"Your pet seems to like my coat, don't you have one as well?"
The three of us stood in front of the campfire enjoying the light given by it.
Besides us were the two lamas who were happily eating the wheat Green gave it to them, already used to this kind of temperature at night.
Surrounding us was a wooden fence made with jungle wood that i just bought and some Zombies already started to gather around it.
We only got up when a skeleton was getting too close for comfort, since they where the only one dangerous enough to kill us in our sleep.
Alexa was already trying to scan the coat, but it seemed to be more complicated than initially thought. The metrial itself was simple te replicate, but the functions were skillfully hidden.
It told me it could figure out the secret behind it if I brought 10 more coats, or bring him just 2 to the main base.
Unfortunately, I don't think I can keep Green that long without getting suspicious, so I'll probably have to look for her in the future.
"I don't have the coat anymore."
Green stopped petting Alexa and looked at me confused.
"Did somebody steal it from you?"
"No, I just don't have a reason to wear it anymore since this armor is way better."
"Are you sure that colored leather armor is enough?"
What do you mean by colored leather?
This is the strongest metal in the world, you can't compare it to cow's leather!
"This is not leather, it's made of metal, but not a lot of people have it."
"Ohh I see, it must be as strong as the iron armor then."
Oh boy, I don't think she has too much knowledge about the metals in this world.
Let's leave it like that, I don't have the energy to teach her.
"So what do you plan on doing from now on?"
Green looked back at Alexa and played with its little hands, while Merry was getting closer to the fire to warm herself.
"I don't know, I'll just look for other towns to trade with, maybe I'll use some of your strategies as well."
Merry looked at me with narrowed eyes, clearly not pleased with some of them.
"How about you come with us? I can find you a job at the church if you want to."
That's a solution I haven't thought of.
If we give her a job I'll know at all times where she is and I can borrow her coat when needed to.
"A job? Like a permanent one?"
"Yeah, maybe you can do some trading for the church, worst-case scenario a cleaning lady. There's a lot of sand that needs to be swept."
Her eyes were wide looking at Merry like she couldn't believe what she just heard.
"That would be amazing, thank you from the bottom of my heart, I promise I'll work extra hard."
We both smiled at her happiness and looked one last time around us.
It was already late and all of us were getting tired, but since monsters were only interested at attacking Merry, we decided to box her and sleep the rest of the night outside.
The next day, we woke up early in the morning and got back to travel.
We traveled through the dunes of sand for a whole day until I saw a familiar city on the horizon.
Soon we arrived at the gates, and the guards were nice enough not to bother us while we passed them.
Maybe they were intimidated by Merry's armor, or even mine if they could see me.
Unfortunately, while they didn't check on us, one guard with leather armor did stop us to ask what was the purpose of our visit.
Of course, he was very polite about it, afraid not to accidentally insult some big shot.
"We only came here to stay for the night and we would leave tomorrow, you don't have to worry about us."
The man nodded his head and made us an offer.
"If you want to spend the night here why don't I show you a good place."
How kind of him, maybe I should go back to wearing my diamond armor as well.
Soon we were at a nice inn, where I bought a room for everyone, and was ready to get some sleep.
But I didn't manage to get too comfortable before I heard a knock on the door.
"I'm sorry Sir, but Sir Alexander wants to talk with you downstairs."
Looks like the man of the house came to greet us, how nice of him, what are the chances of him recognizing me?
I arrived down and saw the man who first taught me how to enchant looking seriously unbuttered at the room we were in.
Besides him, we're two guards in enchanted iron armor and the butler that I was looking for.
They didn't seem to see me yet, so I waited until the others got down.
Soon the two ladies were down and Merry sat beside me.
"I'm sorry for the sudden call, but may I know who I have the honor to be in the presence of?"
"I'm the hero sent by the System, now on a mission to fight against the Monster Lords."
Murmurs were going throughout the room as she spoke out loud.
Alexander's eyes were wide in surprise but his posture seemed to relax once he found the identity of the stranger.
"I see, then I shall not stop you on your quest. If you need something from this humble town, don't hesitate to ask."
This was my chance.
"It would be very helpful if you could send someone to show us around. I want to buy a few things for our journey and it would be better if we get them before everything closes."
Everyone was surprised by my sudden appearance, except for Merry.
"Who are you, and how long have you been sneaking for?"
One of the guards took out their swords ready to fight.
