Io was still loafing around in and near the Loud Sun. I've been gone for 2 days and she's still here being loud?
“Hey, Agnis where have you been? Want to hang out? I’m bored! Let's burn something!” I’m sorry but I'm busy.
“Then can you be busy with me?” You need to work on your wording… and I’ll be fine by myself, bye!
I [Silent melded] and went to the workshop. I dripped a drop of poison on a clear frog and timed it. 2 minutes and 13 seconds later the frog croaked. That worked well enough. When alive the frog was almost perfectly transparent but now it was dead it had a milky color and all its organs were visible. What a weird creature. My first poison was successful. It was a simple and basic poison but it’s something. Now I need to mix 2 drops per meal if I’m an adult and 1 drop if I’m not or of a smaller statured race. 3 drops if I’m of a more robust race. Size and constitution clearly played a role here I’m certainly not suited for 3 drops but it's between 1 and 2.
I’m as tall as most human adults, now about the constitution. I don't know if we’re more susceptible to poison than humans… Probably not, 2 drops it is. In 2 weeks, I can make an antidote and have some sort of resistance against this poison. Since I am trying to get resistance against the most basic poison, I can't mess around with it. I could however make other easy poisons and make 5 more poisons during the 2 weeks I was getting immunity against the basic poison. Most weren't hard to make just risky. I had to make sure this workshop was well-ventilated.
The fumes forced me outside because I was getting a bit dizzy.
“Wow I haven't seen you for a while, what have you been up to?” Bernie was mixing drinks. The bar was relatively empty.
What happened to her? I pointed at Io who sat slumped in her chair seemingly lifeless.
“I don't know maybe she died of boredom; you smell funny.” Oh, I’ve been cooking up some poisons, wanna try?
“Is this an assassin joke? Of course not!” I came to get some fresh air.
I heard a dragon groan. “So bored… send help” Ugh fine, what do you want to do?
“Really?!” Io jumped up full of energy as if she never looked bored to death.
“Let’s go spy on someone!” Anyone specific in mind?
“Let's go to that fancy desert city and spy on some important-looking people!” How about somewhere that has less sand? How about…
Io picked me up and started dashing toward the desert. Noo! Not more sand!
----------------------------------------
We arrived at the desert city Saluk. Well desert city... it was in the desert part northwest of the jungle but it was quite close to the jungle near the Jurna river. I learned that the jungle is called Jurna and that the river is named after the jungle. I don't like this city…
“Why not? It’s so beautiful! Look at all these people! You can hear music everywhere and is that a palace?!” Yes, but there’s sand everywhere…
Io sniffed and pointed at a stand. “Ooh they're selling fruit let's get some!” Didn't we come here to spy on people?
“Hmm?” Io already bit into a fruit and was looking around to find more. I paid the merchant because it didn't seem like Io intended to pay up. Ugh, I should've stayed in the workshop…
“Meat!” Io abandoned her fruit and ran at a meat stand further down the road. This merchant might be the luckiest merchant in this city, his whole stock would probably be bought up, probably by me…
“Give me all of it!” I knew it! The merchant was arguing with Io saying she can't pay for it.
It’s fine… I will pay… The merchant looked at me and gave me a sympathetic look, he tried to give me a discount but I told him that it was fine. It got all put on a huge cart. At least she was carrying it. She wouldn't let anyone come near her meat.
“You’re a good friend you know!” she said with her mouth full.
I feel more like a wallet than a friend…
“Hey back off this is my meat!” She spat fire at whoever came close to her cart.
I took some meat from the cart and gave it to some poor kids who get referred to as street rats. This was probably one of those cities where the rich are extremely rich and the poor are extremely poor.
“Hey you can't just give away my meat!” And who paid for it?
“... Can you leave enough for me? Please?” Io struck another dumb pose and I ignored her. So, tell me how do you want to sneak up on people with this big ass cart?
“Uhh, I’ll leave that up to you!” Unbelievable…
This might be one the worst situation I've ever been in. There’s sand anywhere and I’m almost 50 silver lighter and I’m stuck with a dragon. Hey, Io do you come in contact with other dragons?
“Hmm not really, they don't like that I hang out with humans that much, I don't feel like I truly belong between them.” Hmm, and why is that exactly?
