After thinking carefully about the mission, Max absorbed the clone back into his body and the memories of all his experiences fused back with Max giving him a splitting headache.
Max saw everything vividly, the 4 abyssal magi sitting with their brains open, the crazy golden eye'd Arandale and his murderous expression as he understood the clone's concern about taking this mission.
While Max was struggling with his headache, Lucius who had been going around looting the place with his party came back to the area near the mage tower entrance and was surprised to see Ravan sitting there on the street with his group surrounding him.
" I thought you were supposed to be looting? What are you doing here? " Lucius asked as Max flicked his fingers and brought out a fraction of the gold that the clone had given him.
Lucius's eyes widened in surprise looking at the haul as he refocused his eyes on Max who had shut his eyelids tightly and was visibly struggling.
" Why does Captain Ravan look in pain? " Lucius asked in a genuinely concerned tone as Max patted Sebastian who was standing beside him on the bum to signal to him to cook an answer.
One of Sebastian's many specialities was that he was good at acting, lying through his teeth, and cooking believable stories.
" Actually my prince we went into a nearby house to loot but there was a trap inside, although we got the loot, there was a spray of poison which went straight to captain Ravans face.
Thankfully he had the mask which protected his face from any damage, but his eyes were slightly damaged which is why he is in pain.
I'm sure as a man you understand how painful getting hit in the balls and eyes is " Sebastian said in a serious tone as Lucius finally understood what happened.
Max, who had closed his eyes because his head hurt, could not help but chuckle at Sebastian's genius excuse.
" If you want, I can provide you with a healing potion my lord " Lucius suggested after a while to be courteous, but Max rejected it as he got back up to his feet and said with his eyes still closed " No we can continue….. How were things on your side during this while? "
Lucius sighed as he brought out a ring and said " We explored an abandoned mage lab, at first it was nothing special, some formulas and research papers that might come useful.
But then we found this ancient A.I. one that calls itself the ' Codex ' as it issued me a quest to save Zogaroth.
To save him, we were given 5 rings that could protect us from the corrosive aura of death for 30 minutes by that A.I.
It is also the reason why I came back to find you, because instead of taking all my guards, I was wondering if I can request two of you guys to accompany me on this quest "
Max was stunned silent listening to this request as he opened his eyes wide with shock!
This was exactly opposite to the quest that Arandale had issued for the clone.
Max glanced towards Asiva who was sweating profusely now as she shook her head again telling Max ' No ' , warning him to think this through more seriously.
When he looked at Anna she gave him the look of ' You taking me? '
When he looked at Severus, the middle aged man was frowning as if nothing made sense and in the end when he looked towards Sebastian he was hiding his face from Max, hoping he was not the one who Max picked to go with him.
The point that Max noted was that Lucius claimed to have encountered an A.I. , the codex itself and not a living creature.
This meant that most likely the information that the clone had obtained for Arandale regarding the only people with a special status within the city who could not die were limited and that the codex, the divine artefact granting them life, was stretched to the limit.
He had a nudging feeling that there was something wrong with Arandale's story, that the psychotic bastard had ulterior motives.
But he could not let the chance of getting to know a secret technique like the sealing method of god's go to waste.
" Haha, what a coincidence prince Lucius, I was issued the same quest by the codex, but it only gave me one ring!
But if you are generous enough to lend me 2 more we can go with 6 people to save Zogaroth.
3 from your side and 3 from mine " Max said with a cheery voice as despite his splitting headache he put up a great act.
Lucius sensed from the expressions of those around Max that something was fishy regarding this situation but without proper Intel, he could not figure out what.
In the end he had no option but to toss two rings to Ravan as he smiled and said " Ready when you are"
Max pretended to rub his eyes as he said " I'll need a couple of hours my prince, why don't we explore some other houses till then and see if we can find more rings, if not we shall proceed with the quest in 2 hours "
Lucius nodded, there was no time limit in the quest in the first place and going in with greater numbers was always an advantage, hence agreeing to Max's proposal the two parted ways once again.
Max slipped one ring to the shadow below his feet while he put the other one over Sebastian's head.
Sebastian's face turned dark when Max chose him to be his companion but he obediently placed the ring in his inventory.
The entire group understood that there was something convoluted between the triangle of entities the codex, Arandale and Zogaroth and the only way to figure out what was by meeting Zogaroth in person.
Only after meeting him would Max decide whether to kill him or save him.
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/// A/N - Chapter 13/20, back at it ///