Ray hurried back to his hotel. They were already after him? So soon? Didn’t they have a bunch of other competitors to go through first?

  Honestly, Ray suspected foul play. Stupid Floor Lord was probably behind this. He wouldn’t be surprised if he found some of the Sylvans from the hit squad accompanying whatever group had come to “interrogate” him.

  Gritty confirmed his suspicions.

  Ray: Do any of the Sylvans have fencing swords? Or bows?

  Gritty: What? Yeah, there’s a couple with thin swords that look like fencing swords.

  It might have seemed like a small match, but Ray figured he was right. He smiled. This was actually good. This might just help with the next step of his plan.

  Ray reached the hotel before long. The proprietor was outside again, looking even more worried than he had when all the tournament competitors had come in. His shoulders visibly sagged in relief when Ray finally appeared before him.

  “Thank goodness you’ve come,” he said. “They have been waiting for you for so long, I was in fear that they would begin destroying the new receptionist’s desk I purchased.”

  “Aren’t they Sylvans?” Ray said as he followed the guy into the hotel. “Not ruffians?”

  Before Ray could get a reply, he came face to face with the gaggle of investigators waiting for him. They all turned to face him as one. Ray paused, trying not to betray any reactions on his face. Oh, yes. Just as he had suspected.

  The assholes who had attacked him at the Tier 35 dungeon were present here too.

  “Ah, you finally decide to show,” said the first Sylvan. He was the one who had assaulted Ray first a few days ago too, the one who had ridden in on the weird cloud. The fencing sword he had brandished was at his hip, the sharp point glinting. “And I was starting to believe you may have gotten scared, decided to not to appear before us, and… escaped.”

  Gritty walked around the Sylvans with a scowl, coming to a stop next to Ray and facing the Sylvans. The tension coming off her was palpable, almost like a physical force. It was surprising the Sylvans weren’t arming themselves at how deadly Gritty’s look was.

  Ray nodded at her, then raised an eyebrow at the Sylvan elader. “If I was trying to escape, would I really come back to Auction Island at all?”

  None of the Sylvans seemed fazed by the line of logic. Instead, they just pressed in closer.

  For just a second, Ray wondered if he really should have… escaped as they said. But he had nothing to be afraid of here. He’d live. For one thing, the Sylvans wouldn’t dare attack him without any incontrovertible evidence.

  For another, Ray was immune to damage for the time being. From them, at least.

  “Well, you are here now, so credit to you,” the Sylvan leader continued saying. Ray ignored his blathering to check out the others. He recognized a few others from the Floor Lord’s hit-squad. There were a couple of newer Sylvans among them as well. “…chief suspect. You were the last one in the dungeon, after all.”

  Ray snapped his eyes back to the Sylvan leader. “Sorry, what was that?”

  “You are the primary suspect about the disappearance of our other primary suspect, Peirce Holloway. As such, we will determine whether you—”

  “That’s great! Let’s go.”

  The Sylvan froze. Ray would have loved to frame the look of confusion on his face. “What?”

  “You want to take me to some cell or something to investigate? Why are we wasting time?” He clapped his hands. “Chop-chop. Time’s a wastin’. Let’s go.”

  The Sylvans were immediately suspicious. Not only was Ray acquiescing to their ridiculous demand, he was also taking away their fun. He was supposed to be resisting. They were supposed to enjoy taking revenge for what had happened on the dungeon island, force Ray to submit to their demands and drag him bloodily to… wherever the prison was.

  Ray couldn’t give a shit. Especially because he wasn’t even being hauled off. Not really. It was just his mimic going along with the Sylvans. He had made sure to equip it with a copy of the Amulet of Blindness to make sure the Sylvans thought it was him in truth.

  The real Ray was watching everything through the Imitator construct’s eyes from elsewhere, safely ensconced away.

  Fortunately, the Sylvans couldn’t create a scene here. Better yet, they had no counter to Ray’s offer to cooperate. He was honestly loving putting them on an unsure footing.

  “It would appear you have learned your lesson,” the Sylvan leader said, his tone leaving no doubt that he had been the one to deliver said lesson. “Good. We can conduct this investigation without any difficulty.”

