“What happened? To the once prestigious farm boy that tried to stand up for himself. I guess those rats must have meant a lot more to you then I thought? Oh well. I know it's here for you, yet. Just carrying out orders from the higher ups.” Lilith taunted, ducking back into the other room closing draws and cabinets.
“Why are you here! How did you get in here, I didn’t even hear the door open!” Marlow shouted, hoping to draw the guards in.
“You are quite dense aren’t you? Guess your strength must outweigh your intelligence, oh well. Anyways as for why I’m looking for any stragglers. Obviously they consider you to be no threat at all. As for the how, I’m a thief, remember. Getting into places I shouldn’t be is sort of my whole get out you know?” Lilith mussed, finally dipping back into the jail room dragging a chair with her. Her pack was stuffed full of something?
“So what’s your plan?”
“Real stuttle about it aren’t ya? I’d also have a loose end if I told you what was really going down. Not to mention when you’d get out you’d have blackmail and personally I don’t want to deal with that. Also I have a deal for you, if you find any more abnormal creatures you can come and give them to us! In exchange you will let you spend a little time with your precious chicken. We are not all complete monsters.” Lilith smiled watching the farm boy read over the repeatable quest just for him.
“Don’t worry about trying to contact us, we have a look out at every gate. Just wait until dark we have a way-”
“Would you like the one I have right now?” The question caught the rogue off guard. This farm boy had an abnormality on him right now? No way, it must be like the size of his pocket or something?
“Go ahead, I highly doubt that you. have.. A… what is that?”
“It’s Cob n tato, my two headed snake.” Marlow grinded from ear to ear as the green cloaked lady straight slack jawed at the slithering snake around his belly. Putting his tunic back on righted himself on Buttercup, his blind pony.
“Let’s go shall we!”
The green cloaked lady sputtered before finally relenting, casually picking the lock to the jail cell, strolling up to him and decking him square in the face.
Status effect: Unconscious. Time remaining: 5… 4… 3… 2…
“AUGH, MY NOSE!” Marlow shreeched clucking his broken nose, accidentally readjusting his broke causing a new fresh stream of blood.
“Oh you're up now, guess I need to grind my knockout punch a bit more then. Oh well. Welcome to the Hardcore’s secert layer.” Lilith spun around kicking up her cloak making her look like a falling helicopter seed.
Taking his eyes off of the distracting Green cloaked lady he looked around, finding Buttercup right beneath him standing in ‘muddy’ water. He had no idea how this rude woman had gotten a pony down into the sewers.
Patting himself down he found everything to be in place. Snake, check, flute, check, bag of near endless treats, yep, copper wood spear, check-a-ro, and finally most importantly of all his clothes, yes yes they were. That would have been quite awkward.
Wiggling his hands he realized that he was not tied up. Looking up at Lilith he realized that he had been talking the entire time.
“-and that’s how we, the Hardcore’s, plan on taking over the Ardania. With you providing us monsters, after the guards fall, to fight on displace. Our reputation will skyrocket, then Headshot becomes a noble guild leader, he'll prompt me so I can go do my own things. Then you can go your own way.” Lilith bellowed into the sewers not caring that someone above would hear here. Following it up with a very good evil laugh. Pulling on the lead of Buttercup, she led them into a bright column of light.
Quest alert: For a noble cause III (Chainquest). 1/4 objectives complete! Objectives remaining: Objective 1) Stop the guild ‘Hardcores’ from completing their elaborate heist. 2) Find and retrieve Opal. 3) Slay members of the guild ‘Hardcores’ 0/??? 4) Find the guild quarters of ‘Hardcores’.
Squinting it took him a few seconds to adjust to what exactly he was seeing. He had pictured the evil nasty guild to have a functioning guildhall that had job boards, bar tenders, and a few brawls over a few gold coins to be taking place. But what welcomed him was.
“Lilith, is that the farm boy who’s gonna put us back on top?” A muscular man spoke, drawing people’s attention away from their separate enclosed fires.
“Sure is and he’s already brought us a special animal.” She said already guiding Buttercup over to a rob impaled into a wanted post of a familiar face, the most notable part of this poster was that this person was bald. Then were they enemies of the Hardcores, or potential allies maybe? Or just trouble makers for the city?
