by Jamey Sultan
“Now what?” James asked. Lucien clearly had more experience with covert missions than he had. James would have stormed into the building and carved his way to the patriarch, but they were trying to fake an assassination.
If James came in and used Tyrfing to cut through walls and murder people, it would be pretty easy to link the recent Coliseum breakout to this string of murders. And if someone figured that out, it wouldn’t be much of a leap to realize they were after a way out.
“What do we do now?” James asked again. He’d been too busy practicing with his Stealth Skill to get most of the plan, they had only given him the highlights.
Lucien opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and put a finger to his lips. He pointed to his ears and motioned for James to follow him to the side of the bed opposite the door so they could hide.
After a few seconds, James heard what Lucien had heard, the sound of footsteps. He wondered how good Lucien’s hearing must’ve been to pick out the footsteps so much earlier than he had, but he quickly put it out of mind as the sound got closer to the bedroom.
James stared at Lucien, but the teen didn’t look worried in the least. Instead, he grinned, looking almost excited for a fight.
Bright Light?
Oh shit.
James dove for the glowing orb just as the door burst open and three Dwarven guards piled into the room. Their eyes widened at the sight of the globe and the bloodstained floor that neither James nor Lucien had a chance to clean. James slew all three of them before the surprise had even left their eyes.
The corpses all hit the ground with a heavy thump.
You have killed Dwarven Guard (x3).
+ 371 experience points
James had killed the guards on instinct, but as he surveyed their bodies, Tyrfing pulsed and the regret he was feeling about the mission faded. He still wondered if he was doing the right thing but recognized the necessity if they were to get the location of the exit.
He felt Tyrfing pulse again and his regrets faded further. Although he understood them on an intellectual level, it felt like his emotional connection to the arguments had been severed. As if someone else were experiencing them.
“Come on.” Lucien grabbed James by the shoulder. “We need to find the patriarch and get out of here before we’re caught.”
James nodded. “Did Branden have any suggestions in case we couldn’t find him?”
Lucien nodded. “Apparently he’s a bit paranoid, so Branden thought there might be a chance he wouldn’t be in the bedroom.”
A door opened in the distance and James gestured for Lucien to hurry up.
Lucien nodded. “Branden said he had never been allowed to visit the basement, so his best guess was that if Kendon wasn’t up here, he would probably be down there.”
James groaned. “This is going to be a lot messier than we’d hoped.”
“Yeah.” Lucien nodded, looking at the scattered corpses, three of which had been cut in half by James. “Nobody’s going to believe assassins did this.”
“In for a penny…” James muttered, rushing into the hallway. Two guards rushed toward him. He’d used about a quarter of his Essence so far and he didn’t want to waste more when he was only fighting two people, so James raised Tyrfing to fight them head-on.
Two knives flew from behind him, each one hit a guard directly in the eye. He turned to see Lucien grinning. The teenager gestured for James to follow him as he grabbed both knives and headed for a staircase.
Outside the house, James could hear shouting and screaming. Branden had been right when he’d said a fire would be a good distraction. Most Dwarven buildings were made of stone, and the water affinity was lower among the Dwarven population, who favored metal and fire. House Gilden’s buildings may have been the best looking, but their wooden construction was a poor choice.
Lucien led James down two flights of stairs, but the staircase didn’t go down to the basement. Instead, it stopped at the ground level. Everything was eerily quiet; James wondered where the guards were. That changed when he saw the massive metal door to the basement.
The door was part of a shining cube of light grey metal. It looked like someone had dropped a bank vault into the center of the manor.
“Holy shit,” James said, awed by the structure. “It’s cool, but why just leave it in the middle of everything?”
Lucien ignored his question. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s keep moving.”
James sighed and drew Tyrfing. He stabbed the sword toward the metal. There was a flash of orange light as Tyrfing hit a magical barrier.
The sword stopped for a split second then, with a burst of energy, the barrier exploded into a wave of orange liquid that coated everything in the room.
There was a moment of silence as James and Lucien tried to comprehend what had just happened, then all of the liquid that wasn’t in direct contact with skin vanished, while everything touching skin burst into flames.
Chapter 18
James screamed and flailed, but the liquid seemed magically bound to him. Nothing he did affected it at all.
James Essence dropped like a rock as the magical flames consumed his flesh. He couldn’t see anything, and he felt his eyes burning. He did the only thing he could, he cast Mage Armor as a stalling technique. The armor could absorb more damage than it cost Essence to cast. To his surprise, as the armor layered across his skin, it lifted the flames, extinguishing them instantly.
Breathing heavily, James checked his Essence. He had 535 left—he’d lost over 1400 from that trap, but luckily hadn’t been on fire for long enough to do permanent damage. In fact, it had been less than thirty seconds.
The orange flames had been damaging James so quickly and fiercely. It took him a second to realize why. The surgery from when Ozure had fixed his Mana channels had inadvertently changed James’ race. One of the drawbacks of his new race was that he took double damage from magic.
