Megumi didn't like the idea of having to go up against a warlock without being properly prepared. It appeared that he was likely a powerful one as well, considering the strength of that little trap that they had fallen into. The two of them pushed their way through the crowds of people who were stopping to watch the street performers.

"Megumi. We're being followed." Poro-tan whispered into her ear. She started to turn around and look behind her but Poro-kun grabbed her wrist. "Don't look."

She frowned but did as he suggested. "How many?"

"I can't be sure. At least two."

Megumi gave a slight nod of her head and the two of them continued onward through the crowd of people. Thieves Guild probably keeping tabs on us. Megu isn't a fan of being followed around. Does this mean that they knew we triggered and then disabled their trap? Megumi noted that it was getting late in the day. There was probably only another hour or so until sunset. It appeared that squashing the Thieves Guild wouldn't be so simple as to be completed in a single day. She was naive to think that it would be as easy as busting into a hideout and slaughtering her enemies in one bloody massacre anyway.

The two of them picked up their pace slightly as they went around a bend in the street. Megumi looked around for an alleyway or shop they could duck into. It was really a matter of whether or not they wanted to force a confrontation at the moment, or hideout somewhere. Megumi decided it might prove useful to confront the people following them so that they might be able to drag some more information out of them and so they ducked into the first narrow alleyway that they came across.

The narrow space was only about ten feet wide and ended in a dead end. There was a large trash pile near the back of the alleyway that smelled of rotting food. Rats scurried around the alleyway. Megu also saw a door to either side of the alleyway leading into the back ends of the businesses next to them. We can toss the bodies into the trash heap at least.

They rushed to the back of the alleyway and turned to wait for their pursuers. Megumi took out her staff and stood at the ready while Poro-tan got in front of her with his sword drawn. Megumi's heart pounded in anticipation of the enemy coming for them. Moments passed by and then three people stepped into the mouth of the alleyway.

Megumi could tell right away that these three were not simple thieves. They were all dressed far better than the people in rags they had decimated earlier in the day. The enemies drew their weapons and the one in the middle grinned.

"I knew it was her! That reward money will go a long ways towards my early retirement." The man unhooked a simple looking long staff that had been attached to his back and held it in front of him.

Megumi cursed under her breath at her luck today. Things had simply not gone her way at all. It was hard to say what kind of magician the man was until he started casting something. The two that were with him were likely to be simple thugs, not that different from Poro-tan. One of them had a sword, while the other held a large two-handed mace with spikes on the end of it before him.

She didn't waste any more time, they were trapped here and they would need to fight their way out. Megumi cast Magic Skin and was about to fire off an Eldritch Blast when a fireball the size of a cannon ball came flying down the alleyway towards them at tremendous speed. The two of them jumped out of the way and the projectile smashed into the brick wall behind them with a loud boom that sent pieces of rock flying around the alleyway.

Before the dust cleared, Poro-tan was already on his feet again, and by the time she got up off the ground he had burst into motion, charging his way down the alleyway. He released a vertical Shockwave attack which was aimed right at the enemy magician. The attack crashed into one of the melee fighters instead, however, as he had jumped in the way of the attack and was sent flying backwards and onto the ground.

Megumi cast Decay three times in quick succession on the three opponents. It failed on two of the three, but the man with the sword slumped when the curse hit him. Poro-tan was within striking distance now, but unfortunately that meant that she couldn't safely fire off attacks. The enemy mage held out a hand and a gout of flame shot out towards Poro-tan in a steady stream.

He just barely got out of the way before he had been cooked to a crisp. The man with the sword moved forward and swung at Poro-tan, who batted the weakened man's blade out of the way with ease. Poro-tan continued the rotation of his body and kicked the man in the side, throwing him off balance. The man smashed into the wall and her companion stabbed the cursed blade of his sword into the man's throat before jumping back to avoid another gout of flame.

Megumi now had a corpse at her disposal and she could finally act. She cast Raise Undead and the former enemy got back onto his feet. It had taken a few moments, but the man with the mace was back up and didn't waste any time smashing the heavy weapon into his former comrade's face. The head popped like a ripe melon under the force of the man's attack and her puppet fell to the ground once more. Megumi hadn't even been able to have the undead fighter take a single step before he had been downed.

