[Adam's POV]
"Those fucking slave traders! I will kill them all!!" The wolf guy, Finar Regalia, ran away in a rage as he heard me explain about the situation of his sister and mother.
Watching him run away, I sighed as I turned around and began walking towards the inn where I was staying.
"It's the 7th this month," I counted the number of times that someone attacked me and I had to manipulate them out using information. Last month it was 27 attempts, so I guess it's better?
I guess I am now used to these attempts. Even my ability to manipulate people with words has increased by quite a margin.
I reached her about 2 and a half months ago, and began setting up a small shop here. Since I was somewhat of an expert in Array, I set up a Minor Array Shop.
The arrays were made for daily chores, such as minor stamina relief or temporarily storing food. And even has spells for washing clothes, etc. As for creating arrays for combat purposes, I didn't make any for now.
'Something like that is for the players whom I find potential in,' getting two players through arrays was one of the ways I was going to get in touch with them.
While I did come here for Players, there were a couple more things to that.
One was to check how much authority I have over the players. Am I allowed to give them a quest? And what kind of quests that I can issue? Limitations and numbers? Rewards and penalties? Everything along those lines.
Two was to see how much my own [Player] system affects them and what are the similarities between them and me. Not only that, but I wanted to confirm if everything was the same as before or were there any changes to what I know from before.
Players are going to be one of the strongest forces on this planet in about 5 years or so. It would be better to rope as many of them with me as possible.
Though that is not all I came for here.
What I came for here was also the ownership of this town. Even though I planned to do it slowly and slowly over the years, it was something that was very important to me.
As for why, then there were three reasons in essence.
It connected 7 Major Cities. 4 on the side of the Aurelian Empire and 3 on the side of the Nirvana Empire. And if I happen to play my cards right, I would be able to control all 7 of them.
Second reason was the nearby forest. If my memory serves correctly, there is a witch town hidden not too far from here in the forest. And it wasn't just any town, but one of the central hubs connecting to the underworld where the Queen Witches lived.
'Though I didn't find any clues related to that place even till now,' I thought as I kept walking towards the inn.
The third thing was the players again. Being the beginner town, it will soon become a place for more and more newbies to come, each update bringing more players than the previous one.
'While it is a small town, if I were to expand it to a megacity, every turn I can get more and more players at once. Reminds me of fishing.' I smiled like an idiot fantasizing about the future that didn't even happen yet.
By the time I was done arranging my thoughts, I entered the inn.
The reception was rather empty, with the lights still on. Closing the door from the inside, I then moved towards the reception desk.
"Hey, Rita. You there?" I asked, as I didn't peek beyond the reception area. After all, the last time I did that, I was killed by a surprise attack. Well, I guess small girls like her are always on the edge.
I moved my hand to press the bell, but the sound of someone moving came from beyond the desk as two furry ears came to view. Then, as she stood up, she rubbed her eyes.
"MMmhhh… Wesker. You are back, nya?" she spoke as she stood up.
Other than the white two furry tails and soft white ears, on her white hair, she looked like a human. Though most of the difference lay in her body, that was more alert and stronger than an average human or beast… or even both of them combined.
'Her counterpart is the two-tailed snow cat, isn't it?' I recalled before putting it at the back of my mind.
Her black eyes peeked at me for a few seconds before she took out the key and passed it on to me.
"Good night nya," she spoke as she then went back to sleep, while I moved up the stairs, towards my room. Since the day was more or less fine, I decided to [Save] and sleep, just like usual.
[Game Saving]
[Overwriting Complete!]
Waking up the next morning, I then went down again. This time Rita was checking through some sheets in her hand. Hearing my footsteps, she turned to me with a smile.
"Good morning Nya. Getting ready for another day?" She spoke, making a cute expression, and I nodded as I answered," well. The business is blooming. I just hope everything goes well, like the 'peaceful' last 2 months."
She smirked at that before speaking," I don't Nya much about that. A special customer has been asking about nya since early morning."
"Special customer?" I asked with curiosity as I wondered if another trouble was coming towards me.
But Rita just pointed at a girl sleeping at the seat in the corner of the inn.
I looked at Rita for a few moments as she smiled at me, and then with a small sigh, I moved towards that sleeping girl. Getting closer to her, I got to have a proper look at her clothes and face.
She seemed about 12 years old, wearing a black one piece dress. She was sleeping, hugging her wooden staff that was about as long as she herself. Her hat was long and pointed with a pumpkin head at the bottom strip.
She wore a belt whose buckle was a circular orange with the symbol of two crescents on one side and a star within a square on the opposite side.
'The witches of the Flame Regime.'
A deep sigh escaped my mouth as I turned to look at Rita, who was smiling like an idiot and turning back to the kid. I saw her slowly waking up in front of me.
Adjusting her creamish brown hair, her white face appeared in front of me. She rubbed her eyes with her small hands as she held the staff with another as her hat slowly fell towards me.
Catching the hat, I then passed it back to her, making her look at me with those deep orange eyes at me. Perhaps because she finally noticed me, she got alert and almost attacked me, but stopped at the last moment.
"I heard that you are searching for me?" I asked as I held the hat in my hand, making her pause for a moment as she observed her from top to bottom.
"Blue eyes, black hair. Charming but suspicious looking human with a creepy smile," she muttered, her thoughts making me stop smiling for a moment.
"Umu. The description matched," she spoke in a low voice. Her voice was quite calm, and from her slow manner of speech and using fewer verbs, it seemed like she didn't speak much.
Though I forgave her words because she was a child. Even though I wanted to hit her head a little.
"Need Help. Can you make array?" She asked, as her eyes turned a bit sadder. She seemed like she would cry any moment, so I decided it would be better if I were to handle this more carefully.
Turning around, I saw a few eyes were already on us.
"I will listen to your words. But it would be better if I do it at my shop," I asked her, making her turn at me before looking at the people around us. Then she nodded as she stood up before speaking,
"Let's go."
I turned to Rita as I spoke in a language that the beastman use for private communications," 3 silvers. I need all the information on her by the end of the day."
"10 silver," she said.
"5 Silver." I increased a little.
"8. I won't go below that," she spoke again, and I used my [Haggling] skills on her.
[Haggling(Uncommon)!]
[Effects: Allows the user to reduce the price of items by 10%!]
"7 Coins," I spoke, and she glared at me a little before signing as she nodded.
"What are you talking about?" that witch girl looked at me with a cautious face, while I pondered before smirking at her and answering,
"I am just paying her to find information about you. I don't want to get into unnecessary trouble."
"Don't lie. Not stupid," she spoke as she looked at Rita before looking at me and I chuckled before raising both of my hands in defeat.
"Well. It is important, but don't worry, it is not related to you," I assured her. Ain't I such a nice person?
She was skeptical of me for a few moments before she lowered her staff and spoke," you better not trick me," and then began walking outside.
"Yes mam," I spoke as I followed behind her.