At midnight, most of the city in Ascatra has become completely quiet, except for the still brightly lit and noisy Waking shopping district, the dock area and some pubs, hotels and other service venues.
Because for most civilians, although the salary of work is increasing with the unprecedented prosperity of trade with the Maztec continent, for them, long-lasting lighting equipment such as candles, oil lamps, and magic lamps are still of great value.
Unrestricted luxury goods.
Perhaps every household will buy one or two candles or an oil lamp for emergencies, but they will never be used easily.
If you stand in the air, you can clearly see that the city at night is very clearly divided into several areas.
Among them, the lights in Woking Mall are the brightest, and many businesses even use torches with eternal flames or colorful magic lamps.
Secondly, it is busy day or night, and the docks for loading and unloading goods are also illuminated extremely brightly by torches and magic lamps with eternal flames.
Many scantily clad young women would stand in groups under the lights to show off their alluring body curves, and then bargain with the sailors who had just gotten off the ship and were almost suffocated.
Once an agreement is reached, the two parties will go to a deserted dark alley to complete the transaction.
From dark to dawn, all kinds of strange sounds can be heard almost everywhere in the streets and warehouses near the dock.
Some of them are high-pitched, some are low-pitched, and they have become one of the characteristics and symbols of this area.
Of course, like all industries that wander in the gray area, these are controlled by the Shadow Thieves Guild.
Every time women complete a transaction, they will hand over part of their income to the local snakes responsible for protecting them.
Only in this way can they engage in this business safely without having to worry about suddenly becoming corpses floating in sewers and seas.
In addition, because the Shadow Thieves Guild is the most professional and elite criminal organization on the continent of Faerûn, it understands the importance of sustainable development and rarely over-squeezes its subordinates who can continuously earn profits for themselves.
Therefore, women usually only need to hand over 20% of their income to recruit customers with confidence.
Once you encounter someone who is too rough or too perverted, you can directly summon members of the Shadow Thieves Guild to protect you.
You must know that the biggest difference between Ascaltra and Calimport is that the underground world of the former is completely monopolized by the Shadow Thieves Guild.
Although there are many branch gangs and small guilds under his subordinates, no one dares to disobey the orders issued by their superiors.
Otherwise, what awaits the leaders of these gangs and small guilds is a brutal and bloody purge.
The top management, headed by Renault Bloodhead, has never minded using a massacre to warn all subordinates with evil intentions.
Due to the unified market and complete management system, there will be no competition for turf within the Shadow Thieves.
Even the pickpockets, swindlers and prostitutes under their control are relatively safe and do not have to worry about being involved in gang fights and losing their lives.
Most importantly, the unprecedented prosperity of trade and commerce has also made the shadow thieves who control the underground world of Amn a lot of money.
This can be seen from the fact that many ringleaders can actually afford houses in places like the administrative district.
At this moment, Renoir Bloodhead, who is the real leader of the Shadow Thieves Guild headquarters, is standing on an inconspicuous berth at the dock under the protection of a dozen elite assassins, admiring the growing criminal empire in his hands.
, an unparalleled sense of satisfaction emerged in my heart.
The reason why he took the risk of leaving the guild headquarters today was to meet an important partner.
After all, since Calimport in the south was purged by the Undead Emperor Shane VII, all smuggling and contraband business has come to a standstill.
The newly appointed controller of the underground world, Apke, completely ignored the good cooperative relationship with the Shadow Thieves and ruthlessly uprooted several strongholds established by the guild there.
Therefore, whether it is for revenge or to reconnect with each other to establish an intelligence and smuggling network, Renault Bloodhead needs to find a partner with sufficient power and influence in the local area.
As Cyric's elector and the actual power holder of the Prince of Lies Church in Kalingshan, Malik extended an olive branch at the critical moment.
One of the two parties wants to rebuild their stronghold in Calimport, and the other is eager to use external forces to resist the strong suppression of Shane VII. It can be said that they hit it off.
"Look! The ship is coming!"
A half-elf thief with dim vision pointed at the blurry light spots on the sea in the distance and shouted.
Since there are a large number of commercial ships docked in the Bay of Ascatra, in order to prevent unnecessary losses caused by unclear collisions, the city hall issued an order requiring all unanchored ships to be on the bow, stern and lookout at night.
On the stage, sufficiently bright oil lamps and torches were hung.
