Zilan eyed his restraints before giving Tort a meaningful smile.
“Oh! Jeza, quickly untie brother Zilan.” smiled Tort.
“What else do you know about the Saintly Knights? Do you know where I can find them?” Once he was freed, Zilan barraged Tort with questions.
The old hare slightly frowned as he listened to the questions,
“I’m sorry if I misled you but my rank does not allow me to know of such information. I am only a scout leader whose main job is the gathering of resources and information, even this time’s mission is not a sanctioned one. It is only a gamble that if pays off will help me rise in rank.”
Tort’s answer might seem like the honest and sincere words of an Elder but in truth there were hidden meanings in his words.
“If you want to know more, then first you must grant me my wish. Only after I benefit will you benefit!” was essentially what Tort was trying to say.
Zilan was not foolish, he understood Tort’s meaning very well. He knew that if he wanted to gain something he must give something in return, no one would give out something valuable without benefiting, that would then be categorised as charity and Zilan would no longer accept it. He had secretly spent years and lots of money trying to find out anything about the Saintly Knights and who they worked for but to no avail thus he would absolutely not believe anyone who just gave away such secret information without asking for anything in return. That person was probably an enemy trying to lead him into a trap.
From Tort’s words Zilan could now confirm that the information the old hare had was at least true and not a trick. He had especially emphasized the fact that his main job was the gathering of resources as well as information and in what world was there a scout who did not have any intelligence on their enemy.
This was like a cat knowing a dog was it’s enemy but not knowing what a dog looked like.
“If I don’t know the answer to your question then no one does.” was Tort’s meaning.
Zilan sighed the more he thought about it. He then slowly walked towards the scarred shadow wolf and retrieved the book of Path.
To others his movements might seem like he was picking up just another disposable item but what they didn’t know was that Zilan’s heart was anxious and filled with fear the longer the book was away from him.
As the saying goes, “If you treat something like trash how would others treat it like a treasure?”
“I hope that while I am making the items Senior has requested, that you will find some information for me.” said Zilan as he cupped his hands and bowed.
“I will absolutely give my best effort for Brother Zilan.” smiled Tort. “So then how long will you need to prepare the explosives?” His gaze shifted as he spoke those last words, it was evident to anyone paying attention that Tort truly coveted those explosives.
“I need to recover my strength first which should take a week at most but after that, the time needed to make the explosives will depend on how many Senior wants!”
Tort furrowed his brow as he dove into deep thought,
“Ah! To destroy a city gate, how many explosives do you think I would need?” This question from Tort was a rather clever one, explosives came in many different forms and had varying degrees of effectiveness therefore he asked the creator in a roundabout way, “How strong are your explosives?”
“To destroy a city gate…hmm..eight of them should be sufficient.”
In truth this estimation from Zilan was for the lowest quality and easiest to make type of explosive he could think of. The other explosives recorded in the Book of Path would require high grade and extremely rare materials that could not be found just because you wanted to find them. Not to mention that those explosives could easily destroy ten city gates and only one of them would be needed.
Tort stood in shock, from what he knew even the Master alchemists in Brivata would not be able to say that only eight explosives would be sufficient to destroy a city gate.
“Only eight drums of explosive jelly?” questioned Tort.
Zilan almost fell over when he heard the word, “drums.”
“No,no,no….What I will be constructing is not explosive jelly but a cylindrical fist sized stone called Tembu Pain! Eight of them will be enough to fit your requirements.”
Zilan’s words were like thunder roaring in the minds of the three people listening.
“A stone?”
“Fist sized?”
“What is this Tembu Pain and why have I never heard of it?”
Zilan could see from Tort’s expression that he did not believe what he was saying to be true.
“Seeing is believing! I will come find you with eight stones of Tembu Pain in two weeks time, is that acceptable?”
“In the end, I want something from you and you want something from me. If I don’t give you what you want then I also will not get what I want!”
“Well said, this old one will have to trouble Brother Zilan.” said Tort as he coughed embarrassedly.
From Zilan’s eyes anyone could see that he came from a mysterious background, add on the fact that Tort had just read his entire life story as well as some records of his past experiments and it was easy to tell that there were things Zilan knew that others did not.
“In that case why not trust him? He has already trusted me with his secret.” Or so Tort thought.
The reality was that, who could Tort tell that would believe him, let alone humans even his own kind would not believe him if he suddenly said, “I encountered a boy with starry eyes that could see through everything!”
If he told humans, the worst that could happen was that those people that hunted him as a child would come here to look for him but many things had changed and it would not be easy to locate him.
Besides if they did come looking for him, wouldn’t that be perfect? He was about to break out of the shell of being a cripple, and it would only be a matter time before he went out to seek them out for his revenge.
Why not invite them in and toy around a little until he grew powerful enough to destroy them?
Everything had been carefully accounted for by Zilan before he made his decision.
Now all that was left was for him to hurry back to the inn and finish his preparations because without restoring his ability to cultivate he would absolutely not be able to fulfil his promises.
“Em, Brother Zilan I’ll let Jeza go with you to make sure you get out of here safely and if you have any spare time could you educate her a bit. This girl is so young and has too little life experiences, anything you can teach her about humans will definitely save her life in the future.”
Zilan’s brow twitched as he listened.
“Basically you’re sending her to watch over me! What a troublesome person.”
Nevertheless, he could only comply with Tort’s proposal. Every minute that passed was like a thousand years of agony for Zilan.
He had the tools and all he wanted to do was get started on the process of gaining power. Imagine being a step away from the greatest treasure you could dream of and yet you were being held back from it. The prize was so close and yet so far at the same time.
“Wait, how can Jeza accompany me? Her appearance will only attract unwanted eyes.” wondered Zilan.
“Hehe…naturally we have our methods!” The smug expression on his face, showed that Tort was about to reveal something good.
