Searching (2)

It's my sixth day searching for soul technique. I've finished searching through the original 42 people I marked and have expanded my search criteria. Unfortunately, I haven't had any results so far, but I have learned a few things.

1. Cursed Weapons probably aren't as rare as I first imagined.

2. The police like to sell cursed weapons.

It's a little surprising that over 80% of the people I asked used some form of a cursed weapon, but I suppose that was the result of picking a specific demographic. The other 20% had some sort of technique that permanently damaged them in exchange for immediate power. To get a different result, I decided to start focusing on people who had average strength in this prison.

Interestingly, the races that had average strength were more diverse than races that had below-average strength. Below average strength consisted of mostly humans, while there was a good mix of elves and beastfolk who had average strength. I haven't had much interaction with other races, Alvaine didn't discriminate between races, I just never had much of an opportunity.

After interacting with some of the other races, I was a bit disappointed at how little my fantasy knowledge from my past life carries over. I thought I would find beastfolk and elves attractive, but honestly, I found them slightly repulsive. Elves with their signature long ears looked strange, while beastfolk looked outright creepy blending features between humans and animals. I'm surprised there isn't any discrimination between races.

I asked Celtin and he told me people don't mind the appearances of elves and beastfolk, so I wondered why I disliked it. Maybe it's because I come from another world? I had no time to answer my question as my priority was getting a soul technique.

As I've been asking criminals, I've also had to adjust the bribes I give. After the 10th person, I stopped using alcohol because I felt bad looking at Celtin's expression handing me the 10th bottle of his alcohol. I still got results with fruits, but it took considerably longer without using alcohol.

At this point, I getting fairly frustrated. The wardens had started to take notice of my actions, and I was still shooting in the dark. If I was picked up from the jail without getting something, I would be kicking myself. I knew I needed better information, and the only way to get information would be to ask someone. There were only two types of people I could ask, a prisoner or a warden. A warden was out of the question, it was practically suicide.

My only option was to ask a prisoner, but that would mean revealing my intentions to a third party. I couldn't control what the third party would do with my information, which was dangerous for my future. I couldn't even guarantee that information could give me a soul technique, it would only give me a higher probability of finding one. Furthermore, it's not like this is my only opportunity to get a soul technique, I still have at least half a decade before I run away. I was calculating whether this was a risk that was worth taking.

Eventually, I made a decision. This was my second shot at life, it would be pointless to not take risks in it. Who knows, I could even a third shot at life if this one doesn't work out.

Luckily for me, the prisoner records had brief descriptions of what the prisoners were doing in the prison. There were quite a few prisoners who traded some of their food for stories of other prisoners, asking one of them should give me a lead. After some debating, I chose to visit one of the stronger people in this prison, an elf named Gruz. There wasn't much written about his past, and the only thing written about his personality was he liked interesting things. Regarding his crimes, they weren't anything special.

I decided to approach his cell when the guards were the least active, the night. As I walked to his cell while dismissing the wandering guards, I couldn't help but lightly tap my leg in nervousness. By the time I reached his cell, I started internally humming a melody to the beat of my finger.

Gruz was an elf with no distinct characteristics. If I was to name a unique feature about him, it would be his long pointy ears. If he didn't have sealing shackles on him I would've thought that he wasn't a prisoner. When he saw me approaching his cell he started to stare at me.

Even after I handed him the pen and paper he continued to stare. He finally looked at his pen and paper after I wrote down that we will communicate through writing.

I started writing. I didn't want to ask specifically for soul techniques, but I wanted to imply I wanted one.

Hello Gruz, I wanted to buy information-

He gestured for me to stop and started writing.

-You want to grow stronger right? People who talked to you said you asked them how to get stronger. But you wouldn't approach that many criminals to grow stronger the regular way. You want some kind of forbidden technique.

I was surprised, he was the only person who recognized that I wanted a forbidden technique. Others who I approached thought I wanted a special method to form my phylactery or dantian, or thought I wanted a weapon. Instead of replying, I nodded at Gruz.

-I have a longer lifespan than your race, and I am more curious towards the forbidden than a common elf. Your situation is incredibly unusual, even I have only seen a few cases like yours. I do know of a technique that you can use, but it's one of the worst taboos of your kind. I believe they call it soul magic. Are you interested?

I realized he had complete control of the flow of the conversation, however, I still nodded.

-The question is what you can do for me. This time in jail is but a fleeting moment in my long life, I have no need for your food. At the same time, the only thing you can give me besides food is a favor. Is that correct?

He stopped writing and took a look at me. Before I could respond he looked down again and began writing.

-Then, in exchange for this forbidden magic, you shall take a locket that belongs to me from the wardens. Take that locket and bury it in the most beautiful scenery you can find. Don't ask any questions and just bury it. That's all I ask.

I was being played here. I don't know what the locket does, but it's definitely nothing good. The smart choice would be to avoid this transaction altogether or to throw the locket away after I get the technique. However, I was greedy enough to take the risk, and I refuse to renege on a deal once it's made - barring extraordinary circumstances-, it goes against my principles. He could be lying to me, but considering he needs me to do a task for him he probably wouldn't lie. So I agreed and gave him a few more sheets of paper.

After he finished writing it down, he handed me the sheets of paper and told me how his locket looks. I almost ran back to my cell while avoiding any conversations.

In my cell, I pretended like I was reading a book, but I was reading the pages Gruz had written for me instead. I was looking forward to reading about my new soul technique.