So once there is light on the sea, it often means that a ship is heading towards the harbor.
After a while, the blurry light spots gradually became clear.
When the distance was a few hundred meters, it could be clearly seen that this was a medium-sized merchant ship with two decks, and the flag of the chamber of commerce to which it belonged was hung on the mast.
Just when Renoir Bloodhead cleared his throat and was about to welcome this ally from afar, another assassin next to him suddenly raised his hand to stop him.
"Boss! Be careful! Something is wrong! I smell a strong smell of blood!"
"The smell of blood?"
Renoir Bloodhead's expression changed slightly, and he immediately narrowed his eyes and stared at the ship that was getting closer and closer.
After about a few minutes, he could vaguely see the dark shadow standing on the deck with the bright light of the dock, and at the same time, there was a strong smell of blood blowing over with the sea breeze.
When they were only a few dozen meters away from the berth, everyone present could see the corpses lying scattered on the deck, as well as the thick layer of plasma stuck to the deck.
A woman with short black hair and pale skin stood on the corpse, pinched the neck of Malik, the chosen one of the Prince of Lies, with one hand, and cut his entire body in front of a dozen shadow thieves.
The head was violently pulled from the neck.
Dazzling blood spurted out from the aorta, forming a terrifying yet beautiful giant blood flower under the influence of some unknown magical power.
Then it fell like raindrops from the top of the head, hitting the bodies and faces of all the members of the Shadow Thieves Guild, including Renault Bloodhead.
There are no words to describe the shock and disbelief on their faces at this moment.
In contrast, the pale-skinned woman seemed to have done a trivial thing. First she licked the blood on her fingers with great enjoyment, and then she threw Malik's dead head high into the sky and rowed it over the pier.
It passed through a beautiful parabola, and then fell onto the wooden plank of the plank road with a bang.
At this point, the shadow thieves finally came to their senses and drew out their weapons one after another, assuming postures as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
As a huge criminal organization with influence all over the west coast of Faerûn, they are not little thieves who have never seen the world. They quickly determined that this woman was not a human being, but a very powerful vampire.
Renoir Bloodhead asked with a livid face: "Who are you? Who are you working for? Do you and your master want to declare war on us Shadow Thieves?"
"Declare war? Hahahahaha! Are you worthy enough?"
The vampire raised his chin proudly and suddenly jumped up from the deck of the ship. Like a weightless feather, he landed in front of the shadow thieves with extremely gentle and graceful movements.
Just a look!
One of the senior assassins was instantly charmed and immediately stabbed another unsuspecting companion beside him in the back.
The next second...
Poof!
"Ah!!!!!!! You... what the hell are you doing?!"
The unlucky guy who had his heart penetrated slowly turned his head, his face full of horror and despair.
He couldn't believe it at all that his best friend would suddenly kill him.
"Sorry, this is the master's order. Who made you a follower of Cyric."
The charmed assassin expressionlessly stirred the dagger pierced into his body to ensure that the opponent's heart was completely broken, and then he simply pulled out the weapon and shook off the blood stained on it.
The whole action is smooth and smooth, and even makes people feel the beauty of simple and clear killing.
When the dagger was pulled out, the former was filled with doubts and unwillingness, and fell headfirst to the ground, turning into a warm corpse.
Renault Bloodhead, who witnessed this scene with his own eyes, suddenly felt chills running down his spine. He suppressed the fear in his heart and threatened loudly: "You are provoking! The Shadow Thieves Guild will never allow any person or organization to kill anyone."
You can still get away with killing our members."
"No, Shadow Thief, you are wrong.
This is not a provocation, but a warning.
Starting today, all cooperation with Cyric and his church is prohibited.
Otherwise, I guarantee you that what happened on the ship today may happen at the Shadow Thieves Guild headquarters next time."
When he said these words, the vampire's eyes burst out with frightening red light, and his bloodthirsty and violent expression made all the remaining shadow thieves feel as if a hand was pinching their hearts, preventing them from beating normally.<
/p>
"Why do you do this? You and your master are the enemies of the Prince of Lies?"
Realizing that the other party was not here for him, Renault Bloodhead breathed a sigh of relief and began to try to extract more useful information.
He completely did not understand who in this world dared to go against Cyric and his church forces who had powerful divine power.
Especially things like killing voters are obviously no longer ordinary confrontation, but an out-and-out frontal declaration of war.
To be continued...