Chương 52: Chapter 50. Negotiations

Their squirrel tour guide stopped them in front of a dilapidated warehouse. The windows were either smashed or cracked, allowing the sounds of a whiny man echo out. Bruno didn't need to hear more than one word to recall who it was.

"Gods, even with power, Arturo sounds just as annoying," Bruno said. Shamic bent down and offered an arm for the squirrel to climb up.

"What kind of man is he?"

"Do you remember that one ex-mercenary we hunted? The one that… what was it that he did again?"

"Jua? Ah, he's like that? Ambitious men are always the most dangerous."

"Sometimes true, but in Arturo's case… you just never know what he's after. His goals change so often and he's more of a cockroach than a man. At the first sign of true danger, he'll almost always take the easy way out. How he managed to get this much power, I'll never understand. Anyway, what I was trying to get at was that he's a slimy piece of shit just like Jua. Somehow he always manages to survive…" Gita coughed loudly, interrupting them.

"I love that you two have put aside your differences, truly I do, but can we get a move on?"" Apolas, Gita, you're right," Shamic said and stepped forwards towards the door.

"Oscar is in need of assistance and here we are reminiscing about the past." Without any further words, Shamic pulled out his scimitars from his dimensional storage skill and cut out an opening from the wall. The [Bounty Hunter] possessed very few combat skills. Instead he had skills that augmented his natural talents. Which often meant he was capable of doing ridiculously scary feats such as carving a new door through a wall as if it were made out of wet parchment.

That was all the reminder Bruno needed to keep himself busy thinking of solutions for his old friend should he insist on claiming his bounty.

Shamic stepped inside the warehouse and wasted no time eliminating two of the nearest [Thugs]. With a flick of his scimitars, he sent the blood off his blades and splattering the walls and ground. A man in a white suit was turned with his back now facing Oscar. Another man of dark complexion had his hands on Oscar, keeping the boy stuck in his seat. A girl was behind them, her wrists bound to the chair.

"Apologies for not introducing myself first," Shamic said.

"Shamic Velak, and I'm afraid you've abducted a new friend of mine and his girlfriend."" Girlfriend? How dare you minimize my importance!" The girl cried out. Shamic paid her no mind and waited for Arturo to reply. The slick-looking man studied him for a long while before finally offering his response.

"I know you… You're the [Bounty Hunter] from Relvika. From what I heard, you scarcely leave your land."

"And yet… here I am," Shamic said and flared his armed hands outwards.

"So, must I kill more, or will you let them go?" Arturo gave a crude cackle.

"As famous as you might be… you're alone."

"Huh? No, I'm…" he stopped and turned around to see that he was in fact alone.

"Well, no matter. I'm more than enough—" Suddenly, the wall next to him exploded, sending rubble and dust flying throughout the room. A slow clap followed amidst the rubble, resulting in Shamic unable to suppress his smile. He always loved Bruno's unnecessary theatrics.

"Thank you for the entrance, Gita," Bruno said.

"And you, Arturo… how long has it been? Four years? I don't think I saw you that whole year before my… exile."

"What? Who's speaking? There's so much damn dust! Durante, do something!" Arturo cried.

"Apologies, sir… Just give it a moment," Durante replied. Once the dust had settled, Arturo loudly groaned." Ugh! How the fuck are you still alive?"

"The Grand Council just really sucks at their job," Bruno replied.

"Nice to see you still look just as greasy as usual. Now, I'm on a tight schedule… so can I have my assistant back?"

"Bruno, we've done business together in the past. Let's conduct one last deal," Arturo said.

"This boy is too strong to be an assistant, so I ask of you… let me use him for one day to ensure my protection."

"Durante seems more than capable of that…" Oscar said.

"But why have one Durante, when I can have two?" Bruno let out a loud sigh.

"Okay, Arturo, for old times sake, indulge me in what you're scheming this time."

"I'll spare you his long-winded plan. Trust me… we've heard it all," Ariesa said, visibly exhausted at the mere idea of hearing his plan again. Shamic liked her already.

"Arturo wants to expose the [King] and throw the whole lower city into a frenzy, ultimately resulting in everyone in the upper city being killed."

