Chapter 20

Ruth waved goodbye to the Good tavern owner and walked away with a slight smile on his face. The food here always managed to bring him joy. It was a delicacy that he hadn't had the chance to taste before, even during his time at the capital. The capital had its fair share of high-end restaurants with the most luxurious dishes and expensive food but the food in the good tavern held some unknown quality that made it better than the food that he had tasted there. A mystery.

Ruth quickly navigated through the crowd of people entering the tavern and exiting it and squeezed himself out of the entrance of the tavern. The tavern was always busy, crowded with adventurers, travellers and merchants. It was always bustling.

He got out of the tavern and looked around, thinking about what to do now. He was an unemployed old man with nothing to do. He had lost all zeal for work. All the years of travelling after his mother's death had changed him from a respectable magus to now an old man with a broken back and a dry ether pool.

It had been more than fifteen years since he had arrived in this town. He had witnessed the development that this town had gone through. From a mere couple of hundred to a couple of thousand, the population of this town had quickly swelled as the resources from the Mervielle swelled the pockets of the people. The clever people getting rich exploiting the resources of Mervielle and then distancing themselves from the poor creating the so-called inner district and outer district. And now all of it was in danger because of the beast wave.

Ruth sighed and shook his head, "History is repeating and none can stop it. " He muttered to himself. The dark ages might come back to haunt humanity. The Dark age was a time that the people might not think about anymore as nobody alive had experienced it but nobody would forget the grave consequences that it had brought onto this world.

The hot afternoon sun nearly made Ruth faint as he walked to his house. Fortunately, the summer wasn't as long or hot here as it was in the capital. A win in Ruth's book.

He arrived at his rundown hut with his forehead full of sweat and his dirty clothes sticking to his body.

He was about to enter his hut when his nose picked up a scent, a scent he was familiar with. It was sleeping gas. He had come in contact with it in the Imperial Academy during his time there.

Ruth quickly covered his mouth and checked the perimeters of his hut. He found nothing.

He went to Roan's hut and peeked inside to find it empty. He then checked the perimeters of Roan's house too as he crouched down from time to time to take a closer look at any suspicious object.

And at the back of the hut he found one. It was a black wooden ball which had a small hole at the top.

"Someone must have used it on Roan. But who? " Ruth thought as he went inside Roan's hut. It was the same except that the straw bed was scattered but the table was untouched. It was a kidnapping. That much was sure. But who, Ruth couldn't guess?

Ruth, Lela and Seth usually travelled around after becoming adventurers so the interactions between Ruth and them had decreased a lot. So, he couldn't guess or know what enemies they had made. Memories of Seth and Lela flooded Ruth's mind. His throat tightened with emotion, grief and worry intertwining like a knot in his chest. He had nurtured these kids, watched them grow, and now, he had lost two of them and the last one left was now kidnapped by unknown enemies. The responsibility fell onto his shoulders to save Roan.

Ruth quickly looked for traces of anyone entering the hut. A large footstep that definitely didn't belong to Roan. Ruth quickly traced it which lead him outside. Thankfully, the slum was almost deserted otherwise it would have been near impossible for the footprint to lead him any more than ten metres away.

He followed after the footprint. But the footprint vanished after it crossed the border between the slums and the Outer district. A dead end. He had no clue left to even think of saving Roan.

Ruth clutched the wooden ball in his hand as he racked his brain to come up with a solution.

"Sleeping gas is not easy to get. The person who used it is definitely rich or powerful. Then there is a high chance that he is an high ranking or a well known adventurer. " Ruth thought and then walked towards the adventurers guild. He had to do some interrogations to find out if anybody used these kind of things or if there was anybody who manufacture it.

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Roan could feel the metal bar of the cell holding him getting thinner as his dark Ether surrounded it. He could feel it but not see it. It had taken nearly half an hour to corrode it to this point. A little bit more and Roan would be able to break it which would create enough space for him to squeeze through and get out.

Roan stood there for a couple of metres in complete darkness like a ghost. He could only see the silhouette of the corroded metal bar of the cell. He grabbed it with both of his hands and yanked it towards himself. It broke with the slightest of sound.

Roan grasped the broken piece of the metal bar in his hand and jumped up and down with joy. It was finally broken.

Roan quickly squeezed through the gap and escaped the cell. He looked around but the darkness was overpowering. He couldn't see anything. He walked forward slowly as he flailed his arms around to prevent from crashing into something. His hand touched a wall as soon as he took a couple of steps. He used it as a guide and walked forward.

After minutes of walking and a couple of turns later, Roan finally saw light sprinkling through a small crack after he took another turn. It was a door leading outside. The light wasn't strong. But still very bright for Roan who had just spent nearly half an hour fumbling through the darkness.

He walked towards but then suddenly, the sound of footsteps approached.

"Who's the unlucky guy locked up? " A voice said as the footsteps came near.

"I don't know. But he is in for some misery if the boss's anger is anything to go by. Haha." Another voice laughed and then the door opened. Two men entered, swords hanging from their hips. Roan quickly hid behind the wall he had just gotten out from.

Roan quickly checked his Ether pool which was filled to the brim. He focused and thought about the time deceleration. He waited for them to come near him and as soon as the two men were about to enter the passage where Roan was hiding, He activated Time Deceleration.

The outstretched foot of the two men froze in the air and Roan swiftly got out of his hiding. He punched both of them in the throat and the chest with full power and deactivated the skill. Both men crumbled to the ground, dead.

He had gotten noticeably stronger after he had awakened. So his punch had probably broken a rib and the throat, instantly killing them. Roan stared at the corpses on the ground, his mind serene. He didn't feel remorse just like the first time he had killed a person.

The power had changed him. He had to acknowledge that.

Roan stepped away from the bodies and was about to walk away when he suddenly turned around to stare at the bodies. He was a now a Necromancer and these dead bodies weren't just dead bodies now but a source of strength for him. A zombie or two would definitely be a great help in escaping this place. It would expose him as a Necromancer but Roan couldn't be nitpicky about what to do or not when his life was on the line.

Roan exhaled and crouched to touch the bodies. He transferred almost half of his Ether into the bodies which left him with only one use of Time Deceleration. And then he would be fully emptied of Ether. A necessary sacrifice.

Roan stood up and watched the twitching bodies. It was his second time creating an undead and it felt just as vile and disgusting as the first one. The wiggling of the skin like worms were trying to get out of it was truly a disgusting thing to look at.

After a couple of minutes, two zombies stood before Roan with hunched backs and black faces.

Roan exited the dungeon with two zombies following him mechanically.