After parting ways and the paths diverged, and I continued to head south. A dense forest would appear on the map, and after passing through the forest, I would arrive at the imperial capital of Enzone - the land of spices.
That would be an ideal stop to rest and replenish the essential supplies that were gradually running out. But the worrying thing was how to get past the guards and enter the city?
Most countries on the continent would require documents to enter the city. There were two types, the first type was the identity papers that the country provided to the people in the city, and the second type was to present fake adventurer or association papers.
And I didn't have either of those, in the worst case, if I couldn't find a proper entrance to the city, then I could only ignore the Enzone empire and continue walking south, or Infiltrate the city.
Of course, illegal immigration is also very common, I can probably use that method to enter the city. But the problem is that there is no information about when that illegal immigration took place.
While lost in thought, he had gradually stepped out of the religious empire's path, and the weather was late spring but still very cold.
The sunlight above only shone on the green trees on the side of the road, not illuminating his eyes, making them still a dark patch.
'There's a sign over there, maybe there's an inn or a village around here.'
I continued walking towards the wooden sign with three arrows, one pointing to the Enzone imperial palace 36 km away. The next one pointed to the forest, the same direction as the first arrow, but closer, it seemed that the forest was called the Black Bone Forest by the local people around here.
'It seems like a small town is about 100 meters away, let's find a place to stay for the night.'
Looking down at the pocket watch on his hand, Kim had already pointed to 10 o'clock.
'I left a bit late this morning, I've only been walking for two hours and it's already 10 o'clock.'
'There's no inn around here, let's just have a sandwich for lunch and continue.'
Opening the storage ring, the food inside was still preserved. He took out the sandwich he bought at the fair before leaving this morning and ate it.
This storage ring was a rare item. Flauros had found it from a Royal Sorcerer he had killed before.
It could hold a large number of items regardless of size and keep them in the same state they were when they were first put in. However, it could not hold living things.
'Maybe when we find an alchemy shop, we can find a chance to upgrade it a bit.'
'But if we want to have enough materials to upgrade this ring, we will need a lot of raw minerals. We will need to go underground to mine them, which will take a lot of time.'
'And if we want to buy them directly, we will need identity papers, which is troublesome.'
'Hmm.... But if it's the black market then..'
Time passed quickly, and the wind blew across the vast grassland filled with fresh green grass.
The evening sun appeared, the stone path leading to the Sylies town appeared a figure slowly walked in.
Sylies town, a town under the Enzone empire, was built next to the large river of the area - Sylies river.
The people in the town did not pay much attention when Flauros appeared in the village, there were many adventurers and people from the guilds coming here regularly.
The town was very developed, the river port was busy, and life was bustling. The houses had architecture typical of the region.
Flauros observed around the stone path, passing by the fairs preparing goods for sale in the evening, the inns and beer houses began to light up. Restaurants with all kinds of colors, the square held a dance festival around the small fountain. Life was very vibrant and colorful.
'The scenery there is beautiful, and the people are also very friendly. But whether it is still a dreamy town at night is the problem.'
I don't believe in a place with such perfect scenery and good people, where there is good, there is bad. Missing notices are posted all over the public notice boards, there is something wrong with this place.
After walking around the town for a while, it was already sunset, I found an inn near the town center. The guests here are mainly adventurers and people from the association, there are many people recruiting members for expeditions.
But it seems that their eyes, when they see me, are not very natural, maybe because the clothes on my body look a bit too heavy.
After completing the check-in procedure with the inn receptionist, I checked in and took the key to go upstairs. Right after I left, I could hear their whispers about me.
But it didn't matter that much, looking around, no one could threaten me. Even if they had bad intentions, it wouldn't do anything to me.
After Flauros's figure disappeared, the chatter started. Guessing about this terrifying aura, wearing the clothes of a knight but holding a spearman's weapon.
"Who is he? I've never heard of him."
"Flauros, huh, that name sounds strange."
"Someone with no reputation but with such a terrifying aura, he's truly a strange person."
"Hey, if I can invite him to join the party, it might be easier to conquer the dungeon. Why don't we try inviting him?"
"It's easy for you to say, seeing his murderous face, how can it be easy?"
In the corner, a black-haired boy with bewitching purple eyes smiled.
'I didn't expect to meet you here. Flauros? Not a bad new identity.'
And then he disappeared into the darkness, leaving only a gold coin and a note to pay for dinner on the table. No one knew of his presence, not even Flauros.
The sunset disappeared, giving way to the night sky and the moon, and the stars. The street lamps began to light up, and the houses lit up one after another.
The water here seemed clear, without any color or residual oxygen, and the riverside town was different.
After bathing, Flauros went downstairs to the inn to find something to fill his stomach. In particular, he wanted to buy mana recovery potions and healing potions from the alchemists.
'Healing potions are easy to find, but mana recovery potions...'
After all, the witch purge was happening all over the continent, wouldn't buying them be a death sentence?
'But if I find the formula and pretend to be an alchemist, it's not very feasible.'
