Chapter 69: Rumors

Gazing at the worn golden coin flying through the air, I watch the glittering coin fall on heads; satanic cult it is. It's rather unreasonable for me to assume them to be satanic from rumors, but… garmonbozia screams EvilCraft. As a blood-based mod, what would happen if someone with fewer morals wanted to progress? I shiver at the thought of what crimes would be committed.

Looking at the poorly drawn map, I sigh. If it wasn’t for the directions on the back, I wouldn’t be able to use this. Jengal is a lot of things, but that doesn’t include an artist.

Heading home, I start preparing for my journey. Concentrating, I focus on what would be important for a heist. I have no intention of bartering with a potentially dangerous element. I need potions, first and foremost; invisibility, strength, and anything else I could need. I will also make sure to keep a few God and golden apples. I have a few speed potions already, so I don’t need to make any more. Taking out one of the spare nether stars, I produce an illuminati pet.

It’s a terrifyingly powerful pet that can both give true invisibility and any random item in existence. Both effects were underwhelming in the game, as true invisibility didn’t work and the random items mostly gave trash.

Holding the oddly textured pyramid, I will it to produce a random item. Moments later, a poof of smoke appears in the air before… a sausage falls to the floor; useless. Next, I test the true invisibility, finding it functionally indistinguishable between potions of invisibility. But, I can't see myself with the potions, either, so I have no means of comparison.

I look into my bag of holding. It's now stuffed to the brim with every possible item I could need; water, lava, food, a grappling hook. I think this is a little excessive, to say the least. I turn my bag of holding upside down and remove the excess items. I am too nervous, I don’t need all this. It's unlikely I am going to be in a situation requiring lava and water given that I intend for this to be a quiet operation.

“Don’t need this, or this; maybe, nah, why do I need a grappling hook. I can fly after all, it seems rather redundant.” Gazing into my now slightly less full bag of holding, I say “More reasonable.”

I put my wyvern armor on for this trip. It has far more durability and is less identifiable. Normally, I wear pink armor all the time, so it's less likely to be traced back to me. Looking over my teleport locations within my Telepad, I select the closest town to the location of the family. This cuts my journey in half, as the town where the family lives is one road over from where my Telepad is.

Finding myself in a familiar town, I step out of the hidden room hosting my Telepad. I made sure to bury them deep within the earth a distance away from the towns to minimize discovery. Using my illuminati pet, I disappear from the visible spectrum. I quickly take flight, and attain great height before my invisibility drops.

It's near impossible to identify me from this height, but since I have a clear view of the earth, I can find the town easily. Having learned my lesson from wearing the wyvern armor in public, I now focus on secrecy more heavily.

Watching the hilly environment pass by underneath me is rather hypnotic. I look away to steady my vision. It starts to mess with your vision after a while with all the waving green polka dotted trees with deep, lush green leaves.

Eventually, I come towards a normal-appearing town with high walls. It has mostly oak and brick buildings with the telltale dark wood of spruce occasionally appearing. It has clear signs of a local river and spruce forest that make it feel a little nippy from that direction.

I activate my invisibility before descending to the earth, then hastily erect a secret base with a Telepad. It is less useful now I have an advanced dislocator, but if I ever wish for people to use my travel network, it will be important. “I could create an extremely powerful smuggling group with these telepads,” I say, resisting the urge to laugh. “I am not quite that desperate for money.”

Landing onto the earth, I note its surprisingly springy texture. I wonder what caused that? Do different areas hold different soil mixtures? That would explain the small variations noticeable between biomes and this more extreme example of springy earth. The vegetation is growing strong, it's unlikely to be anything toxic, at least. Switching to my pink armor, I enter the town.

Unmolested by guards, I enter the very well-maintained town. Unblemished stone paths move through the town like winding snakes. I spot a lot of decorative stone statues commonplace within.

The town is surprisingly quiet, I would expect more tourism given the artistic mind behind the public structures. Walking through the streets, I spot… 2 galleries. That’s a whole 2 more than any other town I have visited so far. The stores are well lit with crystal glass windows and gold inlays along the edges. Walking through the large building, I am quickly wowed by the sheer quantity of skillfully done art.

It has everything from extreme realism portraits to psychedelic paintings. I even spot a few raunchy paintings clearly depicting a variant of Greek art. I find a clerk that, upon close inspection, looks ancient. So ancient, that I fear breathing too heavily will turn them to dust.

Walking up to the clerk, I greet, “Hi, how are you?”

‘cricket noises’. I suppose they value silence. “I would like to purchase these 2 paintings.”

They just point to the price tags on the painting. They are very similar to corner shop paper price tags, cheap and poorly made.

I just drop a couple of silvers on the side and walk out. How rude, I was only being nice. Nothing to be done, but at least I have some art to put on my walls. I continue to walk through the town in an attempt to distract me from my quickly souring mood. It's just one person, no need to huff and puff about it Aeternum.

Finally reaching an area with a semblance of normalcy, I spot a small market abuzz with activity. Fresh fruit is sold by the dozen, and a large variety of materials are available on the many stalls. It must be a common thing to have a central market. Perhaps because of the level of technology, it's just the most effective way of doing things.

