Chapter 73

There was a risk involved with moving and showing myself here, and an even bigger risk if I were to kill these men. If they didn't return, then the baron would be sure there was something here, in this town, allowing him a legitimate reason to investigate.

But of course, there was another side to the story in that case. What if these guys weren't here with permission? What if whatever this was was illegal and the baron was trying to keep it under wraps?

In such a case, the baron wouldn't be able to openly do anything. He could enforce a few things after cooking up some stories, but I had a hunch that the elder Zara was talking about would soon get involved, and things would calm down.

In such a case, taking down these guys was not only the right thing to do for the sake of justice, but what they had could also not make it to the streets. Otherwise, there would be chaos, and no one would be able to do anything.

That's right. What I was talking about was none other than a drug. To be precise, it was a flower. I had seen it before, in the world of magic, used in the battle, but if processed a little differently, it would become a drug that was so potent that a weak-minded person might end up losing their mind for the rest of their life.

But that wasn't why I was interested in it. As I said, it was used in battle for another purpose. A good one.

I moved silently, my feet so light that none of them could pick up my traces. The footwork of the night demon was a transcendent realm martial arts, just one level below the supreme realm.

It was prominent in these low-lit areas, and its effects were even better at night, or in dark places, where we currently were.

So, with the effects stacked up, I approached the poor fella in the end and quietly placed my hand on his mouth and, with the other, cut his carotid artery. He grumbled a little, but other than that, the sound was firmly blocked by my hand, and he lost his senses. He was still alive, but that was blood slowly draining from his body, nothing too much.

Just like that, I took care of the three soldiers, before only the one who was dealing with the robed figures in the corner was alive. That left me with only one enemy. The other two, the smugglers, most probably, were outside the steel bars, so they were out of the question, but the one dealing with them was on the inside.

I waited for the smugglers to leave, and just as the last one turned around, I pierced his neck with a small knife from the side. I made sure to block any and all sounds, lest I risk the smugglers picking up something.

Once all four of them were dead, I checked their rank and couldn't help but be surprised. While killing them, I had the system notifications on silent, so I couldn't tell what I received upon killing them.

[You have killed a C rank human x4]

[You have obtained 10,000 EXP x4]

[You have obtained blood crystals x4]

It was an unexpected surprise, but anyway, receiving blood crystals was a welcome surprise. I ignored the rest of the notifications and focused on the dead bodies. The blood would be washed out, and the bodies would go to my inventory, so there was nothing to worry about there.

The only thing that I needed to worry about was this. What were they using this for?

I cracked open the wooden box they had sealed once again after checking the product and looked at the lily in the glass, preserving its effects. Upon checking its condition, it seemed like a hundred years old, but that was an estimate.

There were a total of three small boxes that could slide through the bars. Upon checking, all of them were the blue lilies.

[Item: Blue Lilies]

[Type: Consumable, Alchemy ingredient]

[Rank: B]

[Description: A special flower only found in the areas where the energy of the cold and death has been preserved for decades

This one has been growing for 103 years and has absorbed an adequate amount of the cold and death energy.

But be careful, consumption can lead to effects that your brain cannot bear]

[Effect: Upon raw consumption, all stats +100]

[Side Effect: Upon the end of the effect, all stats -10]

[Duration: 10 minutes]

[Hint: It is advised to eat it after processing]

I smirked after reading the description. The cold and death. The only place that could have had both of them was a graveyard. That's right. These flowers only grew up in graveyards, and not just any graveyards, but the graveyards of the dragons. Most optimal are the ice dragon graveyards.

The potion crafted from them could increase one's stats by 50 each for about ten to twenty minutes. From one flower, almost ten to twenty of them could be made, depending on the skill of the alchemist. The side effects were removed, but the rarity remained the same.

But, there was one effect of these flowers that no one knew about. Or perhaps no one could absorb them until now, so no one ever thought of using them like that.

As I said, these flowers grew in the graveyards of the dragons, absorbing their nutrients from the soil, the soil beneath which dragons were buried.

So of course, this flower could have absorbed a tiny bit of a dragon's essence in it as well, right?

That's correct. This flower contained the essence of the dragon. Now the essence wasn't even around a tenth of a drop, but four flowers, so that's around half a drop. It may not be much to dragons, but to other beings, especially to humans, that half a drop of essence was a treasure of a lifetime.

The only problem was extracting that essence. But that was a matter that could easily be resolved. For now, however, I needed to return.

I erased my and anyone's traces from there as much as I could, making it look like these soldiers never came here, even to their companions and left the sewers, to make my way to my house. Once I was inside, I checked up on everyone.

Rayla and Julian were in one room, the sisters still slept in the same room even though they could have had their separate rooms, and Lucas was also sleeping.

I sighed and returned to my room. The dinner time had unfortunately passed while I was out, so I hadn't eaten anything. Still, I decided to fill up some mana containers to practice [Creation], which I wasn't paying much attention to lately.

Until dawn, I filled up mana containers and did nothing else. I had to miss the dick action I so desperately preserved during the day, but this took precedence. If my [Creation] wasn't caught up with it, the progress would be useless. So I was willing to sacrifice some sessions for eternal sessions in the future.

I stopped at dawn because I was getting tired a little of absorbing and channeling mana all night. I didn't leave the house that day and did some simple exercises in the yard of the house. It was then that my senses picked something up.

Of course, like many protagonists, I didn't quickly turn my head to warn the other party. While I couldn't see who it was, and since my mana wasn't enough to spread and make out the figure from that far, I did my best to draw a picture with my senses.

It was rough, but I managed to make out a man who was looking at me quite firmly. Quite strong as well.

Another thing I didn't pick up in the least was the hostility. Whoever it was, they weren't hostile. Or at least for the moment, he wasn't.

I couldn't make out the appearance or the age of the man, but he sure was a strong one, as I could tell. So much so that hiding that enormous presence with a mana-suppressing technique was useless.

The level I required to beat that man was at the very least A rank, or perhaps more.

The question was: what was such a strong man doing here, in this backwater city?

All questions remained unanswered at the moment, so I did what I could. Act as oblivious as I could and worked out hard as if my life depended on it. Until it was bright, I did so, and only when I was done did the man move and leave.

I still didn't look in the direction of the man and made my way inside the house, having a feeling that today wasn't going to be as silent as I had hoped.

Something was going on. Something I wasn't privy to and that didn't make me feel good at all.

Not one bit.

~~

Let me know if there are any mistakes.