Returning from the bathroom with the adventurer that had come to check on him, Marcus received several concerned and pitying looks.
They clearly all thought he had been experiencing some terrible indigestion or something else along those lines.
Among them one person though was doing her best to contain her laughter and an amused smile had crept onto her face.
'I knew it. The moment she has a chance she is going to use this against me.' Marcus thought, seeing the expression on Mrazivy's face.
"That took you a bit longer than I expected. Did you run into any difficulties?" Mrazivy said once he sat back down next to her.
She was doing her best to hold in a snicker and while she was in a roundabout way asking Marcus how his mission had been, it was clear she was enjoying putting him in such an awkward position.
"Yes, I encountered an unexpected situation, but I managed to resolve everything. But I am sure we can talk about this alter some other time." Marcus said, nodding his head towards the other adventurers at the table.
"Okay, I will leave it at there for now, but while you were dealing with your own problems, I have had quite the successful time." Mrazivy said, eyeing the huge stack of coins sitting in front of her.
The other adventurers had been playing a card game before Marcus and Mrazivy joined, and it was clear that it involved gambling.
Naturally this made Marcus worried since he already knew that his wife was weak to gambling, but at least she seemed to be winning.
However, while this is what it seemed like she wanted to convey, Marcus understood the hidden message.
She was not only doing well at the game but had also uncovered some useful information.
Of course, they both could have conveyed this information with telepathy, but they were being careful in case someone within range was using the telepathy jack skill.
For around another hour they played cards with the other adventurers while asking questions about the island to not seem suspicious.
If they had left immediately after Marcus had returned it certainly could have made the adventurers they were playing with distrustful towards them.
"Come on Mraz. You lost. It was a good run, but you cannot be lucky forever." Marcus said while pulling Mrazivy away.
Up until the last few hands she had been winning, but a string of bad luck and plays had left her without any money left in front of her.
At this point she had resolved to simply pull out more and try again, but Marcus already knew where this would lead and dragged her away.
"No Marcus, just a bit more. We are not even gambling with that much money. I am sure I can win if I just have a few more rounds." Mrazivy said, her competitive spirit blazing.
She did not like losing, and when it came to games of chance, she was pretty bad at knowing when to stop.
Thankfully, she stopped resisting when Marcus promised to fix her a special lunch using rare ingredients.
"This place should do."
After they had left the adventures' guild Marcus and Mrazivy had entered deep into the jungle and were now well off the beaten path.
They both needed to share the information they had uncovered and wanted to make absolutely sure they were not overheard by anyone.
To this end they used a number of magic tools to obscure themselves and silence the area.
Now unless someone used a unique skill or Supreme Skill specializing in surveillance, they could not be observed without alerting them.
"You go first." Marcus said to Mrazivy.
"Sure, to start all of the adventures say that this place is pretty lax and clean, but that there is one thing that is pretty suspicious. Apparently every three nights a shipment comes in that is not guarded by any adventurers and none of them are allowed anywhere near it. The insignia on the vessel is also that of the resort, but the ship is never docked at the resort's port. In fact, it is never seen except when it comes in to make a delivery. I was told that a few adventurers in the past tried to follow the ship but that they did not get far before being found by one of the resort's higher ups and heavily reprimanded. They were apparently resigned the very next day and removed from the resort. It seems that anyone that tries to investigate this ship ends up in enough trouble to be forced off the Resort." Mrazivy said, telling Marcus the most pertinent information she had gathered.
She had found out other interesting things, like how the staff seemed to be changed out almost every ten years or so, but they figured that this was due to them all being homunculi.
"So, what did you uncover?" Mrazivy asked, once she was finished relaying her information.
"First, I can say without reasonable doubt that everyone that visits this island gets infected. The guild staff I checked all had a pseudo soul fragment attached to their souls." Marcus said, a grave expression on his face.
He then told Mrazivy about his encounter with the guild master and all he had learned from it.
"Also, I was wondering if you knew anything about the kingdom she is from?" Marcus asked.
Unfortunately, Mrazivy just shook her head.
"Sorry I have never heard of the Kingdom of Yeszorwyn. I at least memorized all of the nations on the same continent as Borealia, so it must be located somewhere else and has no relationship with us. I am sure thought that we can find out more thought the adventurers guild since they are connected to the organization as well."
Now that they both knew all of the information the other had gathered, they began making their next plan.
"It is good that we know that the guild is not involved, but this is still a dangerous thread for us to be following. We need to be very careful with our next move." Marcus said.
He did not want Mrazivy to start blasting her way towards the mastermind. Certainly, they might be able to get concrete information if they integrated one of the resort's staff members, but then they would also be found out.
Right now, their greatest asset was that they had not been discovered yet, but the moment they were it would make things far more difficult for them.
"Okay, then I think we should investigate this ship. It is very likely that the pseudo soul fragments are being transported on it." Mrazivy suggested.
Marcus, however, was not so sure.
"It honestly might just be something else that they do not want people to find out about. I am pretty certain that whoever is orchestrating this has their base located within eh Resort. Surely, they have a better means of moving things from their base to the Resort proper. I think it is more likely that something from outside the area is being brought in." Marcus said.
"Yes, but even if it is not the pseudo soul fragments themselves, it could be the emissary items to make them, or maybe something else that is sinister in nature. I think looking into this ship is a good idea if we want to gather as much information as possible." Mrazivy said, vehemently wanting to follow the lead she had uncovered.
"Fine, I admit that there is likely some merit to it." Marcus said, giving in.
It was the best lead they had other than him simply floating around the general area where the base was likely located until he found it. Which was not something he really wanted to do at this point, since it could easily alert the mastermind to his presence. They were obviously already adept at using spiritual energy since they had been making artificial souls and likely had means to detect snooping spirits that were trying to break into their base.
Caution was the most important thing to Marcus right now, and he was fine with taking things slowly until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.
"Now that we have decided on what our next move is going to be, do you know when the next shipment is coming in?" Marcus asked Mrazivy.
"Yeah, I heard that it is supposed to be arriving tomorrow night, once pretty much everyone other than the night watch is asleep."
"Got it, then we can spend the rest today and tomorrow relaxing until then. Even if this place is a sinister plot to infect people with a surveillance device, it still is a top-of-the-line resort." Marcus said, still wanting to enjoy a bit of a normal honeymoon with Mrazivy.
Luckily, she agreed, and the two of them decided that for the rest of the day and tomorrow they would have fun on the beach before beginning their investigation of the mysterious ship the next evening.
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