Chapter 93 - No Body

"Hurry up! I saw the old Phillip, I saw the old Phillip!" Feller was in a panic and rushed into the hotel. He had sweat all over his forehead. He shouted, "Someone sold us out. We gotta leave now!"

Anfey and Christian were looking at different assignments from Mercenary Union when they heard Feller. Their faces changed immediately. Anfey yelled, "Don’t panic. This is Blackwater City in the Country of Mercenaries. I dare old Phillip would hurt us here."

"Anfey, you don’t know how hot-tempered that old Phillip is. He would not care!" Christian shouted.

"We’d better leave now!" Suzanna said.

"We have been running away for a long time. Where else can we go? Let’s fight him until we die!" Blavi said with his eyes wide open.

"Are you serious? How can we battle with a master swordsman?" Christian said.

"Don’t worry. Suzanna is a senior swordswoman. We have so many mages too. I think we can do it," Blavi said.

Anfey did not say anything. He hesitated for a second before he pulled out his sword and walked outside. His action had said enough about what he was going to do.

Clark was shocked when he heard old Phillip was coming. He knew who Phillip was and understood the reason Anfey and his legion were so afraid of him. He was so worried when he heard Anfey’s legion talking about going into battle against Phillip. He thought to himself, "These poor kids!" What can a senior swordsman do? There was a huge difference between a senior swordsman and a master swordsman. The magic attacks from mages were just like tickling Phillip. It would not take much for Phillip to kill all of them.

Seeing Anfey rushing out of the hotel, Clark shouted in instinct, "Wait! Don’t do anything stupid. I have a secret chamber here. You guys can hide there for now."

"Chamber?" Anfey suddenly turned around and threw himself on the cashier counter, shouting excitedly, "Where is the chamber?" It looked like he had been pushed into a corner to go out to fight with Phillip. He did not have other options. If he had any chance to survive, he would not let it go.

Clark was still not sure who sold Anfey and his legion out. Phillip had already come, which meant he got accurate information, maybe even knew about this inn.

"Come with me," Clark said and then ran out from behind the cashier counter. He had already had an idea in this short period time. He thought he could ask Anfey and his legion to hide in his chamber, and then he would handle Phillip himself. If Phillip wanted to make a scene here, he would let Phillip know who he was and ask him to back off. Of course, there was a prerequisite for this to happen: that is, Phillip did not see Anfey and his legion, otherwise someone like him would not be able to stop Phillip.

Clark rushed into the storage room. The storage room, where stored all kinds of wines and other goods, was not big. Clark moved a heavy wine barrel at the corner of the left wall. There was a black stone underneath. He grabbed the stone and pulled it. A secret door slowly rose on the left wall.

Clark ducked in first. "Hurry, come with me."

Anfey suddenly stopped right at the door, while Suzanna had walked two steps down below the door. Suzanna stood right between Anfey and Clark.

Clark took the torch off the hallway wall, walked downstairs in front of everyone, then noticed no one had followed him. He turned around and yelled, "What are you doing? Come. Hurry up."

"Do you know us?" Anfey asked calmly.

"I…" Clark realized he was set up. He looked down and thought a little bit before he said anything. "I do not know you."

"Really?" Anfey said.

"Please don’t misunderstand me. I do not mean to hurt you. You have to trust me. I swear I do not want to hurt you." Clark was worried and tried to explain.

"I know you did not want to hurt us, otherwise you would not warn of "survival of the fittest," but I want to know how you recognized us?" Anfey said.

"I saw your magic images." Clark said.

"Which magic union sent out those magic images?" Anfey asked.

"It’s the magic union in the Country of Mercenaries," Clark said.

"Suzanna, take him down." Anfey shook his head.

Suzanna slowly took out her sword. Clark yelled, "Don’t kill me. The intense combat power will attract the patrol’s attention."

"We will be fine. I can just tell them we were cheated by an innkeeper and fought with him out of spite. I think it is you who will have to explain to the patrol. Magic unions are independent in each country. Some of them are even hostile towards others. How could magic images sent from the magic union in Maho Empire arrive here? Phillip should not have any influence over the Country of Mercenaries. I do not want to hear your lies anymore, Mr. Clark," Anfey said.

Clark did not say anything, but smiled bitterly. He had mixed feelings about it. To be honest, he was so worried about Anfey and his legion’s safety that he exposed his hidden identity. How could Anfey and his legion take advantage of his kindness?

"Feller, take a few people with you to check around. Don’t miss any place that looks suspicious. I will find it out no matter what." Anfey gave the order.

