As Sylver approached the bushes in which the homeless man slept, he heard a deep growling sound. As he took another step towards the bushes, the growling became louder.

Ever so gently Sylver used [Deadly Darkness] to poke the man on the cheek. Even though Sylver hadn’t moved a muscle, the dog sitting on top of the man barked at him. The area they were in was thankfully deserted, but the bark was loud, and would probably travel a fair distance.

As he took another step towards the man, the growling became loud enough that Sylver struggled to believe Spring’s description of a cat-sized beast. It sounded way bigger.

As Sylver took another step towards the man and his animal, he felt a burning sensation uncomfortably close to the place he least wanted to feel a burning sensation.

He looked down and felt an enormous gash on his inner thigh, that matched perfectly to what a bite from a small canine would look and feel like. The beast seems to be able to bite without having to touch him.

Sylver remained where he was and contemplated his next move.

While he did this, Mora put Faust down onto the grassy ground, and in a single dead silent jump landed between Sylver and the snarling beast. She lowered her head and made a clicking noise with her teeth towards the small animal.

She clicked her teeth for a couple of seconds, and then the growling stopped completely.

A small creature with patched fur that could loosely be described as doglike came out of the bushes and walked a short distance away from them.

Sylver experimentally reached out with his hand towards the bushes the animal had been sitting in, but it just continued to sit there, staring at him.

[??? –??? – ???]

[HP: 16,444 – 59%]

[MP: 0 – 100%]

[Stamina: 51,755 – 74%]

[Corpse – Inferior]

[Soul – N/A]

So at full health, it would have around 35,000 HP…

Sylver took a very small step towards the bushes, and the animal merely continued to look at him. Mora stomped her hoof and somehow managed to convey the idea that Sylver had nothing to worry about.

Slightly more relaxed, Sylver used [Chloromancy] to part the bushes, and found an unconscious man laying on his back and using what appeared to be a dirty towel as a pillow.

His left arm was missing, including his elbow, and he had just enough left to still call it a limb. The same was true for his right leg, except the way it was contorted seemed to imply it had been twisted until it ripped off, as opposed to simply cut off.

Sylver kept one eye on the animal staring at him, as he slowly walked towards the man.

There was an empty bottle next to him, Sylver floated it over into his hand, and brought it up to his nose. It smelled like sour wine, but there was something else there, that Sylver couldn’t identify, but could tell wasn’t good for your health. He crouched so he didn’t have to lean.

Sylver put the bottle back down and very gently placed his hand on the man’s forehead.

Sylver removed his hand after 5 seconds and silently tapped out a message to Spring.

“Did you by any chance find any other homeless people?” Sylver asked the shade.

“Not within a 50-kilometer radius. Why?” Spring asked, as Sylver removed his backpack, undid the clasps on it, and started searching through it.

“Did you not find that the least bit strange?” Sylver asked, in a tone that suggested that he personally found it quite strange.

“Let me guess… He used to be a very powerful warrior, and given the amount of damage done to his body, shouldn’t be alive, but somehow is?” Spring guessed, as Sylver found the two flasks he had been looking for, and gently swirled them around as he summoned a third flask from his [Bound Bones] storage.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. That’s word for word what I was thinking. Almost as if you read my mind,” Sylver said calmly, as he used his shadow to remove the corks from the two beakers and carefully poured about 4 drops each into the empty flask.

“I’ll keep searching, but don’t get your hopes up,” Spring said, as he split himself up over and over, as he sent the shades out to help him search.

“Don’t worry about that, my hopes haven’t been up for a very long time. Even as I’m about to wake him up, I half expect him to be psychotic,” Sylver explained, as he gently lifted the man’s right hand, and held the man’s middle finger over the rim of the flask.

The hand Sylver was using to hold the man’s hand began to glow a weak golden light, as he gently turned the flask over while keeping the man’s finger pressed up against the rim. As if it was attached to a hose, the flask went from almost completely empty, to filled to the very top with blood.

Sylver kept the man’s now pale finger up against the rim, as he swirled the upside-down flask around, and waited for a couple of seconds. A dark brown clump formed at the top, and as the amount of blood in the flask was reduced, the clump continued floating at the top.

As the clump of brown got stuck in the flask’s neck, Sylver turned it and the man’s finger around, and used his [Deadly Darkness] shadow to temporarily plug the hole in the man’s finger. Sylver incinerated the remaining contents of the flask and allowed the empty flask to disappear down a hole he had made.

Sylver just finished wrapping the man’s finger when his eyes shot open, and he stared at him.

“Hello,” Sylver said to the now wide-awake man.

He didn’t move his hand out of Sylver’s grip and didn’t seem to be breathing.

“Would you be interested in a warm meal, a warm place to sleep, and possibly some new clothing?” Sylver offered gently and calmly, and something akin to a smile appeared on the man’s face.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” the man asked, with a hard to describe accent.

He spoke as if every word was an order, but without the oomph.

“I am not, no. I need help learning the local culture, laws, and the person who was supposed to help me is otherwise occupied,” Sylver explained as the man nodded at him.

