On a continent the Knight had not touched, was Arduo, buying some food from a stall.
With food in her mouth… "I think we should go south, don't you?"
Gydil snicked at her partner. "Do we really have to eat this…?"
Both of them could change their appearance, but she kept her body, and shapeshifting didn't make her weigh any less, even if she could change her density.
"What's the matter? We have to pallet the food from the festival or we just look out of place." She then stuffed more of the soft pastry into her mouth.
"I know that, but did it have to be so sweet?"
Arduo then looked at Gydil intently and sighed.
"Fine. There's a restaurant just a little south of here, on the right side of town."
"Good, anyways, I was going to suggest we wait here, but since there's better food south of here, south it is. I don't mean to be a stickler, but you really should change the body."
"Okay – okay, let me just finish this."
They walked south, stopping briefly in a quaint restaurant. Gydil got supplies for the road and had a snack for herself. After that, they headed to the left of town, there they would intercept an off the board guild specialist Johaa.
"Do you think he'll show up?"
Gydil wiped her mouth of crumbs. "He will – I used to have a similar assigned messenger, you know, to make me look less suspicious. And we already checked out the last few sites, so he is coming here…"
"wait…" She put her finger on her lips. Nothing like a rotten finger to the mouth right after eating to make Gydil wince her nose and face away, even morphing into one of disgust.
"He's over there, he really did come."
"See, I told you. Also, can you move your finger."
"Okay. Do you still remember the plan?"
"Sure. I will follow your movements using a soul tracker, it's not as complicated as your last plan."
Arduo looked at her intently, with a bit of scepticism in her gaze.
"It wasn't even my fault – how was I supposed to know that your arm was going to rot and fall off."
She sighed. "That's not what went wrong and you know it. Anyway, remember I won't be able to see, so make sure to collect me should I be thrown away. Also, I still won't come out until I am sure that a month has passed, so try to follow him with me in tow should I be thrown away. Please make sure I don't get completely shattered – that'll kill me."
"Go on already, I remember, it's not like this is the first time."
"Okay then."
Right before Gydil, Arduo's rancid body collapsed. She still couldn't see spirits, so she just took the body and buried it elsewhere. As Arduo took her time sneaking onto their mark's possessions.
"Peew *She breathed heavily out* I told her to change bodies before they get so rotten, this one is even worse. This mark better be it."
She then dragged the body to a hole they had dug earlier. Burying it. She soon left and headed for a bar. She had a soul device. A device pattern smith carves a few patterns onto your soul or object like stones. Then one thinks of them. Powering them on. And thus, an ethereal display is summoned.
"Can I get a smooth one please."
"Coming up."
She then interacted with the display through her thoughts. It has multitudes of uses. But anyone who could afford to get one carved on a soul, only used it for a few purposes. The one she was using it for was tracking. It was near impossible to put one on an unwilling soul. Other more conspicuous trackers get damaged, lost and destroyed very easily.
"Here you go."
"Thanks." She drank, feeling the soothing sensation as it touched her tongue. 'Oooh, that's good. It's been a while since I had a cup made by someone so skilled at the comfort power. Or it might just be the [Sensation] skill.'
The moving dot on her display was the soul tracker placed on Arduo. She looked at it and almost spit out her drink. On it, the dot moved so unnaturally fast. She aggressively pulled on the bar owners hand, transferring her payment of points and running out.
She looked around frantically. Threw her bag over her shoulder. She looked at the display again and ran. She was fast, but the speeds she was trying to keep up with were crazy. After leaving the town, she saw the large dust cloud far off in the distance.
'I really hate messengers, why do they have to be so fast?'
For a week, she failed to keep up, in fact, their gap had grown exponentially. She only kept track of them using the tracker.
"Good, he slowed down."
For the entire week, they had tracked across the continent, which was no easy feat. She seized this moment to catch up – or just close the distance.
'why did he slow down?'
She then pulled out some food and took a bite; this had been her only chance. Then she sprinted faster.
'I don't care what she says. Keeping inconspicuous is not worth it. In the next town I'm getting myself a beast ride. Running on foot is crazy.'
Half a week later, the dot came to a complete stop. Including Gydil.
'He stopped.'
She ran for a few days while the dot remained mostly idle. 'He must be in a town. But I don't see any such markings on the map – did I get scammed?' She thought back to when she bought the soul phone, and how much they had to haggle the pattern smith to carve her soul. It had been much harder to get access to this specific smith due to his reputable skill and incredible connections.
'I doubt it! He's too good to make a mistake, and too proud to scam me. So, what?'
She slowed down, trying not to catch up with them yet. They had been idle for so long that she had almost caught up. She had spent a week or so catching up. She thought about it some more before they finally came into her view.
'well, if this map is accurate, that means there must be something here, just what is it? A village maybe, or a travelling caravan – that had been there for a week… I doubt that. Think, think… I'm almost there anyway, no use in wracking my mind over it. At least I know she didn't get discarded because it keeps moving just around and about in the same spot.'
She made the display vanish and sped up, worried she might lose the tracker, should Arduo been thrown away. She arrived, and looked around, nothing as far as she could see. She then summoned the map, trying to see where the dot was.