  “I would never want to be difficult,” Ray said. If only he’d had a halo to suspend over his head.

  With nothing further to discuss, the Sylvans led mimic Ray away. He made sure to offer Gritty a reassuring look before he left. This was all part of the plan. Everything would be just fine.

  The real Ray followed after a while, staying close enough to be able to teleport in if needed, and also to keep the Imitator construct within the radius of effect of Resurrect Recollect.

  It was honestly curious how the Sylvans just huddled him towards the Tower Lord’s residence. The towering structure built of pearly-white stone and shining windows looked like some imaginative combination of a skyscraper and a palace. Was this what real Sylvan architecture looked like? So far, Ray had only seen them appropriate and use the local ruins and buildings.

  The whole way there, even through his mimic form, Ray had felt the brooding threat of violence from his Sylvan captors. Surprising they didn’t act on it.

  Inside the palace, Ray only got to appreciate the wide interior hall before he was dragged downstairs. Everything was a lot danker underground. Dark and functional. There was no ostentatiousness here. This was all business.

  It wasn’t long before Ray was shuttered in a cell and not long afterwards, a Sylvan came in to interrogate him. He had to give it to them. They were at least prompt about the whole thing.

  “You are—”

  It was the same Sylvan who had brought him to the palace. Probably hoping to get to torture him for information or something. Ray cut him off.

  “I don’t know where Pierce is,” he said.

  The Sylvan tilted his head. “You answered the question that I didn’t even ask. How curious.”

  “There’s nothing curious. You’ve been telling us through the announcements that you’re looking for the person who caused the dungeon to collapse. Let’s not kid ourselves. Everyone saw through the broadcasts how Pierce destroyed the Tower Node, which kickstarted the collapse of the Tier 35 dungeon. We all know who’s really at fault. At least, if you know about the Tower Nodes.”

  The Sylvan scowled, not appreciating that Ray was once again cutting off his fun. “What are you here for, then?”

  “To tell you that you owe me. Or, you will owe me.”

  “What?”

  “Could you kindly call down your Tower Lord?”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The Sylvan stared at him for a while, his eyes narrowing fast. “Who are you to make such outrageous demands?”

  “I am—”

  “You are a mongrel who is here to answer my questions.” It was pretty clear the Sylvan took vicious, petty pleasure in cutting Ray off. “Now. Tell me what you know about your fellow human. He destroyed the Tower Node. That is evident. But why? What reason does he have for doing so?”

  Ray shrugged. “I don’t really know. Some sort of trauma from his Tower. He’s not from this one, so I’ve only seen him when I’m competing against him. He just really hates Tower Nodes.”

  “The Tower Node that was destroyed. Which one was it?”

  “I don’t know. I never got the time to look at it properly.”

  “Why were you trying to stop the destruction of the Tower Node?”

  “I mean, I didn’t want to the dungeon to break apart. You think I wanted to get trapped in a Tier 35 dungeon?”

  “Liar.” The Sylvan leaned, looking like he was seconds away from raising his hands and strangling Ray with them. “We have the broadcasts of the whole dungeon, as you yourself said. We saw you use your Tower Nodes. We saw you surrendering yours to him.”

  “What’s that got to do anything?”

  “Are you trying to ignore the implication that you wanted to take the dungeon’s Tower Node for yourself? Wasn’t that the real reason you were fighting Pierce Holloway?”

  “No.”

  “Liar.”

  “We can do this all day, Sylvan. You saying something, me saying something else. Is there a point to it?”

  The Sylvan grew even angrier. Ray was starting to lose his interest in the conversation. While the mimic Ray continued fielding the Sylvan’s stupidity, the real Ray forced the real issue he was here for.

  He created another construct. This one was much subtler, just a flying eyeball that he coated with Mimic Mana to make sure it was well hidden. Then he sent it around the palace to find his real target—the Tower Lord.

  Ray himself was outside the towering palace. As such, anything he created would need to work its way within from the exterior. He was pretty sure his construct would encounter some sort of defence or barrier, but he would navigate that when he came to it. For now, he was having a little fun watching the Sylvan interrogated get more and more frustrated.

