Tim, on the other hand, loved a good party, but only if it was with a bunch of his friends. Despite his constant bitching about their shenanigans, he missed his two best friends. They should really give this a try. Xander would love it.
Tim followed the lady of the house back to her study. When the door closed behind him, he instantly felt better. One thing he’d learned in the game was that it didn’t take much to kill him, and being surrounded by people he didn’t know made him edgy.
He didn’t wait for permission to be seated. Instead, Tim plunked himself down in his normal spot. Ceremony had never really been his thing. There was something to be said for just getting shit done, and his rush to get this meeting over with had nothing to do with ShadowLily waiting in his room, wearing pants that might as well have been painted on.
Lady Briarthorn folded her dress under her as she sat. “I know what we’ve asked you to do is weighing heavily upon you, but when the goddess calls us to action, we must be brave, we must be driven, and most of all, we must succeed.”
She steepled her fingers as she watched Tim closely. “You’ve never let us down, even when the task was a bloody one, and rumor has it that you are still tending to the needs of the people in the slums.”
“The people there need help. I do what I can.” Tim felt kind of embarrassed about the whole thing. He wasn’t some great hero or someone going above and beyond. He was just doing what he hoped someone would do for him given the chance.
“And humble.” She smiled warmly as she looked at him. “All traits that are praised by the goddess.” She stood back up and moved to the corner of her room. Bending at the waist, she opened a chest on the ground and pulled out a luxurious white robe trimmed with turquoise blue and a bag of coins.
“May I present to you your rewards for a job well done?”
A prompt appeared in his vision.
Quest Completed: Lancing the Corruption
You have killed all of Cardinal Jepsom’s top aides. The pretender’s rebellion against the high priest has been significantly weakened by your efforts. Every soldier has to do their part, and you have done yours admirably.
Rewards: Robe of the Everlasting and ten gold coins.
Tim quickly added the money to his inventory and examined the robe.
Robe of the Everlasting:
This robe has continually popped up throughout Eternia’s history. It was originally worn by Thaddaeus the Loved over two hundred years ago. The robe turned up again during the reign of Malicious the Mad before being lost to history. Now it’s yours. Don’t fuck it up.
+3 to Wisdom
Special Ability, River of Souls: Become one with the souls of the dead, boosting your mana recovery and lowering the cost of your spells by 5% when activated.
Tim slipped the robe into his inventory. “This is incredible. I don’t know what to say.”
“I believe ‘thank you’ is the customary response.” Lady Briarthorn said as she returned to her seat. “But we can dispense with the pleasantries. They aren’t required between friends.”
Friends?
Tim didn’t think they were friends, but they were definitely on friendly terms. Normally, he would have been worried about someone using that term to try to butter him up for a favor, but Lady Briarthorn didn’t ask for favors. She dished out quests and paid handsomely for their completion.
“I’ll say thank you just the same.”
She nodded her head in acquiescence. “The high priest has requested that you return to the temple at your earliest convenience.”
“For my next quest?”
“Paul doesn’t always tell me why, just what he needs done.” The lady let out a dramatic sigh. “I would assume that your successes with me have made you an invaluable part of his plans, so I would expect it to be a working visit and not just a thank you.”
Tim wondered what was going to happen next. Was it time to take out Jepsom once and for all or was there more to do before Paul wanted to make his move? Taking out the cardinal wouldn’t be easy. The man had his own guards, and after seeing Fredrick summon lightning to his fingertips, there was no way to fathom what kind of hidden abilities Jepsom might have.
Tim stood from the chair. “I should let you get back to your guests.”
Lady Briarthorn rose and gave him a perfunctory smile. “The trials of the highborn are never-ending.” She motioned toward the door. “I trust that you can find your own way out?”
“I can, and thank you for not making me stay.” It was a party in his honor, after all. When Reginald had originally told him, the thought of having to make a speech had entered his mind and almost sent him running back out the front door.
“Please, the other nobles are just here for the free food and drink.” She leaned over her desk and whispered in a conspiratorial fashion, “And the gossip. Most of them don’t care who you are or what you’ve accomplished.”
She led him out of the office. “But I care.” She started to walk back toward the crowd but stopped for a moment. “I’ll have Reginald box up some food for you to take back.”
“That isn’t necessary.” Tim noticed that their conversation was drawing attention to him.
“Of course, it is. A good host never sends their guests home hungry.” She snapped her fingers, and one of the servers appeared before her. She whispered to the man before looking at Tim. “Reginald will meet you by the door.”
Tim moved through the rooms, trying his best not to meet anyone’s eye. The last thing he wanted to do was to get embroiled in a conversation he couldn’t extract himself from. He made it to the front door and stepped outside to enjoy the fresh air. That was one thing he didn’t miss about parties. When you had thirty or forty people in a house, it got hot and stuffy quick.
The night air was crisp and refreshing.
Tim jumped when the door opened and Reginald popped out with two giant bags full of food. “Oh good, I thought you had left.” He handed the bags to Tim. “The lady hopes you enjoy the spread.”
