Losing authorities

The man tried to struggle but he could not free himself as Frederick was still on his back. "Agh- Let me go! I will kill you! " The man shouted with a furious expression as he continued trying to escape.

However, Frederick didn't care about his threats and just continued questioning. "How do you know about my coat?" he questioned.

"I don't know what you are talking abo-" As the man continued trying to escape, a sudden cracking noise interrupted him.

"Ah-" The man immediately stopped struggling as he realized that the sound he heard came from one of his fingers. The man looked back and saw that one of his fingers was now twisted in the wrong way.

The man was silent for a few moments as he was trying to process what just happened. However it didn't last long as the next instant, the pain suddenly kicked in and he screamed. Unfortunately, the alley was too far from the main roads so nobody heard him.

"Arghhhh!"

This pain was extremely unbearable as it felt like someone was tearing his flesh apart. It was close to the truth as we could see the bone sticking out of the skin. The pain was so vivid that he almost passed out but thankfully ... or unfortunately, he didn't.

"Now talk. I will repeat my question. How did you know about my coat? " Frederick asked again without any expression on his face.

The man could feel that Frederick was very serious so he knew he had no other choice. 

"I ... will tell you but... You need to-" 

Before the man could talk another cracking noise interrupted him as another of his fingers twisted. This time, Frederick used all his strength so the finger was now bent and hung lifelessly. The man couldn't even feel his finger anymore, it just felt like it was not connected to him at all.

"Arrhhhhhhh! Please ... Stop, it hurts. I will talk! I will talk!" cried the man. It seemed that this pain was too much to bear. "I... I have an authority that can see the 'worth' of an object ... From my point of view, the more it is worth the brighter it glows."

The man continued his explanation. "So when I saw you... Your coat was ... shining very brightly and I immediately knew that it was an authority item... I did not plan to take it but seeing how weak you looked like..." The man said between pants and coughs as he was struggling to talk.

"So you bumping into me was not an accident and you planned it. What about that red-haired woman you talked about?" Frederick asked 

"... uh ... She ... is just a red-haired prostitute that stole some authorities and ran away..." said the man with reluctance as he was struggling to formulate his sentences.

Hearing this answer, Frederick seemed to be in deep thought. It sounded logical as authorities were used as a form of currency here, so him chasing after her would be something normal but ... Why did no guards stop him when he caused such a ruckus? 

After a brief moment of thought, Frederick asked "Then why didn't any guards try to stop you from chasing me? Usually, they would be quite sensitive to something that would disturb their peace."

Listening to his question, the man was silent as he seemed to be a bit scared to answer it. He even seemed to struggle to answer as Frederick felt his body tensing a bit. But before Frederick could break another of the man's fingers, the man suddenly started talking with an apologetic tone.

"They... I bribed them. I am sorry... Please just let me go, it hurts so much" the man pleaded with a trembling tone 

'Bribed...' 

Seeing that Frederick was silent, the man decided to ask again "So can I go now? I promise you won't ever see me again! I won't tell anyone about your item eith-" Without any warning, Frederick directly snapped one of the man's last usable fingers. 

 "Ahhhh- no please!" pleaded the man but it was already too late. His hand was now a bloody mess. It looked like an elephant just trampled over it as it was full of cracks.

"Now tell the truth." Frederick could expose this lie pretty easily because of his own experience with this place. The city's mayor was an absolute control maniac. It was to the point where even the simplest of actions were subjected to his judgment.

From what he saw until now, this guy's strength is only a bit above average so he can't possibly offer enough for the guards to risk their lives. If any guard is caught doing something like this, the mayor would immediately execute the culprit.

"... Please let me go... I ... I beg you. I- I have a family!" said the man with a desperate tone.

"I will hunt them if you don't tell me then. This coat will allow me to track their position" said Frederick. Although this lie was full of loopholes, the man seemed so desperate that he did not dwell on it and immediately believed Frederick.

Hearing this, the man was speechless as he did not know what to do anymore. "You... you devil! You fucking psycho!" The man cursed for a few minutes, however when he saw that Frederick's expression did not change, as it stayed emotionless, the man stopped cursing as he knew it was in vain.

"You ... I ... will talk. Just stop, please... I beg you." Knowing that Frederick did not say anything, the man continued pleading, "...I work for the major. The woman I am looking for is his concubine but she ran away after stealing an extremely important authority that the mayor wanted to forge with the help of Madame Banksia..."

