Sylver adjusted the bandage around his eyes, as he leaned back in his seat, and finished his 5th cup of tea. His hood was up, to hide the scarring on the side of his face, and he had a white strip of cloth wrapped around his eyes to help him blend in.

Now that Faust’s sect was a thing, wearing black robes wasn’t odd. The white skull that symbolized Faust’s sect that hung on Sylver’s shoulder felt a bit ridiculous, but he wasn’t going to complain too much.

Just as Sylver was about to pour himself another cup of tea from the teapot at his table, a server walked up to his table, and replaced Sylver’s cup, with an empty cup, with a tiny note inside. He briefly touched the piece of paper with the tip of his finger, and then stood up, and headed for the men’s bathroom.

He did as the note said, walked into the 2nd stall, and still fully dressed, sat down on the wooden toilet. Sylver fiddled around with the multiple layers of soul armor around his body while he waited until eventually, he heard the sound of a large stone being moved.

He looked up and saw that a panel had been removed from the wooden ceiling, and a hand was gesturing for him to follow. Sylver used his [Bracelet Of The Aurai] to create steps in the air for him, as he walked up them, and eventually had to get onto his stomach, to fit in the tight crawl space.

Silently, he followed the man crawling ahead of him, and eventually, they reached a ladder. Sylver let his robe do the climbing for him, as it slowly lowered him down the ladder.

He kept his shades in his shadow, on account of feeling something strange in the tunnels around him. The ground, ceiling, and walls were all made out of dirt someone had compressed, as they had dug the tunnels. A tiny lantern with a flickering weak flame sat on the ground at the bottom of the ladder.

The man Sylver was following picked it up, and without a word, began to walk.

There was something very strange about the dirt the tunnels were composed of. Sylver could feel it with his [Advanced Earth Manipulation] someone was actively channeling Ki through the walls.

As the breeze Sylver felt changed directions again, he realized someone was moving these tunnels around and were constantly altering the path the man in front of Sylver was taking.

Sylver had tried to “spar” with Faust, but the end result was always the same. The moment Faust successfully entered the bubble Sylver’s body was occupying, it was over.

It wasn’t over over, even if Faust tore Sylver to pieces, he still couldn’t do anything about his indestructible ribcage. But as he had said, Sylver’s only real options were to stop him before he entered the bubble, make him waste his energy on decoys/armor, or somehow predict his movements and catch him.

The last part was due to the fact that it was very difficult to change direction while inside a bubble. Usually what happened is that the cultivator ran towards his target, but a bit to the side, entered the Rift, and as he was “sliding” forward, turned towards his target and attacked him.

Hypothetically, if Sylver figured out which direction his attacker was going to slide towards, he could stick out his hand to catch them. It’s what he had done with the blue robe heir when he had caught his sword. The problem with that was, that there was still more than enough wiggle room inside the bubble for his opponent to avoid him.

Faust speculated that blue robe was simply inexperienced and wasn’t able to see what he was doing clearly. Purple robe, on the other hand, wasn’t that far off from being a master. The technique he used to push Sylver’s ribcage out of his torso sounded rather advanced, according to Faust at least.

With all that in mind, Sylver decided he would prefer to have a bit more MP, than speed.

CON: 200

DEX: 110

STR: 110

INT: 461

WIS: 267

AP: 0

Health: 1,821/2,000

Stamina: 996/1,000

MP: 8,447/18,440

Health Regen: 23.34/M

Stamina Regen: 20.00/M

MP Regen: 11,077.83/M

The man Sylver was following flinched, as Sylver quietly rolled his head and hands until the altered mana channels finished settling in.

They walked, and walked, and eventually reached a room made up of carved runes. Sylver could feel the barrier disconnect him from the space outside, as he stepped through the small doorway.

The room was barely tall enough for Sylver to stand at his full height, the top of his hood brushed against the ceiling. He bent his knees a little, so it didn’t get pulled back as he walked.

Inside the room, there were several pillows strewn around the floor, and as the door behind Sylver was quietly closed, he walked over to the pillows and sat down. He rested his back on the wall, and faced the only way in, or out, of the room.

Sylver scratched his cheek as wave after wave of exploratory Ki washed over his body, and with every second, increased in intensity. It took him a while to realize the Ki wasn’t looking at him, and when he felt a soul very briefly brush against his soul sense, as it was pulled away, he realized the room had kicked out one of those invisible ghost’s Chrys had shown Sylver.

5 minutes passed, before the door Sylver was staring at opened, and a grey-faced Bear/Owl walked in, followed closely by a bloodied and bruised Wolf.

Wolf helped Owl sit down, and for a moment, Sylver forgot that he was supposed to be afraid of these two people. They just looked like two old men, the kind that would play chess in the garden on a sunny day. One was massive, and wide, while the other was small and stringy.

“This is Hound,” Owl said, with a gesture at Wolf.

Wolf/Hound gave Sylver his signature smile, full of teeth, with the sort of expression that made him look as if he was about to growl at him.

But Hound’s heart wasn’t in it. There wasn’t any genuine anger in his eyes. As if Hound thought that his very presence would cause the [Necromancer] in front of him to shit himself, and anything else would be wasted effort.

He doesn’t recognize me…

Sylver realized, as he continued his silent staring match with Hound, and chose to be the first to break eye contact.

“In exchange for rescuing Fobur Plateforged, we want you to help us defeat the recently appointed Emperor,” Owl said.

“Oh…” Sylver said.