Chapter 70: Settling Down (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele’s blood was boiling; he drew the sword and slashed forward with great force.
*DANG*
The man’s dagger blocked Angele’s attack. The noises created by the clashing of weapons echoed in the room.
Angele yelled and applied more force to his sword; the dagger was pushed back to the man’s face. Suddenly, a stream of blood appeared in the air and the man’s head was cut open. The man dropped his dagger and Angele slashed down with his sword. He could feel the sensation of cutting the man’s body open, and the noise sounded a bit horrifying.
The leader thought his plan worked, only standing there and laughing, but after seeing what Angele just did, his expression changed and he decided to run. However, he suddenly lost his balance when he turned back. His legs were aching.
“Ah! My legs!” the leader screamed in pain and he fell to the ground. There were lines of blood coming out of his ankles slowly. Angele kicked him in the waist again.
The man with a dagger dropped to the ground and the stench of blood permeated all over the room. The man didn’t suffer for too long, dying after several seconds.
“Even Kandlean can’t fight him…” one thug said with a shaky voice. Angele didn’t say anything, only turning around and stepping forward. He cut the two thugs’ necks open before they could escape, causing them to just fall to the ground and die.
“You don’t run after destroying my Dragon Scale Flower!” Angele’s eyes were still shining and his blood vessels were visible around his temples. The blue light coming out of his eyes made him look horrifying. Two thugs outside the door knew that things went wrong, quickly putting down the injured thug and deciding to run. Angele grabbed the daggers the dead thugs dropped to the ground right away.
‘Target locked. Adjusting force. Adjusting parabola,’ Zero reported. Angele could see two blue points marked on the escaping thugs with in front of him.
‘Done,’ Zero reported. Angele threw the two daggers toward the thugs.
The daggers flew through the air and pierced the two thugs’ back. They screamed as they fell to the ground. Their bodies were twitching after Angele had aimed for their vertebras. Even if they survived, they would be paralyzed for the rest of their lives.
Angele turned back and finished the unconscious thug off with his sword. Angele then glared at the leader that was lying on the ground and pointed at his neck with his sword. The blood on Angele’s sword kept dripping onto the leader’s neck.
“No! No! No! You need me! Don’t!” the leaders yelled. His tears mixed with the snot were running down his face.
“You want the Dragon Scale Flower, right? The one I ate was fake! It was a fake!” he kept yelling.
“What?” Angele was still pointing his sword at the leader.
“It’s fake?” He grabbed the leader’s neck before he asked.
“Say that again?” Angele glared at him.
“I’m a member of the Snake of the Sand Forest, so you… you should let me live!” the leader stuttered. He could see the blue light coming out of Angele’s eyes, causing him to nearly piss his pants. Angele leaned toward the leader and he didn’t smell the fragrance of the Dragon Scale Flower. The flower the man ate was probably something else as he probably just tried to lure Angele into an ambush.
Angele calmed down a bit and pulled the leader up.
“Where’s the real Dragon Scale Flower?” Angele asked.
“And what’s the Snake of the Sand Forest?” He added.
“Master Wizard, we’re just low-ranked members of the organization. The flower I just ate isn’t the real Dragon Scale Flower. It’s something that we use to trick the buyers. We don’t have any Dragon Scale Flowers at all. The Snake of the Sand Forest is the name of our organization. I know nothing else…” the leader explained quickly. He was still staring fearfully at Angele’s sword. There was still something suspicious, but Angele knew most of his words were true.
The Dragon Scale Flower was a well-known treasure and most nobles knew about it. Angele knew he wouldn’t be so lucky, but he wondered why he got so angry after seeing the man eating the flower. He felt that he was too greedy, so he decided to be more careful next time.
“Do you know where I can find the real Dragon Scale Flower?” Angele asked in a low voice.
“I’m just collecting the protection racket and I really know nothing about it…” The man was sweating that Angele could see beads of sweat running down his face. The man knew that if he couldn’t make Angele satisfied, he would become a dead body just like the others. He decided to at least give something else to Angele.
“Also, Master Wizard, I still have the fake flower I ate. Would you like some of that?” the leader asked.
“You still have those?” Angele asked.
“It’s right here, in the storage chest.” The leader was not lying.
