Dungeons Online - Chapter 140

“With Major, Alchemy, and Merchant guilds out of the way, I still need to deal with the blacksmiths and that lord by the border, huh?” Tom muttered to himself when he suddenly felt a presence appear a few meters beside him.

“Come out,” he said softly, recognizing the faint aura of the man.

“Boss, I have taken care of the girl. She is now in one of my secure locations in the city,” the man in the black said even though he had chosen not to appear from the shadows. “I already assigned one of my subordinates to properly take care of her,” he reported.

“Good,” Tom replied, raising his head to the sky. For a moment, he remained fully silent, seemingly thinking about something. “Tell me,” he suddenly broke through his temporary muteness, “why do you keep hiding even when there is no one around?” Tom asked.

It wasn’t that he craved the answer. All over the world, or rather, all over both of the worlds, people had their own, often unexplainable, quirks. Tom wasn’t the one to admonish or even peer into any of them. ‘To each their own,’ was a phrase he picked in the second year of his school when he grew up to the point where more intimate topics became prevalent.

But in this strange world, even if he was disinterested in the reasons behind the black-clothed man’s behavior, asking about it could reveal some quirks of the world itself to him.

Ultimately, a common sense of a certain group wasn’t built by textbooks or hard, logical factors. While there were some things that were bound to appear in every civilization simply because of what made a group of sentient beings a civilization, most of their actual folklore and culture came from the smaller elements.

Just like that, even in another world, Tom could be sure that there were varying factions both in the town he was trying to take over and in any other town he would stumble upon in the future. By projecting the situation on a greater scale, he could be sure that some countries would hate a few of their neighbors while striking amicable relations with those that didn’t necessarily border them.

Those were the universal rules of conflict, growth, and the drive to grow. Because at the point where any kind of resource became scarce, people, or other races in regards to this new world, would strive to claim ownership of what was already taken.

‘But life isn’t as simple as that,’ Tom thought, intentionally keeping his eyes motionless instead of glancing over to where he sensed the man’s presence.

There was a multitude of possible reasons for him to keep to the shadows. Those reasons could be simple and logical, like being an outlaw or a member of an organization everyone feared. But those reasons could also take more ambiguous forms like faith, culture, or even physiology of the man’s body.

“Boss, I’m not sure how that will sound to you, but please, do not overreact,” the man whispered, clearly hesitant to spill the beans.

‘Just like I thought,’ Tom smiled to his own thoughts, yet, he didn’t pull his question back.

His inquiry clearly struck a sensitive note in the man’s heart. Normally, he would have no qualm against dropping the topic for the convenience of the other party, but this time, the aim of that question was different.

Learning the small details about the world aside, by forcing the man to reveal a potentially sensitive part about him, Tom could even further establish the hierarchy between the two of them.

‘And in a situation where that guy holds an immense leverage over me, I cannot skimp on any opportunity to do that,’ he thought.

“Actually, boss, I’m from a race known as a lesser vampire,” the man revealed, his voice shaking. “While I do not have the urge to drink blood, the sunlight is still too much for me to bear,” he explained, his voice dying down with each word.

“Good,” Tom muttered in response before suddenly looking right in the man’s direction. “Now, tell me what do you know and think about the major,” he said as he recalled his spear only to replace it with a freshly-made, magical one. Then, without waiting for an answer, he picked up the pace as he marched towards the town.

“He is a… weird man,” Tom’s shadow replied after a moment of thought. From how his voice easily reached the young man’s ears, it was clear that he saw no trouble moving through even the open areas of the town while staying close to his master. “He came to this place roughly a decade ago with nothing more but a bag full of money and a vision in his head.

“Ever since then, he slowly climbed his way up to the top. In a sense, he managed to topple the nobles that owned this entire place. And all of that, without even a single drop of blood spilled,” the lesser vampire spoke, a certain sense of awe and respect striking through his voice.

“That’s quite impressive,” Tom admitted. ‘If everything works out just fine, maybe I would be able to enlist his help with the matters back home?’ the young man thought about an unrealistic dream.

Between God and truth, Tom wasn’t confident in his political skills whatsoever. He was a born tactician, a master of small battle, but when it came to the fully-fledged conflict, his abilities were no longer of need.

This was one of the reasons why he considered himself to be the heir to the commanding seat of the family… But in name only. When it came to the true management of relations, striking deals, and deciding on enemies, it was a job that Marvin did splendidly in his place.

“There is one thing that upsets me about that man, quite a lot at that,” the vampire suddenly said, its voice louder than before.

‘Did he get closer, or is he agitated?’ Tom pondered. “Right, before you elaborate, which way to the blacksmith guild?” he asked, realizing that he had no idea where he should go.

Contrary to places like slaughter shops or tanneries bound to be situated at the edge of the town, the actual blacksmith could be literally in any place around the town. While there was a huge chance it wasn’t anywhere directly near the residential buildings, it wasn’t a strict rule but rather a loose guess.

After all, the peasantry of this clearly medivalesque world had little to say when it came to the comforts of living in the city. Just being able to live as an actual citizen was likely to be rewarding enough for them to put up with all the inconveniences of living near a noisy, dirty, and often extremely hot place like smithy!

“Straight ahead. In this town, there is not a single building of importance that doesn’t announce just how important it is with its looks alone,” the vampire said in a voice as if he was lamenting over the fact.

Yet, with his words interrupted, he didn’t delve back into the topic of his worries about major that he wanted to elaborate on before.

Surely enough, before long, Tom noticed a massive chimney, almost as high as the adventurer’s guild alone, protruding directly from the ground. To its side, a blocky building stood with metal bars for its windows and metal slabs for its door.

“I guess you were right,” Tom muttered, standing in place and taking a moment to get more details from relatively afar.

The chimney continuously produced smoke proving just how busy the insides of the building were.

“If you go to the other side, you will see their shopfront, boss,” the vampire informed in its usual whisper.

“So the door that I can see is their backdoor?” Tom asked, already forming a plan in his head. “Or rather, what should I expect from them? Will they act up if they learn that I came from the other side?” he asked more questions.

“That’s the worker’s entrance. If you use it, you can expect some resistance and attempts to throw you out,” the vampire said before taking a strangely long pause. “As for the other questions, I can only answer with what I know from the rumors. It’s nothing I confirmed myself,” he said.

‘Does that mean he was thrown out of the place?’ Tom thought, amused by the perspective of someone as stealthy as the black-clad man getting his ass kicked out of a place in a high-key manner. “It’s fine, go on,” he added anyway. ‘Even the stupidest rumors hold some truth,’ he thought.

“The thing is… Those people are really simple-minded,” the vampire said with a deep sigh. “They don’t really care about the city itself or who governs it as long as nothing much will change for them,” he added, clearly hesitant to strike right to the point.

“Why did the major leave the job of taking care of them to me, then?” Tom asked, smiling lightly.

“As I said, they don’t give two fucks about matters that are of your concern, boss,” the vampire sight before releasing yet another sigh. “But if you want to implement any changes, they will surely ask you for a battle,” he finally revealed the point of the matter.

“Battle?” Tom repeated the crucial word while shaking the spear in his hand. “How is that a problem?” he asked.

‘Even if they are fit, no, even if they are ripped because of their line of work, how would that be a  problem to me?’ he thought, puzzled. He saw himself how physical fitness only amounted to so much when compared to the power of magic that one could obtain in the dungeon.

“Boss… The battle…. Well, it’s not a bloody one. What they will challenge you to is an arm wrestle match!”