“I want 50 grams of red Jade,” the man said.

Sylver pretended to reach into his pocket as he summoned 4 gold coins into his hand and spread them out between his fingers.

“How much is that in gold?” Sylver asked the man and tensed as the man’s soul reacted.

He started to laugh, directly into Sylver’s face, and Sylver was fairly certain his doglike companion did the same.

“Wow… You’re really not from here… You’ll get killed if I leave you alone…” the man said, as he lay there in his own sick, with a filthy towel for a pillow, and had a tone of pity for Sylver.

Sylver reached into his robe again and produced a small diamond-encrusted ring. The man’s smile disappeared and was replaced by shock.

“You’re from the south. I didn’t think the stories were true,” the man said under his breath, as Sylver reached into his robe again and produced a second diamond-encrusted ring.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

“You could try to attack me and steal this from me, sure. Or, you could work for me, and by the time I leave, maybe, you’ll have a full set of arms and legs,” Sylver offered, as he gestured at the man’s two missing limbs.

The man didn’t look away from the two rings in Sylver’s hands once and even attempted to sit up. He reached up and placed his hand over Sylver’s and pushed it backward.

“Don’t show these to anyone. And don’t let anyone know you have gold, it's contraband for anyone who isn’t royalty. And the other one, that white metal,” the man said, as Sylver did as he suggested and disappeared the gold diamond-encrusted rings into his robe.

“Silver?” Sylver offered and produced a single silver coin to make sure. The man almost crawled away from him, and even the animal Mora had pacified growled for a second.

“What do you want from me?” the man asked, as he managed to expertly stand up onto one foot and didn’t even bother using the bush’s branches to steady himself.

He had perfect balance.

“I want to know the rules and laws of this land. And I want to know what not to say, and what not to do, so as not to end up killed,” Sylver explained, as the man stared at him.

He was dead silent for roughly 30 seconds, while Sylver just stood there staring back at him.

“A featherless goose has claimed a maize field near the Red Earth sect. If you defeat it they will pay you 3 grams of green jade. Once you have that, I want 50 grams of red jade, and however much it costs to heal Dog,” the man responded, and gestured with his stump towards the dog, aptly named Dog.

Sylver thought it over for a moment and shrugged his shoulders.

“How about this… Is there a sect that doesn’t have any allies, only enemies? One that, hypothetically, could be robbed without anyone raising a fuss?” Sylver asked, and the man’s face hardened at his words.

“And if there is?” the man asked.

“I would like to visit it, and gather the resources I need from it,” Sylver said and could feel a not very positive reaction from Ria.

A good minute passed, during which the man looked Sylver up and down, and finally hopped over to Dog. He sat down next to the animal, lifted it into his lap, and started scratching it behind the ears while he continued to stare at Sylver.

“There is a sect that makes its living by stealing from the other sects. If someone were to attack and steal from it, I do not believe that any of their neighboring sects would protest,” the man explained.

Sylver had a thought while the man was talking, and reached into his robe and produced a small piece of ruby, that he had removed from a ring and kept to use as a spell component.

“Is this what you meant by red jade, by any chance?” Sylver asked, as the man's eyes locked onto the red stone.

Sylver searched around in his [Bound Bones] storage and produced enough rubies to cover half of his palm.

He lifted his hand up and down and did his best to feel out the weight in his hand.

“This is about 20 grams. They’re yours if you can guide me to the sect. And I’ll pay you the rest once I’m done with them,” Sylver explained, as he made the rubies float around in a clump above his hand.

The man stared at the rubies for a while, and then went back to staring at Sylver.

“Their sect leader is estimated to be level 250. And they are infamous for using deadly poison,” the man explained, and Sylver couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m sure I’ll figure something out. So?” Sylver asked as the clump of rubies floated over to the man.

He reached out with his hand, took two small stones, and just stared at them in his hand as if he was waiting to wake up from a dream. He closed his fist and then hid them inside a small chewed-up satchel that was hidden within his jacket.

The man continued to pet Dog and finally looked up at Sylver.

“Dog likes you. I’ll show you the way. If you survive we can talk,” the man said, as he stretched out his hand, to shake.

“I’m glad to hear it. Sylver,” Sylver said, as the man’s lips curled into an odd smile.

“Like the necromancer?” the man asked, and Sylver felt all of his hearts skip a beat. “The one who defeated 10 rebel armies, with the shadows of his companions,” the man explained, as Sylver’s hearts went back to their normal beats.

“Just a coincidence,” Sylver offered with his friendliest smile.

“That’s a shame,” the man said as he grabbed Sylver by the hand and shook it, as he stood up without any help, and adjusted his belt. “You would have probably been invited into the emperor’s court if you were the fabled defender,” the man said, and Sylver could only shrug in response.

“Xalibur,” the man, Xalibur, said.

“Lead the way, Xalibur,” Sylver said as the man somehow managed to hop in such a way that if you only saw the top half of him, you would have thought he had two working legs.

Sylver took Mora by the reins and followed behind the man.