Whatever the orange liquid was, it must’ve been a Spell.
Beside James, Lucien laughed hysterically. There had been a blue-green bubble around him, but it popped and vanished in a puff of smoke.
“That was awesome, what was that?” James asked.
True to form, Lucien shrugged in reply.
James let it go—he’d let the teenager have his secrets.
This time, James cast Mage Armor before he attempted to breach the iron door, but it wasn’t needed. Tyrfing pierced the metal easily.
James cut a line around the perimeter of the cube, leaving one side higher than the other. The metal shrieked as it twisted and snapped under its own weight and the top of the cube slid to the side.
It was more dramatic than going through the vault door, but James was feeling a bit dramatic. And pissed. He was also pissed.
James had less than 500 Essence left. He wasn’t sure what kind of obstacles they might encounter going forward, so he decided to drink one of his few Health potions. Hopefully he’d get time to make more before he needed them.
You have drunk [Weak Health Potion].
You have no health.
You have absorbed 231 Essence from Weak Health Potion.
James grimaced; the Strong Health Potion he’d drunk had restored over 3000 Essence. Compared to that, this was nothing. This wasn’t his first time drinking one of his Weak Health Potions, but he’d been damaged so badly last time that he hadn’t registered how little the potion had regenerated. Now that he’d noticed, he couldn’t help his disappointment. It had taken him two days to brew five of them, and even if he drank all five at once it wouldn’t be enough to restore his full Essence pool.
Once James’ Essence was higher, he peered through the hole he’d created. The vault entrance led to a set of dark metal stairs with dark metal walls on either side. It looked like the vault was built from a large hunk of metal and then buried under the manor house.
James hopped onto the stairs and descended into the vault followed by Lucien.
The staircase let
out into an opulent, wood-paneled bedchamber. A Dwarf sat in the bed, staring at them with a smirk on his face.
Name: Kendon Gilden
Race: Dwarf
Level: ???
Class: Lord of Coin
Kendon looked exactly like the picture Branden had shown them both. He was old and wrinkled, with paper thin skin.
James drew Tyrfing and pointed the weapon at Kendon. “Don’t move or do anything, and I won’t hurt you.”
Kendon sighed in annoyance. “You there,” he pointed at Lucien, “however much he’s paying you, I’ll double it… No, triple it.”
Lucien remained silent.
Kendon frowned and his eyes took on a vibrant golden hue. This time, James could almost feel the air thrum with power as he spoke. “Void Contract.” The words seemed to hover in the air for longer than they should have.
Lucien was by his side in an instant, with a dagger to his throat. “What did you just do?” he hissed.
A burble of laughter escaped Kendon’s lips even as a trickle of blood ran down his neck. “Go ahead, kill me.” He grinned. “But I just voided your contract. Any payment you would’ve received for this assassination will vanish. On the other hand… I have a contract, if you’re interested. 100,000 gold each if you bring me the head of whoever hired you.”
You have been given a quest: Betrayal
Betrayal: ???
Suggested level: ???
Reward: 100,000 gold.
Penalty for failure or refusal: ???
Error: Impossible Quest.
Quest Removed.
James blinked. He was confused for a second until he realized what must’ve happened. Kendon must’ve triggered a quest to betray whoever had hired them, but nobody had hired them, so it was an impossible quest.
Kendon’s eyes glazed over as he read through his own notifications. He frowned and then his eyes widened, the smirk fading from his face. “What do you want?” he said, dropping his pretense of control.
“We just want the location of the palace gate. We know you use it to trade with Humans.”
Kendon’s eyes widened as he looked between James and Lucien, who’d taken his knife from the Dwarf’s throat. “You’re the Humans from the arena,” he said—a statement, not a question.
James nodded, looking nervously toward the vault entrance. The fires wouldn’t last forever, and as soon as anyone entered the manor, they’d see the broken vault door and investigate. Their whole mission was to get in and out. They’d already been seen by the child, but it’d been dark and he’d covered the child’s eyes immediately, so hopefully the child would never register them as not being Dwarves. Especially because he’d probably never seen a Human before.
When Kendon opened his mouth for a follow-up question, James held out his hand to silence the Dwarf. “We don’t have time for this, we need location of the palace gate and then we’re out of here.”
“Are you sure? I can make you rich beyond—”
“Lucien, for every word that comes out of his mouth that isn’t the location of the palace gate, cut off a finger.”
Lucien stepped forward aggressively, but Kendon held up his hands in defeat. “It’s hidden in the cemetery. Just off to the north side of the castle. On a grave marked Dimitrios.”
“Great. Thanks,” James said. He couldn’t hear screaming from outside anymore.
In one motion, Lucien stepped forward and slit Kendon’s throat. Dark blood sprayed out from the wound and Kendon slumped over, dead.
“Grab the safe.” Lucien said, tilting his head to listen. “Someone’s coming.” He bent over to loot the corpse.
