The smell in the region close to the city center is actually less unpleasant, even if the streets are extremely clean. This is the city with the least trash on the streets I've ever visited, if it weren't for the stench that comes from outside the city and the slaves this city would be nicer than the capital of the kingdom.
But it didn't take long for me to discover the reason why the city doesn't have garbage on its streets, some slaves of the city manager do clean and garbage collection as a form of punishment. They are forced to carry huge amounts of garbage all day and they cannot protect themselves with anything but their aura.
Many of them die for having this function for a long time, the garbage considered normal is not a problem besides being unpleasant, but the garbage that comes from workshops and blacksmiths can contain many dangerous substances. Many of these slaves are identifiable by the scars on their skin created from chemical residues from potion-making workshops of various types, many processed materials release residues with negative properties that can burn or scorch the skin of living creatures.
I haven't been in this city for more than a day and I've already realized that there's nothing in it that doesn't connect with slaves suffering or being exploited for being cheap and expendable labor.
But this is not relevant to my current mission, the first possible target this time goes by the name of Faustos Merati a low-level noble responsible for a part of the logistics of various parts of the army operation in this city.
He was regarded as a potential cultist because of his position in the logistics of the Mirue Kingdom's army operation, as the best lead we have involves slaves disappearing it is natural to look to those who are responsible for moving slaves and resources into the city.
They would have the best opportunity to divert slaves out of the kingdom's operation and hand them over to a merchant group made up of cultists. associated with them that is interacting with the slave market.
It's too much of a temptation for cultists not to get involved in a place that openly trades in the ingredient or material they actually have in short supply. No to an evil god who does not accept slave sacrifices as a high-quality sacrifice or use slaves as materials in various magical practices, arts, or worship rituals that involve parts or complete sacrifices of humans, dwarves, elves, and beast tribes.
The only other reason I can think of for the slaves to be disappearing would be that they are being freed, but that is a very unrealistic option. No matter how much one might think slaves should be freed, they won't do it at a time like this.
So, whoever is stealing the slaves from the Mirue kingdom intends to use them for even worse ends, at least the kingdom gives them the illusion of a chance to win their freedom, not that I think they have much of a chance of surviving the grinder. of flesh that war is for a slave, but there must still be some very lucky and smart ones who might end up surviving long enough to beat the goal in Mirue Kingdom's army to gain freedom.
I just hope that the officers in charge of freeing the slaves don't prevent the lucky slaves from being freed, it would really be a very horrible attitude for them to manipulate the data of the slaves' contribution so that not one of them is able to achieve freedom.
But that's not what I can influence in any way, my seal is now on my target, passing by the small house he lives in neither I nor Volkan were able to find anything unusual.
The rune wards in the house are quite common for Faustos Merati's public image, scattered throughout the house only in common rune alarm arrangements and not a trap. Volkan couldn't find anything under the house either, the earth under it is completely solid and compacted and this made the suspicions about Faustos decrease a lot since a cultist would have to have a hidden escape route in his residence, but nothing. of that in the house where Faustos Merati lives.
Perhaps in his work we can find something suspicious, but the chances of Faustos being a cultist are greatly diminished.
After doing one more search around the house that the army placed Faustos just to make sure it wasn't anything unusual, we went to lunch and then headed to the army logistics office that Faustos Merati works for.
Approaching this building is much more complicated than the previous house, in the neighborhood where, Faustos, lives with few guards patrolling the region since it is a neighborhood that the houses were appropriated by the army during this war. Basic-level officers and consultants were stationed in that region of the city, but now we are facing the security of a region more important to army operations in the city of Canos.
Not just more guards patrolling around the buildings to slave warriors guarding the doors, sides and roofs of the buildings. It looks like they're using the slaves as a living alarm to save costs, but that's just a trap.
The numerous runic arrangements around army buildings, slaves are actually live bait. In their bodies I can see both the magical tools used to 'control' the slaves and they all carry a rune plate on their body that causes them to be ignored by the runic arrangements they walk around during their 'patrol'.
This is necessary because among the runic arrangements to some that are explosive or immobilize you, the slaves are forced to 'patrol' the roofs right above these types of arrangements so if an invader tries to neutralize the watchman, he ends up falling into a trap.
This is normally very unusual as no one would use their life as bait to catch an intruder in a booby trap, but it seems that the person responsible for security in these buildings has no problem using the slaves as live bait.
But this is also a weakness, if we can get one of the runes plates the slaves are using, we could easily circumvent the rune arrangements used in these buildings. But I also believe that it would be a mistake to think that the person in charge of this security system is an idiot, these rune plates can be another form of trap.
He may have set it up so that if one of these cards entered certain areas of the building, they would trigger alarms or even the opposite, if a rune card moved away from the building an alarm would be activated. Having to take into account the specialized counterintelligence officers here makes me feel that any flaws I see in security could end up being a trap.
It's really stressful, because of that our approach strategy was very restricted and time consuming. Volkan couldn't do anything but keep watch while I study the government buildings from afar, the first thing I noticed was that there wasn't even an orange or red core warrior or mage.
The strongest person inside was a pair of mages in the middle stage of the green core, and besides them there weren't many other people with green cores. The battle power inside these army buildings is not very great as most guards have a gray core in the final stage.
From a distance I couldn't see my target all afternoon, he didn't go through even one of the windows that were in my field of vision. So, I tried to look for anything that stood out from this distance.
I couldn't find even a secret passage in the street, but I did find what I believe to be three underground tunnels in the area but unfortunately, I can't figure out if they are native to the city's architecture, were created by the army or are owned by the cultists who are stealing slaves.
I think the last option is the least likely as these buildings are not used for slave guards but some resources in the small warehouse and information about the logistics of some army operations. unfortunately, there are too many enemies here for me to be able to try to approach or invade the buildings.
And that makes the first day of reconnaissance end with me looking for my target as army personnel began to leave the building, as guards were replaced by new ones and office workers began to leave.
It wasn't that hard to find Faustos in mine because the idiot actually wears that hat with a red feather for decoration, when I read in the report about him that he liked to wear a little flashy props and pieces of clothing I thought that was just too much proof that he would not be our target.
A hidden cultist would do anything but attract the attention of others by wearing flashy clothes, I believe that mixing in wearing the same clothes and customs as those around you is the best way to keep yourself hidden during such a risky mission.
The element that Faustus has at his core are the fire element and the shadow element which makes him a good candidate for a cultist, in the information we have of him it says he is a fire element mage in the final stage of the gray core, but obviously this is a lie.
Maybe I'm in luck, the first suspect could end up being the target or one of the targets, as this Faustos is too weak to be the leader of an operation of this level.
If he was secretly a green core mage in the final stage, I would believe he is in charge of a smuggling operation like this.