Chapter 10: The Spy Games Begin
The party of five beast girls returned to the Guild counter.
“How did it go?” the clerk queried.
“Good! I’m a white mage, Shiba’s a black mage, Vulp and Lupy are warriors, and Bandit is…” Kat trailed off, unsure how to complete the sentence.
“I’m a swordswoman!” Vulp shouted, her fox ears and tail bouncing in response.
“I’m an… archer,” Bandit said weakly.
“But they said you’re not that good with a bow!” Lupy insisted, somewhat inappropriately. “They even made you switch to a dagger.”
“Now now, girls. It’s still early for you, so don’t worry if you’re not all comfortable with your class or weapon selections so far. When Olivia gets back, I’m sure she’ll tell you all sorts of stories about people who changed classes two or even three times.”
“Who is Olivia?” Kat asked, pretending not to already know the answer.
“She’s another Guild clerk like me. Normally, she manages all the beginners and advanced beginners.”
“Where is she?” DM had instructed Kat to try to learn more about Olivia, if possible.
“She’s somewhere else supporting an investig—“
“Send Bandit to my office, please,” the Guild Master shouted down the stairs from above, his tone making it clear that the word ‘please’ was a formality only.
“Oh! Bandit, please go see the Guild Master.”
The five girls looked back and forth at each other, unsure of how to proceed. They were supposed to stick together, and Kat specifically was told to remain distrustful of everyone.
“Don’t worry, girls. I’m sure he just has some questions for her, such as about her class preferences. The rest of you can wait here until she comes back down. I doubt it will be more than a few minutes.”
“I’ll go.” Bandit proceeded up the stairs to the Guild Master’s office. Several nearby adventurers eyed her as she went, wondering what was going on but too nervous to voice their curiosity.
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“Scout the forest from the air. Focus on any areas with people.”
A bat accepted DM’s instructions with a screech and then flew out of the dungeon, infection in place. DM hoped this scouting experiment would be successful. While waiting for the bat to ascend and begin flying a makeshift search pattern, he used his ability touch skill on a mimic and a leech.
>Learned ability, Disguise.
>Unable to learn ability, Absorb Experience.
>Learned ability, Experience Touch (T1).
DM wouldn’t absorb experience from people he deemed to be innocent, but monsters and evil people like illegal slavers were fair game.
“I won’t even bother learning hibernate from a chickbear right now.” Chickbears had the body of a bear and the face of a newly hatched chick. The mismatch was kind of horrifying. “Wait…” DM remembered the bat he summoned a few moments ago. “Can I… learn the fly ability?”
Gleefully, DM summoned a second bat and used the ability touch skill on it.
>Unable to learn ability, Fly.
>Learned ability, Float.
The bat fell to the ground, no longer able to fly. DM dismissed it.
“What the heck is float?”
>Float: Fly very slowly.
“I’ll… take it I guess.”
DM floated around the room. The pace seemed equivalent to a slow walk so he wasn’t sure how useful it would be. It wasn’t tier-based so he couldn’t teach it to anybody either.
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“I better start paying closer attention to the bat scouting around.”
DM was able to aim his view down as the bat flew over the forest, but he couldn’t zoom in very much. Still, at this altitude, so long as he could see a person, animal, or monster from above, he could use sensing magic on it.
He spied a few pigs, goblins, slimes, and other miscellaneous beginner-level monsters. Eventually, he saw a party of humans.
“A party of four, all around LVL 15!?” Nervous at first, DM noticed that they weren’t proceeding towards the dungeon. They seemed to be scouting or perhaps searching for something… or someone.
The party consisted of two knights, a mage, and a swordsman. Scrying with enhanced sensing magic, DM noticed the swordsman’s reported class changed to assassin. He remotely ordered the bat to keep its distance so as not to tip them off.
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Two members of an adventuring party struck up a conversation with the four beast girls who were waiting for Bandit to return from the Guild Master’s office.
“So, where did you girls come from?” a handsome adolescent male swordsman asked, flashing them a toothy smile while the female black mage next to him groaned.
“From the west,” Kat replied. “Who are you?”
A bit surprised by how enamored the beast girl wasn’t, he asked, “The west? Oh, I’m Michael. You stayed clear of that new dungeon, right?”