'Banksia...? It's Talia's last name.'

Talia was the same smith that forged Blood Dominion in one of Frederick's past lives. She is a permanent smith who used tattoos to forge and has a father named Gavin. After Frederick guided them here, she quickly became a very important member of the town as she was, as a matter of fact, the only authority smith around. It was not surprising considering that authority smiths were rare. 

"My mission was to chase after her and take it back since my authority allows me to better detect authorities which makes the job easier. All guards were informed not to bother us... So when I met you, I said that you knew where she was so they don't disturb me while I take your coat..."

"Us? How many of you are searching for her?"

"Not much ... The mayor wanted to find it without too much noise since we noticed a few spies from other cities not long ago" The man replied while in a lot of pain. 

"Other cities?" 

"...Our Haven city is only one of the numerous cities that have a gate to side stories."

"I see." Frederick already knew the existence of other gates around the main hub world thanks to Aake's diary but still wanted to verify it with other people. He would not blindly trust what a dead person said. "Then let me ask you the most important questions. What authority did she steal and where is she currently."

"She ... she stole ... a high-tier authority with the power to control blood... We think it was the authority of the infamous Bloodless that disappeared a few months ago... And we don't know where she went but she's probably in the city."

Frederick frowned a bit. He did not need to hear the authority's name. After all, it was the very same authority he had, blood dominion.

'Blood Dominion... Did they find my hideout?' 

Before going to Dyrroth, Frederick hid all the authorities he had collected there. If they somehow found Blood Dominion then it means that his secret hideout has been discovered. After some thought, he could guess that what this man said was likely the truth because it perfectly matched the information he had.

'So they probably discovered my secret hideout and found Blood Dominion there, seems like I won't be able to go back there then.'

With a sigh, Frederick decided to not think much about this. It already happened so dwelling on it was pointless. He just has to hide them somewhere else "next time". Moreover, even if they forged Blood Dominion, it would still be an inferior version of the one he currently possesses because of the loss of assimilation rate in the forging process. 

It was pretty ironic since his copy of the authority could considered superior to the original because his copies have a 100% assimilation rate. Reading Aake's diary truly allowed him to have a better understanding of authorities and he knew how important assimilation rates were. 

Taking Aake for instance, she was considered "extremely weak" compared to other candidates of her turn because even if she had numerous items, the assimilation rate was too low for her to be able to shine. Aake only survived because other candidates protected her in the main stories. In fact, her brothers would have probably survived if her healing item had a higher assimilation rate.

Frederick then turned his attention to the man in front of him and decided that he should end it. Although he still had some questions, he could not afford to drag it any further. Besides, this man probably already did his best to answer Frederick's questions and now lost his utility.

He raised his dagger, and with one swift strike, he plunged the dagger into the back of the man's neck. With a splashing and breaking noise, The man immediately started convulsing and started to spit some blood before struggling with all his strength despite his already bloody hand and broken bones. After a few seconds of convulsing, the man started to lose all of his strength until he eventually died with his eyes wide open and a few tears.

The blood around the dagger's wound started to seep through it as Frederick watched it without any expression. 'Well, at least I didn't waste any time, he gave me quite some valuable information.'

As soon as Frederick finished killing the man, he immediately started to take out everything the man had. As the man said, he had an authority called "Worthy Eye" which can see the value of something. Surprisingly, his authority was passive. Although Frederick did not plan to permanently forge this authority, it still can be very useful if forged into an item.

Passive authorities were a bit special since they did not consume any calculative power. This meant that they were perfect for items forging since you could equip as many as you wanted without any curse and you wouldn't be limited by your calculative power. The only downside is that they are often weaker than "active" authorities.

Searching the man's bloody body, Frederick did not find anything else useful. There was only a family photo but it did not interest Frederick in the least.

From start to finish, Frederick did not use his authority to "hurt" the man. This was because the guards would have detected him the instant he used his authority to "hurt". Frederick was interested in how this worked since even after 2 years, he wasn't exactly sure how this worked. He only knows that this has something to do with Haven's city chief.

After "taking care" of the body, Frederick looked around him, the alleyway was still quiet as there was no movement nearby. This is logical since nobody really lives or wanders here. With a deep breath, he used his coat and slowly started to disappear into the shady alley.