Chapter 66: There Aren’t That Many Blind Fools Out There
After witnessing Anse’s grand purchase, Brat and the others were also sparked with a bit of buying desire.
However, they didn’t get carried away and bought only standard common magical items.
Brat changed into a suit of shiny scale armor named 「Glimmering Scale Armor」, which is medium armor, featuring that it never gets dirty.
He also bought a 「Expression Shield」, with the front of the shield shaped like a face, allowing the holder to change the expression on that face.
It sounds a bit weird, but Brat likes it a lot; one can only say the creator truly understands the warrior’s essence.
Finn bought two quivers of armor-piercing arrows and a suit of 「Sharkskin Leather Armor」. After changing equipment, his appearance… was still so ugly, but at least his back view looked cool.
By the time Anse completed attunement with the King Butterfly Cloak, the two had already changed into their equipment and looked somewhat elite.
“Not bad, not bad.” He stood up to pay.
Those loot items also had shares for Brat and the others; after all, everyone participated in hunting Gais and fighting the slave ship crew, so he ought to make up their portions.
At this moment, downstairs seemed to erupt in chaos, suddenly becoming noisy.
At the same time, Anse received a telepathic message from Nolnos: a fight had broken out outside, not involving it, but an acquaintance.
‘An acquaintance known by Nolnos?’
His heart skipped a beat. He pushed open the nearby window and looked out; at a corner of the distant trading post, a burly man was being surrounded and attacked by four people, covered in bloodstains, with many onlookers.
“Emon!” Brat, who came over, recognized the back figure at a glance, his expression changing immediately.
“Let’s go check it out.” Anse waved to Sidney and hurried downstairs.
Sidney was stunned, came to the window, and glimpsed the eye-catching black horse from afar. A vague guess formed in his mind, and he immediately shouted downward: “Guards, stop them!”
“Yes…” Two merchant alliance guards immediately ran toward the commotion.
While hurrying downstairs, Anse quickly asked Nolnos telepathically: ‘What just happened?’
Emon, with his family in tow, really wasn’t the type to stir up trouble.
‘Someone grabbed me… I bumped them down… then we… started fighting…’ Nolnos isn’t very smart, but it could express clearly.
The matter wasn’t complicated: a group of adventurers encountered Nolnos wandering in the Silver Scale Trading Post, tried to steal the horse, but got bumped by Nolnos until they vomited blood, and refused to let it go.
This scene drew a lot of attention. People from the Stonemason Guild recognized Nolnos and hurriedly informed Emon. Emon rushed over to stop it, and they started fighting after a few words.
‘They must be outsiders.’ Anse was very certain; after burning the slave ship, few in Silver Scale Bay hadn’t heard of his people.
Nolnos is very distinctive; even without seeing it, one could guess.
‘Why didn’t you tell me earlier.’ Anse scolded.
‘I’m not afraid…’ Nolnos thought since its master could kill and set fires without issue, bumping into someone was no big deal.
‘Is this about being afraid or not? In the future, report any conflict to me immediately!’
‘Oh.’
‘No running around in the future.’
‘I didn’t run, I was walking…’
Anse felt a wave of mental exhaustion and hurriedly urged: ‘Go help, don’t hit the wrong people.’
By now, several people had arrived at the scene, located between the open-air market and the shops, not far from the labor market.
Crowds of onlookers, packed tightly and very close, all excited and unafraid.
“Make way, make way—” The two guards sent by Sidney shouted loudly, cooperating with Brat slapping his sword and shield to part the crowd.
Anse moved forward through the narrow gap, with Finn following behind him.
“Thud—” A man in half plate armor was suddenly rammed by the intervening Nolnos and sent sliding several meters.
Unfortunately, the space was cramped, making it hard for Nolnos to build momentum, and the man had a shield and armor, so he wasn’t seriously injured.
Anse instinctively reached for his staff, then remembered the goodberry staff was with Finn. He immediately took off the direction orb and wrapped it around his hand.
After a short dragon speech, a sorcerous burst-thunder arced over a dozen meters, exploding suddenly in front of the man.
“Boom—”
The man raised his shield to block in front of him, his body trembling from the blast, ears ringing, but he wasn’t injured.
