Slash, stick’em, slash, stick’em, fangstrike!
And he falls.
+20,000
Yes! I do a little happy dance right then and there. I rifle through his things and find Matthias’s daggers, as well as some sweet +1 AGI gloves of stealth, 3 silver pieces, and a few other trinkets I grab to sell later.
I throw on shadow cloak again and head back down the winding staircase. I hang out at the bottom level for a while, letting my health points regenerate. I watch the guards milling around outside as I do. Such easy pickings. This camp was just made for a rogue. They’re all just far away enough from one another that I’ll avoid getting mobbed, and close enough to each other to make this a rich harvesting ground. I really do want to gear up when I hit twenty, and I think I’ll need more money than I have to do that.
The sun is starting to set as I begin to assassinate the guardsmen. The fading light glints on their blood. It’s beautiful. I kill them all, take all their loot, and do it all again because it’s so freaking fun. Unlike the camp rogues from the previous day, they’ve graduated in level to match me. I think it’s because I haven’t turned this quest in yet.
+690
+710
+678
+743
+725
+695
Night is falling as I finish my second round. I decide to head back to the village inn. Billy the Dodger is waiting for me, and there’s a good chance I’m due for some actual skill ups. I’m getting frustrated at the lack of versatility in my combat moves.
Night sounds fill my ears as I approach the inn—bugs outside, carousing inside. I step across the threshold and see that the inn has transformed into a raucous party. The ale is flowing, there’s a three-piece band playing a jig, and most of the tables have been cleared from the floor for dancing. There’s a sense of celebration in the air; this doesn’t seem like just another Saturday night in the village.
“Ah! My friend!” Farmer Browne shouts to me from across the room. “Everyone!” he shouts again. “This is the man I have to thank for bringing the midwife!”
The room rings out with a round of huzzahs, and I bask in the glow of the cheering for a bit.
“An ale for my friend!” Farmer Browne calls out. I willingly accept the drink from the bartender and then the music starts up again.
“So, everything turned out all right?” I say.
“I’m the proud papa of a beautiful baby gnome. Couldn’t be happier. And it’s all thanks to you.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far—”
“No! It’s true! Our baby was breach and without you convincing Elfie to come help, I’d likely be a widower instead of a father tonight.” He pauses and takes a deep quaff of his ale. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see this day ...” he says, a glistening tear in his eye.
“I’m happy for you,” I say. I am, I realize. I don’t know Farmer Browne, but I have a feeling he deserves this. “Here’s to many more.” I raise my glass.
Another gnome comes up and pats Farmer Browne on the back with a resounding clap. “My good man! It’s a miracle!”
Farmer Browne turns to him, all choked up with happy tears and a broad smile. “It surely is, Angus. It surely is.”
I’m soon forgotten by the revelers and take the opportunity to go up to my room, lighten my load, and then return to the main hall. I do so cloaked in shadow so that I can make it down to see Billy the Dodger without attracting any more unwarranted attention.
“Ah, the mighty hero returns!” Billy says with a wry grin when he sees me. I guess you can’t fool a rogue who’s definitely a higher level than you are.
“Here I am,” I say. “Any chance you’ve seen your friend Matthias around? I’ve got something for him.”
Before my eyes, Matthias materializes out of the shadows. Nice.
“You rang?” he says.
I plunk his daggers down on the table in front of him.
“You got them!” he says, snatching them up. “Thank you.”
Magic Be Gone Quest Complete!
Congratulations! You have received
3 silver, 40 copper pieces and 25,000 experience points
Congratulations! You have reached Level Fourteen!
Warning: You have five minutes to distribute two talent points. Congratulations! You have learned a new skill: lock picking.
Congratulations! You have reached Level Fifteen!
Warning: You have five minutes to distribute two talent points. Congratulations! You have learned a new skill: cut purse.
This double rush could get to be an addiction. Ahhh. I just stand there for a minute and let the powerful energy of the level up take me over. When I’ve managed to recover, I spend my talent points. Now my character pane looks like this.
LEVEL 15 CHARACTER STATS
NAME Leeroy Jenkinz, CLASS Rogue, RACE Human EXPERIENCE (EXP)—113,442/113,100
Next level achieved at 183,000 experience points.
CORE ATTRIBUTES
13 + 17 (modifiers) AGILITY (AGI) = +29% to dodge and critical hit
1 SPELLPOWER (SP) = 10 spell points
8 + 1 FORTITUDE (FORT) = 90 health points
9 POWER (PWR) = +90 damage
ARMOR/ENHANCEMENTS
Chest—black leather vest
Hands—Gloves of Stealth +1 AGI
Legs—black leather pants
Feet—black leather boots
Rings— Ring of Dodge +1 AGI
Necklace—Of Protection +1 FORT
WEAPONS
Dual Wield Heirloom Daggers +1 AGI/level
SKILLS
Stick’em
Slash
Slippery Fish
Shadow Cloak
Fangstrike
Cut Purse—Activate this skill for a chance to lighten the load of NPCs and fatten your own purse.
Lock Pick—Chance to open a lock without a key. Percentage to open modified by the rogue’s level and the lock’s difficulty level.
