Chapter 82: Fate Convergence - VII

My guesses grew closer to certainties when a bunch of shady individuals somehow wandered onto my doorstep.

Looking all around me, I could tell.

On top of these shady individuals, a bunch of the Empire’s Guards were hunting them down. Next, a pair of demon assassins were stalking both parties, terrified of the guards, but still craving some data on the human Info-Hunter.

’...This might be a bit annoying.’

<Fate> wanted me out of my Mage Tower and off the streets of Walvaskaz. I was almost certain that the shady individuals were simply here as an... arrangement.

’Using that word feels oddly terrifying for some reason...’

I shivered.

Anyways.

After these hooligans, <Fate> would figure out a way to push me into the Layers Beneath.

It was a tedious process, but that was how Fleim operated. There was no outright way for it to force my hand.

Such was the price of its machinations. Though it couldn’t force me directly, it could create an endless array of scenarios that would eventually lead me to its desired convergence.

I realized just then that <Fate> was essentially a vast ocean, and its machinations were the many currents flowing throughout its depths. Its timeless trends were like the tides, and where it converges, great storms are brewed.

With this metaphor in mind, I stored all of my belongings in the <Sub-Dimensional Ruby Ring> and left using the <Power of Death>.

Using an invisibility equal to that of 4th-Circle Magic, I descended using the nearest entrance to the Layers Beneath.

The moment I arrived, I felt a metaphysical wobble ripple outwards, riding my thread of <Fate>.

Those shady individuals had broken into my Mage Tower, excited by the sheer lack of security, only to be disappointed by its emptiness.

’Just petty thieves, huh.’

<Fate> had adjusted its machinations in that instant. I felt a few carriages reroute because their passengers had suddenly changed their minds.

Someone eyeing my Mage Tower to request a commission concerning the Layers Beneath suddenly found himself distracted by the re-opening of his favorite restaurant.

The nearby Empire’s Guards were alerted to a rowdy, drunken hydra in their jurisdiction and were dispatched to monitor it.

As for those assassins... well... somehow, they all died to a rival’s ambush.

Not to mention a few hundred other similar distractions occurring to a few people whose intentions all led to my Mage Tower somehow.

All of these individual occurrences seemed pretty normal, but it sent another shiver down my spine. [Absolute Awareness] was completely disproportionate to my current circumstances, so much so that <Fate> seemed to be acting odd.

There were so many layers it had prepared, as if it knew that I knew.

’It’s like I’m its pet, and it’s trying to train me somehow.’

Sure.

I’ll move around according to your whims, <Fate>... but it needs to be beneficial to me.

If not, I’m wreaking havoc, yes?

"..."

I scanned my surroundings again, but there was only silence. I did not hear a reply.

But I also didn’t hear a no.

** *

While Aventine was busy understanding <Fate> in a way that only he could, Clementine moved like the wind, rushing through corridors and descending crumbling staircases into unfamiliar territory.

’I haven’t been this deep underground.’

A slight twang of nervousness plucked at her mind.

’How far did they take him?’

Taylor had been abducted while the two of them were out collecting resources to fund their laboratory exploits. It happened out of nowhere.

One moment, the young man was walking a few steps behind her.

In the next, he was gone.

Only the signature cackles of a Treasure Gnome lingered among the echoes.

’I was careless.’

Biting her lip, Clementine tracked Taylor based on the herbal scent that had long rubbed off on his skin. It was the same scent that she exuded, only a bit more... pungent.

Human body odor was odd. Depending on their emotions, their scents differed.

Clementine always wondered why that was a thing, yet when she asked, Taylor looked at her like she was crazy. Were human noses really that bad?

Did they not mate based on scent? Being an apothecary, she was aware of how human pheromones functioned.

"Yeah... I’m not the crazy one."

Recalling the look in Taylor’s eyes irked her for some reason. A baby, barely 18 years in this world, had the guts to look at her like that?

She wanted to slap the dumb look off his face.

"Sigh."

Clementine shook her head, pulling her focus back. She was now trying to save that damn baby from a kidnapping.

The medicinal scent trail was getting clearer.

Most likely, the Treasure Gnome had found something interesting on Taylor. Either a shiny artifact or some expensive item.

However, Clementine knew Taylor’s wealth.

There was nothing of value on his body.

"...No, technically human blood is the best resource for Blood Arts and Blood Magic."

Although she wasn’t sure about the details, it was something she picked up on when Reazue once talked to her about his past.

The Werebat even admitted to buying human blood as it was—apparently—a delicacy among his race. Clementine had a taste once.

’It was horrid.’

Human blood tasted like sewer water. Their impure mana and unclean lifestyles affected the taste so much that she could taste their entire upbringing with one sip.

Furthermore, human blood taken by force smelled the worst.

The scent they exuded with their changing emotions was always fully expressed just moments before their death.

Still, Clementine was pretty sure it suited the tastes of some... unique palates out there.

...Just not hers.

Considering this thought, her footsteps suddenly grew a little more hurried. Exerting herself even more despite the earlier confrontation with the Wolfman, she could hear her tendons straining from her forced display of agility.

Leaping over crevices and sliding under collapsed columns, sprinting on inclined walls over deep, abyssal ravines, and smashing through obstacles that required too much effort to wiggle through.

Treasure Gnomes were too slippery a race, being natural thieves; their natural ability to escape was definitely among the best.

Still, Clementine was sure that Taylor was still alive. She continued to rush down, deeper and deeper into the Layers Beneath.

...Until she encountered the scent of human fear.

"Oh no..."