Capítulo 58: Fortunate or Unfortunate Encounter?
After Marcus's brawl with the Aittrog, the creature that resembled a warthog, he cut up and cleaned the meat to roast over a fire.
"Your technique could use a bit more polishing."
To this, Marcus's stoic expression broke a bit and his lips twitched.
Earlier, during his fight with the Aittrog, technique hardly had any bearing in the matter. Because Marcus was planning to use the sharp-toothed warthog as food, he wasn't able to use his scythe like he'd planned.
After all, if he used it, he doubted he'd be able to consume the meat of the Aittrog because it'd end up all shriveled up and grey if he did.
So, Marcus had to be crafty and only used the [Spectral Scythe] when his life was in danger. The boar had bitten into his flesh a few times, and so Marcus had to use his scythe to repel the vicious beast. Once it had, and the warthog's body began to deteriorate, Marcus moved swiftly to cut off chunks of meat using a flint skinning knife before the creature's body could completely decline.
As a result, he only managed to cut off a small layer of meat that wouldn't be nearly enough food to satiate his hunger.
"Mhm," Marcus replied not really listening to his master's obviously insulting remark.
At first Marcus had planned to use his mage arts to satiate his hunger like he'd done at Ebonscale, but knowing how to use [Darkness Manifestation] still alluded him, and he'd only just learned how to use [Spectral Scythe].
Nekros also advised against him doing such a thing since it'd be dangerous to continuously use such power. He told Marcus that if he got too used to doing such a thing, he'd grow addicted to the feeling of stealing life and that this would lead to even greater problems further down the line.
So Marcus was stuck with what seemed to amount to no more than three medium sized slices of Aittrog meat, that seemed to be similar to bacon, and after taking a moment to eat, Marcus was instructed to sleep for the night and not do any training so that he'd be ready for tomorrow.
Apparently, they were only a few hours out from reaching their destination, the Uceris Kingdom, and as such he would need to be fully rested before they arrived.
***
The next morning, Marcus rose up early enough to hunt a few beasts in the surrounding area. He even managed to snag a few extra to sell for whenever he got the chance, and after storing them away, he headed in the direction Nekros pointed out.
It didn't take the boy long before he could see a long procession of individuals lined up in front of a colossal stone gate.
Marcus decided to hide behind some shrubbery that was out of the way of the crowd so that he could observe his surroundings before taking action.
Looking at the scene in front of him, the boy felt a slight feeling of disgust rise up when he saw how large the crowd in front of him was. Marcus dreaded being in the presence of others due to his past experiences.
Though in all honesty, the crowd of people didn't amount to any more than about twenty.
The sun had just barely risen and it was extremely early in the morning, so not many people were awake just yet.
As Marcus continued to observe, he spotted a few lone travelers here and there, and some that traveled in groups. There was even a group of five men and women that seemed to be well equipped for battle. Though, this group was exiting the town instead of entering.
Marcus watched this group in particular as he assumed them to be bounty hunters and got ready to defend himself should the need arise; however, his master informed him that they weren't and he wasn't in any danger... for the moment at least.
"Those people are of no concern to you. For now, you should focus on finding out how it is you'll get into the city."
Marcus wasn't off put at the fact he wouldn't be allowed to enter the city.
The old him may have been naïve enough to believe he could just come and go from the place as he pleased, but that Marcus was dead. Instead, he decided he'd sneak into the city and enter at night to avoid all the trouble.
"Don't be ridiculous. The kingdom is already aware that you are here and as such, it would be foolish to try sneaking in."
Marcus frowned at this. He hadn't thought about the fact the kingdom could already detect his presence even though he wasn't even within the kingdom's walls yet.
'I guess I should have expected this.'
"Well, I've done my part in leading you here. The rest is up to you. Once again, try not to get yourself killed."
Marcus rolled his eyes at his master's statement, but before Nekros completely left, he left his disciple with a tiny bit of advice.
"Also, you'd do well to hide that scythe of yours unless absolutely necessary, and whatever you do, try not to draw the ire of those six families I mentioned to you earlier," Nekros spoke as his presence vacated Marcus's mind entirely.
Much earlier on in their journey, Marcus and his master had conversated on multiple occasions regarding basic worldly knowledge and social mannerisms. Living isolated from civilization with his family may have been safer for him, but because of this, Marcus lacked basic human social skills, and that was where Nekros came in.
Over the course of their travels, Nekros had informed Marcus of various things from a god's point of view, and this allowed the socially deficient boy to gain some much needed... well... social skills, at least as much as an isolated god of darkness could teach him.
Just as Marcus was about to leave to come up with a plan later, he bumped into a man who'd been apparently standing right in front of him.
Marcus stumbled back a few steps and was startled, but immediately entered an awkward defensive pose. Without even thinking, he drew his [Spectral Scythe] behind him and stared at the now surprised individual in front of him.
'Dammit,' Marcus cursed.
He'd forgotten about his master's words just that quickly as the stranger continued to stare at his scythe in surprise. Even more than that, he wasn't sure if the individual in front of him could tell what he was.
He still had a blindfold on and his hair was covered by his hood, but Marcus was being extremely cautious.
After all, he had no plans of being enslaved or killed ever again.
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