Chapter 170 | Shadow Sylve Syndicate

Chapter 170: 170 | Shadow Sylve Syndicate

The hardware store was a fifteen-minute drive from the bakery.

Dexter parked the SUV in the small lot beside the building and walked inside. The store was a large, warehouse-style space with high ceilings, concrete floors, and rows of shelving stocked with everything from lumber to plumbing supplies.

He found the window section after a few minutes of searching.

The damage Rosalind had caused was significant. The entire window frame had been blown out along with a portion of the surrounding wall. He needed a new frame, new glass panels, insulation, exterior trim, drywall for the interior wall repair, and the appropriate fasteners and sealant.

He did the math as he walked through the aisles, loading items onto a flat cart.

New window frame, standard size.

Double-paned tempered glass panel, interior drywall sheet, insulation roll, exterior trim and caulking.

Fasteners, sealant, and miscellaneous hardware.

Total was approximately 2200 dollars.

He loaded everything onto the cart, paid at the register, and transferred the entire load into his spatial storage.

Dexter had just climbed back into the SUV and started the engine when his phone suddenly rang out.

He pulled the phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen.

[Unknown number]

’Is it Rachel?’

He frowned slightly.

He had saved Rachel’s number after her text so it definitely wasn’t her. Also, he hadn’t given his contact information to anyone else. Not even Tessa or Mr. Henry.

He stared at the ringing phone for a few seconds then shrugged and answered it.

"Hello?"

A somehow familiar voice came through the speaker.

"Hello. Is this Mr. Dexter?"

...

Deep West of Stargate City, existed a forest that most citizens knew only by name.

The Green Rim Forest. One of the many dangerous forests in all of Stargate city

From above, if one were to look over with a bird eye view, one would see an unbroken expanse of green.

Endless canopies of ancient trees that is dense and tall that their branches wove together, blocking all sunlight from reaching the forest ground.

But inside the forest was dangerous and dark.

The official explanation, maintained by the Hero Association, was that the Green Rim Forest was not fully explored and populated by monsters of various ranks, with rumors of Transcendent-tier beasts lurking in its deepest reaches.

Adventurers who ventured inside rarely returned.

The Hero Association had long since classified the forest as a Restricted Zone and thepublic accepted this without question.

After all, who would want to venture into a forest full of monsters?

Deep within the forest, in the expanse of green, if you looked with the eyes of a Legendary Hero, would actually see that at the center of the forest was actually a formation.

The moment one pierced through the illusion, there was a mini modern city, nestled in the heart of the forest and there were people in dark purple cloak walking about the street.

And at the center of this mini city was a massive skyscraper. It was impossibly tall, its peak vanishing into the low-hanging clouds.

This was the central stronghold of the Shadow Sylve Syndicate.

The most feared criminal organization in Stargate City. A collective of villains, assassins, information brokers, who operated outside of the law.

They did not seek power, or crave territory or political influence. They dealt in something far more valuable.

Death and money.

Money in exchange for the death of an individual, no matter who the person was.

The Hero Association had attempted to infiltrate Shadow Sylve seventeen times over the past decade.

None of the operatives sent in had ever returned.

---

At the very top of the skyscraper, on the highest floor, a man stood alone.

The office was sparse, with a single desk at the edge and a chair was pushed behind it.

The stood at the open balcony and there was no glass separating him from the outside world as the cold wind poured freely into the place.

His black coat fluttered behind him with his hands folded behind his back.

The man was middle-aged that looked between 45 to 50. He had dark hair and a single eye. A scar ran across his left eye.

"Tsss!"

A door behind him slid open and two shadowy figure dressed in dark violet cloak walked in

The hoods were drawn up, casting their faces in shadow. Only their jaws were visible as they stopped twenty meters behind the scarred man.

They immediately bowed their heads and remained still as silence filled the office.

The scarred man’s coat fluttered and the two cloaked figures stood motionless, heads bowed, waiting.

Ten minutes passed when the scarred man finally spoke.

"Did you get in contact with the leader?"

The two cloaked figures exchanged a glance beneath their hoods and the one on the left, slightly taller than the other, straightened and answered.

"No. We were unable to get in contact with the leader."

He immediately continued.

"We came across unexpected trouble."

The scarred man’s head tilted slightly.

"Unexpected trouble," he repeated.

"The entire house seemed to be protected by a high-level formation," the cloaked figure continued. "We attempted to approach from multiple angles. But every vector was blocked. The formation activated the moment we crossed the perimeter and repelled us before we could reach the structure. Breaking it also seemed impossible."

The scarred man was quiet for a moment.

"Oh?" The man said in a slightly surprised tone.

"A high-level formation. In a neighborhood like that?"

He turned his head slightly more. His single dark eye shifted toward the two cloaked figures, though his body remained facing the balcony.

"So you were unable to pierce through the formation?"

The second cloaked figure spoke. His voice was rougher than the first. Lower.

"The formation’s threshold appeared to be Transcendent Level. Anyone below that realm was automatically repelled. We tested it three times from different positions. Same result each time." He paused. "Unless you or one of the elders personally makes a move, we are unable to break through that formation."

The scarred man remains silent as his eye remained fixed on the two figures behind him.

Then he asked a different question.

"Were you able to see her?"