Maverick categorized and documented everything. He repeatedly used that information to get what he needed in the academy.The video he was watching was a recording of the conversation Linda and Ferrise just had together.

Once the video ended Maverick looked at a specially made glass container next to him. Inside was a special kind of silkworm called a flesh worm that can only be created thew a difficult refinement process. The silkworm eats dead flesh and then spits out a new health strand that is commonly used in skin graphing and other things. The worm has a short life span of about 6 months, so many people choose to sell the worm if they have no personal need for it.

Maverick didn't particularly need the worm he only acquired it because he knew Ferrise needed something like it. Everything Maverick recently did was all in a bid to get Ferrise to move how he needed him to. All in a bid to acquire what he needed.

"That stone is waisted on you Ferrise its about time someone who can bring out its full potential uses it".

The impending war has forced everyone to scrape together what litte they can to ensure there own safety. So there was no way Maverick was going to let Ferrise keep what he desperately wanted.