I stood on the slated roof completely still.

The first variant I had to collect had been taken into custody by the knights.

Which for a wanted man, isn’t really the best scenario.

Plus they most likely would think Risible is some form of accomplice since both of us have numbers ingrained in our left eye.

“Ode… how difficult would it be to get Risible back?”

<With your current wanted level? Hard.>

“Can’t I just break in, break out?”

<You don’t want to cause a commotion since it will get more people on your ass. So you’ll need to stealthily break him out.>

I watched as they walked around the corner. He was probably going to be taken to some sort of prison… They called them dungeons in medieval times right?

I sighed.

“I’ll meet back up with Esther for now.”

After about seven hours of me sitting outside of the city walls on that cliff. Esther showed up carrying a shit ton of items.

Ranging from fishing rods, ropes, rations of food, a proper tent, some new sets of clothing and a bunch of other things. The list was long… I kind of felt bad for her.

She looked exhausted, and I hadn’t even told her the news that we found Risible yet.

I can just tell her tomorrow morning right? I mean it’s not like he’s going anywhere, he can probably hold out on his own.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

After letting Esther rest for the night and having my [Storage] skill hold onto all of the resources Ode made us collect, we decided to head back into the city.

Alfresco itself looked way more advanced than Noyade. Almost like some form of roman city, the streets were nicely paved, the roofs were slated with clay-like tiles. Even the buildings were made of some type of concrete. They had well furnished windows and the city overall was clean. It almost felt like I left the medieval world and entered a brand new one…

Esther and I traveled along the rooftops to stay out of sight. After thinking about it we probably should have snuck in at night, but it’s better to be well rested for things like this. 

<Cyn that giant tower in the center is where they took him.>

“How do you know that Ode?”

<You're close enough now that I can easily get his direct location. I’m also updating the radar to register that specific frequency to track ninety-nine at all times.>

So he can just do that huh?

“Alright then… So how do we get in?”

<Figure it out.>

…

“Excuse me?”

Ode stopped talking after that.

He’s so helpful!

Well to give him credit, he is actually helpful. Sometimes.

I looked toward the central tower, it had these stone walls surrounding it. The walls were relatively high, and there were knights patrolling the entire thing. My guess is that it was some kind of fort, which means the direct heart of enemy territory.

Then somewhere deep inside of that stronghold is Risible.

“Well let's get going I guess.”

“Hmm…”

“What?”

“You can manipulate your body to take any shape right?”

“Yeah.”

Ah-!

She’s saying that I disguise myself as one of the knights, the only problem with that is I don’t have a direct copy of their armor.

“Esther, give me a second.”

I turned around and jumped down into the alleyway behind us.

She stared at where I had jumped as a scream erupted from it.

I hopped back up a minute later with this silver and red armor forming over me. My slime was climbing my body forming all of the plated armor pieces. Including this badass looking knight helmet. I really liked that part.

“How’s it look?”

“Good. What about the knight?”

“Just unconscious.”

We went down to the street and started approaching the fortress. It gave off this menacing feeling…

I took the rope out from my [Storage] skill and wrapped it around Esther’s wrists. Our decoy was that she was someone I was taking in for questioning, it was kind of flimsy but… we didn’t really have much else to work with.

We slowly went under the metal gates, the knights watched us cross into the fort. 

There were a lot of them surrounding us. I walked up to one that was standing in front of the doors guarding the central tower. 

“I have someone to bring in for questioning.”

Esther jumped back a little at the sound of my voice.

The knight lifted this notepad and flipped a few pages before responding.

“Section 3W427 on underground floor three.”

We nodded our heads toward each other before I dragged Esther inside of the tower. There were spiraling stairs leading both up and down the tower. I started making my way down before she began talking again.

“What happened to your voice?”

“Huh-? Oh, that was one of the bandits I absorbed awhile back.”

“So you can modify your voice too?”

We kept going down the stairs, they were made of these old stone bricks that had cracks in them. We passed the first floor which seemed to have a lot of old rust infused cells.

“I can change any part of my body into what I absorb. So I can change my voice to that of a bandit, an important noble, or even just a person.”

As I said those I swapped my voice to each one, the noble being Percide and the person being that girl that tried stabbing me with a dagger.

We kept traveling down the stairs as we reached the third floor. The halls were dimly lit as we walked along them, going past these old cells that held skeletons and shredded rags of clothing.

I untied Esther’s ropes and put them back into my [Storage] skill.

She stretched a little before I retracted the armor replica I had on.

“So now we just walk until we find him right?”

“Nope, use magic.”

She stared at me while speaking bluntly.

||SPELL CREATION||

I had the cyan gears form in front of me as I started digging through the premade section. I found a few based off of searching, I connected the gears together and activated them using my mana.

“Search.”

My pupils got this green-like glow as I looked around the dungeon. I saw this almost red silhouette of someone in a cell way further in then we were.

“Hmm…”

||SPELL CREATION||

I now have [Search] as a spell for me to easily find whatever I’m looking for, but it’s still relatively hard to get where I want since I can’t see everything around me.

So why don’t I just simply make a map?

I visualized this almost digital map, similar to the ones I would see online in my previous life. The radius around me would vary based on how much mana I pour into it. I don’t think I would be able to do anything larger than a continent, but that also changes based on that continent's sizing.

I connected the gears together, and slammed my fist through the mana cluster. The gears reformed into the magic circles around my arms, and a bright cyan sigil on my palm.

“Map.”

This almost square-like digital interface appeared in front of me. I mixed it with [Search] and I saw this red dot down the corridors of the dungeon. Esther and I began walking down them, hiding in nearby cells each time some form of knight walked past.

We eventually made it to this one cell that was fully coated in this sturdy dark steel. It was bolted together and there were no holes that could be noted. Just steel plates all connected, with the door tightly sealed shut.

“Well I guess we’re here.”

I kicked the door, sending it flying back and slamming it into what appeared to be concrete walls.

There was a man sitting on the left side of the room on what looked like a bed.

“Yo.”

“Risible, right?”

I walked into the cell and went over to him.

“I’m Cyn, nice to meet you.”

As I said that I put my hand out to shake his.

He slapped my hand away gently with the back of his.

Risible stood up and did a light stretch before walking toward the door.

“Nice to meet you, now let’s go. I need a drink.”

<You have to earn his respect Cyn, you can’t just expect to get it.>

“I see…”

I walked out to him and Esther.

“Alright, are we all set now?”

“Yep!”

She said energetically.

We then heard loud storms of metal approaching us.

Ah-

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.