Chapter 960: Soul Scent
Sam returned to their residence after checking out the field that night.
"Did he accept the mission?"
He asked Agar as soon as he arrived.
"No, if the mission needs more details, he would ask for us to meet somewhere first before fully accepting the mission, but there was no message whatsoever. It didn't take this long for the Five-Elemental King." She replied in confusion.
"Maybe, he wouldn't do that at all. He must be thinking of this as a mission trap by Saber Monarch again, he already did that once, so there is no way of knowing if he would do it again. Particularly when we stayed in the bar for such a long time as a group. Assuming that the Gran saw us, there is no way he would take the mission. We just have to wait and see." Five-elemental king conveyed his thoughts from the side.
"I know that might be the case, but I want to give some food for thought to this Gran," Sam replied and took a seat.
"So, what is your progress with the bartender?"
"She is buying the beer recipe and asked me to check out the land for the wheat field. I am going there again tomorrow."
"Wheatfield? Boss, don't tell me that Saber Monarch is right. Are you really hitting on her?" Agar asked with a smile.
"No, I think my suspicions are not completely wrong. I have a lead but don't ask me what it is. I will tell you when I have some confirmation myself."
"Boss, don't tell me that you are still hung up on the possibility that Gran and the Bartender are the same."
"No, but I think I might have made a connection. Anyway, if there is no reply by Gran by tomorrow, leave another note and use the story we made up. See if he takes the bait then."
"Okay, boss."
With that, everyone retired to their own rest.
The next morning Sam went back to the south of the city where the bartender is waiting. Sam waved his hand to let Ape and Dia out to take care of the field and he sat on the side along with the bartender.
As she looked at Dia and Ape working efficiently, she spoke.
"What kind of beasts are they? Their intelligence is awfully high."
"Yes, it is." Sam didn't reply to the first question instead he asked one of his own.
"So, are there any neighbors for you here?"
"No, why?"
"Nothing, I just asked casually."
They made small talk, but every time Sam asked a question, he asked it with a hidden meaning, just to probe her a bit. Even she noticed it, but she couldn't understand whether he is really doing that intentionally or not.
As Sam, made this small talk with her, he suddenly felt the soul imprint left on the letter disappear. He paused for a second and continued but he didn't show it on his face.
After a few hours, they did some of the land and left for the day as she needs to open the bar.
Sam returned to their residence and told Agar to drop the second assignment by evening and rested for the day.
The next morning he went back to the field again to see if there is any reaction, but there was nothing initially.
"So, why are you guys on this planet? You along with the Saber Monarch and the Five-Elemental King and that Solar Fragment?"
"We came here to find an item. It was the only thing missing of a set and it makes a big difference for us."
"Is it okay for you to share what it is?"
"It's a blade set and we all have one each, but we need the last one and it was said that it is present in this planet on some guy. But please don't say anything about it to anyone. You are the only one I told and you might even be the only person I suspect if it is stolen from me now."
He said with a joking tone.
She chuckled and replied. "Of course, don't worry. I am just a bartender and liquor maker."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why did he choose your bar as a place for his assignment holding? I mean, he could have any place he wanted and maybe even a more suitable place, but he chose yours of all the options he had, why?"
"Maybe I am just lucky." She just replied half-heartedly and they stayed silent like that for a while.
They finished some work and left the place.
That afternoon Sam went to the bar once again and started drinking while he checked on the location of the second letter.
It is still in the south of the city. Even though Sam couldn't find anything near the valley, he is sure he is missing something, the letter's location is definitely near that wheat field, but he couldn't find exactly where the location feeling from the letter is very faint and it might be because of some concealment arrangements.
If not for the fact that he used a high-level soul necromancy, then he would have never been able to sense the location of a letter with a normal imprint.
While sitting in the bar, Sam felt the letter moving as soon as the sunset and the closing time of the bar neared.
The letter is currently moving towards the bar, he could sense that it is getting closer and closer.
Sam took a small recording crystal made for secret surveillance and attached it to the bar counter as he spoke with the bartender while she is arranging the glasses back in the shelves.
He left after that and even the bartender closed. Sam walked two blocks away from the spot and started running. He went back to his residence and opened a crystal table to take a look at the bar.
He could sense the letter moving closer towards the bar and his guess was not wrong. Soon, he saw someone appear in the bar in a puff of smoke. Donning all black and covering his face properly. He pinned some notes on the board before leaving in another puff of smoke.
The person is definitely a shadow element user.
The next day, Sam went on with this new routine, the field, prying information from the Bartender and returning to the bar in the afternoon and when he looked at the board this time, he was surprised, there is a note accepting Agar's assignment. He couldn't help but smile.
Sam looked forward for that night and went back to his residence before moving to the mountain area in concealed clothes to take a closer look at the situation.
There Saber Monarch is messing with a blade in his lap. There are a bunch of inscriptions on the blade and it looked like something profound, but in actual fact, they are nothing but some scribbled mess of inscriptions that are made to make the Saber Monarch's life difficult. But to others, he is unlocking some great weapon that needed these many inscriptions for sealing.
And at that midnight, the man is the black, the same one who appeared in the bar the previous night appeared and moved towards the Saber Monarch.
The Saber Monarch is vigilant and woke up from his meditative state immediately. Before he could react completely, Gran disappeared from his spot and reappeared beside the saber monarch, and caught ahold of the saber with a bunch of inscriptions.
The Saber Monarch was caught off guard, but soon he came to his senses and took out his regular saber and slashed towards Gran.
Gran managed to escape in the nick of the time and reappeared in a different spot and thus a pointless struggle continued.
Sam particularly asked the Saber monarch to recreate his previous meeting with Gran.
Even then, just like this, the saber monarch was caught off guard, but he didn't have any item in his hand as it is a trap and as soon as Gran came near him, he swung his saber. But Gran escaped the location after dodging a dozen swings from the saber and this time almost a similar scenario happened.
But this time, Gran escaped with an item in his hands.
Sam smiled at the whole fiasco because he left something on the blade that would make it easy for him to track Gran. He doesn't have a face or any other clues that could help Sam find him, so he decided to create a clue himself.
It is called Soul scent. The saber was inscribed with some special set of arrays that houses a spirit whose only job is to leave its scent on whoever touched it.
But the scent is not physical, it is completely related to the soul and only soul necromancers and the specters could identify it.
Every soul has a unique scent just like the body scent, but it is hard to detect for even the soul necromancers, but once it was attached with something like this, it would be much easier to find.