From within the confines of the Khaos space, Emery watched as the ship was brought into some kind of dock and group after group of people went in and out of the ship, investigating the mysterious disappearances of those who should have been on board. However, no one was able to detect the Khaos Gate.
While waiting for things to calm down on the other side, Emery turned around and looked into the all watching eyes of the Khaos guardian for a moment. As a sigh left his mouth, he walked over to the corpses of the pirates – what was left of them.
He saw that the corpses were in an unrecognizable state as they appeared to be slowly being diluted to the bone by some kind of black liquid. Fortunately, he had no trouble finding the pirate magus' storage ring.
Hoping that he would find something useful, Emery bit his finger and smeared some of his blood onto the ring to take possession of it.
As he took a look inside, he found a dozen red and yellow spirit stones worth around three hundred thousand in total. There were also several Tier 3 artifacts which should be worth quite a sum. However, what caught his attention the most was one strange-looking silver coin with a symbol of a rat.
Since such an unusual item was present in the pirate magus' possession, there was a high chance it was something important. Hence Emery decided to keep the coin.
Finished with his looting, Emery turned to the towering creature and said, "Let me out of here. I will find a way to escape."
The room rumbled as the guardian's voice echoed in his mind again.
<Getting you in and out this place is exhausting. Do not trouble me again>
"Thank you for the help." Emery said with respect and moments later, he found himself returned to the ship.
After checking that no one was around, he immediately walked over to the control panel once again and tried to figure out how to get the ship out before he was found. However, just as he was about to fiddle around, he quickly stopped himself from doing so when he saw the sight of the crowded pirate base in front of him.
Even if he somehow figured out how to activate the ship and managed to bring the ship out of this place into the asteroid field, there was no doubt that he would be immediately chased down. And with an old ship like this, he likely wouldn't be able to escape.
Heaving a sigh at the bustling sight before him, Emery took a moment to calm down and think.
From his brief observation, he noticed that there were several dozen ships around this pirate base that went in and out of the place every now and then. Sneaking his way onto one of them should be a viable alternative to escape.
With this plan in mind, he carefully stepped off the ship and slipped into the crowded base.
Emery did not immediately sneak onto any of the ships in the area. It would be a much wiser idea to first gather more information about the place to increase his chances of escaping. Therefore it didn't take long before he found himself entering the main street of the city after leaving the wharf.
The place was dirty and filled with many drunken pirates and smugglers who were having the time of their lives reveling in the pubs and inns where companionships were provided.
"Hey handsome, do you want to party?" Said a half-naked girl with a little swivel horn on her head, a seductive smile on her face.
"No, thank you." answered Emery curtly.
Emery could see all kinds of people were here; humans, half-bloods, and hybrids. If one only looked at the residents, this place really didn't look much different from Zodiac City. This also meant good things for Emery.
With their varied appearance and attire, and the fact that the town was filled with pirate groups that looked just as suspicious as he was, Emery wasn't going to be the one to stand out in the crowd. Hence he could stroll around the streets with much better ease.
He just had to make sure he kept his distance from the group of people wearing leather uniforms, who from his observations seemed to be the guards of the place.
Like the previous times, Emery made his way to one of the pubs as such a place was usually a treasure trove of information. This time, he chose the one that looked the most crowded, the reason being that he would be able to blend in more easily in a crowd.
Walking up to the bar counter, he quietly ordered a drink after taking a seat in a corner. Immediately, he started observing and eavesdropping on people in the pub.
He ended up spending a few hours in the pub. He overheard lots of conversations about various things, most of them meaningless. Even so, he still managed to get some useful pieces of information.
The town he was currently in was called The Turtle Rock and was apparently a haven for smugglers, mercenaries and black market traders. It was founded by a grand magus who proclaimed himself as the pirate king of the sector.
Even though there were nearly three thousand people filling the town, only known members were actually allowed to enter the place.
The pirate gangs turned out to have a specific item that was given to all its members, which would show what their allegiance was. For example, the one he had, the silver coin currently in his pocket, would identify him as a member of the Space Rat. One of the pirates ganks with the most member.
Emery also found out that this place was apparently busier than usual at this time. From the conversation around, it seemed that there were a lot more pirates from outside coming to the place than usual.
This unusual situation seemed to have put some of the local gangs on edge, and especially the traders who had come to trade their contraband. With all this information, a plan began to form in Emery's mind.
After observing for several hours, Emery had his eyes locked onto a merchant who he heard was ready to return to his planet. Confirming the plan in his mind once more, he stood up from his seat and decided to secretly follow him.
As he tailed the man, he saw him heading to the dock and walking into one of the mid-sized spaceships. Staking out the parameters, Emery found that it was only guarded by a few magus guards.
His eyes lit up at his finding. "This is it… This is my way out of this place"
But just as he was about to sneak aboard the trader's ship, Emery stopped in his tracks when his eyes caught a glimpse of a group of people getting off the ship that had just landed at the dock.
From their dark blue uniform attire and the face of a particular magus within the group, Emery quickly realized who they were and his face immediately turned to frown.
The man was none other than the one who caused trouble at the Terra Palace a few days ago, Hellast. It meant that the group had to be from the Raven Faction, the neighboring faction that was currently in a feud with Terra.
Apart from Hellast, there were two other magus with one of them being the peak Full Moon, as well as a few saint-level guards.
The fact that they were here in a pirate base couldn't help but set off a few alarms in Emery's mind. Thus, Emery decided to hold on from leaving and tail the Raven Faction instead, wanting to find out their purpose here.
"Why are they here..?"
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