The young mage known as Felir had not been having a good few months.
He was the leader of a small but close knit team. Dahgon, the bruiser, was their tank and sometimes damage dealer. Circe was their rogue, handling trap detection, lock picking and backstabbing. Felir was the mage and healer, doing tons of damage and patching up Dahgon as needed. He was considered a prodigy, with an immensely large mana pool. The thought gave him a flash of pain. That large spiritual power was an advantage, but also a terrible danger, as he’d found out the hard way.
Setting aside that pain - it was over and done with - Felir reflected on the past few months as they trudged towards the city behind their new employer. The problem was the Deathless. Before they had shown up, Felir’s party had made a living doing a variety of things. Caravan guard was a big one, but also all kinds of random requests from the Adventurer’s Guild. Leaky dungeons were a big one, but also dealing with random threats in the countryside, from wolves to goblins. Even cleaning out the sewers, if the rats were getting too big.
The Deathless were throwing all that into chaos. They had come out of nowhere and were snapping up all the quests. Almost as bad, they were buying things in ridiculous quantities. Not food, thank the gods - that would have been BAD - but they were buying ores and crafting materials. Also monopolizing the smiths. Dahgon had bust his last helmet and they couldn’t get him a new one, or even get the old one repaired.
I thought I was a prodigy, but I have nothing on this man. Felir glanced at ‘Justice’. Clearly a fake name. The young nobleman was gazing away, his expression thoughtful and Felir thought he had never seen someone so handsome in his life. The silvery hair and the matching brows and eyelashes were particularly striking. He expects us to believe he’s not a noble? Felir snorted to himself. Impossible.
To Felir’s eyes, Justice was both a prodigy and a noble. He’d clearly benefited from advanced cultivation techniques when he was very young and had incredible mastery of magic. Using the power of the void… Felir shuddered at the thought. His masters at the academy, ancient wizards of incredible power, had all said that Void was beyond mortal control. For Justice to have that power meant he WAS a noble of a very powerful lineage, with hidden techniques. Royalty? Quite possibly.
Yet the most advanced cultivation techniques could not make up for a lack of talent and Justice had that in spades. During their short spar, it had been difficult for Felir to follow his movements and his magic had kept missing. His only clean hit had been the Flypaper and that hardly counted, because that spell had a natural tracking element that had caught Justice off guard. It was a very rare spell too, so it was no surprise he hadn’t seen it before. Felir had also noticed that Justice could use phasing and what looked like shadow step. Those were rogue only skills. Then, for the cherry on top, he’d used a healing spell at the end of the battle. Given that he was level six and using all those abilities, Felir could only conclude that he hadn’t committed himself to a class. That was an insane thing to do, and only a true prodigy would dare it.
Classes were paths in life that were laid down by those that came before you. Because of the law of inheritance, taking a class meant you would enhance every ability within the class, while spurning those without. It was possible to be dual classed and Felir himself was a dual class healer/mage. Being a dual class required intense dedication and talent. Justice, though, went well beyond that and it meant he could only have no class. He would be able to do anything, but nothing well… or that was the conventional wisdom, at least. Justice instead was doing everything well.
Is he really level six? Felir’s eyes narrowed as he ran another appraisal on Justice. The information came up exactly as it had before.
[Human 6]
Felir licked his lips. If that was true, his potential was simply monstrous. What did he need them for, exactly? Well, perhaps he wanted to enter dungeons. At level six, entering a dungeon solo simply wasn’t possible no matter what kind of prodigy you might be.
Still, if things hadn’t been the way they were, Felir would have recommended the party avoid Justice. He practically screamed trouble. A wandering noble so intent on hiding his face that he’d wear some pearled up, fur trimmed cloak that looked like it belonged in the King’s court? Yeah, that was trouble on the hoof. Then, like Justice had read his mind, he asked a question.
“You know, I love your mask. I don’t suppose you have a spare?” Dear gods. Felir actually did have a spare and they paused for a moment so he could root through his bag and pull it out. “Oh, thank you so much,” Justice said gratefully before donning the mask.
