Master of None
Page 29
Now that I was feeling better I took a closer look at our new opponent and felt a lump in my throat. She seemed a little out of our league, to say the least.
Lilith, Assassin Queen
HP 10,000/10,000
Holy shit how strong does an assassin have to be to have that many hit points? Trying to think of how to deal with her before she murdered Zen, I remembered we’d looted poisons from the Lilin we’d killed already. I switched to Rogue since Zen was holding her off with Ranger and carefully poured the poison along the edges of my daggers. It was viscous and stuck to the blades easily.
Death’s Kiss(Poison)
Deals 100 damage per second
Reduces STR & AGI by 50 points
Stacks up to 10 times
1 Minute Duration
It looks like this is what Lilith hit me with. Well, turnabout being fair play, I decided to give her what she gave me. “Zen, turn her the rest of the way away from me.” I said in party chat. Zen side-stepped so that she had to turn to face him and put herself between us. As soon as she did I dropped into Stealth and crept up behind her. The second I saw an opening I tore into her back with Gnomesgain and Koboldsbane as quickly as I could. She’d taken four hits before she knew what had happened.
The first series of blows had taken 10% of her health and the poison was going to do some major damage. Already, it was slowing her movements and taking the power out of her blows. Zen was easily parrying her attacks now. With her Agility reduced by 200, it was easy to stay behind her and keep working my daggers into her unguarded back. By the time I got her to max stacks, she was unable to move. I almost felt bad for watching her writhe in pain as the poison stacks did their job, but then again she did try to murder me.
When Lilith finally breathed her last, we’d gained 11,000 XP from the four kills, plus plenty of poison and some nasty looking daggers. I also had some new notifications after the battle.
Thief has increased to level 14!
That was a welcome surprise after only a few kills. I dumped the ten points from the two new levels into Agility and looked through the other notifications.
Skill Synchrony Triggered!
New Skill!
Poisoncraft 12 (Alchemy/2)
Improves the creation and use of poisons. CAUTION: Failure when using this skill can get you killed!
Job Unlocked!
Assassin
Requirement: Stealth 10, Poisoncraft 10, Daggers 10, 100 kills with backstab damage
Bonuses: +6 Agility/Level, Backstab bonus increased from 2x to 4x. When using Assassin Job, your active Job will appear to be any other unlocked Job of your choosing.
I was pretty excited to try out the new job, so I immediately switched to it and set my visible Job as Thief. Hopefully, that would make any missing thieves from the guild think I was a member sent to help them out.
After setting everything up, we rested for a few minutes to get our health back without wasting potions. We had an unknown amount of demon-filled hallways and tunnels left to explore, so no sense wasting resources. I just had to hope we wouldn’t have many more fights like Lilith.
38-Women in the Workplace
After more than four hours of exploring, Zen and I had finally made our way to the final chamber of the dungeon. We’d killed enough demons that my Assassin Job had made it to Level 10 already. It was an interesting Job because it stacked everything I Agility. I’d yet to see a Job put everything in one stat like that. I guess it made sense. It was built around maximizing damage dealt in a single hit delivered to an unaware opponent. It had no need for anything but Agility, really.
Leaning into that concept, I had dumped all of my bonus points into Agility as well. As a result, my damage had skyrocketed. With the improved backstab Assassin’s had, I could nearly kill lesser demons in a single hit. What little health they had was finished off by my ever-growing collection of poison vials. We fought a lot more Lilins than I’d expected after the first encounter.
The only thing that concerned me was the fact that we’d yet to see a single thief from the guild. Not even a trace of them remained other than what we’d found outside. As if on cue, however, as soon as I thought this the door to the final chamber opened up and out walked two guild members. They were obviously Thieves Guild because they were both humans dressed the part. I looked them over with Perception just in case.
Jaime-Level 1 Rogue/10 Thief
Thieves Guild
Percival-Level 3 Rogue/Level 8 Thief
Thieves Guild
“Easy, fellas. I reckon you’re the ones sent by the guild leader to find us, yeah? Well, this is a helluva story, boys, so strap in.” Percival, the shorter of the two, said. “See, we’d been exploring these sewers and found a path up into a vault belonging to some lord or some such.
“Problem is,” he continued, “is that we got penned in by the demons when they set up shop here. I reckon you cleared em out if you made it this far. We got a favor to ask if that’s the case.”
“Go on.” I said, growing more suspicious. This seemed too convenient. I kept working my skill hoping to catch something else while he continued.
Jaime spoke up this time. “We need you to bring our guild leader here to our spot so he can help us decide how to clear out this vault properly and get everything back.” he said.
Perception has increased to 23!
