R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 7

R-a - Chapter 165 (In editing-v1)

As Micheal quickly traversed the forest, he kept his eyes and senses wide open. He looked for even the slightest sign of habitation, not allowing anything to slip past his gaze. He moved past several small beast colonies, three pits full of snakes, a dozen packs of wolves, and several Low Tier Magic Beasts, ignoring all of them.

By the time any of those beasts realized he was there, he was already gone, vanishing like the wind.

His feet rapidly ate up the miles as he jumped from tree to tree. He found this method of movement faster than just soaring with his Life Orbs, letting him rapidly reach an area close to the center of the forest.

‘It should be somewhere near here…’ The thought was on his mind as he looked around, after leaping about for around 40 minutes. The forest was huge, but his movement speed was also quite fast. Without any powerful beasts to force him to be careful, the progress he made was immense and unobstructed.

Micheal took one final jump and landed down atop the branch of a large oak tree. As soon as he landed, however, he ducked back to the side of the tree, his eyes piercing forward as he hid under some cover.

Roughly 70 meters away from Micheal, he could just barely see two humans casually conversing. Both were male, dressed in rugged leather clothing with blades on their hips. Both of them were young, white males in their early twenties, with scruffy beards and untamed hair.

Micheal strained his ears as he studied them, his eyes cool.

His powerful senses spread forward as he zeroed in, just barely allowing him to pick up what they were saying.

“…but the size of that Red Hand Snake, it must’ve been as big as my thigh!”

“Yeah, I don’t get why they call it a Red Hand Snake. Red Leg Snake sounds kinda dumb though.”

“That’s a fair point.”

Micheal wrinkled his nose as he listened to their conversation.

‘Who are they?’ Meeting a group of humans so deep in the forest, quite close to the location of the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance…

‘Oh. Right. The Rury Gang.’ Micheal blinked and then flicked himself in the forehead. Obviously they had to be the Rury Gang.

But this point in time was well before the Rury Gang rose to their high levels of infamy. After all, they didn’t start to appear until after Micheal first came to the Second Layer. And, in his first life, that time was still many months away.

From that, Micheal could conclude that this area must’ve been their hideout for a long time. It wasn’t a bad choice, all things considered. The O’Shack Grove was secluded and had few things of interest within it.

For a group of people that killed other humans to gain large numbers of easy Points, it wasn’t a bad deal at all.

Micheal’s eyes darkened when he considered that.

Bandit groups like the Rury Gang were not at all an uncommon sight. While most humans fell in line with the Four Barons, some humans that came to the Second Layer chose to walk their own path. This became vastly more common as hundreds of millions of people swarmed into the Second Layer in the coming months, greatly weakening the control the Four Barons had.

The Rury Gang was a rather unusual bandit group, given the history that Micheal knew. They were described as an infamous, murderous plague that only the Four Barons had been able to handle, but that infamy, itself, was a rather curious thing in Micheal’s eyes.

Most bandit groups avoided fame like the plague. After all, one’s survival often depended on how well hidden one’s Abilities were, or how well one covered their strength up, only unveiling it in times of need. The Rury Gang, on the other hand, seemed to have embraced their infamy.

It was a slightly unusual point that didn’t seem that important. After all, there could be a plethora of reasons that could explain why this was. Most people would’ve just ignored this tidbit, yet Micheal couldn’t help but find it something that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Micheal crept forward silently as he moved past the two sentries. He stuck to the highest point of the trees, using his Life Orbs to silently glide.

He didn’t attack the two sentries yet, but instead chose to ignore them. He wouldn’t strike without first being sure this was his target. And, in the off case that there was some type of alert Artifact or Ability active on the two, he might as well play it safe.

Unlike the First Layer, the Second Layer had a far wider selection of Abilities available. Micheal’s actions from this point forward would need to go under much more scrutiny. He couldn’t charge in with guns blazing like was possible in the First Layer, though he hadn’t done much of that then either.

From tree to tree, Micheal flitted through the tops of the forest, quickly slipping past two other sentries. In no time at all, he arrived at a large, tucked away base.

Around three dozen stone buildings dotted a small clearing. A small river ran through the middle of this clearing, next to a large mound of rocks. The rock huts all had slate roofs and looked to be created entirely out of different types of stone.

Micheal’s eyes glinted when he saw this. One of the people here, likely several, must have the Stone Shaper Ability. It could be used on a mass scale, with the right Artifacts, for the creation of temporary or even long-term shelters.

Activity dotted the enclosure as various men and women moved about. Off to Micheal’s right, there was an open training area in the clearing, where a dozen warriors were practicing combat. There was a notable gender discrepancy, with about three-fourths of the people present being men.

Micheal stayed put, hiding atop a tree as he studied everything. His eyes continued to scan the clearing, zeroing in on the large stone mound next to the river.

After staring at it closely, Micheal could make out what appeared to be a small opening near its base, one that appeared to dive into a dark cave.

‘Is that it…?’ He thought, his eyes narrowed. If this was the Rury Gang, the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance grounds should be located in or near their home base.

