Chapter 77: Toxic to the Core (1/2)

Marni Wilf trudged through the snow with his caravan.

He was leaving Lancaster City.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t move directly from the city to the underground stronghold. What he was worried about was that he might have attracted some unfriendly attention after he began selling those two new potions. If he took too direct a route to where he was going, then although he might appear to have vanished at first, it was likely that someone would eventually discover the secret entrance to his hide-out, and that could be a real problem.

As such, every time he’d finished with his business within the city, he’d take the long way back around, and access Lancaster City’s sewers from the outside. As one of the players, he had a map of the subterranean tunnel network, so there was no fear of getting lost.

However, after doing things this way several times, events nevertheless began to progress towards his worst case scenario.

A faint shadow flitted past Marni, and gave him a little nod.

“As expected, someone suspicious is following me?” he sighed.

The spirit began pantomiming various gestures. Marni watched for a moment, then cocked an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of people. Three dozen? Mostly a bunch of hired vagrants? That’s fine, then.” He grinned, and a nasty sort of light flashed through his eyes.

If it had been something like the Holy Corps of the Brilliant White Church coming after him, he’d definitely be running for dear life right this very moment, and he would never bring his wares to Lancaster City again until he’d risen in level some more.

But if it was just some random collection of bums, that indicated the person pulling the strings was of limited means.

After Marni parted ways with the Silver Chimes Merchant Guild, he’d made some changes to his caravan: Now, all the drivers and guards were players too!

Although Ivan was the only one among them who’d even gone through a class change, the rest of the newer players had nevertheless been seasoned with time, and they were now at an average level of 10. Never mind a rabble like this—even if they were up against proper troops, equal to them in number, they’d have the upper hand all the same!

Before long, the leader of the pursuers noticed that Marni was meandering aimlessly in circles, and understood that they’d been spotted. Rather than beating around the bush any further, they decided to just make use of their superior numbers, and quickly surrounded the caravan.

Although Marni had already been informed by his summoned spirit about how most of the pursuers were nothing to worry about, when he saw them in their rags, shivering in the snow, yet shouting and posturing in a desperate attempt to appear menacing… Marni couldn’t help but sigh.

“Mister Wilf, I congratulate you on the success of your new Cola products.” The one in the lead had some nice stuff on him, and so did the two henchmen flanking him. It was a stark contrast from the rest of the motley crew.

They outnumbered Marni’s people at least three-to-one, and so they probably felt like they were in full control of the situation. With a flippant smirk, the leader of the pursuers continued, “I wonder if you’d be interested in becoming partners? We could make it rich together.”

“Ah, not interested.” Marni couldn’t be bothered to banter with him like this, and gave him a curt reply.

The other man’s expression darkened instantly. Examining Marni’s cold indifference, he snarled, “You’d better give it some careful thought. At the moment, I’m still willing to let you be somebody, moving forward. We can each have a slice of the pie. If you really don’t know how to count your blessings, I may have to resort to a slightly more direct approach, in order to persuade you to share all your secrets with me!”

“Alright. After much deliberation, I remain uninterested.” Marni felt as though he could see a puff of smoke rising out from the other man’s head, but couldn’t decide if it was from rage or shame.

Whichever the case, this signified a breakdown of negotiations.

“Beat them up! Take whatever you want from their bodies and their wagons!” With that, the horde of hobos attacked.

“I feel sorry for you guys, but I must warn you nevertheless: Lay a hand on any one of us, and you’d better be ready to die—” Before Marni could finish, some of the vagrants charged in at him, eyes on the fine jacket he was wearing.