15 Trap?

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the fleeting colors of dusk began to fade away. A youth walked through the busy streets of the Free Market, he had an ordinary face, he was hooded and adorned in a fighter outfit, if observed closely the young fighter had vital qi of purification stage.

That youth was Lucas in disguise, of the many potions in locker there were many disguise medicament and many strange outfits useful in different occasions.

Travelling through the streets Lucas gradually went closer to Grey Hall in Underhood Market. The only clue related to Fedrick was Saddik, when so many people were chasing Fedrick he came for a trade, that means he trusts Saddik or Saddik doesn't know of Fedrick's true identity.

With system's help, snooping around will be perfect and there is only a minimal risk.

Till now Lucas himself were not sure whether the name Fedrick is true or not.

After the trade something happened, Fedrick and those assailants fought, even though they called Mr.Maverick Fedrick, not much information was revealed from either of the sides, Fedrick truly hated them but he didn't dared to or wanted to spread their name, that itself speaks of their terror or relationship or maybe something is holding him back or he may even have some other plans and he don't want to risk revealing them.

Lucas quickly reached near the street Grey Hall was located, but quickly Lucas slowed his walking speed. The place where the Grey Hall situated was now in ruins, some nearby shops have also been damaged and only three shops were still open. Lucas after giving a quick look over at the ruins, walked along the street. As the distance between the Grey Hall and Lucas increased, he pondered.

Ruins? Seems like a battle took place, was it between Saddik and people related to the ones chasing Fedrick? or was it between Saddik and Fedrick?

Things are getting trickier.

Who was behind it? What happened to Saddik?

I need information! Where can i get it? How to get it? Can't use my true identity. But I am too weak to intimidate others with strength. I need an appropriate status.

Lucas slowed his pace and walked to a near alleyway and took a round trip, his destination being the Grey Hall.

While weaving through the black market his face and skin slowly transformed, after making sure no one was looking Lucas quickly and covertly changed his outfit in an alleyway.

Walking out, Lucas turned into an Arsln Family Guard in late twenties who have just stridden in purification stage, due to the new situation in the market many new guards were transferred in City of Datura and patrolling was heavy, especially in Free Market.

Even the Underhood Market was being patrolled by a short group of guards.

With the help of System there was no need for any extra qi hiding techniques, because with the tweaking of System, Lucas was capable of an almost perfect feat in control of body.

While walking Lucas quietly put a pill inside his mouth, just as it touched his tongue the pill swiftly melted inside the body.

Lucas quietly mumbled to himself and walked forward. "Taking precautions is always good."

Lucas didn't walk straight into the ruins of Grey Hall but went to a nearby shop which was selling prohibited miscellaneous items according to System. Opening the door Lucas arrogantly walked in with a confident stride.

Ting! Ting!

While opening the door the bell fixed on the door ringed loudly, informing the visit of a potential customer, hearing the sound of bell, the shop keeper who was dozing off quickly awakened, he looked like a skinny old man with deep sunken eyes and rough skin.

Seeing the Arsln Guard uniform the shopkeeper immediately trembled but quickly he become deferential and bowed.

"Welcome Sir, What can I do for you?"

Lucas arrogantly looked at the shopkeeper and frowned.

"Are you the Shopkeeper?"

"Yes, yes this humble one is the shopkeeper of 'Rare Materials, Top Materials' store."

Looking around Lucas could see some rare materials inside the shelf.

Turning to the shopkeeper he asked. "There isn't much so called rare materials nor top materials"

Shopkeeper immediately smiled and said, "The true high quality materials are not shown around, it is all safely placed deep inside, if Lord needs, this humble one will gift you some."

The Shopkeeper turned around to go inside and pick a treasure to gift Lucas.

Lucas immediately waved his hands and stopped him.

"No need, I am just here to ask you some questions."

The Guards were strictly forbidden to take any form of interference in the business and also any form of bribes, especially in a place like black market. If he dared to take bribe, his head won't be on his shoulders for a long time.

In the Underhood Market Guards are only there to take care of dead bodies and to gather intelligence regarding the situations inside the complicated black market.

"What happened to the Grey Hall?"

Shopkeeper's eyes immediately shone in a imperceptible way, he hurriedly replied, "There was a big fight more than two people at higher realm. Many people inside the building was killed and robbed. There were mages and warriors inside fighting, but only some of them survived.

"Survivors?"

"Yes, I saw some escaping and the speed they shown belong to higher realm warriors and mage."

Lucas pondered for a moment.

'Is he talking about the day the trade happened. If so why weren't there anything related to this incident in the information Hilven given me.'

Inwardly Lucas bitterly smiled. 'I am young, he probably thought it was just a pass time for me and thought that revealing information related to Underhood market to me will only led to inconvenient consequences for him.'

Lucas cut off his thoughts related to Hilven and thought about the Grey Hall.

Maybe Fedrick was betrayed by Saddik or Saddik learned about the treasures of Fedrick and that led to a fight or some other group attacked them.

I didn't detect any trace of poison so Fedrick haven't used the potion I gave him, if he was desperate he would definitively use that potion. So whatever happened here Fedrick had surely escaped.

Grey Hall had more than one higher realm expert so they surely wouldn't have any causalities in experts. The death mentioned by the Shopkeeper must me the lower level employees and the unlucky customers inside the Grey Hall.

