Chương 111: Book 2 Chapter 63 - Choppy's Uncle

Choppy watched Shian and Zoey leave. They had escorted him back to his turf, and the conversation had been minimal. He recognized that Shian was part of gentle society, and didn't approve of his lifestyle, but with Uncle Bert as the head of the entire gang, Choppy had grown up in it, this was the only life he knew. Speaking of Uncle Bert, Vance had told Choppy they had already sent off an express message to Bert to let him know they'd captured Choppy so the negotiations could get under way.

Choppy kept a brave face when he'd explained the situation to Shian, but he honestly hadn't been sure if he'd survive the week. Vance had kept him alive because he was Bert's nephew, but Uncle Bert didn't play favorites. Choppy had to earn his own way. Bert would have likely received pressure from Choppy's parents to pay the ransom, if they found out, but doing so would hurt the gang as a whole, and Choppy didn't know how Bert would react in that situation. He grimaced to himself as he considered it.

Getting kidnapped was so embarrassing. Luckily, Shian Yountal had come along. Even luckier for Choppy, he now had prime intel that uncle Bert would want to hear. He definitely needed to know about Shian Yountal. It had been a while since Choppy had been back to Lakeshire to see his family, a trip was probably in order. Choppy replayed the rescue in his mind. That cell door opening wide, and Shian standing there. Vance, Dasor, and Tank all dead in the hallway, with Shian not having received a single scratch.

The hallway had been trashed, too. High powered spells had definitely been thrown around, and she looked none the worse for wear. Those same three men, supported by a handful of tier 2s, had ambushed Choppy and his party just two nights ago, thrashing them soundly. Ned had stayed behind at the main base with the stronger fighters, just in case Vance was trying to make a move there, and had sent Choppy out with some of the other men to respond to the threat at the smaller hideout.

Choppy had seen Vance and his crew fight firsthand, and knew how powerful all of them were. Tank had been an unstoppable juggernaut, maiming Choppy's guys with single blows. Vance's spell mastery was incredible, and Choppy's men had quickly been overpowered by the sheer strength of his spells and mana constructs. Dasor wasn't as strong as the other two, but still likely stronger than Choppy himself was. With only some tier 2 and tier 1 backup, Choppy's unit had been routed in under a minute.

All of that, and he knew first hand how strong those three were. The fighting outside the cell earlier tonight had only lasted for maybe twenty seconds total. Then the door swung open, and Shian was there. Choppy hadn't seen any other dead people besides Vance, Tank, and Dasor, and no one else had left the building with them, which meant Shian had come alone. She had killed all three of them. Alone. In under twenty seconds. Choppy knew that she had to be at least tier 4, probably tier 5.

He couldn't think of any other way she would have won that fight so handily. Choppy had met a few tier 4s that worked for his uncle, and knew what kind of strength they had, and he doubted any of them could have ended that fight so quickly. Completely overpowering your opponents like that took something more. Tier 4s were rare enough to be of note in Portish, but not so much on The Central Island. They were still rare, to be sure, but not worth writing home about.

Shian Yountal, on the other hand, was definitely worth writing home about. Choppy had never heard of her before tonight, but now it was all he could think about. If she was a tier 5, his uncle needed to know about her. Even on The Central Island, tier 5s were extremely rare. In Portish, they were mostly unheard of, there were probably only one or two, other than Count Dremond. Uncle Bert was a tier 5 powerhouse. Not the strongest tier 5, according to his own admissions, but a tier 5 nonetheless.

He had once told Choppy that there were likely less than a thousand tier 5s in the entire Central Kingdom. His estimate, if Choppy remembered correctly, was closer to six or seven hundred. While no one kept a short list long enough to keep track of every tier 5 in the nation, a new one popping up was still noteworthy. Of course, Choppy didn't know for sure that Shian Yountal was a tier 5, but he had enough evidence to support the theory.

His magic sense didn't register her at all, which meant she must have some kind of artifact that hid her tier. That, in and of itself, was noteworthy, as something like that was extremely rare and incredibly expensive. Choppy knew because he had looked all over Portish for one, and couldn't find it. Maybe they had them in The Capital, he wasn't sure.

He checked in with Ned when he got back to base, giving a brief explanation of everything that had happened, including the fact that the entire local leadership of their rival gang was dead. Ned was elated at the news, as well as glad to see Choppy back in mostly one piece (minus a few teeth). He agreed that Choppy should head to Lakeshire to see Uncle Bert. Choppy packed light, taking a sleeping roll and just enough food for three days.

It was seven hundred miles to the coast, and would take him the better part of three days if he ran for eight hours each day. Doing the trip by foot would be exhausting, but by horse it would take over a month, which was much too long. He knew his uncle would be anxious to hear this news. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. * When Kiara got back to the inn, she collapsed on her bed in exhaustion.

