Lowly Ascent

Barch was a huge city.

It was filled with factories and was a hub of trading for the entire Empire, due to it producing almost anything a civilization needed other than food which was what Free City mainly exported. With it now gone, the Empire has made Barch a staging ground for greenhouses, but it still won't be enough to fill the hole Free City left.

Though the city has recently tried creating greenhouses to fill the gap Free City left.

It was the biggest producer of products in all of Netherane which was why the large Empire could sustain itself, without the money from Barch, the Empire would collapse on itself.

But Barch was an obvious flaw in the Empire's economy, it has long since had supports and contingencies in place for a multitude of situations.

Cain's carriage paid the toll to enter the city and was now cruising through its streets. One of the main factors of why Barch was so big was due to it having huge roads, many of which were exclusive for certain vehicles or merchant groups.

It was quite nauseating attempting to navigate the city, thankfully it was organized by districts so it was much easier to find what you wanted.

There are 3 districts in Barch, the factory, market, and living districts. You could tell what such districts were for just by their names.

For those who couldn't. The factory district is for production.

The market district was where stores and markets for trading and buying of almost all of Barchs' non-exclusive goods as well as where merchant caravans and groups resided.

Finally, the living district was for housing, inns, and different services like barbers and grocery stores.

It didn't take long for Cain's group to make it to an inn. Specifically, Ornate Palace.

The group was baffled about why they were staying at such an expensive place again, but Cain lied and said something like, 'To appear rich! Remember our carriage has gold in its frame!'

They bought it and Cain was allowed to bypass their suspicion, after all, who wouldn't accept being paid for to stay at a luxury inn?

During the stay, Cain was visited by the Barch Branch Head at night when everyone else was asleep, they then began their business.

The Branch Head bowed before introducing herself.

"Hello sir, I am Lina. I was told to acquire this for you, I also suspect you want to buy information?"

Lina handed Cain a vial, its label read 'Red Rose' It was exactly like Cain asked for.

"You work fast. You know the specifics for the bacteria?"

Lina explained that the bacteria lived in the muscle fibers and drained the rest of the body of nutrients, since they lived in the muscles, the muscles and tendons benefited from them and were strengthened massively.

A more detailed description would be that the bacteria travel through the tendons to reach other parts of the body to absorb their 'nutrients', they then return through the tendons and go back to living on the muscle fibers.

The bacteria will secrete a sort of waste that has strengthening properties, which benefit the tendons and muscles.

Someone infected with this would see a rapid increase in strength, but they would begin to appear sickly or even rot due to cells dying. When they finally die, all that's left are scarlet muscles that smell like roses, hence the name.

Cain was delighted and thanked Lina for acquiring it for him, but he then became serious. They had business to discuss.

"You are right, I do wish to also buy information. Do you perhaps have anything on Victor Kushen?"

Lina smiled.

"Yes we do, I will make a profile immediately and give it to you, it will be 100 silvers, I'm even giving you a discount so be thankful" She winked and walked out of the room. Much like Phoebe, she also barely wore anything and was on the prettier side.

She came back 20 minutes later with a folder filled with papers, Cain handed her a bag of silvers and she left, though not before attempting to seduce Cain.

'What is wrong with these people....'

When he finally got her to leave, Cain went to the desk to lay out all the organized papers and began to cross-reference all the information. He then organized this information on a profile sheet.

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Victor Kushen is a 48 old veteran of the Empire, he is the current Patriarch of the Kushen family and has a son and a daughter.

Both his children are studying in the capital while Victor was given the duty of overseeing Barch for the royal family, he was given the position due to his prior achievements in earlier wars and his family's closeness to the royal family.

He is staying at the mansion at the center of the city as the Mayors Guest. The current mayor is Julian Ivins, he owns 30% of the factories in Barch and is the founder of the Ivins group which is a massive trading company that owns or sponsors 40% of all caravans staged in Barch.

The mansion itself is heavily guarded by teams lead by plague doctors and there are many checkpoints leading to the mansion making infiltration nigh impossible.

There is also a hidden fact that Victor broke though to Grade 3 many years ago after visiting the Royal Palace, it is unknown if the royal family helped him in his breakthrough but it is heavily suspected that they did.

Victor doesn't leave the mansion but he does have servants purchase brownies and other goods that come from a specific bakery in Barch as he enjoys them immensely.

He also can be seen regularly at social events and banquets, as most of them happen at the mansion hosted by Julian.

It is also suspected that Victor wasn't only given the one mission to oversee Barch, many sources believe he is supposed to meet with an agent of the royal family to hand off vital information for either military purposes or something else.

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This was all the information Cain got from the pile of papers that cross referenced with one another, the rest was only rumors and suspicions with zero evidence.

But now Cain had something, he quickly made 2 plans in his head to infiltrate the Mansion. He additionally found out that his opponent was on the same level as him.

Cain would have to improve his power even more due to this.

When it comes to plague bearers, seniority is a major factor in combat, the older a Plague Bearer is, the more knowledge and understanding they have at their fingertips.

As the saying goes: Knowledge is Power.

Victor has been a Grade 3 for almost a decade while Cain hasn't even been one for half that time. This was a tuff realization he had to complete the Unbending Dread serum before he could attempt killing Victor.

In the meantime, Cain began to get Lina's help in creating a background for him as a fallen noble who became a merchant.

He wanted this identity because one of his two plans relied on being able to enter the noble circles. It was his best bet to enter the mansion, but it also needed the slowest time to work.

........

A few weeks passed, Cain bought a warehouse and manor in the city, it costed a major chunk of his savings but he was hoping the military would pay it back as mission fee's, although if they didn't it would be fine. He wasn't so obsessed with money he let it cloud his vision.

Cain, with the help of Lina, made the identity of Cain Lavedal, a noble who lost everything due to the recent war. He now sold all his assets to try and make it as a merchant.

Cain didn't know much about being a merchant, but he had the help of Lina who was in charge of all information of Barch and its surroundings, meaning she knew what should be bought and when for a merchant trying to make money.

It was basically a cheat code!

However getting her help was costly. Cain had to agree to split the shares of money earned 60/40, 60 him, 40 Lina.

It only took a few more weeks until Cain became a successful trading group that caught the attention of some nobles, he even doubled his initial investment!

Cain was in his office inside his groups main headquarters, this place was also where him and his team slept, he had them helping with labor and paperwork to put some weight off his own shoulders.

With their help, he was able to use a lot of his time in research and was close to creating the serum between Unbending Dread and the Red Rose bacterium which he turned into a virus a week prior.

Today was the day where his plans first step took place, he was meeting with a powerful Noble to possibly get his entrance ticket into one of the banquets held at the mansion.