"Don’t move!" Clark yelled. "Some areas are protected by magic arrays. If you move the wrong stuff, it might explode."

"Explode? I did not know you are a man of sacrifice. They are all mages. They know how to control magic arrays. You don’t have to worry about it. Do you want to tell me what you are?" Anfey smiled.

"Don’t do this to me. I am just a nobody." Clark smiled bitterly.

"Are you saying you do not have the authority to make a decision?" Anfey saw Clark passively agree, so he knew he had guessed right. He thought a little bit and said, "You can tell your supervisor that I would like to see him in private. You don’t have to worry about it. Niya is the daughter of Professor Saul. We are all students of his. We would not do anything to harm the country’s safety. After learning about the invasion from Shansa Empire, everybody wanted to go back to fight for the country. I thought we could help more if we stay here."

"How do you know we are working for the king?" Clark’s face changed.

"There are only a few types of people who are interested in us and also know about us. I just took a guess. Can you take a message to your supervisor? We have common interests that we could talk about," Anfey said slowly.

"I am nobody," Clark restated, with a bitter smile on his face.

"Is one day enough?" Anfey acted like he did not realize he had put Clark in an awkward situation. He pushed him even further. Clark hesitated a little bit and nodded. He was just a liaison for the contacts. He was in charge of passing the information inside the organization but did not have any authority to make any decision. His experience was far less than the frontier spies. He had freaked out when Anfey had discovered his identity.

"Ok, let me know when you know about it," Anfey said.

* * * *

When Anfey and Suzanna walked into Hagan’s room, he was engaged in various jars. He stood up quickly when he saw Anfey and Suzanna coming in. "Suzanna, here you are. Anfey, how are you?"

"Hagan, what are you doing?" Suzanna smiled.

"Didn’t you give me a few pieces of wyvern magic crystals? I am thinking of making you a magic sword," Hagan said.

Anfey did not pay attention to who was greeted first by Hagan. He simply glanced around and asked, "Hagan, how is your alchemy?"

"What about it? Do you think I am not good enough? Then don’t invite me to your mercenary!" Hagan got mad quickly again when he heard Anfey’s question.

"Don’t get mad. I only wanted to give you something. I was just afraid you would make some mistakes when you transform them into something else," Anfey said.

Hagan sneered, "What is it?"

Anfey took a few things out of his Dimensional Ring and passed them to Hagan. Hagan looked closely at them for a while and asked in surprise, "Is this a manticore’s tooth?"

"Yes, can you make me a few blasting arrows with it?" Anfey asked.

"Sure," Hagan nodded without any hesitation.

"You can let Feller know if you need other materials. He can purchase them for you," Anfey said.

"Thank you, but I am an alchemist, not a blacksmith. I need ingredients instead of materials," Hagan corrected Anfey’s inappropriate terms. "Vonmerge can help me collect ingredients. He is familiar with Blackwater, but…"

"Money is not a problem. Don’t worry about it," Anfey smiled.

"That is great," Hagan nodded. He got mad quick but forgot about it in a second as well.

"I have two more items. Do you think you can make a suit of leather armor for Suzanna?" Anfey took out the unicorn and manticore furs from the Dimensional ring.

"Manticore’s fur, hmm, is this unicorn’s fur?" Hagan suddenly raised his voice. He threw himself onto the furs and touched them gently with excitement on his face.

Anfey waited a second and asked quietly, "Can you make leather armor?"

"Of course!" Hagan unwillingly moved his eyes away from the furs.

"Which one is better for leather armor?" Anfey asked.

"The unicorn’s. Suzanna needs armor that can protect her from magic power." Hagan stared at Anfey. "Do you have any other good stuff? Take them all out together."

"And this one. I need a short-shaft spear." Anfey took out the manticore’s tail stinger.

"Spear? I am afraid it would take too long to make. Do you want its paralyzing effects on the spear? Even if I could make a spear for you, you would be disappointed anyway," Hagan said slowly.

"Why?" Anfey asked.

"A manticore is a senior magic beast and very hard to catch. However, countless of them throughout history have been killed by human beings. Weapons with paralyzing effects are everywhere in the world nowadays. In fact, its paralyzing effects will disappear in two or three years after their death. It could also be affected by the amount of usage. It will be a regular spear by the time I finish making it."

"So…" Anfey was disappointed.

"If you do not want a spear, I can break the tail stinger and make it into a knife quick. Aren’t you a swordsman? A knife should be helpful," Hagan said.

"Knife?" Anfey’s eyes lit up with excitement. He hurriedly nodded. "Sure, I will have a knife."