Chapter 758: Report Signs Of Brainrot To The Authorities
Well fuck, looks like that was a Shadow Summon all along, that guy wasn't even in front of us from the very start.
No wait… When I used [Screened] on him when we first met, it showed that it was the real person. If it was a Shadow Summon, there should have been something there that said it was a Shadow Summon, right?
So I was definitely beating up the real guy the entire time and he somehow managed to switch places with his Shadow Summon partway through…
Wait, is that also a spell that you are able to cast? Where you can switch places with your Shadow Summon?
I tried to think of the spell and… Nothing happened.
If there was really such a spell for this, then it should have popped into my head the moment I thought about it.
I briefly hypothesised that it might be due to my proficiency in Umbramancy being insufficient but I remembered that this guy's proficiency with it was the same as mine so that could not be the case.
Then maybe… He had some kind of enchanted artefact that allowed him to switch places with his Shadow Summon?
In that case, I want to know if it works with Shadow Guards and if it does, I want it.
And just for that artefact, I would not mind killing him for it.
Just imagine… I let Eins and the others position themselves somewhere all around the World in the shadows. I could have my very own method of fast travel!
Well, that's assuming that his artefact is that powerful, of course.
The good thing was that I didn't need to listen to that brainrot conversation anymore.
Meela came up to me and looked into the empty crater, her eyes widening when she saw it.
"Did you… Wipe him out from existence?"
Huh?
Oh… She saw the empty crater and thought I actually disintegrated him or something.
"No, no… It seems like he had substituted himself with a Shadow Summon before escaping. What I was attacking was the Shadow Summon and it disappeared after I smashed it into the ground."
"Ah… I see… But… Did you understand what he was saying?"
I grimaced, "Somewhat… He wanted to rob us."
"Eh? Really? I thought he was just some weird guy that might have been high on some kind of drugs and spewing nonsense at us."
"Well… It wouldn't be completely wrong to say that he was high I guess…"
High on brainrot that is.
She looked back at the others staying near the wagons, "But… Don't you think that you did a little too much? He's just a bandit right?"
I raised an eyebrow at her, "A single bandit, out in the desert, trying to rob a caravan with so many guards by himself? Don't you think that is something weird?"
"I… I see your point. But still…"
"He's the one who single handedly robbed Sameer's slave caravan by the way."
"E… Eh? He was?"
I nodded, "He told me how he spoke to him and that was how he talked. No question about it."
"Hmmm… In that case, thank you, Aster."
I waved at her, "No need for that. Umm… How long more before we reach the town?"
She started walking us back towards the caravan, "I would say another two hours or so. You can already see the town right over there."
Meela pointed towards the south and I squinted my eyes in that direction.
Sure enough, I could see the tops of what looked like buildings in the distance, most of it being hidden by the sand dunes.
At least we'll be out of here soon.
I climbed back into the carriage and I found Linette laying down inside though she had her legs spread and was in the midst of playing with herself.
"Ahh… Ahhh~ Welcome… Nnnghh… Welcome back, Miss Aster… Ahhh~ Can we… Continue?"
…
I closed the door and climbed on top of the merchant.
*
"Thank you for your help, Miss Aster. I will never forget this debt of mine. If you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to contact me," Linette curtsied, looking like a proper lady unlike how she was screaming out in pleasure while I was railing her not an hour ago.
I curtsied in response, "The pleasure was all mine. Thank you for the ride, Miss Linette. I will keep your offer in mind."
She would be going to their market square to start selling her wares before she would go look for the contacts that she told me could help with my search for the Off-Worlder.
We would then later meet up at an inn agreed beforehand and she would tell me what she found about him.
I was already suspecting that the... Ugghh… That Razzle Dazzle Rex… Is that seriously his name? Did he really decide to name himself that?
Whatever…
I was suspecting that he might be the Off-Worlder I was looking for around here.
Assuming that Linette's contacts yielded no results, I should start thinking of other ways I could use to find this guy.
The good thing was the fact that I already know his name. The bad thing was that I have no idea what he looked like so it could be anyone here.
And from the looks of it, this town was even bigger than the previous fort village I was in so it was even less practical for me to just sit at the side of the street and just use [Screened] on everyone. Especially when pretty much most of the people here were Mahuns.
So I guess I could just start the same way that I did with the other guy where I find information about him through the bars.
Or… Alternatively, I could just go to the Guild here and see if there are any reports of some crazy bandit going around spewing random nonsensical words while robbing caravans by himself.
Yeah, let's start from there.
I got the directions to the Guild branch from a guard nearby and headed there on my own.
The building the Guild was operating out of looked nothing like a Guild building if I was honest. It kind of looked like a bakery…
When I entered through the doors, I realised it was actually a bakery… Or more accurately, half of the building was turned into a bakery and there were even customers lined up to buy bread.
The other half was the Guild side and this side was relatively empty save for a few Mercenaries that were inspecting the quest board.
I found the counter quickly and there was a single woman seated behind the counter who looked more interested in reading her book instead of what was going on on the other side of the counter.
I had to clear my throat deliberately before she noticed me.
She quickly sat up and placed her book aside, "Oh! Sorry about that. Welcome to Sands Border Town Guild branch! How may I help you today?"
I hesitated for a moment, questioning whether this was even a good idea to begin with since it might draw attention to this Off-Worlder situation if no one had raised any alarms yet.
But I decided that it would be better to report it anyway instead of having the risk of him claiming more victims even if they didn't know about it.
"I just wanted to ask if there were any reports about a strange bandit robbing caravans in the desert recently?"
She tilted her head at me, "Strange… Bandit? I'm not sure I follow, miss?"
"Like… A single bandit managing to subdue an entire caravan by himself, wearing a mask and cloak that hides his identity, and also speaking in a very weird way?"
The Guild receptionist stared at me for a good long minute before answering, "I… I'm afraid that I have not heard of any reports about--"
"I have," A voice interrupted from behind.
I turned to see a male Mahun Mercenary holding a spear walking up to me from the request board. He looked quite young but he had the aura of someone who had probably been in this business for a long time.
He nodded at me in greeting, "You came from Shendhala right? Probably assigned to guard a caravan?"
I didn't really want to explain my role while travelling with Linette so I just nodded.
He continued, "And I assume that person you were talking about attacked the caravan you were guarding? The same happened to me just yesterday. Took all of us out so easily like we were nothing to him. The only weird thing was that he only wanted to see what the contents of the caravan had and left us alone after that."
I frowned, "Wait… He didn't rob you?"
"Oh he did, though he just took our money pouches and left after that."
"What was the caravan transporting?"
"Passengers travelling to Lecharouc Kingdom from Shendhala Oligarchy."
Oh, so a taxi service.
Wait… He chose not to take the wagons for his case but did so in Sameer's case… Why?
I don't understand his MO at all…
Is he just retarded or something?