Angele looked around. There was a broken wooden bed in the room; the floor was dark and wet with blood all over it. He could see spider webs in the corner and could smell the horrid stench. Angele found a gray iron chest filled with the fake Dragon Scale Flowers by the window. He grabbed one of the flowers; the flower was soft and it had a good fragrance. The pistil was black and the petals were white, but its shape was a bit different from the real Dragon Scale Flowers.
The Dragon Scale Flowers had sharp edges on its petals, while this one had round petals. If Angele didn’t take a closer look, he wouldn’t notice the difference.
“It’s fake…” Angele felt a bit disappointed. He couldn’t imagine how much progress he could make if the chest was filled with real Dragon Scale Flowers.
‘Searching the database… Similar match: Lizard Flower,’ Zero reported. Angele put his hands into the chest and he confirmed that it only had Lizard Flowers in it. He looked disappointed.
Angele stood up and left the bedroom. The leader was still lying on the ground and he looked scared. Angele walked toward the man that jumped into the room through the window. He finally knew what the man looked like.
The man was wearing a black suit. His face was covered with a black facemask. He was bald and his skin had a weird skin tone. It was green mixed with gray, and the green parts looked like mold. Angele almost sliced his head off, and the man also received a deep wound on his chest.
Angele scrunched his eyebrows and searched the body. He found a small leather pouch tied to the man’s waist, seemingly full. Angele took it down and opened it. There were some gold coins and silver coins. Angele also found a piece of paper inside, and there were several words written in Anmag on it.
‘18th… Afternoon… Restfor… When the Hallows of the Sun disappear…’ Angele read the paper, finding out that it looked like some sort of plan. There was a red dagger mark below the words.
“It looks like they’re trying to kill someone else with this plan. The ambush is set for someone else, yet the leader had to use it on me. That’s why they didn’t say anything about the fake flower on the way,” Angele said while reading the plan.
‘The Lizard Flowers and the Dragon Scale Flowers looks very similar, but Lizard Flowers are just flowers, while the Dragon Scale Flowers were great materials for Wizards. The fragrance of the yellow balls is probably created by some spice master. I should have used the chip to scan the flower when I saw it.’ Angele thought. He stood up with a disappointed look on his face.
“This is just part of the plan, right?” Angele turned back and asked the leader.
“Yes… There were ten more ambushes set up in different areas of the city, and that’s all I know. I didn’t know you are a wizard.” he said.
“So you’re just looking for people who are rich enough to buy the Dragon Scale Flowers and lure them to the ambush?” Angele threw the paper on the floor, and he asked.
“You’re right. I thought you were just a rich traveler…” The leader regretted what he did.
“I don't really care about you. I just want to know where the real Dragon Scale Flower is, and why the man in black could stay undetected,” Angele said with a cold smile on his face.
Ten minutes later…
Angele walked out of the alley and he could see no one around. People probably ran away after hearing the commotion. Angele looked at the item in his hand in satisfaction. It was a small scroll that the leader had given to Angele before he died. It was the secret skill of the assassin’s guild ‘Snake of the Sand Forest’, and this was the skill the man in black used, even Angele could not detect his presence.
‘The plan was made by the Snake of the Sand Forest, and it has nothing to do with me. Though I didn’t get the Dragon Scale Flower this time, I still obtained the secret skill,’ Angele thought as he put the scroll back into his pouch carefully.
‘Warning! A large group of people is approaching. Please stay alert. 150 meters…148 meters…145 meters…’ Zero warned. Angele looked around, walked into an alley and disappeared.
Ten seconds later, a group of guards gathered around the building, and they were wearing white leather armor suits. Most of them were overweight, only moving slowly with the heavy armor suits. It seemed that only the two leading men in the team were capable of fighting.
“That’s the place,” a man with a war hammer said with a light voice.
“But someone already took care of the problem.” He kicked one of the bodies on the ground hard, causing the blood to be spilled everywhere.
“Let’s check the place,” one of the leaders walked inside, and he said.
“Follow me!” he yelled.
Several minutes later, the two leaders stood around the body of the assassin. They had serious expressions on their faces.
“It’s a member of the Snake of Sand Forest. Furthermore, he’s a Black-Mask Assassin. It looks like they messed with the wrong guy,” one of the leaders said.