"Hm, so the city got some elites?"
"Wait, I think I've heard of this lady before," Wills jumped in. "Indeed, she sounds like someone from the madcap platoon,"
Madcap… platoon?
"That's a terrible name, who're they anyway?"
"Mmm, from what I heard, they're a pool of talented people but they're kinda weird so they were demoted into city guards," Wills shrugged.
This is new. So it's some kind of experimental platoon making use of eccentric talents, if that was the case then they may be more dangerous than I thought they were. With eccentricity comes unpredictability meaning I can't use my insight to gauge their actions. Coupling that with the fact that they're on the side of the Kingdom, there is a high likelihood of coming into conflict with them.
Sigh. Too much thinking. I'll just sleep it off.
…
"AHhH!"
*Boom!*
War and bloodshed. None were spared from it.
A cacophony of screams and wails of anguish permeates through the air.
Scarlet fields and bloody bodies as far as the eye could see.
"Y-you Heretics!"
"Demon!"
"You'll pay!"
Dragging their broken bodies, drunk fervour pushes these people on.
They swing their blades and fight once more under a banner flung high.
*Shing!*
I snap my eyes open.
My head's pounding as I sit up nursing my headache.
Scanning my surroundings, looks like I'm still in the same bed as my eyes adjusted to the faint light in the room. That's good, it'd be terrible if I wasn't.
Though, what a weird dream that was. Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say it was a vision? The dream, was quite faint, like all dreams are, a muffled din throughout it.
I can't exactly remember the contents as they slipped out of conscience, but yet again, I distinctly remember being accused of being a heretic and a demon.
Goddamnit man.
I'm probably being mentally assaulted by the Kingdom. And judging by how I was also called a demon, they were also likely aware that I'm harbouring Lazari.
I wait for the headache to subside.
"D'you have anti scrying magic here?"
"What?"
"Anti scrying magic," I repeat.
"Uhm, anti crying magic? Is it magic that stops you from crying yourself to sleep?"
"Yesn't, anti scrying magic,"
"Okay, okay, what is it?"
"It's magic that blocks scrying,"
Laffer looks genuinely confused.
Sigh, do these guys not have any anti scrying formations? I thought this was some kind of secret cult in hiding. Furthermore, anything flagged under the auspices of the Kingdom will be quickly identified and after going through a threat rating and multiple reviews, a neutralising force will be sent. And well, the location of a cult base would most certainly trip that flag and notify the relative officials.
Yet again, I am once more amazed at how this cult even made it this far.
"No, we have something better. Valence cloaker," Lacer speaks up, "It is from the fatherland,"
Hmm, makes sense that I don't know what that is, but it sounds high tech.
I'm guessing that it functions similar to a cloaking formation?
"No, normal cloaking formation would usually leave an empty gap when prophetic scrying is used, however valence cloaker will still show the building, but it will hide us from scrying,"
So, what he meant was that normal concealment arrays would usually leave a blank area when someone tries to scry the area and automated scrying processes may still flag us for being suspicious. However, from what I understand of the valence cloaker, it supposedly still shows the building but just hides us, the inhabitants.
So it could be thought of as a superior cloaking formation.
"Damn, how'd you even get something like that?"
"I used to work as government official,"
Okay, that was quite the divergent I went on, but going back on track. If the place is already rigged up with a form of concealment then that dream shouldn't have been a psychic attack, so was it a curse?
Likely. After all, that star summoner was an elite, and I wouldn't be surprised if she dabbled in the art of curses.
Urg, now I'm paranoid. Where's the bread? Gimme some bread!
"Why d'you want bread?"
"It helps with paranoia,"
"Okay?"
It doesn't, I just have a habit of stress eating.
As I'm chewing at some grain, I notice an odd texture that normal hard bread would have. Why is it crunchy?
"Wait, have you never had toast before?"
"Toast?" The heck is that? I've always lived alone and prepared my own food, so other cuisine fares are beyond me.
"You're eating it!"
Okay, so getting this straight. Apparently, toast was basically bread, but instead of just giving me the bread, they bake it again. That seems awfully redundant.
So much so, that the genius who thought of such an idea needs some goddamn medals! Some peace prizes!
Surely, that man was given a kingdom for his contributions to the world.
"Hm, I'm pretty sure the baker that invented this technique was awarded with a metric tonne of flour,"
He deserves much more than that! But whilst I'm stress eating Laffer thinks it's an appropriate time to start conversing with me.
"So how far have you gone with your skills?"
I swallow, "What kind?"
"Huh? I'm obviously referring to the dark arts you dunce!"
Whoa, rude.
"Eh, I say I'm doing alright,"
"So you got the basics down?"
"Mhmm,"
"Good, I was worried you may not be compatible with the arts but it seems I was worried for nothing,"
Wait, why wouldn't I be compatible with the arts? As far as I could see, there was no special aptitude and prerequisite that was required to practice them.
"Well, you see, these arts aren't like other arts where everything is laid out, from what I understand, a specific mindset or disposition is needed to comprehend and actually practice them,"
That makes no sense. It's not like it's divine magic that required faith in the gods to use nor is it like some kind of evil magic that required one to abandon their humanity so this seems to be quite the leap in logic. Or, there are some criteria, and Laffer being the absolute sped that he is, cannot actually pinpoint it.
"Hey, Lacer knows more about it, this is something I conjectured when the new guy was strugglin',"
Hm, so it's as I thought, Laffer just was being a sped.
There was no way that these 'dark arts' that I'm practising could be limited by persona or mentality, as for one. It did not draw off the power of the divine, like gods and deities. For such, divine magicks, it required one to have faith and belief in those entities, if not then one cannot use said magicks.
For the evil magicks, these differ from the dark arts which are, as mentioned previously, arts. The evil magicks draw from the abyss or the 'beyond' as they like to say, and grant them powers, but usually at the cost of their sanity. This also extends to any arts associated with evil magicks.
So bringing up such theories made no sense as to why the new guy couldn't perform the dark arts. And it was highly more likely that he was incompetent, considering his non combatant background rather than not being ungifted in some mental department. Such conjecture was built with no requisite to back it and didn't even have a logical flow. Only idiots would say something like that.
"Wow, you really beat the man down," Wills commented.
Of course I did.
"Don't think I don't know what you were trying to do my bird,"
"What?! How did y-" He yelled impulsively, "Ahem, I mean, I don't know what you're talking about,"
"My bird isn't for eating,"
"C'mon man, think about it, it'll only be a small piece, ahem, not that'd I'd ever think of eating your bird. As if mate,"
I ignore his guilty look. After all, I couldn't do anything to him even if I tried. Plus, Laffer's not really that bad of a guy so I'll let him off this time.
"Okay, because you're an arse, can I ask for your help in getting a curse off me?"
So instead, I immediately use this incident as leverage for a favour.