Khufu stepped back, afraid of the menace in front of him. All the questions he threw at Deus Garcia were dismissed as funny jokes. The fortune teller was standing towards the side looking around the room.
During the time Khufu was locked up inside the room he discovered a secret door. This place was not a camouflaged prison cell as he first speculated. It was the entrance to the large basement beneath. Probably the Sovereign Jurisdiction Department had such large empty bases throughout the country, maybe throughout the continent!
Khufu reached the third sequence-Reaper of Level 1 yesterday. Even if he had enough combat experience the possibility of defeating Deus Garcia was nil. Imagining to be a Level 2 Truce did not give him any hope either. All because the gap between the Sorcerer who could use magic talisman and someone who could not was huge!
At the first sequence-Truce of Level 2 sending mana outside the body was possible. However, this sentence did not describe how useless Level 2 Truce were when compared to Level 2 Sentinels. The first sequence of Level 2 was a joke as mana could only be channeled to concrete magic treasures. Binding the treasures was not possible, heck even most of the treasures could not be activated.
Only at the second sequence of Level 2, the use of mini treasures a.k.a. talismans were possible. Since, the population of Level 2 Sorcerers was the highest most talismans were made keeping that in mind. Even if you forget about talismans, Level 2 Sorcerers could generally beat Level 1s in a fist fight.
Depending on how Sorcerers utilized their time and mana, they could be further divided into many classes. For example, Khufu Azami's job- a patrolman. At the second sequence of Level 1, he prioritized nourishing his senses with mana. Roughly, if he only continued, the path of 'Scout' was laid out for him.
Sharp senses- one of the reasons why he was able to find the hidden door. The other reason was, of course, his tendency to touch things. He slowly retreated towards the secret door and before Deus could realize Khufu crossed to the other side.
Deus Garcia smiled at the futile effort. Knocking a Sorcerer who newly reached the third sequence of Level 1 was easy for him. He had noticed Khufu's ring turned red earlier today. With the change in sequence a change in color of rings would appear. Research suggested that it was because of change in quality of mana.
Deus turned towards the fortune teller and signaled him to go towards the hidden door. Both of went close to the west wall. Deus pressed on three spots and the hidden passageway to the basement opened. The passage was dark but at the end light could be seen.
...
Outside the building, the carriage carrying Trace stopped. Trace rushed out and looked towards the bird that was hovering over the boundary of a building. There was another carriage present on the scene. He went towards the carriage to check if his master was inside.
"Hey, what are you doing?" coachman of Deus carriage stepped forward to stop Trace.
"Brother, can you help this young man?" the coachman who was along with Trace said.
It couldn't take less time for the two coachmen to get friendly with each other. Both of them worked for the Binpark Carriages, it was evident from their carriages. After a few quick questions, it was determined that two people were using the carriage and had gone inside the adjacent building.
...
Meanwhile, Klavior was facing the woman who had unknown amount of information on him. Despite being not afraid of Level 2 Sorcerers, he was on guard against this woman. The situation was a little unfavorable for him since he did not know anything about the woman.
"You are a Scout. I'd be surprised if you had more than three type-Zeus talismans on you", the woman spoke confidently.
Klavior tried to keep a poker face. His strength lied in agility and information gathering. However, the woman had realized someone was following her. The worst-case scenario was upon him, it looked like the woman wanted to fight. It they fought only loss would occur to him.
"Can't we settle this matter peacefully?" Klavior resorted.
"Are you still going to put up the act when I know everything about you?"
"Can I fulfil any last wish of yours?", Klavior was still hoping for a miracle.
"Hmph! You used the boy who met me in the morning. I want to know who set me up".
Klavior pulled down his sleeves and tied the buttons. A slim chance was still present. He unbuttoned his shirt, inside he was wearing a white vest. It was definitely not another piece of cloth on his body. There was a belt wrapped around his waist, it looked like a talisman holder.
He put the scroll back on the holder. There was another scroll hanging on his waist. Along with it there was other talismans. All he had to do was capture this woman alive. Fight was inevitable at this point. He bent down and took out a small dagger that was hidden under the right bottom hem of his pants.