“Soooo are assassins after you or something?” Dahgon asked bluntly as Justice adjusted the mask to fit him.
“Oh, nothing like that. My face is just extremely memorable and I sometimes have to leave town in a hurry, so I prefer to be masked.” Justice tapped the mask. “It’s quite easy to change out one of these and because dungeon loot can sometimes be masks, it’s not even that unusual.” That was very true. Felir had seen a level twenty paladin once who always wore a silver mask, not because he really wanted to, but because the stats on it were just that good.
Felir didn’t believe him though and as he exchanged a glance with the others, he knew they were all thinking the same. Justice was on the run from something. Did they really want to be involved in this? Circe moved quietly to his side before whispering in his ear.
“Felir, do we want to?” she breathed and he wished he could say no. This could get them killed. But…
“We need the money,” he said aloud and Justice glanced back at them. Felir just met his gaze. “Things are rough in town, with all these Deathless.”
“Oh, what’s been happening?” Justice asked and that was all Dohgan needed to go off.
“Those fuckers take all the quests! And then they underbid us on the guard contracts! Motherfuckers don’t need to eat, how’s an honest hire sword supposed to make a living these days?” he complained and Felir nodded. “People have been turning to banditry out of pure desperation and then to put the cherry on the shitcake, the Deathless hunt them down! Bastards!”
“They’re also monopolizing the crafters. There’s just so many of them in town right now,” Felir said, feeling a bit exhausted just thinking about it. “And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
“Hmm. Not even the King?” Justice said and they all exchanged a glance. There were rumors about that.
“Some say the King brought the Deathless here. Some say he’s been bribed to look away. And some even say he tried to do something but all evidence of it was wiped away and he’s been terrorized into submission.” That last was the most elaborate rumor and several people swore it was true. They claimed to have hazy memories of the Guards gathering up the Deathless and then something happening, something they couldn’t quite remember. “Either way, he’s not doing anything and honestly, why would he? The Deathless aren’t causing him problems.” Quite the opposite, they had lit an intense fire under the economy. They were constantly dungeon delving and bringing new materials and buying things, yet not buying much food. It was great for everyone except - “The ONLY people who are really getting the shaft are adventurer teams like us, and only the low level ones.” The higher level ones were out of the range of all the Deathless, so far at least. Eventually they would have problems but not yet.
“Interesting,” Justice said in a thoughtful tone. “I’ve never heard of Deathless before. Where I come from, coming back from the dead is a very high level and difficult process. Does anyone know the mechanism?” Felir shook his head. He was sure the King himself didn’t know.
Then they were reaching the city and the guards greeted them as they always did, by crossing their spears and demanding a gate payment. Justice lifted an eyebrow but paid it for all of them.
“You have to pay to enter a city here?” he asked them as they were allowed through the smaller, pedestrian door. They would only open the big ones if they had to. Felir gave him a curious glance.
“You don’t where you come from? It’s a way to keep poor farm people from going to the city, we don’t need them here.” The city had enough beggars already. Some farm folk always deluded themselves that they could find their fortune in the city but there was honestly nothing here for them. Unless they could learn to cultivate and gain a few levels, at least, but then they would have the gate payment.
“No, but then I suppose it would be impossible with the size of the cities I have known.” Eh? How big could cities get? Felir thought Istun was huge! “Not to mention - well, I shouldn’t go into that.” Felir glanced at Circe, meeting her glance. They wished he WOULD go on. Dahgon didn’t care, just taking the lead. He always knew the way to the most disreputable tavern and inn. Although.
“Uh, Justice, what quality of accommodations are you looking for?” Felir asked, trying to sound deferential. Surely someone who would wear that cloak would like something better?
“Cheap.” Oh. Well then. Dahgon barked a laugh.