“Something of keeping up the mystique around being a dragon or something.” That sounds like an answer a dragon would give yeah…
“Oh, do you know other fire dragons?!” I leaned back. You’re too close! And fire dragon oof that's some bad compatibility, I might know a dragon yeah just not sure if you might be a good match.
“Really?!” Io was really close and I had to back off. “Finally, someone that shares a similar lifespan! I never listened to my parents and their friends but there was one thing that kept bugging me, any human friends I make will turn to dust before I know it because I live way longer. I wasn't sure if I should become your friend because of this but you're just so fun!” Me? Fun? Where did you get that from?
“Dunno, I don't worry as much about this when hanging with you!” Doesn't that mean you just don't care about me?
“That's not true!” Io grabbed me and I felt like I was getting squeezed to a pulp. You’re too strong to do this please be careful or I might not even be able to die from old age…
“Oh sorry! So, what's this about this dragon friend?” I can't believe I'm playing the wingman here, although the more I think about it the worst of a matchup they are. I’m not sure if I want to subject Vinny to this torture, that guy is seriously doing his best. I might tell you if you behave and we finish this spying thing.
“Ugh fine! Give me 5 minutes!” Huh?
She ran with her cart of meat and looked for an empty area in the city. She briefly turned into a full 2-winged dragon and chomped the cart meat and all in one go and turned back to human form. I stood there shocked.
You must be the biggest idiot I know, let's assume nobody saw or noticed that, how are you going to address your wardrobe problem?! Io stood there butt naked. Whatever she was wearing before couldn't stand her turning into a dragon.
“Dragons are always naked it's you humans that always wear clothes!“ She wanted to head back out but I stopped her.
You are going to stick out if you walk around like that… I went through my catalogue to see if I had clothes that could fit her. I didn't have any… I took out a large cloak.
Wear this, I’m gonna put you into stealth, follow me without causing commotion we’re going to buy you some clothes…
“This really isn't nec…” I will go back to Daggerfall alone if you don't.
“Ugh, fine…” How old are you actually?
“2!” 200 years and you behave like this? Hourai have mercy on my soul.
“Hey, how do you know so much about dragons? And I’m 203 in human years if that counts!” As I said I have a dragon friend…
“But didn't you say I was the first dragon you met?” Ehh, stay quiet You're in stealth!
“Hey, not fair!” I found a place where they sold clothing and subtly asked her what she liked.
The shopkeeper gave me a look that I didn't like. “Hey there mister, shopping for a girlfriend?”
No stupid jokes please, I just want to buy this. I bought the clothes and gave them to Io, shoved her into an empty alley, and covered the area with illusions so she could change. I circulated nature energy to fight my headache. One day I will befriend someone who isn't difficult. Vinny and Greg are my only friends that aren't difficult. I think Io would drive Vinny insane, I can't do this to him…
“Done! Let's go sneak!” I think I found your method of assassination you just hang out with them until they run out of energy.
“Huh, no! I punch them!” She did some shadowboxing and flames erupted from her fists. Yes, yes now stop drawing attention, let's go to that palace wannabe. I’m sure there are important people in there. I was quite curious now about what the important people in this city had as secrets. We approached the wannabe palace but it seemed closely guarded. Moreover it was protected by an invincible substance named 'sand'.
Ugh what a formidable defense system, Who needs all those magic barriers and guards when you can just repel spies and assassins with sand!
“You are the only one I know that dislikes sand this much…” It's not a dislike it's just a strong preference to not want to deal with it, it goes everywhere!
“Isn't that the same as disliking it? Let’s hide some guards are coming this way!” Io dove to the side behind some rocks but I was still getting rid of sand in my clothes.
Random Guard #1 drew his scimitar. “Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?” Give me a second, I’m getting rid of all this sand.
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Random Guard #1 dropped his sword. “Yeah, it gets everywhere, eh? I’m doing this guard job to get enough money so I can get out of this sandy place.”
“Yeah, I could bear to see some green or maybe the ocean!” Random Guard #2 seems to share our dislike of sand. These must be the most down to earth people I have met in a long time.