It surprised her that the man with the mace had managed to recover from a direct hit from Poro-tan's Shockwave attack at all, much less so quickly. She had Poro-tan move further back and exploded the corpse of her would-be pawn. The concussive force of the explosion knocked both enemies to the ground and the melee fighter was engulfed in green flames.

The pyromancer fired off two wild fireballs from where he was positioned on the ground, probably hoping to hit Poro-tan. The balls of flame exploded against the walls of the alleyway, however, as the shots had been aimed very poorly. Pieces of brick rained down on them and Megumi noticed that people were no longer passing by at the mouth of the alleyway. We seriously don't need this kind of attention!

She cast Corpse Explosion again, this time on the man who had been wielding that mace. The explosion hit the enemy magician who screamed in agony as he was pelted with sharp pieces of bone. Megumi dashed forward and fired two Eldritch Blasts in quick succession at the man who lie screaming in pain on the ground. The attacks hit and in seconds all that was left of the pyromancer was a charred corpse. Megumi couldn't help but grin at the irony that all that was left of a pyromancer was ash.

Sometimes if you play with fire, you get burnt.

Megumi couldn't help but give Poro-tan a lot of credit for how well the fight turned out. He didn't back down at the sight of an enemy magician as most melee fighters would. She didn't even have to force him to charge their opponents, he took the initiative all on his own.

"Thanks for providing me cover, Poro-tan. You did a good job." She grinned happily as she cast Sanguine Infusion on what was left of their three foes. It seemed that luck was with her after all as one of the three corpses yielded her a TP.

The two of them stepped out of the alleyway and back onto the street where people had backed away from the commotion and were now staring at them as they exited. Megumi didn't like the attention, but it couldn't be helped. She and Poro-tan headed back into the crowd, which parted for them in fear, and they headed for the market district of the city.

"So I guess we can expect people like that to be popping out of the woodwork all the time now?" Poro-tan asked while they walked.

"Probably. Megu isn't sure how many members the guild has, but not a ton. At least not compared to the Adventurers Guild. Many of the members are far weaker than we are, so they probably wont be coming after us. Unless they have a death wish like these guys, that is. Megu would be surprised if there are many more with that kind of power around here."

"Well... there's that at least. Also, we're not just going to charge into the next Thieves Guild 'hideout' again are we? That last place was more than enough fun and excitement for me for the day."

"We're just going to have a look. We aren't going to charge in this time. Megu wants to see if people will be going in and out of the place, and if so then we will come back either late tonight or sometime tomorrow. It's looking like we're probably going to be in this city for a while. We're going to have to find a way to earn some money or something, we can't afford a prolonged stay in the hotel. Maybe we can rent an apartment somewhere. Anyway, we're here."

Megumi looked across the bustling street at the building they had been told was one of the thieves' dens. The building was on the corner of the street and right in the open. It appeared to be a store of some type. The sign read, Eva's Odds and Ends. "All we can do now, is wait. Let's see what kind of customers the store gets."

Poro-tan nodded and they spent the next hour or so watching the place. This location had been the second spot the thief had told her about under the pain of torture. After that other place, she couldn't rely on any information she had gotten out of him. The time seemed to crawl by and not a single person entered the shop the entire time they had been watching.

She itched to go look inside the window, but held herself back. It wouldn't do them any good to be caught snooping around the place. Just as they were about to give up and head back to their hotel, a group of seven men went into the building. They weren't dressed in rags, but they definitely looked to be people of the bad element.

"Looks like this piece of information was genuine." Poro-tan said.

"Let's get back to the hotel. We'll come back in the middle of the night and see what we can find."

"You don't think they'll change locations after finding out what we did in the slums or the entertainment district?"

"Megu is sure that they already know. They have a powerful warlock and gods knows what else on their side. They wont take us as a serious threat and that's going to be their downfall. Let's go."

By the time they got back to the hotel, it was well after dark. Megumi was tired of walking and wanted to go take a bath already. The common room was full of patrons eating and watching a woman on stage who was singing. Megumi's stomach grumbled and she realized that with everything that had happened so far that day, they hadn't even taken the time to grab something to eat. She stepped over to the check-in desk. "We'd like a table."