“Come now let’s get you over to Headshot so you can see your weird chicken.” Lilith grumbled. Grabbing Marlow's leg and violently pulling him off of his pony. Not letting go she dragged him over to a door with a skull and crossbones. Opening it with a kick she spun around flinking Marlow into the room. Then assuring that he was thoroughly confused she slammed the door, leaving Marlow dizzy in the dark.
Closing his eyes Marlow waited for the world to stop swinging. Letting his arms fall to his side he checked for Cab n Tato. Thankfully the size changing snake had a high enough constitution to just shrug off being tossed into a desk, or was that because it’s scales were so dense. Pulling up his notes in the menu he quickly typed out ‘snake scaled armor?’ then closing it to try and inspect his surroundings.
No matter where he looked he could only see dark outlines of objects. Vowing to himself to always have a pair of scout and rogue rats on him at all times he began patting around trying to find his copper wood spear. Since he had been thrown into this room it was likely a few things might have flown off. Grumbling, he pulled out his menu notes and wrote down saying ‘get a magical bag’. Completely forgetting how to spell special.
Cob n Tato suddenly constricked causing Marlow to fall to the ground gasping for air. Patting his pants he untucked his flute and brought it up to his lips and fighting a level eight constricting snake he sucked in a deep breath of air and placed a note telling Cob n Tato to hide. Instantly his silent pet slunk away.
Strength +1
Constitution +1
“What say that!” Marlow mock whispered into the echoey room getting no answer in return. Hassening, worrying that thieves heard him up and about, he continued with his search and crawled forward cutting himself on some glass shards.
Whipping back his hand he grimused since he was going to have to remove the shards through touch allow.
“I’m sorry Cob n Tato I didn’t know you knew that I was going to stumble into the broken thing.”
Wisdom +1
“Hardy har har” He murmured, eventually getting another notification saying his perception had increased as well. Having no running water to clean his hands he whipped them down on his shirt. That last one was pretty deep.
“Puff hUm snake, urg prisoner chicken.” Marlow heard voices as they nonchalantly walked up to the door and opened it. Illuminating his dapper state.
“Yo- you’ve killed your own snake!” Said one of the figures alarmed. Somehow getting the feeling that combat was about to begin Marlow spun and found it! Leaping across the room he grabbed his spear and turned as stood up right. Turning he faced the two outline figures.
“I don’t suppose you know where my chicken is?” Waiting for a response he was treated with a knife to the shoulder.
Spinning his spear around him he deflected the next pair of daggers thrown at him. Feeling like a caged animal he lashed out, hunking his spear in the direction of thieves impaling it into the chest of one of his captors. Both of them shared a look of surprise as the figure fell on his knees.
The second thief had stepped into the room and disappeared, blending in smoothly with the shadows. This was interrupted as the thief stepped on Cob n Tato, which was extremely grumpy to be stepped on.
Quest alert: For a noble cause III (Chainquest). 1/4 objectives complete! Objectives remaining: Objective 1) Stop the guild ‘Hardcores’ from completing their elaborate heist. 2) Find and retrieve Opal. 3) Slay members of the guild ‘Hardcores’ 2/??? 4) Find the guild quarters of ‘Hardcores’.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Waving the notification away he finally got a good look at the room along with a wrecked desk with a bronze name plate reading ‘Headshot’ inspecting the room further he spotted a make of the city. Mentally taking a screenshot with a moment of hesitation. Poking his head out of the room he spotted a metal bird cage with.
“OPAL!” Marlow shouted, sprinting over to the cage he grabbed the lock and pulled. Then pulled hard, then even harder.
“You know, I have the key right?” Lilith said, drawing his attention away from his first companion.
“YOU!”
“Me?”
“YOU!” Marlow said heart pounding so loud he could hear it in his ears. Bring his flute up to lips and begin to play a mellow.
Marlow duck and failed to avoid the flying knife, he had been moving away from Opal in hopes that she would not be caught in the crossfire.
If someone had glazed over the way that Lilith and Marlow had come in they would have seen the lights, intermittently spaced apart, wink out one by one as thousands of rats raced to their Master.
“Why are you so against us farm boys? Is it because we got off on the wrong foot? Or was it the time we asked politely for your chicken?”
