‘Rotten Wolf.’
When Sylas saw the creature, his last bits of apprehension vanished. There were only so many coincidences that could pile up.
Not only was this City Lord from York City, they were related to a marine biologist, and now they were using creatures from the Den that he had gotten for Casstle Main.
There was no doubt about it.
—
[Rotten Wolf (F-)]
[Level: 6]
[Physical: 59]
[Mental: 0]
[Will: 0]
—
Still, they were far too weak to do much of anything and far too unintelligent to tell friend from foe. This was likely why they were doing such a perfunctory job like guarding this side of the portal. In all likelihood, they were only here to let Cassarae know of an attack ahead of time.
The Rotten Wolf lunged at Sylas, but it was much too far away. It didn’t have the ability to close in on him before he could notice its existence. His visualization had long since pointed it out.
With a casual sidestep, Sylas dodged out of the way. He didn’t want to harm Cassarae’s assets.
From what he remembered, the Den could only produce three Rotten Wolves a day. By now, the foul-mouthed City Lord should have quite a decent little army. But they were just too weak. The loss of even one would be a problem.
Of course… only Sylas would think like this.
The Rotten Wolves could be considered a huge reason why Casstle Main was still standing despite the situation. Most people weren’t even Level 5 yet, let alone Level 6. And most people weren’t anywhere near the double F Grades.
Sylas could be considered unlucky. The opponents he faced, one after another, were all monsters. But the vast majority of the world was far more down to earth.
‘This is odd though. The Rotten Wolves are difficult to control without the matching Class. The Class Stele that I gave to Cassarae should only have room for nine more; they wouldn’t be able to control so many Rotten Wolves.
‘Having these zombie-like creatures walking around everywhere would also affect the morale of Cassarae’s city. She wouldn’t release them like this unless she had no choice…’
Sylas frowned. His thoughts ran as he dodged through an increasing number of Rotten Wolves. Soon, there were at least half a dozen on his tail, but he suddenly vanished into a building.
They lost him through the stairs and he leapt out of a fifth-floor window.
With a bend of his knees, he landed near the portal, but just as he was about to enter, he heard the sound of rattling armor and a squadron suddenly appeared, weapons at the ready.
Sylas came to a stop.
He didn’t recognize most of these people. He wasn’t sure at a glance if they were militiamen or not, but luckily, he spotted one that he did recognize.
—
[Marcus Tanner (FF-)]
[Level: 10]
[Physical: 162]
[Mental: 122]
[Will: 91]
—
Sylas recognized this militiaman. Last time he saw him, he was just Level 2, but it seemed that Cassarae had noticed the weakness of her city was its lack of combat power and she had begun investing far more in that.
Plus, since she had the Class Stele, getting some of her trusted subordinates to Level 10 wasn’t an issue.
Marcus seemed to recognize Sylas as well, and held up a hand to stop everyone from attacking.
“The City Lady has told us to watch out for citizens, and Sir Sylas is one of us. Stand down.”
Sylas watched this silently.
“You can come with us, sir. We’ll take you to the City Lady right away,” Marcus said politely.
Sylas nodded and followed along. But after stepping across the portal, he realized that things weren’t so simple at all.
The first thing he noticed was that the portal hadn’t overwhelmed the city like it would be in most cases. Instead, it seemed to be extremely controlled much like it had been under the influence of the disk beneath the volcano portal before.
After stepping across the portal, a basement floor appeared in Sylas’ vision. There were guards all around, and the portal that should have been large and imposing was as minimalistic as a simple doorway.
“Please wait a moment, I will call an escort.”
Sylas only nodded again and silently observed everything. Minutes later, it was Gregory that came down with Marcus and what Sylas assumed were two other militiamen. There was a bright smile on his face as he gave Sylas a polite bow.
“Ah, it’s the hero of our little village. Come, come. I hope you don’t mind a few formalities, Sylas. There are a lot of bad characters targeting our village from the outside and inside these days. There’s just some procedural stuff we have to accomplish and then we’ll send you on your way.”
Sylas looked him in the eye and nodded.
Gregory proceeded to ask Sylas a series of questions. They were all standard and felt no different from an airport interview.
Sylas gave him the casual answers he wanted, following the protocol. There wasn’t anything to nitpick about his attitude.
“Great. The last thing we have to do is a search. Do you have any spatial devices?” Gregory asked.
“I do not.” Sylas replied.
Gregory checked Sylas’ hand and wrists with a glance. But there truly didn’t seem to be anything on him.
“I see. No issues, then.”
Gregory was only spawned after the Rotten Wolf attack and the Madness Key didn’t look anything like the usual spatial devices.
Just as Gregory was about to let Sylas go, there was a slight commotion and another group came down to the basement. This time, it was led by a familiar valiant woman.
Cassarae was still wearing a set of leather armor that clung tightly to her chest torso and waist. Her legs were long and every stride seemed to take two or more for others to keep up with.
There was a frostiness about her that Sylas quite recognized. It was the kind of expression she would have when she was pissed but was forcing herself to remain calm.