Jaime-Level 1 Rogue/10 Thief
Thieves Guild
Status: Charmed
Percival-Level 3 Rogue/Level 8 Thief
Thieves Guild
Status: Charmed
Oh shit.
“OK, just one question, guys?” I said as I drew my hand crossbows. “How did you know who we were?”
Neither responded with words. They simply drew their short swords and prepared to attack. I didn’t give them the chance to land a hit as I shot both with bolts coated in a sleep-inducing poison. Since I was relying on daggers so much, I’d coated my hand crossbow bolts in it in case we needed to incapacitate something instead of kill it.
As soon as they hit the ground, Zen and I tied them up and gagged them to keep them out of our hair since I wasn’t sure if or when that charm would wear off. We’d just finished up when we heard a voice call from the main chamber.
“Oh, what is taking those big strong men so long to get our guests inside? I do hate to be kept waiting.” came a voice so sweet it was unnatural. You could practically hear the owner of the voice pouting as she finished.
“Jack, she said she hates to be kept waiting and I know you’re nothing if not a gentleman.” he said with a smirk. I was more convinced than ever that the Job he had equipped affected his personality somewhat.
“Zen, you’re right.” I said as I reloaded my crossbows in case there were more thieves inside. “Let’s not keep our host waiting a moment longer.”
We entered the room with all the swagger we could muster and saw the last thing either of us expected in this place. All around us, thieves were sitting around being fed fruits by beautiful, scantily clad women with smiles on their faces. Each one absolutely focused on the thief in front of them. A quick glance around counted six thieves and an equal number of women, save the one in the center of it all.
Sitting on a velvet covered throne was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. In fact, she was unnaturally beautiful. My initial ogling was quickly replaced by a great discomfort, as if I was looking at something that shouldn’t be.
Perception has increased to 24!
Agrat, Greater Succubus
Level 50
HP 10000/10000
Succubus? Charmed? Oh. Oh, fuck. I thought as my brain put two and two together. I realized we were all going to be royally screwed if she charmed me, so I did the first thing I could think of and switched to the Merchant Job in the hopes that the increased Willpower would let me resist. Next I scanned the rest of the women.
Lesser Succubus
Level 15
HP 1000/1000
“Well, not just a merchant.” I said reaching out towards her. A flick of my wrist brought my remaining wand to bear and I launched a fire attack before Agrat could react.
You hit Agrat for 200 damage!
Since I didn’t see her move, I launched the remaining charges at her. My notifications told me that each attack landed and dealt another 200 damage. By the end of the barrage, she should have been at 90% health.
As the fire finally cleared, I could see the smoke rising from the ashes of the throne Agrat was sitting in before. “Not bad, Merchant. I assume you bought yourself some parlor tricks? Why don’t you be a good boy and show me what else you have.” she said from the smoke cloud.
Charm Resisted
“No thanks, I’m not the kind of guy to show you everything on the first date.” I replied as I put the wand away and pulled out two flash grenades. The smoke cleared finally and Agrat was standing there in her true form.
Her skin had taken a purplish tint and her hair had turned solid black. She had a small pair of bat-like wings on her back that looked as if they were barely functional.
“You resisted? Interesting.” she said as she cocked her head to the side. “Ladies and gentlemen, I do hate to interrupt the festivities, but please be dears and kill these two for me.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” I said as I threw the flash grenades into the air. Everyone in the room looked up to see what I’d thrown, which meant every person in the room except Zen and I were blind just seconds later.
First priority was putting the thieves to sleep. I worked my way around the room hitting each one with two darts to make sure they stayed asleep long enough for us to deal with the remaining demons. One that was out of the way, I decided to take full advantage of the blind effect.
I moved in on one of the lesser succubi as I switched to Assassin. Zen moved opposite from me and we started tearing our way through them with backstabs. By the time the flash grenades wore off, we were finishing up the last of them.
“Well, Agrat? Ready to surrender?” I said brandishing my sleep-ready crossbows after I switched back to Merchant.
“Oh, hon. Do you think that you’re winning?” She said. “I haven’t even started yet.”
As she finished speaking, she brought her hands up and forcefully thrust them back towards the ground. A wave of force shot out from her body and slammed us into the walls of the room.
You received 200 damage!
Ouch. It feels like my ribs just broke. I thought as I stood up. I reached for a potion, but before I could get to one Agrat violently thrust her hands into the air. Immediately, flame exploded out from the floor.
You received 300 damage!
“Oh, you’re still alive?” she said as she looked at me. “Good, we can continue pla-” her words were cut short as a large crossbow bolt hit her stomach.
“We don’t have long, Jack. I coated it with as much sleep poison as I could, but I got a notification saying it was partially resisted.”
