Chapter 367: Chapter 366 – Secret Lair.

‘And Umbral Stalker? Never heard of a class like that one…’

Roland looked through Mary’s status screen and tried to figure out what her new class was all about. Considering that even he who had gone through an extensive evolution to his senses could barely see her, the class had stealth as its main option. She didn’t seem tired while moving around so it made sense that it was some type of passive which probably came with her new class acquisition.

‘I wonder if her presence disappears if she disengages during combat, it would be quite the broken passive…’

In the past, Mary was using a tier 2 passive that allowed her to not make a sound when walking. Her presence was faint but not something that he couldn’t sense. Thanks to his armor such skills didn’t really faze him as he could still feel mana that was being produced by a person’s body. That problem seemed to be alleviated with this new class as he could barely feel any mana being exuded.

Everything in this world had mana inside of them, even rocks and trees. Thanks to this phenomenon his eyes of mana skill could function by perceiving the world’s manaflow. The amount of mana everything had varied, a simple rock would have a lot less of it than a living creature. What Mary was doing now was lowering this perceived amount to be more aligned with a rock.

‘I need to analyze this skill, it will make perceiving assassins much easier in the future.’

This class was not something common and it was probably fixated on hiding. If he was able to study Mary’s skills it would allow his armor to warn him from hidden threats. It would probably be also possible to enhance his sensors that were also placed around Arthur’s villa. Even if he couldn’t increase the range that much it could be alleviated by placing more sensors. When an assassin passed through such a sensor, they would trip the alarm.

“Wayland my headset of head knights, what do I owe this pleasure?”

“...”

While thinking Roland arrived in Arthur’s office which looked to be covered in more papers and scribbles. It was clear that the man wasn’t sleeping much either and the empty bottles of stamina potions confirmed his hunch. This noble had developed a liking for his new head knight and would throw strange one-liners like this whenever the two were alone. Mary, who was standing to the side, even chuckled before covering her mouth with her hand.

“I heard that.”

“My apologies.”

He was getting a lot more respect from the cat maid at least. She had even become a bit more trusting after achieving a higher tier. Perhaps it was also because she now knew that the man before her was also a noble’s son. Maybe they were just having fun teasing him, who was usually more of a serious person but it was usually better to keep things light so he ignored it.

“I see that you have also improved, congratulations.”

“You need to do something about that habit of yours, it’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.”

Roland glanced at Arthur’s status screen almost instantly as he stepped into the room. He had grown accustomed to using this skill whenever he conversed with almost anyone. His propensity for not trusting people or what he saw was still there and this somewhat made interacting with others less stressful.

Arthur had actually managed to get a rather prestigious variant of the Duelist class. This class was poised in handling dual swords and more specifically rapiers or fencing swords. It specialized in agility over defense and landing precise critical hits whenever the opportunity arose. It was a somewhat difficult class to master as the person couldn’t rely on brute force but had to instead predict their enemy's movements.

“Were you making secret visits to the dungeon or did you manage to create the training chamber?”

“The latter, I wish that I could go there but we don’t always get what we want, right? Plus, Mary also approves of that training method, thank you for giving me the idea.”

Mary nodded as the idea was brought up by Roland that had to go through similar training when he was younger. It was just a training facility where Arthur could fight monsters at his level. Just like Roland defeated goblins in his youth, Arthur could fight monsters that were either caught or brought from outside.

It was a safe training method that nobles used for generations. Mary could just simply watch over and help out whenever things got dangerous. This method was a lot slower than just going through the dungeon but it was also a lot safer. It was only limited by the amount of money a person had and currently things were looking up for this young noble.

‘You can’t normally smuggle monsters out of a dungeon but I wonder…’

The fastest and safest way for Arthur to get his levels up would be through feeding him tier 3 undead skeletons just like everyone else. It was also possible to immobilize a reasonably high level monster and let people wail on it. Skills that required a person to hit something would raise faster if they were performed on a living target.

‘I heard that some people use trolls for it, they can regenerate quickly and can eat almost everything but the costs are high, and if it breaks loose…’

What they were working with were undead monsters that were trapped in the dungeon. The Lich that he fought proved that there were ways of getting dungeon monsters out of a dungeon. Considering that these creatures didn’t require oxygen or sustenance, perhaps it was possible to smuggle them out with the help of a spatial storage spell.

