Tailyn’s perception and dragon told him which way to go to get to the village. Li-Ho-Dun flew at the speed of lightning, hugging the ground before shooting up into the air to get a quick view of the surroundings. But those moments were enough to update the boy’s map and build a safe route.
The village turned out to be ringed by a palisade fence made of wooden stakes. Tailyn’s eyes shone when he realized how big the village was and how many stakes there were—they were definitely going to come in handy for Mean Truk. Already congratulating himself on his find, the boy stopped short when he caught sight of the red dots Raptor was showing him. There shouldn’t have been anyone there on the opposite side of the hill from where the village was situated. Even Li-Ho-Dun hadn’t noticed them.
Fird Ekria (human). Ranger. Level 25. Age 38.
Lanad Zhar (human). Ranger. Level 21. Age 45.
Rangers... Tailyn knew all too well what kind of rangers were out there in the middle of the Gray Lands. Crystal fences. That was the only option. And while the bandits’ names weren’t familiar, the boy couldn’t help but remember that Halas had brought all the crystal fences together.
“Ka-Do-Gir, you need to grab two bodies without being seen. They’re right here,” Tailyn said, projecting his map on the ground and pointing out where the fences were. “I want to figure out what they’re doing here.”
Attempting to hack Fird Ekria and Lanad Zhar.
Your Hacking level: 45.
Fird Ekria and Lanad Zhar’s protection level: 30.
Probability of successful hack: 100%.
Attempt 1… Successful!
Blocking the pair was easy enough. Just in case, Tailyn headed over with the lixes, constantly checking Raptor to make sure nobody else showed up within forty meters. The bandits, which was definitely what they were, had set up a small observation point under a bush. It was just an odd spot to pick, all things considered. Sure, it offered visibility of everything but the few spots Tailyn’s group had made their way through, but most of the red village was hidden behind the palisade wall. It was almost like the bandits were keeping an eye on the steppe instead of the lixes.
The group took their captives far away from the village—a good few kilometers, in fact. Not looking to attract attention, Bar-Truk had insisted on that much. He also glanced over at Tailyn before gesturing for the boy to stop.
“You shouldn’t come with us, Chief. You’re still too young to help with torture, so just head back to the village once you tell us what we need to find out. We’ll take care of the rest.”
Tailyn’s stomach clenched. The pair hadn’t had a coin to their name, with barely three thousand gold. But while the young leader didn’t like the shaman’s method of getting information and loot, he didn’t see another way. They needed intel like they needed air to breathe.
“We need to find out what they’re doing here, how many there are, and what their levels are. If you can, get their logs for the past two days—I didn’t see much in what I was able to pull from them. They’ve spent the whole time sitting in the bushes, just saying a few words here and there. Basically, all I got was that they’re from different squads, though there could be more than two squads over there. Make them dump their inventories, including the bags themselves, too. We need every coin we can get our hands on. Only I can’t leave... My hacking only works within a radius of forty meters, so they’ll wake up and take you all out if I get too far away.”
“Understood, Chief. In that case, turn off your sound and look the other way. I’ll come get you when we’re done.”
That was fine with Tailyn. Finding himself in complete silence, he did his best to keep his eyes fixed in the opposite direction, though he couldn’t help tracking the red dots on Raptor. The lixes had one of the bandits surrounded. Minutes went by, but nothing happened, the red dots staying right where they were. The only change was a message telling the boy he’d lost control over the bandit’s outfit—the lixes had gotten it off him. Suddenly, Bar-Truk appeared in Tailyn’s vision to beckon him over. Turning his sound back on, the boy’s ears were suddenly filled with quiet moaning. The adult crystal fence was whimpering like a child. A shiver ran down Tailyn’s spine when he saw that there wasn’t a single unmarked spot on the bandit’s body. Next to him, there was a mountain of equipment including everything from weapons to rations and other supplies, the boy’s sharp eye immediately picking out a level three crossbow. He’d once had one just like it.
“Let’s hear it,” Ka-Do-Gir said forcefully, though it wasn’t the man crumpled on the ground who began talking. It was the one tied up not far away. The lixes had torn his face shield off to make sure he watched what happened to his partner, assuming that’s what the two were. And given how fast the man began spouting away, what he’d been forced to witness had made a strong impression.
As it turned out, Halas had ordered all the crystal fence squads to gather in one spot and teleport over to his main army. Mu-Ro-Din, having done something to get on the boss’s bad side, had been assigned to run the portal. But after the red lix shaman had gathered the crystal fence squads together, something had happened for the first time in history: the commanders of all six squads totaling a hundred and fifty people joined forces and decided to turn their backs on the lixes. There was no doubt in their mind—the lixes weren’t going to be able to stand up to the might of the empire. They were going to be destroyed, and so was everyone who’d gone along with them. But if they got out in front of the game, the fences decided, they could loot the undefended red lix village and ride off into the sunset, maybe finding themselves a spot on the other side of the continent. All they needed was to be somewhere Halas had never heard of. The day before, the fences had swooped down on the village and found so much loot it didn’t fit in their inventories. There was an enormous caravan on the other side of the village loaded with goods, not to mention a few hundred slaves, human and lix alike. Just in case, a few hidden outposts had been set up to make sure they headed off any stray lixes, and Tailyn’s squad had stumbled across one of them.