PROFESSIONS
Poisoncrafting
Mixology
Woodlore
ACHIEVEMENTS
Level Ten!
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Say my name!
Phew, Level Five already?
They just don’t want to share the hedge.
It was this big!
You’ve arrived!
Bardic Credit: 10
Chapter 15
“The night is young,” Billy says, “And perfect for roguery. Why don’t you go practice those new skills one village over?”
Quest offered: Lighten the Load
Open five locks and cut the purses of five villagers in Cogsburough.
Reward: Experience points and 3 silver, 60 copper pieces.
Do you accept?
While I’m not over the top excited about these latest additions to my arsenal, experience is experience and leveling is leveling. I’ll go do the pansy quest and see where it gets me. “I accept.”
I check out my map and get over to Cogsburough. It’s a twenty-minute walk, so I jog it to get there in five. Just like the village I’ve been in, there’s a raucous celebration at the inn. I stay shadow cloaked and avoid the party, instead going from home to home rattling doors, looking for locked ones. A few dogs growl at me, but other than that it’s a fairly uneventful quest completion. I head back to Billy.
When I get to his table he just looks at me like I don’t even exist; he’s almost just looking through me.
“Billy?” I ask tentatively.
“Ah, my friend,” he says. “It’s good to see you.” But there’s no accompanying quest messaging. I pull up my quest log and look at the text again.
Right. I missed the cut five purses part. I thought it was cut five purses OR pick five locks. Damn it. Okay then, back to Cogsburough it is.
It always pays to read the full quest text. I know this. Stupid me.
At least it’s a nice night for a jog. I wonder if it ever isn’t a nice nig
ht in Arcadia, actually. Does it ever rain here? Snow? Are there overcast skies? I know they’re still pre-industrial, so there’s no pollution or haze here yet. How close is this to how it is in the real Arcadia? I mean, they say it’s an exact replica, but how would anyone verify that?
The regular Saturday night festivities are still in full swing at the Cogsburough inn, so I shadow cloak and make my way into the throng. I don’t get a loot drop from everyone I attempt a cut purse on, but the drop rate is pretty good; one out of three. So it takes me all of about five minutes to finish this up.
This time when I return to Billy he smiles knowingly at me. “Welcome home, master thief,” he says.
Lighten the Load Quest Complete!
Congratulations! You have received
Retention of items earned on the quest, 3 silver, 60 copper pieces, and 75,000 experience points
Cool. So, I’ve filled my purse a little more. There are a few other knickknacks—a boot knife, a few potions. Most interesting is the cowl I lifted of my last victim. It’s a +1 AGI Cowl of Shadows. Excellent.
I must have still had some experience bleeding into this level from my wizard and guards confrontations, because all of a sudden I’m filled with that seductive rush of power.
Congratulations! You have reached Level Sixteen!
Warning: You have five minutes to distribute two talent points.
Congratulations! You have learned a new combat skill: The Claw.
I’m almost paranoid about losing talent points to that timer, so I take a moment to shove a few more points into agility.
LEVEL 16 CHARACTER STATS
NAME Leeroy Jenkinz, CLASS Rogue, RACE Human EXPERIENCE (EXP)—188,442/183,000
Next level achieved at 296,100 experience points.
CORE ATTRIBUTES
15 + 19 (modifiers) AGILITY (AGI) = +34% to dodge and critical hit
1 SPELLPOWER (SP) = 10 spell points
8 + 1 FORTITUDE (FORT) = 90 health points
11 POWER (PWR) = +110 damage
ARMOR/ENHANCEMENTS
Chest—black leather vest
Head—Cowl of Shadows +1 AGI
Hands—Gloves of Stealth +1 AGI
Legs—black leather pants
Feet—black leather boots
Rings— Ring of Dodge +1 AGI
Necklace—Of Protection +1 FORT
WEAPONS
Dual Wield Heirloom Daggers +1 AGI/level
SKILLS
Stick’em
Slash
Slippery Fish
Shadow Cloak
Fangstrike
Cut Purse
Lock Pick
The Claw—move to unleash rage points resulting in massive shredding and bleeding. Damage equal to twice rogue’s full damage potential multiplied by rage points.
PROFESSIONS
Poisoncrafting
Mixology
Woodlore
ACHIEVEMENTS
Level Ten!
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
Say my name!
Phew, Level Five already?
They just don’t want to share the hedge.
It was this big!
You’ve arrived!
Bardic Credit: 10
Finally, a new unleashing maneuver. Holy shit. Claw is badass. Up to five times my base level damage? Yes, please. Can’t wait to try it out.
“Anything else I can do for you?” I ask Billy.
“All’s quiet at the moment,” he says. “Why don’t you check back with me tomorrow? I’ve heard there are some marauding river goblins on the loose around Lake Broadmeade. You might check that out in the morning.”
“Or now. What’s wrong with now?” I feel great. I want to get to level twenty.
“You should get some rest,” Billy says rather forcefully.
“Sure,” I say. I can take a hint from the system. I go to my room and pull off my boots and vest, pull up the clock function and set and alarm for two hours, and settle into the surprisingly comfortable bed for a nap.
