Chapter 58: Mystery solved
’Strange tactics?’ Ryan was alarmed. He had been warned too late; now his only option was the emergency exit. ’I have to go.’
He stopped thinking nonsense and turned to run, but as he did so, something dark that seemed to distort space entered his field of vision.
Ryan frowned and turned to look at it. It was in a corner of the room.
’The breach,’
Where the Kazaks had come out was there.
So... the one who opened the breach wasn’t that genius Kazak he fought earlier, because these things require a lot of magic to stay active...
’Strange tactics?’ He remembered what Cecily had just said about the way Brandon passed through his puppets, and it finally dawned on him.
’Did they use a breach?’ he thought, but quickly shook his head. ’Kazak teleportation!’
It was used several times in the novel, as certain types of Kazaks of a decent level, in the three digits, but close to 100, use it quite a lot. It is one of the personal magics of those types who seem to come from a magical system superior to the one in this world.
However, in the novel, a Kazak capable of using it appears after at least a couple of years have passed.
Here, it appeared on his first mission!
Moreover, he was a Kazak allied with Brandon...
’I understand now.’ His mind clicked, and his eyes shone brightly as he remembered the novel.
When the novel was in the Lost Gold arc, although it was really difficult to recover it, Brandon managed to do so after several days of relentless searching, with the help of Max, the Walker of the Devourer’s Path.
But just before he got it back, there was a change in point of view, where Max became the main point of view of the novel. It was only for a short time, as Max was only shown devouring walkers using the tactic Ryan had used before.
At the end of that, Max almost dies, and Brandon shows up to save him, this time with the treasure in hand.
This is something that often happens in novels, so no one thought it was strange.
But what if, in reality, all that time he was out of the reader’s point of view was simply because he was talking to his allies?
Perhaps what he wanted was not to give the treasure to his "allies," but rather...
’To consume it so he could become strong,’ he thought.
Perhaps those behind this weren’t just Brandon and these Kazaks, but rather one of the Dukes of the kingdom, and it had to be a very important one to be able to do so.
It was very likely that it was all a scheme. He knew the author of this shit novel, even though it was his favorite. That author loved to weave giant plots that spanned practically the entire story, so it was possible that all of this would be revealed in the final Chapters he hadn’t managed to read.
It wasn’t like it was the first time he’d done it, anyway.
’Wait.’ He frowned. ’If Brandon is so desperate just to get this treasure and use it...’
’It means he’s about to level up.’ Ryan shuddered and looked behind him when he felt the door open.
’Damn, I got lost in my thoughts.’ He immediately ran toward the emergency exit, realizing that the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous for him.
A Kazak capable of using Kazak Teleportation was an evolved one, possessing tremendous power within his race. At this moment, he couldn’t even face him, even if he tried to leave him without spirituality from an unknown location.
Besides, Brandon is about to level up. His current level must be 3, since the changes he has seen could only have been made by his abilities as an Author, evolved by reaching that level, so he is about to reach level 4.
He will surely die if he reaches it before Ryan is level 2.
Just as he left the room, Brandon and a few others arrived through the other door.
As soon as he did, he quickly realized the slaughter and that one was missing.
"Shit." Brandon shot across the room and quickly reached the emergency exit.
Just then, he saw a shadow turning toward one of the emergency stairwells, so he shot forward to chase him without even warning those behind him.
His body disappeared into the hallway, and his allies followed behind him.
Brandon reached the stairs in the blink of an eye and began to climb, but a black shadow lunged at him, severely obstructing his path.
’A puppet of a Shadow Puppeteer?’ Brandon tried to dodge it, but it was too fast, and he didn’t have time to react. The puppet soon fell on top of him and hit him.
He began to fall backward and rolled down the stairs.
"Young Master?" His allies were alarmed, but he didn’t care.
He paid no attention to them and shot forward again, striking the puppet, which was smashed to the ground.
His sword appeared in his hand, and he activated his spiritual projection to kill it outright. Still, the puppet turned into a shadow and dodged every attack before disappearing into the hallway.
"Bastard, you’re cunning." He wasted no time and simply started running once more, uphill, chasing after the one who had escaped.
In a few of seconds, he reached the top of the stairs and had to run down a long hallway until he finally came out into the open, in one of the most remote and least visited corners of the hospital, near a darkened and desolate neighborhood.
As he left, he had to dodge the attack of one rather strong puppet, and then another. He jumped back several times. He couldn’t see the guy who had stolen the item, so he had to knock the puppets away with a decisive blow before he could start looking for him properly.
Just then...
Brandon felt his heart tremble when the item sent out a strong signal and began to vibrate terribly.
The one who had obtained it was a walker and was...
’I see you.’ Brandon smiled.