After all, with this appearance, it would be easier to believe that I was a swordsman or a shieldman, no alchemist would train their bodies. Oh well, it would be easier to go find a black market to buy them.
Anyway, there is no request for personal information of customers or sellers.
*ding ding!!
The bell of a seafood restaurant rang out clearly amidst the noise in the restaurant, Flauros walked to an empty table.
The waiter came and handed over the menu, then left first for him to choose his dishes.
Flauros chose two fish dishes, one rice dish, and one soup dish. Using Fire Magic didn't cost that much energy before, but now using forbidden magic consumes more energy.
The waiter came back later, took the menu, and reported to the kitchen. Waiting for dinner, Flauros discovered something strange. The eyes of everyone looking at him were very strange, not everyone, but quite a few pairs of eyes were looking at him.
'What's with that look of theirs? Did they discover my identity? Not really, what's wrong with them?'
'Strange.'
A short while later, the waiter brought the food, he picked up his knife and fork, and started eating dinner. Finished the meal, paid, and left the restaurant. It was already 8 pm, and the moon was very bright overhead. This world was not like Earth, there were 2 moons at night. But for some reason, the sea and ocean here were not affected by it.
The night scenery was very beautiful, but it was ruined by the strange stalkers.
'Are these guys tired of living?'
It seemed like they had noticed him since he was in the restaurant earlier, and there was no one around here. It was best to deal with them quickly. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
'What if they are black market traders? Then why not just pretend to let them kidnap me? It's also easier to get there.'
'From the sound of their footsteps, I can tell that they don't have much muscle, don't practice martial arts, or use specialized weapons.'
'They probably often use anesthetics to control their victims, so they must be slave traders.'
As they entered the deserted alley, the killing intent from them became more and more evident. Flauros thought to himself.
'I hope my guess is right, if they are organ traffickers. Then I'll die after being anesthetized.'
'But it's not necessary to be anesthetized. I just need to act a little, it's not that difficult anyway.'
His thoughts were interrupted when he was suddenly covered with a cloth soaked in anesthetic, struggling violently but then falling into a coma under the drug.
Of course, everything was just an act. The kidnappers didn't notice that there was anything wrong between the time the drug was applied and the time he lost consciousness, they just took him away.
After a while, they put him down on the tiled floor. Then the sound of the door locking and closing rang out, waiting for the footsteps to go away before Flauros opened his eyes.
Looking around the room or rather a tent, there were many iron cages in the tent. Inside were all kinds of beastmen, humans, rare animals. But mainly elves and foxes in human form.
'Damn. Now I understand why I was targeted. It seems like there aren't any human cats in the tent.'
Surprised and annoyed by what was happening, Flauros now noticed that he was a beastman. And a rare species at that. He looked around at them, some of them seemed to have been here for a while, some were panicking, and some were still unconscious.
'Look at the wounds on the bodies of the former slaves here. It seems that these human traffickers are not just a bunch of bugs, but beasts.'
'After I find what I want and leave here, I'll burn them all. I'll be half dead.'
"Hey, put that killing intent away. The guardian of this place might notice and kill you. You seem strong, but you alone aren't enough to deal with him."
The voice came from an elf boy next to him. Flauros immediately turned his attention to the side.
"What are you looking at? Do you think your killing intent is hard to detect?"
"..."
"Nothing. Thanks for the reminder."
"It's not a reminder, if the guardian of this place finds out and comes here, we'll all die."
The elf boy shrugged, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes to calm down. Flauros now had time to observe him carefully, although he had elf ears and a prominent fair skin, his hair and eyes were very dark.
'A Dark Elf? How could they capture him, a branch species from the original Elf that usually lives in dense forests filled with deadly black mana?'
'He must have strayed from the tribe or left voluntarily for some reason.'
'Never mind, that's not as important as thinking of a way to leave this place as quickly as possible.'
'It seems like there's a very strong guardian here, this place also has a magic circle that seals Mana and Manas.'
*Mana refers to the energy that witches accumulate from nature into their Mana core, from which they use magic. Consider the life of witches, creatures that live on Mana.
Manas refers to the will of warriors that is transformed into the weapons they use to increase their attack power, the energy source to unify the technique and the mind that controls it.
'Then it's a bit more difficult than expected...'
But unfortunately, I haven't used Mana for a long time. The forbidden spell I used doesn't use natural Mana, but instead uses energy from negative emotions.
And just in time, the negative emotions of the slaves around here are all very good sources of energy. Just need to accumulate a little more, it will be enough to melt this iron cage. Then there might be enough energy left to destroy the gatekeeper and escape.
Anyway, I need to replenish the necessary items, I can't just destroy everything. I have to kill the guard and free them quietly.
Flauros thought to himself and looked towards the slaves in the tent.
Suddenly, he caught the eyes of the Dark Elf from earlier, her amber eyes looking at him thoughtfully.
'Perhaps he has also realized, although I have a Mana core on my body. But what I absorb is not natural mana, Elves are inherently sensitive to Mana.'