Anse hadn’t intended to kill; horse thieves and slavers weren’t the same, and Silver Scale Bay had laws—how could he kill on sight.
The surrounding crowd was startled and retreated one after another; spells don’t spare bystanders.
【You cast sorcerous burst on Amn elite, missed】
‘How is that possible?’ Anse’s eyes narrowed slightly; anyone might not know him, except people from the Kingdom of Amn.
He now basically understood the dice’s naming rules: without a specific name, it would generically define based on detected identity.
“Amn elite” was clearly a member of some organization, not ordinary adventurers; such people likely knew of his grudge with the Nahshival Family.
After all, the 【Conch】 had just been stripped of its name and was undergoing modifications at the dock. The news had spread far and wide; any well-informed adventurer would know.
‘Are they truly unaware, or putting on a show? Coming for me? What’s their goal?’
He touched his hot holy symbol, feeling a chill on his back.
“Stop it—all of you—” The two guards bellowed.
However, the four adventurers ignored them completely, continuing to surround and attack Emon with lethal intent.
Emon feared causing deaths and held back, restricting himself and taking several hits, nearly suffering big losses.
Brat could no longer hold back; wielding sword and shield, he charged and single-handedly intercepted that warrior.
Anse stopped, deciding to probe further.
“
Three magic missiles whistled out, tracing three independent arcs in the air, straight toward the other three adventurers.
The three had clearly seen magic missiles before and were experienced; they immediately huddled to block, minimizing their hit area and tanking with their thickest armor.
“Bang bang bang!”
【You cast magic missile on Amn elite… Amn elite hit, takes 3 force damage, current life 19/22…】
Three combat prompts flashed through his mind in succession, and Anse’s expression immediately turned cold.
If the hot holy symbol could be explained by numbers, could four Amn elites together still be coincidence?
‘They’re deliberately luring me out—what’s the point? These low-level professionals can’t threaten me.’
At this moment, the four adventurers stopped simultaneously.
An adventurer holding a short sword saw Anse retreat instead of advancing and urgently said: “This isn’t over—you wait—”
With that, he slammed his right hand forcefully to the ground with a bang, thick smoke billowing out and rapidly spreading abnormally fast.
Anse retreated swiftly but still couldn’t outpace the smoke; his vision went completely gray, seeing nothing, relying only on blindsight to sense the surroundings within three meters.
He held his breath, mind instantly tensing; while accelerating his retreat, he telepathically called for Nolnos.
No hoofbeats, but he clearly sensed Nolnos approaching; the surroundings were so quiet, as if… time had frozen.
Without thinking, he raised his hand for the class spell control winds—at this point, he couldn’t care about collateral damage.
The wind suddenly intensified, blowing his hair wildly, strands whipping his skin painfully, yet the smoke persisted, and he heard no wind in his ears.
‘This isn’t smoke!’ He decisively interrupted the casting.
Bad news came from Nolnos: it was blocked by the chaotic crowd and couldn’t get through unless trampling people.
‘Trample!’
Anse now saw nothing; he didn’t dare use misty step, feeling some unease.
Before he could think of a countermeasure, his peripheral gaze caught a glint; a translucent short blade without a hilt quietly appeared at his neck, close enough that his skin felt its sharpness.
“Clang—”
The force shield blocked it briefly before shattering instantly.
Just as he thought the attack was over, the translucent short blade vibrated slightly, instantly sliding past the cloak’s edge and stabbing into his collarbone.
Sizzle—a sharp pain spread from his chest throughout his body, making him shudder involuntarily, a trace of panic rising in his heart.
Before the short blade could fully enter, his figure suddenly vanished.
The next instant, a large swarm of vividly colorful butterflies abruptly appeared four or five meters ahead, like a burst of color, swirling gracefully around Anse, blending with the gorgeous King Butterfly Cloak, impossible to discern where he was.
【You are hit by Shadow Thief Elite’s psi blade tracking slash, hit, take 6 psychic damage, current life 30/36】
‘Shadow Thieves Guild!’ Anse’s nerves tightened.
And at the instant he teleported away, the bloodied psi blade vanished, a shadow figure materializing out of thin air.
The shadow thief’s hand rose slightly, but the target was gone; he paused, turning to see the sky full of dancing colorful butterflies behind.
Clearly, he was unaffected by the smoke.