After thinking it over for a few seconds, Micheal hid himself slightly more within the leaves of the tall trees and settled in to wait. He assumed a meditative pose, relaxing his body as he blended in with the world around him. He didn’t give off a hint of energy, instead focused on becoming as passive as possible.

Seconds dripped into minutes, and minutes drizzled into hours. Micheal’s eyes were calm and placid as he remained absolutely still, moving only slightly with the rustling breeze that swept through the O’Shack Grove’s tall trees.

Beyond just avoiding detection, there was an important reason Micheal decided to wait till nightfall. According to the legends he knew… the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance could only be interacted with after night descended.

While Micheal was in this meditative pose, he studied his surroundings keenly. He gauged the power of all of the warriors here, gaining a rough understanding of their forces. While he couldn’t detect their Abilities, he could somewhat guess how strong each person was, based on the power of their physical body and Soul.

‘At least 34 unrated humans, 15 Third Rate Warriors, and 1 Second Rate Warrior.’ Micheal’s eyes missed nothing as time flew past, daylight rapidly fading to evening.

His eyes were that of a predator, hungrily searching out every detail. His ears picked up a great deal of casual conversation, though he didn’t discover anything of note. His targets weren’t so kind as to spout important plans out in the open.

By the time evening arrived, Micheal had gained more than enough information about the group before him.

They were, indeed, the Rury Gang.

After hours and hours of waiting, the proof of that finally lay before him, even now, as his gaze landed upon a woman standing alone in the dying evening light.

A pale woman with a scarred, disfigured face, long red hair, and a muscular body. She was dressed in a set of tight brown leather armor, with several metal scales covering both of her arms.

Simone Alto, the ‘Boss’ of the Rury Gang, the only Second Rate Warrior Micheal had seen thus far. In terms of physical power, she was on the level of one of the stronger Supreme A Rankers from the First Layer. It was more common to find male leaders of gangs or violent organizations, but female warriors could be just as effective.

By this point, most of the other men and women had retired to their various homes to sleep. Several groups of warding sentries had been sent out, but there was a very relaxed feeling to the camp. No one expected any sort of trouble.

Micheal took full advantage of that as he slunk up to the edge of his branch. He took several more studied glances around the bandit hideout, tracking where every possible set of eyes and ears were located.

He found a couple moving off towards an outdoor lavatory in the woods, a few men drunkenly passed out outside of one of the stone huts, and several large dogs tied up to a stone post in the south of the outcropping.

Apart from the distant sentries, the only person actively outside, in this exact moment, was Simone Alto.

Micheal’s patient waiting had finally paid off.

After he reached the edge of the branch, he used his Cloud Stepping Shoes to fling himself in the air. He then brought out his Life Orbs to silently glide downward, controlling his movements extremely precisely. He made not even a hint of noise as he acted, everything completely within his control.

In the darkness of the dying sun, Micheal descended upon the bandit enclave like a silent god of death.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Simone sighed as she looked out at the first of the Second Layer’s two moons. She never got used to such a sight, the odd juxtaposition of two enormous celestial bodies set so far away.

Around her, the rest of her gang was retiring into sleep. Today had been an average day for training, but all things considered, that was okay in Simone’s book. Her gang was growing stronger every day, something she felt eternally grateful for.

The day she began to wage her war for revenge was not long off. It wouldn’t be within weeks, maybe not within several months. But it was going to happen, all thanks to a random cave she’d discovered, just a couple of months ago.

She turned and glanced over at the rocky opening, just a few meters from her, smiling slightly. She then looked up at the night sky, staring at the unfamiliar stars that dotted the Second Layer.

After a moment, she frowned.

Above her, she could see a rather irregular splotch of darkness that appeared to be expanding. Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at this curious sight, wondering if it was some type of unfami-

Her thought process was abruptly frozen as a set of long, metal threads slammed into her.

Two of them circled her throat, cutting down and circling her tender neck without giving her a chance to resist. Two others lashed down onto each of her arms, circling them several times and forcing them to remain held down. One last thread slammed into her waist, limiting her movements.

Simone’s eyes grew bloodshot as she prepared to resist, energy rising around her body as she simultaneously prepared to activate several Abilities. She tried to jerk her hands up, doing everything she could to rip off the metal threads.

Before she could do anything substantial, however, she froze once more, her eyes widening in terror.

For, those metal threads had suddenly become ferociously sharp. Blood dripped down from her neck as she felt the thread cut into her, causing her hands to tremble. Her breathing became ragged as she felt how delicate of a situation she was in, knowing death was a mere step away.

Alongside all of that, Simone felt an overwhelming feeling of terror sink into her bones as the splotch of darkness she saw in the air landed next to her. She continued to remain unmoving, her pupils dilating as she felt the horrifying power and intent of the man that now stood next to her.

If she dared to scream for help, she would die immediately.

If she dared to fight back, she would die immediately.

If she dared to even twitch her arms, she would die immediately.

It wasn’t a question of how fast, nor was it a question of if she could resist. Simone’s experience from the past three years and several months, instincts she had built up over years of battle, told her everything very clearly.

A single wrong step would lead to her death.

“Hello, Simone.” The darkness spoke to her, his voice as smooth as the devil,

“It’s time you and I had a talk.”

.