147 Assistance (1/2)

Li flew hovering in the sky, still in his ursine form. He had flown quite high up, far higher than the cloud line had been before he had blasted them away with his howl. This way, he guaranteed that nobody would have eyes on him.

As far as Li could tell, this world was extremely undeveloped in using surveillance spells. The magical art just did not seem to be something that was studied to any real degree. The denizens of this world were familiar with runes which did offer some measure of surveillance, but aside from that, there were precious few records of anyone truly specializing in clairvoyance magic.

When Li thought about it, it did make sense. Until one managed to level up to get subclasses, they had to commit to one of the basic classes such as warrior or mage which did not have many specialized surveillance spells. The average level of the people in this world was simply not high enough to effectively spec into these subclasses. Not to mention that the useful and longer range surveillance spells required subclasses that needed even higher level requirements.

Even then, Li did keep himself high up enough where if anyone was at ground level, he would be out of the range of clairvoyance spells below B rank, and there was nobody in this town that could come remotely close to using that tier of magic.

Li took the moment of aerial solitude to contemplate his next course of action. The adventurers and heroes would spend some time investigating the mansion further, he was sure of it. That gave him some time. Now, how to use it? He had already decided on going to the Flagon and using the excuse of needing to check up on Old Thane to explain why he had not personally shown up to heal the beastwomen.

Certainly, Li could just leave it at that, but almost two hours had passed since he had sent Iona to the Flagon instead of himself. That was enough time where it called into question whether he had spent all of it just checking on the old man.

Li decided to make use of that suspicion and find a useful explanation for what had kept him so long.

Knowing that, Li angled his wings of dark energy downwards. They flickered like flames as the wind caught on them, and he flapped his wings once to give himself propulsion. He sailed downwards, and as the land and city became more visible, he shifted back to his human form while maintaining the wings.

Li aimed himself towards the peak of the hill that housed the noble estates. He did not land there directly because knights and adventurers and heroes and who knows what were still buzzing around. Instead, he circled around to the opposite end of the hill from Chevrette's mansion, right where Alexei's estate lay.

There, Li rushed past smooth cobblestone pathways flanked by trimmed, tall bushes dotted with flowers swaying with the night breeze. Around him, he could hear the gurgling of fountains. He was not here to enjoy Alexei's taste in shrubbery, however, so he rushed past the paths of green until he reached the courtyard.

As soon as Li took a step into the berth of the courtyard, he found himself staring at a row of black suited vampire knights. This was unlike the count's usual security retinue. There were far more, packing the courtyard and the porch until it seemed like there was a veritable sea of armored bodies standing at attention.

”Something wrong?” said Li as he walked forwards.

A vampire knight bowed his head and said, ”The count has determined tonight to be a night of much activity. Thus, he has assigned a larger guard than usual. Does it inconvenience you?”

”Not at all,” said Li. ”I appreciate the count's foresight and ability to be on the same wavelength as I am. In any case, tell the count I'm here. I only need him for a minute.”

The knight nodded and simply pointed to one of the other knights behind him. The clanking of armor filled the air as a few knights marched into the black mansion. It was always interesting to note how efficiently the vampires of the same horde made use of their ability to telepathically communicate with each other.

And within a minute, the count was outside. As usual, the count appeared fully suited in elegant silken garb, as if always ready to entertain the highest of guests at the drop of a hat.

”And what will you need of me tonight?” said Alexei.