Chapter 67: 66. To Kill a Newbie

“Okay…,” mumbled Ratska.

His clothes were modest compared to mine. He put on a different set of equipment, and they seemed more valuable than the previous ones. They were made of black leather, and I couldn’t spot a single speck of dust on them.

He even put on a fragrant deodorant for the first time since we met; he smelled like Jasmine now. He held a comb with his left hand and a small mirror with his right one, and he straightened his disheveled hair using it as we descended the stairs.

“Why are you preparing so much?” I asked without turning back toward the Gnome, “We’re going to meet a Lizardfolk town chief, that’s it. She’s the one who should be anxious about the meeting, not you.”

I took a sneaky look at the little Gnome and saw him staring at the comb and the mirror for about a second before he hid them inside the bag of holding that I gave him.

“This is my first time meeting an authoritative figure publicly,” he muttered, “I’ve always had to lay low and hide my existence from the eyes of such people, and I am feeling stressed about it. I guess it’s better to heed your advice and stop overthinking.”

So, he’s just anxious…

I used to be similar to Ratska in my past life, always respecting guild leaders and adventurers. However, such people enjoy picking on others who respect them, especially those that couldn’t defend themselves, just like me when I was a dismantler.

After Natalie’s and Rob’s deaths, people started avoiding me, and guild leaders ignored the fact that I existed. I was treated with more respect, and no one picked on me anymore. I realized that I could fend for myself even as a weakling, and I changed my behavior to be more proactive.

It seems like Ratska resembles me more than I expected…

“Don’t worry, Ratska,” I spoke with an assertive tone of voice, “You did your part of the mission by brewing the potions; you can just observe from now on, or you can do whatever you want if it suits you that way.”

We reached the first floor, and Quaya was sitting behind her large counter that was located beside the building’s door. A monocle was sitting in front of her right eye, and she was staring at a magazine that she held with her right hand.

She closed the magazine when she noticed us descending the stairs, and she wished us success in our negotiations with Akeniska.

“I hope you stay in our city for a while after the negotiations, regardless of the outcome,” she asked me with a smile, “I still didn’t hear about your adventures, and I believe we’d be able to build mutually beneficial relations.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I smiled, “if everything goes according to my desires, then we’ll be able to meet each other often.”

She nodded, then turned toward Ratska.

“I enjoyed talking to you; We’ll resume our conversation as soon as you’re back here,” she giggled, “I hope you can handle your liquor.”

“Of course, I can!” Ratska bowed then he followed me once more.

We went out of the building, but Rauchlim was nowhere to be seen. I checked the clock, and it was five past four.

There are still ten more minutes before Rauchlim arrives…

Ratska walked back and forth, and he scanned the surroundings as he did so. He hummed a cheerful tune, but the sweat that trickled on his face revealed his anxiety.

I opted to sit on the ground, and I tried to replicate my successful attempt at manipulating mana, but I didn’t succeed.

I felt a disturbance in the ambient mana around me, so I opened my eyes with haste. I noticed a thick black cloud of smoke appearing in front of me before it disappeared instantly and a tall Lizardfolk appeared instead of it.

So, if I improve my control over my mana manipulation skills, I might be able to detect attacks and ambushes before they occur… Interesting.

“Jason, my friend! How are you?” said Rauchlim with a smile, “I see that your outfit is somewhat different today; I didn’t take you for the person who’d dress up for meetings.”

He had a purple Hawaiian shirt, and a pair of brown shorts this time. He didn’t even look at Ratska, let alone greet him.

“Your teleporting ability is as interesting as always, Rauchlim. I might need your help one day,” I said as I grinned, “Mind you, this isn’t my official outfit; it’s my casual attire! Anyway, lead the way.”

Ratska squinted his eyes when the Lizardfolk ignored him, but he didn’t react.

The Lizardfolk giggled and gave me a thumbs up, then motioned for us to follow him.

Rauchlim ran at a fast pace, but both of us could keep up with him. He led us through many shortcuts and narrow pathways, but I could tell that we were getting closer to the large palace made out of white Quartz.

After about ten minutes of constant running, he stopped abruptly. There was a large empty area in front of us, and the large white palace was tens of meters away from us.

Ratska started panting when he stopped, so I asked him whether he could keep going or needed a small rest. He reassured me and said that it wasn’t a new experience for him due to his low Endurance stat.

I sighed, then stared at the castle in front of us. It was at least eighty meters tall, and its area was at least ten thousand square meters.

