After that nice meal, William decided to go back to the pond place and pay Linen a visit. Though it was still early evening, he had to use the method of draping Xiao Wei over him like a cloak to conceal himself from view.
After much running and getting lost a couple of times because he didn't read the instructions on his phone correctly, he arrived back at the pond.
He strolled over to the area where the earth elevator was and politely tapped on it with his foot, sending a vibration down to where Linen resided.
After waiting a few seconds, the elevator would descend into the depths of Linen's Station of Operations.
Upon reaching his destination, William would be greeted smugly by a man wearing a thread-woven mask that covered the top half of his face as per usual. He wore a clean suit, tailor-made to his proportions.
Linen smiled and said.
"So, you need more vestiges, huh? How many?"
"I have three archives with me today," William replied succinctly.
Linen nodded calmly.
"You do know that you don't have to kill people to make vestiges right? Supernatural ingredients work just fine. Though they are a bit rarer, I will say." Linen sighed whilst saying.
William shrugged. He didn't kill these people out of greed anyway; it was simply a reasonable decision to make in the moment.
"Don't worry, I'm not some maniac who goes around killing people for fun; I always do it for a semi-decent reason. And that's really the best I can hope for." William said whilst taking the archives from a regurgitating Xiao Wei and handing them over to Linen.
"By the way, these seemed to be affected by erasure. They're a bit transparent."
Linen's eyes widened slightly, well, not that they were visible to anyone anyway.
"So you know about the erasure, do tell, who taught you this information?" Linen inquired.
"My master taught me. His name is Kaelus."
Linen nodded while stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Ah, so you're affiliated with 'him' then...This is most intriguing."
William was wary of a potential attack; however, Linen simply laughed it off and continued.
"Just so you know, just being closely related to that man will bring you an entire world of enemies. It'd be in your favour not mention it to anyone. As for us, we are one of the few organizations not trying to murder him, so you're in luck." The man replied whilst smiling sinisterly.
'O...kay. Noted for the future.' William thought to himself.
Linen then took the archives William had handed to him into his hands.
"Do you know what makes these archives so valuable? It isn't simply the abilities stored within them; it's the history. Listen closely, there is information in this world that can kill, even moreso than in most novels." Linen educated him calmly while setting up his Ingenuity, formed out of threads of Ingenuity.
Now that he heard about it, William was quite curious about Linen's abilities.
[Author's Note has been activated.]
The information displayed was a bit blurry and hard to understand, but with his Reader of Lore status and Reader Attribute, he managed to decipher it.
[S cho l ar o f We a v in g]
'A Scholar ranked verifier...If he chose to participate in the Fame Game, wouldn't it be trivial?' William wondered, before coming to a more terrifying thought.
'Actually, there must be other Scholar-ranked verifiers participating! If I'm only a Reader-ranked verifier, I don't think I stand a chance...' William thought to himself, self-deprecatingly.
William then decided to ask Linen about his rank while he was forging a vestige.
"Mr.Linen, what rank are you in the Greek Alphabet scale, or whatever that thing is called?"
Linen chuckled, his thread-woven mask giving off a strange atmosphere.
"Why the Psi(2nd to last rank, which is the second strongest) rank, of course, are you asking because you just saw that I'm a Scholar?"
'How did he know...' William thought to himself in fright, or at least as much of a fright as he could feel. If not for his Attribute, his skin might have turned into Braille because of this.
"Mr.Linen, can you explain to me what the Ludus Company does? I didn't get to ask the two who recruited me." William asked hopefully.
"Alright, last question, these vestiges take concentration. The Ludus Company acts as a Mob of sorts; we deal in the trade of any and all goods, and we also protect the areas that are our jurisdiction. We're a Morally Grey Company, so you can bet the business model is pretty dark."
William nodded understandingly.
'A Mafia-type organization, huh...'
He left Linen alone after that, leaving him to his craft.
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After a while of waiting, he successfully procured three pairs of silk-woven gloves. The one made from the Reader of Luck's Archive had a small four-leaf clover imprinted on it, the Strength glove had a symbol of a fist engraved onto it, and the Movement glove had the symbol of a winged boot. The symbol of the God of Messengers, Hermes.
'Hermes...That reminds me, I wonder how Odysseus is doing nowadays.' William wondered.
William thanked Linen intensely before departing. Linen warned him before he left not to come back for a while, as he disliked being treated as a free Vestige Maker. However, he said it in a joking manner, so William wasn't too sure what he meant by it.
The moon had decided to reveal itself at this time, gazing down upon William like an old friend.
[Moon Wielder has been activated.]
William and Xiao Wei blended into the surroundings under the moonlight, stealthily returning back to the watchtower in serenity. The guards at the front-gate let him in with smiles.
Upon arriving there, he was greeted by a bored-looking Fei Kangzhen.
"H-hey boss, where've you been? We ought to continue scouting that Laws of Order base tonight! B-by the w-way, the food you made earlier was delicious." Fei Kangzhen said off-handedly.
"We'll start soon, I just need to get ready really quick. I was just out gathering materials and items to use." William comforted him before heading up the tower with haste.
Once he reached the second floor, he gifted the Glove of Luck to Lian, knowing she would have a great use for it.
"Wow! Shiny! Thanks boss!" She exclaimed with joy after hearing its abilities. Her eyes twinkling with excitement.
