Sneaking into the city
Seeing Ryu looking back at her, Lia felt a deep fear within the bottom of her heart for she predicted her own death. But, still, Ryu said nothing and just remained looking down at the woman, waiting for her answer.
"I- I will say nothing." Lia said with her voice trembling.
"You would choose death over simply answering a couple of questions?" Ryu asked.
"Like you would spare me." Lia said, shifting the direction of her eyes to the side in order to not stare at Ryu.
"I will spare you, I swear. But I do not guarantee that your health will be perfect. I don't want you to go to your base and spread the word about us. Isn't that much better than just dying?" Ryu tried to convince Lia.
"It doesn't matter at all. Even if you don't kill me, he will." Lia said.
"If you say so." Ryu put an end to the talk while he pulled his staff up, to in sequence lower it down right on Lia's head, breaking her skull.
A single moment after the fight ended, Ryu looked at Nura, and both of them signaled that they would say something, but they stoped with their mouth open before a word left their mouth because a message from the system drew their attention.
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Fought a group battle, against two opponents.
Won a fight against a dangerous foe.
Reward: 1500 exp.
Necessary conditions to level up achieved.
Showed complete dominance over an opponent.
+1 aura stat.
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As soon as they saw the message, Ryu said loud, not minding that Nura would hear him, "Raise level." and another notification appeared for him.
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"How much exp do you got?" Nura asked in curiosity.
"I got 1500. What about you?" Ryu said.
"I got only 300. But that was to be expected as the difference in levels matters a lot in the reward." Nura said.
"So that's the case. Changing topic, what do we do now? With these two bodies over here, the gang in the city would figure out our presence pretty soon. Shall we dispose of their bodies?" Ryu asked.
"It's a good idea, let's dump them in that river before anyone else comes, and remember to get her ring first." Nura said, going to the bald man and lifting him over his shoulder.
Ryu did the same with Lia after picking her ring and collecting his sword on the ground. Then, the two boys pulled away from the road, running to the side in the direction where the river was.
No more than 3 kilometers away, Ryu and Nura reached the riverbank, located in a densely compacted forest that left no room to walk freely between the trees. But with some effort, they crossed the many obstacles and got close enough to the water.
The river had something around 6 meters in width, and the color of the water flowing had a clay color, but the color of the water lost far to its rotten odor while creating a disgusting sensation. Ryu and Nura threw the motionless bodies into the river, and they watched in silence as the two bodies drifted away, carried by the river current until they became too heavy and sank into the water.
"Life is really strange. One day you are talking with girls with your friend, and another, you both are disposing of dead bodies into a river." Ryu said, philosophically as he kept staring at the river with a deep and pensive look on his face.
"I don't think this is a normal life, Ryu." Nura said, worried about what his friend might be trying to comprehend from that situation.
"It's better with we go now before it gets dark." Nura said.
"What? Are we still going to the city? They would discover that we killed these two sooner or later." Ryu asked.
"They will. But, in a city of this size, there is no way that they know everyone around. They will start searching for two people, but thanks to your level, they would have a hard time connecting this to us." Nura said.
"I got your point. But if we enter the city right after they came out, even an idiot would reach us eventually." Ryu said.
"That's precisely why we will not enter by the front road. My plan is to keep approaching by the side in this forest and sneak in from the sides when we got a chance." Nura explained.
Since Ryu didn't have a better plan, they followed Nura's plan, walking in the forest until they could see the town houses up close.
Going all the way through that forest, while sneaking around so as not to draw anyone's attention, was not an easy task. But, thanks to Leoric's lesson on the village, together with Ryu's tracker skill, they managed to reach safely, despite the long time waste.
Cautiously, Ryu and Nura looked at the town less than a hundred meters away until they found a part of the city that had no one walking. So, they rushed into the city safely and started walking in a direction which they thought should be the inner part of the town.
Their plan was to find an inn in a place in the transition of the city where the common houses ended and the large luxurious mansions with large gardens began. Whatever was happening in that city, both Ryu and nura agreed that they should investigate the authorities, so they needed to stay somewhat close to the inner city.
However, they were afraid to find a place in the inner city and draw too much attention as two weak outsiders coming to a place of luxury would not go unnoticed for a long time.
The further they walked in that town, the more they found it weird, not because the city had something uncommon, but precisely because it had nothing strange.
For a town ruled by a gang of criminals, Ryu and Nura expected to see things that would indicate such behavior, like crimes happening in broad light, misery in the streets, or even bandits gathered on street corners carrying weapons.
However, to their disappointment, they found that to be just like any other city, and if not for that incident on the road, they would think that the whole information brought by Enlil when issuing the mission was false.
With that weird sensation, Ryu and Nura raised vigilance and started to pay attention to the surrounding. The houses made of brick had the same faint red color, and they were somewhat large without a garden, meaning that the end of one house connected with the next one, with no gap between them.
Over the people on the street, they wore simple robes and, despite their grim faces, there was nothing unusual about them. The only thing out of the norm that Ryu noticed in this town was an unusual number of taverns, marked by a wooden sign on the door indicating their presence.
When they walked between the streets, heading to the center of the city, Nura said, "Ryu, did you noticed something strange here?" he said, looking at one of the tavern signs.