...
Under the same dark sky, Trace headed towards the building pointed out by the coachman. The building was three-story tall with storage rooms on the ground floor and apartments above. All floors were fairly lit, there were many buildings exactly like this in the city.
Trace frantically looked around, all the storage rooms and all apartments looked exactly the same. He looked towards the bird who was still ready to guide him further. Going around the building with the bird he saw the bird stop beside one of the ventilating windows.
The window was way high up the ground. Even if it was within reach, it did not look like Trace would fit though. During this time, his thoughts were jumbled. He could not think straight about anything. Different thoughts about his master flashed through his mind.
He took a deep breath, held it for a minute and exhaled. After doing it for a few times his heart beat and muzzled thoughts lessened. If only he could figure out which's room's window it was.
"Seventh window from the left and ten windows in total".
Noting that in mind he went to the front. Five rooms from the front having a total of ten windows towards the back. The window that was seventh from the left in the back would be the fourth window from the left on this side. That means it was the window of second room from the left!
Trace tried to open the door of the second storage room but it did not open. The door was attached to the huge shutter that safeguarded the room. So, he tired to lift up the shutter, but it was also locked. Even after knocking on it there was no response.
A thing to note was that the shutters guarding the storage rooms were make sturdy enough to last physical attacks of Sorcerers. Since the last 200 years, buildings and products were made to the standard of Level 2 Sorcerers.
The only option left for Trace was to blow up the door with a magic talisman. Back when he got the two talisman holders from Vince Swirls, a guide to the talisman was also handed over to him. He tried to remember the information but again his thoughts were in disarray.
Luckily, he had noted them down in a handbook. He turned the pages to see which talisman would be the best in this situation. His thoughts grew clearer while reading the notes. After reading the notes, he took out two boxes from his clothes.
A black box with blue swirling patterns and another, a white box with red swirling patters. Originally, there were 8 unused talismans in the shape of cards in the white box. But to search for the needle back then, one of the talismans was used. Most of the talismans could only be used once but recently the trend of recyclable talismans was emerging.
All the talisman inside the black box were recyclable but their creator Vince Swirls was kidnapped more than three weeks ago. The black box only contained type-Zenna and type-Zade talismans. Whereas the white box had 6 unused type-Zeus talismans.
After giving it much thought, he took out a blue and a purple-colored card from the black box. These two talismans were made such that after activating the talisman a timer could be set. Also, all the talismans had a self-destruction feature that could be activated directly from the box.
The blue-colored talisman would produce a thrust on activation. Blasting the shutter would be not possible but the door on it could be pushed open with a forceful thrust. Whereas the purple-colored talisman could decay the surface it was placed upon.
Trace carefully studied the door and placed the purple talisman around the upper middle part of the door. Then he placed his hand on the talisman and channeled his mana inside. It was his first time setting a timer on the activation of talisman.
After carefully activating the talisman, he stepped back. Soon purple smoke began to rise from the talisman. It wasn't long before the smoke subsided, and Trace walked forward to lift the talisman. He placed the used talisman inside his pocket.
A hole had opened up in place of the talisman. Trace carefully inserted his hand inside and after fiddling for a bit, he successfully opened the door. A large empty room laid in front of him. He walked inside but there was nothing here.
Did he pick the wrong room? I have one more talisman, he consoled himself and walked towards the back to check the window again. But again, according to his calculations, he found himself standing himself in front of this storage room.
He looked at the bird then walked closer to the window. His hand was on the wall, and he was looking at the window above. If I could confirm it somehow, he thought. An idea flashed in his mind.
Slowly he tried to push his mana into the wall. To his surprise, it received no interference and readily went inside! It was millions time different than how his body rejected his own mana. Just like master said, there is nothing impossible in this world!
He immersed in the feeling of scanning the building. What attracted his attention were three small dots towards the west wall of the room. Sliding his hand on the wall, he walked towards the three dots.
A low rumbling sound entered his ears when he touched the three dots. Surprised, Trace removed his hand from the wall and stepped back. The passageway to the basement revealed itself. Trace clenched his fists and walked towards the darkness.
"Master, I am here to save you".