“I’m sure it’s better than anything I’ve eaten since coming to Promethia.” He smiled at the man. “Try not to have too much fun.”
“This is the easy part. Trying to wrangle a hundred drunk nobles into their carriages when the party is over is the real job.” Reginald grimaced, thinking about what the night had in store for him. “Would you like me to call a driver for you?”
Tim thought about it for a second and tossed the idea aside. Once Reginald was back inside, he’d just put the food in his inventory and enjoy the walk back to the inn. Sure, it was kind of far, but he had a lot to think about before he got back. If Ernie had been successful with his poison gas, he wanted to get an early start.
Not wanting to waste time on the way back to the inn, Tim pulled up a translucent version of his user interface so he could look at his notifications while he walked.
Skill received: Dodge
Rank: Novice Level One
You might not have known you were doing it, but you managed to not get stabbed in the face more than once. Keep avoiding attacks to increase this skill.
You are now 1% more likely to successfully dodge an attack.
Skill Received: Infiltrator
Rank: Novice Level Three
You’ve used subtlety and wit to sneak into places you shouldn’t. Never mind that you left Antonio tied to that post for hours. Continue talking your way into places you shouldn’t go and wearing disguises to increase this skill.
When trying to infiltrate, you receive a 5% bonus to conversation modifiers and your disguises are 5% more likely to be overlooked if they have flaws.
Skill Increase: Sneak
Rank: Apprentice Level Two
Your ability to hide in the shadows has increased to 11%. Try not to move too much, or you might get shot full of arrows.
Skill Increase: Healing Orb
Rank: Apprentice Level Seven
Your healing orb is now 14% more effective and applies 17% of the origin
al spell’s healing as a heal over time bonus. The HOT is now applied over six seconds.
Skill Increase: Small Blades
Rank: Apprentice Level Three
You might have learned at the hands of a master, but you still have a long way to go before you’ll be considered skilled. Attacks with blades under eighteen inches long do 7% more damage. Your dexterity requirement for small blades has been reduced by three.
Chapter Fifty
“And kaboom!” Ernie shouted as he threw a small vial across the room.
The jar sailed across the wide dining hall and slammed into the back wall. An unimpressive cloud of green vapor wafted up from where the glass shattered. Ernie watched the results of his throw with a wide grin. The gas lingered in the air for about ten seconds before dissipating.
“Doesn’t last as long as I’d like, but it should be damned effective if you throw it into a crowd.” Ernie looked at the expectant faces.
“That’s it?” Cassie sounded worried.
“How effective?” ShadowLily questioned as she gave Ernie a skeptical look.
Stepping forward, Tim put a comforting hand on Ernie’s shoulder. “If our poison master says it will kill the kobolds, then it will.”
Sure, the gas didn’t look like much, and Tim had no idea how effective it would be, but he knew Ernie wouldn’t send them to their possible deaths with an ineffective bomb. Ernie needed this to work as bad as the rest of them. At least, he did if he wanted his old life back.
“The only problem I see…” Tim glanced at the woefully small supply of vials, “is that we don’t have many chances to make this work. Every throw needs to count.”
“Then you better let us handle it.” Gaston pointed to himself and ShadowLily. “Each of us can take a tower.”
It was a good plan, and exactly what Tim was going to ask them to do. He looked at the six vials and thought about what would happen once they took out the archers. The rest of the kobolds would swarm Cassie. She was good—better than good with her new armor—but she wouldn’t stand a chance against twenty of those little fuckers.
But what if they could thin the herd with a few well-placed bombs? Tim looked at the vials and frowned. He bit his lip as he worked out what to do. Scenarios for what would happen if their initial attack failed ran through his mind. They were running out of time before Malvonis would return to claim his prize.
“Uh-oh. I know that face.” ShadowLily smirked. “He’s got a plan.”
“Not another one.” Cassie shook her head and smiled at Tim’s bewildered look. “What? I hear things.”
“Don’t worry, you’re going to like this one.” Tim smiled at Cassie. “It’s just going to take a little extra finesse.”
Tim turned his gaze on Ernie. “Do you have any more of these vials?”
The man shrugged. “I’ve got a whole storage room full of empty ones.”
“Good, because we’re going to need to practice. When it’s time for the real thing, every throw has to count.” Tim turned slowly and met everyone’s eyes. “This is what we are going to do.” He laid out his plan for the team.
“It could work.” ShadowLily beamed at the group.
“Sure has a lot of moving parts,” Cassie said, looking grim. “I don’t want to end up as a kobold throw-pillow.”
“No one does.” Gaston peered around the circle of faces, chuckling. “But isn’t this why you became adventurers? Death breathing down your neck, new and scary enemies, and a chance for epic loot?”
Tim gazed at Gaston, wondering if the assassin might have a screw or two loose. Dying wasn’t high on his list of things to do, at least not until he officially declared himself an adventurer and could come back without losing all his stuff.
“Let’s see if we can avoid death’s cold embrace until we’re done with the dungeon.” He smiled at his team. “Then you have my permission to die as you see fit.”
“Inspirational as always,” ShadowLily snarked.
“A good leader knows how to motivate the troops.” Gaston nudged Tim.
