CHAPTER 132: CHAPTER 132 - HARD DECISIONS

As Logan pulled the suit over his arms, he stared into the mirror.

Pouring in a little mana, the suit shrunk around perfectly to fit around him.

Many conflicting thoughts ran through his mind as he stared at his reflection.

It wasn’t the plan that he had thought of that was a problem.

No, it was what it meant he’d have to do.

’’Sure, the Alvarez family has declared war on us,’’ he mumbled. ’’But this...’’

Strategically speaking, if several important members were to vanish inside the dungeons, their relatives would pull away from the Alvarez family. It would also make sure people have to think twice in the future if they wanted to join them.

’It wasn’t like the Alvarez family had kept their hands clean up to this point either.’

They were still prime suspects in the recent ’accidents’ in Mercer-related dungeons. Random mercenary groups had shown up to disrupt runs, and there were even cases where innocent teams went missing.

’’Doing that would cross a line I’ve never crossed before,’’ he muttered, thoughts drifting to the Berserker’s Bait.

For all he knew, some of those people could just be random students his age—people who had nothing to do with the Alvarez family’s schemes beyond being relatives or suppliers.

He exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through his messy hair.

’’If I don’t make use of an opportunity like this, who knows when it’ll come again.’’

’No one else can handle this,’ he thought. ’If anyone finds out I’ve got bait, it won’t just be me—everyone around me will be in danger.’

Logan fell silent, unsure what exactly he wanted to do.

But sitting and staring at himself in the mirror wouldn’t change a thing.

He let out a quiet breath and made his way out of the room.

Edric glanced up when he noticed him. ’’Back already?’’

Logan gave a small nod and sat down across from him.

’’I need a favor.’’

Edric tilted his head. ’’What do you need?’’

Logan hesitated for a moment. ’’...A list of the people entering Willowshade and any information you can find on them.’’

After staring at Logan for a second, Edric leaned back on the couch.

’’Alright... I’ll see if I can get someone to check the gate registry.’’

He paused. ’’Might take a few hours though. Most of it won’t be public.’’

’’That’s fine,’’ Logan said. ’’Just send it to me when you have it.’’

Edric glanced up from his watch. ’’Are you planning something?’’

’’You could say so,’’ he nodded.

Edric didn’t press further.

He stood up after a moment, tapping a few commands into his watch.

’’I’ll start looking into it now,’’ he said. ’’Let me know if you need anything else.’’

Logan gave a nod as Edric made his way out of the room, only moving after the door locked behind him.

’’Ugh,’’ Logan mumbled, scratching his head. ’’This is making me crazy.’’

His thoughts were still a mess.

’Let’s hope some training gets rid of this,’

he thought, heading to his training room.

The pile of bones was still there, scattered across the floor.

Logan crouched beside them, his fingers already glowing a dark color from undead mana.

He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes.

’’Let’s see if I can get the threads correct this time,’’ he muttered.

Slowly, he began generating tiny threads of mana and connected them to each limb one by one.

Finally, a full humanoid skeleton holding a bone sword rose up from the ground.

Logan’s eyes shot open, staring at the skeleton with a smile of approval.

’’Walk,’’ he said, pointing his finger at the end of the room.

A light blue flame flashed in the skeleton’s eyes as it started walking.

Logan exhaled deeply, smile widening as he looked at the skeleton.

’Sure, it won’t win any prizes yet,’ he thought. ’But I’ve got it moving now.’

’It won’t be long until I can command it to fight.’

The strength of the bones he could create was easily the same as that of an average C-rank.

If it were to move better, it could be a match for actual C-ranks in the future.

Two hours flew by as Logan experimented with the skeleton.

’’Amazing,’’ he mumbled, glancing at the eight skeletons standing around him. ’’Sure, creating them costs quite some mana, but maintaining them isn’t that bad.’’

Logan raised his hand, separating the skeletons into two groups before ordering them to fight.

The skeletons shuffled toward each other, swinging their swords at anything in front of them.

’’Stop!’’ Logan immediately shouted, pinching the bridge of his nose. ’I need to give more detailed orders it seems.’

Pouring more mana into one of the skeletons, Logan raised his eyebrows as he noticed the blue flash of light in its eyes.

Once he gave it precise orders for the fight, the skeleton moved towards its opponent.

’It’s faster than before,’ Logan noticed, narrowing his eyes. ’The more mana I pour into the threads, the stronger I can make one.’

He watched in silence as the skeleton blocked its opponent’s sword, pushing it away with greater strength before cutting through its ribcage.

The broken skeleton collapsed to the ground, all its threads severing as its anchor point got destroyed.

’’Interesting...’’ Logan mumbled, nodding.

Before he could continue his experiments, he heard a soft beep from his watch.

His attention was immediately drawn by the message.

Snapping his fingers, the skeletons behind him collapsed on the ground, the leftover undead mana flowing back to his body.

Walking to his couch in the lounge area, Logan opened a file sent by Edric on his hologram.

’The list...’ he thought, eyes stuck to the screen.

A list of twenty-five names popped up, each one linked to detailed behavioral notes and background info.

Logan read through the file for hours, his eyes not leaving the screen even once.

He didn’t react, didn’t frown, curse or even sigh.

Just pure silence.

After some time, Logan closed the files and turned off his hologram.

He stared ahead, his heart still conflicted on what to do.

Then he stood up.

"I should take a look for myself," he muttered, purchasing a ticket to San Diego Airport under a fake identity. "It’s the only way I’ll know for sure."