I didn’t expect to find him this easily. Adelhard thought as he leaned against the wall of an alley. He wasn’t worried about anyone seeing him, all of his perks, spells, and skills were going full blast after that bard guy found him with Echolocation. It was honestly a rookie mistake, since the spell to block that was cheap and only cost mana when countering an attempt.

  As soon as he’d left, he had put his plan into motion. Honestly, it wasn’t even that complicated, just not something most people thought of. His first visit was to the nearest courier station. Adelhard had asked around for a higher level courier, one who could find someone without an address. It was a high ranking trait, and a common one too since most people had trouble with addresses.

  After a little walking around, I wrote a letter to Jason David, son of Lord Charles David of Davestown. All it said was:

  We have been trying to reach you about your carriage’s extended warranty.

  It was a joke as old as the internet, apparently. He even remembered getting a couple of emails with a similar line from actual insurance companies. His friends would use it as a punchline all the time back before Veldern.

  Sometimes, Adelhard missed them.

  Jokes and reminiscing aside, he’d followed the courier and the man had found Jason David in the middle of a tavern, a woman that didn’t match the description he’d gotten of Paige on his lap as he told a tale that set off every single one of Adelhard’s bullshit senses. The woman was putting on a brave face, but he could tell she didn’t want to be there, and the men around him were just humoring the guy. This is the mastermind behind all this?

  Adelhard felt like someone was pranking him, but a message to Thorn asking for a better description confirmed it was the right guy. The fact that this lout was a threat was surreal, but his intuition was telling him it was just a front. His Detect Observation spell pinged him, so he disappeard from sight.

  Then he just… followed the idiot back to where he was staying. It was in an apartment building, five stories tall and with large rooms. Adelhard cycled through a few sight spells to make sure he could watch where he went. He went upstairs, to the top floor and into a room. There wasn’t anyone else he could see in the building from here, even using Life Detection, but there were an unusually large number of people in the other apartments.

  On a whim, he’d taken a look in one of the windows by climbing up a three story building a couple blocks away. There were tough looking men and women in there, all with collar on, maintaining weapons and armor. Most people wouldn’t think anything of it, but considering he’d seen at least five other apartments with similar amounts of people…

  Of course, the first thing he’d done was report on it. It was a quest requirement, after all.

  Quest: Rescue the Enslaved

  A woman by the name of Paige has been taken against her will and is being held in an unknown location. The suspected culprit is Jason David, son of Charles David. Find where Jason David has put Paige, and free her from imprisonment. Then, escort her to safety, or her friends. Make sure to keep Moderator Thorn updated on your progress.

  Rewards: x20 Tier 1 Level Tokens

  Honestly, the reward was ludicrous. If I hadn’t done it once in a past character, I’d have considered using it to power level another Tier 1 class for some traits. As it was, he’d probably sell off the tokens he didn’t need. They weren’t usually soulbound or anything. She wasn’t kidding about pulling some strings. Wonder who she asked?

  Now it was just the boring part. Waiting in an alley and keeping an eye on the building. He’d stored a few snacks in his room at the inn that he could retrieve through use of his Shadow Portals. And he had old shows from ancient Terra to listen to. Never watch. It was too big a distraction on a steakout to watch something.

  Throughout the day and night he watched, people had come and gone at regular intervals. Some had packages, but most looked like they were just trying to stay anonymous. Nondescript.

  And Jason David had fallen asleep for most of it. The most interesting thing he’d done was start moving like he was training, which didn’t strike Adelhard as common for the man, but he’d known the kind. It was likely something routine that he did to blow off steam than for health and fitness, or god forbid actually training.

  Sometime in the middle of the day, though, a small group had appeared in the middle of the building suddenly. They were walking up the stairs, but when I looked down I couldn’t see anything with Life Detection. I shifted through a few other, more expensive vision enhancements and picked something up with Tremorsense.

  There were dozens of tunnels underneath and it looked like they connected to some kind of basement. Below that was another structure, possibly some kind of subbasement. Seriously… what’s with all the basements in this town?

  My attention returned to Life Detection and I noticed they kept going, all the way to the top. Shit. I had to move to get a better angle. The building itself had a bunch of magic, but there were ways around even the best detection and entry paths nobody thought of.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Adelhard threw a rock to the roof. Because of the current time of day, and the flat but wide shape of the rock, it was able to provide enough shadow for him to portal to, if he got it right.

  It took two tries, and he’d needed to rush it, but he got on the top of the five story building. He was surprised no one was on top keeping a lookout, but there also wasn’t a door leading into the actual building at the top, despite the flat roof. This seems like a fire hazard. Adelhard couldn’t blame them for wanting avoid it though, as he glanced towards the center of Veldern.