  Although, the fun ended when the Floor Lord appeared. It might have been easy to fool a simple Sylvan. It was a whole other venture against the Floor Lord.

  “Kill him,” the Floor Lord said after taking one look at the Imitator construct.

  The Sylvan looked at his superior in surprise. “But, my lord—”

  “This one isn’t even real, you fool. You were taken in by him. He’s toying with you.” The Tower Lord shook his head. “I should have known this would happen…”

  The junior Sylvan turned to the fake Ray with a glare, his face contorting with anger. “You dare?”

  Ray would have tried to have more fun by making the construct rebel. Even if it was a mimic, even if it was just a fake version of him, he would never wish to go down without a fight.

  Unfortunately, the shackles blocked his access to Mana entirely. He really needed to get in touch with Gritty and figure out what she had done on the First Floor to get rid of them. There had been something about blood… but there was always something about blood with her.

  With the construct unable to respond, Ray lost his view of the interior of the palace a second later. The Sylvans had killed the construct. Annoying.

  But things got pressing. Ray had no idea how the Floor Lord had sussed out that they had captured a fake. Did he have some kind of ability or skill that allowed him to dig deeper and see beyond the barricade propped up by the Amulet of Blindness? He was far stronger than the Sylvans beneath him, so that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

  It didn’t matter. Ray focused on his real goal.

  The flying eyeball needed time. Since the palace was huge, it couldn’t cover the entirety of the area it needed to search fast enough. Ray had it peering through windows, looking through locks, peeking through vanes. None of them revealed what he was looking for. He cursed.

  That was when the Sylvans emerged from the palace and started spreading out. Ray swore again. They were obviously looking for him. It was reasonable to assume Ray couldn’t control the Imitator from too great a distance, so they would seek to capture the real him. He sighed. Then used Mimic Mana to cloak himself.

  He had the real Amulet of Blindness, so it ought to protect him some. But then again, his would-be captors would know that. Which meant they had some kind of bypass.

  Ray decided to get moving. Summoning another invisible eyeball that he sent up to keep watch, he did his best to stay away from any Sylvan that got close. Except, somehow, that made the Sylvans rush towards his actual position. Ray swallowed and quickly moved away. How had they suddenly noticed him? As soon as he had called on the second flying—

  Oh. Ray froze for a second, before he got moving again, quickly getting out of the area as the Sylvans gathered. They were all armed, several with their skills already active and ready to fire.

  Thankfully, they didn’t spot him. Ray silently shushed his pounding heart and kept moving while minimizing the noise he made. He couldn’t use any more spells in the vicinity. Otherwise, the Sylvans would sense him. He still wasn’t sure how exactly they were doing so. It made things even more annoying.

  The real problem was that Ray wasn’t making much progress with his flying eyeball. But two things popped up in his head. Holding his breath for a second, he focused some Mana into the invisible Scouring Eyeball that he had sent scouting far overhead.

  Ray’s breaths came easy when there was no meaningful change from the Sylvans’ search. Alright. So they could sense when he used a spell, but not when just manipulated Mana itself. Huh.

  He kept moving. The more important part was that the flying eyeball could now see through into the towering palace without needing to actually infiltrate physically.

  Which was what finally led him to locating the Tower Lord.

  Unsurprisingly, the head Sylvan was near the very top of the palace. Even the Scouring Eyeball wasn’t at his level yet. Instead, Ray had to angle it upwards until it could spot a Mana signature, a deep purple presence thrumming like a little star.

  Ray had no tangible proof that was the Tower Lord, but the way it was slowly pacing to and fro gave it a distinct, living personality.

  The Sylvans were gathering close again. They hadn’t discovered his position again. No, the Sylvans were just getting closer because they were exhausting every other area through their search.

  Ray did his best not to take any panicked decisions and instead, focused his flying eyeball on getting as close as it could to the Tower Lord’s location.

  “There!” someone shouted.

