Chapter 18

  I took a position against a section of wall that was hidden partially in shadow so I wouldn’t be easily seen by the people gathered in the bar area of the Guild. Adam then utilized a new aspect of his Sound Wave spell he had invented.

  Over the last couple of weeks, whenever I took the time to visit the Record’s Hall, Adam always insisted on me pulling any books that pertained to runes and how to interpret them off the shelves. I eventually lost track of how many leather tomes I had pulled off the shelves for him to scan with his Scholar’s Eye skill.

  However, Adam said that all that research had borne great results. Thanks to his new understanding of the structure of runes his Spell Manipulation skill could be fully utilized. Adam explained that, with enough time, he could now rewrite some of the runes of his memorized spell diagrams and change the function of the spells.

  It was never an all-out conversion as the spell still had to adhere to its core principle, but Adam could change the other parts of the spell. As was the case for his Sound Wave spell.

  Adam had changed the spell diagram from sending out a blast of sound, to a subtle wave that allowed me to eavesdrop on the conversations around me.

  Adam and I had tested the spell modification out in the market square and had learned that it was great for gathering intelligence without anyone being the wiser. Accordingly, that is what I was doing now, but my intention this time around was to find a conversation whose subject matter was ‘illegal’ in nature.

  It took a minute for me to overhear a conversation whose subject matter matched these criteria, as the Guild was not the place where one would go to discuss illegal matters, but eventually I overheard a conversation that piqued my interest.

  “Are the goods still on schedule to be moved to the other warehouse?” A voice said in a low tone. “Yes… Musk is employing ever trick he can think of to distract the City Watch soldiers, so they don’t notice when the rest of the crew begin moving the goods to the new warehouse.” A second voice said in a similarly low tone.

  The second voice then continued to say, “After that it will be relatively easy for the goods to be loaded onto wagons and transported out of Night Glen for further sale.” This conversation was exactly what I was looking for and so I slowly started to make my way over to the table where these voices originated from.

  As I approached the table, I found two men sitting at it. One was wearing leather armor typical of most adventurers with a spear lying next to him as it leaned against the table. His face was covered in scars and dirt showing that he was no stranger to combat and his expression was one of a person you did not want to cross carelessly.

  His associate was a stick skinny man that wore a simple outfit of trousers, a shirt, and a jerkin. He showed no signs that he had ever been in combat with zero visible scars and clothes that looked all too clean. The only defining feature about his appearance, was his face that looked like a weasel. They say not to judge by appearances, but his face screamed of someone whose existence revolved around performing shady deals.

  As I approached the table, both men noticed my presence and immediately showed their displeasure upon their faces. “What do you want?” The scarred man said in a voice that implied ‘get lost.’ In response, I slowly pulled out the third chair at the table and calmly sat down before answering.

  “Nothing much, just hoping for a little information about who I would need to talk to about locating the underground side of the Township.” This instantly caused the heckles on both men to rise and the skinny man carefully uncovered a dagger from his waist and hid it under the table as he pointed it at me.

  “That is none of your business. I suggest you turn around and leave before you find this ‘underground’ through death.” The skinny man said in an even and angry tone of voice.

  As the skinny man was threatening me, I slowly raised both of my hands to show I was not armed before replying. “I am not with the City Watch or any other form of government. I just have some business to take care of that is, shall we say, less than reputable.”

  My words did not change the demeanor of the two men; it just seemed to make them even more tense. As a result, I slowly reached into my cloak and pulled out a pouch of coins and said, “I am willing to pay for the information I’m looking for.”

  At the sight of the pouch of coins both men seemed to relax just a little and asked, “Just how much is that sensitive information worth to you?” To answer that question, I pulled out four silver coins from the pouch and placed two in front of each of them.

  Both men showed no outward reaction to the coins so I, reluctantly, pulled out another four silver coins and placed them on the table in a similar fashion. This finally got the attention of the two men as they swiped the coins from the table and made them disappear into their clothing.

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  The weasel faced man then spoke in a low whisper, “What you want to do is go to the slums and seek out a pub called the ‘Whisper Wind.’ Go to the bar and ask for a ‘Midnight Hammer’ and pay the one gold price. After that you will be led to the ‘underground’ that you seek.”

  Satisfied that I got the information I was looking for I thanked the gentlemen for their time and made my way to exit the Guild. As I was leaving Adam reengaged his Sound Wave spell and focused it on the two men.

  “You really are a piece of work.” From the tone of voice, I could tell it was the scarred man who had spoken. “Eh… just one less snooping idiot to muddy the waters. Wait till that ignorant goblin licker finds out that a Midnight Hammer is code for ‘I am snooping, so take me behind the bar and dispose of me’.” The weasel faced man’s voice replied.

