Without further delay I begin my miniature presentation.
“Schematic of Suggestion using a specialty spell list, 600 gold in materials. Schematic of Invisibility using a specialty spell list with reduced duration, 600 gold. Hat of disguise, 675 gold, materials to make a professional quality disguise kit for another 25 gold. That should be it for gold, I would need 1,900 gold for this and I have 400 on hand, so in total I would need an additional 1500 gold. It should take me a day to get suitable materials, and 2 more days to craft those 2 schematics, and another 2 days for the Hat. Beyond those, I already have materials for a few skill related buffs I would need to improve my success rate attempting to cast those spells, and those would require about 3 more days, and I need to finish the Schematic I am currently working on, so 1 more day. In total, I would need about 9 days to have the required spells and tools ready, at least 1 of which would have to be before we leave here” I say.
Pausing for effect after explaining the time and money requirements, I then continue. “As for the plan itself? We all come close to the encampment. I disguise myself as an Orc and attempt to infiltrate. I find where the leader of the detachment is, and report some sort of anomaly. During my report, I will cast suggestion on their leader, saying that he should investigate it personally. I lead him to where the rest of you are, and we take him down far enough outside the encampment that getting into a fight doesn't cause us to get swarmed. Obviously, there are risk factors. For instance, I am not a good liar. But that is why I would use magic to convince him to leave rather than relying on my natural persuasion, and I will buff my spell casting success rate prior to infiltrating so that the implausibility of a lie is significantly less likely to cause issues. Invisibility would only be needed if something goes wrong while attempting to lure him out; the 2 minute duration should be enough time for me to come up with a way to escape. I expect that the leader himself will be a better target than one of his Shamans would be, because the leader will probably not be as strong against mental magic as the shamans would be. He will probably bring several other Orcs with him, likely elites in their own right, and for this to succeed we will have to be able to neutralize them quickly, and then flee quickly before his extended absence draws attention and pursuit. And of course, no matter how good the plan, sometimes a fluke just makes it fail anyhow. But realistically I am guessing this plan has about a 50% chance of success, and I think I probably have about a 90% chance of ensuring my own survival if things go wrong during the infiltration. As for the actual fighting? We don't know how strong the leader actually is or how much support he'll bring, so all I can do is guess. Taking down 15 of their regulars was already a major challenge, and at that time we had a lot of environmental factors giving us a significant advantage. But doing it this way we can again ensure that the environment favors us, and if it is clearly too large of a force for us to fight against, I can lead them in a different direction and then use invisibility to escape.”
“I reckon this is still pretty dangerous,” says Joaqim, “You're spot on with the risks, but using invisibility as your escape tool would be pretty easy to toss to the wool if one of their shamans is there. And they prolly will be. Not just that, how would you cast suggestion without immediately getting slaughtered, maybe even before it does its thing? As soon as they see you start chanting, they're gonna split you from stem to stern.”
“I have a special ability called Magical Scroll that I can use to create enhanced effects using certain types of magic items. Although it takes an imbuement slot, with it I can remove the verbal component from the required expression when using a schematic. I will still need to put my hand on the schematic, but having it on hand will be the only indicator that I am casting a spell, I wouldn't even have to point it at him or anything else obvious, the targeting is based on sight, context, and will.”
“If it’s a group of elites, we'll be buggered. Getting the drop on them won't be enough even if it's a small group.”
“Maybe. A large group of elites you're definitely right, but if there are only a few that he brings with him, as long as we can give Regina some distance we might be able to take them. The biggest thing we need is better gear, and I will probably be able to complete both your and Bucky’s armors between now and arriving at their encampment.”
“I thought you said making that armor would take years?!”
“I did, and it would. And then you guys helped me level up. The Schematic I am working on now will help me craft nonmagical things in a significantly more timely fashion moving forward.”
“What do the rest of you think. Bucky, think you could stand toe to toe with one of their elites if you had that armor? Regina, do you have the ability to pull that much money together? Beyond that, do you think the plan is good?”
“No, but I could slow them up a bit. It's up to you, Joaqim.” Says Bucky.
“Every time," Regina says, "The first time we went out you managed to keep everyone but Jim alive even though we were fighting a dragon. A tiny one, but still a dragon. The second time we went out, those healing potions saved everyone else's life, and because we got back up as fast as we did, we even completed the mission. This time the mission is clearly far too difficult for our classes and abilities. Braza, you are a miracle worker. To actually come up with a viable strategy here is incredible,” Regina states before continuing, “I have some spare money because I was able to loot the bodies of my former comrades. I am not proud of that, and someday I want to locate their families and pay them back what they had earned. I would not see it used lightly. But if the rest of the group agrees, I can loan you what you need, and we can recoup that from the top of the reward from this commission, or from future commissions if this one fails.”
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To be honest, I'm not comfortable with her thinking of me as some sort of a lucky charm. People I work with die, too. Perhaps they do not die as often or as easily as subordinates to my peers, but dead is dead, and knowing that other people in the same circumstances might have lost more over time is cold comfort for the families of the fallen.