  Shit. Had one of the assholes spotted him somehow? Ray looked down and saw that his weight was pressing down on the grass, leaving an impression that wouldn’t be missed by anyone looking specifically.

  A bolt of something shot straight for Ray. The Sylvan was wasting no time to get to him.

  Cursing, Ray used Temporal Passage. He had been waiting for the right opportunity, waiting for the eyeball to get into position. Couldn’t be helped now. The Sylvans and everything else disappeared as Ray found himself about a thousand feet into the air. Then he fell.

  Ray had figured something like that would happen. He cast Aetheric Trace, calling up Soaring Wings to control his descent so that he reached a nearby balcony.

  The landing left much to be desired, if Ray was being honest, but at least he wasn’t a splatter of squashed meat, bones, and blood far, far below. Wincing at how his waist hurt, Ray got to his feet and tried to open the door before him. Locked. Of course. He should have figured.

  Idly, Ray wondered if the Sylvans below knew he was up here. Would they start looking all over the palace? He couldn’t think of anything that would make them suspect he was still in their general vicinity, not in the palace itself, at least. Still. Best not to waste time.

  “For what possible reason could you have come all this way just for me?”

  Ray froze at the voice. Ah, so he had been found out after all. Through a small screen on the door leading out of the balcony, he saw the Tower Lord come to a stop at the end of the hall. The leader of the Sylvans wasn’t angry like the rest of his kind at Ray. He didn’t even look annoyed. Just slightly bemused.

  “I’m here to make a deal, Tower Lord,” Ray said.

  Ray wasn’t normally someone to heed his instincts. He would much rather evaluate a situation before coming to a decision. But right that moment, his instincts were screaming at him in a way that was really difficult to ignore. An instinct that implored him to get away, because the Tower Lord might not let him to do so.

  Standing his ground was like pushing back against the inexorable shove of a glacier, but Ray did so anyway.

  “A deal, is it?” the Tower Lord asked. “Go on then. You have my ear… at least, until the others find you.”

  Others. Fuck. So just because Ray had the Tower Lord’s ear didn’t mean he was safe from the gang of hunting Sylvans.

  “You’re stuck, Tower Lord,” Ray said, proud of how calm he sounded. “You’ve been trying to apprehend Pierce Holloway but he’s nowhere to be found. The problem is exacerbated because the longer you waste time trying to find Pierce, the more you’re pissing off the people who want the real show—the Immortalizer Tournament—to go on.”

  “And you are here to sell me a solution, is it?”

  “That’s right. I can’t hand Pierce over to you because I don’t know where he is either. But I can make it look like you and your Sylvans do.”

  The Tower Lord considered silently for a while. A part of Ray wondered if he was curious how Ray would accomplish helping the Sylvans, or if he had already guessed it. Most of Ray was just concerned about the rest of the Sylvans finding him.

  “So,” he said, swallowing down the urgency threatening to rise like bile. “What’s it going to be, Tower Lord? Don’t tell me you’re going to reject an easy way out of your predicament?”

  “And what would you have me do in return?” the Tower Lord asked. In the gloom of the hallway beyond the balcony door, his eyes glittered like rubies.

  “Nothing beyond what you’ve already done. What you’re supposed to be doing. Just keep the tournament going.”

  Another tilt of the Tower Lord’s head. “You don’t wish to resume the auction next? Get ahead of the other competitors?”

  “No, I’d like to skip it, actually.” Ray smiled. “Make one final auction. Give the other teams a chance to claim victory. Spice up your tournament and draw in a bigger crowd. It won’t be as much fun if the outcome is predetermined. We need some suspense up in here.”

  “You’re doing everything you can to make it irresistible for me, are you not?”

  Ray shrugged. “Now could you hurry up and agree? Your fellow Sylvans don’t look like they want me around for long.”

  “Hmm, well, we cannot have that, now can we?”

  The Tower Lord snapped his finger. The whole palace shook at that. Ray wondered if he was using some sort of skill.

  “Now.” The leader of the Sylvans smiled at Ray, revealing teeth that wouldn’t be amiss on a vampire. “Why don’t you get captured again, and this time, I will interrogate you?”