The wilderness area Duke had chosen was deep in the desert. He had seen this area in one of his flyovers and felt it would be perfect for this purpose. The Inn might not seem traffic anytime soon, but he was feeling no guilt over that. He was preparing to fight for his life and didn’t much care about anything else. If the dungeon grew slowly, so be it. He planted the core.
Quickly, the Inn took shape into a large building made of adobe. Duke waited for the Inn to completely form and read the sign above the door. It read “The Dusty Trail Inn”. With a shrug at the name, he entered.
“Greetings and welcome traveler! My name is Travis, and I am overjoyed to have you at my Inn.” The speaker was, of course, a minotaur. This one, however, had dark, curly fur and stood slightly shorter than Duke. The innkeeper’s musculature was pronounced and although there was much of the typical bulk of a minotaur, its muscles seemed more defined than bulky. His smile was warm and inviting like the entire atmosphere of the Inn.
“Good to meet you, Travis. I am Duke and I would like a long-term room here for two. It is unlikely that we will have any other patrons for quite some time but there are a number of individuals who will be coming with nefarious intent.”
“So, are you giving me permission to treat them as hostile agents?” The excitement and anticipation in the minotaur’s countenance was palpable.
Duke paused briefly, then continued. “Anyone I don’t specifically bring here should be considered with hostile intent. And to aid with your preparations…” Duke flared a massive, ten million Mana each into CLEANSE and REPAIR.
Travis grinned again. “Now that is welcome, but more than I can use at once right now. In time, I can use Mana in those amounts, but I’m still too low a Tier. Keep using Mana like that and I’ll move up rather quickly though.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, which room is set aside for me?”
“The top floor is all yours, Emperor.” Travis responded with a respectful bow.
A short time later, Duke was settled into his rooms, having manipulated them to fit his desires. He opened a communication Portal to Aurelia. “Hello, my love. Are you ready to come to our new hideout?”
“All packed and ready to go!”
In response, the communications Portal expanded into a full travel Portal which Aurelia used to step through and into Duke’s arms. The kiss that followed sent Duke’s heart racing and all plans for the next hour evaporated.
*** ELSEWHERE ***
Drackmalorie stood before her mirror, making sure that everything was in place as the timer in her display counted down. Twenty-six minutes until we reach the planet. This really is the backwoods of the cosmos. How did someone out here get a universal contract on them at Tier Four? Should I even pursue it? The price is extraordinary, but what will it cost me?
The peak Tier Four mage stepped away from the mirror and visited the flight deck where her partner, Arkmathus was piloting their small ship. She stepped up behind him as he stood before the controls. With a rapid series of gestures, she silently rose into the air behind his four-meter-tall form. He was deeply engrossed in the business of piloting the ship through the transition from exospace into material space.
She reached up, opening her snout widely, allowing her acidic saliva to drip from her fangs. With a snap forward, she dug her fangs into the ridge at the base of his neck, straining the scales there but not able to break through.
Arkmathus grinned while still focusing on the controls, maintaining the subtle and complex dance of exospace stealth needed to keep from attracting the attention of the unfathomably powerful creatures that called it home. One slip-up and the ship could be annihilated. Most ships sported complex automated systems to handle this task, but he did not trust them. He trusted in his and his mate’s capabilities and little else.
“You test me at this moment, mate.” The growl that accompanied his words sent a shiver down Drackmalorie’s spine. “We have no time for that now, but once we have arrived, be assured that I am taking you up on your offer. Even if we have to set a clutch in this backwards end of the cosmos.”
She backed off, her message delivered and received with the reaction she had hoped for. “My mate, I am uncomfortable with this contract. Something is telling me we should not pursue it.”
“But the prize is so large. An entire solar system of our own. We could raise thousands of clutches and start our own clan with that wealth.”
“I know we need the wealth. I’m not arguing that, but what Tier Four is worth an entire solar system? That is a price for an immortal contract. It worries me greatly.”
“Have we yet to find a target of our Tier that can resist us? Your magic is truly potent and who can stand against my strength? My claws rend starmetal!”
“That’s just it. We haven’t had a target challenge us in decades. We sit at the pear of our Tier. If not for banking our experience for our clutches to use someday, we would easily be in mid-Tier Five, perhaps higher. I am asking for caution in our approach this time.”
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“You know that is not our way, our tradition. How could we teach our clutches the way of the dragon when we run from a single challenge.”
“I did not say we would run. Never. But I wish to observe this target first and see what it is capable of. Stalk our prey like the predators we are.”
She knew that she had to frame it carefully to keep her mate’s bullheaded bloodlust in check. She saw the subtle relaxation of muscles beneath scales that showed her that she had won. He responded. “Very well, for your sake, we shall stalk out prey before consuming it. Now let me handle the arrival.”
Suppressing her grin at her mate’s subconscious dismissal driven by his ego’s resistance to the very idea of not charging in and rending an opponent. She knew that she had won this round but there would be a price to pay later and was gladly preparing her body for what would happen after their arrival. Arkmathus’ mating habits were as aggressive as his combat ones, and she prepared the healing spells she would need afterwards. As she finished, the ship arrived, and she moved up next to him to observe their target.