The whole building was made out of white Quartz, except for the windows which were made out of transparent glass. The shape of the castle was rectangular, and it contained four towers.

Rauchlim walked at a brisk pace toward the gate of the building; he was relaxed and whistled on his way there. He motioned for us to follow him, so we did.

More than ten Lizardfolks were standing in front of the gate, and four on top of each tower. Each one of them had full-body Mythril heavy armor; which would have been costly if not for the presence of a source of that metal nearby.

I bought some information about them from the system shop. Their levels hovered around the eighties, but most of them had common class except for the occasional uncommon one.

I am pretty sure that Akeniska had to pay enormous fees to bring these guys along; it’s like cheating to bring people this strong to a newly integrated planet…

Most of them had axes, others had swords, and some of them had spears. The common characteristic between their weapons was that all of them were made out of Mythril.

The chief of this Lizardfolk tribe really benefitted from the Mythril, didn’t she?

We were ten meters away from the gate, so I increased my pace. Both Rauchlim and Ratska were startled by my actions, as I was ahead of our Lizardfolk companion at this point.

“Wait, Jason,” whispered Rauchlim from behind me, “This isn’t how you’re supposed to act; you need to feign respect at the very least.”

I pretended not to hear him and kept going.

The gate of the castle was at least ten meters tall, and eight meters wide. It was a double gate, and both of its doors were made out of Mythril.

Although it wasn’t the most beneficial way of using the precious metal, at least the gate would withstand strong attacks long enough for the residents of the castle to prepare a counter-attack or even run away.

The guards in front of it raised their weapons, and they hissed and growled at me when I was five meters away from the gate. Some of them even charged at me, but Rauchlim screamed as soon as they displayed their hostility.

“Don’t! He’s the Lady’s guest, and she’ll be disappointed if your actions cause her trouble,” his voice was stern, and it was different from the way he usually spoke, “Don’t force me to punish you personally.”

Suddenly, all the guards stopped in their tracks, stared at one another, then went back to their original positions.

Good…

I kept walking slowly, and Ratska increased his pace to keep up with me. The guards opened the gate, and I greeted each one of them despite their aggressive behavior against me.

These people might end up as my employees; a little kindness now would pay off later…

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We passed through a long and dark tunnel, and I couldn’t see anything around me except for a small light emerging from the opposite end of the tunnel. I could hear Rauchlim whistling behind us, and I estimated the distance between us and him to be around ten meters.

“Is it just me, or did the guards give me disdainful stares?” Ratska whispered, “I might be paranoid, but I am guessing that residents of this city hate Gnomes for some reason.”

“Oh, don’t worry. They looked at me that way too,” I replied.

Still, his suspicions might be accurate; they kept staring at him even after we entered the tunnel…

I walked without uttering more words, and I was able to see the area inside the castle. It was an area full of greenery, and I could hear the water babbling from the fountains.

We went out of the tunnel, and to call this place a garden would’ve been an understatement. The whole ground underneath our feet was covered in grass.

Many flowers were growing around, and their colors and shapes differed; I couldn’t even spot two flowers that looked like copies of one another. There were more than twenty trees, and each one of them bore different fruits.

These plants are all native to Earth, but they aren’t supposed to grow in the Sahara’s climate…

Many birds chirped, and they flew around us. Most of them were colorful, and they decorated the trees when they landed on top of them.

Suddenly, a Lizardfolk came out of a door on the opposite wall of the garden, and he asked us politely to follow him. He looked like a regular Lizardfolk; his scales were a mix between orange, red, and black, and he had a cap on top of his head and a robe covered the majority of his body.

Interestingly, he didn’t have a tail, or he hid it well enough.

“That’s the regal speaker,” whispered Rauchlim from behind us, “He’s the lady’s second favorite servant, after me of course.”

I nodded, then followed the regal speaker alongside Ratska. We entered through the same door that he came out of, and we found ourselves inside a large room.

More than a hundred guards were sitting in front of the wall opposite us, and each one of them held a Mythril spear. They were physically bigger than the guards of the outer gate, and they looked menacing.

A large throne was in front of us, and a Lizardfolk sat on top of it. I estimated her height to be the same as mine, which was too short for a mature Lizardfolk.

Her body was covered in golden scales, except for her belly and neck which were covered in white ones, and she had crimson irises. She wore a translucent robe, that exposed a lot of skin but obscured the important details.