  In response to his words, the weasel faced man gave a short laugh under his breath. The other man ignored the laugh and said, “You damn well know the actual code is to order a Midnight Prowler from the bar.” “I know… but now that idiot is going to be out eight silvers and one gold. I’d say that is price enough to learn not to go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  After saying that, the spell was dismissed as there was nothing else to gleam from their conversation. Adam and I were right not to trust the sort we were looking to make contact with. They would take any opportunity to double-cross anyone they found who they could take advantage of.

  But now, I had the actual information of how to get in contact with the criminal underground of the Township. Tonight was going to very interesting.

  Once I got home, after taking off and stowing my disguise away, I went through the rest of the day as normally as I could. I helped mother in the shop, had a little after dinner practice bout with father and then retired to my room after taking a bath.

  I waited for a good hour until I went about checking to make sure all the lights in the house were snuffed out. After that was confirmed, I made my way out of my room, through my window, and off into the forest to retrieve my disguise and stash of coins.

  I highly doubted that I would be able to pay for what I was looking for in my first visit, but I wanted to be prepared in case a bribe was viewed as an ‘entrance fee’ to get me closer to my end goal.

  With my disguise properly affixed to my person, I then began to make my way through the Township keeping to the alleys and shadows as much as possible as I made my way to the slums.

  A few dubious individuals gave me opportunistic looks, but a quick flash of my sword and a scary look from my masked face got them to back off and retreat to the slimy pit from whence they came. It took a little over thirty minutes to reach the slums, but once I got there, I could definitely say I was not excited to be here.

  The cobblestone streets were covered in grim and fluids that I didn’t want to even know what they were. The stench in the air was putrid and smelled like someone had defecated on rotten refuse, thrown a week-old body on it, and then lit in on fire. It was amazing that I did not throw up inside my mask from the stench.

  I had never been to the slums before, and my first impression was not leading me to want to ever come back.

  As I made my way through the dirty streets, I started noticing that several lights were still burning within the buildings. It did not take me long to figure out why when I passed several promiscuous women standing outside the buildings giving bedroom eyes to any individual that happened to be passing by.

  I ignored these salacious advances and hurriedly made my way past them. Forcing the women to adopt disgruntled looks for being turned down without even having the chance to strike up a conversation with me.

  On top of the services being offered, I also noticed several dark shadows in the alleyways just waiting for the chance to rob an unsuspecting individual. To oppose against these shadows, there were several smiling small children running around and bumping into other individuals that were walking by.

  A flashing glint from one such interaction was enough to tell me what these kids were doing. I can understand things being tough in this part of the Township, especially for the children. But the question I found myself asking was whether these children were doing it for their families to help them survive. Or were they doing it at the behest of an adult criminal who took a good portion, if not all of what the children had nicked for themselves.

  As I was contemplating this, I noticed one such group of children try and make their way towards me. I deftly dodged their advances in attempting to pickpocket me causing them to frown with small puffed out cheeks.

  If it was not for what the children were doing and the fact that they were covered in dirt and grime, the response would have been somewhat cute. Feeling a little bad for them I gave them each a copper and sent them off and away towards their next target.

  Afterwards, I continued to scour the slums for the pub I was looking for. I did not feel like asking for directions in this part of Night Glen as, based on my previous interaction with less savory individuals, that could lead me to being ambushed by a group of thugs.

  I could also, inadvertently, ask an individual who was a lookout for the criminal underground and alert them to my unwanted presence. Thereby, forcing them to shut down before I even made contact with underground. That just left me wandering aimlessly looking for my intended destination.

  It took another twenty minutes before I was able to locate the “Whisper Wind Pub” and once I did, I was not impressed. The pub in question was two stories tall and built like all the other buildings in the Township, but with a wooden sign featuring a cloud and a frothing tankard hanging off the building announcing what the establishment was.

  Furthermore, lights could be seen shining through windows that were caked in a layer of grim that was so black it almost blocked the light from within. There was garbage piled out front of the pub that added another layer to the nauseating smell that already permeated the air of the slums. Lastly, there were several tough looking men stationed outside the pub watching all the people coming and going in the area.

  The atmosphere screamed uninviting, but that didn’t stop a few individuals from making their way towards the pub and entering its doors. Steeling myself for what was sure to be a confrontation I made my way over towards the pub.

  The men standing outside gave me a distasteful look as I began to approach the stairs to the pub entrance but did nothing more as I walked into the establishment.