SSS-Rank Engineer: Only I Can Create Legendary Weapons

Thalos used the tracker Percy gave him to find the Whitemoon's hideout. First he hadnto leave the city and find another entrance. One where Dorian's guards couldn't see him.

There were guards patrolling the walls and you had to be checked to enter, but he knew for the right price someone could enter from another place. He originally considered just jumping over the wall but someone might see him.

So instead he trekked through the slums. Head lowered with his brown cloak. All around him were decrepit wooden shacks and people walking around in rags, or sitting and extending metal cups as he passed.

They all reminded him of himself in a way, years ago. But people in the north don't get as tanned and leathery as the people here, and they weren't quite as bold.

He was following a woman with a basket of apples that he assumed she wanted to sell in the city, assuming she knew a hidden path into the city. But there were four men following her too.

They might have originally been following the woman since she left her house with the heavy covered basket. She was very cautious, checking each corner and waiting till people passed. But she was unable to avoid the thieves.

Her beady white eyes twitched back and forth as she made her way between two buildings. That was when the four men decided to attack. Two blocking the front and the back.

The woman immediately sank to her knees teary-eyed as she pleaded with the men.

"Please my girl is sick, I just want to trade these for some medicine. I promise—"

One of the men raised a hand at her to quiet her voice and she shrunk down sobbing. The other men laughed.

"Tell you what, we'll just take enough for a bit, but you'll have to help us too, right?"

The woman's face grew darker as they laughed, but she nodded. But before it could get any farther, Thalos stepped into the narrow space.

They all turned to him confused.

"White as a ghost aren't you? Fuck off then, if you know what's good for you," one of them snarled.

He raised a hand, they all stared at him, a red aura condensed over his fingers. He chopped down on the air in front of him. The aura flared and the wind screamed, when the dust settled all four men were on the floor staring at him.

One of them brought their hand to his face and felt the blood dripping from a small cut on his cheek. Then he turned to stare back into Thalos' cold grey eyes.

They all got up and ran without another word, the woman stayed there shivering. She hadn't been saved, there was just a more powerful predator in the area.

Before she could start begging, Thalos held out a hand to her and gave her his kindest smile.

"Sorry if I scared you too. I wanted to chase those fool off without shedding too much blood. But I do need your help to enter the city unseen."

○——○

Thalos was able to find the Whitemoon hideout thanks to the the Copper talisman that Percy gave him. It could track anyone that had touched the Evil spirit circle.

He ignored how weird that sounded and turned down a street, walking like nothing was happening. The houses in the business district were taller and more sophisticated than the residential district.

The Copper talisman pointed him to the clothing shop down the street on his left. There were two men lounging around the street that he suspected were guards.

At the same time the Copper talisman was pointing him at three moving targets going towards the gate. The Copper talisman worked like a homing beacon in his spirit, he could feel how far or close from marked targets he was.

Those moving targets were probably the assassins following Percy to the gate. His heart tightened at the thought of his son in danger, but the boy could handle himself very well.

Almost too well.

He shook off those thoughts and tried finding another way round these guards. If he was too loud the people in the shop would know he was here and call Viper back or destroy any documents they had in there.

He went around the back of the shop and walked beside the walls, listening for anyone protecting the back. A voice suddenly made him jump.

"Clear," the man said behind the wall. It was likely someone patrolling, and he just gave the all clear. Thalos wasted no time.

He soared over the wall in a casual leap and his hand chopped down on the man's neck, knocking him out instantly. He took out some rope and wool, bound and gagged the man, then leaped back over the wall to hide the body.

He took Whispers on the man's wrist. If he killed the man it might trigger something, and he needed the Whispers to say "Clear" if anyone checked.

He stood at the back door of the clothing shop, listening for voices. When it seemed clear he pushed into the shop and began to move. Occasionally he'd have to backtrack, hide behind piles of clothes or enter empty rooms.

But after the longest circle approach of his life, he managed to get to the trap door hidden in the back room. Once the last person left for break, they opened the door, and Thalos, who was hiding in the shadows, slipped in.

Without wasting a second he flipped open the trap door and jumped down, closing the hatch carefully.

The shaft was long and somewhat wide with a single steel ladder, he could hear voices echoing down there, if they climbed up the ladder, he had to kill them or climb back up.

Once the voices faded moving deeper into the hideout, Thalos made his decision. He let go of the metal ladder and let himself fall down the shaft. Wind rushed in his ears and the shadows flickered as he dropped.

Just before he hit the ground, he enhanced his legs, hips and one hand with his Fighting spirit. He landed in a crouch, bending his knees and touched the ground with one hand to lessen the noise as much as possible.

There was a slight thud that he hoped they would dismiss as just a rock falling. His right knee stung a little but it would get better quickly. He rose from his crouch and dove into the shadows.

Then he used the seventh technique of the Blood demon school, Dead man walking.

"Long has my time passed, wind whispers hades between the leaves," he whispered the mantra slowly to help him focus even though he didn't need it.

"My breath stills like the dark sea, My heart slows, each beat swallowed by silence, My warmth fades, a shadow among shadows, My spirit dims, a candle smothered by night. I walk unseen, a corpse that yet endures."

Soon even he couldn't hear his occasional heartbeat and his spirit felt like a restrained voice. This wasn't the best stealth technique but it would work.

Finding their vault was easy because Dina told them it would be where they kept the burnt ashes of Frog and the other assassins he killed. The main thing he needed to find was where their main circle room was.

The journey through the dark underground tunnels of the Whitemoon hideout was grueling. He had to occasionally stop and hide in crevices for minutes at a time.

One time there was nowhere to hide so he just jumped to the ceiling and stabbed his hand into the stone, hanging flat against the dark roof of the cavern.

Meanwhile the people he was waiting for to pass just stood there cracking dumb jokes. He really wanted to just go down and kill them, but the smell of blood was too pungent, especially in an enclosed space like this.

But he needed to finish this quickly and help Percy though. Thankfully, the two idiots saved their own lives, leaving before Thalos decided to kill them.

After dropping down he continued the journey. And then finally he made it to where they powered their multi-layered circle. There were two people guarding the entrance.

He clicked his tongue, mind running back through the halls and thinking where to hide their bodies.

Then a voice called out.

"They found the Amphene!"