Chapter 257: Under a Dead Monster

’Well… this is not good.’

After continuing to follow the compass, they walked through the city, getting to its center… that was when the arrow pointing to the shard moved; it was telling them to go back, but when they did, it moved again to how it had been at first.

Which meant they had reached their locations… so in the end it had been in the city.

But the thing was… that there was nothing here, they were on the street, no building, no stall, not even a pole was in the location the shard was supposed to be.

Which was confusing…

Had the compass broken? But why? Kael would have probably noticed if something was wrong with it. So it was confusing.

There was, of course, the theory that it was under the ground… which was the worst outcome of all. Since he had no idea what he was going to do to get down, after all, he couldn’t dig down.

Not only would he not be able to do so, but it was also illegal, and they would get kicked out if they did.

“So what do we do now?” Kade asked, scratching the top of his head.

Aether stared at the compass, squinting his eyes, noticing something strange… they weren’t moving, but the compass was… slightly, but it was, which wouldn’t be possible.

’It’s not like it has feet or something.’

Which probably meant that someone had gotten here before them. And if this was the case, it was bad, since it meant that there were others looking for the shards, and there was a chance that this wasn’t the first one they had found.

But he felt a very bad weakness in this theory, in that Kael had said that these things were very hard to find. They were so hard that he had to give him a compass to find them.

…

But if it wasn’t a human… then what?

’A monster…’

The only answer he could think of was that there was some sort of monster living inside this city, and he was the one who held this shard.

But would there really be one without anyone noticing… or maybe they did know about it… and were just acting as if they didn’t.

And, truly, he could see why there would be something under.

After all… dead monsters are free food. And while the part that is outside the grown seems to have all been eaten out, the one on the inside could still have a lot more to go. The ribs went into the ground, meaning most of its chest is buried inside.

’Damn it.’ He bit his nail.

This was not the situation he expected to be in; after all, he now needed to find a way to get underground and to fight whatever monster was living inside.

If the former was going to be hard, the latter was insanely dangerous, after all, the last monster he had fought, which also came from the ground, was that giant worm that almost killed him without even hitting him itself. He was only alive because it had gotten bored with him; it considered him not to be worthy of eating.

’I guess it’s a good thing I said I’ll train Kade… even if the boy can’t get that strong, it will be nice having another person with me.’

Aether looked back at Kade, finally answering his question.

“First, we’ll sell what we got from the bandits.”

He nodded, but gave him a smug look. “And do you know where we can sell them, and more importantly, how to get there?”

…

“I have my ways.”

Shadow Speech, the one and only ability he had… well, he had to, but he hasn’t really used his mask in a while; it hasn’t been needed, and neither was it that much of an ability; it was more like a relic than anything.

Though it had taken a lot more than he had expected… and maybe it would have actually been better to try and find it without the ability… it was embarrassing, but he really couldn’t tell when a shadow was lying or not.

Recently, he had gotten better at it, since he started to understand what a Lost was, he knew they acted like their masters… but that was why he couldn’t figure them out now, not just the shadows, everyone in this place was weird.

They seemed happy and lively, yet they didn’t have a light in their eyes.

And when he saw someone who did, he looked sad, depressed even.

He couldn’t figure out what was going on in the head of the Lost, which was why they had been walking through the city for hours. But at least he knows he could say that he had seen all of the city.

It was also very eerie walking through this place.

But in the end, they made it.

He could have sold to the merchants, after all, they had passed many stalls, but he didn’t trust them to give them the full value for their stuff, so he wanted to at least sell them to a bigger stall. Which was what he was going to do now.

This stall, well, stall was a bit of an understatement, since it had already gotten to the size and level of a small shop, was known, and this came from the shadows, as one of the best shops in town, and one that accepted everyone, since some didn’t accept travelers.

As they entered the door, a small bell went off behind them. Inside, there was an old man standing behind the counter. He looked to be bored, which made him wonder if what the shadows had told him was true, since if this place was so good, there must be too many customers to be bored.

On the walls, he noticed many things.

Ranging from long blades, daggers, shields, armor, spears, and many others stuff made for fighting, but also musical stuff and many other weird stuff, like a goat’s head.

’…Ew.’

Aether walked to the counter, grabbing the four knives he had stolen from the bandits. If he had a backpack, he would have also gotten their clothes and stuff, but he didn’t. And it wasn’t like getting them without one was possible, after all, if he had to fight that damn worm while trying to carry them, he would have probably died.

The man’s eyes widened as he saw them.

“Where did you even get these from… bandits?” He grabbed one to inspect it. “I don’t blame you for killing them, after all, I know how annoying they are, plus, they must have tried to rob you.” He put it back down. “I never killed a human in my life, so I wanted to know how you felt.”

Aether didn’t respond, just looking at the man. “How much?”

The man sighed. “You just ignored my question, but I guess it’s fine. I’ll give you fifty embers for that, to motivate you, since these are definitely not worth that much.”

Aether’s jaw fell to the ground in confusion.

He stared at the man, bewildered, before he deeply frowned.

“What do you mean by fifty? It’s four whole daggers, and it’s not like they are in bad condition. I think they are worth more than that.”

The man chuckled.

“You’re right, you think that. I don’t.”

Aether grabbed the knives. “Fine, I’ll just find someone else who will give me the right price.

The man raised his arms. “Do what you want, but let me tell you that if you come back, I’ll only buy them for forty, since you wasted my time.”

Aether nodded, clearly angry, but before he could leave, Kade stopped him.

“I think it’s a good idea to just take the fifty. It is going to take a while to find another one of these small stores that would buy from us. We could try the stalls, but I doubt they would buy them for more. And so we would lose ten whole embers in the process.”

Aether gritted his teeth as his grip on the knives intensified. He knew that they were probably worth more; the material they were made out of didn’t look that bad, and they weren’t damaged. That was why he didn’t want to sell them for that much, but at the same time, Kade did bring a good point.

They spent hours getting here, to find another that would buy from them, just to give around five more embers, or more, seemed more like a risk, that most of the time wouldn’t be worth it, and even in the best case scenario, it wouldn’t be that good.

Plus, with the knight coming, they were in desperate need of getting some money, that is, if they didn’t want to sleep on the street. They had their sleeping bags, but that didn’t protect them from others.

Aether sighed, putting back the knives on the counter.

“Fine, I’ll take your stupid fifty embers.”

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