“Who’s your commander?” Ka-Do-Gir asked, continuing his interrogation.
“Berad Gor,” the prisoner replied. “I don’t know the rest—this is just my third day in the squad.”
Tailyn’s eye twitched involuntarily when he heard that answer. Swallowing the urge to polish off the bandit right then and there, the young leader instead barked an order.
“Tie them up; don’t kill them. I don’t want anyone knowing we’re here yet.”
The prisoner came back with an offer to join their side, but he was quickly silenced. The lixes bound the two men, dug a small hole, and buried the pair alive, leaving only their noses above ground. They would last at least twenty-four hours like that.
There really was a ton of loot. Apparently, the bandits had saved only the most valuable of it for their inventories after the split, with their weapons, armor, a dozen or so simple magic cards, potions, and two twenty-slot bags heading straight for Tailyn’s inventory. They were perfect for Motar and his people. The lixes got the rings and amulets—that was going to make them stronger. Staring at the rest of the pile, Tailyn thought to himself what to leave and what to sell on the spot. Most of it had come from the lixes, and Bar-Truk was only too happy to explain how important each and every piece was. Tailyn noticed the expression on Ka-Do-Gir’s face and realized the lix had his eye on something but was too proud to ask his master for it. That made the decision an easy one.
“Ka-Do-Gir, you can pick any three items from the pile. Bar-Truk, you’re next. After the two of you are done, your warriors can go—you decide the order. I’ll sell whatever’s left.”
That hit the nail on the head. Tailyn’s servant grabbed himself an odd-looking outfit that looked to be styled more for a female than a warrior, and the young leader grunted. It was the most expensive thing in the pile. But while the store offered him five thousand coins for it, the boy wasn’t about to go back on his word. The pile quickly sh
rank, the boy’s reputation as a leader in turn growing to unheard-of heights. After digging around in what was left to make sure there wasn’t anything else of use, he quickly sold it all. The money he picked up was a nice resolution to their encounter with the two bandits.
Coins +27440 (44635).
Gold +17442 (22725).
“There are seven of us,” Bar-Truk said suddenly, “and a hundred and fifty of them. What’s the plan, Chief?”
There was no “young” slapped onto the title. With no more pretenses about his age, Tailyn knew he was going to be answering for his actions the same as anyone else.
“We can’t take them out. Six groups of born killers trained to take down mages is too much for us, and I’m not about to risk my warriors,” Tailyn replied. “But I don’t want to just leave that loot sitting there, either. We’re going to head around to the other side of the village so we can see what kind of caravan that pair was talking about. That’s when we’ll decide what to do.”
That turned out to be much easier said than done, however. Looping around and avoiding chance encounters with the rest of the observers took Tailyn’s group the whole day, with the sun going down by the time they found themselves staring at the expansive herd of yaks. There were more than a hundred of them. A few green lixes were running around carrying feed to the beasts, and Tailyn heard an angry growl coming from the shaman—the latter didn’t like seeing the rest of his tribe as slaves. Meanwhile, three slavedrivers were cracking their whips merrily over the backs of the slower lixes, encouraging them to run faster and carry bigger loads. A quick look over to the side revealed a few fires and groups of tents. Having made the decision to keep a close eye on their belongings until the commanders had come up with a plan, they’d foregone the protection of the dome.
“This is all under guard—we’re not going to get any closer,” Tailyn said sadly. His perception hadn’t been able to come up with a safe path over to the yaks.
“In that case, we should head out,” Bar-Truk said. “We can wait until the crystal fences leave and come back to go through the buildings. That guard post we passed was destroyed, too, so we can hole up there.”
“We could, but we won’t.” Tailyn’s gaze was fixed on the caravan. “Stay here—I’m heading in alone. If anything happens to me, head back. Valia knows how to resurrect me. That’s an order.”
While the lixes said nothing in reply, Tailyn was confident his instructions would be carried out. Nobody was going to get hurt. Pulling up his parameters, he checked out one of his oldest attributes—concealment. All Tailyn had ever used it for was to keep his parameters safe from prying eyes, never knowing who had perception, but there was a second half to the description that had never come in handy. He could also apply someone else’s parameters.
For example, he could be Berad Gor, a forty-five-year-old ranger at level forty-seven. The killer had advanced quite a bit since his last meeting with Tailyn, and it was only the prisoners’ logs that told the boy what the ranger’s latest parameters were. Of course, Tailyn was a good deal shorter than Berad, the latter three heads taller, but who was going to be looking that closely? The darkness would have guards using perception. None of them were going to have their perception up above thirty.
Ka-Do-Gir growled as soon as Tailyn changed his description. The boy was even forced to pull his face guard up to calm his servant back down, only getting up and walking confidently forward when he was sure the lix wouldn’t make any sudden moves. In stark contrast to his easy stride, everything inside him shook with fear. What if his plan didn’t work? How fast would they kill him? Would the real Berad Gor have him tortured? Dark thoughts threatened to overwhelm and panic him, so he decided to split his consciousness and send part off into the mountains. That made him feel much better. Not only that, but he noticed Valia sleeping in the smithy. Even that was enough to ease his nerves—his city needed supplies, and that meant he couldn’t make a mistake.