"So that you can rule? Right, because whenever I think of you, I think "leader", for sure," Bruno said sarcastically.

"Yeah, whatever, look, this city is going to go into chaos one way or another and I don't care to stop you on this because I don't believe in you. However, you can't have Oscar. I need him to help me throw the city into chaos." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Arturo paused and pulled out a cigar.

"Would you two care for a smoke? It sounds like we might be able to work together."

"I don't smoke. Thank you, though," Shamic said.

"Nah, you smoke cheap shit. I can smell it from here," Bruno said. Arturo shrugged and put away his cigars.

"Well, given that this is you, Bruno… I'm assuming what you're planning is going to result in your chaos being directed upon those in the upper city, correct?"

"Yep."

"I think that'd work well for my plans. Would you mind me asking when you plan on conducting your business?"

"Hopefully tomorrow. You?"

"Tomorrow… hopefully."

"Is there any chance I could persuade you in delaying your chaos until the day after?"

"Why's that? I have a better chance of fulfilling my plan if it's done amidst the chaos of yours."

"My chaos is a two-parter," Bruno said and casually strolled over to free the girl.

"I'd hate to spoil anything, but just know that the second day will likely be much more chaotic. The main issue that I've been struggling with, however, is how I'm going to get back up there. If you could direct the peoples ire away from one of the lifts… well, I'd appreciate it." Arturo moved away from Oscar and gestured for Durante to do the same.

"I could delay my speech by a day… but it'll cost you."

"I'd expect nothing less," Bruno replied.

"You want to siege the upper city? Then you're going to need a way up there. Do you have anything planned for that already?"

"I'm expecting the people to figure out a solution to that. Anger inspires the best creativity… or that was what I was hoping."

"I can give you a new invention that'll be able to destroy the locks that hold the chains for the upper cities main gate." A loud laugh boomed out of the greasy [Crimelord].

"And let us take the fight instantly to them? Straight through their front door?" Shamic didn't personally like the sound of this. Storming the upper city would result in a significant number of deaths. Bruno had sold him on the idea that he was trying to save this city. But maybe this would be less deaths than allowing whatever scheme the [King] had planned. Doubt flooded the [Bounty Hunter's] head, but he dismissed it for now. He'd wait and see what the Grand Council's office had before he made a decision.

If plenty of people were going to die anyway, then there was no reason for him to delay his mission should the offices yield nothing. Oscar hobbled over, his left leg seemingly injured. Shamic met him halfway and lent his shoulder for him. The boy looked genuinely happy to see him. At the very least, he wanted to be sure that Oscar would be safe should shit get bad.

"I'll have Plank send someone over later with the magibreach charges," Bruno said as he shook Arturo's hand.

"If he can't, then I'll personally stop by."

"Never thought I'd be making a deal with you given our history," Arturo said.

"I suppose that's the power of having mutual interests, eh?"

"I guess so," Bruno said.

"Sorry about your men, by the way. We expected you to be… a good bit more aggressive." Arturo gave a dismissive wave.

"Unfortunate, but I'll have their families repaid." With that, Shamic led Oscar and his girlfriend out of the warehouse. Once they were out, the squirrel scampered over onto Oscar's shoulder instead.

"Thanks for your help, Mook."

"Ah! The little fellow has a name?"

"Yeah, he's a smart one. Spelled it out for me himself." Shamic hummed in appreciation at seeing the revered animal look so thrilled at the praise.

"Squirrels are such incredible animals. I'm glad that you've befriended one another."

"Yeah, same, but… uh, what are you doing here, Shamic?"

"He was looking for my head, but we've come to an agreement," Bruno said, Gita following beside him.

"Speaking of which… we need to get back to the Burrow and fill him in on what's going on."

"I couldn't care less who's coming with us, but I really need to lie down. My head is killing me," the girl said.

"Wait… did you really offer explosives to Arturo?" Oscar asked.

"I don't know if we should be funding terrorism…"

"Cost of business. If you hadn't gotten captured, then this wouldn't have happened," Bruno replied.

"What's done is done. I hope that besides this whole fiasco, everything else went well?" Oscar nodded his head.

"Yeah, we'll save it for when we're back at Plank's."