“You call that polite, you treated me like trash! You made me jump off of the world!”
“That’s only because you were being uncool! WHAT IS THAT!” Lilith shrieked as the room was flooded with angry fur. Fur that bite and claws. Playing a single note pierced the noisy rodents. The rats stopped, except one rat sized dog who hastily dash over and up onto the farm boy’s shoulder.
The farm boy played another note and the bird cage was picked clean leaving the giant chicken standing on a metal disk. The farm boy played three more notes. In quick succession the rats surrounded each member of the Hardcores, then crawled up onto them and stayed. The remaining rats spread out squeezing into every nook and cranny they could find.
“I’m going to give you three options.” The farm boy said, sitting down on the metal disk leaning against the giant chicken.
“Eeether you can. No that's not working out.” the farm boy sat up peeling himself away from the numbing feather.
“Either you tell me what this ‘heist’ is, where I can find the other members of your guild currently, tell me where your guild’s treasure is, or hand over your gear.” The Farm boy confidently said. Of course no one was going to break. What leverage did the kid have over them, death wasn’t permanent for them at least. She was a Hardcore the ones that-
“Three halls down take two lefts there our guild storage, please don’t destroy my gear man.”
“Knee_crusher, really!” Lilith said, staring daggers at the coward.
“In the ashes of the big campfire is a safe we stole a few weeks ago. It's down the hall and to the right. I was peer pressured into joining.”
“Katy54!”
“If you go outside the south gate and hug the wall going east you’ll find a tree stump right by the wall. Then press your back against the wall, then walk fifty paces away and then dig straight down you’ll find our back up guild storage.”
“Kindle, come on man. Are you all scaredy cats. We the Hardcore’s soon to be guards of the city. If you're already bending as soon as the farm boy tames a couple of rats then we have no place for you.” Lilith scolded the thugs.
“Knee_crucher, Katy54, and Kindle? Thank you, I'm willing to let you three go. If you don’t participate in this heist today.”
“Deal” the trio said unharmoniously.
“Weaklings!”
“You know Lilith ‘sacred treasure’ is just-”
“Don’t. You. Dare.” Lilith said, glaring down Knee_crucher. As Knee opened his mouth to continue, Lilith decided to make her move. Rolling backwards she attempted to splat the rat’s on her back, while throwing her trademark needles at Knee. But only threw empty air, patting her pockets she found them empty.
“You know, I have your needles right?” Marlow paired the earlier praze from Lilith. So he could finally stop calling this woman ‘the green cloaked lady’ in his head. Closing his eyes he mentally checked the two treasure troves through his scouts. Yep the guild’s treasure was there and there and there wasn't that much. Let's check the safe, yep the safe is there.
Quest gained, A Safe return (Optional): After successfully raiding the ‘Hardcore’s base’ you’ve found a safe return it to the owner for rewards. Exp 250. Rewards variable. Failure safe contents are now yours.
“Oh look, a return quest. I don’t suppose you remember who you stole the safe from? What is happening!” Lilith had not been idle; she had gotten up and had begun batting at his rats while moving towards her maybe formal guild mates.
His main rat force had begun looting the place and had already moved away. Note to further self loot after not before.
“You shall never. Take him from. Me!”
“I am not currently taking anyone, wait no, sorry I’m not holding anyone hostage long term.”
“You ain’t taking him. Headshot gave me and my brother a safe haven in this new world. And he's left from the old world! So! You! Are! Not! Talking! Him! From! ME!” Lilith roared, grabbed a rat and popped it like a balloon.
Seeing one of his pets being easily killed by Lilith struck Marlow hard. With rage in his heart Marlow brought up his flute and began to play a devilish tune. A tune that reverberated throughout the sewers bringing everything into a blind rage.
Opal charged at her previous jailer. Gwaner screeched into the tunnels calling a squad back. Cab n Tato slithered out of Headshot’s office growing in size, until both its heads loomed over the captive thieves.
Lilith smiled diving under the fluffy bird, kicking out a leg tripping the abnormal large chicken. Sending it sprawling behind her. Rolling over she avoided the predictable leaping rats. Honestly if these vermin were anymore basic she’d considered them one string characters.
