860: Numerae
「Don’t move.」
「Kuh……」
With the tip of my blade held at his throat, the man couldn’t budge. He had the appearance of a handsome looking dark-skinned man, similar to those of African descent.
「H-How……? Y-You shouldn’t have been able to find me……」
He’s quite confident in his stealth? I tried appraising him, and he was indeed talented. He had high levels in Covert and Presence Cloaking.
His name was Numerae, and his race was human. Of particular note was his bow-related skills, which were really high so he must be skilled as a hunter.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone with Holy Bow Arts, which explains his precision sniping ability. This guy is the culprit for sure.
But despite all his skills, his stealth seemed way too good to be true. I should have been able to spot him earlier.
And his words just now, “You shouldn’t have been able to find me”. Maybe he had a magical tool or something apart from his skills to give him such confidence?
As I continued to observe the man, I felt a strangeness about the area around him. It’s as if something was blocking my skills, or rather, causing them to slip through? My senses couldn’t detect anything, slipping through to see the area behind him instead.
Upon closer inspection, I saw four small objects placed on the ground, forming a square around the man. After appraising them, I found that they were items called “warding stones”.
These things feel really weird to me. I can appraise them, and I can see them. Yet, my perception and detection skills couldn’t sense anything there at all.
It’s as if they were an illusion.
『Fran, can you see the stones there?』
（Nn?）
Like me, Fran saw the stones without be able to sense them. Tilting her head, she questioned Numerae.
「What’s that?」
「W-Warding stones.」
Numerae gave us a straight answer, probably because he knew that he had no chance in a melee encounter, and that we would not give up until we got what we wanted out of him.
He immediately realized that it was better to comply than to prolong his own suffering. Seems like a true pro.
I tried to grab the area around the stone into my storage, and I succeeded in storing one of them. After that, my senses became completely clear. I was able to detect the remaining three stones with my skills.
Guess they need a set of four stones for the full effect, and it stops working when one of them is gone.
Now that I can clearly sense them, I took a closer look at the remaining warding stones. They were indeed magic stones, specially processed with a magic circle carved into them.
「How do you use this?」
「You apparently enchant them with warding arts.」
So they’re tools enchanted by warding experts, allowing anyone to activate the ward engraved into them.
The ward contained in this tool apparently has the power to deceive perception. They seemed particularly effective against detection via magic and skills, being completely invisible to them.
That’s why I couldn’t notice him at all, since I rely on magic and skills instead of intuition and physical abilities.
I have a really bad match-up here, since I have no choice but to use magic and skills for my perception. I don’t even have physical eyes in the first place.
But even if the ward deceived our skills, it could not completely erase the presence of the person inside. Since Fran had an innately good sense for this sort of thing, she was able to recognize that something was off.
Also, I bet the man’s bioelectricity was leaking out of the ward, so that’s why Fran caught him after activating Brilliant Lightning Rush. If there exists any race with a natural heat sensing ability, they would probably be able to deal with this ward easily too. Like a snake beastman or something.
「Did you shoot this?」
「Huh? No, this is a special arrow, right? Doesn’t that one dragonkin mercenary use something like this?」
Fran held up the special arrow in front of him, but he just gave a dumb grin. Not a bad usage of the Acting skill. I might have believed him if I didn’t know better.
『He’s lying.』
「Stop lying. No one around here is suspicious except you. Besides, I didn’t hear a sound when you fired the arrow.」
「Huh? I’m telling the tru――」
「Stop lying.」
「Ow! W-Why……」
「Because you lied.」
Numerae screamed pitifully with tears in his eyes after Fran smacked his head. He must be using the Acting skill again, since I almost felt pity for that pathetic appearance.
But it didn’t work on Fran. Pity or no, the only thing that mattered to her was that her enemy was lying.
「Tell the truth.」
「……Lie detection? But you don’t have……」
Numerae had Appraisal. He must have appraised Fran, believing the false information displayed by our Appraisal Camouflage.
He thought Fran to be a talented swordsman, and one without skills for anything else.
「Did you shoot this?」
「……Yes, I did.」
「Nn. What for?」
「Uh, well, I had a grudge against those guys――」
『Another lie.』
「You lie.」
「…!」
Now he should know for sure that any lying would be pointless. A look of complete despair covered his face.
Well, at least it seems like he’s going to be honest from now on. I hope we can get some info out of him before those guys start squabbling again.
But I also sensed two new presences coming closer. At first I thought they might be Numerae’s friends, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
I knew these two.
They were moving at tremendous speeds, but they weren’t headed towards us. I think they were aiming for the square.
But they paused on the way there, probably because they sensed Fran. Right now, she wasn’t completely concealing her presence.
If one of them was the girl I thought she was, then I can see how she managed to sense us.
After waiting a bit, I saw the presences change direction and come towards us instead.
We could now see her getting closer, leaping from roof to roof on these high-rise buildings. Although she was completely cloaked from head to toe, Fran still recognized her.
Without letting down her guard against Numerae, she greeted the two quietly.
「It’s been a while, Mea.」
「Fuhahaha! You got me! Long time no see, Fran!」