The river today was not as crowded as usual, mainly because Shamrock City was celebrating a festival for winning a battle twenty-five years ago against a team of Super Rank Necromancers. Rich people from the neighboring cities, especially government officials and aristocrats who were on good terms with the top brass of Shamrock City, had all been invited.
Nearly every meter of the core city was decorated with bright green orbs, magically grown vines that shuffled across the sky-high walls like giant serpents, and a massive insignia of greenish flames floating in the air above the core city. The display was visible from a dozen kilometers away in these flatlands.
Ken was on his favorite boat, fishing in his favorite spot. His fishing skill wasn't anything to boast about, so he didn't attract attention from the rest of the fishermen around him. Occasionally, the two beastmen acquaintances he had made on the first day would speak a sentence or two while passing by his boat, and Ken replied with just enough material to make it a peaceful, meaningless conversation.
"Hey! Look! Are those tourists?" Someone shouted suddenly in alarm. In the middle of the hundred-meter wide bend of the river, the shout was barely enough to reach everyone, but what he was pointing at grabbed everyone's focus anyway.
A two-storeyed luxury boat was coming from the direction of the renting outpost at a slow speed. It wasn't a very common sight, because tourists and traveling boats were generally ordered to steer clear of areas where fishermen gathered, lest they should disturb the catch. Other than the core city authorities and market owners who controlled the whole business, nobody traveled in these parts of the river on large or loud vessels.
Not only did the luxury boat approach the river bend, some uniformed men on its deck began to call over the fishermen nearby one by one, seemingly interrogating them in a hurry. Ken was summoned eventually as well.
The three men wearing the official uniform of law enforcers seemed capable of gauging his strength, because they took a brief look at his appearance and their eyes became disdainful almost immediately. A healthy young man in his late twenties, yet still below level 5 in all aspects of strength progression? Their contempt was bound to leak out.
"Little mage, we've never seen you on this river before," The oldest official said. "How long have you been in this city?"
It wasn't difficult to guess that Ken was an outsider. Most humans in Shamrock City were, and only the new ones had a level as low as Ken's.
"Two months," Ken answered. "But I've been working here only for three weeks till now."
"I see. You're a mage, so you might be aware that this profession isn't exactly safe for your class, especially in this river. Why are you-"
"Old man, this isn't the time for chit-chat! Ask the questions that fucking matter!" The roar came from behind the officials, interrupting the man's enquiry. Ken could not see who the rude speaker was. But it was apparent that the officials felt intimidated. The old man kept his mouth shut after being elbowed gently by one of his young colleagues, a strikingly tall goblin man.
"Hey, mage, you should be sensitive to mana outbursts. We sensed a spirit pet dying near this area. The explosion of mana following its death was huge. We're following the trail of the explosion. Point us to the direction you sensed it happen. There will be a reward for you if we manage to find the spot."
Ken had been the closest living being to witness the explosion of the spirit pet's life. He knew very well that the pet was barely a mid-level Ordinary Rank creature, and the explosion of mana following its death was hardly perceptible to anyone unless they were standing ten feet away from the corpse. Only the owner of the pet would be able to feel it and chase after the trail of his pet.
So he shook his head with a confused expression and pointed at the river water beneath them.
"The only spiritual disturbances I have ever sensed in this place are in the riverbed. It happens all the time, though. So your pet might have exploded after drowning somewhere around here. I haven't sensed anything different from the usual, either way."
"Haven't you ever gotten curious and tried to investigate why these disturbances happen?" The goblin asked with a half-hearted smile.
"I know what happens to curious people, sirs," Ken said respectfully.
"Out of my way," the rude person from behind shoved two of the officials away and showed his face to the fishermen below the boat. He was a short, pale-skinned man who would be mistaken for a vampire by most people. Ken only needed one look at his cracked, rough skin texture and turbid eyes to identify his race– a parasite! A parasite controlling a humanoid vessel!
No wonder he was so worked up over the loss of a low-level spirit pet! That strange feline beast probably had some exotic characteristic that this parasite wanted to possess! Rearing unique spirit pets was a hobby of almost every parasite Ken had ever met.
Ken's face betrayed no emotions as the current body of the parasite leaned down and pointed at him angrily.
"You, show us the exact spots in this river where you've sensed spiritual disturbances today. I will hear no excuses!"
"Ah, that's a really tough thing to ask for..."
Ken rubbed his palms nervously, conveying a meaning all civilized creatures would know. The officials flanking the parasite looked exasperated.
"I'll give you twenty greengold if we find what we're looking for," the parasite said, his eyes turning more opaque, hinting at his climbing rage.
"I don't want money. Give me a couple of entrance passes to the core city." Ken made his claim in an adamant tone. The officials on the boat became even more outraged, because for the people unwelcome to the core city, each of those passes was worth far more than twenty greengold.
"Fine! Two passes it is. Now move!" The parasite growled, not even phased by the demand. Ken could only wonder what his background was.
Half an hour later, a furious howl tore through the peaceful atmosphere of the river, because an exotic spirit pet's fur had just been fished up from within its depths.