“Where is it?” James asked. Branden had told them it was in the bedroom, but he didn’t see it anywhere. He knew they didn’t have time to look for the safe. James looked around the room, it was about thirty-by-thirty feet.
“Lucien,” James said seriously. “Is it in this room?”
Lucien nodded. “Branden said it would have to be close to him. He didn’t say why, but he said it had something important in it.”
“Okay, grab what you can from his corpse. I’ll try to find it. It’ll take a lot out of me. I won’t be able to cast any spells after this.”
James walked to the center of the room and sent out tendrils of Essence. The energy expanded in a sphere around him.
10 feet.
15 feet.
20 feet.
25 feet.
His Essence bar flashed dangerously, but James pushed himself further.
27 feet.
Finally, James found what he was looking for. He canceled the spell, gasping for breath. He’d used up pretty much all of his remaining Essence.
“It’s… it’s… over there.” James pointed at a nondescript section of wall. “It’s an illusion.”
He put his hands on his knees and took a series of deep breaths. He was exhausted and everything hurt. It felt like he had the flu.
When he checked his Essence, he realized he barely had a hundred left.
Lucien reached through the illusion, but couldn’t seem to move the safe. “A little help,” he grunted.
James pushed himself to his feet and went to help Lucien out. Even with the two of them together, the safe didn’t budge.
“Fuck this.” James growled and he inserted Tyrfing’s tip into the crack around the safe. There was a clunk as something fell inside the safe and the door swung open, the locking mechanism cut in half.
There was only one thing inside the safe, a dark blue gem that seemed to glow and sparkle with internal light. Looking into the gemstone, James couldn’t help but feel as if he were looking at a night sky. A golden snake was coiled around the gemstone with its tail in its own mouth. The gold snake was so detailed, James imagined he could see it undulate as it breathed, but when he felt the snake, it was still.
That wasn’t what caught his attention, though. No, what caught his attention was the purple glow around the item description. James had only seen an item with a purple glow once before, on his sword, Tyrfing.
Noctis the Unending
Rank: Mythic
Crafted with the Heart of a Dying Star and the Blood of an Elder Dragon, this artifact prevents its bonded partner from aging as long as they stay within 100 feet of the gemstone.
Holy shit.
James seriously considered abandoning everyone and taking Noctis for himself. With only a bit of hesitation, he dropped it into his pouch. He then quaffed another Weak Health Potion, bringing his Essence up to 307. Everything still hurt, but his headache was mostly gone.
He just wanted to be done with this ill-conceived mission. He wished they could’ve just gone through the tunnels to the Old City. He trusted Arik, but the Dwarf really hadn’t been clear enough about why this was the safest option.
Not the time… Focus. James chastised himself. He swept his gaze over the room one last time, but there didn’t seem to be any other valuable items. Lucien had grabbed everything off of Kendon’s corpse and they’d split that later, otherwise, the room was surprisingly bare.
Once they’d made sure there wasn’t anything worth looting in the room, James and Lucien took one last glance around and climbed out, back into the main room, and right into the center of a circle of soldiers.
“Well hello, James.” Danforth grinned cheerfully. “So nice to see you again.”
Chapter 19
“Danforth,” James growled. The Dwarf was dressed in a black leather outfit, much like the last time James saw him. This time, the Dwarf was also wearing James’ cloak. James launched himself toward Danforth. A guard tried to step in the way, but James cut him down like tissue paper, Tyrfing slicing through the guard’s raised weapon as if it weren’t even there.
You have killed Ari Levo (Level 23 Dwarf Guard).
+ 139 experience points
In the corner of his vision, James could see Lucien step toward another guard with his daggers raised, and that was when everything started to go a little hazy. It
was as if a red mist built up around his brain. Notifications flew past him as he carved his way through the Dwarven guards like a butcher. None of them was a match for him.
Finally, James reached Danforth.
His grin was wild and his sword sang as James flashed through a series of quick cuts. He’d never fought so well in his life.
But Danforth wasn’t there. He’d vanished completely.
There was a sharp pain in James’ thigh and warm blood trickled from the wound. His Essence dropped by fifty, but it was already so low that it took James below 10%.
Danforth reappeared, grinning cockily. “Is that the best you can do?”
James growled and lunged at Danforth, but the Dwarf vanished before he could connect.
Frustrated, James spun around, looking for any sign of the assassin. What’s the point of a sword that can cut through anything if I can’t see him? All the teleporting in the world wouldn’t help James if he couldn’t find his opponent.
Three shallow cuts opened in quick succession across James’ cheek, chest, and shoulder. None of them did much damage, but blood started to flow faster, almost as if it knew James was almost out of Essence.
“Oh, this is fun. I’m going to enjoy this.” Danforth’s disembodied voice laughed. “You’ve outlived your usefulness.”
My usefulness? James wondered, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He didn’t have time to deal with it at the moment.
He frantically ran through all of the ideas he’d had for fighting Danforth. He’d been working on his strategies since the fight outside of the cell, when Danforth had defeated him and Nidra easily.