Chapter 48: Interrogation

[Port City of Neima. Noble District. 11:00 P.M.]

The effects of the numbing spell had already worn off and Makroft woke up anxious and disoriented. He looked around only to realize that he was in a darkened room.

Then the old wizard tried to stand up but soon realized that his body was shackled and he could not move.

"Hmph. Do they think mere chains were going to hold me down?" Makroft quickly calmed down and circulated the mana in his body to cast a spell. But when he tried to release the energy, it got stuck in his body. It was as if an invisible wall was blocking the outflow of his mana.

"What the hell is going on? Why can't I conjure?" Realizing that his magic had been sealed, the old wizard began to panic and tried desperately to free himself from the chains that bound him.

"I recommend you stop. Those Nullifying Chains were forged specifically to prevent anyone below the 3rd realm from utilizing their internal energy. I must admit, Aylinor did have some good stuff stored in his ring."

At that moment, a voice rang in Makroft's head. He looked around trying to find the person who had said those words. Finally, the old wizard's eyes stopped on a dark figure standing in the corner of the room a few steps away from him.

The dark figure picked up a small hand-held lantern from the desk next to him and lit it. Consequently, the room filled with light, and the old wizard finally realized that he was chained to an armchair, in a stone basement that was so destroyed that it looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

Then, the dark figure began to walk towards Makroft. Even though he was wearing a mask, the old wizard was able to recognize the person walking towards him immediately.

"You, Edevane! What's the meaning of this!" shouted Makroft as Marcus stopped right in front of him.

"Hello, Mr. Makroft. I guess it's been a while since our last meeting." He replied through [Telepathy].

Marcus had previously met Makroft the night the T.M.S Company held the auction. However, the two had exchanged almost no words.

Then, in the days following the auction, Makroft had visited Marcus repeatedly to purchase the black spellbook that was in his possession. In fact, the old wizard had even offered ridiculously large sums of money to get the book.

But no matter what price the old wizard offered, Marcus had steadfastly refused to hand over the spellbook.

Finally, after nearly three weeks of insisting, Makroft had lost his patience and decided to get the book by other means. One night, the old wizard hired a pair of assassins to steal the book and kill Marcus.

At first, Makroft did not dare to provoke Marcus because he was a stronger wizard than he was. However, after learning that he was not affiliated with any organization or clan, the old wizard concluded that even if he was a slightly stronger than average wizard, Marcus was not powerful enough to retaliate against him.

Unfortunately, neither Makroft nor the assassins were aware of the fact that Marcus had the strength of a wizard of the 3rd realm and that he had placed multiple magical traps and protection arrays around the mansion.

The assassins were only comparable to a zero realm warrior or wizard, so they were not able to break through the mansion's defenses. In the end, the assassins were seriously injured due to the magical traps and had to retreat.

After that, Marcus was forced to increase the mansion's defenses. Of course, it was not too difficult for him to deduce who had been responsible for that incident.

"What did you do with my men and my merchandise?!!!" Makroft asked in an irate tone.

"Your merchandise? Oh, you mean the people you kidnapped. Don't worry I didn't touch them, but they surely must have escaped shortly after I brought you here. As for your subordinates... Well, I think you already know the answer."

"You... What do you want?" After Marcus said those words, Makroft forced himself to calm down and think things through clearly. First, he had to know why he had been kidnapped and if Marcus was alone or was there someone else with him.

"Straight to the point, right? I thought you'd ask me things like, how I knew about the warehouse, about the slaves, where we are, or just demand that I free you, that you'd scream for help or something."

"Hmph. And what good would that do? You blocked my ability to use magic and I'm chained to this damn armchair. So why don't we get straight to the point and get this sh*t over with."

"Hum. You know Mr. Makroft, I thought you were just a greedy, sadistic, cowardly old man and a complete son of a bitch. But I have to admit, I had the wrong idea about you. It turns out that you are capable of thinking like a normal person after all."

Marcus put the hand lantern down on the floor, walked to one end of the basement, picked up a chair, placed it in front of the old man, and sat down.

"That makes things a lot easier. Now, I want you to tell me everything you know about the Black Lions and their business dealings with the Church of the Deadly Plagues."

"The Church of the Deadly Plagues? I have no idea what you're talking about." Makroft's expression did not change one bit as he said these words. His expression was utterly calm and composed, without a hint of hesitation.

"Although while I did trade a couple of times with the Black Lions I have no recollection of having had business dealings with the dark cults."

"Oh. So you don't have any recollection about it, do you?" As he said that, Marcus reached into his clothes, opened his [Storage], took out an object, and showed it to Makroft. " Maybe this will jog your memory."

The object in Marcus' hand was a circular bronze plate. This had multiple symbols engraved on it along with the image of a creature that had the body of a snake, the wings of a dragonfly, and the head of a spider.

"That's it..!" The moment Makroft saw the bronze plaque, the calmness disappeared from his face and was replaced by a bewildered expression. "How do you have that?!" The old man asked in exaltation.

The bronze plaque Marcus held in his hand was an identification token used by the high members of the Church of the Deadly Plagues. Each one was different and served to show the rank and identity of every member of the church. In addition, each token was created in such a way that it could not be falsified or copied, so each token was unique.

"Come on, isn't it obvious? Why do you think the monsters retreated from the city even though Aylinor was so close to accomplishing his goal? But, from your reaction, it seems that you were related to him after all. Now..." Marcus put the bronze token back into his [Storage] and leaned forward. "Are you going to talk or not?"

"Hmph. And why should I do that? So you can kill me when I'm no longer useful to you?" said Makroft mockingly.

"If you tell me what I want to know, you won't die by my hand Makroft. I promise."