My alarm goes off and I wake up to the moon shining strongly on my face. It’s low in the sky. I stretch and get dressed, then go down to the kitchens. I find luvs2heal there, working alongside the cook. She must be levelling up her cooking skill. That gives me an idea.
“Hey, luvs2heal, how’s it going?”
“Good, good,” she says. “Learning how to prepare bear flanks.”
“Mm. Yum,” I say. “You want to go river goblin hunting with me at dawn? I figure that’s when they’ll be fishing.”
She consults something—probably her quest log or experience bar—and then says, “Yeah, I can do that. Where should I meet you?”
We make arrangements to be in the bar just before daybreak. She says she’ll let Turtle know, too.
I decide it’s time to face my fears and find a fishing trainer. I should have at least one more craft in my arsenal. Salty McNab is hanging out with his pet dog on the edge of where the river flows through town before it hits the sea.
“Ya want to learn ta fish, eh?” he grunts at me. He’s a dwarf, and his bushy red beard covers most of his face and chest. “Take this pole and some bait and cast yer line in.”
I do as he says.
You are attempting to fish. Would you like to take fishing as one of your professions? Warning: you have a maximum of five professions. Yes or no?
“Yes,” I say. I’ve never fished IRL, but it was always a useful and relaxing skill in goggles and gloves.
Congratulations! You have learned a new professional skill: fishing.
I spend a few hours casting my lines in. I even earn a few quests from Salty and fulfill them, getting a nice unexpected experience bump. I know there are rare items and even animals—for riding or as pets—that can be picked up through this profession, but I have no such luck in my first few hours with the skill. I do level it up to maximum, and stuff my bag full of fish.
I take the lot of them back to luvs2heal in the kitchens. She’s still at it. “Making wolf kebabs now,” she says when I open my mouth. “Want one?”
“Sure,” I say. My pack registers +5 wolf kebabs. I examine it.
Wolf Kebab +3 FORT and +3 PWR for ten minutes. Warning: Must spend at least fifteen seconds eating for the effect to take place.
Nice. “You got any fish recipes?”
“Nope, but I could maybe get some. Why, whatcha got?”
I open a trading window with her and shove all my fish into it.
“Oh, wow. Hang on.” She turns to the cook and I watch her avatar pulse and glow with a pretty golden light as she proceeds to learn several new recipes. She engages the trade window and takes all but one of my fish. “Thanks,” she says. “You’re awesome.”
Since I have a little time yet, I decide now is as good a time as any to sell the things I’ve collected to a vendor. I’m so close to twenty now I can almost taste the dust on the road on the way to Silverkeep City. I gather my things from my room, loading up my pack to its maximum weight capacity, and realize I’m leaving more than half of my things behind.
I sit down for a minute and nosh on one of luvs2heal’s wolf kebabs. Not only does this remove a bit of weight, it makes me strong enough so that I can make two trips instead of three.
I walk around until I find a vendor that’s still open and dump all the things I want to sell on him then shout, “be right back!” and dash to the inn for the rest while I still have the FORT buff active. I don’t want to waste another kebab on this.
The vendor and I haggle a bit, but in the end I manage to get 19 gold and 30 silver for the lot. I’m pretty happy about that, actually. I feel rich. Can’t wait to gear up. But there’s really no need to do so before I hit max level, and as long as I can keep going as is, the more money I’ll have to gear up properly when it comes to that.
It’s just about time to get together with my friends, so I head back to the inn and order some food. Turtle and luvs2heal join me after a bit. We eat in a hurr
y and make our way to where the river goblins hang out.
The air is fresh and crisp, and the grass lining the road is coated with a bit of chilly dew. Trees are still dark smudges on the far side of the river, and they cast dark shadows for me to slip between. The shadows only grow longer as the morning sun gains strength.
The river goblins have adapted to their environment so that they have fish gills as well as lungs. They can hang out in the water all day if they like and are equally as comfortable on the shore. Unfortunately, this evolution has altered their vocal chords so that they are practically unusable.
“Turtle, you’re on point. I’ll slip in from behind. luvs, you’ll keep Turtle up—”
“We know what we’re doing, Leeroy,” luvs2heal interrupts my instruction session.
“Right.” I double-check my daggers. Yup, all poisoned up. “Ready when you are.”
Turtle charges in and the river goblins react with a surprised, gurgling squeal, and then they converge on Turtle.
I wait a moment, until they are well and truly fascinated with him, that is, until he’s got aggro in force, and I slip on through the shadows to do my dirty work.
It’s sickly fascinating just how much delight I take in squashing these beasties. At first they’re a perfect match for our level, a bit tough maybe, but after an hour, my knife slides through them like butter.
+898
+1211
+764
+1147
+999
+735
I love shadow cloaking, stalking my prey, slashing him, sticking him, and then clawing him. That is the best. The creature’s innards spray all over the water and entrails drip from its belly. It’s a brutal move.
Arcadia Unlocked: A LitRPG Novel (Arcadia LitRPG Book 1) Page 10