by Jamey Sultan
“Oh, I know who you are,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to come to the city at such a terrible time.” He rang a bell that had been resting on the edge of his chair. A few moments later, a well-dressed Dwarf entered.
Name: Ken Issek
Race: Dwarf
Level: 41
Class: Butler
“You called?” Ken asked.
“Yes, please prepare tea for the guests.”
At his word, the Butler disappeared.
Branden addressed the group, “Come sit down. We have much to discuss.”
James sat down, enjoying the heat of the fire. His companions quickly joined him and, moments later, Ken returned with a steaming mug of tea for each of them. He also brought a tray of sweet cakes that tasted like lemon.
Lemon Cake:
Rank: Common
A well-baked dessert… Not everything has to give you a bonus.
Once Ken left, Branden started to talk. “As I’m sure you know, King Remaksta took the throne about a week ago under mysterious circumstances. What you probably don’t know is that he’s been preparing for this for years. We thought he’d wait until the harvest festival to take the throne, but he used your arrival and the controversy it caused to act on his plans early. We weren’t prepared, and it cost us.”
Branden took a deep breath and James used the break in the conversation to take a sip of his tea. It was delicious, a combination of fruity and minty that went down well.
“All of Remaksta’s preparation paid off, and most of the great Dwarven Houses are on his side. They were either paid off or are too afraid to speak out against him. Nobody wants a visit from House Morten in the middle the night.” He paused to take a sip of his tea and sighed appreciatively. “Delicious.”
After a second, his face returned to its grim expression. “Through a series of propaganda campaigns and well-targeted assassinations, Remaksta is now the undisputed leader of the Dwarven people.”
“But how could the people support him?” James jumped in when Branden paused to take a breath. “Didn’t they see the Orcish caravan coming through?”
Branden frowned. “Orcish caravan?”
“We saw a cart full of Orcs heading toward the palace,” Karim explained, “and thought you might know what was going on.”
Branden frowned in concentration. “I… They should’ve told me.” He shook his head and looked back up. “This is bad.”
“I mean, maybe they are here for peace talks?” Nidra asked hopefully.
Branden shook his head. “A war like this can’t end with a few peace talks. I fear it will just change directions.”
“You mean toward Humans,” James said. That was why they’d been spreading anti-Human propaganda and setting the Orcs up as victims. “The Dwarves and Orcs are going to war against the Humans.”
“Maybe,” Branden said doubtfully. “But that would be incredibly risky. The Human kingdoms are vast and powerful. Your people may not live long, but they have a great potential for power. A potential that war will bring out.”
“But why are the priests of Sytar involved?” James asked. “I just still don’t understand.”
Karim and Branden exchanged a look and James immediately latched on. “What?”
“Well…” Karim began. “The priests have been different lately.”
“Different?” James asked.
Karim nodded. “Different. The temple used to be open for all to enter, but a few years ago something happened. I don’t know what, but one day the temple just… closed. They refused public entry and wouldn’t even let us in to perform rites on my brother after his death. Instead, they sent a priest to our manor to perform the rites.” He shuddered. “It took months to get rid of the presence of Death Energy.”
James wondered if there was a connection between this and the abandoned wing of the temple near the entrance to Ozure’s dungeon.
It couldn’t be…
Hesitantly he asked, “Is it possible they found a dungeon?”
Branden leaned in, interested. “Possible… But doubtful. A dungeon, undiscovered for that long under the city…” His gaze pierced through James. “Why?”
James shook his head. “No reason. Just a thought.” He may be trusting, but something told him not to tell these two about the dungeon. Still, thoughts rattled around his head as the discussion turned away from the temple and toward escape logistics.
James ignored the conversation, instead considering his time in the dungeon. He shouldn’t have gotten out of the dungeon alive. He shouldn’t have been able to beat the Lich, and he certainly shouldn’t have been able to escape the arena. He hadn’t wanted to think about it. He’d wanted to pretend Ozure was some sort of benevolent benefactor.
But what if he wasn’t?
What if Ozure had planned everything that had happened to James from the start?
The real question was why Ozure wanted James to end up in his dungeon. James couldn’t understand the Divine’s motivation. He assumed it had to do with escaping but couldn’t figure out how he fit into those plans. From his perspective, all Ozure had done was heal him and send him on his way with an amazing sword as a gift.
As if it could tell he was thinking about it, Tyrfing grew warm against his hip. James felt a rush of energy from the sword. A fog descended over his brain, clouding it. As his thoughts grew hazy and he struggled to remember what had happened in the library, his last thought was a spike of icy panic. He had a momentary realization.
Oh no. My core.
Chapter 16
James woke up with a splitting headache. As he woke, he clutched at a dream, a realization. But before he could grasp it, it slipped through his fingers. The last thing he remembered was introducing himself to Branden. Everything after that was a white haze.
Anger burned through him; he’d trusted them, and they’d poisoned him. He grabbed Tyrfing from where it was resting against the wall and stormed downstairs, ready to kill Karim and his entire family.
