This mission was a hard one. Honestly, in retrospect, I was lucky, very lucky. Once, I survived an ambush and prevented the bug from fleeing. The later is the most difficult. This is also the reason why the mission had ben uncompleted thus far. The reason I took is, is that it fell into my area of expertise and the high reward.

The first part of the reward points. I got enough of them for the foreseeable future. The second part is a potion, which helps by breaking through the second stage of the mage path. Honestly, without the group of people, who followed me going missing, The reward would not have been amped up. The third hidden benefit is a small relationship with the mage, who posted the mission.

Back to my room, I stash away my rewards and take out the amulet I got from Leon. I have been anticipating what this could be for a long time. The connection felt different this time. It is not my first time bonding with artefacts. The defensive artefact from that rich guy also needed bonding, as to know who to defend.

This bonding felt deeper and stronger. With the defensive artefact, I felt that if I leave it alone, my imprint might weaken and after some time disappear. The same would happen if the distance is too large. But this amulet felt like it truly belonged to me. Even if I put it into the moon. No one would be able to use it. Before destroying my imprint first, that is.

The next surprise came from the type of equipment it is. It is a piece of storage equipment. I have heard of them, but at the apprentice level, they are exceedingly rare. The amount of room it provided was also unheard of. The room inside had the dimension of a 5x3x5 meter room, plenty enough for everything I possess and then enough food for a year. With this at least I have a save space to store some of the more dicey stuff, like the introductory box.

Then I took out everything I possessed and put it into the storage. While doing so, I also found a bookshelf in one corner of the room. It was full of books, sadly all of them were written in Gorlen, thus I let them be. Looking closer, I found some thin booklets. 7 to be exact. They seem to be written similarly to the spell booklets in the library, with a mix of Artes and Gorlen. I take out these for translating purposes.

With the Storage artefact, I also have a better way to move larger amounts of parchments in and out of the tower.

With my breakthrough in soul, I can now inscribe magic scrolls a lot faster and precise than before. A very timely improvement. I need a good amount of magic scrolls soon, if I want to further my ‚seeding the world‘ plan.

The next week, I plan to busy myself with making scrolls and continuing to translate Gorlen. But not before going to the arcane hall.

++++++++++++++++

In a corner, I spot Nelton again. He seem to have a habit of standing around in a corner. Maybe it is a strategy of his? Being always available.

I don’t care either way.

„hello Nelton, do you have some time for me?“I ask him.

„For you, of course, say do you sell those round things people saw you running around with? A bard twittered me that they are kind of useful“ he said.

He most likely knows that because of the forest incident. So it was already investigated, but they don't have any evidence against me. I presume that he is only acting on a hunch.

„Ah those, I know the guy who is manufacturing those, I could maybe sell some, “I said. But not before already thinking against countermeasures in case of any copycats.

„Yeah yeah sure, how many do you want for those?“ he asked, clearly not believing my fake display.

„well, I have something I need a little bit of help, nothing dangerous, you could say that it is your speciality. “I said.

„I am interested, what is it exactly?“ he said back somewhat interested.

„I have two artefacts, which I need to sell, do you still know what I asked you last time? Sell them for either of these or golden apples. They taste really good“I sad.

„Yeah, sure they are great apples, very expensive ones to boot too. So what does have to do with your ball thingies?“ h said.

„If you can help me in this case, then I can give you 3 balls of fire for your troubles“. I said to him.

„Alright, give me the stuff, and await good for news, “ he said.

Then I hand over to him the stuff for selling.

„I need some time to contact the seller, the balls of fire should be there tomorrow“ is said.

After a short goodbye, I went back to my room. First I made a ‚safety feature‘ in my grenades, in case someone is smart enough to try anything with them, it goes boom.

+++++++++++

Next morning I filled my bag for appearance sake with some random stuff and left my room. First I gave the grenades to Nelton, then I went back to my room and activated a concealment scroll, thus leaving the building mostly undetected. After making sure, that I am not being followed, I went to the gang restaurant from last time. There I let the cook now that I was waiting for black mantis and went into the backroom to wait for them.

It didn’t take long, after 20 minutes black mantis and right-man arrived.

„Hello, boss, “ both of them said simulates. Ah I see, the seed worked better than intended.

„have you carried out what asked you to?“I said.

„Yeah, mostly, there was a little mishap and we had to dispose of one of the ringleaders. He was a spy from another gang. The seed is still there“ he said

„keep it, if you have the opportunity, you can convert someone into the organization, choose wisely. If you do good, there is a reward.“ I said. He was visibly excited. The grenades made him very happy and more inclined towards following me I hope.

„Alright, here I have 150 magic scrolls, “I said. Both of their eyes went wide. I don’t know, but to them it was incredible. It is possible to buy magic scrolls in the market, but buying a lot would arouse suspicion from the city authority’s, who don’t want these weapons in the hand of criminals.

„You are going to keep 50 and sell the rest to the black and white gang, not too fast“.

„But boss, our relationship might sour with them, “ he said hesitantly.

„Don’t be afraid to speak up, as long as it is constructive, you can even get rewarded for it“I said. I don’t need zombies, greedy opportunist, who I happen to have enslaved is the way to go.

„They will hate us to the guts, but they wont have a choice, unless they want to get wiped out. Even if they know that we are selling it to both sides, They will still buy it. If they refuse, they might very well get annihilated.“ I said. Then I gave out 8 more soul seeds.

„With these, if the opportunity arises, put them into their higher-ups, be smart about it, it needs around a day for full integration, then they will be loyal to me and listen to you.“ I said. Then saying a goodbye, I left the restaurants, not giving them any chance to flatter me.

Back in the tower, I spent the last 7 days before my benefactor Ildrick donates another one or two spells to me with meditating, making magic scrolls and translating Gorlen. Sometimes I got out and refill the magic scroll stock of the black mantis.