Chapter 498

“Uh, so what the hell was that?” Skoe was the first to ask, giving voice to what the rest of them wanted to know with Thera also casting her eyes to Ben, more than willing to trust him at the time but wanting an explanation now given that she’d just very publicly committed a crime.

“Nobody worry, Myriad’s aware of what happened but long story short that guy has someone chained up in his basement to turn into potions. Given that that’s, you know, bad, I just stepped in to stop it.”

Both Thera and Sachel’s eyes took a much harder look upon hearing that, with the first having to be justifiably worried about that sort of thing growing up thanks to her unique spirit heritage while the second was well aware of her own race’s history of being hunted, making that more than enough explanation for most of them, even if that only created more questions for the others.

“How could you possibly know that?” Ralia asked, giving him a confused look.

“In case you forgot, I have this handy dandy mind-reading skill as a perk for believing in Myriad. I’d personally recommend it if you feel like converting.”

“Don’t you need to touch someone to use that?”

Ah, yeah, guess I have been at least a little successful keeping that a secret in town. At least until now, that is.

“I awakened it and increased the range,” He admitted with a shrug. “Do me a favour and keep that to yourself.”

“Wait, so you just casually read people’s minds?” Skoe recoiled, getting a blank stare in return.

“Yeah, it’s part of my skill so I need to practice and as long as I’m just doing it to passing strangers then it typically doesn’t matter. People usually aren’t thinking anything interesting enough for it to matter if some guy knows what’s going on in their heads. Would you rather I didn’t and some guy got turned into juice?”

“That’s not the point.”

“I know it’s not, but it’s too handy of a skill to not try and raise and if I find out you’re going to spread this around Stonewall and cost me any business then we really will be having problems,” Ben spoke firmly, making the implied threat clear as the other backed down.

And that’s an issue squashed before it could become a problem too. Okay, think that’s all set.

“Anyway, that’s done now so can we hurry up and get on our way?” He asked them, forcefully changing the subject. “We don’t want to be late, do we?”

He didn’t give them time to answer, instead moving to lead the way and forcing the rest to follow as he went on, heading to the giant colosseum at the heart of the city.

It was crowded when they got there, unsurprising given what was happening, but what was more shocking was both the number of people he recognized as well as the amount who recognized him in return as eyes turned his way and small whispers went up, with the size of the crowd making even more sense as something clicked. It was full of people he’d helped awaken.

After the first wave, he’d directly helped raise the level of over a thousand mages and of them, not all of them were directly tied to a nation that was saddled with an invasion point, meaning there were plenty in the world who needed to find the place they’d be of most use for what was to come.

He thought there were around a hundred in the crowd he recognized from his work, speaking of just how many were already tied down to a place, and it was as he was looking around he was able to see how they were to learn where they were being sent.

“So I guess we’re just searching signs for our names, huh?” Ben muttered, seeing the roughly one hundred and seventy signs around the coliseum, each with a collection of names listed under them. Not the fanciest of methods, but probably the easiest to let them group up quickly as the six of them went around, looking at signs until their names came up.

“I think something’s wrong here,” Ralia muttered through narrowed eyes. “Why’ve we been split?”

She was referring to her party specifically given they’d found their names first, or at least two of them with both her and Skoe at one location while Sachel’s was nowhere to be seen and Ben couldn’t deny it was weird. The three of them were registered as an official party through the guild, there was no good reason they should have been split up. Especially not when the missing person was the one who was a major factor in elevating them to a rank three party.

It was obvious the two of them weren’t happy with seeing that either, even as Sachel tried to calm them down.

“It’s fine guys, I’ll find where I’m supposed to be and ask about what happened. It’s probably just a mistake.”

“Mmh, fine, but if they don’t give us a decent explanation we’re leaving to decide which point to offer our services to ourselves,” Ralia told her firmly, getting the agreement she wanted as the rest went on their way, even as the Oracle kept looking back at the two who were now waiting a different group until they came across the next set of names.

This time it was Thera who spoke, giving her own reaction to what she saw.

“We’re leaving.”

They’d found Sachel’s name at last, along with one other, Ben’s.

They’d expected they might be separated from Sonya, since she and Thera were both awakened life mages it couldn’t be denied that it would make sense for them to be at different gates where they might do the most good, but there was no reason for her and Ben to be split. They were still registered as being part of the same party and given that he only had two of his awakened skills recorded with the guild there was no way anyone had looked at his awakened crafting and enchanting and decided he’d be able to manage on his own.

Seeing it gave him the same gut instinct too, but the fact it happened to both himself and Sachel left him wanting answers.

“We will leave but first I want to figure out why they tried to split us. Go find your place and after I talk to the guy in charge here I’ll come find you.”

She looked uncertain but did as he’d asked, both her and Sonya heading off while he and Sachel stayed.

“Well, let’s get to the bottom of this, shall we?”

He started pushing his way through the crowd, Sachel close behind him with the two only stopping when Ben heard something. A small voice calling a familiar nickname.

“Legs, is that you?”

In the hands of an exceptionally well-dressed man sat a ruby crab Ben knew all too well after spending perhaps the worst months of his life trapped with him, but despite the past experience a grin still formed on his face at the sight of Greed again after so long.

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