When Marcus said those words, Makroft changed his expression and doubt appeared on his face. But just at that instant...

*Puit*

The old man opened his mouth and spat on Marcus' mask.

"Kukuku... I don't believe you a sh*t. And I don't plan on telling you sh*t." said Makroft with a smirk on his face.

Marcus wiped the old man's saliva off his mask, got up from his seat, stood next to Makroft, and took his right hand.

"All right Makroft. The way I see it, you have only two choices. You tell me what I want to know or..."

*Snap*

"AAAAAAAAAh!"The old wizard screamed as Marcus fractured his little finger. Soon tears of pain began to gather in the old man's eyes.

"So, are you going to talk or not? What do you know about the Black Lions?"

"F**K OFF!!!"

*Snap*

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"KUUAAAAAAArh!!! MOTHERF**KER!!!"

"Okay, how about another question? What's one thousand minus seven? Ha, I always wanted to say that." Marcus said. To his surprise, he was enjoying this more than he thought he would.

" F**K YOU!!!"

*Snap*

"AAAAARGh!"

****

[Ten minutes later]

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Marcus said as he swayed in his chair and looked at the old man's bloodied and swollen face.

Despite resisting and all the insults he said, Makroft could only endure a few broken fingers and bruises before giving up and telling Marcus everything he knew about the Black Lions.

The Black Lions were a gang that had established their base of operations in the city only a couple of years ago. However, the gang grew quickly and in a short time took control of the city's underworld and expanded its influence to two other neighboring cities.

The Black Lions were also part of a larger organization known as the Continental Brotherhood. This organization was an alliance between the various criminal groups that controlled all the underworld businesses on the Austra continent.

However, the continental Brotherhood was only a business alliance between criminals, so internal feuds and wars occurred quite often. Even so, the Brotherhood had enough power to oppose the major kingdoms and clans of the continent.

"So, what was the business between the Black Lions and Aylinor?"

"I... I'm not too sure about that. I was just a middleman. But, it had something to do with the siege of the city. The agreement was that the Black lions would provide information about the structure of the city among other things and in return the priest would pay them with chimera potions."

"Chimera potions?"

In Genaerrsis, alchemy was the art of creating potions and elixirs by using different ingredients such as monster parts, plants, and minerals and processing them through the use of magic.

These potions were mainly divided into three types: Temporary effect potions, Immediate effect potions, and Permanent effect options.

Temporary effect potions were those whose effects only worked for a limited amount of time. Examples of these would be potions to increase physical strength, potions to increase speed, enhance senses, increase regenerative ability, etc...

On the other hand, potions and elixirs of immediate effect did not have a time limit since once consumed their effects disappeared in a matter of seconds. Among the potions of immediate effect were mana recovery potions, healing potions, nullifying potions, among others.

Finally, Permanent effect potions were those that altered a person's body. These potions could be used to increase a person's physical abilities or cultivation level exponentially.

Although within the Permanent effect potions some could alter a person's DNA. These types of potions were known as Mutagenic potions.

Chimera potions were a type of Mutagenic potion that endowed the person who consumed it with characteristics of other beings such as animals or even monsters.

"Why would the Black Lions do all this for potions?"

"I have no idea! The leader of the Black Lions is an ambitious guy. Maybe he's planning to create an army to expand and take over other continental Brotherhood gangs, I don't know, I swear!"

For a moment, Marcus began to think that what Makroft said made sense.

Chimera potions were seen as a product of forbidden alchemy by the churches that worshiped the gods of creation, so no one would dare use them unless they were affiliated with the dark sects and cults.

The risks of consuming the potion were no joking matter. In the worst-case scenario if the individual could not withstand the changes to their body then they would die.

However, if a person's body was able to successfully assimilate the option then they might be able to acquire enormous power even without being a wizard or an aura user.

Also, the success rate of assimilation was not too low, so if one thought about it, using the potion was much more feasible than trying to recruit wizards and aura users which were scarce in this part of the continent. All things considered, the benefits of creating an army of chimera soldiers far outweighed the risks.

"What you say makes a bit of sense... Very well, thank you for the information. I'll take what you told me into consideration." Marcus got up from his seat and started walking towards the basement door.

"W-Wait! You can't leave me here! You said you'd release me if I told you what you wanted!" Makroft shouted in fright.

Hearing the old man's cries Marcus stopped just at the foot of the basement stairs.

"I think you are misunderstanding something Mr. Makroft. I said you would not die by my hand and I intend to keep my word. But I never said I would release you. After all, I can't risk you revealing information about me. Goodbye Mr. Makroft."

"Edevane. Edevane! Come back here and untie me! I told you what you wanted, now release me!! You son of a bitch!!"

Ignoring the old wizard's shouts of pleading and insults, Marcus climbed the stairs and opened the basement door. As he opened it, he looked at the girl standing in the corner of the square room that connected to the basement.

The girl was wearing tattered clothes that were covered with dirt and blood. Her body was full of bruises and her skin was completely green.

'It's all yours.' The moment he said those words, the zombie walked towards the basement entrance and went down the stairs at the same time Marcus locked the door.

....

{The user has killed an [Apprentice Wizard] for the first time. 500 additional experience points will be awarded}

....

{You have earned 5,004 xp}

....

{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] applauds your actions with a smile on his face}

....

Marcus ignored the screams coming from the basement as he walked through the corridors of the mansion and the system messages that came in shortly after he entered the library.

Marcus walked through the library and stopped right in front of the central table which was occupied by all sorts of papers and books, among them some city plans, spell scrolls he had created during the day, and a huge map showing the six continents of the world.

'Now, where should I go once I'm done here.'

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