Chapter 317: Fishing For Information
As Uhtred thought of that, his mind went to the two individuals who actually had the ability to make his stay in this city go downhill — the two elves at the gate.
He picked up his pace before they were cleared for entry. He knew they’d easily gain access despite their race — and despite the city lacking a single elf in sight.
Of course, Uhtred was slightly curious to learn how they would pass, but his natural inclination to avoid unnecessary trouble overruled that curiosity.
Within seconds, he blended into the crowd of pedestrians — traders, buyers, adventurers, and unaffiliated ascenders. They filled the streets, their voices droning over each other.
Soon, Uhtred had long left the perimeter of the city gates and entered the heart of the city.
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.
Meanwhile, mere minutes after he disappeared, the two elves stepped into the city calmly and without any hassle. Just as Uhtred had thought, they had their means to enter the city.
"So, what now, Highborn Eifrith?" the taller elf, Elion Silverwood, asked upon their entry. One still couldn’t see his face, but there was an undisguised disgust in his voice as he moved his head and scanned the human city.
"Now, I do what I came here for," the female elf, Highborn Eifrith — as Elion had called her — said with an even deeper disgust in her voice. She visibly shuddered, as if being in the presence of humans was an act so far beneath her, it made her skin crawl. "I cannot bear to stay among these lessers a single second longer than necessary."
With that said, she immediately began walking deeper into the city, the broad, taller figure of Elion Silverwood acting as a deterrent that made the crowd instinctively part ways for them.
Surprisingly — or perhaps not so surprising — their path followed the exact same one Uhtred had taken just minutes ago...
.
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Uhtred strolled around the city, oblivious to the two troublesome fellows trailing after him. He focused on the sights and sounds, listening to the idle singers, the bards, and observing the notice boards that littered busy spots in the city — all to check if he would notice any hidden message like he, Zara, and White Raven had agreed upon.
Unfortunately, he found none. But on the upside, he found something else that intrigued him greatly — more details about the champion competition.
On the notice boards, and in the scattered discussions of ascenders on the streets, everyone seemed to be talking about "another major loss of a human shard."
Apparently, these "human shards" were tied to the four champions who had arrived two weeks ago to represent humans — King Alexei, Perfection, Black Sun, and Antoine Blanc, undoubtedly.
According to what Uhtred had gathered, two of these human shards were already lost to the dragonkin race. He hadn’t been able to glean more than that from his stroll around the city, so he decided to head for a place where he’d most definitely learn more:
A tavern.
It solved both of his problems at the same time — a tavern was also one of the major spots he, Zara, and White Raven had discussed to leave signs. And at the same time, where else but a tavern would ascenders let their words run freely?
He politely asked for directions to the largest tavern in the city and headed straight for it.
At first, Uhtred thought he’d been misdirected, as his path led him to the city center where large businesses and shops run by master artificers — crafting-type ascenders — were rife.
But upon seeing the building in question, he realized why he’d been directed here. The building belonged to the Adventurers’ Guild — the central hub where every registered Adventurer of Valeria came to take on missions... and, from the looks of it, to also unwind.
Rowdy noises could be heard from the ground floor of the building even though the evening was still quite young.
"Makes things easier for me," Uhtred muttered as he strode toward the building, reaching forward to push the doors open. "Here goes nothing."
A hot, damp waft of air — the smell of sweaty human bodies mixed with the stench of booze — slammed into Uhtred’s face the moment he pushed the doors open.
His entrance drew the attention of those closest to the door and a few curious ascenders further in. But for the most part, no one really paid him any mind.
He weaved his way to the bar, his face flat and unmoved by the piercing, confrontational gazes of some of the ascenders as he passed them by.
"Barman. Give me your best stuff," he tapped the bar table softly, alerting the person behind it.
"Barwoman," the large, buzzcut, fierce-looking figure behind the counter corrected with a grunt. She turned, revealing her face... and her very ample bust to Uhtred.
"Ah," he raised a brow, stunned. "I can see that now."
The barwoman grunted. "I ain’t never seen your face around here before. You from outta town?" She looked Uhtred up and down, the crease on her forehead deepening. "In fact, are you even an adventurer at all?"
"What does that matter?" Uhtred snorted, not about to be pressured into revealing information about himself. He’d heard already that this tavern catered to anyone. And even though he could see now that it belonged to adventurers, he reckoned that so long as he had the coin — and the strength to protect that coin from greedy eyes — there should be no problem.
With a smooth movement of his hand, Uhtred pulled an Essence Crystal from his spatial storage. Mentally, he noted that he was beginning to eat into his Essence Crystal reserves way too much. But this was something he needed to do.
He made sure to hold the Essence Crystal up in such a way that several eyes caught an ample glimpse of it.
Immediately, several tables close to him went silent. Not only that, Uhtred could hear people drawing the attention of their comrades to what he had brought out.
He placed it on the table and slid it over to the barwoman, not even bothering to shield it, as if it meant nothing to him.
The barwoman stared at it, then looked up at him, her eyes narrowing. She, just like anyone with sense, quickly deduced that one of two things was likely:
One was that Uhtred was some rich young scion from a big family gallivanting about, coming in here to taste the atmosphere and life of adventurers — in which case, he was a very foolish young scion who would lose everything valuable he had before the end of the night.
Or two — and more likely, based on the playful, easy glint the barwoman could see in Uhtred’s eyes — Uhtred was someone powerful. Someone who was so sure of his strength, he would pull such a move without a second thought.
If the second option were the case, then it would mean he was doing this for a specific purpose. He wanted the heat that would come with revealing something as valuable as an Essence Crystal.
In any case, though, none of that was the barwoman’s business. All she cared for was the shiny Essence Crystal lying on the table.
Deftly, she snatched it away, her expression turning pleasant.
"It matters not at all, esteemed sir. I take it you mean to drink the whole night then? Seeing as your medium of payment, even at the worst conversion rate, is worth a thousand coins at least?"
Uhtred nearly bit his tongue.
His mind went back to the boy from earlier. He’d given that kid something worth a thousand coins in place of a measly five coins?!
He cleared his throat, shaking away the thought.
It’s okay. One Essence Crystal isn’t worth shit to me anyway, he convinced himself.
He was just about to reply to the barwoman when he sensed a man close in with a boisterous laugh.
"You don’t have to worry about that, Irene. This friend here will handle our drinks for tonight too. Wouldn’t want to have that money go to waste now, would we?" He stepped right beside Uhtred and wrapped an arm around his shoulder like he was some long-lost friend.
Uhtred stilled for a moment, then slowly, with the most disdainful expression that had ever formed on his face, he turned and looked at the man, then at the arm wrapped around his shoulder.
He reached forward and picked the arm up with two fingers — just barely, like he was removing an unsightly thing and wanted to use the least amount of contact possible — and dropped the arm onto the table.
It thudded loudly, resounding through the now pin-drop silence of the tavern.