Just before I reply to Regina, Joaqim picks up the conversation, solemnly noting “Braza, you haven't actually said this is a plan you wanna do. If you are unwilling, just say the word and we drop the job right now. Riverwind's still an option.”
I take a breath, pausing for a fraction of a second to mentally review the plan once more, and throw out my opinion.
“I do wish we could wait until we were stronger, with a bit more power this wouldn't be much of a challenge at all, but this is the best plan I was able to come up with given my current abilities, and I do think it has a decent chance of success. More important to me than success, is that we have a good chance of surviving. I'll be taking most of the risk, but buffed up I think I would have good odds escape if things go wrong during my portion. If the suggestion works but the number of Orcs coming is clearly too much to handle, I will try and lead them a different direction before using invisibility to try and escape the encampment entirely, so the risk we will all face is somewhat mitigated as well. If you see a bunch of activity in the encampment, don't wait for me at the ambush site, meet back at the carriage instead. My poor acting skills are the biggest hole in this entire plan. But I only have to convince 1 Orc, and I hope to use magic to do the heavy lifting on convincing him. I say we do it. Rewards and risks go hand in hand, and nothing good will happen if I just turn into a baker.”
“What is buffed up? And what exactly do you have against bakers? I didn’t even know lizardfolk baked, yeah I've seen you eat a lot of things, but you're a weirdo. For the most part I thought Lizardfolk ate things raw or barbequed?” Regina asks.
“Buffing means you are using spells to enhance people. In this case myself. As for my grievance with bakers? There is none; I find pastries and carbohydrates in general delightful, but someone very powerful once told me not to be a baker.”
“Carbo- What? Actually, never mind. I don't actually care, and I understood well enough.”
Joaqim delivers the official response the next morning, while I borrow 1500 gold from Regina and go on a shopping trip, followed by a full day packing and crafting. The next morning we meet at the gate. This time, no one is impressed by my carriage upgrades. There were no upgrades this time, after all, all I've accomplished with regards to the carriage is repairing the damage from the last expedition. I halfway expected everyone to freak out anyhow, but it turns out that since they can’t see how many things have changed with my abilities, they don’t know how impressed they should be. A pity, that.
Joaqim gives the 500g we received for accepting the commission to Regina; Bucky and Joaqim take their seats as the drivers of my carriage, and we head Northwest, to the Break mountains. I honestly thought there would be a bit more variety in scenery when I decided I was going to risk my life for a living.
I also expected there to be more variety in monsters we are given a commission to kill. Sure, we are killing wolves and bears and ogre zombies and more along the way, but there’s rarely good loot to be found from most of the creatures we kill, we are doing it for the level increases that are associated with killing. There's also rarely any challenge when you've got an expert scout, sorry Ranger, vetting the fighting ahead of time specifically to ensure that it's always a walk in the park.
I’m not sure how, the class system is far too opaque for a clear answer to present itself, we don’t even get notifications for when something gives experience points versus when it doesn’t, but I feel like there really must be a better way to do things. More efficient would be beneficial, and more humane would be nice, too.
Not that there is a shortage of dangerous things that sapient creatures would do well to wipe out if they could, even the wolves in this world are unnaturally commonplace and aggressive, I just think it would be better if the necessary slaughtering could be curtailed and become a bit more selective, or even have it eliminated entirely so that only creatures that there was a good reason to kill off were being killed. That however, belongs to future problems.
Speaking of future problems, I do still wonder if it might be possible to save my wife and my kids from the torment that Mental Me said they (and nearly everyone else on Earth) will be experiencing… It will be a long time before I will even have a possibility of finding out if they can be saved, but trying to save them has been a goal for me since I found out what death was like. I have no idea if it is possible, and if it is possible, I have no idea which method would be required. But I have not forgotten, and I do not plan to. No matter what race they would reincarnate as, I cannot get myself to calmly accept that they will remain isolated and trapped in their own thoughts until the abyss, whatever that is supposed to be, eats them.
Mental Me said that he did not know what the abyss was, but that it was terrifying and that it ate people like me when I was disembodied, and he believed it would eventually eat him too. Considering that Mental Me is so powerful he can pull out disembodied souls and chuck them into babies on other plants as a hobby, I do not like the thought of an existence powerful enough to eat him. But that, too, is a problem for further down the line. Probably much further.
Before that, save the family from the misery they are living in. As soon as I can figure out a way. Before that, trying to bring Jim back. In a world with resurrection and reincarnation, I would rather not turn my back on someone who has risked their life alongside me. After this commission, if we are successful, bringing Jim back might not be so far-fetched anymore.
Since I do not know the answer to most of those future problems, for now it is one day at a time, one level at a time, one crafting project at a time. Not literally on crafting projects. I only have one schematic for it so I can only use manufacturing at most once per day, and I can only craft up to 1 miscellaneous magic item per day for no reason that makes sense to me. It seems downright arbitrary if I am being honest, but at least the limitation is clearly understood courtesy of the knowledge inherent to the special quality. But hey, my paper manufacturing has been proceeding nicely with new paper every day, so that is a win.
Speaking of wins, we are expecting it to take 17 days to arrive at the Orc encampment as long as it did not move. We are officially on the road. It is time to build items and upgrade gear. It is time to build up some wins.