The lady with the bow

The day and night passed with no problems as they went around to check the city's sights. The city got just built the last time he was here, so a lot had changed since then.

There were quite a few stores preparing food in the way you would expect it in a themed city like that.

They had somehow created even sake, which wasn't available in the game, but since you could get the materials to make one, it wasn't an impossible task.

Soryn seemed to be excited to taste these different types of food that he wasn't familiar with.

Soryn seemed to mostly enjoy pork Ameanum noticed.

Fortunately, food wasn't too expensive, at least for Ameanum's budget, so they got to taste more food.

They even had a few drinks, especially Ameanum, since a lot had happened lately, and this was one of the rare instances he just wanted to relax.

But it seems fate didn't like to let him.

He raised his left hand next to the left side of his head and caught an arrow heading towards him.

They were next to a window, and the arrow came through it from outside.

He looked outside as there seemed to be a battle between some Players.

It seemed to be two against one, as the party of two were two male rogues that Ameanum's eyes told him they were level 51 and 53 as well. They were an Assassin and a Thief as their class.

The third was a tall female human with a bow drawn, and she shot at the dagger-wielding rogues.

When Ameanum used his Eagle Eyes on her, he couldn't see any of her information, not even her name.

That was something that had never happened to him in the past. Even when he used it on Divine Equipment, he got at least their name.

The arrow seemed she didn't aim it at him but was one arrow she shot towards the Rogues, but they avoided it.

He could tell that she had good aim, but her speed was too slow, giving her target enough time to avoid before making the shot.

Some Players gathered around to watch the fight, but nothing else.

The three players had started an official duel, even if it was two against one.

The female kept trying to hit them with her bow, even though she had a blade at her side.

"It seems those Blessed Ones have tricked her in a fight of no possible way of winning."[Soryn]

He had noticed Ameanum's attention be drawn to the fight outside and the strange behavior of the female one.

"Indeed. But she seems not one to give up easily." [Ameanum]

Ameanum was confident of reading someone's body language, and he hadn't seen the female bow user seem to have thoughts of drawing her blade; she seemed focused on the battle with what she could use.

He knew that they probably had set the duel for each to use specific weapons, which was one option, but in these kinds of situations, most people would show at most minor signs of using something else if they were in a severe case.

He could respect that, but he could tell that this was an unfair fight.

Those two had some quite rare equipment, while the bow of hers was a little more potent than a normal one. So even if she got the chance to hit them, she would deal no damage.

They were just playing with her, as one would play with their food before devouring it.

The female was physically fit and didn't seem tired of running to keep her distance from them, but she was near that point.

The two rogues seemed to have grown tired of playing. They charged one in front of her and one from behind her.

She was ready to sidestep, but a trap she hadn't noticed they had put stopped her. It was a sticky substance that clued her food on the ground, but she could force it to get unstuck, but they were already at her.

As their daggers had almost reached her to hit four stones, one for each of the arms of those two individuals, throwing off their attack enough to miss their target.

The female seemed quick to react as she punched those two and threw them down to the ground.

She jumped back and shot at them with arrows as fast as she could, and they turned into particles.

Little did she know that she didn't damage them, but the stones that hit them weren't regular ones.

It was a secret skill of Soryn that he learned back to the Air Spire.

He had helped her after Ameanum said that they should.

As for the System's duel, it was just letting the winner be known, but didn't care if the winner was the one taking the kill. But most Players were against disrupting a duel.

Ameanum got outside and headed towards the female while the crowd gathered was going back to their business.

She seemed to catch her breath. She didn't notice Ameanum until he threw in front of her the arrow, which almost hit him.

"This belongs to you. Isn't it?" [Ameanum]

She looked at him and picked up her arrow.

It looked like hers, but she used typical arrows, so she couldn't be sure.

"It almost hit my head. You better watch where you aim and where they will go if they get dodged." [Ameanum]

"Oh... I see. My bad."[Female bow user]

She just smiled at it as nothing wrong had happened in the end.

She looked down at Ameanum as she was a little taller than him.

"Anything else I can help you with? Just letting you know I already have a boyfriend."[Female bow user]

Ameanum didn't know how to respond to that.

Did he actually look like one that was trying to flirt at this time?

"*cough* *cough*.... well, I just saw your battle and was wondering..." [Ameanum]

He stopped at that point as he noticed something.

She seemed to have a symbol in one of her pockets that he just noticed.

The head of a wolf, the same symbol of the Whip Masters Guild.

