Chapter 48
By the time night began to fall, Zeth had prepared five Hellfire Ritual circles for use. He didn’t anticipate using all of them, but it was better to have too many than too little.
He could feel the effects of his newly-Evolved Skill, Ritual Nexus Mastery, kick in as he worked, primarily enhancing his two highest Stats—Endurance and Shaping—to keep him feeling both physically and mentally spry even after the hours of work he’d just performed.
And he was going to need that energy for what came next.
Because after he’d finished, Zeth donned the identity-concealing outfit he’d used during the mannitor attack, threw on some loose clothes over it, and headed back out into town. It wasn’t fully midnight yet, so some people were still out on the streets, but that made for good cover. Right now, he just needed to gather information on his target.
He knew where Garon lived from the long time he’d spent working under him—he’d even been forced to go and bang on his door to wake him up and convince him to come in to work on days that lazy asshole had slept in—so he was at least somewhat familiar with the house’s layout. Of course, considering it was guild housing, the entire thing would take the exact same layout as any other house that any other guild member lived in, so whether or not Zeth had seen it before, he’d still know it like the back of his hand.
And thankfully, as Zeth passed by the house, it seemed like Garon was still staying there. The unfortunate part, of course, was that Zeth could only tell Garon was staying there because of the dozen guards all posted outside the house. The single structure looked as well-guarded as a treasure vault.
After passing by a couple times to see if he could spot any weaknesses in the defenses, Zeth sighed, bit his lip, and relegated himself to waiting elsewhere for the light to disappear completely from the town streets, so he was the last one around.
He at least had a basic analysis of the objective. Now, he just had to complete his mission. As for how he was going to do that, he still had little idea. But he had to try.
So, after taking one last deep breath and ensuring nobody was around, Zeth stripped off the loose clothes he wore over his undersuit, pulled the hood and mask over his face, and headed back over to the house. It was protected, but all he’d seen were some normal town guards. Perhaps he could scare them off with some simple intimidation? Pose as the big bad scary Blood Mage, here to take their souls, and hope they run away?