Cassie looked at all of them like they were nuts. “When we all die, the first thing I’m going to do when I come back is give you all a hearty ‘I told you so.’”
Tim was grinning like a fool now. “As long as we understand each other.” He nudged Cassie with his shoulder. “Now let’s get to fucking work.”
Did your chest always feel this tight?
It felt to Tim like the cavern was smaller than before. Every advantage lay with the defenders. The kobolds had towers and archers. The space shrank even further the closer you got to the door, so if attackers came with numbers, they wouldn’t mean much.
Not that they had numbers on their side.
It was the four of them against a horde of the tittering little bastards. Their plan was to take out the archers and live through the assault that followed. The group would be able to handle it as long as they had a little luck on their side.
Tim wasn’t a fan of trusting anything to luck. Having a plan and working hard always produced better results. They had a plan, but it hinged on perfect execution by every single team member. It reminded him of an older MMO called Wildstar. It was the only raiding MMO he’d played where healers didn’t have a resurrection spell. One mistake, and you were done for the entire fight. The stakes were high.
These stakes were higher.
One problem this morning and they were dead. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. There wasn’t a jail in The Etheric Coast, at least not one he knew about. The only thing that would happen to them was true death. Re-rolling a new character now would put them so far behind that it might be impossible to catch up.
How would he send money home if he couldn’t make it past level ten?
Not to mention that Gaston wouldn’t be coming back. Tim would never forgive himself if he led the burly assassin to his untimely death. He looked at the cavern and the two towers with archers, and for the first time in a long while, he said a prayer. Only this time, instead of talking to God like he normally would, he spoke directly to the goddess.
“I’ve never tried this before, but if you are listening, if you do care, please see that we make it through this.” He felt kind of silly, but the words and the emotions behind them were real.
Moving back to the entrance of the tunnel, Tim looked at his team. “Time to get into position.”
ShadowLily and Gaston gave him grim nods before dropping into stealth. Cassie was watching him, her eyes slightly frantic. Tim placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“When you first showed up and said you were a tank, I almost laughed.” She frowned at him, but Tim smiled. “This last week, you’ve not only proven that you’re up to the task, but I’d like to think I’ve gained a new friend.”
“Yeah, but us being friends doesn’t mean I’m not about to get pumped full of arrows like an old lady’s pincushion,” Cassie retorted.
Tim couldn’t help but laugh. There was a certain sense of gallows humor required to do what they were about to do. “True, but if you do turn into a pincushion, know that I’ll feel bad about it.”
Cassie grinned. “Asshole.”
Tim gazed at her for a moment, not envying what she was about to do. “Are you ready?”
“If we wait any longer, my panties won’t be white anymore.” She grinned at the grossed-out look on his face. “Cause I’d shit myself, not because of the other thing. God, you men. A lady talks about her vagina, and all you think about is five days of the month. Get over yourselves.”
“Just let me know if Gaston needs to check you for skid marks,” Tim said, recovering quickly but not with his finest work.
Cassie glared at him with the hatred of a thousand burning suns. “Fuck off.” She stalked around the gentle bend of the tunnel.
“That’s the positive attitude that makes you such a great team player,” Tim shouted after her.
The tank held up her hand and extended her middle finger, still wal
king.
This was it. There was no turning back now. Cassie would start the fight, and they would either win or die. Tim smiled nervously as he dropped into stealth. His ass cheeks were clenched too tight for any accidents. Maybe that was the key to not pissing or shitting yourself in fear during battle. All you had to do was clench so tight nothing could come out even if it wanted to.
He started to follow his tank, and with each step, he mumbled, “Goddess protect her.”
As for Cassie, she had bigger balls than he did. She walked into the center of the cavern as if she didn’t have a care in the world. One of the kobolds blew a horn, and the rest of them jumped into action. Archers manned the towers; it looked like there might have been more of them than there were on their last trip.
Tim’s eyes darted around wildly as he tried to count them. Maybe they needed to abort until they found a fifth party member, someone with some ranged expertise, preferably of the magical variety. They had sharp and pointy pretty well covered at this point.
He shook his head and gritted his teeth. Stopping now wasn’t an option, not unless he wanted to be ripped in half by Malvonis.
There were ten archers in each tower now, and what appeared to be twenty more lined up on the steps leading to the dungeon’s entrance. Forty kobolds all told. It was an army against the four of them, but they had a few tricks of their own up their sleeves.
Cassie moved into range of their bows, strutting as confidently as if she were walking up to the bar to order a pint. She planted her feet, pulled the staff from behind her back, and roared, “Come on, you fuckers. I don’t have all day.”
Bold, yes. Suicidal, maybe, but on a badass scale of one to ten, it was a fucking eleven.
The kobolds started to titter amongst themselves just before they launched the first volley of arrows. Cassie handled it better than Tim would have. She stood there for a moment as the arrows shot high into the air, then started running. The space she’d just vacated looked like it had run into a jumping cactus with a serious axe to grind.
“Is that all you’ve got!” she screamed at them.
Rise of the Grandmaster Page 38