‘Maybe if I extract the core and just leave enough of it intact, it could work as a dummy for hitting…’

“I think our friend has done it again, Mary would you be so nice to bring us some tea, this could take a while.”

“Of course sir, I’ll be right back.”

“I uh…”

Arthur smiled as Roland had gone silent for a few seconds after coming into his office. This behavior didn’t go unnoticed as the man would randomly space out from time to time while lost in his thoughts. He attributed this to bouts of inspiration that arose due to his crafting profession.

“It’s fine, I like that unique part, it must be nice to be a craftsman, always thinking about your new creations. However, think we will have to move this along…”

“Of course, I just wanted to speak to you about one of the city’s districts, the one ruled by the Thieves Guild.”

“The Thieves Guild? Has the time come?”

“I think it’s better to do this now before the problem escalates…”

“I see… What did you have in mind.”

After placing some of the papers to the side, Arthur was at full attention. The problem of a rising criminal syndicate in a developing city was high. During his stay here Arthur was far too weak to do anything about it. The fear of having his people targeted by the Thieves Guild assassins was high. Apprehending or killing one of the bosses would probably be devastating. Only now, when his footing was better and he gained a competent Head Knight was it possible to act.

“Frist, have a look at this.”

Roland brought out a notebook that he prepared for this occasion. Arthur took it and started looking through the pages.

“These people are?”

“They are the current bosses that ‘rule’ over the pleasure district. I think we should focus on them before they become a problem but before that… I think we should go somewhere more private, how about we go to that room?”

“Hm? I see, It would be better to keep this kind of information in a safer location, very well, Let’s go.”

Soon the group started moving from Arthur’s office and through the large villa. This place had gone through a lot of changes ever since the young noble moved in. One of them was the new identification system at the main gate and the entrance. Everyone would be scanned if they wanted to go in and similar to the adventurers guild, their status would be revealed. This would allow them to account for any dangerous individuals that were hidden in larger groups of soldiers or ones that were trying to hide their identity.

Arthur was all for installing more runic turrets which now could be produced by the dwarven union. Their outer shape had been enhanced and thanks to Roland’s expertise in runes, they became even better than before. Roland wasn’t sure where all this trust came from but it at least allowed him to monitor this entire compound. While not everything was finished in the future probably no one would be able to get in without tripping a hidden alarm.

“This is quite an interesting invention, how did you come up with it?”

“I read about it in a book.”

The group arrived at a large room filled with various books. It was similar to the one in the old Arden estate and the books weren’t all that special. All of them headed over to an unsuspecting bookcase next to a wall that contained a secret passage. To make it move out of the way, the books needed to be picked up in a set order. Only a set few people knew about this order and in the future Roland proposed to switch the orders up at a steady schedule.

Arthur performed this task before Mary could even move as he was the type to enjoy these things. The bookcase slid to the side to reveal an integrated console, it was similar to the one he had in his own workshop. This one was a bit different as it did not use cards but just went for a person’s unique mana pattern.

Roland looked as Arthur placed his hand on a flat panel with some runes on it. The whole thing lit up as it started identifying the person standing before it. Besides the mana reader, it also came with a feature to read fingerprints. It was a two-stage identification process that would be hard to mimic and would later be turned into a third one when he got the retina scanner working.

After the scan was performed the wall started sliding back along with the console and then to the side. A set of stairs was revealed and soon everyone had around fifteen seconds to go through the entrance before it closed. Then at the end of the stairs was a proper door made from thick metal alloys that could rival mithril. Even Roland would need to struggle for quite some time to get through this thick slab of metal. This entrance required another password to open up and finally, the trio arrived at their destination, a mostly empty space with a lot of junk lying around.

“We really need to fill this place out with something, Mary do you know how much longer it will take to finish?”

“The dwarves said that they need at least a week to prepare all the parts at their workshop.”

“Good, let them prepare they won’t be able to leave after they come here.”

It sounded worse than it was. It was quite troublesome to let people in and out of the secret chamber. Everything needed to be made in secrecy and only a few people would actually be allowed inside. There they would be stuck for a few days until they finished their job and let out when it was finished. When it was finished the area would have several rooms for storing costly artifacts and also act as a panic room with access to all turrets within the villa.

“So Wayland my friend, why did you want us to move here?”

