SSS-Rank Engineer: Only I Can Create Legendary Weapons

Sonea was a pretty city. It wasn't anything crazy like Dema, like being built on a river with a huge white fortress at the center of the city and river. But Percy thought it was okay.

It was dotted with high houses made from bricks and wood, smoke drifting from their chimneys. The city had two walls; a stone wall going round the inner city, and a wooden one built on the second layer. Houses were still built outside the wooden wall, but they were shabbier and less organised.

The gates of the city were free of those pesky poor people, with guards armed and armoured with metal, searching every carriage in the caravan before it crossed the wooden gates of the city.

Percy and Thalos hopped out of their carriage and walked towards the gate casually, brown cloaks covering their faces, armed rather obviously.

The guards placed their hands on the weapons at their hips and exchanged a silent look between themselves. Once the two of them got to the gate, they were surrounded by the guards and their commander.

"Stop right there," the man said. His armor wasn't normal steel; instead, it was carved from a blue glass-like material. "Drop your weapons and get to your knees."

Thalos raised his head slightly and revealed his face to the commander with a smirk. The man's mouth gaped for a moment, then he turned to his men.

"Everyone, back to work. Don't worry about these guys," he said grumpily. "Let's enter inside to speak."

The man spun and walked through the gate with Percy and Thalos, towards a guardhouse right by the gate, tucked between the wall and an inn.

Inside the guardhouse, they passed a busy front office, dodging a crowd of loud people, and went to the back where the commander's office was kept. On their way, Percy noticed a pole built against the wall, designed with Hermetic symbols and circles.

He walked into the office, committing the pole to memory. The commander stared at them with a grim expression.

"Should I be worried about this, Lord Thalos?"

"I'd like to say no, Dorian, but you should be." Thalos sat in one of the armchairs with blue cushions, and Percy joined him. "We're going to cause some problems here. We'd like to properly greet the Baron, but we can't let too many people know we're here."

Dorian walked towards his desk and sat, taking out a note and his quill. He was bald and slightly round-bellied. He looked up to Thalos.

"Should I pen him a private message about your presence?"

"No," Percy answered, drawing Dorian's eyes. He couldn't trust the man or the Baron of Sonea, but they needed to enter the city quickly and get to work. "We'll greet the Baron soon, but it'll be later this evening when we're done with our work."

Dorian nodded slowly, his black eyes growing suspicious. He glanced between Thalos and what he assumed was his son, Perseus Amphene.

"May I ask why, Lord Perseus?"

"We're just hiding out from a couple of sour friends," Percy promised. "My father will be going back towards Carmen for a while, and while I'm vulnerable, it's best no one knows I'm here."

Thalos' eyes flicked towards him, a bit confused, but said nothing to the slight deviation.

"Is that enough, Dorian?" he said. "Can we leave?"

Dorian rose and bowed deeply.

"Of course, my lords. I would never dream of impeding your plans. I just wanted to make sure all was right."

They both rose and left the office without bothering to even say goodbye. Once the door shut again, Dorian raised his head with a dark look on his face. He sat rather stiffly and reached under his desk for a rope of steel beads.

He raised the beads to his lips. They glowed slightly red, and he said with an even voice,

"They're here."

○——○

Outside the guard building, walking down the street, Percy raised the sleeve of his shirt. On his wrist was a set of steel beads called Whispers, similar to the ones he saw Lecetes with all the time.

They were communication devices that worked with Wind spirits, condensing sound and delivering it in discreet batches that couldn't be heard by anyone. But over long distances, the voices degraded, so they had relay poles to catch and reamplify the sound.

This would lead to some lag in the speed at which information could be transferred. But it was allowed for someone else to receive your voice message while it went to its destination.

To do this, the person needed a high affinity for Wind spirits, and they also needed to know what types of symbols you used in your relay.

Percy unknotted his bead and began replacing the steel balls with new ones as he tried to replicate the pattern he saw on that steel pole. If Dorian was in communication with the Whitemoon, the symbols wouldn't be exactly the same, but they would be similar.

He always carried a lot of steel beads with him, just in case he needed to do something like this. And these people would use similar symbols on their relays.

He had two bracelets, one that would pretend to be the Wind spirit that Dorian's beads were connected to, and another bracelet that would help that spirit pretend.

Funny enough, Terra was the one that came up with this concept by mistake to spy on Lecetes as a joke. Then Percy secretly worked on making it himself, because he knew she wouldn't like it.

He tried a couple of combinations, but he wasn't getting anything.

"Shit, only ten seconds before it leaves the relay."

"Maybe he isn't working with them," Thalos suggested. They both stopped in an alley and leaned against a wall. "Dorian and the Baron were rather nice when I last visited here, and they didn't even try to poison me."

"I'm sure that's an appropriate way to gauge who is friend or foe, but we should make sure they are allies," Percy said without looking up.

A buzzing sound interrupted them as the bracelets began glowing red. Percy pumped his fist, hissing in celebration. Then he closed his eyes and sank into the void to contact some Wind spirits.

He used the Wind spirits to help strengthen the relay tapping and hear what Dorian was saying to these people.

"They're here." Dorian's voice hummed from the steel beads. "Thalos and the bastard. Thalos is going back to Carmen to probably look for you, but Perseus is staying in the city. What do you want to do, Meercat?"

The beads grew dark for a moment, and silence reigned for almost three minutes. Thalos and Percy were about to start talking again when the beads lit up again.

"Hello, Chameleon, this is Viper. We will strictly focus on Perseus for capture. Give us three hours in the inn district. No guards, and if Thalos returns early, stop him at the gates for at least ten seconds."

Dorian's reply came back late.

"V-Viper, you're already back. We will do our best, but these guys will have Whispers too. If Thalos knows Perseus is in danger, he won't hesitate to cut us down."

Viper's cold voice replied,

"Yes, I just teleported back, and now I'm back in charge. We'll block communication with Whispers in the entire city for a few hours. The only reason I want you to watch for Thalos is that they might have regular check-ins. If Perseus goes silent, he'll know something is wrong. Enough talk. Do what Sion pays you for."

They waited a bit longer, but no more voices came through the Whispers. Percy turned to Thalos with a smug look on his face. His father groaned.

"Ok, kid. No time to be smug, let's get to work."