"Is everything alright?" Karina asked, puzzled. "It's the first time I've seen you space out."
"It's fine." Rael shrugged it off with a smirk. "I just saw an interesting pair of people, so I was a little surprised."
Barbarians of Ogarak.
They isolated themselves from the rest of the world and rarely, if ever, tried making contact with the outside.
Yet he had just seen two of the barbarians. It didn't make sense.
The first time they made an appearance was a few months after the game's release... Rael pondered. They only came out because they had a food shortage, but now...
That was likely not the case, so they were here with some other motives.
Best bet, they likely came here to meet Reinhardt.
"Karina, we're going to get a bit closer to observe, though if you want, you can leave. I can't give you any more experience today," Rael said flatly.
However, she merely shook her head. "It's fine. I'm sure I could be of help."
"Right..." Rael trailed off and began walking toward the other end of the alleyway.
She followed along, and as they finally arrived, Rael immediately began walking in the barbarians' direction.
He wasn't sure what he wanted to do yet. However, he definitely didn't want them to meet with Reinhardt.
After a few minutes of walking, he finally saw their silhouettes again.
People were ignoring them, shooting them strange glances as if they meant nothing. But that was just the casual reaction to someone like them.
In the past, the Barbarians had invaded these lands, even took a majority of the Holy Kingdom and Aztera for themselves.
But with everyone's joint efforts, they were repelled, the land was retaken, and the barbarians were practically exiled.
Nonetheless, just as Rael was about to pick up his pace, he suddenly spotted another person in the distance.
It was a long, golden-haired man, and he was leisurely sipping on some tea in a restaurant.
Rael remembered that face and that stature. It was none other than Reinhardt Ashavir.
And from the looks of things, the barbarians were heading straight for him. Not out of malice, but more like friendship.
"Alright..." Rael muttered, turning to Karina. "You've got your first mission. Listen in on what those three people are saying."
Karina nodded, and without even wasting a moment, walked to the restaurant, ordered some coffee, and sat down at the table right beside Reinhardt and the barbarians.
They were a bit skeptical about how close she was. However, they dismissed her simply because they knew she was a player, or in their eyes, a traveler.
Though this is only a one-time thing. After Sketa Online comes out, these people will all be afraid of the travelers, Rael thought, snickering.
Karina gave him a peace sign gesture, sipped her coffee, and began rocking her feet.
Then, she tapped the air a couple of times, and a few seconds later, he received a message.
A warm smile appeared on his face. I guess this is as good of a test of loyalty is any.
He would personally interact with them, however, he was already too close. If he was found out, then he'd face a lot of trouble.
But except for the occasional glance from Reinhardt, Rael was in the clear.
Therefore, he had two things on the agenda.
The first: destroy the envoy's supplies.
The second: piss off the God of Light followers, and put all the blame on Reinhardt and his envoy.
So, without wasting a moment, Rael simply walked away, heading east to where the envoy would've likely arrived from.
And as he walked through the cobblestone-paved streets, he finally reached a particular area in town.
It was like a giant horse stable that extended pretty far out to the side.
And the casual, grassy stench of hay and shit lingered in the air.
Fuck... I feel like I'm going to vomit, Rael thought, nearly lurching back.
Despite that, he had to focus and narrow down where the supplies were.
These stables extended for several hundred meters, and he could see a dozen soldiers—some from the Holy Kingdom and some from Aztera.
Even a couple of mercenaries were mixed in the bunch, however, Rael didn't bother himself with them.
Instead, he stepped into a random alleyway and decided to kill two birds with one stone.
<(x49) Human [Level 50 ~ 101] has been Threaded!>
And of course, Rael went through with it.
[MP -245K 1,066B/1,066B (x1 Mass Synaptic Hijack)]
His vision darkened, and then not even a few seconds later, he reappeared inside the mind realm, surrounded by a couple dozen cocoons.
He realized something. Instead of going up to the cocoons, he could simply will them to travel to him.
Soon, one of the cocoons from the very top floated toward him, gently landing on the shallow water below him.
Rael took a deep breath, and in the next moment, placed a hand on the cocoon.
His vision shifted, and the smell of shit once again entered his nose. But this time, it wasn't his nose, but one of the Aztera soldiers'.
Since Rael had taken over this body, he simply moved his arms and settled into the right posture.
"Oi Roger," one of the soldiers beside him tapped him on the shoulder. "You know it's your turn to buy a few rounds, right?"
"Yeah, just give me a sec, gotta take a piss," Rael replied in a surprisingly deep voice and stepped aside.
"Sure, don't take too long though, we're fucking starving."
The soldier didn't bother chasing after him, so Rael continued walking toward the other end of the stable.
As it seemed, the further it was from the main street, the less it stank and the more maintained the stable looked.
And of course, after a few seconds of walking, he found what he was looking for.
Rael grinned as he stared at the sight in front of him.
What a coincidence...