When James arrived in the library to find his friends laughing and chatting, he stopped, confused. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Oh, morning, James.” Arik gestured for James to sit next to him.
Baffled, James asked, “What happened last night?”
Nidra shrugged. “You must’ve been exhausted because you fell asleep as we were planning the escape.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” James admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “Honestly, I thought someone poisoned me.”
Branden chuckled. “We don’t poison people here. That’s House Morten’s job.”
James’ head still hurt. He wished there were a magical Advil equivalent. “You mentioned them earlier. Who are they?”
“House Morten?” Branden asked as the Butler handed James a platter of food.
James nodded, digging into the food with gusto. He was starving, and it was delicious.
“Each of the seven great Houses specializes in something. House Fractus specializes in Swordsmanship and military command,” Branden explained. He chuckled. “You should’ve seen the uproar when Karim chose a ranged class.” Smiling, he continued his explanation. “House Morten specializes in assassination. They are ruled by a council of three, known as the Handles, all retired assassins. The most promising young assassin is given the title of Blade and carries out all high-profile missions. The identity of the current Blade is unknown. In fact, even I don’t know most members. I only know the identities of a few lower assassins and Kaizu, the head of the House.”
Danforth must belong to House Morten, James realized. Not that the information did him any good. At the thought of Danforth’s name, Tyrfing sent a pulse of heat through James’ body. He wanted revenge.
James shook his head; he didn’t have time to ruminate. He needed to catch up. “So what happened after I fell asleep?”
“Well…” Nidra began. “We have a bit of an issue.”
James sighed. “Of course. What is it this
time?”
Branden answered, “Before you came, while Karim was with you at Desi’s place, I went to the palace to scout out the palace gate, but I couldn’t find it.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t find it?” James snapped. He turned to Arik. “You said this would be safer than going through the tunnels to the Old City. Well, how is it safer?” He gestured wildly toward Karim and Branden. “They don’t even know where the exit is.”
Arik’s eyes widened at the tirade and even Nidra looked disturbed. “Are you okay?” she asked.
James closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Sorry, I have a pounding headache. And I think all this running is getting to me. I just want to find somewhere we won’t be hunted and relax.”
“I’m sorry, James,” Arik apologized hesitantly, “but this is the best way. I know it sounds ridiculous that it would be easier to break into the palace than take some tunnels, but you don’t understand how dangerous a loose Vampire is. And even if the Vampire weren’t a threat, I’d still want to take the palace gate. We don’t know anything about the Old City. And the tunnels to the Old City… Well, the tunnels are full of dangerous creatures. High-level monsters that take a team of soldiers to kill.”
James nodded, still not entirely convinced. He wasn’t sure how anything could stand up to him with Tyrfing, but he remembered the fight with the Minotaur. It had been closer than he’d liked.
“So, how are we going to find the exit?” James asked.
“Well,” Branden said, “I asked around, but the exit location is a well-guarded secret. It has been used throughout the war to maintain some trade with Humans and so only the highest-level Dwarves in House Gilden know its location.”
“House Gilden?” James asked; he hadn’t heard of them.
Branden nodded. “The merchant house. All businesses in the city need a license from them to work and they collect a portion of every sale in the city. It is said that every coin in the city has been through their hands.”
“I’m assuming they aren’t going to just hand the location to us,” James said dryly.
Surprisingly, it was Lucien who replied. “Nope. We’re going to take it.” He gave James a dark grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“We?” James asked.
Lucien nodded, but when it was clear he didn’t have anything else to say, Branden continued the explanation. “Lucien has the highest rank Stealth Skill I’ve ever seen in someone of his level. We considered sending him and Karim, but decided that your ability to teleport would be more useful.”
“Back up a second,” James said. “Where are we going?”
“The plan is pretty simple. You and Lucien are going to break into the House Gilden Manor and extract the information from the patriarch.”
“That seems… risky,” James said. “Why him?”
“We aren’t sure who else would know the location of the exit,” Branden explained.
“Won’t he give away our plan as soon we leave the manor though?”
“Well…” Branden said, awkwardly fiddling with his glasses. “For the plan to work, we need to kill him and make it look like an assassination. He has a safe in his room that you and Lucien are going to need to steal. I believe you have a pouch with weight reduction properties. Slip the safe into your pouch, kill the patriarch, and return here.”
James looked from face to face. “Am I the only one who has a problem with just killing someone?” he asked. He’d killed people and Dwarves, but only when they’d been trying to kill him first.
“Leave that to me,” Lucien said. “I need your help getting into the building and to the patriarch. I’ll kill him.”
The entire plan didn’t sit right with James, but he felt like they were in too deep for him to say anything. Besides, he wasn’t going to be the one killing the patriarch. He tried to push his worries away, but a small thread of anxiety still nagged at him. To distract himself, he turned back to the conversation. “So, when are we leaving?”