“I got that!” Yes, yes he did. Felir winced and resigned himself to more fleas. Sure enough, Dahgon took them deep into the old Thieves quarter, where honest men hardly dared to go. Felir hated that they were staying here but they had no choice. The money was running out fast. On the way, they paused at an authorized, adventurer friendly jewelry shop to sell the pearls. It required that they show their emblems and swear a mana oath they weren’t stolen - which they could do, since Justice had given them permission to take them - but they got a semi-decent price. Not a GOOD price, but not the absolute shafting a pawn shop would have given them.
Money in hand, they got the keys to two rooms at the inn. They might have gone for food immediately, but Justice wanted them to have a chat in a more private venue, so they went upstairs to the rooms first.
“We can discuss your employment terms downstairs. That’s relatively unimportant. However, the matter of how I’m going to get money to pay you needs to be private and I need your help.” Justice said when they were inside the room they’d gotten for Dahgon and Circe. It had a single bed and a bit more space. The one he and Justice would be sharing had two beds. Felir stared at him in bafflement as Circe frowned and Dahgon scratched himself. “First, let me set up some privacy wards.” He could do that?!
He actually could and Felir watched his every move intently as Justice spun out his internal energy into intricate patterns. It awed him because Justice’ actually had a much smaller mana pool than Felir. But he just used it better, with a level of efficiency that Felir’s teachers could not even have matched. Was this the result of Royal techniques? They all knew the nobility hid things, only nobles achieved the higher levels. They liked to claim it was their superior blood, but the rumors of hidden techniques would never cease.
“Done. Now we can talk,” Justice said before taking the bed and sitting on it cross legged. They were left standing but he was the boss, so Felir thought it was his privilege. “I have a ton of things we can sell but the problem is that most of them are completely unsafe.” Unsafe? “And I don’t know what we can get away with. I need your help.”
“What do you mean by ‘unsafe’?” Felir asked and Justice paused for a moment before reaching up and taking off the mask. Felir swallowed at the solemn look on his face, feeling a painful squeeze in the pit of his stomach. It had been a very long time since he’d had sex with anything but the palm of his hand but… there was a very good reason for that…
“Let me start with the most extreme example, so you understand the problem. If anyone knew we had this, we would all die,” Justice said before pulling something out of his dimensional storage. Felir drew a hissing breath through his teeth as he looked at it.
It was a tiara. A beautiful confection of white gold and diamonds, it looked like interlocking leaves of giant diamonds. Tinier diamonds formed geometric patterns, surrounding the larger diamonds and Felir felt almost like he was choking as he looked at it. This was wealth beyond anything they could dream, enough money to retire for the rest of their lives.
“What, are you kidding me? You trying to say that’s real?” Dahgon snorted and then Circe slapped him on the shoulder.
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“Of course he’s saying it’s real,” she said, her voice tense. Felir reached towards the tiara, waiting until Justice nodded in permission before taking it. Then he tried to appraise it. The appraisal spell was a very useful skill and it kept shopkeepers from screwing you, Felir was glad he’d learned it.
“Oh my god,” Felir breathed as he took in the information. It was all real, real gold and diamonds, of such worth that his spell could only come back with question marks. But beyond that, infinitely beyond that, was the description of the item.
Tiara of True Royalty
Effect: Once per 24 hours, the buff Royal Truth can be activated on the user. When used, for ten minutes, all statements made will affect the listener as a Law of Truth. This effect will persist until the death of the user. Not effective on those of higher level than the one wearing the tiara. Requires that the one speaking has the position of liege lord over the one listening.
Required level: 30
You do not meet the required level.
Felir wanted to drop the tiara like it was hot, but instead he read the description aloud in a hushed voice.
“What would happen if you tried to sell that?” Justice said with a small smile, as if he already knew the answer to his question. But then, how could he not?
“The King would arrest us and throw us in the deepest, darkest dungeon he has and torture us to find out where we got it,” Circe answered instantly. Felir nodded mutely as Dahgon scratched his head, looking mildly confused. “If we somehow managed to avoid that, we’d have to flee the Kingdom. Assassins would be after us.”
