I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1290: Serious

Jane stepped out of the potion shop and let the door close behind her.

The small bell above the entrance rang softly as the wooden door swung shut. The noise faded quickly into the restless sounds of the slum district.

Night had already fallen across the narrow streets. Lanterns hung crookedly from rusted hooks and dim light spilled across the muddy ground.

The slums never truly slept. If anything, the district grew louder after dark. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Drunken voices echoed between crooked buildings while the smell of cheap alcohol and smoke drifted through the cold air.

Jane walked forward without slowing her pace.

It did not take long for the attention to start.

A few men sitting near a broken cart looked up as she passed. Their eyes lingered openly with lust. One of them whistled and another called out something crude.

"Hey, sweetheart. Where are you going alone at night?"

Jane did not answer. She continued walking.

More voices followed.

Someone laughed loudly from the doorway. Another man leaned against a wall and made an obscene gesture. In the slums, a woman walking alone at night usually attracted the worst kind of attention.

But Jane’s mood had already turned dark after the conversation inside Dave’s shop.

When one man stepped into her path and tried to speak again, she stopped.

Slowly, she turned her head.

Her eyes locked onto him.

The glare she gave him carried no anger in the ordinary sense. It was colder than that. It was the look of someone who had already decided that anything standing in her way was insignificant and ready to be killed.

The man’s grin faded immediately. A sudden chill ran down his spine.

Without understanding why, he stepped aside quickly and avoided her gaze.

Jane resumed walking.

A few others noticed the exchange. The laughter in the street grew quieter as she passed.

But not everyone was wise enough to stop.

A drunk man staggered from a nearby alley and moved behind her. His hand reached forward, aiming for her butt with a careless grin.

He never finished the motion. Jane’s hand shot back faster than he could react.

She grabbed his wrist.

The man barely had time to blink before she twisted his arm and applied pressure.

Snap!

The sound of bone breaking echoed sharply through the street.

"ARRRHHH!"

The man screamed and collapsed to the ground, clutching his broken arm while writhing in pain.

Jane released him without even looking back.

The surrounding men immediately backed away. No one said another word or whistle anymore.

Jane continued walking as if nothing had happened.

The streets gradually widened as she left the densest part of the slum behind.

The rotten buildings slowly gave way to more stable structures and cleaner roads. The drunken noise faded into the distance.

Soon she stepped onto the main road that connected the outer districts to the central city.

Her pace quickened.

She had no reason to waste time.

Within a short while she arrived at the tower that housed Archmage Velrion again.

The guards at the entrance recognized her immediately and allowed her through without question. Jane moved quickly through the halls until she reached the chamber at the top of the tower.

When she entered, Velrion was already waiting.

The Archmage stood near a wide desk that right now was already covered with scrolls and arcane instruments. His posture remained straight, but the moment he saw Jane his expression shifted.

Relief appeared briefly in his eyes. But it was mixed with apprehension and worry.

He had not expected her to return this quickly.

"Sit," Velrion said calmly.

Jane stepped forward and took the seat across from him.

At that moment, the other three investigators who served under Velrion were still carrying out their own assignments elsewhere in the city.

Velrion folded his hands together on the desk.

"What did you find?" he asked.

Jane did not hesitate.

"The artifact detected traces of unnatural Magic energy," she said. "It led me to a small potion shop inside the slum district."

Velrion’s eyes sharpened slightly.

Jane continued.

"The shop owner admitted that three individuals visited him earlier today."

She paused briefly before finishing the sentence.

"They told him directly that they were travelers from another world. They also used powerful concealment spells that made him unable to remember their appearances."

Velrion did not speak immediately after hearing Jane’s report.

For several seconds, the chamber remained silent.

The Archmage’s sharp and penetrating eyes fixed on Jane. The calm expression he normally carried slowly disappeared. In its place, a far more solemn look settled across his face.

He leaned back slightly in his chair, fingers still folded together on the desk as his mind processed the implications of what she had just said.

It really is travelers from another world. Not rumors or vague Magical disturbances. Actual confirmation.

Velrion’s gaze lowered briefly to the scrolls spread across his desk, as if the countless arcane diagrams drawn across them might suddenly reveal the answers he sought.

Then he looked back at Jane.

"We cannot delay," he said quietly.

The tone in his voice had changed. It carried a weight that Jane had rarely heard from him before.

"We need to locate those three immediately."

Jane straightened slightly in her seat.

Velrion rose from his chair and began pacing slowly behind the desk. His robes brushed softly against the stone floor as he moved.

"I will begin preparing a detection spell," he continued. "Something far stronger than what we normally use to track Magical disturbances."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke.

"If they used concealment Magic powerful enough to interfere with memory, then ordinary tracking methods will not be sufficient."

He stopped walking and placed one hand on the desk.

"I will also mobilize every spirit under my command that possesses tracking abilities," he said.

The spirits Velrion referred to were not ordinary summoned creatures. They were ancient beings bound through contracts with the Archmage’s tower, capable of sensing disturbances that even high-level mages often missed.

Jane felt the gravity of the situation settle heavily in her chest.

Until this moment, the investigation had felt like a cautious search for confirmation.

Now the Archmage was mobilizing every resource he possessed.

Only then did she truly realize how serious this had become.

Velrion lifted his gaze again.

"Jane."

"Yes, Archmage."

"Find the others immediately. Tell them what you discovered and order them to return here at once," he said.

Jane nodded without hesitation.

"Understood."

She stood from her chair and immediately turned toward the door.

Within seconds she left the chamber, her footsteps fading quickly down the stone corridor as she hurried to deliver the message.

The door closed behind her. Silence returned to the room.

Velrion remained standing beside the desk for a long moment, staring at the empty doorway where Jane had disappeared.

Slowly, he sighed.

His gaze drifted toward the tall window overlooking the city.

From this height, the countless lights of the capital flickered like distant stars scattered across the darkness.

But Velrion barely noticed the view. His thoughts had already turned elsewhere.

"What do you want here..." he murmured quietly.

Travelers from another world. No matter how powerful a Mage he was, the truth remained the same.

The unknown always brought fear. Humans feared most of what they could not understand.

And right now, Velrion realized that he understood almost nothing about the beings who had just arrived in his world.

That uncertainty unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.

For the first time in many years, the Archmage felt something cold creeping into the edges of his mind.

Fear.

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