"Right this way." The man stepped out from behind the desk and led them to an empty table. A moment after they sat down a waitress came to take their order. It appeared that the hotel was a proper restaurant. There were several options on the menu whereas most of the places they had stayed only had one thing that they cooked each day. Megumi ordered a dish that the waitress said was the hotel's specialty. Poro-tan asked for a steak. He never orders anything interesting when it comes to food.

She sighed and listened to the woman on stage sing her song. She had a beautiful, melodic voice that filled the large room. Megumi felt a slight pang of anxiety over the music for a moment, recalling the recent encounter with the bard, but all the patrons in the common room seemed to be laughing and enjoying themselves. It took some effort, but she got herself to relax and enjoy the singing. Megumi recognized the song as The Mistress and the Frog, which was a comedic tale of a rich man who was a complete and utter fool. He is tricked by his mistress and ends up turned into a frog, while she gets away with all his money.

The food arrived quickly and Megumi's food in particular smelled delicious. It came in a bowl filled with a few kind of meat and rice that had been cooked in a red sauce of some sort. Megumi was glad she had listened to the waitress' recommendation as the food was absolutely delicious. It was slightly spicy, but she didn't mind. It was nowhere near as spicy as the stuff Poro-tan liked to eat on a regular basis.

Once the meal was done, they headed up stairs and she spent an hour or so cleaning herself up and taking a bath before heading to bed. "Poro-tan, you should get some rest too. Sleep by the door, though okay?"

He grumbled a little but complied without too much of a fuss. He shoved his bed over against the door and went to sleep. Megumi went over to the window and looked outside. It didn't look like there was any way to get up to the window from the outside. She breathed a sigh of relief and went to bed. A few hours sleep is all we need, and then we'll go take care of business. Once Megu collects the reward for this job, we're going to need a more permanent place to stay.

Megumi tossed and turned on her bed for a while, thinking about her plans and how to accomplish them. Since there would be no easy way to get into the palace and off the king, they would have to do things the long and slow way. She just hoped that there were openings in the city watch so that Poro-tan could get a job and infiltrate. The plan would unfold from there. She shoved her face into her pillow. Revenge was right at her fingertips and she could hardly wait. With that thought in mind, she finally drifted off to sleep.

Spoiler: Poro-kun Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 025 (43,352/45,217 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 1763/1925 MP 75/75 TP 1 Adventurer Rank B Attributes Vitality 71 Magic 30 Endurance 59 Magic Resistance 36 Strength 56 Luck 6 Agility 48 Dexterity 45 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 5 (+50 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 7 (+70% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 2

• Turtle Style - Level 2

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+10% natural defense)

• Fortify Health - Level 3 (+150 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 3 (Release shockwave from blade) Spoiler: Megumi Name Megumi Level 027 (52,655/54,310 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 475/475 MP 1400/1400 TP 4 Villain Rank C Adventurer Rank D Attributes Vitality 19 Magic 77 Endurance 11 Magic Resistance 51 Strength 6 Luck 19 Agility 9 Dexterity 10 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 6 (+180 MP regeneration/min)

• Fortify MP - Level 2 (+100 MP) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 15 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 15% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 16, (50)])

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 7 - (+70% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorbtion (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Summon Blood Golem (500 MP) - Level 1 (Raise a Golem to fight by your side by using the blood of the fallen. Max: 1)

• Blood Golem Mastery - Level 2 (+8 Minutes to summon duration. +10% defense, +10% attack power)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1 [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 2: (30)] )

• Soul Trap Mastery - Level 7 (+28 to all stats of Summoned Soul, except luck. Max level reached. Lvl requirement for Lvl 8: 50)

• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 2 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)

• Magic Skin - Level 4 (Actively consumes MP to negate physical and magical damage. Higher levels lower the MP cost)

• Decay (120 MP) - Level 5 - (25% chance of success. Causes body to rot from the inside out causing extreme pain and slowing movement at joints)

• Siphon (70 MP) - Level 1 - (Drain health of enemy at a rate of 10 HP/second for up to 5 seconds. 30% chance of success.)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 13 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)