Yeah, any of those beat this sandbox! I really don't want to be here either…
“Oh, maybe we can help you to get a guard job here too, it is extremely boring but it pays decently let us show you to our boss!” Random Guard #1 led me to the entrance.
I winked at Io and I read her lips, she was saying something like ‘How did that even work?!’ I got led inside and it was truly fancy. Whoever lives here probably thinks he is the king. This isn't the capital of Zanyr so the king doesn't live here, I think. Who would want to live in this sandy dusty place?
I made a shadow clone that took my place talking to the guards and split off from them.
It seems that there is a lot of security preventing from getting in but once inside…
I dropped out of stealth and just walked around and made wide movements. Nothing was going off, no mana security systems, nothing.
This rich guy either has balls of steel or is a moron. Since he is so confident that he won't get robbed or anything, it is time to get a point across and rob this idiot clean.
I replaced anything that looked valuable with an illusion. This felt like my very first dungeon, just grab anything while making sure I didn't get caught.
I had to calm down because I could hear some guards approach. I dropped into stealth and hid behind a stupidly long couch. 4 guards appeared with a horde of scantily clad chicks and they sat down on the couch.
Is this their break? Or are they supposed to guard these chicks or… The chicks continued giggling and the guards were fooling around. I guess it's the third option. I pickpocketed the guards and I tried to pickpocket the chicks but they were hardly wearing anything… I wasn't kidding in robbing this place clean. 'What is thine, is now mine! Confiscate!'
I passed some more guards and pickpocketed them. I had no idea what to do with all this stuff but it’s fun. Maybe donate some of this stuff to a museum or something.
I entered a poorly lit area of the wannabe palace, or was this a mansion? More giggling and laughing women. I then found myself in some kind of bathhouse room. The bath was enormous. I could use some relaxation so I sent a shadow clone to watch the entrance and decided to bathe and get all this sand off me. It washed the sand off me and was also scented.
“Oh hello, I have never seen you before.” This voice scared the living shit out of me. Who’s there? Show yourself!
“I’m right here…” A dark-skinned woman with nice proportions and brown hair stood to the side of the bath and was about to come in. I saw a door behind her. I looked over to where I entered the room and saw my shadow clone shrug and gesture that this wasn't his fault. I facepalmed. What a rookie mistake. Wait why are you naked?
The woman showed signs of confusion. “This is a bath…” Fair point, alright the sand is gone I will not disturb you!
“You don’t need to leave; you don't seem like a guard… did you sneak in?” I can tell you but then I would have to kill you!
“I don’t really care what happens to this place I’m just here for the money.” Hmm quite honest. Anyways I still need to do ehh sneaky stuff, enjoy your bath.
“Good luck Mr. reckless intruder!” She waved and her chest jiggled. Focus Agnis!
I put my clothes back on and realized that bathing is useless if your clothes are still full of sand. Shiiit! There’s still sand!
“Haha, you're quite funny do you need help?” No thanks, I got this but don't forget! You can bathe all you want but it doesn't remove sand from your clothes!
“I am well aware but thanks for the warning…”
I left the bathhouse and went upstairs. The sand was annoying because my skin was still moist. Some men were talking loudly. I took a peek and saw people in fancy desert clothing having the time of their life messing with more chicks. Is this place a brothel or something? This place was also scented but differently from the baths. Was this perfume or incense?
“Hey, Sayid did you hear about that item I bought last week?! Some guy said that it is a replica of some long-lost item that can create endless water!” A guy wearing a turban was talking to a bald guy.
“For real? We can become even richer with that! We can turn this desert into an oasis!” The bald guy said while his shiny scalp was reflecting the light in the room. Is that magic? How shiny is his head?
“Yaaah! And we can get all the women we want maybe even those hot adventurers!”
“Ooh yeah, they surely have nice bodies.” Now where have I heard a similar scenario before? Hmm, there was that Dimsha, there is no way they broke the seals, were there 2? A copy? Either way, there is a chance this will make this shitty desert even sandier. That's a 'no' for me.
“Oh, Achmedi I finally got some, look!” One of the rich guys opened a suitcase and showed off 3 small red stones. “The famous Hourai Rubies! We finally got them too.”