She once again felt the now familiar pull of the World Engine alerting her to a waiting message. She looked at it. Congratulations! You have showcased the merits of your class by defeating a tier 3 mage in combat for the first time. You will be given the following rewards: A 5% increase to each of your stats. [Soul Space (modified)] => [Soul Space 2]. Your soul space will now serve as a coin denomination exchanger for a 5% fee.

Stats: Strength: 450 => 472/600 Mind: 150 => 157/200 Endurance: 70 => 73/400 Healing: 60 => 63/4000 Sleep Fatigue Resistance: 40 => 42/400 Food / nourishment requirement: 22 => 23/200 Durability: 130 => 136/10000 Life Expectancy: 67 => 70/3000 For defeating multiple three tier 3 opponents simultaneously without any aid, you have also been granted the following reward: [Delayed Resurrection Token] Place this token on the body of any person who died within the last five minutes to mark them for resurrection.

They will be resurrected six months later in the same place they died. This has a one time use. What?! Kiara felt a new item drop into her soul storage space. She immediately retrieved it, turning it over in her hand. It was a coin, about three inches in diameter, and a quarter inch thick. It had a nice heft to it. It was made of a metal Kiara had never seen before, a silvery white color. It had a large scythe symbol on one side, and a flower on the other, which seemed appropriate, considering what it was.

She returned it to her soul space after studying it for some time. She would have to think about the implications of what this represented, and how best to use it. * Dustin had found Blake's parents with minimal effort the following day. Blake had opened up during dinner, saying that his parents were travelling merchants from out of town.

Armed with that information, Dustin led Blake, Kiara, and Zoey to the travelling merchant hub in the merchant district, and within fifteen minutes Blake was reunited with his family. His parents were Jeston and Hazel Argyle, not just travelling merchants, but the leaders of an entire travelling merchant caravan. Jeston was a tier 2, and Hazel a tier 1, and they were quite wealthy.

Kiara imagined they couldn't hold a candle to her own wealth, but compared to the rest of the world, the Argyle family was very well off. Blake wasn't yet fourteen, and hadn't received any magical instruction of his own, but would soon start his training. His parents indicated that they were travelling north towards The Central Island, intending to enroll him in one of the more prestigious magical academies there once they arrived. The kidnapping had worried them to no end.

They had immediately contacted the authorities upon receiving the ransom note, but had been told much the same as Kiara and Dustin had, that it would take a few weeks to make any headway on the case. They had only planned to be in town for a couple of days while the caravan bought and sold goods, and couldn't really wait a few weeks. Due to this, they had planned on paying the ransom. After many happy tears, they had offered the ransom to Kiara as a reward, but she had politely declined.

After that, they insisted on treating her, Dustin, and Zoey to an expensive meal as a thank you. Dustin, ever aware of social workings, quickly accepted their offer, telling Kiara later that it would have been extremely rude to refuse. The dinner was extravagant, and held at one of the nicest restaurants in Portish, and Kiara enjoyed it immensely.

At one point during the meal, Jeston had announced in a very serious tone that the Argyle Merchant Group owed House Yountal a great debt, and that if she ever needed anything, they would answer the call. He had sounded quite somber and serious, and so Kiara had simply nodded an acceptance, but hadn't thought too much of it. Later, Dustin had informed her that the promise was a potent one, likely much more involved than she yet realized, and not something she should dismiss too lightly.

That had piqued her curiosity to no end, but when she asked him what he meant, he simply shrugged and refused to say anything more. Smug little jerk. He knew just how to push her buttons. Before heading back to Easton, Kiara talked to Dustin about potentially moving their headquarters to Portish, and wanted to get his thoughts. Kiara knew that as their holdings grew, they would need to get comfortable operating out of a larger city.

Being in Portish offered them easier access to more people and products, and a steady supply of travelling merchants passing through. Portish was one of the largest cities in the duchy, and had quite a lot of merchant traffic. It was so large that many residences lay outside the protection of the city walls, but still within walking distance. Because of this, there were quite a few beautiful estates that were quite large, while remaining affordable. Well… affordable to Kiara.

She wanted Dustin to find one that would suit them and allow them plenty of room to grow. Dustin had seemed not only supportive of the idea of moving to Portish, but quite pleased by it. He had been travelling back and forth quite frequently, and he was sure that the businesses in Easton needed much less of his attention than the ones in Portish.

Since they had recently extended offers to Ron and Gentry to step into leadership roles in Easton, once they were trained up, they could keep things running smoothly there while he stayed mainly in Portish. He gushed about the brilliance of the idea of moving to Portish for a solid five minutes, almost as if he was trying to sell Kiara on it.

One of his main selling points was that a new wave of graduates would be coming out of the Portish Magical Institute in a month or so, and having a firm presence in the city would help them find more high-powered house retainers. Kiara finally had to remind him that she was the one who had brought up the idea of moving to Portish, and she was already on board.