Chapter 1519 Scheming
Not paying any heed to the fading shouts of the man behind him, Emery headed back to Silvermane City with the cargo chest. He went directly toward the Apex faction facility, just next to the Apothecary center.
His eyes fell on the two furry Oxen standing outside the facility, around them were the three guards along with his two pack members, Yoro and Andrei. Their eyes were immediately fixated on him when they spotted his approaching figure.
The magus-level guard stepped forward and approached him with a hint of anticipation. When he saw the chest Emery was carrying, his mouth immediately curved into a large crescent.
"You did it, Evan! Not only did you save our lives from those bandits, but you even reclaimed our cargo! Thank you, truly!" The magus-level guard beamed with joy.
"Yes… Unfortunately, I failed to catch the bandit," Emery expressed with disappointment.
The guard shook his head with a smile. "No, no, that's completely fine! You managed to retrieve our cargo, and that's what matters most to us! Again, thank you!"
After the two exchanged some short pleasantries, a group of people in sophisticated uniforms came out of the facility. For a brief moment, everything in the area seemed to be under their scrutiny before their gazes finally fell on the cargo chest.
As the group of people approached, one of the senior staff members looked at Emery.
"It's you again. We are still grateful for what you did for us last time, yet here you are, having done us a great favor for us once again."
Emery respectfully replied "As a student of the apothecary myself, I couldn't let those ignorant bandits get away with robbing such valuable products."
The words caused the Apothecary staff to nod in agreement, they were obviously impressed by his ideals. Afterwards, one of the staff opened the chest and checked the contents. Stored inside were a dozen of Tier 3 and Tier 4 winter herbs that the apothecary wished to keep safe, which accordingly required them to be transported manually instead of being stored in a storage ring.
"Everything seems to be in order. Again, thank you for what you have done for us, we will definitely put in some good words about you to the guild," said the senior staff member with satisfaction.
"Thank you." 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒏𝒆𝒕
After the staff member brought in the chest and everyone went their separate ways, Emery approached Yoro and asked in a low voice,
"Did everything go as planned?"
"Yes, chief. Just like you instructed, we made sure to let the other bandit go."
"Good, let's go." Emery nodded approvingly.
What Emery was executing at the moment was a plan he had very carefully thought of and arranged. First he accepted a cargo transport task related to the Apex faction from the Wolf Guild and secretly leaked information regarding the transport to lure a specific group of rebels. He then captured the rebels once he found them, and returned the cargo that the rebels took.
Just now, before he returned the cargo to the Apex faction facility, he carefully checked all its contents. Emery used [Analysis] on the plants stored inside the chest. Although there were only medium-grade ingredients inside, simply knowing what herbs they were using for the research could further his chance of understanding the recipes used for their special elixirs.
He also purposely left a great impression on the Apex faction and even gained their favor while simultaneously trying to open up communication with the rebels that hated the three factions as much as he did.
Such a result could be obtained in a single sequence of actions, and it was mainly thanks to the excellent intel gathered by Tatyana and the Ouroboros spy.
There was still one last benefit he gained from the success of this plan, one that he received as soon as the three of them arrived at the Wolf Guild.
"Thank you for your excellent work," said the fox lady behind the counter upon receiving his task report. She had also received word about it, so the matter was settled very quickly.
At the same time, Emery received a string of notifications.
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[D-rank task completed]
[Cargo delivery - medium threat, 800 fame points]
[Bonus: Stopping bandits - 300 fame points]
[Evan Valerious]
[Fame Points: 3000/10,000]
[Grade D]
The completion of this task, on top of the previous one he did, added up to quite a generous amount of fame points. With the total amount of fame points he had now, Emery was ready to purchase one of the battle arts that he wanted.
[Bloodhound Steps - 2,500 points]
The battle art contained a Wolf's innate ability that could boost his mobility in battle. Plus, it also contained a special trait that would allow him to move while evading detection. Both were something he needed to somehow replace the darkness spell that he could no longer utilize.
It took Emery a few hours to get the gist of it and an entire day to gain complete mastery over the battle art. When he finally mastered it, he said to himself.
"Right on time!"
He immediately donned his dark clothing and packed up some of the potions he had successfully created over the past week. One of them was the [Concealment Potion]. It works just like the one previously used by the bandit rebel. It is a concoction unique to the wolf clans as it is capable of concealing both his odor and his spirit energy.
"Chief, allow me to accompany you," Yoro said while Emery was almost done with his preparations, but Emery rejected.
"Not this time Yoro, It is too dangerous"
When the night cast a veil of darkness over the entirety of Silvermane City, Emery stealthily came out and dashed toward the Apex facility. Tonight was one of the predetermined times when the security was at its weakest, the best time to enter and check on the facility.
The guise of being a student of the Apothecary apprentice for the last two weeks, coupled with his good relationship with the staff, allowed him to gain a sufficient understanding of the facility guards timetable and layout. He had even managed to steal their access cards and gained access to the overall layout of the facility.
Now, utilizing his new battle art [Bloodhound Steps] that he had just mastered, Emery began to sneak into the facility.
His objective was to check on the secret behind the Apex faction as well as information about who was behind it. As a bonus, he hoped to gain some knowledge regarding some of their famous Elixirs.