Cartel smiles and answers, "Of course you do, my friend. I know how business works. I wouldn't have come to you if I didn't have anything to offer in return."

He hands me what seems like a piece of paper but actually is … a certificate?

"That certificate is proof that you are a member of the little fan following that Temple of Temur guys have developed throughout the planet."

"Well, am I a member though?" I ask, not being sure I want to a.s.sociate myself with those guys much.

"Well, my friend, whether you are a real member or not is up to you – but this piece of paper will allow you to fake it, and get all the benefits." He smirks as he says that, and so do I as I hear it.

And so, my journey past this point is supposedly going to turn up a notch – in the crazy department.

*****

"So?" Dues looks at me, not completely able to hide to anxiety in her eyes, "How's your investigation going?"

"Pretty c.r.a.ppy." I answer. She gives an irritated look, telling me to continue and so I do, "Cartel Hopkins is nowhere to be found. There are no trails at all that we could be able to follow. And everyone who knew him says they never suspected something like this out of him, i. e., no idea what his motivations were. He was good enough to be able to completely hide them."

"…" She looks at me a bit angrily and dejectedly, "You are right. Those are some pretty c.r.a.ppy results. I am sure you'd be glad to know though that your friend has disappeared from my detection system."

"What!?"

"I should be able to track Irium wherever on Frost he might be but somehow I am not able to. Someone out there is capable enough to block MY mage-craft."

And that doesn't really make sense. I thought her detection mage-craft was her strong suit and since she is the strongest person in the universe now, it shouldn't be possible for anyone to be able to block her divination or scrying or whatever method she uses for these things.

"I know how unbelievable it looks but-"

"It doesn't really look unbelievable to me." The demiG.o.d leaning on the pillar says with a smirk, "I could block your eyes on me."

"I know." Dues says with an annoyed smile, "That's what you have been doing all this time. If it wasn't for that, I would have known that you all were failing in your jobs and started working on a solution to this problem."

"Aw, sucks to be you!" Roswaisa doesn't seem to care about the fact that, this time, Dues' and ours' goals have aligned. Instead, she is completely focused on mocking Dues. Yes, she really is the best woman for Irium.

"Hah! Listen, you two," Dues says while facepalming, much to both of our glee, "Since you two are working together now, I don't want to hear any excuses. You have power and a decent amount of smarts so find where the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l is that birdy?"

"Sure, and you better tell me that Irium is back in your sight and safe as soon as possible or I am going to start helping Cartel after I find him." I say, turn and start walking. Roswaisa joins me a gives a pat on my back for my last line. We both can hear Dues sighing and, as it fulfills the purpose of that line, we both find ourselves chuckling.

We wouldn't actually go and join Cartel (probably) but threatening Dues is a euphoria that I wanted to experience even if by lying – and I did. Well done, me.

*****

Now out of the manhole and having parted with Cartel and the old guy I never got the name of, I am kind of in a dilemma. I can sneak back to the town and then sneak out of it to get back on the actual road. Or, I can keep going through the jungle and take all the possible shortcuts to get to the nearest village or town. Either way, I am gonna need to hurry. One town has a rumor about me being an arsonist and one village is probably filled with people who detest me for having killed a dying, old man and left the village after that. It won't take too long for the two rumors to combine and become a fire that ignites my reputation down to the negative numbers.

Now that I think about it, even if I get back on the actual road, I would steel need to keep my face hidden to not let the rumors start making people suspicious of me. Well, anyone who hides their face would be suspicious anyway though. Not to mention that I really could use a power up. Like, come on! A protagonist of a different webnovel would be an OP Harem-lord by the time these many chapters were out. I deserve better than just being able to stand the cold, d.a.m.nit!

And so, I would be taking the jungle route. Let's just hope I don't meet any more bears or other dangerous creatures that I might have trouble dealing with on my own.

That, and let's also hope that I can steal some good abilities from some animals or person soon enough to get stronger because, all jokes aside, I really do need get stronger than how I am now.

*****