'Then maybe he also recognized the rune symbol in my core...'
...
'Should I kill him now?'
'This forbidden magic can't be known to anyone...'
...
Probably not, after all, he gave me useful information. Even if he found out that I used forbidden magic, he wouldn't have any basis to prove it.
"..."
Well, let's just wait, wait until we have enough energy and then attack later. Killing one more person would waste a lot of necessary energy.
A moment later, a masked man walked in. He seemed to be quite young, dressed very luxuriously, next to him was a fat man dressed in precious stones, and two guards following behind.
'It seems like they are the merchant and the customer. At first glance, they seem to be from the upper class.'
The fat man rubbed his hands and led the way, asking the luxurious customer in a flattering manner, constantly asking about the item requirements.
"How precious! What kind of item do you need?"
"Beast, it's better if you're intact."
"Oh! You came at the right time today. I just imported some new items. Please come this way."
The surrounding beastmen were some lifeless and powerless, some were trembling with fear. But most of the beastmen were hostile and murderous, and some had even begun to sharpen their claws.
The customer didn't care much about that, but was examining the 'items' introduced by the merchant. They went deeper into the tent, then suddenly the merchant pointed at the iron cage holding Flauros.
"Sir, to say the most special item this time would be the catman."
"Oh, catman?"
"That's right, sir. But as you know, the number of catman species currently existing on the continent can be counted on the fingers of one hand."
"And above all, this item is also a precious catman - a fire catman. It has a special talent for using fire magic, very suitable for raising as a war slave."
"Hmm..."
The customer rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The merchant seemed to be afraid that this 'big' customer would change his mind, so he immediately added.
"Moreover, this item also has a relatively perfect face, so buying it will be profitable, sir."
The customer didn't pay any attention, what he noticed was Flauros's eyes. He had seen many slaves and beastmen before. But never had anyone's eyes given him such a terrifying invisible threat.
"Do you have any way to ensure that this slave will obey your orders?"
"Of course, sir, we have ways to train slaves to be completely obedient to all orders."
"Are you sure?"
The clumsy lie couldn't fool the experienced person who looked at the goods, the merchant felt guilty and stammered.
"Actually...sir...this slave was just captured not long ago."
"And you haven't given him any form of training to ensure he obeys orders properly?"
"Oh...yes, sir..."
The atmosphere was silent for a moment, the merchant seemed to gather all his courage and smiled, trying to make amends.
"We will compensate you by not losing any training fees. We will immediately start the slave training process for him for free for you!"
"Just-just for a while, the item will completely obey your orders!"
"No need to explain anymore, that's fine too."
"I like the feeling of training someone myself."
"Thank you for your forgiveness!"
The merchant wiped the sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. The Guest smiled as he looked into the cage. No one could guess that Flauros's gaze had been off since when.
...
"What's wrong with him?"
"Yes, sir?"
The customer suddenly felt a sense of unease rising in his heart and realized something was wrong. The merchant heard his questioning tone and looked down at the cage.
"Hey, you, raise your head!"
After waiting for a while but still not seeing the person below respond, the merchant angrily ordered the guard to come closer and pull him up by the neck.
"Soldiers, come here and pull him up by the neck!"
...
No one responded, the merchant still did not notice anything unusual, and continued to call.
"Soldiers, can't you hear clearly?"
"Come here, pull him up by the neck!"
...
This time, he realized something was wrong, and he turned to the tent door. He saw the corpses of two headless soldiers rolling around there, and blood was still flowing from the corpses all over the tiled floor.
"What the hell!"
The merchant was suddenly scared, his pupils constricted. He wanted to lead the customers behind him to escape. But when he turned around, a line of warm liquid splashed onto his face.
*thud
His head fell first, and then his body also collapsed. The merchant was terrified of the thousand people who caused it, his body seemed to be powerless as he collapsed to the ground. His mouth trembled as if he wanted to open his mouth to beg, but unfortunately.
The blade made of black magic had severed his main artery, killing him quickly.
Flauros wiped away the blood that was splashed on his face, expressionlessly looking down at the corpse below. He walked out of the tent, looking back at the slaves behind him.
"Wait for me."
After saying that, Khuat left, and at this time, the people who remained in the tent. Some were confused and scared, some were hopeful. But the most curious about why he was able to do that, the Dark Elf who had reminded him earlier, broke out in a cold sweat.
'As expected, the one who uses forbidden magic is different. It's something to look forward to, now maybe my warning just now was useless.'
'The 10 people guarding this place aren't enough for him to pay attention.'
As for what happened, it was right before the merchant and the guest entered the tent.
The amount of black Mana that Flauros had accumulated was enough, he created a copy with his forbidden magic to stay in the cage.
The real body hid in the darkness, waiting for the two to discuss business with each other. He quickly went behind the two guards and dealt with them, and then the remaining two.
All in a quiet, gentle manner.
And what about the weapon?
It was a knife created from the negative energy that Flauros had accumulated, by converting it into the core, all that remained would be handled by the special runes in his Mana core.