“It’s too much. Too much,” Felir whispered. This tiara was unsafe for any non-Royal to own. “How did you get this?” They all stared at Justice, who looked mildly uncomfortable. “You’re Royalty, aren’t you?”
“Um? Oh, no, I’m not any kind of noble.” No one believed that! “I uh… took it off the dead body of the previous owner. After that, I kind of just forgot about it. My… employer never asked for it, I think he forgot about it too. And I still had it when I left his employment, so here we are.” What in hell was Justice talking about?
“Are you mad? No one could FORGET an item like this!” Felir said, his hands tight on the tiara. Justice shrugged and held a hand out and he reluctantly passed it back. Justice popped it back into his dimensional storage necklace. If his mind hadn’t been fried by the tiara, Felir might have marveled at a mere level six having such a storage.
“You’d be surprised. When you are old enough and have enough things, a bauble like this can just slip your mind. Also, I can’t use it. I am not and have never been a liege lord,” Justice said before smiling. “Would you like to see my most valuable item? It isn’t that, I assure you.” Oh god what?
“Yeah, why not, lay it on us,” Dahgon said and Justice materialized a dagger into his hand. That was a nice trick, and it meant he had a ton of practice with his dimensional storage. The dagger was a weird color, a strange purple and Justice flipped it to offer it to him hilt first. Felir took it and appraised it, wondering what could possibly make this simple blade more valuable than that tiara.
Dagger of the Ruinous Void
A dagger infused with the powers of the ruinous void. It will ??? any opponent when ??? occurs. ??? will result in ??? with the potential to ??? every five seconds until death.
+5 all stats
Soulbound. Growth Item.
Well, those question marks meant his appraisal had partially failed. Felir felt a deep shock, though, as he read the description.
“You own a Void dagger?!?” Felir almost hyperventilated as he realized what he was holding. “This doesn’t have a level requirement! It’s a growth item!” That was an item that would improve with every level Justice gained, growing with him. The only reason this was safe to show in public was the fact that it was soulbound. That meant only Justice could use it and killing him would only result in it turning into powder. Soulbinding was an irreversible process. If it hadn’t been soulbound though… it could actually be worth more than the tiara. “Where did you get this?!?” Justice shrugged.
“A challenge dungeon that I decided to solo like a complete and utter fool, when I was only level eight.” Felir stared. How was he alive?
Challenge dungeons were smaller, separate dungeons within larger ones. Small encystments, they were widely acknowledged as insanely dangerous. Entire teams had died in them many, many times, seeking the holy grail of items just like this.
“Don’t be like me.” Justice’s voice was now incredibly stern, as he leaned forward to stare at them intently. “I came out of that dungeon with seven broken bones, a sucking chest wound, a deep gut wound and three different status ailments including void corruption.” Felir flinched. That was what Justice had hit him with in the battle and he knew now that it hurt like acid, only worse. He’d been hit with acid before so he knew. “The only reason I am alive is because it was an official training dungeon and there was a healer right outside. AND the usual healer, a level fifteen, had taken the day off and her supervisor, a level twenty-two was actually on duty. She just barely stabilized me and I was in a coma for five days.” Justice paused, his eyes flinty as he looked at each one of them in turn. “I was in debt for years to pay off my treatment and the only reason the dagger wasn’t taken from me to pay it was because I soulbonded it instantly. You won’t be as lucky as I was. Don’t be like me.”
“Wait, you said you did this when you were level eight. You’re level six now. Have you lost levels?” Circe suddenly asked and Felir blinked. He’d missed that point. Justice hesitated a moment before nodding.
“I don’t want to go into the details of how it happened. I don’t trust you that much yet. But yes, I’ve lost levels and the only reason I’m telling you even that much is because I’m sure you’ve built some kind of idiotic story in your head about how I’m the only surviving Royal of a distant Kingdom and managed to escape with the treasury.” That… that thought HAD crossed Felir’s mind. There weren’t many reasonable explanations for this. “I’m proud of my history as the child of a level three slave, raised in an orphanage. I particularly like how it shits all over the idea of ‘pure blood’ some Royals try to promote.” Justice’ tone was venomous and Felir nodded and Circe grimaced and Dahgon growled. They’d all encountered that ‘good blood’ excuse for why Nobles had better cultivation and level growth. It was such shit! But Felir had an idea that was making his breath come short.
