The two man team now holding bags of silver and bronze coins proceeded on their mission and walked away from the Molonian Arena, having nothing to do with it now.
Ryujin: "Should we buy something from that shopkeeper to thank him?"
Ryujin thought of a way to repay their debt to the shopkeeper. If it wasn't for his help, they also wouldn't be able to find out about the arena and not everyone would tell anyone information in this world for free.
Neko: "Yeah, we should. He might even have something valuable."
Neko agreed with a smile on his face, both didn't seem like they were in a fight and chatted on the way as they talked about their battles in the arena. At that same time, Neko confirmed they each received 112 Silver and 40 Bronze Coins in that one match which were all safely inside the bags of money.
Finally, they saw the magic crystal seller who was currently examining his products with a magnifying glass with a professional atmosphere. They approached him but he didn't seem to notice as he's too focused on the item.
Neko: "Excuse me-"
The shopkeeper was startled and almost all his crystals that were placed on the cupboards fell when he hit his head on one of the platforms. He didn't look very pleased and frowned when he noticed the two standing in front of him.
Shopkeeper: "Oh it's you guys again. What do you want this time?"
Neko: "We came to buy some of your products."
Neko gave a kind smile and proudly showed the bag of money to the shopkeeper.
Ryujin: "Yeah, we wanted to thank you."
Shopkeeper: "You guys won and came back already?"
The frown disappeared from the shopkeeper as fast as it came and he chuckled merrily at the words of the two.
Shopkeeper: "Please feel free to choose which item is to your liking then."
The two started looking and picking up random crystals from the desk and cupboards. There were many kinds of crystals in different sizes, colors and shapes. A red shining crystal on a handkerchief caught Neko's eye.
Shopkeeper: "Ah yes, that one. That there is a Hellhound's magic core. It has enough power to make a simple magic device move for a week and it has a trait to produce minor heat if you pour some mana in them, good for heating up baths. You guys seem like travellers so I ain't sure if you know about this."
Neko: (So it's like a battery in this world. I'll take it just in case.)
Ryujin: "No we didn't know about that. So thank you for informing us. Say, do you know where we can buy books?"
Shopkeeper: "Yeah, it's over there."
The man turned his head and pointed at a shop on the opposite side of the road which Ryujin and Neko also turned to look at. It had a sign saying "Garry Berry's Books For All" above it's door frame.
Neko: "So how much is this Hellhound Core?"
Shopkeeper: "That would be 6 silver and 40 bronze coins."
Neko paid the Shopkeeper 6 Silver and 40 Bronze Coins for the Hellhound's magic core. Ryujin on the other hand bought a small blue-colored crystal for 16 Silvers, the shopkeeper had said that the crystal emits light when in the dark.
They took their leave after saying their goodbyes to the shopkeeper and headed straight to the book shop. Opening the spruce door and going inside.
The interior was a tad bit untidy because of the books that looked as thought they were placed so hastily. The place was highly similar to a small library with numerous shelves filled with books which both Neko and Ryujin thought similarly.
There was an old lady at the counter reading a book, she had a hooked nose and curly white hair.
Neko approached her, Ryujin was left behind while holding both the groceries and the money bags.
Neko: "Can we buy world history books about civilization?"
The old lady narrowed her eyes as she looked at Neko and stood up to walk pass them to look at the books in the shelves. After a while, she came back with a dusty and tattered looking book in a leather cover and handed it over to Neko, he was briefly in shock with her silence but eventually remembered how to talk. He paid her 14 Silver Coins according to the price tag on the book's cover and left.
Ryujin: "Aren't you hungry, Neko?"
Ryujin asked Neko while they were walking in the streets, Neko was looking for a place they can rest in.
Neko: "A little. You don't need to eat right?"
Ryujin: "I don't need to eat but I still want to taste things too, you know!"
Neko: "Sheesh, what a waste of money. Go eat then, soldier."
Each bought four pieces of roasted orc meat skewers. Which they agreed on as incomparably delicious. It was high quality meat that feels as if it melts in someone's mouth, it was far beyond the level of normal cooked porkchop on earth.
They ate the skewers until they were finally on top of a very tall building beside the shopping districts.
Neko: "Our mission is, kidnap a royalty."
Ryujin who was drinking water spit the water out of his mouth and stared at Neko as thought he were a disgusting creature he shouldn't talk to anymore.
Neko: "Let me finish, theres no other way. Tonight, I'm going to borrow some droids from Bunny. I will kidnap a royalty with one of my men and bring that person to the droids to make the people think she's been kidnapped. Then that would be the favorable time for us to act like heroes that save the day, with that the royal family will owe us one and give us an audience with the king or the ruler of this kingdom."
Neko stopped talking and had already changed his clothes into his usual military clothes and equipment with [ππ¦π’π±π°π― ππ’π΄π΅π¦π³].
Ryujin: "Talk about gaining gratitude even though you're the one who caused trouble."
Neko: "Sometimes, the good guy can be the bad guy in the story."
The facial expression he made was what anyone would interpret as "Leave it to me" before his face was completely covered in his orinasal mask again. He contacted Bunny through his radio attached to his helmet.
Neko: "Bunny, send five or ten of the most humanoid robots you have near the gates."
Bunny: "Roger that."
Neko explained his plan to Bunny and he agreed to send in the extra units. The portal that Sakura can make was unable to fit in tight spaces which was the inside of the walls due to it's large size so it was best used outside or at the surface of the walls.
