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Two hours later, Duke had his gear sorted out including a few emergency disguise talismans. He also had a list of things that the others wanted him to pick up in the city if he could. He had discussed with the others what they thought he should expect. Aurelia just looked back at them all with an ironic expression when they asked for her suggestions. As they continued to prompt her, she stated, “I’m 50 centuries out of date. I have no idea what this city is like.” Duke rejoined the group for dinner that evening to talk about how everything was going. He felt renewed vigor as he finally had something to talk about. Elaine, Grat, Baslin, and Aurelia joined him at the command table with the typical greetings and small talk as a server brought over drinks and food.
Duke decided to get them started. “Any entertaining tales or exceptional progress to report?”
Baslin smiled as he talked about the upcoming Mage Tournament. The prospect of the tournament had sparked intense competition amongst the mage groups, leading to some rapid leveling. But what excited Baslin the most was the push for new Spells. He was beaming when he told them that he had created five new spellbooks for each of his mages.
Grat explained how the defenses were coming and that he actually had a trio of engineers from the soldiers’ ranks. They were hard at work designing and constructing siege weaponry for the army.
Elaine had taken to some longer patrols beyond the thickened forest but had not found anything worth mentioning.
Aurelia was happy to report that she and her leadership team had all reached level 10 and were ready to start ramping up the challenges in the dungeon.
Duke nodded his way through their tales, providing supportive sounds and gestures throughout. When they were done, he started his own. “I did a longer-range patrol today. I made my way out of the forest and found a village named Rahmfar. It’s a quaint little farming village.”
“Did you speak with the village inhabitants? Did they have any useful news?” Aurealia asked.
“Not exactly.” Duke responded. “I didn’t speak to anyone from the village. I spoke with the village’s Guardian Spirit.”
“The what?” Grat asked. Elaine and Aurelia nodded in agreement with Grat. Baslin simply looked on contemplatively.
“I was using my new Spiritual Sight from the Title I received in the dungeon and I spotted a fight taking place over the village so I dropped down to see what was going on. It turned out to be a bunch of winged wolves attacking a giant serpent in the air over the village. Naturally, I jumped in and wound up taking the wolves out.”
“Naturally.” Elaine responded, dripping with sarcasm.
Duke smiled at her and continued. “After the fight was over, the Guardian Spirit, who was the serpent by the way, opened up and we had a great conversation. It seems that the Guardian Spirits protect groups of aligned people from threats that they never see coming from the Spiritual Plane or even know they encountered. What really excites me is the prospect of what kind of Guardian Spirit we can form with all our forces aligned together. I can’t wait to see that.”
The group peppered him with questions about the Spiritual Plane and Guardian Spirits. Even Baslin was intrigued as he had no real experience in this area. They talked well into the evening before splitting off to sleep for the night.
The next morning saw Duke excited to head out on patrol again. He wanted to take a closer look at the capital but was reminded not to actually get close enough to be spotted. What he wanted to do was to go into the capital again and do some hands-on intelligence gathering but the others talked him out of it for now. He chafed at the concept of sitting back and waiting for someone else to do something. He brought it back up in the command breakfast.
“I know you all want to sit back and wait until the army is trained up before we do anything about the king. I understand your reasoning and all the risks involved. But here’s the thing. He doesn’t know that we exist, let alone that we are out here. Nobody knows we’re here. That is a defense in and of itself. Grat has been doing a spectacular job building up our defenses so that even if someone finds us, we are protected. I can’t sit on my hands like this. I need to be doing something and it needs to start with Chopie and, let’s be honest, Pahste will have to go too.”
The group listened patiently while Duke ranted. Baslin was the first to speak up. “You still feel like you have to do everything yourself, don’t you?”
Duke saw the question as the trap it was meant to be, giving Baslin a knowing smile. “Clever little verbal trap, Baslin. The point is still the same – it’s time to be more proactive than reactive. However much I want to just TELEPORT in and empty the vault, you keep telling me that it’s a bad idea. I don’t agree, but fine. I’ll hold off on doing it for now. But going into the capital with my disguising Abilities – that’s something that is low-risk and will at least get us some information about what’s going on in there. The army will have returned by now. We don’t know if they are dispersed to their homes or if they are preparing to invade somewhere else.”
Aurelia jumped into the conversation. “I do not like the prospect of our most powerful asset placing himself into such an unknown danger, but we do need intelligence. I have a handful of scouts in training, but they are not ready to scout out a city by any stretch of the imagination. I say that it is time to scout out the capital – I agree with Duke.”