“Elixirs! Now!” I shouted. I chugged a healing potion to get my health full, then started in on stat boosting elixirs and fire resistance potions. Each elixir added 75 points, which I couldn’t complain about too much even if it wasn’t the max boost. It would be enough. I’d just doubled my health. I also had another idea.
Alfred, how does charm work? I asked my guide. It had been some time since I’d gone to him with a question.
“It forces the victim to follow orders and act in the caster’s best interest for the duration of the effect. If the caster is killed or the victim takes damage, the effect ends early.”
Perfect.
“Zen, stay Thief. I’m switching back to Assassin. I have an idea, but I get the sneaking suspicion you won’t like it.” I said.
“Is it a stupid plan?” he asked.
“Depending on how you look at it. Personally I think it’s genius.” I replied defensively.
“So it’s definitely a stupid plan.”
I ignored my companion’s negativity and set about re-applying the strongest poisons we had to my daggers. Once completed, I pulled out a bottle of one of the very weak, minor poisons we’d found. It was in what looked like an Alchemist’s lab, so I’m fairly certain it was a failed attempt that the assassins didn’t bother with.
We continued to watch Agrat for signs of movement, but none were coming so I had Zen load another bolt and get ready to blast her. She sat up with a yawn, though, and saved us the trouble.
“While I appreciate the nap, boys, it won’t do you much good.” she said with a yawn. “You should’ve run when you had the chance.”
“No.” I said. “We’re ending this now. Sorry.”
She cocked her head to the side but I simply dashed directly at her as I drank from the weak poison bottle. She brought her hands up in defense, but I was already behind her. Before she could turn to defend herself, I’d already stabbed her twice and added two stacks of poison. Within a second, she’d taken nearly a thousand damage.
“STOP THAT RIGHT NOW, YOU PATHETIC HUMAN!”
You are charmed!
You take 50 damage!
Charm broken!
I continued to move as I hit her in the back, eventually damaging her wings to the point they were nearly falling off. She’d taken 3000 total damage to the 150 I’d taken. With my doubled hit points I was easily capable of maintaining this exchange.
“ENOUGH!” she shouted as she threw her hands down again and flames erupted once more.
You receive 150 damage!
Half damage from that spell was certainly easier to deal with. Unfortunately for her she never got another chance to unleash it. She was taking nearly 2000 damage per second so the fight was over far more quickly than it’d seemed.
You have slain Agrat!
You found the source of the disappearances! Quest Complete!
You receive 10,000 experience!
The experience from killing Agrat immediately put Assassin up to Level 12, netting me 18 more points in Agility. Assassin was looking like it would be my combat go-to as long as I could keep the element of surprise or we could figure out a way for Zen to stay a distraction.
As for the loot, I didn’t feel like even looking through it yet. We just gathered everything without looking so we could look through it at HQ later. We made our way back the way we came and back through the tunnels to the meeting point, telling the thieves waiting there for us where to find their companions alive and well. We would have brought them but they would have slowed us down.
We needed to get back to civilization as quickly as we could before the side effect of those elixirs hit. After explaining everything to O’Brian, he led us to a room to rest and gave us his word that no thief would touch our belongings or harm us in any way. We were more valuable to the guild as allies.
After I recovered from the elixirs’ weakening effect, I headed back into the main area and was greeted by cheers and applause.
“There’s the man of the hour!” O’Brian said. “Come have a drink and celebrate! Our men are safe and the sewers are ours again!”
“Glad you’re in such a good mood, O’Brian, because I’d like to talk business.”
39-Close of Business
“Well, I feel like I’m getting fleeced here, m’boy, but these will be a great start to a well-equipped guild.” O’Brian said after we’d finished our discussions. All totaled, for 15,000 gold a week, he was getting 500 smoke bombs from the alchemists, 10 cloaks that provided a stealth bonus from our tailors and enchanters, and 25 of our higher quality daggers from the blacksmiths. I was getting just shy of 9,000 gold a week in pure profit from the transaction. In terms of total profit, it was small time com
pared to some of our other endeavors, but it was nice to have the working relationship with the guild.
If this went well, it could lead to an even more profitable arrangement if they continued to grow and expand operations. Honestly, I probably would have taken a loss if necessary, but O’Brian was willing to pay a fair price for everything after what I’d done for his guild.
“I still don’t understand the point of kidnapping my men.” he said after we’d signed the appropriate contracts. “She took them and just fed them? What in the hells kind of sense does that make? No pun intended.”
“I think I can answer that one, sir.” came a familiar voice. Jaime had walked up looking like shit. He had the look of a man who’d tried to drown a breakup in a barrel full of tequila. “We weren’t just being fed.