Sylver Seeker

He wasn’t certain if they did this on purpose, but none of the 4 men introduced themselves. But in their defense, Sylver didn’t care enough to ask.

The heir wore blue, so he would be, blue robe.

Purple robe was the leader, at least that was the feeling Sylver got, red was purple robe’s underling, and orange was the blue heir’s underling.

Purple robe was in the front, orange robe second, blue heir third, red robe fourth, and Sylver, Mora, and Ria were last. This close to the finish line there weren’t a whole lot of traps, the most recent one was a barrage of thick darts from the ceiling and walls, that purple robe deflected with his sword.

Which, in Sylver’s personal opinion, was idiotic, given that he could have literally just ducked, or better yet, moved, out of the way. He had the speed for it, and it wasn’t as if there was anything stopping him from jumping backward, or forward, and yet the man just stood there, waving his blade around, one fuckup away from a terrible injury.

Aside from a few idiotic traps, not much happened.

They weren’t interested in Sylver, and Sylver wasn’t interested in them. Mostly because he didn’t get the feeling they were going to live to see the end of this dungeon.

Not due to Sylver’s actions, he had no reason to kill them, even if they would ask awkward questions that Tarragon would have to answer.

Then again, Tarragon could just tell them to fuck off, Sylver hadn’t actually broken any rules. And even if he did, what were they going to do?

Try and attack Faust?

Attack Tarragon?

Actually, killing them just in case might not be such a bad idea…

Sylver glanced over at Ria, who was being aided by Mora so as not to make too much noise as she walked, and wondered if she would be comfortable with him ending the lives of 3 strangers “just to be safe.”

As long as Sylver made the blue heir’s death look like an accident, there wouldn’t be a problem. Getting the corpse would be a bit tricky since he would need time to purge the Ki inside the boy’s body, but even then, he would need what?

2 minutes? A bit more?

Surely, he could distract the group for that long.

He could even pretend to be healing the boy and then explain the corpse’s disappearance as a skill side effect.

No wait, I already told them I don’t have any healing skills…

I could have Ulvic steal the corpse away…

Have the wolf shade follow us at a safe distance, or better yet, have it steal both of us away, and then I can return with the sad news that the wolf managed to get away…

No, they would know it was my wolf once they return to the city and people tell them about the wolf shade, they saw me riding on…

So, shades are out, what do I have left?

Sylver looked through the perks he had available for getting [Swamp Lord] past level 50 and sadly couldn’t see anything that would be useful in this particular situation.

I could always just knock them out, kill the heir, put him in my [Bound Bones]storage, and then pretend I had also been knocked out.

Would being 100% honest work?

“I need to kill the man wearing the blue robe, and then place his, and his brother’s, corpse somewhere public for the news to reach the sect head as quickly as possible, but I don’t need to kill you, so please move aside?”

Shit…

Assuming they saw the brother die, and since blue robe has the brother’s sword, they almost certainly did, wouldn’t they cause a fuss if the body suddenly appeared in a city?

Does it even matter if they cause a fuss? Owl said to kill them, and then make sure the news of their death became public knowledge as quickly as possible…

Come to think of it, he didn’t even specify that I had to do this in secret…

So, I murder the heir in front of them, and then pretend I did it out of a personal grudge or something? What about the other one? Do I just hope they were both dicks and it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for-

Sylver was pulled out of his musings, as he heard the distinct sound of someone using a flint and steel. He saw that purple robe was using his sword and a flat shiny rock to create sparks that landed inside a small horn-shaped torch attached to the wall.

The fire in the torch flickered to life, and sure enough, the exact same thing happened to the torches further down the corridor.

Sylver just watched as the narrow corridor became fully visible. Without saying anything, the group continued down the corridor, and eventually reached an intersection with 3 passageways.

Just as Sylver was about to ask how they decided where to go, he saw the blue arrow drawn on the middle passageway. The 4 cultivators barely slowed down to make sure it was their arrow, as they quietly entered the middle passageway.

Sylver was told through Spring that Ria had memorized the writing above all 3 passages.

She also informed him that she wanted to ask them about the blue arrows, but Sylver decided it would be best not to. Not just because he didn’t want Ria to see these 4 as people, and therefore feel bad about their deaths, but mainly because Sylver got the feeling these people would spend an hour explaining their sect's history, and only then would they begin to explain the arrows.