"He's with me, so don't worry about him. But if you could fulfil our request that would be wonderful."
The guards looked nervously at their master who was thinking what to do.
"Very well, Jeremiah would be the one to guide you through the town."
Jackpot! The fish took the bait.
The butler bowed towards his master and respectfully waited for me to follow him.
The sun was slowly going down, and at this rate, it would take an hour before everything would shut down.
We walked at a few shops where I bought everyday items that we could use in the journey.
The man knew what he was doing so we finished pretty quickly and we were about to split when I stopped the butler.
"Agent Jeremiah, I was sent by the Mad Scientist to deliver a special package to the General, please give me your compass so I can find him."
The butler turned towards me and smiled.
"I'm sorry Sir, I don't know anyone by the name of General or the Mad Scientist, so I can't help you."
So he was playing hard to get.
"You either give me the compass or I'll yell that a Piliger is here and wipe your makeup."
His smile was more strained now and signaled to follow him on an isolated street.
Soon we were the only two in the alley, he suddenly turned and threw a black potion at me while preparing to drink another potion.
I quickly dodged the potion and took out my shield, until I realized that the potion he was drinking was an invisibility one.
"Violet hold him down!"
The man was suddenly pressed to the ground by an invisible hand, he was getting transparent, but since he didn't drink the whole potion I could still see his shape.
As I expected, Violet was with us on this trip as well.
"Enemy?"
A rusted voice asked.
"Yeah, he's the reason I was stuck at the Sandstone Palace for so long."
Suddenly the leg of the man was ripped off, splashing blood everywhere and making him scream in pain.
What's with the sudden outburst?
"Violet, don't kill him yet, I want to ask him something."
She hissed in displeasure but stopped from tearing another limb.
"Who are you? How did you do that? What do you want from me?"
"I want your compass and the location of the rest of the spies."
"Ha, I'd rather die than betray my people."
I let out a big sigh and took off my helmet to put the monocle of truth on my eye.
"You-you're supposed to be dead!"
"Funny thing, but I'm a friend with death, and she let me go last time."
"Wha-ugh!"
His face was slammed into the ground by the invisible hand.
Thanking my monster friend for the help, I looked closer at his inventory.
There I saw a few journals, emeralds, golden bars, lapis, and food.
But what was I looking for was the enchanted compass in the right corner of his inventory.
Good, he had it on him, I don't need to go on a treasure hunt get it.
"Give me the compass and the location of the other Piliger and I'll let you live."
"I'd rather die!"
I let out a sigh and decapitated him with my sword.
Becouse he yelled so much some people may heard him from the main street, I needed to finish this as quickly as possible and leave.
I opened the inventory of the corpse and took the compass and the journals.
I quickly looked through a few of the journals, but no mention of the other pillagers was written, only information about the surrounding nobles and criminals.
Those journals are incrementing enough to sentence him to life in prison, and if they found out that he was an Iliger, it would be an execution on the spot.
Now how should I deal with the corpse? Since I'll be the first suspect if he doesn't get home soon, and I can't walk in the middle of the town with him on my shoulders.
Should I even bother hiding my involvement?
I shook my head, I need something to cover him.
There was nothing in his inventory that I could use, and I didn't have a blanket in mine either, what should I do?
"Hey Violet, you know- and she's gone, that seems fair."
She seemed to sense what I was about to ask and teleported away.
I let out a sigh and took out my favorite coat to cover the body.
Once covered, I went on the busy streets towards the mansion.
Because of my armor, nobody seemed to be interested in me, and with that, I passed the guards, entered the mansion, and stopped at a random empty room.
I checked to see if it was empty, dumped the body, and made sure that a little of his makeup was smudged to get more attention.
Next to him I put the journals since you can't put items in a corpse, and left a note on top saying:
-----
I don't appreciate it when people try to assassinate me, next time it won't be only one person.
-----
This should be enough to scare them until we're gone, and who knows, maybe they won't find him until we're way gone.
With this job done, I took my cloak back and went to the Inn we were sleeping in.
I washed the blood off my precious cloak and went to sleep.
Next day early in the morning, I woke up the two girls and continued our journey towards the Zombie Lord.
I wasn't worried about him, since he was weaker then before and now I'm more prepared then ever, but I don't know what would happen if the two monsters would meet.
We left the city without a problem not realizing the mess that this will lead into the future.