Chapter 199 Decisions Linked

“Where the fuck is he!?” Lara yelled as she jumped through the portal.

Her hands were ready to strangle someone, her eyes wide with anger.

Anya didn’t even hear her as she watched the portal close behind Lara with teary eyes – she was cut off from the world; truly alone now.

“Just calm down. I sent him into a holding cell. We can see what Norgrim wants to do with him once we know what’s going on.”

Lara breathed and exhaled deeply a few times, her face still twisted in anger before marching to the exit and leaving.

She was fuming with anger after what happened, and the mission was not the success they planned it to be, but it was still completed nonetheless.

Her job was done for now, but it was a blemish on her otherwise perfect record.

Lannister sighed as he turned to Anya who was still teary-eyed and speechless, giving her a soft sympathetic smile.

He took out a communication crystal and said, “Evelyn, we’re back – earlier than expected. We’re in area one… I could use your help.”

“I’ll be there shortly.” a mature woman’s voice sounded.

Evelyn’s official role at the third academy was to teach and train specifically in defensive techniques, though she also acted as a headmistress – though for situations like these she was neither, instead, she would simply be compassionate and caring.

Evelyn showed up after a few minutes and immediately looked concerned for the sobbing girl standing near Lannister.

Looking around for Lara – who was missing – she said “I take it things didn’t go as planned.”

Lannister averted his eyes, clearly disappointed.

Evelyn walked over and said in a soft voice, “Anya, it’s nice to meet you. Come with me, I’ll find you somewhere more private.” She put an arm around Anya’s shoulder.

Before leaving, Evelyn flashed Lannister a serious look – one which beckoned him to follow her.

Lannister silently followed along. Norgrim’s debriefing and the prisoner could wait.

Besides, he knew what would happen next: They would have to locate Jay using a certain student’s ability, and make another portal.

~Mirror Reality 34, Holding Cell~

Mathesons body was sweating in the darkness.

Despite having energy to continue exercising, his thoughts began to distract him from his workout.

A sense of shame built in his mind that he had never really felt before.

“Fuck… why did I jump through?”

“…one sniff of power and I revert straight back to my old ways.” Matheson gritted his teeth.

“Am I doomed to remain the same?”

Anger built again and Matheson began punching the walls, creating cracking noises and causing his knuckles to bleed slightly.

Somehow the pain felt good as he let his frustration out.

After feeling sufficiently exhausted, he stopped punching the wall and whispered to himself, “Did I even change at all? Can people even change themselves…?”

He felt hollow inside as he stood silently in the darkness. His thoughts seemed to hold more weight as the cold air and sensory deprivation was therapeutic in a way.

“Changing myself isn’t enough… I need to die to my old ways… my old self needs to die.” Slowly he nodded.

After grasping this thought it slowly started to take over his mind, and soon enough it was what began to drive him forward.

Somewhere in his chest, excitement began building and he began to gather his thoughts again.

“Matheson needs to die. Having noble blood has made me hold onto my weakness, a safety net to jump back into… But if Matheson is to die, then who am I?”

Matheson realised that his noble roots were like having a sort of lifeline, and the power of simply being a noble was competing with his own new self-made power.

He realised he had to cut the life-line; he had to start anew – to be reborn. At least mentally.

It wasn’t enough to change his course in life, but he had to seal the path behind him, only then would he rely on his own strength and grow it further.

He sighed, “Though perhaps it won’t matter anyway… they may just decide to execute me.”

~Losla Adventurer Guild~

Marsh had just found out the truth about Jay after spending some ‘quality time’ with Viladore and his favourite tools.

The news was shocking to say the least: A human necromancer exists.

It sounded so far-fetched that he thought it was a lie at first, so he continued his vile practice on Viladore for much longer than it needed to have gone on for.

“He lasted longer than I thought he would have,” Lieutenant Marsh said, cleaning the red traces left on his tools; as thorough with cleaning them as he was at extracting the information.

