Chapter 63 - 62 Necromancer's Hideout
Marcus followed behind the two thugs that were obviously carrying someone they had stuffed into a sack hoping that they would lead him to his quarry.
They cut in and out of dozens of allies moving with the utmost stealth as to not be seen, and Marcus using his stealth skill tailed behind them.
After a dozen or so minutes the pair stopped in front of a small building and slipped inside along with their captive.
Realizing he would have difficult time following them in his physical form Marcus reverted back to being a ghost and slipped through one of the building\'s walls.
Once inside he spotted them moving some furniture that was situated over a rug, and when they had finished pulled off the rug to expose a hidden door.
One of the men then pulled out a lantern that was filled with a large chuck of luminous crystal and the two men dragged their victim down a flight of stairs.
Following the men down the stairs Marcus noticed them stop at the bottom of the room where there was a sealed metal door.
The kidnappers then pulled out a pair of clamps and used them to forcefully shut their noses. Once they had completed that one of them unlocked and opened the metal door.
As the door was opening Marcus could here the soft sound of flowing water and realized where these guy were going.
\'The necromancer is hiding in the sewers how cliché can they get. But I guess whatever works is all they care about, and most people would not want to go prowling around the sewers, so it makes a good hiding place. It is at times like these that I am grateful I can not smell while in my ghost form.\'
Floating behind the two men Marcus continued following them through the sewers for another five minutes before they stopped in front of a wall.
One of the men then pressed a brick and the wall slid to the side revealing a secret corridor. The two men then hurriedly passed through the opening and the wall slid closed behind them.
\'This certainly is a large amount of security; most people would have a hard time following these guys to this point but luckily for me physical obstacles are the same as air.\'
Passing through the wall that had just been closed Marcus continued to tail the men until they came to a large room three hundred feet down the corridor. In the room Marcus could immediately see a large stack of around two dozen corpses piled up in one of the corners of the room.
The men then walked up to the pile and unceremoniously through the sack and the person inside of it onto the heap of bodies and then began talking.
"The boss sure is letting them pile up, normally he takes them away every day but some of these bodies are from three days ago."
"Did you not here, he said he was going to be busy with some kind of ritual involving the bodies of those adventures that snuck down here about a week ago."
"Ah, right, he did that the last time as well saying he was happy he got some premium material."
"Yeah, he is a pretty sick dude but hey five silver a body is better money than we can make anywhere else."
"Let\'s head back out we might be able to round up another one before the sun fully rises."
The two thugs then turned around and started to walk back to the false wall until suddenly both of their views suddenly changed, and they could see their own bodies.
Their heads then splattered onto the ground as the two men\'s lives came to an end.
Having rematerialized and quickly and stealthily sliced off the two men\'s heads Marcus stared at their bodies in disgust.
\'The world is now a slightly better place now that those two guys are dead. I understand that in this world you have to be ruthless to survive but what these guys were doing went well beyond what any sane person is capable of. I am an actual monster but compared to them I am a saint, oh well they are dead now so no more need to worry about another piece of garbage I have already taken out.\'
Storing his scythe back into his item box Marcus walked over to person in the leather sack the two thugs had just thrown onto the pile of corpses and used his spectral hand to retrieve them.
Opening the bag, he found a little boy no older than eight barely breathing and seemingly struck with a fever.
Looking him over Marcus tried using his tier one healing spell on the boy but it seemed to have little to no affect as his fever still burned hot.
While Marcus had become far crueler than he once was he had not turned into an inhumane monster that would let a child die in front of him if he could possibly help.
Accessing his status Marcus spent four of his reserve skill points and leveled his healing magic up to two. With the new level came the tier two spell lesser restoration and hoping that it would be enough Marcus cast the spell on the boy.
\'Come on get better I really do not want to sink anymore skill points into leveling up my healing magic at this moment. Ugh I should have bought some potions; I may not have much use for them since I am immune to things like poison and diseases, but I may need them to help someone else in the future.\'
After a few minutes of casting lesser restoration while thinking of contingency items he would need to obtain later, Marcus noticed that the boy\'s fever was starting to go down.
Soon the boy opened his eyes with a start and took in a deep breath and was about to scream. Noticing this, Marcus acted quickly and covered the boy\'s mouth before he gave away their position. With the boy\'s mouth now covered and the threat of his infiltration being noticed Marcus said in a hushed tone, "Okay, kid I just rescued you from the guys that kidnapped you but more of their friends might be around, so I need you to stay quite. I am going to take my hand of your mouth now so do not scream."
Marcus then uncovered the boy\'s mouth who just looked at him fearfully before quietly asking, "Where are we mister, it is dark down here and I cannot see anything."
"We are down in the sewers but do not worry I will take you back to the surface real quick and you can head back to your home."
The young boy looked down with a solemn expression before saying, "I do not have home to go back to I have been living on the streets for as long as I can remember."
With a slight pang in his chest Marcus sighed before taking out his coin pouch and saying, "Here kid take eight silver and use it to live off for a while, since I have some more things I need to do down here once I take you back up to the surface, I will not be able to help you anymore than this."
The kid then looked at the small pouch of coins Marcus had handed him with a face of disbelief. He had never even seen a silver before in his life and now some random stranger had given him eight just out of the kindness of their heart.
Staring up at Marcus with a big smile the young boy thanked him profusely getting a bit loud causing Marcus to plant his hand over his mouth once again.
Marcus then carried the boy back out of the sewers and onto the city streets just as the sun was begging to rise.
After telling the boy to take care of himself Marcus headed back down into the sewers and into the necromancer\'s hideout.