“Can you teach us better cultivation techniques?” he asked and Justice shrugged.
“Probably, when we have something to cultivate with.” Ah. Right. They would have to kill enough monsters for a level up before worrying about that. “In the meantime, while this is fun, let’s stop playing and find things to sell.” Right.
They began sorting through Justice stuff, putting them into piles. The first pile was the ‘keep’ pile, that Justice just tossed back into his storage. Then there was the ‘sell’ pile and the ‘maybe’ pile. Some of the items that Justice pulled out were odd in the extreme.
“Oh, this is fantastic! We can probably sell these for good money,” Justice said and Felir looked dubiously at the barrettes he was holding. They were in the shape of golden butterflies. “Check out what they do.” Do? Then Justice gently set them on his head.
The butterflies suddenly animated and before Felir’s astonished eyes, they wandered over Justice’ head, gathering up his hair with suddenly long golden ‘hands’. They braided his hair into an intricate crown in just five minutes, moving with an incredible precision. When they were done, they each decorously settled on his head and spread their wings before becoming inanimate.
“Now you really look like a woman,” Dahgon said with a laugh and Felir blushed, glad it was hidden by his mask. That hairstyle showed off Justice’ long, white neck. Justice just smiled, tilting his head to show off his hair and inadvertently making Felir’s embarrassment worse.
“We could probably sell that as a rare dungeon drop, to a boutique. The Guild also might take it for the monthly auction,” Circe said and Felir nodded. That was a good one. Then Justice tapped the butterflies twice and they moved again, undoing all the braids. They were put into the ‘sell’ pile and Justice went back to pulling things out of storage.
“Too high level, stupid junk, this is cursed no one would want this, what even is this?” Justice muttered as he pulled out, checked and tossed things. The last thing he was holding was what looked like a handful of wires and gears. “AI, what is this?” AI? “Wow, broken, thank you I would never have guessed… oh! Now I remember why I kept this. This is made of a very rare ore, it can be used to make some very good weapons. I have no idea if your smiths can work it but we could see if they would take a chance on it, what do you think?” Hmm. Felir tried his appraisal on it.
Broken piece of junk
Made of ??? this broken piece of junk serves no function. Possible uses as a raw material if refining conditions are met.
Refining conditions: ???
“Huh,” Felir muttered before shaking his head. “We could try. Maybe someone with better appraisal or smithing ability could figure it out.” Justice nodded and put it into the ‘sell’ pile. Then he took out a necklace of fine gold, set with a fire opal. It went into the ‘maybe’ pile because of the level twenty requirement. Far too many of the items had high level requirements.
Then Justice pulled out something really odd, a ball of woven cloth. It was very colorful, green, red and blue and seemed to be filled with beans?
“What is this - oh! Right, I still played with this sometimes. Circe, you can have it,” Justice tossed the ball to her and she regarded it with puzzlement before handing it to Felir. He quickly appraised it before almost dropping it.
Ball of Agility Training
A cultivation aide created by a high level physical cultivation expert. Bouncing it and playing with it will strongly promote the physical cultivation of agility. Results depend on the user.
“This is a cultivation aide. Circe, this is a cultivation aide!” Felir had only heard of things like this. They were considered legends, normally only handed out from high level gurus to their apprentices. It was said Noble families had them, carefully preserved and passed to their heirs with every generation.
“Are you serious?!” She snatched it out of his hand before bouncing it, eyes widening as she felt something from the ball. “That’s insane! I can have this?” she asked Justice and he frowned.