“For real? It must have been hard to get your hands on them?” Turban guy, whose name seems to be Achmedi got excited.
“You have no idea, my friend, these things are in high demand and their worth keeps increasing. I’m thinking of selling one at the auction tomorrow. Maybe I can get a profit on them.”
“Wow, look how clear these rubies are, truly a wonder of nature.” Achmedi was looking at the rubies that were almost as shiny as the head of the bald guy. How did a ruby lose to a bald scalp...
“This one is yours Achmedi.”
“Appreciated, you aren't going to give one to Jicef?”
“No man, he fucked my favourite chick behind my back, he can have 20 gold or something.” The rich guys laughed. 20 gold is a lot but nothing compared to the Hourai rubies.
I learned some crazy things here. I need to swipe that item and I’m interested in that auction, there might be some cool items there.
I heard talking behind me and I hid. It was the guards that I met at the entrance. They were still talking to my shadow clone. How did they even take this long to get here?
Random Guard #2 drew the attention of turban guy and bald guy. “Hey boss we found someone who wants to work as a guard for you!” I got a bad feeling. The 2 guys dropped their rubies.
“You imbeciles! Don’t you realize who that is?!” Ahh shit here we go… The Sayid bald guy picked up the ruby he dropped and pointed at it.
“Do you know what this is?”
Random Guard #2 scratched his head. “Uhm a ruby... Wait? Is that a Hourai ruby?!”
“Yes, and do you know why they have this name?” Baldies scalp was blinding.
“Uhm it's the name of the guy that brought these to the market?”
“And have you asked our guest his name?” Baldie pointed at my clone.
Random Guard #1 seemed to have caught on but was trying to be polite. “Uhh, I apologize I didn't ask for your name, could you tell us?” My shadow clone shot a subtle glance at me and I shook my head indicating that he should come up with a lie.
Uhm my name is ehh Sandy! I facepalmed, I need to work on my 'spontaneous lie' techniques.
“No need to be so humble honored guest, I know who you are, we didn't meet but I saw you dining with Barusu the CEO of Yttroz Industries, it was quite the feast!” It seems turban guy and bald guy have seen me before. This is bad.
My clone shot me another subtle glance with the expression that said ‘Help me’, I had nothing. Come on shadow clone you are me! You got this! Even though I have no ideas. Oh really? Ehm well, I just came here on a whim
“Come, come sit with us! Do you want to enjoy the company of some women too? We have some with very large chests and wide hips." Sayid said and made a friendly gesture.
Uhm, I need to focus on my goal so I shall do without.
I sighed, my clone fell for the trap, he got tricked into answering the part of the question that would bring inconvenience when left unanswered but with this he basically agreed to stay. He’s stuck now, you did this to yourself shadow clone! Would I have fallen for that same trap? Of course! But the best solution is sometimes to not get into that situation in the first place, so I won!
Anyways my clone can now gain information from them without me having to spy on them so I can focus on finding that item. I let my shadow clone complain about the sand and dryness and they took the bait and talked about that item. I looked through the rooms on this floor while my shadow clone was milking them for information. My shadow clone finally got the location, the guys offered to show it to me but my shadow clone declined. They started talking about how rich they were.
I headed back down. These geniuses were using it temporarily to create more water for the baths. It was meant literally but also sarcastically. It's a good hiding place but it's such a waste to use it for that. I snuck back to the bathhouse and looked around carefully. Nobody here. I shallowly scanned the area. Never mind there are 57 bathhouse rooms here. Who needs this many baths… Someone really hates sand. I snuck into the first one and looked around. I checked the faucets and places where the water came out. Nothing here. I heard voices so I dashed out of the bathroom into another one.
“Oh, hello there again.” The dark skin chick siad while showing a smile of amusement. Wha! You again? Are you a stalker?!
“All I’ve been doing is just bathing... You seem in a hurry.” Ugh, why do I suck this much in prolonged sneaking?
“Do you want to take a bath with me?” she beckoned me. I had to shatter some illusions. When did the human race gain affinity for charm magic? I surely hope it doesn't start to pop up everywhere.
No thanks, I was raised with modesty… I thought about my mom and sisters and realized that they too lacked modesty.
