Journey

From a dark alleyway littered with trash and other dangerous things, a cloaked figure walked out. The cloaked figure gave off a frustrated and dangerous aura making anyone who was loitering around the slums promptly scramble far away from where that cloaked person walked.

Jason stopped and took a deep breath putting his hand on the side of the alleyway. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he looked up and screamed out

"WHERE THE FRICK IS THIS LADY"

Jason said to Boops angrily his hand creating cracks on the wall he was gripping.

"have you seen a SINGLE red bloop on the map?'

Boops could only let out a sigh shaking its orb-like body in Jason's head space.

'aside from the regular inhabitants from this territory, I haven't seen a single gang member let alone her'

Jason clenched his fists as he muttered out as the wall he was gripping started to concave.

"I've searched through her entire territory, and I haven't seen a single sign of her, where could she be?"

Boops could only shrug, with nothing else to do, he quickly checked on Arjuna and Perseus.

Jason let out a big sigh and continued to trod on while Boops momentarily disappeared from his brain space to check on the other twins.

His eyes swept left and right as he scanned the area for anything that looked remotely like a woman with a face tattoo and purple hair. She should a person who stands out. But holy crap Jason was pretty sure he hadn't even seen a woman for the past few hours.

He passed the tattered buildings with rickety old wooden boards barely holding them together and white cloths covering the places where windows originally were.

People wearing rags passed Jason taking a large detour once they laid eyes on him.

The cobblestone road was uneven and parts of it even seemed to be broken off by slum dwellers as a weapon of sorts.

Jason turned a corner seeing a large group of homeless people sitting in the middle of the road. They seemed to be chatting about something important as Jason could see them waving and moving their hands intensely.

Of course like everyone else that Jason had encountered they all scrambled away the moment they spotted Jason. Leaving Jason with an even fouler mood.

One of the homeless men had a wooden peg as a leg and as he hobbled away. A sudden thought hit him and so he sat down on the edge of the road and laid down.

He seemed to be waiting for Jason to pass by and had kinda given up trying to flee from him.

Jason made awkward eye contact with the peg-legged man and the man lifted up his arm and waved it a bit.

Jason leaned closer in to listen to what he had to say.

The man said in a slightly drunk voice

"mind if I borrow some hic money? ill pay you back, er I promise"

Jason let out a sigh and continued to walk forward. If Perseus was here he would have probably have attempted to borrow money from the homeless man instead, Jason shivered thinking about how intensely Perseus held and managed the money. The marks of a merchant Jason could only assume.

Boops arrived into Jason's headspace the moment he continued walking. He started to chatter about what happened.

'hey I got some good news, Perseus got a blacksmith at the guild house, and Arjuna... well he's grinding out potions like nobodies business, oh yeah be sure to give him the poison making skill book later, he got really excited when he heard about it

Jason nodded his head and continued to walk down the streets trying to figure out how to find this mysterious woman. If only he had somebody in the territory to help him or a source of information to ask from....

Wait a second.

Jason paused and looked behind him. The peg-legged homeless man was still sitting on the side of the sidewalk muttering some old drinking song.

Jason's eyes lit up and he sprinted towards the man a cloud of dust kicking up at his feet.

The homeless man was just sitting at the side of the street his mind almost in a daze as he looked around the near-empty street.

And then like a bolt of lighting a black-cloaked figure appeared. The wind generated from the black cloaked person's run blasted past his face lifting up his rags in the air before settling back down.

The ring of a coin being flicked was the next thing the peg legged homeless man heard and soon a single silver coin landed on his feet.

The homeless man couldn't lie to himself, desire filled his eyes as he gazed at the silver coin gently rotating around on the ground.

The cloaked figures voice cut through his daze

"tell me about the leader of this territory"

Jason watched as the homeless man gazed at the silver coin and then back at him. Switching between both constantly. Jason waited patiently as the man before him struggled at a moral and spiritual level.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity for the homeless man. He reached with his hand taking the shining coin and tucking it securely in one of his pockets.

"fine" He said slowly "ill tell you everything I know"

Jason leaned in interested and excited that he actually had a lead for once.

The man started to speak slowly and carefully.

"i've seen her once, she walked down the streets with a bunch of guys surrounding her, she looked like a beautiful doll."

Jason waited for the homeless man to continue. But he didn't, the homeless man looked back up at the awaiting cloaked figure and shugged his shoulders letting out a small hic as he said almost lazily

"what? that's all I know"

Saying that the peg legged homeless person stood up and hobbled away chuckling and grinning to himself as he walked away.

Jason watched the person walk away in slight shock.

did he just waste a entire silver coin?

Yes

did he just waste a bunch of time?

also yes

The annoyed aura around Jason's flared and he was just about to give chase and give the homeless person a piece of his mind.

But then the remaining rational of his brain held him back. The homeless person did give him information, it was just... information that he already knew.

Jason gripped the hilt of his sword and tapped his chest plate just to make sure it was still there. The rose red aura around his sword still swirled around it. But Jason was starting to get a grasp on it. He could now start to slowly control it, Jason could only describe it like trying to control a flowing stream of water and he had a single hand to attempt to control the flow of it. It was a pain some of it spilled over and got through the cracks but he could change and manipulate most of it.

But that was only for the rose red energy.

Besides Jason wasn't to sure what the rose red energy around his sword was exactly. He had an idea but he would probably have to ask the experts themselves.

Speaking of which, he hadn't seen the members of the blue 2 team of the rose knights in a while. Jason couldn't help but wonder how they were doing.

He was sure that Lyle would be doing something crazy. Charlie would be trying to reign him in. Mark would probably be joining Lyle and Ethan would defiantly be bonding with his horse and Colby would probably just be silently watching all of it.

Jason couldn't' help but smile a bit as he reminisced about their little adventures together.

He wished he could meet them soon, he couldn't wait to show how much stronger he got, his new skills and more.

Boops also let out a nostalgic sigh as he thought about the rose knights. The benefits and stat bonus's Jason got there were amazing and the location itself still had so many hidden things to explore.

Jason walked away from the main street disappearing into the dark alleyways, he was now a bit more determined. He was going to find that stupid mysterious woman even if he had to comb through her entire territory 8 more times.

Suddenly terrified by the thought that he might actually have to do that, Jason grabbed a few speed potions from his inventory and started to chug them.

With the speed boost Jason climbed to the roofs of the slums and started to leap through them.

As he was doing that

Boops voice suddenly cut in

'um hey, I think Perseus found a lead'

Jason stopped to talk to Boops he stood on the top of the roof looking down at the large widespread area of the slums. The wind was picking up as the black cloak flew freely in the wind.

"oh really? what was it?"

Boops let out an awkward cough

'umm, its a bit more then a lead, he found her'

"HAH?"