Then, he decided to take a quick peek at the third floor. Where Sang Pianyi and Sasha seemed to be having a nice chat, courtesy of the Library's automatic translation system of course. They looked to be getting along quite well.
A woman from Sasha's squadron also decided to stop by the third floor at this time, striking up a conversation with Sang Pianyi with a joyful smile. She seemed to know him quite well, perhaps a past colleague?
To William's amusement, Sasha seemed to be getting a bit of friendship jealousy as she began to pout with her arms crossed in a rather dominating manner, looking extremely intimidating as she stared daggers into the woman's eyes. Understandably, the woman got out of there as fast as she could.
Sasha still continued to pout, like a cat asking for attention. To which, Sang Pianyi chuckled like a true gentlemen and began to poke fun at her in a lighthearted and wholesome manner.
'I...should go now, I'm getting too invested in this, and so are you Narrator!'
He hurriedly headed back down the stairs, meeting up with Fei Kangzhen once more.
"Alright, now we just wait for Li Jiaojie to show up." William told Fei Kangzhen calmly.
It was around ten minutes later that Li Jiaojie appeared from outside. Groggy, tired, and smeared with dirt and soot by the looks of it, but alive.
"What happened out there? Why are your clothes so dirty..." William asked as polite as he could.
"I fought some bandits that were harassing a group of travellers. I managed to defeat them alone, but not without any injuries." Li Jiaojie explained.
The other two would nod while listening to his explaination. Before getting ready to depart for their scouting mission.
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The three arrived at the outskirts of the abandoned and old-looking warehouse once more. Ready to investigate.
For this mission, William had equipped the movement glove. Its effects were rather simple.
It granted an extremely fast burst of speed occasionally in exchange for a constant speed debuff at every other time as well as a thought deceleration debuff, making him think slower. The speed lost due to the debuff was proportional to the speed gained when the burst was activated.
The reason he chose to wear this one was purely so he could escape at a moment's notice if things got dicey, thanks to his Medicinal Coat, he could probably live one non-fatal attack and run away in time. A reasonable plan.
They remained around a hundred meters from a warehouse, scoping the place from afar.
In that place lived the three assassins of the Laws of Order and their Captain, a fearsome group of enemies for sure. One that would be difficult to win against head on.
The three set up a few cameras around the area, hidden the best they could in all sorts of cramped spots noone would look at, the objective of these was to spy on when they left the courthouse and when they entered it, after all figuring out their schedule meant they could find time to sneak into the base.
Afterwards, they heard a sharp wind envelop the area as a cloaked figure with long black hair approached the warehouse, the very same one who had cut off William's arm before.
'Is that so? Well, her captain seems to be nearby judging by the sound of the wind, that woman was able to blow away all the ingenuity particles in the area last time we fought. It'd be unwise to engage.'
Before she had entered the warehouse, another cloaked figure, likely one of her allies, approached her and slapped her on the back as a friendly prank.
To which, she would back hand the man with superhuman strength and send him into a concrete wall, which would break under the force of the man's body.
The poor man scratched his head, unaware of anything he did wrong.
A wind suddenly hit the girl hard on the head, as if reprimanding her actions.
Seeing this circus performance occur, William and the others decided now was the best time to make an escape, whilst the Laws of Order captain was busy disciplining her disciples.
They ran as fast as they could out of there.
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However, the wind is everywhere, and the wind hears all.
Where the wind meets, a message can be heard.
"Three lost feathers drift into my domain...Know that the winds can be gentle and soothing just as much as they are fierce and ruthless." A gentle yet stern tone echoed through the air, and with it came the wind.
A large gust of wind suddenly blew William, Fei Kangzhen, and Li Jiaojie far from the warehouse. They flew far in the air, before tumbling down in some random street. A bit bruised and dizzy, but not really injured thanks to their superhuman endurance.
"Ow...This was not in the plans...She found us...Not good." Fei Kangzhen groaned.
"Definitely, now she is a hundred percent aware of our existence and plans." Li Jiaojie continued on.
"In that case, we must thank her for not engaging in an attack right then and there. Though its likely that she just didn't want to get her disciples involved." William explained to the two.
The three decided to go back to the watchtower, these areas would likely be closely monitored for the next few days given that they had been discovered just now. So it'd be a while before they could attempt espionage again.
"In the mean time, perhaps we should attempt searching in the opposite direction, to the Safe Area occupied likely by that shadow guy Li Jiaojie talked about. Speaking of which, what do you know about him?" William asked Li Jiaojie intently.
He'd scratch the top of his head whilst they walked. Staring at the view of the early night streets of an apocalyptically empty New Shanghai. It was eerily quiet, with the only noise being the sound of them walking and their voices, penetrating the otherwise silent night.
"I can't really remember all that much about him for some reason...The only time I can remember is when me and my party were forsaken by him. Unlike the King, I believe he was truly despicable, the worst sort. I-I can't remember exactly why, but just thinking about that man sends hatred down my spine." Li Jiaojie explained with a dreading expression.
William sighed, it seemed that the past few days had been mainly for naught, and that he had to begin plans to siege a nearby safe area. A neverending workflow indeed...
Half an hour of walking later, they had arrived back at the Watchtower, bruised and battered, covered with dust and soot, but alive.