Chapter 30: Smuggling Foreigners

Chapter 30: Smuggling Foreigners

"Son, if you know what's good for you, you'll turn around and forget you saw anything." One of the larger smugglers lifted a sword in his direction, in case there was any confusion. "This has got nothing to do with you. And we're not selling, if that's what you're thinking."

Kai kept a smile on his face and he faced the group. All of the smugglers were in the same general range except the leader, who had a Total Power of just over 20. He double-checked that there was no one else lying in wait, but it looked like he was only facing the half-dozen smugglers. It should be possible to neutralize them for interrogation without too much risk.

"Would you really just let me go?" Kai asked. He raised his hands to keep them away from his weapons, acting nervous in case they weren't using their own spiritual sight on him.

"This is none of your business. Get lost."

"I'm just wondering how you can kidnap people this close to Monskon City. Surely the Hunters Guild doesn't allow that."

One of the other smugglers laughed. "Nah, this is some foreign bitch. Not like Krysal or somewhere. Really foreign. Her mana is all fucked up, so w-"

The leader cuffed him alongside the head and glowered at Kai. "You from one of the other gangs? Listen, this is our personal business. Just making a little profit."

"I'm going to have to ask you to let her go." Kai smiled blandly and drew an arrow. The smugglers should have noticed that it was made of solid steel, but they just laughed.

"Farmboy playing hero? Really? You might think you're hot, getting a Class, but let me tell you: your Class is shit. And anyway, you don't want this bitch, trust me."

That, more than any of the threats, threw Kai off. He slowly realized the reason all the smugglers were so confident: their spiritual sight was a weakened form and they could only get a general sense for his Class. For the first time, being a simple Laborer was to his advantage. As the chuckles died down, a few of them began to look a bit nervous.

"Wait a minute, boss... we had guards, didn't we? How did he get-"Folll0w current novÊls on n/o/v/3l/b((in).(co/m)

Because that smuggler was the first to figure it out, Kai shot him first. He sent the arrow into the man's hips, aiming for a wound that would be disabling but not lethal. The group roared and began charging him, thinking that they could rush him before he could shoot too many of them.

And they were right, he could only loose two more arrows before they arrived. But that was when things turned really bad for them.

Dropping the bow, Kai took them on with his bare fists. They had knives, but they were so much slower and weaker than him that it was no contest. All their experience was knifing rivals in dark alleys, not fighting stronger opponents, much less monsters. Compared to all of the enormous beasts that had been battering him lately, taking down a few thugs was a stroll through the park.

Once they were all down, Kai moved to make sure those on the ground were knocked out. They all had a few Physique Levels, so he'd known they could take a beating, but one had died after hitting his head at the wrong angle. While investigating, he noticed that there was a shallow but long cut along his shoulder. In the fighting, he hadn't even noticed.

As soon as he started paying attention to it, of course the wound began smarting painfully. Kai glowered as he rubbed the flesh around the cut. Even the weak Classes of these smugglers were strong enough that they could be lethal to him, had they been more skilled or more organized. He really needed to get back to the city and reach the next major Physique rank, but first he had higher priorities.

When there was only one smuggler left conscious, Kai jerked him into the air and gave him a smile. "Alright, let's try this again. Just what are you doing here?"

When he gently touched her shoulder, she barely had the strength to flinch. She gripped his arm when he offered support, though, so he guided her out of the cage to one of the smugglers' chairs. Along the way, he realized that her arm felt like silk wrapped around bone. No one should be this thin and he wondered again how she had come to this state.

Along the way he also took the opportunity to examine her, and what he saw made him pause. His spiritual sight revealed only a haze of unstable symbols, perhaps due to her illness. But he could get a sense for her soul, and he immediately knew that the smugglers had been wrong. She held power inside her, but it definitely wasn't mana. Instead of a crackling flame, it was more like flowing water. Just how far from home was she?

"Alright, here we go." Kai eased her into the chair and then backed away, since she seemed to dislike his touch. "That stuff must taste awful, so I imagine you need a drink. I don't know if they have anything other than beer, but I can look..."

"No..." Her voice came faintly, finally a word he could understand. She raised a trembling hand toward the other side of the room, then slumped back in her chair.

Kai looked in that direction and frowned, trying to figure out what she meant. There were a number of boxes, some of them open to reveal ordinary supplies. Eventually he spotted something more unusual: a treasury cube bound in mana-enhanced steel. That was definitely where the smugglers might keep more valuable goods, and he had the keys in his hand.

Inside, Kai hoped to find a treasure trove and was disappointed to find only a few sundry items. A jeweled dagger that was probably worth a decent number of Eagles, but nothing else stood out. Only while taking it out did Kai notice a bundle of cloth. The material itself was finer than anything he'd seen before, a thin blue garment with a cloud-like pattern printed on it. Wrapped inside, he discovered a sack and a narrow box with ornate gilding he'd never seen before.

"These are your things, right?" Kai raised them for her to see and the woman vomited more black bile in response.

He didn't want to snoop through her things and lose more trust, but he examined them as he approached. The box contained a number of pills, larger and darker than the overdrive pill. Definitely not Krysali, but likely something similar. Probably the medicine she needed.

"Here you go, is this what you need?"

When he set the items down in front of her, she began struggling to open them. Unsure if she wanted help, Kai decided to back away. After he saw her successfully swallow one of the pills, he headed out to deal with the two guards he'd left outside.

Fortunately, they still lay where he'd left them. The whole affair hadn't taken very long, but he didn't want to risk other members of the gang noticing and interfering. He briefly considered that the absence of guards would be a problem and decided that there was nothing he could do about that, so he simply dragged the unconscious guards inside.

Where he saw the woman cutting the throats of the fallen smugglers.

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Kai dropped the bodies and moved closer to stop her. "We don't just kill criminals here, we need to bring them to justice."

She stared at him as she drew her knife across the throat of the last smuggler.

"And now we can't interrogate the rest of them." Kai sighed and took a step back. "I don't know what they did to you, but I wanted them alive. Sorry, I know you don't understand me, but we need to-"

"I understand you just fine," the woman said in perfectly clear Goralian, "but I do not care about your laws, and I will not submit to you."

An instant later she was across the room and her hand was closed around his throat. Her power flared and she smashed Kai through one of the tables to the floor.