164. Augmentation - 8

164. Augmentation - 8

"That's not good" I said to myself once I arrived at the other side of the wall. I had used the same glider trick from before and landed on a location that was close to my first arrival, wanting to use it to my benefit once I was there, only to be met with an unwelcome view.

The area was unnaturally busy, with both the army and the cultists present. Worse, despite the closeness, they were not fighting, other than some occasional clashes.

They were searching for something.

Or, more likely, for someone.

I used my Concealment to carefully approach the soldiers at the outer layer of the search, the ones that were farthest away from the base. I expected them to be the most relaxed, with the highest chance of bothering with idle chat. And, their armor revealed them as ranking officers and minor nobles, meaning, there was a higher likelihood that they knew exactly what was going on.

When I approached them, I noticed that they were not talking, so I decided to cheat a bit.

I stayed at a distance while using my Charisma to slowly manipulate their emotions, focusing on their sense of boredom, doing my best to combine it with a sense of security, the perfect mix to trigger some idle gossip.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

As a result, for almost fifteen minutes, I had to listen to some pointless idle talk, wasting the time I could have used hunting monsters instead. But, patience was important when it came to gathering information, so I listened.

"I can't believe that they want us to kill a hero. Doesn't it count as heresy?" one of them commented idly.

"Of course not," another responded. "We receive our orders from a god. How can it be heresy?"

"An evil god," the first one mumbled in response, his tone frustrated as he whispered in a way his fellow soldiers wouldn't hear. "I thought the plan was to keep him contained and let him be captured by the cultists, and they let us continue leveling up?" he added. "What changed?"

I couldn't help but frown deeper as I heard that. I was already aware that the cultists and some rogue elements in the military were cooperating, but I had been hoping that it would be more limited. From their discussion, it seemed to be more like an open secret.

Which also put their trap with Town Maell in a different context. I had thought that the aim was to somehow break the containment but what if the real objective was to deal with the princess without making it look like an assassination?

I quickly sent a message to Zolast, asking him to warn the princess about another potential attack. There was no harm if my conjecture was wrong, but it was better safe than sorry.

After listening a while more, I decided to pull back, preparing to ruin their plan a bit.

And, what better way to do this than a false-flag operation? They might be trusting each other now, but I was sure that, ultimately, their trust was limited, and I had just the tools to break it.

First, I moved deeper into the cultist territory and devoured some of the mana that was floating freely.

[Archery of Destruction (30X)]

However, as I moved deeper, I started listening to the discussions among the cultists, which were far less controlled than the military, confirming that they wanted to kill 'the hero'.

As I moved deeper into their territory, I started thinking about the sudden change in their approach. Why were they trying to kill me now? I didn't think my subterfuge was revealed if that were the case, they wouldn't have been trying to find me here, but they would have attacked Town Maell instead.

Instead, they were searching for me here, in the region where I had killed several summoned beasts. Clearly, someone had noticed my hunting activities and decided to handle me directly.

[+31 Authority]

Under the circumstances, I was collecting Authority and Experience with shocking efficiency. It damaged my weapons, of course, but with the battle going on, I managed to get the armor and the weapons out of a deceased soldier.

A bit ghoulish, perhaps, but it helped me to conceal my identity well, somewhat, as long as they didn't have the time to look at me carefully.

It was a pity this was the last time I would be able to collect this much experience, I thought as I moved away from a sudden explosion of destruction mana. At a distance, several miles away, I could see another summoned beast, but it was clearly of a higher class, bigger and faster than the usually summoned beasts I had been dealing with.

It reminded me of the ritual I had interrupted halfway through the first ambush Maybe it would be another creature of this size if I let that sacrificial ritual continue.

If so, I was very glad that I had interrupted it, because the monster looked extremely intimidating, both because of the number of limbs it had and the thickness of destruction mana around it.

The experience and authority it represented were tempting but I still stayed away from it. Not only was it too big and too fast, but the military was attacking it with their mana-based siege weapons the moment it appeared.

No need to take a risk dealing with them when I had a much better option.

I moved deeper and deeper into the territory of the cultists as the military closed in from behind, showing that they always had the ability to suppress the breach if they wanted. However, once I got closer to the center, I was distracted by another development.

I felt a change in the System. Not that anything had changed, but suddenly, it felt lighter and more alive. And, a mental touch later, I found myself floating in the Astral World once more. I could feel the presence of Limenta and Zolast far more accurately.

I would have loved to use the opportunity to examine their presence, but it didn't seem likely, not with the glowing red figure I could feel looking at me. I couldn't fully see his figure, other than some kind of jackal head and red energy but his anger was palpable.

I moved as fast as possible. First, I touched my sole Skill and destroyed it just like I did with Limenta's skill. It was painful, but nothing too unbearable.

Then, before dismissing the area, I reached Zolast's presence and repeated the same trick I had used on Limenta, recreating his Life Elevation Ability, and pushing it to the limit.

Once that was done, I pushed myself back to the Material world without even giving the angry god a chance to speak.

I had a feeling that I didn't have the chance to actually listen to his monologue.

[-5 Stat Points]

The moment I felt the ground under my feet, I started running, ready to assign more points to Speed. I had a feeling that a disaster was about to come, and I didn't want to take that risk.

And, clearly, I wasn't the only one that had that concern. The flying castles reversed their direction while the glow increased and I decided to cheat a bit, and used my platform trick to slip into the closest castle.

The flying castles were armed with many magical measures to prevent exactly what I had been doing, but no one was paying attention to it while they had been running away from an explosion.

A correct choice, as just a few seconds after I managed to slip into the castle, I found myself being thrown around like a rag doll.

Clearly, angering a god was not a smart idea.