Chapter 741 The Gang of Croc city.
Arad looked at Jack. "Selina? Do you need something from her?"
Jack smiled. "You know how I have very little mana, close to nothing?" Jack lifted his hand. "Besides 0-tier spells, I can't cast anything else."
"How about class skills?"
"They are tied to my class. You said it. I want something more reliable, something that no one can expect." Jack pulled a white paper with a magic circle on it.
"Look. This is how to transfer mana from a mana stone into an object." Jack smiled. "I got it from one of the teachers here. And do you remember that Barbarian named Gura from the capital?"
"You don't mean." Arad stared at him. "You want Selina to implant a mana crystal into your body like the one in Gura's chest."
"Bingo. A mana crystal inside my body to power magic items integrated into my artificial arm and leg. I can also tattoo magic circles and inscriptions on my body to be able to cast spells." Jack smiled, "What I want is a spider's web."
"Like the web spell?"
"No." Jack pulled a roll of thin steel wires. This is what he uses to make his traps and for now, he has spread them between the tiles in the ground and in the cracks between the bricks in the walls. He can also use them to cut or create trip wires.
"Spider's web is an inscription that one of the s-ranks created but discarded as a failure as it needs to be recreated perfectly for each cast. It can be lethal to the user if the cast isn't accurate." Jack showed Arad his artificial hand. He already had tinkered a bit with it and managed to get wires to pour out of his fingertips.
"Since the spell would be tattooed into my body and inscribed into my artificial arm. I will be recreated perfectly each cast, and with a mana crystal to power it up. I should be fine." Jack smiled.
"And what would that spell do?"
"It'll allow me to control the wires and expand my senses across the web of my traps. We humans have weak senses. I did learn echolocation from Alcott, but it's not that powerful." Jack leaned back.
"I'll see what I can do. Getting her to do that would be hard."
"She can make a flesh golem. I bet she put a stone inside me without much trouble. A little healing magic would close the wound, and it'll all be good." Jack looked at Arad. "But, I guess skill isn't her problem."
Jack then stood. "I'll head down to the city to spend what you just gave me. I'm sure the local supplier would be thrilled. So I'm leaving Selina's matter to you."
"Buying so many trap materials, won't they suspect anything?"
"I know how to hide my tracks." Jack smiled as he walked into the sunset.
****
"Selica, where are you going?" Sena asked as she brushed her hair sitting on a wooden chair by the window. "The sun is setting."
"We didn't bring that many things with us." Selica replied. "And it's empty." She pulled out a bottle of high-grade liquor, the Lemon of life. An elvish brand that's always compared to the dwarven fire wine. Some even say it's better.
"Oh, my. That's a problem, be careful out there." Sena looked at the bottle. She really did love that, it's just as strong as the dwarven fire wine, but has a fresh smell and a gentle taste, it doesn't burn the throat.
"I'll be back in an hour or so…" Selica left.
****
Selica approached Croc's city northern gate. The guards stared at her for a second, "If you're a student, show us your student card."
Selica pulled her card, "Here you go."
The guard approached and leaned forward to look at the card through the slit in his helmet. "She's a student, let her in." He didn't even touch the card.
"Thank you." Selica walked toward the gate but stopped midway, "Do you know where the silver mug is?"
One of the guards stared at her, "You must be joking. We're not guiding a minor to a bar, you'll only get mugged. And we don't want to deal with that."
"She's twenty-four," The guard who looked at her card said. "It's at the end of the street, but be careful. It might sound disrespectful, but you look like a prime target for thugs."
Selica smiled, "A lone woman with enough money to buy alcohol. But remember that…"
"Don't judge a book by its cover. I know, but, scream if anything looks suspicious. It's better for us guards to waste our time than have you hurt." He smiled.
"I'll keep that in mind." Selica walked into the city, and the guards approached their friend.
"Trying to hit on her?" One looked at him with a grin.
"I'm not."
"Our boy Arnol, saving the beautiful lady at the last moment. It's nice to be young, isn't it." One smacked him on the back, "We'll help you if she calls. Don't worry, we'll hail you as our prodigy."
****
Selica finally reached the silver mug and walked inside. The place looked like any normal tavern but was strangely filled with more dangerous-looking people and weirdos. Thugs, bandits, and half-naked drunkards running around starting fights. Even the adventurers guild looked like a nice place in comparison, and that is saying something.
Selica approached the counter and looked a the bartender. "Lemon of life, a bottle." She said.
The bartender stopped polishing the glasses and stared at her. "A shot?"
"A bottle," Selica repeated.