Finding a stall lacking any customers, I approach the shopkeeper. “Hey, how are you?”

The neutral faced merchant replies, “I am good, how are you?”

Suppressing the excitement at getting an actual reply, I respond “I am alright, just passing through. I just wanted to ask, why is it so… quiet?”

He leans forward and covers his mouth, saying that “You best not stick around. Some dangers lurk in these here walls. They trap us rather than keep us safe.”

Sliding a silver forward, I question, “What dangers?”

He eyes the silver greedily before snatching it up. “People be disappearing. Not many, but a few. The occasional hunter doesn’t return, or a child strays too far from the walls. Too many to be… accidental.”

Nodding appreciatively, I say “Good to know, how do you keep yourself safe?”

Looking around a little more nervously, he quickly says “Play it cautious, keep an eye over my shoulder, and avoid alleys. Them be the most dangerous, walk-in and disappear. If it suddenly rains with no warning, run!”

“Thank you, I will keep that in mind.” I walked away from the shopkeep. He was getting more nervous by the second and I would rather not put him in danger. The directions on the map said northeast of the town is the manor the family resides in.

Donning my invisibility, I fly towards the direction. I cycle between potions and the illuminati pet to keep a permanent state of invisibility and remove my armor to not make my invisibility useless. The illuminati pet seems to make even armor invisible but the potions do not. An interesting difference, to say the least. The belt I use for flight is very difficult to see when invisible and in the sky. Sadly, a cooldown comes into effect after each use of the Illuminati effect, mandating that I use potions between charges.

As I fly through the sky, turning an eye to the sky I notice storm clouds are brewing. Definitely not a good omen, that’s for sure. Eventually, I come towards a large building. It’s a massive structure undoubtedly holding at least a couple dozen rooms. The wooden exterior is marred by weather damage. It looks like a strong breeze could push it over, but my knowledge of Minecraft and general structural integrity bursts that illusion. The outskirts of the building contain several gnarled trees. With a hundred leaves between them all, they look almost dead.

A lone swing hangs from a large low hanging branch on one of the closer trees. The yellowing grass around speaks volumes of how mistreated the ground around this building is.

Removing my flying belt, I slowly walked towards the front door. With a holster of invisibility potions along my waist, I suppress the rising fear and nervousness. I step up to the large damaged door and slowly open it. It's large and heavy, creaking as I slowly open it but it's not locked. I wince as the squeak echoes through the hollow halls. Stepping inside, I quickly hope no passerby heard the racket I just made.

I half expected armor to be placed on stands throughout to complete the haunted house vibe. Sadly, they neglected such an important choice in favor of crooked paintings and creaky wooden floorboards.

Taking a hesitant step, I hear a loud whine as the floor creaks under my feet. Okay, this won't work. I quickly equip my flying belt. I lightly hover above the floor with my Illuminati pet in hand to be used at any moment. It’s better than making a damn racket just walking.

Looking through the main entrance I spot a large stairwell and 6 hallways. I suppose that I should start from top to bottom. Flying carefully up the stairs then walking down the right hallway, I see walls lined with doors and a painting breaking the monotonous greying wood walls. This whole place is a fire hazard. I slowly listen through the doors before opening them carefully. The first 3 rooms were storage rooms. The final 3 were bedrooms without anyone within.

The first was clearly a woman's room. It has painted walls and a large desk with makeup strewn about. An unmade bed and a variety of clothes on the floor speaks volumes of who lives within here.

Leaving the room, I found the next is rather plain. A well-made bed and organized desks tell of who lives here. The final room was slightly larger than the prior rooms. For a moment I thought I heard breathing, but it was just the wind. The whole room is covered in books like a library. Sketches mar the walls with things varying from scribbled circles of symbols to human anatomy.

I notice a few alembics and glass vials across one of the slightly less cluttered desks. A transparent pink liquid rests peacefully in the alembic. “I wonder what he's working on?” I accidentally said out loud before clamping my mouth shut. It's been far too quiet for supposedly a large family. I find my way to the other top floor hallway, with the same 6 sets of doors. Within these, I hear a variety of muffled voices.

I hover slowly towards the door with the loudest voices. It has the same end room with a notably sturdier looking door. Pressing my ear to the door, I attempt to listen to what they are saying.

A light, male voice speaks out loudly, “We need more! We won't make any progress at this rate.”

A more powerful and calm voice replies, “You can shout that all you want; the answer remains no. We cannot take the risk; I don’t care how much crimson you need. We can't risk being caught; simple as.”

The lighter voice speaks more slowly, “We just don’t have enough blood. You need what we are making, otherwise, you will die.”

The older voice replies, frustration clear, “We will send someone to look for further sources, hopefully outside the local area. Maybe take better care of your current sources and we won't have to keep finding more.” Irritation is clearly audible.

The arrogant young man simply replies, “They shouldn’t have died so easily then. We need test subjects to perfect the mixture.”

The second man, finally having had enough, shouts, “Out! We are doing our best, go do some work and stop pestering me.”

Taking that as my cue to leave, I think “Just rumours, huh?”