"So much for an easy day for everyone…" Gita complained.

"It's not too late in the day. After we regroup, I'll treat everyone to a nice bite to eat. How's that?" Bruno said.

"So long as it's not Bill's Meat Hut…"

After everyone relayed their information and gave Shamic the rundown, Bruno had taken everyone to eat. Oscar didn't think he'd care for the weird soup he'd gotten, but it'd turned out to be quite pleasant. It was a weird dish that despite being cold, warmed him up pretty thoroughly. Now that he was back at the Burrow, he'd decided to go down to the training room and figure out his latest skill. Technically there was two skills he'd gotten.

[Shadow Stitching] was most likely related to what he'd done when he'd repaired his arm, so he wasn't too keen on testing that one out right now. [Shadow Step], though? That sounded sick as hell. As he thought about the skill, the knowledge of how to appropriately use it filled his brain. He pulled his shadow down into his feet, then when he stepped, a bit of his shadow was left behind on the ground. This skill didn't use up too much of his shadow it seemed.

Or, rather, it didn't require much as it felt like the skill didn't take shadow away from him, but instead just required to be a blotch of it placed somewhere. Oscar ran across the room and placed down another tether point. Standing on top of it, he internally activated the skill. It didn't feel like this one needed to be verbally said given that it wasn't strictly combative. And he was right.

In the span of less than a blink upon mentally activating the skill, Oscar appeared on top of the originally tethering point. The sudden teleportation made him nauseous, resulting in him falling to his knees.

"If you vomit on my marvelous floors, I'll kill you, boy," Plank said as he entered the room. Picking himself back up again, Oscar rolled his eyes at the older man.

"Do you need something? Or are you just here to complain."

"I don't need anything, but you do. Get some rest already, would you?"

"Are you starting to care about us?"

"Care?" he repeated and scoffed.

"I think the better word is pity. This damn city is about to become madness and you'll be stuck in the center of it with Bruno of all people. Get some damn rest so you aren't led to your death tomorrow."

"…Yeah, that's fair," Oscar admitted.

"What's your plan? You should probably get out of the city for awhile."

"And go where? As awful as this city is… it's still my home. Besides, I'll be safe down here. The Burrow's got thick walls, and our location is fairly remote. I'll be fine."

"Maybe at least keep some of your people here? Just in case…" Plank gave him a small smile.

"I think it's you that's starting to care about me. But don't worry, I've already advised for everyone to stay here for the next few days."

"Kinda weird how I've yet to see anyone that works for you. Besides Ariesa, that is."

"Weird? I'd be furious if you did see any of them. It's my orders that they hide their presence from you. Although, you'll likely see them tomorrow when leaving."

"Alright, well, I think you're right. I'm gonna take a shower and relax for a bit before bed," Oscar said and made his way towards the exit.

"Oh, before I forget… I think Gita told me you gave her some Desire?"

"Aye, I did. Don't you worry, it's old. There's no possibility of it being one of those new variants."

"Okay, good. Well, I'll see you in the morning, Plank."

As Oscar let the water warm up from the heat glyph, he observed himself in the mirror. The dark stain on his shoulder hadn't gotten any much bigger, so that was a relief. However, paired with the darkness that flooded out from his arm… he looked quite evil. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like the darkness was spreading further down his arm as well. Out of curiosity, he tried to control the shadow that was stuck inside him.

The immediate moments after performing the surgery, he'd been able to still feel it inside him. However, now that a few days had passed since, he found that he'd stopped thinking about it. And when he tried to now control it, he discovered that it seemed to no longer be under his influence.

"Will I ever look normal again?" he wondered to himself.

"Wonder if Calus ever went through something similar…" Now that he was thinking of Calus again, he supposed that since he was going to be near another soulstone soon, he'd see him again. Then again, Calus had summoned him without being near a soulstone back when he'd first arrived in Burgen's Hill. Maybe Calus just didn't have anything to say to him these past few days. Which was completely fine by him. As much as he might want to ask Calus for answers… he didn't truly wish to see him.

It'd been a nice little vacation away from his presence, so he'd just have to take that as a win. And given what was on their plates for the next two days… Oscar would take any win he could get. It seemed like those were going to be in short supply.