"You know how much that would be?" The bartender stared at her, "It's worth a fortune. I'm not pulling it out to anyone who asks. You could as well knab and run, I'll not deal with that."
"I know how much it'll cost. Fifty to sixty gold coins, am I wrong." She sighed.
"Fifty-seven to be exact. Do you have that kind of money?"
"I just want to take and leave. This place doesn't look inviting to be honest." She pulled out a bag of gold and took five coins out of it." She stared at him. "I'll give fifty-five, I'm sure you'll find a mistress to be quite the returning customer."
"Fifty-seven."
"Come on. I know you bought it for around forty-four to forty-six, elves are trying to compete with the dwarves, I know my alcohol so stop trying to swindle me." She pushed the coin purse to him.
The bartender smiled, "I like you girl. It's rare to see someone here who isn't an idiot that just wants something strong to treat their sick minds." He sighed, taking the gold and pouring it on a scale. He then quickly counted it.
"Nice doing business with you." He pulled a bottle for Selica. "Want to have a taste?"
"No need." She grabbed the bottle and felt a tingle in her hands. Sena had made the faint hair on her palm sensitive for the Lemon of life so she could detect it just like that.
"I can know it's the real deal with a single touch. And quite an old one at that, twenty years, right?" Selica smiled.
The bartender's eyes opened wide. "Are you a wine expert? It's exactly twenty years old." He made a gentle bow, "Sorry, I didn't know I was speaking with such a master."
"No need for that." Selica stored the bottle in her bag.
****
At the back of the tavern, Jack was sitting there enjoying a beer when he saw Selica walk in. He sighed, standing up, "Keep my spot. I'm going to the bathroom." He waved his hand at the tavern girl rushing around with beer.
"Got it…!" She replied as she rushed around.
Jack walked into the bathroom and sighed, "Ah! It's going to get ugly, I feel bad for the bartender and that cute girl, but the looks those thugs were giving Selica weren't nice. Gotta do my job, once again." He walked into the right-most toilet and closed the door.
From his magic bag, he pulled a small knife and started listening to the wall.
^I've been counting, good.^ He smiled, looking around for the nails holding the wooden wall together. Then using his knife and a small hammer that he pulled out, he prayed the nails off until he took one of the wooden planks off and could walk directly into one of the women's stalls on the other side.
Jack slowly pushed the door open, seeing a woman puking in the sink after drinking too much. ^Sorry lady.^ He closed the door. Then pulled a handkerchief and drenched it in a strange liquid. A sleeping potion.
With one motion, he walked out of the stall and covered the woman's mouth and nose with the handkerchief, knocking her out before dragging her to the stall.
Jack locked the stall's door with his lockpicking tools and looked at the woman.
Long black hair, blue eyes, otherwise normal.
^I should have Abel teach me his disguise spell. It'll be really handy, more than doing things in this old style. Wait, I don't have the luxury of mana, do I?^
He pulled a short black hair wig and wore it. "I'm not going to copy your whole appearance, don't worry. I only need enough for them not to suspect anything, but not to the point of identifying you."
Two minutes later, Jack walked out of the women's bathroom wearing the women's clothes, disguised enough to fool everyone. He sneakily walked around the tavern as Selica was still talking with the bartender, and discreetly dropped the strongest laxative pills he had in the thugs' drinks, before pretending he was sick and walking back into the women's bathroom.
He then gave the woman her clothes back and put a gold coin in her pocket, walked through the hole he made in the wall back into the men's bathroom. Fixed the wall, and then returned to his seat as if nothing happened, that all took him five minutes.
^Now…This should take care of the ones in here. But I'm certain they have more people waiting outside.^ He gulped down his drink and gave the money to the waiter girl as he walked out of the back door.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" A large muscular man approached Jack.
Jack slowly turned with a smile, noticing the alligator's tattoo on the man's neck. "I want to join, Alli-oo-croc."
"You today brats are so brazen," The man smiled. "Follow me."
Jack walked behind the man, a steel wire dangling out of his artificial fingers.
One minute later, Jack walked out of the back ally wearing the man's outfit and with a fake alligator's tattoo drawn on his neck.
Jack looked back at the man's corpse he left in the trash. "I was getting annoyed at your gang when you started snooping around when I was searing for info about the city, but now that you laid your eyes on one of my comrades, it's your loss."
^The best way to deal with a criminal organization like this is to kill their leaders so the henchmen would follow you.^ Jack walked away. ^Selica is one thing, but if any of you happened to lay an eye on one boss's wives, this city won't survive his rampage. So it's time for me to clean before they decide to come here.^
Selica left the bar, and Jack could hear the gang members inside rushing to the bathroom in panic.
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