“I want to make this clear to everyone… I don’t care how valuable an item is. If we find something that one of us needs, that person gets to have it. I’ve seen far too many parties hamstring themselves out of greed and I won’t have that. So yes, that’s yours now.” Justice said firmly and Circe’s smile was beautiful as she stood up and began to play with the ball. She bounced it from foot to foot, keeping it easily in the air. “Those things are actually very common where I come from. Honestly, I only held onto that one as a keepsake, I think it’s the same one I was given when I was just a level three.” Common?
“Those things are common? What, did your Nobility give them out?” Dahgon asked and Felir shook his head. He couldn’t imagine the Noble families doing that. Then Justice surprised him.
“That’s exactly it, actually.” What, really? “It’s very valuable to pinpoint talent among commoner children. Give them those aides and you’ll see what they gravitate towards, and who has a real aptitude. My home has a lot of wars and the army is always recruiting, you see.” Ah… really.
“We’ve been at peace for generations.” Nothing ever seemed to change much in this place. Justice smiled, a touch sadly.
“You’re lucky. Well anyway, I think I have a few more of those.” Justice sorted through his storage and pulled out a cube puzzle and a small weight. The weight turned out to be a surprise, as it automatically adjusted itself to the strength of the user. Dahgon tried it out and was soon fighting to lift it, a big smile on his face. Felir took the cube, seeing it was a series of logic puzzles. He quickly solved one and felt a click in the back of his mind, a tingle of his spiritual power moving. The next puzzle was more difficult and he chewed on his lip as he stared at it, trying to understand.
“Come on everyone, we still have work to do before supper, put those away.” Oh, yes! They reluctantly set aside their new toys, putting them into their bags. Then they went back to sorting through Justice’ junk. Despite how valuable most of it was, Felir was falling into thinking of it that way… it was such a random selection of items, with no rhyme or reason to it. And there seemed to be no end to it.
The end came when Justice called it quits, not when the storage was emptied.
“I think that’s enough, we have a good pile here and we need to get some food.” Yes, Felir’s stomach cramped up a bit. He was starving! “Also, we need to discuss your employment terms.” Justice said before touching his storage device and concentrating a moment before swearing. “Damn… I wanted to make a special partition for these, but my storage is damaged. I need to get it to a space mage soon.” Felir frowned behind his mask. Damaging a storage device was incredibly hard to do. Was this related to Justice level loss? “Does anyone have any spare bags?”
They did indeed have spare bags and they took the loot with them down into the tavern. Leaving anything of value alone in your room was how you lost it. It was late and the tavern was clearing out, so they got a nice table in the corner, only lightly stained with spilled beer and a few old bloodstains. The surly but efficient barmaid brought them mugs of beer and bowls of stew, which they all tucked into immediately.
Once the edge was off his hunger, Felir brought up the terms of employment.
“Two hundred silver knuts a week, for each of us,” he said firmly, knowing it was a bit high. Justice smiled softly.
“I don’t bargain. Just tell me, is that truly a fair price?” Felir immediately felt a strange kind of threat in the air. It put him on guard and made him want to drop the price. And yet… they needed this. Felir swallowed hard before squaring his shoulders and meeting Justice’ eyes.
“With the Deathless around? No, you could get us for half the price. But if you want this to be a permanent arrangement, I ask that you pay our full price,” Felir said firmly. And that was close to true, before the Deathless had come and tanked the adventurer economy, they could easily have earned six hundred silver knuts a week. Justice looked surprised, then smiled warmly.
“I see, fair enough. Two hundred a week then.” There was a sense of relaxation all around the table. Dahgon grinned before taking a deep drink of his beer.
“You’re a right one! Try not to get us killed and we should all go far,” he said with a laugh and Justice laughed as well, taking a drink of his beer. Felir noticed he was able to do that easily while wearing a mask, so he must have a lot of practice. He made a mental note… when they went to sell all that stuff tomorrow, they needed to get Justice his own mask. Felir felt a small stab of pain, but just ate his food resolutely, carefully not fouling his own mask.
He wished he was like Justice, wearing a mask because he wanted to, not because he needed to.