Neko: "Ryujin, stay here. I'll retrieve the units myself."
Ryujin: "Okay, goodluck and be careful not to get spotted."
Ryujin gave Neko a thumbs up which Neko returned.
Neko: "[ππΆπ³π¬]"
Neko's presence completely vanished. His image, smell, temperature and sound were included that Ryujin didn't even realize Neko had already gained a hundred metre distance from him in an instant.
Undetected, Neko kept on jumping from one house to the other and reached the walls in almost a minute.
Neko: "[ππΆπ³π¬]"
He used the skill again to prolong the effect. The time limit of the [ππΆπ³π¬] skill was 60 seconds and so he wouldn't be detected by the knights guarding the streets, he continued this process everytime he runs out of time.
Neko: (I need to make this quick, I only have four minutes until almost all my mana runs out and it would be terrible if that happens.)
He latched on the wall with his claws and jumped upwards. Rising at the speed of sound, he reached the top of the eastern wall in almost no time.
Neko: (There are atleast 17 guards in the area where the coordinates of the portal will be set. So my secondary objective would be to knock unconscious these guys.)
There were 17 guards stationed in the eastern wall armed with crossbows and halberds. Though most of them were slacking off by drinking and playing cards.
Neko: (Good god, you call yourselves soldiers who protect your country?)
Neko: ([ππ¦ππ°π’π₯])
Neko unholstered [ππ’π¨πͺπ€ ππ°π₯ ππͺπ΄π΅π°π] and fired a bullet at a guard. Instead of magic bullets that are stronger than any rifle round on earth, what came out was an XREP(eXtended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile). The bullet hit and electrocuted the guard at a considerably high voltage enough so that he suddenly fell down.
At first, the others thought their companion was just too drunk because they didn't hear the gunshot ([π.π.π] does not produce sound). But now they're frantically searching for Neko who suddenly appeared out of nowhere because his second [ππΆπ³π¬] ran out of time.
"There he is!"
Knowing any more mana wasting would be unnecessary, he decided not to use [ππΆπ³π¬] again and fought the knights. Smacking away arrows with his pistol and evading melee attacks at the same time.
Neko: "... That's five."
-10 Seconds Later-
Neko: "... Twelve."
-Another 10 Seconds Later-
The last one who was trying to run away was shot cleanly and accurately in the ankles. Neko ran to that guard and made sure to shoot him twice but this time on the right shoulder, causing him to completely lose consciousness.
Neko: "...Mission Complete."
He successfully took down all the guards and the portal leading to their headquarters finally appeared with Bunny being the first one to come out.
Bunny: "Can't you just summon your soldiers and make them the bandits?"
Neko: "No way. I don't want to kill my own men."
Bunny held his own face and sighed, a few people came out of the portal-
Neko: "Woah. They really look so human. Wait... Are they?"
Atleast five humanoid robots that looked exactly like thugs came out of the portal. Their movements and actions were undeniably identical to an ordinary human that noone would notice they were even robots.
Bunny: "Ofcourse, they're robots. They just look human. In addition to looking human, I installed some of my AI Units (Artificial Intelligence) to them so the efficiency of this mission will greatly be improved."
Neko was walking in circles around the humanoid robots while holding his chin.
Neko: "Do they have their own weapons?"
Bunny shifted his goggles upwards, making it gleam from the moonlight.
Bunny: "No they don't. I focused on strengthening their artificial muscles to improve strength, durability and speed to be more than 10x stronger than the villagers of this world. But we can give them weapons ofcourse."
Neko: "I see. You should go back to the headquarters, it's already night time and you should sleep. It's not like theres anything you could do right now. I'll handle the weapons."
Bunny nodded and gave Neko a small blue box.
Bunny: "Off I go then, you're free to destroy my robots if you want to. That might serve as a good tool for your plan."
And Bunny went back to the headquarters through the portal created by Sakura.
Neko disappeared out of sight again and met up with Ryujin after finishing his job.
Ruijin: "You're back already? Did something happen?"
Neko: "No, four minutes was just enough."
Neko crouched next to Ryujin and opened the box. What was inside was small... a Dragonfly?
Neko: "One of Bunny's inventions. A reconnaissance drone very hard to spot. Speedy and people will think it's just a fly."
Ryujin: "Brilliant! So how do you use it?"
The screen of the left hand wrist armor Neko wore lighted up and revealed few buildings that were supposed to be pointed on their right. Ryujin looked at the dragonfly and saw it's head was facing the same direction.
Ryujin: "So your watch is the controller for that little robot."
Neko: "Yeah, now to search for an alley."
Neko holstered his [ππ’π¨πͺπ€ ππ°π₯ ππͺπ΄π΅π°π] and took out five small knives from his thigh's leggings pockets.
Neko: "Ryujin, you do the searching for a bit. I'm going to handle these guys' weapons."
[ππ¦π’π±π°π― ππ’π΄π΅π¦π³] was used once again. The knives that Neko held turned into tiny bits of black powder and started to multiply at a rapid rate, increasing their mass.
πΎπ‘ππ£π!
An axe, three machetes and a bow with thirty arrows fell on the cemented floor. The metal of the iron weapons clanged on where they had landed.
Ryujin: "Neko! I found the perfect spot!"
As Neko was handing the weapons to each of the droids, Ryujin seem to have found a spot to begin their operation already.
Neko: "Excellent. Now all that's left is to kidnap a royalty."
Things are going as smoothly as planned...
For now...