  There it was, the core of the world, at least according to the lore of the world. Adelhard knew that was shit, but it made a good story. What it really was was the fusion reactor for the system. Not that he’d ever say that out loud or write it down. He’d used his mom’s connections to do a lot of research on the world before signing up for the ‘game’. It was actually a brilliant piece of engineering whose creator was firmly redacted.

  Adelhard turned away and then slipped over the edge near Jason David’s apartment. There was plenty of shadow to work with, so he made handholds and made sure the darkness was covering him before creeping down the the window. There were enchantments on it to stop sound from getting out and alert people if it was broken that he could see. Luckily, he didn’t need to touch the window, so long as he could see or knew where a shadow was.

  He found a nice one, opened a portal and listened.

  “...deserve the place! It is my right!” Jason’s voice shouted into Adelhard’s ear.

  There was a silence and a grave, masculine voice responded, “You signed the agreement with the Xaihen General Conglomerate. You won’t get her back until we get what was promised. One way or another. Plans are in motion.”

  There was a heavy silence. “I don’t like him, but does he really have to die?” Jason asked in a quiet voice.

  “Do you think you can qualify for your inheritence the way he wants you to?” Was the response from the grave voice.

  “No.” Jason resplied.

  Oooh, drama. I love little standoffs like this. Adelhard said. He poked his head through the portal enough to get a peek. I was under a couch and at an angle I couldn’t see their faces. I snapped a screenshot as soon as I was through and then pulled myself back out. I reviewed what I’d seen.

  Jason was there, same bulky build and surprisingly fit. I could see it on his bare torso, and thankfully he was wearing pants. The other person was in robes that were finely decorated, just shy of being gaudy. His hands were folded in front of him, gold colored gloves with some kind of gems embedded. There was just a little bit of some kind of golden… mask…

  Adelhard went pale. He covered his mouth to stop himself from swearing outloud. Shit.

  “Then it will be taken care of. A contract is sacred, and must be followed, after all.” The robed man spoke. “Fear not, he will not suffer. It will appear like an accident when he inspects the quarry.”

  “It should evacuated by now, why would he go there before the swarm leaves?” Jason asked, confused. I heard the creak of furniture, I guessed he was sitting down.

  “Because a small child went missing recently. They are ‘lost in the woods’. They’ll be ‘found’ after an unfortunate accident.” The other man said.

  “They won’t be hurt?” Jason asked.

  “That would be bad business.” There was the sound of footsteps walking away, “You wanted a ‘session’ with her before the party, right? It will take a little longer to make sure she is less… resistant. The day after should be enough.”

  Jason was silent for a long moment, “Fine. If she tries to bite me again, is the offer of a seal still available?”

  “Of course. We have a number of slave crafters on hand who could do an adequate job. You will not receive a useless product. A deal managed by us is always of the best quality. If that is all.” There was the sound of a door opening and then closing.

  Jason let out a long sigh, waited a full minute and then there was the sound of something breaking. “Fuck all of these assholes! I will have what is mine, even if I have to go through that stupid merchants group. That town is mine! That girl is mine!”

  Adelhard closed the portal and then carefully climbed through a seperate portal that lead to an alley. He took two more portals before sending a message to Thorn.

  We have a problem. There’s a Collector working with Jason David. And he’s plotting to kill his father soon. Some kid got kidnapped and is going to be used to lure the man into the quarry. I’ve got a lead on where Paige is and I’m following it. Do with that information what you want.

  Adelhard leaned his head back, taking in a few deep breaths to calm his heart. He was running a little low from hanging there like that. Not to mention, Collectors were elite agents of Mint, the God of Commerce and Justice. He’d never heard of one under Tier 4, and he’d killed at least one in the high Tier 5 range in another go. Yea, as a Tier 5 myself.

  He had a moment of thought about abandoning the quest. A Collector put this in a whole different league of danger, and while he’d come back, dying sucked.

  With one last deep breath, he headed back to the apartment building. Using Tremorsense, he found where the Collector was in the tunnels underground. He was fairly certain it was the Collector, anyway. No one else was moving down there, at least not near the apartment building.

  I can do this… Adelhard thought to himself, even as Detect Observation went off. He ignored it, since he was walking in the open. People were always looking, it wasn’t strange for it to ping on a public street in the evening.

  Meanwhile, a man in rather ordinary clothes with short cut black hair and a piercing gaze watched a boy bearing a striking resemblance to descriptions of an murderer. It was different hair and eye color, but the drawings found in the safe at the warehouse were pretty detailed.

  Someone who had been making his job both easier and harder lately. Outside of a known housing apartments of the Xaihen General Conglomerate employees.

  On a whim, he decided to follow, a smirk appeared on his lips as he kept a fair distance. After all, Severn didn’t want to spook the boy. Not until he found out what was going on. Is this related to the Rosecrest girl? Is this another oddity I won’t get an answer to? He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out. There was still another day before the party, after all.