'where are you Arduo?'
She then expanded the map and realised they were deep underground.
'well, this is not good. We found it… but…'
Over the eons people have all learned to avoid going deep into the ground – because just deep enough a dungeon could form, or you might run into an active one. Underground systems exist; they are just avoided.
'Damn it all. Do I really.'
She begun looking around for a trap door, a letch, or some kind of patterns engraved into the ground. Or something electric even.
'I got it.'
She then rewound the tracking, and she followed it to right where it stopped, tracing its footsteps before it went underground. Her knife appeared out of thin air and into her hand. She had a soul storage, but not as extensive. She dropped to the floor, moving her hands across the floor. Eventually her hand felt some engravings.
'This is going to be a problem. Access only type. Damn it – I hope you can do well – don't get trapped in a dungeon.'
She was no amateur at reading patterns, but she didn't know much about them, the only thing she did know was simple things, like how to activate or deactivate them. Being born in a small village, her education wasn't so inclusive and up to date, and even then, she hadn't learnt enough before her village was wiped out. So, at this moment, she knew she didn't have the capabilities to break into this one open.
'Oh, they're good. How did they even find access to these?'
She spent a day trying to get in, but then out of nowhere, the dot began moving again, at the same top speeds as usual, but now deep underground. Extremely deep.
'I have three options, I either try to break in and follow them, I try to destroy deep enough to reach the tunnel – but the walls are probably secured. Okay, I guess I'll be following them from up here. At the very least, this doesn't mean that I don't have to worry about getting spotted.'
She followed them for a week more. Nothing changing. Eventually the dot surfaced. And it wasn't by a patterned ground doorway like they had entered. It was a rough hole. Made from a desperate attempt to flee from something. An emergency of sorts.
'I knew it, something did go wrong down there – fools. This is why no-one uses these. And by the looks of it, these are ancient and old. Abandoned for the same reason. He probably thought he could get through the tunnels fast enough to escape unharmed.'
She looked deep into the hole, a whole lot of scepticism on her face.
'Boy was he wrong. What was he thinking? Ego? Or urgency? He must be in a hurry to deliver this letter and wanted to avoid the monsters.'
She then had flashes of all the monsters she had ran into herself. The surface wasn't much safer itself. She knew to try and not engage them, but some were too driven to be easily shaken off.
'He could've gotten Arduo killed *tilts head a little* well, it's not like he knows he's got a passenger with him. It is easier to risk one's own life.'
She looked at the hole, wondering. 'Just what did he see down there? I'm not one to be tempted to go find out. Neither am I one to lose my target. I better get back to the chase. This didn't even slow the guy down one bit. I'd argue he's moving faster now. I guess this detour really did throw him off schedule.'
She looked down the hole one last time. 'He's not just fast, but it seems he can dig. He must be strong to have broken through the walls of the tunnel so violently. Or he was lucky that something or someone had left some sort of crack for him to exploit.'
She left the hole just as in a hurry as him. A few days later they arrived in a city many would rather avoid. She tracked him down to an Inn. And after a few more days – making a month – she went inside the Inn.
She walked in calmly, went to the register, and spoke to the receptionist.
"How much for a few nights?"
"Ten value points for four nights. There's a festival in town. Quite the influx of guests. So, two extra points for anyone staying more than three days. Will that be okay?"
"Sure."
She had a different face than she had on the chase. In the case she was spotted. Gydil transferred the points to the receptionists hand and took the access stamp. It was a faint pattern. Tattooed on the palm of her hand. It faded after the set number of days a room had been paid for. She went upstairs and put her palm on the door. It scanned the pattern. Creaking opened. Reacting to the stamp/temp tattoo.
After another day, she loitered in the hallway. As soon as their target left the room, she assumed that Arduo left as well. She could not see her. Gydil then walked to her own room. Knowing that Arduo was following. Then they got inside. In the room was a set of supplies and a corpse Gydil had gotten dug up and sneaked in just a few hours ago.
It twitched. Vibrated. Snapping. Mulching noises filled the room as the muscles began to move.
"Finally, I can eat."
The corpse stretched around, this was her getting used to its structure.
"Is it okay?"
"Better even! Where'd you get it?"
"Be grateful, I had to desecrate a few graves. Getting it here was no picnic either. I couldn't as well let you go around the room with a pungent odour; this one had died recently so be careful. Someone might recognise them. Don't worry about leaving with the corpse, I told the receptionist I'll have a guest over. She didn't see you enter – but she won't mind."
"Thank you! I thought I'd have to go look for a body. I'm starving. What did you get?"
Gydil threw her a sweet pastry she had bought during the day.
"Thank you so much…"
She then proceeded to eat it up. Soon, half of the supplies along with it.
"How was the chase?"
"Nothing I couldn't handle, hmmm…"
"what!?"
"I almost lost you there at some point."
"Huh!?"
"Don't worry I didn't. I was tempted, but I didn't."
Arduo then jumped onto the bed and sighed. "where are we anyway?"
"Somewhere pretty interesting. wilster Ash City – home of the Elementals – so be careful. Don't cause a commotion."