Lucien grinned, but Branden shook his head. “Whoa there, this is going to be a dangerous mission. We need to prepare.” He gestured at Lucien. “Follow me, we’ll go over the plan.”
James got up to follow them, but Karim shook his head. “You’re coming with me. We’re going to get your Stealth Skill up to the Journeyman Rank. At Rank 25 you’ll gain your Stealth Journeyman bonus, an Ability called Fade to Black that will help you blend into shadows.”
James winced, knowing it was true. He’d never had perfect coordination and it seemed that stat bonuses were based on a person’s base physical ability. The way he understood it was that everybody had started with a base of 10 in each stat, but the 10 per stat meant something different for each person. A Gnome with a Strength of 100 might still lose in an arm-wrestling match to a Dwarf with a Strength of 50, just because of the differences in body type.
Even Wisdom and Intelligence were affected. Races with higher base Intelligence, like High Elves, were able to cast more powerful spells even with lower Intelligence or Wisdom scores than races like Dwarves, who were better with physical stats.
So, although James was less clumsy than he’d been on Earth with his Dexterity of 66, he couldn’t compete with the way Lucien moved like a ghost, because Lucien had been training Stealth all his life.
“James!” Karim practically shouted.
James snapped back to attention. “Sorry about that. What did you say?”
Karim sighed and rubbed at his head. “I said follow me.”
The Dwarf led James up a flight of stairs, past his bedroom door, to another room with training equipment pushed off to the sides. “Watch me,” he said and walked across the room.
James cocked his head in confusion, it looked like a normal walk to him. He took a step into the room to follow Karim and the floorboard under his feet let out a loud creak.
He took another step and the next floorboard creaked too.
Karim crossed back without a sound. “Your first lesson is to cross the room without making a sound.”
“That’s impossible,” James said, shaking his head. He knew he’d just seen Karim do it, but he couldn’t fathom how. The Dwarf must’ve had an impossibly high Dexterity.
As if he could sense James’ thoughts, he shook his head. “My Dexterity is only 70.”
James was about to ask how his Dexterity was only 70 when he was so much higher level than James, but James realized that he’d gained a crazy amount of stats from Achievements. His base Dexterity was only 27, and that was with the absurd number of Stat points he got with every level because of his Legendary class.
Karim settled onto a nearby balance beam to watch James work.
Ever so slowly, James placed the ball of his foot onto the first floorboard. His back leg shook as he rested on it, transferring weight as slowly as he could so as not to make any noise. James let out a sigh of relief and shook out his back leg as soon as he finished.
His celebration shifted his weight just enough for the floorboard to groan in protest.
James swore and tried again. This time, he kept his focus until halfway through the room.
You have gained 1 Skill Rank in Stealth.
You are now Skill Rank 22.
The unexpected system message threw off James’ balance and he put down more weight than he’d intended to. The floorboard screeched in protest as his Stealth broke.
James dropped into Stealth to try again, but Karim shook his head. “Nope. Start over.”
James grumbled under his breath as he walked back to the entrance of the room. He reset and tried again but couldn’t seem to get past the median point of the room. The floorboards felt even more sensitive on the latter half of the room.
Finally, after almost an hour of practice, James threw his hands into the air. “Enough. This is bullshit.” To accentuate his point, he cast Arcane Teleport and strode across the room. With time frozen, none of the floorboards made a peep.
Karim’s eyes widened when he saw Jam
es’ Ability, but he quickly recovered from his surprise and shook his head. “Go back to the beginning,” he said sternly. “You need to learn to do this right.”
“Why?” James argued. “I can teleport.”
“And what if you are out of Mana? Or if you are Silenced and can’t use magic?”
James noticed that Karim mistakenly thought he used Mana, but he didn’t correct the Dwarf. Instead, he took a deep, frustrated breath. He knew Karim was right. He reset his position and tried again.
This time, when James was halfway through the course, he felt something. He’d been about to place his foot on a floorboard, but when his toes brushed the wood, he could almost tell that it was going to creak. Carefully, he slid his foot along the wood until he reached a spot he knew wouldn’t creak.
You have gained 1 Skill Rank in Stealth.
You are now Skill Rank 23.
James used his newfound talent to cross the rest of the floor without a sound. When he reached the end, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. His legs felt like jelly after the workout he’d just gone through. From the ground, he asked Karim, “My Skill ranked up twice; that’s faster than it usually does. Is it because you’re here?”
Karim nodded. “I’m Adept in Stealth, and since I’m two mastery levels above yours, I can train you and you will Rank up faster. Now,” he tossed James a water skin, which James gratefully caught, “let me show you something.”
Propping himself up against the wall, James watched as Karim crossed the room again. This time, he picked out subtle changes in the Dwarf’s movement as Karim picked out the best path through the creaking floorboards.
“Hang on,” James said. “Can you do that again?” He noticed something odd about the way Karim moved.
When Karim did it again, James focused on the Dwarf’s feet. It wasn’t something he could see, but he could almost sense an aura around them.