Aside from that, he also didn’t want these people to think he was interested in the “hat” they were after.

Most people that were risking their lives for a specific artifact, tended to be a bit paranoid about curious strangers stealing it away from them. Right now, they thought Sylver’s only objective was to survive.

Assuming they believed his story, that is.

He didn’t feel any hostility from them, but these 4 seemed exactly like the type to have accidentally trained themselves into hiding their killing intent. Maybe not the young blue robe wearing heir, but purple, red, and orange were old enough for that to be a very real possibility.

They walked for roughly an hour, 3 hours, 54 minutes, thank you Ria, and finally arrived at one of those large open areas, with 12 possible doors to walk through.

Except there wasn’t any kind of monster in here, and all 12 doors were wide open.

Once again, Sylver kept his mouth shut as the group of 4 walked towards the 3rd door from the left, and passed a bright blue arrow painted inside of it.

Sylver only spoke up when 3 of them suddenly sat down on the floor, and orange robe procured a copper tea kettle out of nowhere and started setting it up over a fire engulfed cube.

“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume this isn’t a regular tea break?” Sylver asked as the four bathrobe-wearing men exchanged a look, and if it weren’t for the completely lifeless expression on Sylver’s face, would have probably burst out laughing.

“It’s for the poison,” orange robe said quietly.

Sylver took an actual breath this time, as opposed to the fake breathing his body did, mostly by slightly expanding and contracting his chest, and honestly didn’t get the feeling of anything toxic in the air.

His best guess was that this was one of those poisons that only affected the living, and were undetectable to the undead, whatever Mora was, and whatever Ria was.

He even heard her make that odd clicking noise she sometimes did, as she tested the air. She just shook her head at him and shrugged her shoulders.

“Would you like some biscuits?” blue robe asked, as he presented Sylver with a small wrapped up bundle that presumably held the aforementioned biscuits.

“Thank you,” Sylver said, as he sat down, and crossed his legs.

He undid the knot that held the small package closed and saw 6 small bags holding a collection of biscuits inside. A very small piece of colored twine held them closed. Sylver picked the smallest bag and handed the cloth back to the tea-drinking group.

They gave him a clay cup and filled it with water.

While they drank their fancy poison-proofing tea, Sylver ate the biscuits and quietly sipped on his water. He spent the whole tea break waiting for the poison to kick in, or for one of the men to attack him while his guard was down.

But they just finished their tea, and then spent a few minutes taking turns sitting motionless with their eyes closed.

Purple robe was the last to close his eyes, and although Sylver had been nothing but polite, red robe and blue robe all moved to sit between him and Sylver.

As if they were expecting him to attack them. They kept their hands away from their sword hilts and didn’t give him the stink eye, but they were ready.

Am I being cautious because there’s a chance they could win against me, or because I don’t want to have to explain myself to Ria?

Sylver turned his head to look at the golem-controlling woman and tried to figure out if he was acting any differently because of her.

Was Ria’s presence affecting Sylver’s judgment?

Would I have been this concerned about killing the other 3, if I didn’t have Ria’s uncomfortable questions looming over my head?

Sylver had never been fond of violence, or death, and only utilized it when it was significantly easier than any currently available alternatives. Granted, violence very often tended to be the easiest path forward, but that wasn’t Sylver’s fault, it was simply how this world functioned.

Sylver and Ria just stared at each other for a couple of seconds, and Sylver could both see it on her face and felt it in her soul, that she knew exactly what he was thinking right now.

The fact that there wasn’t any kind of condemnation in her soul was promising. But the disappointment was just as bad.

If anything, it was worse.

Sylver could argue with her, and make his case if she simply disagreed with his choices of action, but disappointment wasn’t something a person could rationalize away.

Ria had some sort of ideal in her head, an image of Sylver “as he should be,” and the Sylver she was looking at right now wasn’t living up to it.

And there was nothing Sylver could do about it.

Aside from doing the one thing he hated.

Waiting.

On a certain level, it didn’t matter.

Because Ria trusted him, even if she didn’t like him. And if that was the best Sylver could get right now, then so be it.

After the group had finished drinking their “tea” they carried on walking down the now brightly lit corridor.

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