Right never mind that, I’m a bit uncomfortable so I will be leaving and stop stalking me! I went for the door.
“You just came from that door, you seem confused.” Is this place a maze? Why does everything look the same? I reached for the other door and entered a changing room. I need to get out of this place before things get awkward. I entered another bathroom which was empty. I inspected these and found nothing, another door and found myself in a hall. I went into stealth just in time because some guys were heading over to a bath room. I avoided that one and entered another door. The changing room was empty but the bath was occupied. I took another door that connected to another bath.
“Do you really not need help?” it was the same dark-skinned woman sitting in the bath. I looked at the doors confused. You’re not pranking me, are you? These rooms don't move around or something.
“The guys that built this bathing section intentionally made it confusing to have a laugh at people, look this room has 3 visible doors but that one there is quite camouflaged. If you enter this room through that door, it will seem like you came out of nowhere and unlikely to take the same door back. I assume that's why you returned here for the 3rd time confused.” She seemed amused.
Ugh, this place is a pain in the ass, I could get through this with better accuracy but I am not interested in seeing hundreds of people naked… I guess these rich guys have found another weakness in my Elgards eyes.
“Here let me help.” She got up from the bath got a fresh set of clothes and started to dress. Ehh there is really no need and ehh… what’s the point of dressing up if there is hardly any difference…
“Well, I’m a belly dancer so this is my attire, it becomes more alluring if it gets away slightly from nudity. My eyes are up here sweetheart.” Right… can you please keep that to a minimum? I’m bad with charm attacks, do you know where this item that creates water and is hidden in the bath area is?
“Hmm, no but I do know that there is one bathroom that has been running over a lot lately, it’s one of the 5 greater baths, let's go.“ This nice sexy lady grabbed my hand and led me through this maze. She checked first if there were any people in it and after 10 minutes, we reached the bath that seemed like an enormous pool. Do you guys call this a bath? You could drown half a village with it…
“Rich people privilege.” I spotted a shady area and ran toward it over the water. I busted some tiles and found an item that looked like a yellow duck spitting water from its beak. What the hell is this… Cygnus what have they done to you? You were an asshole but you don't deserve this!
“Haha, are you a comedian? Who is Cygnus?” The sexy lady said after she followed me over the water. A duck! I held the duck up towards the sexy belly dancer and it sprayed water over her.
Woops sorry.
“Don’t worry I can dry off quickly." She did some belly dancing and activated water magic and moved the water around while dancing. It looked a bit like how I use my leylines but this was just magic, it seemed this was created as an art form and not necessarily for offensive purposes.
“Beautiful, eh?” Charm users are my bane. I need to get out of here.
Right... You won't seduce me! Thank you for the help! And ehh can you help me get out? She pointed at the window that lead outside.
That works, thanks a lot ehh, what was your name?
“Thalia Resha, by what name can I remember my funny lost companion by?” Agnis Hourai, oh wait I shouldn't throw my name around like this…
“Ooh, lost, handsome, funny, and rich, if you ever need a belly dancer, you can find me at the Adventurers Association in this city.” Uhh, not sure what I will need a belly dancer for but thanks! I ran to the window and jumped out.
“Wait! This mansion is built next to the river…” As Thalia said there was indeed a river… I landed safely on the surface but not before doing some flips to get some style points.
“Oooh that was cool!” for some reason Io was sitting at the bank of the river eating fish she had caught and fried. She waved her fish at me. What are you doing here?
“Waiting for you! They wouldn't let me in…” But you're an assassin you can just sneak in…
“They kicked me out when I did…” Then don't get caught… you know what you did well. We need to invade an auction that's held tomorrow and ehh get rid of this duck. I showed it to Io and sprayed water on her.
Woops sorry.
“Don't worry I can just evaporate the water!” Io stood up and heated up. I was fearing for her new clothing.
Nono! Don't do that! You will probably burn your clothing and I will need to buy you more! I've seen enough naked chicks for today! I connected to the air leyline currents and pulled the water out of Io’s clothing. I also froze the duck that liked to make chicks wet.
“Hey, Agnis, want to find a bathhouse? I got sand everywhere…” I will freshen myself up in this river, I don’t want to find a guide to go through the bathhouse.
“Huh?”