The Gray Lands were shrouded in darkness. While a few fires did their best to fight back, all they really did was attract the attention of the night beasts. The protective barrier covering the village didn’t reach the yaks. But all of that played right into Tailyn’s hands, the boy having already covered most of the distance without being spotted. It was only when he was twenty meters away from the caravan that he came across his first bandits.
“Can’t sleep, Commander?” a slurring voice asked. Tailyn began thinking about how to respond, though the mercenary just kept right on going. “We’re doing exactly what you told us to do, keeping an eye on the yaks and not letting anyone close. Sure, we’re having a drink or two, but that’s fine. Everything’s great!”
Finally, Tailyn was able to sort through the red dots and find the person talking to him. Two mercenaries were standing guard by a few dozen loaded yaks, presumably Berad’s loot. Deciding that a commander wouldn’t waste time chatting with drunk fighters, Tailyn just kept walking straight ahead, that decision turning out to be the right one. Nobody stopped him or noticed that Berad had somehow lost half his height. Of course, even if they did notice, they might have just written it off as the alcohol playing tricks on them. It was only when he got to the yaks and disappeared among them that Tailyn was able to breathe a sigh of relief. His arms and legs were shaking; he wanted to yell and, for some reason, jump in the air. It got to the point that the boy’s regeneration had to kick in, setting a timer for five minutes as it worked to counteract his unnatural condition.
Tailyn waited until his body was back to normal before continuing on. Placing a hand on the nearest yak, he froze—robbing the crystal fences wasn’t as simple as he’d anticipated it being.
Active Marauder attribute detected. Analyzing...
Active protection against marauders detected.
Your attribute level: 15. Active protection level: 10.
Verification complete.
The boy’s throat suddenly felt dry as a bone. Marauder hadn’t combined with enhancement, and the fact that the animals weren’t corpses meant it didn’t combine with hacking, either. If the crystal fences had taken a bit better care with their belongings, the security protocol would have triggered some kind of explosion. Happily, Berad Gor had been too cheap to buy anything but the cheapest available devices. Speaking of which, that one finally showed up on Raptor the moment the verification process was complete. Raptor apparently couldn’t see hidden devices, and Tailyn could only be thankful he found out that way rather than by being blown to bits.
Active protection against marauders-I.
Tossing the device in his inventory, the boy got to work investigating the three packs strapped to the yak. They turned out to be full of equipment, weapons, and implements stolen from the lixes—nothing humans could use. Still, that was fairly important given that not all the lixes in the Truk tribe had armor and weapons. Very few did, in fact. After declining to combine them, Tailyn slipped four steel claws and full sets of level one armor into his inventory, happy to see that identical items took up just one slot. Everything else was sold.
Coins +7300 (51935).
Despite the sheer quantity of loot, it didn’t bring back many coins given the low prices on offer for level one equipment. But Tailyn didn’t let that get to him—everything he was picking up was going to come in handy. Moving on to the next yak, he found another three large packs, and everything went smoothly once again. The active protection against marauders as well as the lix weapons and armor earned a quick trip to the boy’s inventory; everything else found a new home in the store. That story was repeated another thirty times.
Half an hour later, Tailyn finished crawling around between the yaks and stopped to see what he’d come up with.
Active protection against marauders-I (31).
Steel claws-I (130).
Complete set of ranger armor-I (130).
Coins +135890 (187825).
Without needing much time to think about it, Tailyn topped up his city’s account. Hackers wer
en’t going to be able to get at the coins there without the personal help of the treasurer, and the move also let Forian know things were going well. Hopefully, he was going to be able to kick off the next stage of construction.
You transferred 150000 coins to the city treasury.
The boy found the cages full of prisoners not far from the yaks. Needless to say, most of them were numericals, though there were some named there, as well, both human and lix. The latter were the same green slaves there to take care of the yaks, only they’d been shut up in the cages for the night. It took a while for Tailyn to overcome the urge to help—all he wanted to do was unlock the cages and let everyone go free. But common sense prevailed in the end. He wouldn’t have been able to get the crowd past the guards even with his Berad Gor disguise, so it just wasn’t worth it.
But then, something stopped him.
One of the cages looked off. Raptor couldn’t penetrate inside to tell Tailyn who the occupant was, though it was easy enough to see that someone was actually in there. Risking discovery, Tailyn crawled between the cages full of sleeping prisoners, his heart pounding. Perception told him what he was looking at: an isolation cage. With a lix inside the blocking device, and a red one judging by the color, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was Mu-Ro-Din. Tailyn had never come across him personally, only encountering the shamans he’d trained, and he would’ve been overjoyed to see that the powerful lix was about to meet his end if it hadn’t been for the monstrous future awaiting the residents of Mean Truk. Mu-Ro-Din had portals to where they mined the crystals most of the city was going to die seven months later if they didn’t get.
Isr Kale's Journal (The Alchemist Book #4): LitRPG Series Page 11