“It’s better to organize everything before we continue, one of the rooms is partially finished and I need a board to place the portraits.”

“Portraits?”

“You’ll see…”

What Roland wanted to create is an evidence board that was usually portrayed in many tv shows about criminal cases. A large empty board was not hard to prepare and soon it was hung up on one of the walls. In the middle, he placed a current map of Albrook and to the side, he started pasting some sketches. They represented the criminal bosses in the city with the one representing the guild master being just an outline with a question mark.

“So these are…”

“Yeah, these are apparently the current underground bosses.”

Roland had used his good memory and recording skills to make a copy of the Guild Master’s booklet. In it there were actual sketches of the people involved included with their names and battle power. It was clear that Aurdhan came prepared when handling things in the city and that someone on the inside was helping him. Considering that he singled one boss out of the others, there were two or three potential suspects.

“This is Mr. Ivor, he is quite recognizable by the large horizontal scar. He is involved with the gambling aspect of our city and usually hangs around this man, Kabir. Whenever someone needs to be intimidated or extorted this man is usually involved.”

There was a nice sketch of the scarred man with a large cigar in his mouth. This was an evidence board so Roland used some red string to connect him to the next person, Kabir. The man seemed to belong to the Goliath race as well and was responsible for the muscle side of the business.

“These two usually work together, they have split the district in half and apparently continue to push in further to the dissatisfaction of the other bosses.”

“Hm, I see. These two seem to be disrupting the balance, could it perhaps cause a war between their factions?”

“That is a possibility, if something like that happens a lot of people will get harmed.”

It wasn’t anything new, the thieves guild wasn’t a unified force. It was mostly composed of smaller gangs with their own agendas. The guild master at the top would only step in if things got too hairy or their position was in danger but other than that, they would remain neutral. They received a big payout from people under them similar to a lord taking in taxes and usually didn’t care about who was giving them the money.

“So, are those two people there, their opposition? Is that madam a criminal too?”

“Yes, her name is Faye but most call her Madam Faye or Headmistress Faye. She runs most of the ‘pleasure’ portion of the district and controls all of the brothels. The man with the snake mask is called Viper and is responsible for making people vanish…”

“Vanish? You mean?”

“Yeah, he is an assassin and might have access to one of such guilds, it would be better to not get involved with him before this villa is outfitted.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“He has some kind of involvement with Madam Faye but I don’t have much information about that side. Maybe if Mary has some time she could investigate further.”

“It would be good to keep ourselves informed about a potential assassination guild member.”

Arthur nodded and Mary did the same. While the Thieves Guild was a larger organization there existed smaller ones. Assassination Guilds were hidden away to avoid detection. Some went after very influential individuals that even the Thieves Guild wouldn’t be able to protect them from. Instead, they hid away from sight, as long as no one knew who the assassin performing the task was, they were safe.

The board was quickly filled up and connected through red string. On the map, Roland circled in the main buildings that housed these people. The number of people working for these people could only be eyeballed as even the guild master wasn’t sure. Now Arthur needed to make a decision, would they attempt to cooperate with these people or strongarm them into submission?

“What would you like to do? These people don’t have to become our enemies, I’m sure they’ll offer you quite the sum if you decide to work with them…”

Roland was somewhat leaning in the direction to oppose the evildoers as he didn't appreciate the type of loitering in his city. However. it was possible to cooperate with these career criminals. They wouldn’t need to lift a finger and just accept large bribes. If they started any infighting they wouldn’t have to send in soldiers or lose them in potential gang fights. The area would in a sense be governed by the Thieves Guild and become its own little country.

Some cities went with this option which was quite troublesome for its people. The ones harmed the most would be the commoners that would lose the protection of their guards. It would slowly cause an erosion of the population and a drop in favorability to the lord. Yet, some considered the money gained from bribes more than enough to endanger their people.

The second option was to go against them and not allow the spread of this slow-growing disease. It would toss the guards and soldiers they employed into some danger but that was what they signed up for. The crime dens would then be taxed in a legal fashion and with a lessened criminal factor be used by more people that found safety in the city watch. The second choice was the more difficult one and brought in rewards slower.

“Okay, I have decided!”

Roland nodded, he could not force his views on Arthur who was the lord of this city. He could only present him with some choices which the young man needed to decide on by himself. However, if the decision impeded his future then he would voice his dissatisfaction and act on it if the need arose…

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