There is also an another scenario. Fedrick and Saddik are close friends and somehow the organization or the people chasing Fedrick have found about Saddik and they attacked him.

Narrowing his eyes Lucas looked at the Shopkeeper. The shopkeeper respectfully lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry for not being of your help. I didn't dared to watch the battle between higher realm experts, they could crush me easily as they crush ants."

Lucas thought for a moment and asked.

"What about Saddik? Is he dead?"

The eyes of the Shopkeeper shone brightly and stealthily switched a button on the ring he wore, Lucas didn't notice the change in his eyes or the movement in his hands.

The Shopkeeper raised his head and smiled brightly, "Of course he is dead, when our Blood Hawk lock on a prey, their destiny was also locked."

Lucas was stunned, "Our Blood Hawk?"

Whish!!

Suddenly Lucas heard the sound of wind breaking from his back side.

Bang!

Next instant a heavy force slammed into Lucas's head and his face was planted on the ground.

Lucas couldn't hear what they were saying, he felt dizzy and pain.

Bang! Click!

Pain, Lucas felt a sharp pain on his abdomen, someone kicked him hard, even with his high level body cultivation he felt pain.

Lucas got a preliminary understanding. The ones who hit him were experts with battle experience and they knew where to strike and how to strike.

[Ding! Damage at 13%, recovering…!]

The notification from system quickly cleared Lucas's mind. Vital Qi inside Lucas's body automatically flowed towards back of his head and abdomen. Slowly the pain alleviated.

"Haha, finally we caught a clue, this time that b*stard Antonio will not escape."

Lucas weakly stood up and watched. He was surrounded by three men, qi fluctuations from the newly arrived two men indicates that they are peak of Purification Stage and the shopkeeper still feels like a weak practitioner of mana, probably in the accumulation stage.

Lucas quickly shouted, "You B*stard, you dare to harm me. This is City of Datura, to attack a guard of Arsln it is a heinous crime don't think you can cover it up, you're dead, you're definitely dead."

The skinny man in the side laughed and said, "Don't try to trick us, we don't know from where you got the guard's uniform but we already know that you are not a guard of Arsln family"

This time Lucas truly flurried, how did they knew it? My preparation was perfect, I had already checked some guards and my attire is completely same with the others.

Lucas sneered, "Idiots you don't even know who you have now offended, now sit tightly and welcome your death."

"Haha, you don't even know the predicament you are now in, you are still thinking of lecture us. Didn't you see what's on your left wrist."

Lucas lowered his head to look at his left wrist. On his wrist a black handcuff was placed it was similar to those that prisoners wear, on the black handcuff there were obscure runic patterns, from system he quickly understood the runes, it was runes related to suppression and sealing.

"Did you recognize it? It is a low level Qi Suppressing Lock. Whether you are a fighter or an apprentice mage, both your Qi and Mana will be suppressed as long as you wear the lock."

Lucas immediately tried to access the ring and bracelet his grandfather gave him, fortunately he could still activate them, but space ring and other magical items he took from his locker was found to be inaccessible.

Checking his mana Lucas found out that he couldn't cast any spells, but conversely his vital qi was flowing smoothly.

Just then the Book of Rune inside Lucas's mind palace shivered.

[Ding! The suppression effect decreased by 20%.]

Lucas once again stunned, but right away he cut off his thoughts and tried to calm down and started to think about how to escape.

"Now tell me where is Antonio? If you tell me the truth we will let you go without any harm" A burly and robust man looking like the leader of the small group asked.

Lucas was bewildered, ' Who is Antonio? Did I got into an another messy problem. It haven't been even a week since I awakened.'

Lucas tried to access his space ring and rest of his magical items, but only space ring could be activated. Right away Lucas took a pill from space ring and instantly pinched it.

Lucas calmly replied, "I don't know any Antonio."

The leader squinted his eyes and after a moment of contemplation he asked.

"How about Fedrick or Mr.Maverick?"

Lucas was enlightened.

"So that was his real name, does that mean you guys are the one who were chasing him?"

"Yes we were chasing him for so about two months, it was a close chase."

The leader talked casually to Lucas, "He made a trap for us in the Rainlight region, it gave us some trouble and slowed us down."

"Now tell us, where is he? You must have heard about Blood Hawk Mercenary Group, we keep our promises, tell me where he is and you can go home without any problem."

Lucas hesitantly looked at the three of them and asked them with a low voice.

"You won't strike me from the back after releasing me, would you."

The leader and the skinny guy simultaneously smiled, "No, you ca-"

"He is stalling for time."

The man acting as the shopkeeper interrupted the other two happiness.

The leader frowned and looked at the shopkeeper before asking.

"Are you sure?"

The shopkeeper nodded slightly.

"When you spoke about the Qi Suppressing Lock, his mind was agitated but soon calmed down, throughout the conversation, he showed anger, joy, despair all these emotions were not true. He was completely calm throughout the conversation."

The leader once more gave a long look towards Lucas. He was not angry, he looked at Lucas like he found a new toy. The skinny guy looked pitifully at Lucas.

"Interesting, why are you so calm?, do you have any backup."

Right now Lucas was truly scared, how did he knew about his state of mind. What kind of ability does he have?

Seeing Lucas's frightened look, the shopkeeper misunderstood him and thought that he was frightened by exposure of his secret trick, the shopkeeper gave a sinister smile towards Lucas and said.

"Hello, I am an Apprentice Shaman."