All other eyes locked on Aurelia. This was a decidedly unexpected statement from the General. Until now, she had been solely focused on training and leveling her troops and leaders. As part of that, she had chafed whenever any discussion had turned towards moving forward before she felt ready. She was clearly concerned that her troops were just starting out again and would not be ready to face an experienced enemy.
“That’s a bit unexpected.” Baslin responded to Aurelia.
Aurelia continued. “I am loathe to send my soldiers into combat before they are ready and right now, they are very far from ready. But it would be far worse to find an unknown enemy at our doorstep. My scouts are not ready for this task and if anyone around here can handle themselves when things go to the serpents, it’s Duke. I don’t have to like it, but I would be a piss-poor general if I didn’t accept the logic of it. We need the intelligence. I’m fairly certain that I’ve already said that.” She turned to Baslin. “Do you have a scrying spell that will show us what’s going on inside and underneath the castle?”
Baslin looked like she had just kicked him. “Technically, yes, but the castle itself is shielded from that particular scrying spell.”
“Oddly specific protection…” Elaine stated giving Baslin a knowing look.
“Yes, yes, yes. Dammit. I put the scrying protection in place on the castle. I could probably cancel it but that would require me interacting with the warding runes in person and that is not something I am prepared to do without considerable time and care. I set too many traps into that runework. All in service to King Estros. You know…my friend!”
The group acknowledged Baslin’s frustration and pain from how things had gone after his friend died. They didn’t pursue the matter.
Duke waited a few moments before speaking up excitedly. So, it seems I have a trip to make. I’ll need to maintain a good disguise and will need a list of anything you want me to get while I am there, but this will be a great chance to see how bad things really are there.”
“Oh, quit gloating, Duke. Your girlfriend backed you up. Congratulations.” Grat responded.
Duke looked at Aurelia. Aurelia looked at Duke. They both looked at Grat’s retreating back as he quickly made his way out the door. Somehow, Elaine had already made it through the door and was laughing uproariously outside.
“Oh, you must excuse me. I just remembered that I have an enchantment I need to check on in my lab.” Baslin quickly disappeared too.
“I should make sure my-“ Aurelia started.
“Yeah, have to get my gear together.” Duke agreed. Both quickly retreated blushing like teenagers.
Some time later, the group gathered again to see Duke off. Duke looked back at the group and sighed. “Yeah. Time for me to get going. Wish me luck and let’s hope this goes better than the last time I went to the capital.”
With a wave, Duke TELEPORTED outside the capital city. It was a spot he had identified as being at low risk of him being spotted. When he appeared, he scanned the area around him with his newest sense. DUNGEON SENSE presented information to him in very different ways than he was used to seeing. It was a 360-degree, spherical sense that covered above as well as below ground and all around himself. In his experiments over the past few days, he had learned how to limit the scope to less than the five-hundred-meter sphere that his sight could reveal. He pulled it back to a 600-meter circular band around himself for now, not concerned with much above or below just yet. His sight revealed much of what he expected – there was no one nearby that could have seen him appear in the grove of trees beside the road.
He stepped out of the grove and made his way down the road towards the city. He had placed himself about five kilometers away from the city gates and as he got closer, he began to come across other people on the road. Many were heading in towards the city but there were a few heading out. None seemed particularly happy, which was right in line with what Duke expected.
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When he did eventually make his way to the gate, there seemed to be three lines of people going into the city. The longest was the one that had wagons and carts in it. The next longest was for pedestrians who were dressed as common folk. The final line was the shortest and moved the fastest. It was clearly for the wealthier by the way people were dressed in finery. Duke got in the second line and waited his turn. He was able to overhear several conversations as he waited. Eventually, he was drawn into a conversation himself.
“What’s yer story, stranga?” The speaker was an older, weathered man dressed in dirty clothes. He had a leather bag slung over his shoulder and reeked of old sweat.
Duke smiled, keeping his disguise running. “Not much of a story. Just a traveler looking for a place to stay for a week or three before I continue on my way. Know of anywhere a man who’s good with his hands and has a strong back could get some honest work here?”
“Honest work, you say? I’ll say there’s a fair amount o’ that ‘round ‘ere.” He nudged a neighboring man. “And a fair bit o’ not so honest work, eh Rog?”
“A might lot o’ that fer sure.” Rog replied. “You’d best be keepin yer hand on yer coin in ‘ere, stranga.” The two men laughed at their own joke.
Before long, Duke was at the gate and the sloppily dressed guard stopped him. “Name and business?”
