The woman seemed to have one specific item in mind as she looked inside the coffin. Mira and Sasori stood next to the entrance, barely peeking inside as they studied every detail about her.
Having stared at her for a while, the two returned to the third floor to discuss again.
This time they wanted to decide how they would approach capturing her. But they both were at a loss at how to proceed. As far as they were able to observe, the woman held no visible weapons or something that would establish her class.
Examine, the ability former players had to see the stats of other entities, was also unusable as the woman’s face had to be visible for it to work.
One’s fighting strategy depended heavily on the opponent’s class, trying to outsmart their abilities and weaknesses. Sasori and Mira also relied on that to gain an advantage when fighting.
But the woman’s coat was too broad and thick, so it was impossible to distinguish anything that was covered by it, giving no clues as to whether she was a warrior or a spellcaster.
「We can’t underestimate whatever equipment she might have. If she has a spirit sword too, then it could get tricky fighting her in such a confined space as this.」
Mira thought back to the Fire Spirit Sword the other Head possessed. If the woman had any weapon with similar destructive power, then they would have no place to hide and it could get really dangerous.
A spirit’s power could overturn any equipment’s properties. Not only with weapons, but armor was the same. For instance that coat with the power of a fire spirit could repel a superficial attack and counterattack with a powerful blast of fire. Mira explained all that she knew about it to Sasori.
Mira was confident she could take her down no matter what weapons she had or what class she had, but if she made too much noise they would get swarmed with guards.
Even if they managed to capture her successfully, nothing guaranteed she would give any useful information. They had to be careful and plan ahead no matter what happened now.
They also had to use their most powerful attacks to neutralize her as quickly as possible. Thinking of that, the two girls remained silent while Mira tried to come up with a plan.
「I don’t know how much of a change Spirit Arms can make, but I don’t think she has the strongest body herself.」
Sasori’s voice sounded a bit unreliable, but her face showed she had reasons to be certain of that.
「Oh? How do you figure that?」
「Well, the way she walked and her posture didn’t seem at all like those of someone who trains their body.」
Mira asked her to elaborate and Sasori explained her reasoning behind that idea. She knew how to identify little things like that from all her experience and training in covert operations.
「I see. Then I guess she’ll be very likely to give us an opening.」
Mira was impressed seeing Sasori’s excellent observation skills at work. Taking that into consideration, Mira brought her fingertips to her chin and began planning again. As she did that, Sasori took out a small sphere from her pocket.
「I think if we combine both our speed and strength we can capture her before she gets a chance to use her Spirit Arms. I’d like to try something out with you first though.」
She said that while grinning in a slightly suspicious way.
「And what is that thing you’re holding?」
Mira looked doubtful as she glanced at that small black ball that she could lift with two fingers. At first glance it looked like a pellet of deer excrement, but when she got closer she noticed a slightly sweet scent coming from it, which made her look even more puzzled.
「As you know, this country is ruled by the owners of trading companies, so you can find almost anything in the city for sale. This is a sleeping drug I made with a bunch of rare ingredients I found in the stores earlier. If you set it on fire it lets out a thin smoke, and inhaling that can knock out even a great bear for an entire day, apparently.」
Her voice trailed off somewhat unreliably again, but she proudly puffed her chest like Mira usually did. She was quite convinced it would work.
「Apparently? You’ve never tried it out?」
「The ingredients are so rare, this is the first time I was able to make it. But I followed the recipe to a tee so I’m sure it’ll work!」
Sasori had known about it for a long time, but this was her first time trying it out. Mira still felt it sounded too good to be true and looked doubtful at Sasori, but other than her cheek stiffening up a bit, she looked just as confident.
Sasori’s confidence stemmed from her trust in the literature she read to learn the recipe. Everything else she had tried from those books had worked perfectly, and the sleeping drug had a lot of documented history behind it, so she was convinced it would work flawlessly.
「Well, if it doesn’t work it won’t work, and we can still restrain her by force.」
If the sleeping drug worked, their mission would be accomplished much more easily, and even if it did not, things would not get totally ruined. Weighing her options, Mira decided to go with Sasori’s plan, while also getting curious as to what other hidden knowledge she had.
Some Spirit Arms had the ability to weaken debuffs, but Mira could not read any like that on the woman. Trusting that newly acquired instinct, Mira believed there was high chance the sleeping drug would work on her. Even if it did not, Mira could rely on her own magic and freeze her with Magic Eye. That way she already had a plan B in mind.
「Actually, even if things go well, do you think it’s a good idea to just take her with us? The guards at the entrance should know she’s down here, and if she takes too long to get out they might ring an alarm.」
There were at least four guards who should know the Head was down in the ruins, but they would never see her leave. After enough time they would obviously come down to check on her.
If they left signs of a fight in the room, then the guards would know the Head was captured and tighten the guard everywhere. The investigation of the Melville Trading Corporation was still ongoing, and it would get much trickier to stay hidden there if that happened.
Though if things went well, there would be no trace of their presence there after capturing the woman.
「That’s true. Should we wait for her outside then? If we capture her outside we should have a few more days before they notice she’s missing.」
「You have a point. If she leaves the facility alone then we will have a chance to capture her. Though I feel like it’ll get much more tricky by then.」
If they captured her there, the guards would quickly notice and ring the alarm the next day. But if she left the facility with the warehouses no one would know she was captured for a while, and that should be enough to find more links between Melville and Chimera.
But to really accomplish that, they would have to capture her without anyone seeing it. The city was largely unknown to them so it was hard to tell which places had no eyes on them, so capturing her was much easier down there, where she was alone and with little room to escape.
Not to mention she was likely a Head of Chimera Clauzen. The Fifty Bells would demand her capture as an important source of information, so they had to snag her somehow.
「I think I have an idea, listen.」
A moment of silence after their discussion, Sasori had an idea and proposed something to Mira.
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