“What new dungeon?” This time, Kat’s tone and facial expression were more accommodating, so Michael felt emboldened to continue while his adventuring partner exuded annoyance.
“There’s a new, low-level dungeon west and a bit north of the Twin Cities in the Lower Gordu Forest. There’s something really creepy going on in there though, like maybe an evil sorcerer.”
“Are you sure he’s evil?” As Kat finished her question, Shiba subtly squeezed her tail causing her to choke down a yelp.
“We don’t know,” the mage answered. “Michael and I escaped from that dungeon, but you all may not be so lucky. It would be a shame if new adventurers were lost, so you should stay away from there. Adventurers aren’t even allowed in the Lower Gordu Forest right now.”
“Okay.”
“If you need any help, let us know. We were novices recently ourselves!” Michael bragged.
“Michael, we just turned LVL 3,” the mage pointed out. “It wasn’t easy, either. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“I’m LVL 4!” a few of the beast girls shouted.
“What!?” Michael visibly deflated. The mage put an arm around Michael’s shoulder, waved at the beast girls, and dragged the depressed beginner away.
“I’m back.”
The four girls turned and greeted Bandit. Kat spoke for the group.
“What did the Guild Master want?”
“I… can’t talk about it.” Bandit looked conflicted, like she really wanted to answer Kat’s question but couldn’t.
“You need to tell us—“ Lupy was cut off by Kat putting a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Bandit. We understand.” Kat’s tone implied resignation but the darting of her eyes communicated a different message. “Let’s buy clothing and find a place to stay for the night.”
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“Well I certainly didn’t see this coming,” DM muttered to himself. “The Guild Master wants Bandit secretly trained as an assassin?”
In general, it made sense to DM that a shady organization like the guild would occasionally train people up for roles that they weren’t public about. On paper, Bandit, or perhaps one of the other girls, would be good choices because they don’t have any family or other ties to hold them back.
DM was a bit nervous that the Guild Master had already connected the girls to the dungeon and was setting up some high-level play or trap here. “Judging from what I’ve seen so far… I find it hard to believe that anyone in that city is playing 3-D chess with me…”
As though to punctuate DM’s point, he was secretly monitoring a party from the city exploring all around the Lower Gordu Forest in the most suspicious manner possible. The cat minion he deployed to stalk their party, from within earshot, was arriving at this very moment.
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“Ma’am, how is our progress?”
In response to the knight’s question, the mage looked up from her map. “We’re almost finished.”
“I, for one, don’t mind this relaxing opportunity to take a long walk through the Lower Gordu Forest,” the other knight offered, laughing gently.
“Quiet, you two. Don’t forget, we’re looking for anything unusual. Pay attention,” the fourth party member chided the knights into quieting down.
“Very well. The Lord did task us with this mission, so it must be of some import…” The knight quieted down after receiving the swordsman’s glare.
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DM didn’t learn much else by monitoring this group exploring the forest. He figured his next opportunity to gather intel would come tomorrow when the girls find out what they are and are not allowed to do as adventures. Of course, they’d whine and complain and ask why to extract as much information as possible.
So far, DM was impressed with their efforts. For example, he told Kat to act uninterested when people want stuff from them, and become cute and attentive when they want something from someone else. She seemed to play that Michael kid like a fiddle, and DM almost felt guilty.
“Maybe it was too soon for me to become a guardian? I’m making my kids into manipulative spies…”
Well, all he was using them for was collecting some information so it probably wasn’t a big deal. His bigger concern was Bandit. It could prove extremely helpful to have her as a double-agent who receives the most secretive mission from the Guild. What would he do when she got her first mission to assassinate someone or do something else equally grim, though?
He also wondered what the Twin Cities were up to in the larger sense. The girls had just learned that adventurers aren’t allowed in the Lower Gordu Forest. The group DM monitored seemed to be scouting on behalf of the Lord rather than the Guild. Most likely, the Guild Master had reported the possible threat of a Sorcerer named Salazar to some local Lord of the city.
DM hoped the city’s reaction would be to just steer clear of the dungeon, lest they incite a deadly conflict. That wouldn’t last forever, obviously, but DM was sure he could put some additional time to work. He could continue gathering information via the girls and his scouting minions. He could continue his hunting efforts around the forest while strengthening the dungeon. Most of all, he could study the console and, in particular, the tool he recently discovered which reminded him of a computer programming integrated development environment.