Finally getting some wiggle room, she ran on over to her cowering guild mates she used her favorite skill pickpocket. In eternium stealing was looked down upon, then again when wasn’t it. The key difference being in this game the world randomly chose an item, until you hit the upper ranks. Thankfully she had been playing this game since day one. And had used it every opportunity she got.
Plunking a knife out of Kindle’s hand she swiftly backstabbed the trader, finishing him off in two clean blows. Finally having a weapon, his fight turned the battle in her favor. Every leaping rat was cut in two. Her guild was going to eat good tonight. Oh wait no Kindle’s knife was coated in poison. If this farm boy had any other strategies he was surely wasting troops. Unless.
“Wow you must really suck, I mean I’ve never seen a person send wave after wa-”
“Fweee!”
The next thing Lilith saw was the classic you have died screen. Reading further into it she was eaten by a ‘Cob n Tato’ whatever that meant. Meanwhile farway from a frothing rogue, Marlow was dealing with a different problem.
Skill gained: Woodwind Mastery (novice I). FINALLY. After spending an extremely long time playing a flute so horribly wrong the guards had to get involved. You finally grasped the basic concept of this skill. Gain 1n% when conveying your emotions and thoughts through woodwind instruments. Where n = skill level.
Warning you have gained that exceeds that amount of skills you can have. Please choose to either delete a skill, combine skills, or have this latest skill beconvereded into [5] skill points, the system personally recommends taking this skill if you insteds on using that darn flute. Time remaining: 120, 119, 118...
‘Well then you don’t have to be so rude about it’ Marlow thought as he hurriedly paged over to the soul forge. Scanning over his skill he tried to figure out what skills he should combine. Before the timer ran out.
“Alright, combining skills with similar effects should combine into one greater effect, for example caretaker. But what skills did I want to combine? Haul is amazing but what if I threw it in the grip, would that make whatever I grabbed lighter? Or should I combine my spear and staff mastery skills since I use them frequently for the same effect? What about my tracking and environmental awareness?” Marlow screamed. His need to hurry and his want to keep things as they fought each other.
Taking a deep breath he mentally dragged his grip then haul skill into the pot then checked the amount of coins needed to start the process.
“What does it mean I have six thousand gold on my person! There’s nothing in my pockets!” Patting his pockets he found that they were indeed six thousand gold empty. Then looking back up at the menu he invested the page and found that the amount of gold on his creatures and pets counted as on his person. Grimacing, he pressed ‘Accept’. Instantly the knowledge of who to properly lift and hold things evenly left his mind.
Hold on a minute he had over six thousand gold. That meant he could combine stuff in the soul forge. The soul forge that used to cost a fair bit of coin. The one thing tamers often lacked. And now he has around five thousand coins now. So he could afford the soul forge. Oh yeah, it's all coming together now.
Then again he did like his current set of skills, they had helped him get this far. Did he really want to start combining them willy nilly just because he’d gotten a new skill that interested him? No, he would take this time to strengthen himself further for the upcoming battle.
However he could save the gold and go buy some amazing beasts from Caley Cob n Tato was a great example of this.
Sitting down he felt his adrenaline fade away leaving him shaking in the damp sew. Shivering he pulled up the skill list and readed it over. Then read it again not wanting to misunderstand his skill potential.
Mental he dragged over his environmental awareness tracking skill into the pot and pressed the combine. Then he threw the spear and staff mastery into the pot and accepted the prompt. Smiling, he checked his notifications.
Time remaining on soul forging skills (Grip and Haul): 5:56:35.
Time remaining on soul forging skills (Tracking and Environmental Awareness): 15:59:32.
Time remaining on soul forging skills (Spear Master and Staff Mastery): 23:59:45.
“WOW, That's no good!” Marlow stared wide eyed. He had just given up six skills for the day. Skills that were essential to wage war on thieves and well known murders. Putting his head in his hands he could only hope that the quest rewards were worth it.
Struggling he finally stood on wobbling legs. Mounted up Buttercup, with his shaking hands he played a tune for his rats to bring the goods to a location they thought was safe, so if this gorilla warfare tactic failed they could have the cash to quickly come back swinging.
Struggling to keep his eyes open he set off to go find how Lilith brought a pony into the sewers. It could be that hard to find, right?