Solo Player Arvin

Arvin woke abruptly as his door was being knocked on. With sleep in his eyes, he got up to open the door. Before opening the door he didn't forget to change his face. And then with an annoyed face, he opened the door.

Outside the door were two soldiers in their red uniforms staring at Arvin…

"Who are you?" Arvin asked with an annoyed face.

"Your real father you f*cker." One of them said and pushed back Arvin. Then both of them entered the room and started going through all the stuff that was in the room.

Arvin was sure that this kind of thing would happen. So he had already put out a cloth sack filled with clothes and a pouch filled with 50 something bronze coins. Arvin acted like a normal man and tried to stand up to the soldiers but in return, he got a smack straight on his head.

That attack was so weak that Arvin didn't felt anything from it. But as had no other choice he acted like it was a very powerful strike. The soldier bought Arvin's acting and left after searching his whole room. They also took 40 something bronze coins that Arvin had with him. As they left Arvin closed the door behind them.

He then sat in a lotus position and started meditating. Arvin understood what he had done. So he predicted that based on the relationship of the kid with the city lord, he would probably issue a lockdown on the city. And that Xander would guy would probably stay in the city for one more day to catch Arvin.

Even though the kid and Xander did not have any connection whatsoever between them, based on the friendship that he and the city lord showed, it was possible that he would stay in the city for just one more day. And then he would leave. So Arvin had a whole day to think about the strategy from which he could follow Xander on his journey.

Following him will lead Arvin to information about the missing piece of the key. As well as he would get all the information about the other players that are in the race to El Dorado. Arvin had made plans earlier that he would do practice his magic casting skills. But now it seems that would not be possible because of today's blunder.

The city lord will not let this incident pass. He would surely hunt down any magus that has skill from which he/she could disguise himself/herself as other people. And with this, the news about a mage that could do that would spread over all the second floor.

If someone thinks about it logically then all the people from different clans and especially Xander would devise a secret code from which he could distinguish between real people and an imposter. So following Xander while in the disguise of his men was out of the question for now. Because at any instant Arvin could get his cover blown.

So the only logical thing to do now was to follow that man while in the form of an animal. What animal should he become so that he could follow Xander without being too suspicious?

…

The rest of the day Arvin meditated and tried to regain his peak condition and by night he was able to achieve it. Then the next day early in the morning Arvin sneaked out of his inn towards the city lord's mansion. And he was glad that he did that…

Before even the sun could rise up from the sky, Arvin saw that there were four camels loaded and were ready to leave the city lord's mansion. Arvin understood immediately that maybe that this would be the caravan of that Xander guy. He must be leaving the city lord's mansion in just a few minutes.

Arvin looked at those camels. He had a thought that maybe he should turn into a camel. But then he threw that idea back of his mind. Because becoming that size animal would cost a lot of mana. And he could not afford to get suspicious. Thinking about what to do next, Arvin landed near a roof and started observing those camels.

The security of this place had become a lot tighter than it was before. And there were several guards in the eyeshot of the camels. So he could not just kill any one of them and hope for the best that no one would find out about it.

Arvin was observing the camels when he saw that some guards brought two more camels into the caravan. These camels were pulling something on a cart on their back. Whatever it was, the package was covered with a very thick cloth so it was harder to know what was behind the cloth. Curious about what could be behind that cloth Arvin flew towards the cloth.

Arvin transformed into a fly and went towards the carriage. And then he peeked behind the heavy cloth. And he was very surprised to find out that behind the cloth was an animal. A live animal. Based on the features of this beast it has a lot of resemblance to a cougar. It had the same red nose and cat-like features that a cat possesses.

As Arvin saw the cat he thanked the lady luck again as again today she had provided him with an opportunity. But before doing anything to that cat, Arvin asked Loki…

'Hey Loki, is there any way from which I could tell that this beast here has a life brand or not?' Arvin asked.

{…}

'Is there any way?' Arvin asked again.

{It is a beast.} Loki said.

'Your point being?' Arvin asked.

{People don't use life brands on some random animals. They are used for real people. Important people.} Loki said.

'So is there any way?' Arvin asked completely ignoring Loki's earlier remark.

{…}

'Come on man. Tell me!' Arvin said.

{Fine. There is no way to tell for sure whether a person has a life brand or not. But there is a certain unorthodox way from which we could tell.} Loki said.

'Unorthodox?' Arvin asked.

{Yeah. There is about a 30% chance that we might be right from this way.} Loki said.

'That is too low! Isn't there any other way?' Arvin asked.

{No… So as I was saying that there is a 30% chance that it could work. The theory about this method could be discussed by us sometimes later. But for now, do this…. Open your mana eyes and looked at your target heart and brain simultaneously. If you feel that they are maybe they are connected externally through mana then it could mean that this person has a life brand. Or otherwise, it doesn't.} Loki said.

'So if I use this method on this cat then would that mean that there is a 70% chance that I am wrong and thus killing this guy could get Xander more adamant to kill me?' Arvin asked.

{It is a cat dumba*s. It is f*cking big cat. If that cat has a brain from which he could understand the relationship between heart and brain then he wouldn't be in this cage now, wouldn't it?} Loki said sarcastically.

'…'

Arvin then peaked at the cougar with his mana eyes. And surprisingly he didn't saw or felt anything that could that as described by Loki. So Arvin took a deep breath and transformed back to a human form abruptly. And he also killed the cougar by severing his head off. Then he transformed back into a fly. But before transforming Arvin didn't forget to collect the corpse of the cougar in his inventory.

Arvin feared that there was a chance that this cougar might have a life brand on him and maybe as he killed him it would have alerted Xander. So after cutting off the cougar's head, Arvin waited for few minutes. As the few minutes passed by, Arvin figured that maybe that cat didn't have the body brand after all. So he transformed back to his human form. With some blood that spiled while cutting that damn cat head of, Arvin transformed into a cougar himself.

That cougar was roughly the size of Arvin's body. So Arvid didn't have to waste a lot of mana in his transformation. And then Arvin lied there with his head held high by being transform into a cougar.

It was an hour later journey finally began. Some people came and check on Arvin from time to time to see whether he was fine or not. Before they set off towards their destination, Arvin heard the voices of the Xander and city lord greeting each other farewell. Then they set off.

With the advanced hearing of the cougar, Arvin was able to hear the conversation outside the cage that he was in. But from the voices that he heard, he presumed that there were about 5 people in this caravan including  Xander himself. And they were heading to a town or city that they were referring to as spring palms…