As I held the black scale that Rauchlim gave me in my hand, I noticed my hands shaking ever so slightly. I was sure that I wouldn’t have noticed the difference if my perception was as weak as it used to be before the system came around, but my heightened senses picked up on it.

I tried to steady myself, gathered my focus, and concentrated on the surrounding ambient mana. Loki said that improving my natural mana control would alleviate the problem, so I decided to take my training more seriously and do it whenever I had free time.

Even so, I needed to gather many shop points to buy those remedies…

It took them over a minute, but I was relieved to see a cloud of smoke forming before me. It gathered into two lumps close to one another and dispersed to reveal two people standing next to each other, holding hands.

As soon as they materialized fully, they separated their hands from one another and stretched their arms and legs. Rauchlim recovered much faster than Vivian, as he started walking toward me in no more than two seconds.

The gal, on the other hand, spent around a minute massaging her joints and cracking her neck. She even took off her hood to caress her face and rub her slightly puffy nose and eyelids. She greeted me upon making eye contact, then turned toward Rauchlim.

“I’ve never felt this exhausted since I was a child! Not even a sleepless fortnight would do this to me,” she exclaimed to the lizardman, “I mean, it’s an effective skill, but you should’ve warned me first!”

“I’m sorry, but this is out of my control. It was our only option at the time!” he bowed, looking at his feet as he spoke, “I’m pretty sure you’ll get used to it with repetition, so I advise you to go on trips with me whenever you have the time!”

Still trying his luck with Vivian even in such conditions, what a force of nature!

I shook my head, then greeted both of them and told them a little about Japan and what it used to be like before the system. I kept the conversation short because we had things to take care of, so I returned the black scale to Rauchlim, but he declined the offer.

“You can keep it if you want to. We never know what the future might hold, and I’m sure someone like you would put himself in dangerous situations constantly, and you might need someone to teleport you away from there, y’know?” he shrugged, “Anyway, you can throw it away if you’re afraid I might kill you in your sleep or something like that. Keep in mind that I’ll be able to track that scale if you keep it.”

I remembered him telling me to take the scale out of the spatial ring for him to be able to teleport himself and Vivian to my position, so I did just that and kept it for now. Rauchlim seemed to be a friendly guy, and I had business dealings with the lady he served, but whether he could be trusted as an individual or not was a completely different matter.

Still, I see no harm in storing the scale; it might prove to be useful one day…

Rauchlim lighted up when he saw that I put the small scale in my ring, and he seemed even more relaxed than ever.

Vivian watched the exchange without participating, as she took glances now and then at the group of gnomes standing next to the prober’s corpse.

“I suppose those people are the ones you came here to talk to,” she asked me.

“Indeed,” I nodded, “Just follow me, the two of you. I’ll talk to them, but stay on guard and don’t underestimate their prowess.”

Rauchlim and Vivian followed me as we walked along the beach. Our steps made no noise, but the group of gnomes turned toward us as if they sensed our presence.

At first, they looked passive with smiles plastered on their faces as they spoke enthusiastically to one another, but their expressions shifted completely upon seeing me.

One of them cringed, and the other two furrowed their eyebrows and crossed their arms. They turned their attention to us, completely ignoring the gigantic corpse of the Prober.

“You still have the guts to come back here, huh?” said one of the males.

“Man! You’re so shameless,” another male shook his head.

“Everyone knows about your deeds, and you won’t trick us no more!” said the female Gnome.

I didn’t know what it was all about, but they were hostile toward me. I had a bad feeling about this whole thing, yet I kept walking and walking. Vivian whispered to me asking whether I know what their deal was, but I had no answer to that.

When we were five meters away from them, each one of them took a couple of steps back as if they feared us. One of the males even tried to run away, but the other two prevented him from doing so.

“I’m not sure why you’re acting this way, but I’m sure we can clear up any misunderstandings if we communicate,” I was kind of sure that this had to do with Ratska, but I knew nothing more, “Just say whatever it is that’s on your mind, and we’ll work it out.”

“Man, you’re disgusting!” the female Gnome blurted out, “Do you think we don’t know what you’ve been planning on doing to Ratska, huh? Get lost!”

“What? What the hell are you talking about!” I was genuinely confused, but I’d already lost hope of having a productive conversation with these guys.

Suddenly, a somewhat loud sound pierced my ears, and it seemed like the sound of a marching army. I looked to my right side, and at least a hundred gnomes were walking in unison. Some of them chatted with one another, but most of them held their sticks and spears tightly.

When they got close enough, I could hear their shouts.

“He’s the one!”

Huh?

“He took our poor brother! He tricked him!”

He’s a good alchemist, and I offered him good remuneration for his skills…

“A sick guy like you should die! Why would you want to do such unspeakable things to our friend?”

Wait, what?

“Fuck you! How would you feel if someone were to take your organs and sell them?”

Again with the bullshit, just, what the hell do these guys think they know?

“He wasn’t even twenty years old yet, and he’s too young! He didn’t have to meet someone like you!”

I’m also nineteen years old…

“Away with him! He’s here to take one of the children! Pedophile! Kill him”

I started to get angry with all those labels being thrown around, and it felt terrible to be blamed for things I’d never even thought about doing. I wasn’t sure about it, but these people must’ve heard made-up rumors about me, likely from Stella and her underlings.

I had no idea what she did to convince them of her theories, but it wasn’t beautiful for sure.

“Everyone! Stop! We’re not dwarves to be so brash about our dealings! Let’s hear what he has to say at least!”

A gnome shouted, stopping everyone in their tracks. All of them were silent upon hearing his words, and they all stood in their places, allowing passage to the one who spoke.

He was slightly shorter than everyone, with white hair and gray eyes. His beard was thick, unlike other gnomes, and he seemed wiser than others. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he walked with precision and spoke with great clarity.

“Jason Stubbs, was it?” He sized me up and down, “We’re greatly disappointed in you. Asides from the rumors, we heard from Ratska himself that he was kidnapped under your watch, is that right?”

I suppose lying won’t get me anywhere… The cat is already out of the bag.

“That’s true,” I sighed, “Since Ratska told you that himself, I’m pretty sure he’s been accompanied by other people; humans like me. Didn’t he tell you that they were the ones who organized the kidnapping in the first place?”

“It’s a shame… For you to resort to such underhanded measures, trying to bring down the benevolent angels,” the elder gnome shook his head, closed his eyes, and rubbed his beard, “You’d think we’d believe that? Ratska said it himself. When he was kidnapped by a gang of outlaws, those trio bailed him out by paying a great sum of magic crystals!”

What? That’s not true at all!

“Yes, and not only that, but they also gave us great gifts, and kill the terrible abomination that kept us awake every single night!” an older lady spoke with a slightly shaky voice, “They built us great shelters, fed us, and gave us clothes!”

“Indeed,” resumed the old man who’s been speaking earlier, “They even shouldered the responsibility of Ratska’s closest family members. In their new environment, his grandparents will be taken care of, and they will live happily alongside their grandson.”

What?

All in all, Stella coaxed Ratska to work for her by offering him and his tribe excessive gifts and promising them a good lifestyle as long as the talented gnome worked for her.

However, it wasn’t all fun and games.

From what I understood, Stella’s group took Ratska’s grandparents as well, and I knew that the consequences of that wouldn’t be good. If my guesses were right, then they took them as hostages and wouldn’t hesitate to threaten Ratska with their lives if he decided to turn on his words and try to escape their Way of The Champion guild.

Suddenly, a system screen appeared in front of me.