Chronos had always known that something as useful as the system would spread fast but covering the world in just one year was ridiculous. You couldn't even travel the continent in that short of a time.
"Is there anything else you needed? If not, I'd like to go visit the blacksmith before my ship leaves." Chronos said.
"I have nothing else to discuss, thank you for your time." She motioned towards the door and the barrier opened again.
On his way out Chronos did his best to not look like he was running away but the raised hair on the back of his neck told a different story.
He had plenty of courage but talking to someone that was able to kill you with a thought was enough to scare anyone half to death and her hollow chuckling didn't help.
He started making his way to the blacksmiths area but was distracted by yelling coming from the flying ship.
"Get off of my ship!" That was the captain's voice, but he shouldn't be that angry with anybody, well except maybe Chronos.
"Shut up! I'm only taking a look at how it's built!" That was blacksmith John Smith, wasn't it?
Changing direction Chronos made his way to the loading area only to find that it was a complete mess. A large number of blacksmiths were swarming the area led by Smith examining the ship from every angle they could while the guards and the ship's captain were chasing them around trying to get them off the ship.
"Stop hitting my ship!" The captain shouted.
John was lightly hitting the side of the ship with his hammer and listening to the echo from the wood then he would run to another part of the ship and repeat his actions.
"Shut up! I'm just checking for damage; I used to build ships in Koron city, so I know what to look for." He shouted back.
"That doesn't give you the right to climb all over my ship whenever you want! You're going to damage the sails, get down from there!" The captain screamed as Smith rapidly climbed the rigging on the side of the ship to check their triple sails.
"I'm not damaging them also you've got multiple tears in this sail, and this boom needs to be repaired! Some woodpecker nearly hollowed out one side of it!" Smith shouted back.
"Wait really?" The captain immediately jumped onto the boom and scrambled out to him.
Looking at the damage done to the boom the captain frowned. The work needed to fix this would delay their departure by several hours.
"Ugh we'll have to cut out this whole section, maybe even replace the entire boom past this point." The captain frowned deeply.
"No need for that, just ask a priest of the bronze dragon god to come fix it. There are a few of them around the church." Smith replied.
"Bronze dragon? Which one was that?"
"He's the dragon god of craftsmen; any of his priests can repair this level of damage without issue. The problem is that they might try to improve the ship at the same time due to their craftsman's pride." Smith warned him.
Chronos turned to face one of the blacksmiths on the ground.
"As entertaining as this is I need to talk with blacksmith Smith, how long will he be up there?" He asked.
"Until he's done examining the whole ship. So far, he's only looked at the outside and hasn't reached the inside yet. It'll be a few hours before he's ready to talk about anything else." The blacksmith said.
Nodding Chronos replied, "Thank you for warning me. I think I'll go see the city for a couple of hours then. Before I leave, what are all of the other blacksmiths doing here?"
"Mostly we came to see the ship but once Smith started working, we stuck around to learn from him. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to follow him now."
"Sure."
Waving, he walked off while Smith rushed to the door leading to the lower decks while the captain was distracted planning out the various fixes the ship needed.
"Hey! Come back here! I haven't given permission for you to enter my ship yet!" The captain shouted as he chased after Smith once more.
Ignoring the chaos caused by the blacksmiths behind him Chronos started looking for Lyla, Gregory, or Sariah. Since he didn't have anything else to do for now he was going to help them with whatever was going on and hopefully find something fun to do.
Walking into town he decided to start his search near the bakery street, women loved sweets after all, and it totally wasn't because he wanted some cake for himself. Arriving on bakery street he was hit with all sorts of scents from sweet to bitter to cinnamon coming from every direction.
Following his nose, he purchased a cinnamon bun, danish's, and a slice of pie to eat while he walked. Before long he found Lyla and Sariah sitting at a cafe enjoying an afternoon meal. He was going to join them when he caught another scent coming from an alleyway nearby.
It was Gregory's and it smelled like he was being accompanied by several unknown scents. That smelled like more fun than joining the girls for afternoon tea.
Changing directions, he followed Gregory's scent through several alleys and past a couple of run-down houses before stopping down the street from one. There were two men casually standing outside but the way they were leaning against the wall and the hidden weapons at their back and ankles made him think they were professionally trained rogues.
He cast a thin [Isolate] around himself to hide his scent and as much of the noise he was making as possible without giving himself away.
Climbing the wall, he leapt from building to building until he was on the roof above them. On the roof was a skylight that shone into the main room of the second floor, but the floor had rotted away giving him a good view of the first floor.
"I don't smell anyone up here, don't hear them either. I wonder why they didn't post a man up here? Oh well, now what are you up to Gregory?"
He didn't think these men would have someone skilled enough to avoid his senses and even if they did his [Spatial Awareness] would detect any attack before it could strike him.
Looking down into the room he saw Gregory sitting on one side of a table looking angry and a fat man flanked by two buff guards on the other. The fat man seemed to be gloating over something, to hear better Chronos cracked the skylight open slightly.
"If you do that it'll mean war with Gra Ulv." Gregory threatened.
"War? Just what are you up to Gregory?"
"Come now Mister Gregory, kidnapping one orphan girl won't start a war, just put you in a bad position." The fat man said with a smile.
"Orphan girl? They can't be talking about Lyla; she doesn't have any influence in Gra Ulv or over Gregory. They must be talking about Sariah. Should I feel sorry for them or not?"
Chronos realized that these men didn't know that she was a curse master and could probably kill them no matter how they tied her up. That was if they could get past Lyla and Nimsy to kidnap her in the first place.
But it would work as a threat on Gregory, what did they want him to do anyways?
"You can prevent her kidnapping and all you need to do is give us access to Gra Ulv, act as a mediator to their underworld. Is that too much to ask?" The fat man said.
That was convenient but introducing them to Gra Ulv's underworld was a very risky move.
Gregory looked like he was about to explode when he suddenly calmed down, Chronos was confused for a moment before he felt something touching his hand. Glancing down he saw one of Gregory's threads lightly touching the back of his hand.
Good Gregory had noticed he was here.
"What you're asking for isn't anywhere near as simple as you think. Gra Ulv's underworld is connected to the Beklaedning clan, the moment a new force appears they'll notice and take actions to get rid of you. Especially a group like yours that deals in slavery." Gregory stated.
Normally Gregory wouldn't mind giving a referral to any group that wanted to try getting into Gra Ulv's underworld, it wouldn't help them much, but the Beklaedning's had strict rules about what was allowed and what wasn't.
And slavery was strictly forbidden within their territory. The nation wasn't as strict about it as the Beklaedning's who would ruthlessly hunt down and purge anybody found engaging in such activities.
"We won't do that there. We'll just do some drug and weapon trafficking." Said the fat man in a tone of voice that didn't fool anybody. "Surely you'll help us out or are you saying you don't mind that little girl being hurt."
Gregory's eyes narrowed, these men really had grasped his weak point. Unfortunately for them that weak point was currently visiting another cafe with a very mace happy priestess. Wait, Chronos didn't think they knew about her either now that he thought about it.
"Are you really pushing me to kill you right now?" Gregory's voice lowered dangerously.