The regal speaker was in front of the throne, and he was facing us. He received a scroll from Akeniska, and he opened it and started reading its contents.

“This is Ruzfol, speaking on Lady Akeniska’s behalf,” he said, “This is her formal greeting, and she’ll converse with you later. She thanks Jason Stubbs for honoring our city with his visit; she considers it as an opportunity for growth and cultural exchange with one of the most powerful residents of this planet, if not the strongest outright.”

His voice is coarse, but it’s soothing; I can see why he’s the one making speeches.

I nodded, and Ruzfol kept going.

“We welcome you as an honorary resident of our town; you could build a house wherever you want inside the city’s borders, and you wouldn’t need to pay any taxes or bills whatsoever,” he said, then his voice turned into whispers as he squinted and brought the scroll closer to his face, “and your Dwarven slave too.”

Suddenly, Ratska started screaming, and everyone stared at him.

It seems like this town’s residents truly hate Gnomes; even their leader Akeniska is not afraid of displaying such behavior in front of me…

 

*[POV: Almighty Holy One]*

 

Stella’s projection was floating in front of me. I displayed a warm smile, but in reality, I was disappointed with her group’s failure to accomplish the task that I assigned them.

“I am really sorry, master,” Stella bowed and fidgeted with her fingers, “Igor did his best; he even fought enough monsters to evolve his class for the second time to ensure winning against Jason, but it wasn’t enough. I’ll take the matter into my own hands if you’d like me to, although I’m not sure of winning against that ingrate.”

“Don’t worry, everything is under the church’s control. Besides, such a matter will be taken care of by the lesser deities of our organization,” I spoke with a warm voice and activated a skill to make my words soothing to the listener. “Go back to Earth and train. Give the Divine Remedy to Igor; it’ll alleviate his suffering and cure most of the damage that he received during his unlucky fight. Also, make sure to help Oleg when it comes to leveling up; it’s against my teachings to leave comrades lagging behind. That mortal known as Jason will disappear soon, and you don’t need to concern yourself with him anymore.”

“Understood, master. I’ll do everything within my power to make sure that humans are led to the right path,” Then, her projection disappeared.

I eased into my comfy throne and relaxed my posture. I let out a sigh and thought about the possible options to exterminate that bug before he became a genuine obstacle to the Great Church’s assimilation into the newly integrated planet.

He even has a reliable source of exclusive intel; I wonder if the Usurper is feeding him information, and why would he do that?

I reminisced about Igor’s fight against Jason, and I felt pissed off once more. My blessed couldn’t injure Jason at all, and he only did so by expending the little divinity that was stored in his Starry Night Sword.

That annoying mortal proved his strength, but he still wasn’t a match to my blessed ones if the three of them took him on. However, Stella was leveling up, and she was busy with the guild’s logistics and scouting for potential talent. If I forced her to chase Jason around, then the Way of The Champion guild’s prospects would take a heavy hit.

Oleg was useless on his own, and he needed power-leveling to keep up with the other two, let alone Jason. He reached his second class evolution a couple of hours ago, and it wasn’t spectacular enough to let him defeat the Usurper’s blessed.

Jason is much stronger than each one of those three, and I am sure he would’ve destroyed Igor if he didn’t have a companion to worry about during the battle.

I ordered my underlings to launch investigations on the Gnome that accompanied Jason and found him interesting. He had a useful skillset, and such a person would’ve been a useful member of Stella’s guild, despite being an Illegal Citizen.

Jason might recruit all the talented people on the Church’s radar if we didn’t do anything about it.

I couldn’t see a way for Stella’s guild to succeed as long as that annoying person lived. We had to erase Jason Stubbs; it was now or never.

I’ll hire a mercenary strong enough to kill Jason without alarming him. There was nothing that money couldn’t solve, and the Great Church wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of Jason’s death if we played our cards right.

I reached out for a transparent crystal that was floating to my right side and injected divinity inside it. No projections appeared this time, but a feminine voice came out.

“What are your orders, sir?”

“Contact the Intergalactic Troopers,” I spoke, “tell them we need them to kill a newbie named Jason Stubbs. Give them the planet’s location and the target’s coordinates. Offer them a good compensation, and tempt them with intergalactic tax exemptions, as long as they killed that mortal quickly and efficiently.”

We’ll see how he handles the newbie killers…

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As always; shoutout to these people:

Bladesunder

chris

GenericKane

Water Dragon

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