Marsh had already reported the news to his commander as soon as he believed Viladore’s information – and then came more of his own investigation.

So far, he had connected a few dots successfully:

– Sullivan was sympathetic to variants, allowing a human necromancer to exist and grow.

– Viladore wanted the human necromancer for an experiment, which is why he reported Jay as a thief.

– The rebels had come to recruit the necromancer – admittedly, Marsh wasn’t sure how the rebels came to know of a human necromancer.

While it was troublesome, it did mean that the country-wide search for the necromancer was over, and now it could be focused in the south-west regions of the kingdom.

As for the news of a human necromancer, it seemed that it must have troubled the upper echelons as they sent another two divisions to the region, totalling five divisions – 35,000 mage hunters.

Clearly they wanted this problem dealt with before it grew bigger, and perhaps they feared a human holding grudges.

As Marsh went back to his office he began to calmly go over the details and the timeline he had constructed of Jay.

– Jay was at the guild, and he left the guild, but Losla was quickly surrounded by mage hunters after the thief report, so how could he have left Losla? There was a possibility he went around Losla – but then how did the skeletons get into the town in the first place?

– The mage hunters left their posts – surrounding Losla – to investigate the signs of the variant rebels with his own approval. The rebels were a bigger threat than a petty thief anyway.

– The portal disappeared, and the skeletons appeared after it had shut. But why would the skeletons suddenly appear if the necromancer made it through the portal?

There were some possibilities:

– Perhaps the portal teleported them far-west and the skeletons were running to rejoin their master: but that failed to explain the strange skeleton turning around.

– The necromancer was fucking with them for the sake of it.

But in any event, the skeletons would have had to have been placed in the town, and he simply didn’t believe that Jay, a human, had enough foresight to place the skeletons there before he even visited the guild that day.

The last option remained: the necromancer didn’t make it to the portal.

The other outcomes seemed too improbable, and if the necromancer didn’t make it to the portal, then Jay was either still in Losla or was running away at this very moment.

Realising this, Marsh said, “the skeletons were most likely a diversion…”

He immediately got onto his communication crystal.

“Surround Losla. No one leaves. Search the forest for any signs of life,” he quickly said, “I want every building, basement and attic searched and everyone’s class checked. I want every barrel opened and every rock turned over for a dangerous fugitive: The name is Jay, Level nine – and I want him alive.”

Marsh looked back at his papers, realising there were only two level nine adventurers in this year’s records: Jay and Anya.

“Such fast growth…” he glared over the records, “only people who are power-levelled are faster than this…”

Little did he know that Jay was actually level twelve.

“Now… if he did manage to escape Losla…”

A number of scenarios ran through his head as he tried to place himself in Jay’s shoes and retrace his steps.

“The north and east were still surrounded at the time, so Jay either went west or south… but the skeletons went west…” A devilish smile grew on his face.

“He may be strong, but he’s not lucky. He failed to realise that only the south and west mage hunters left to investigate the rebels…”

This was a theory – but he thought it was more likely that Jay remained in Losla, so he decided not to send a whole squad through the south forests.

He quickly added orders through his communication crystal, “Send five men to sweep the southern forests – tell them to keep heading south until they find anything… and post another man on each instantaneous dungeon entrance.”

There was the possibility he was hiding in a dungeon too.

As his plans were set into motion, Marsh’s eyes gleamed with delight, as if he was looking over a treasure chest filled with skill scrolls that would give him unimaginable power.

Catching a human necromancer would bring his status to unimaginable levels – perhaps he may even taste the longevity elixir.

***Hope you enjoyed the mass release – you can probably understand now why I wanted to release that part of the story at once; a lot of crazy things happened.

Also I didn’t ruin Matheson’s development, it was intentional. Sometimes you need to take 1 step backwards to take 2 steps forward :).

Some news: 15-chapter mass release coming near end of month/start of next month (due to privilege chapters increasing from 5 to 20.)

+ Discord link below – link expires in seven days. Only for privileged readers.

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