***
Duke finished his preparations at the Inn and headed outside into the hot, dry air. The area surrounding the Inn was dry and sandy, but it did have scattered vegetation making it different from what Duke had originally thought of when he saw this listed as a desert on the map. With a shrug, he moved a few kilometers away and opened up his DUNGEON SENSE to its maximum and began to rapidly exclude things from his notice. With his immense Psyche, his range with the Ability was over two hundred kilometers which made for an insane amount of information to sort through.
With his reason over 900, he was able to quickly sort through much of what he took in and set aside the vast majority of things as natural phenomena and not worth actively tracking. He did notice an actual caravan traveling at the furthest edge of his range. After a few moments of scrutiny, he set it aside from his active notice and continued sorting.
It took him over an hour to find something that stood out to him. He had spotted a trio of humans travelling his way slowly across the desert. They did not appear threatening at first but their continued trajectory towards him made him give them more attention. When they changed their direction to match the four TELEPORTS that he tested them with, he was certain that they were tracking him in some fashion. They were still fifty kilometers away, but he decided to confront them before they could set themselves up.
His latest TELEPORT put him a mere thirty meters behind them, causing them to slowly turn in a circle as their tracking device turned them around. Duke was able to see that the device appeared to be some sort of filigreed magical compass that one of the men was holding. They were all dressed in the similar sets of heavy plate armor. The armor was the color of blued steel and adorned with golden runic inlays. With their helmets closed, Duke could not make out their features completely as DUNGEON SENSE did not provide that level of detail when expanded to its maximum range. Still, Duke decided not to focus the Ability as he was sure this would not be the only group looking for him.
When the group finally turned around, the one holding the compass spoke. “You are Duke of the world known as Teldin, are you not.”
Duke decided not to play games just yet and responded. “I am, and if you are looking to collect on that contract, I will give you exactly one chance to turn around and go back from wherever you came from. Forget the contract and leave with your lives.”
Without skipping a beat, the speaker continued. “You have been specified as the target of a kill order by Her Most Holy Majesty, Elishtrasha of the Eternal Throne. Surrender now, and we shall make your death quick and merciful.”
Duke sighed and poured 100,000 Mana into both SILENCE and SOULFIRE. It was not one of his most powerful attacks, but it was one of his two attacks that he knew to bypass armor. The SILENCE washed over the trio followed by the SOULFIRE. Two of the three fell to the ground writing from the effects of the attack, including the compass-holder. The remaining one charged Duke while drawing a heavy sword.
His first slice was far faster than Duke had expected as he accelerated to a phenomenal speed, similar to what Duke had seen Aurelia do in the past. The blade was aimed to cut Duke’s head off. Duke decided to not let that blow land as he TELEPORTED behind the man a moment before the blade struck his neck. A sudden spurt of blood from his neck told Duke that he was not nearly as fast as he had thought.
The swordsman halted his charge, pivoting on his back foot to face Duke yet again. Upon seeing the blood, he charged again, looking to finish Duke off. Duke, feeling his REGENERATION already healing the wound took the man more seriously and armed himself with his tonfa, pulling them straight from his INVENTORY and into his hands. He blocked the thrust aimed for his heart, pushing the blade aside with his left tonfa and delivering a crushing blow with his right.
Duke’s blow folded the armor around the tonfa before throwing the man backwards like a ragdoll. It was then that Duke noticed that he had a deep gash in his chest and breathing was now very difficult. Good thing I don’t need to breathe anymore. As he healed his wounds, he made quick rounds of the trio, making sure they had all expired.
The one Duke had struck had completely folded around the blow, his armor nearly crushed flat at the impact point. The body was essentially bisected by the combination of the blow and the crushing of the armor. Duke was sure he was dead so moved on to the other two. With a hard yank, the helmets of each of them came off, exposing the frozen screams they each bore. With a gaze into their lifeless eyes, he took notice of his experience notifications as the final arbiter of their death.
*** You have slain a Triad Death Squad of the Eternal Throne. You receive 81,600 experience for slaying the three level 200, Tier Four assassins. You are now level 111 and have 18 Characteristic Points to spend. ***
Duke chuckled and put his Characteristic Points into Reason to bring it closer to the 1,000 threshold. He CLEANSED and RESTORED himself, returning his clothes to pristine form. He then set to looting the corpses while going through the combat messages. He had finished looting the corpse of the swordsman when he noticed something unusual in his combat messages. There was an additional line that he had never seen before informing him that the sword blows had been enhanced and extended by Vithshrek, the Teldin god of Swords.
Well, fuck you too. You’re the first asshole I’m coming for when I hit Tier Eleven. I knew I had dodged and blocked those blows! Have to be even more careful of swords from here on out.
He gathered the loot, including the bodies, into his INVENTORY and went back to watching for the next group of assassins to make a move. Come on fucktards. I can do this all day!