But she didn't seem to be a Tamer to Ameanum, and they were in a different kingdom.

Guilds focused on one Kingdom most of the time, but it wasn't rare to have members or branches to others.

The pause of him speaking and staring at her didn't help the female's opinion of Ameanum's reason to talk with her.

So she just turned and started walking away.

"You are one of the Whip Masters?" [Ameanum]

When she heard that, she seemed to have frozen in place.

"I have seen that symbol and know it is theirs. So you are one of them?" [Ameanum]

She said something that one usually wouldn't be able to hear, but Ameanum's PERCEPTION could.

"You aren't one of them anymore."[Female bow user]

She seemed to have said that to herself.

After she took a big breath, she turned towards Ameanum.

"Who are you?" [Female bow user]

"You can call me Shingi. I get you aren't on friendly terms with them. I am not either, so why don't we help each other?" [Ameanum]

She seemed surprised by what she heard.

"If you knew their power, you wouldn't suggest something like that."[Female bow user]

It seemed to Ameanum that she had quite some past with them, so she was someone he could use for his benefit.

"Well, Master Whip is dead for a while. Don't you think it is a good time to mess with them?"[Ameanum]

"What do you mean?!?" [Female bow user]

Ameanum just told her to follow the inn to speak privately and to meet his friend.

She seemed somewhat reluctant, but after Shingi described Master Whip and his wolf, she seemed to trust him a little more.

To discuss, they got a private room for him, Soryn, and Marcy, the female bow user's in-game name.

Shingi went over how in Carda, one of his students encounters the Master Whip's Guild and all the encounters he had with them. Then he described the deal for the Mine and what happened there. He didn't tell who Anna was but just described her as a person who was good at developing plans to get rid of people like that.

Marcy seemed to be impressed by his story. She got surprised that the Guild master of that Guild to had a fate like that.

"So what do you say? Are you going to join us? I can tell you don't like them."[Ameanum]

Marcy chuckled at that.

"Not liking them is an understatement. I just want them to be put down. But it isn't as easy as you think. They have many sources and know many dangerous people." [Marcy]

"You seem to know them a bit more than just heard rumors about them. Care to share that knowledge with us?" [Soryn]

Even if this didn't have to do with him, he promised to help Ameanum as he promised to help him.

"Well, they are providing tames beast and monsters on many people at the West and the North Kingdom and have heard the plan to expand at rest too. They also provide for the ones exploring the Tower, and those alone seem to bring more protection and sources to them."[Marcy]

Soryn looked towards Ameanum as they had some talk for the Drak Guild, and he had mentioned that they seemed to control the expedition of the Tower.

"Are those people of the Tower consider them important assets?" [Ameanum]

Marcy seemed to be confused about the question.

"I... I know little, like most people, about them. But they are dangerous men, and they probably don't like for one to mess with their business. Not sure if they are going to grant them any protection or something, though."[Marcy]

'It seems like things are more complicated than we thought.'[Ameanum]

He still didn't know the extent of the power of the dark Guild or what its source was, so he wasn't planning on facing them or drawing them towards him.

But he had to deal with that annoying Guild somehow.

He had to get back and report to Anna as soon as possible.

After some persuasion, Marcy agreed to follow them and at least hear the plan theirs, but she wasn't promising to be part of it yet.

He told her where to meet them tomorrow in the Bamboo Field and even gave her some tips about her bow techniques. He wasn't an expert with the bow, but had done some research for most of the game's weapons.

After that, he headed to the room that Soryn had paid for.

He disabled his SPECTATOR MODE, and he was back to his NPC body.

Getting outside the room, he found only Karemon.

He told him he would head out and be back soon, but first asked if anything happened while he was away.

All was the same as before.

He cast INVISIBILITY and headed toward the shop.

It took him a little more time as he noticed a few Players of the Guild that were on watch to have mana of their own and not just of their Player aura, so he avoided them just in case they had a way to detect him.

He made it in the shop and found Anna and Volig.

They told him that no Players had made any orders, and not even the townspeople had any either.

Shingi told them about the individuals he had found and brought the latest information he learned with him.

Anna seemed to share its disturbing thoughts, but she didn't plan on giving up. Instead, she assured Shingi that she would have finished the plan by when he was in town as Ameanum.

Shingi said his goodbyes as he returned to the mayor's office and the room they gave him there.

He once more was Ameanum, and this time he tried to rest for the rest of the night.