“Name’s Dave and I’m travelling through these parts, looking for a place to stay a while. Can you recommend a decent inn for me?” Duke held his hand out to shake the guard’s, a pair of dull silver coins palmed. The guard shook his hand with a knowing smile.
“Head you down the main street, right, until you see the Church of Emrae. The Golden Circle is a fine Inn that’ll suit you alright. Move along, friend. Plenty to check in afore the day be done.” The guard accosted the man behind Duke. “Oi! You lot! What you on about! Bring it up and let me see what ya got.” Duke moved on quickly, happy to pass under the radar.
It did not take long to make it down the main thoroughfare, stepping around carts, wagons, and everything left behind by the various beasts of burden in the street. He was mostly successful in avoiding the worst of the muck but by the time he reached the inn in question, he found it necessary to scrape his boots before heading in. He activated a well-concealed CLEANSE to truly get all the muck off himself and headed in.
The Golden Circle Inn was a bit more upscale than Duke had expected with clean floors and no sign of the filth from the street. When he came in, he noticed the Innkeep take an immediate look down at Duke’s boots. Upon seeing no filth being tracked into his establishment, the Innkeep smiled at Duke. “What can I do for you, sir? A room? Perhaps stabling for your carriage and horses?“
Duke smiled at the man. “Just a room for now. I have made other arrangements for my carriage.”
The Innkeeper didn’t break character but Duke could read the tiniest hint of disappointment when Duke declined the carriage services. “Very well. How many nights, and is it just you?”
Duke produced three gold coins and placed them on the counter. “It’s just me and I would like meals and a nightly bath for…”
The Innkeeper swiftly and inconspicuously took the coins and finished for Duke. “Two weeks sir. Very well.” He reached under the counter and produced a key. “You are in room fifteen. Meals are served all day long and your bath will be brought up after sundown. Is that acceptable?”
Duke smiled at the Innkeeper. “That will be just fine. Do see that my sleep isn’t interrupted. I’m a bit grouchy when I don’t get enough sleep. Especially so, with anyone who interrupts it.”
“Aye. Be assured, you won’t be disturbed in this establishment.” The Innkeeper confirmed.
Duke took the key and headed up to his room to change his clothes and refresh his LASTING DISGUISE and AURA CONCEALMENT Abilities. He headed back down and set up at a lonely table. The server came over relatively quickly. She was a rather comely elf of indeterminate age. With Duke’s experience with elves which amounted to virtually none, he was sure she was anywhere between sixteen and two hundred. Do elves even exist like fantasy stories have said. No idea and asking is not an option.
“- going to order something or should I just go away?” Duke realized that the server had been talking while he was lost in his thoughts and quickly recovered.
“What do you have that is hot and good to eat?” Duke asked, adding all the smoke he could to his gaze and smile.
The reaction was subtle, but Duke was able to read it. Still got it, baby! She recovered quickly and responded. “We have quinlah on the grill, a moslet stew, or, if you can handle it, spiced semlah.”
“Oh, I like it spicy. Bring me the semlah and something to quench my thirst.” Duke was laying it on thick but it fit his cover perfectly – attracting attention, but the right kind of attention. He could hear some comments being made at other tables in the area. Good, they are taking this as trying to have some fun.
“I’ll be sure to make it extra spicy just for you.” The server headed back towards the kitchen with an extra sway in her hips. Duke had no expectations of things going farther than this flirting play, but it served his cover too well not to keep it up, and if it did…well, he was perfectly fine with that too.
It was not long before the server came back with a plate overloaded with some sort of striped meat dish that was steaming along with a mug of ale. “There you are.” She made sure to lean over towards him to give him a good look at her assets. There was no subtlety to her body language and Duke picked up on it rather easily.
Duke gave her a warm smile and watched her leave for a bit longer than he really should have. He only just managed to look away before she turned around to catch him. Super-reflexes for the win! He dug into his food and found it spicy enough to burn the inside of his mouth. His REGENERATION and Endurance combined to allow him to eat without issue. He even smiled as he went in for the second piece of semlah. He truly enjoyed the underlying flavor and texture despite the added spiciness which tried hard to overpower the dish. He finished his meal and drink, offering the server a smile when she returned to pick up his empty plate.
“You actually ate that entire dish?” She asked incredulously.
“Of course. Why would I waste food?” Duke answered nonchalantly.
“Didn’t the spice burn you?” She asked with the hint of confession in her tone.
“I did ask for extra spicy, didn’t I? Although the spices did try to overwhelm the underlying flavors. Overall, I think it would have tasted better without the additional spice.”
She looked flabbergasted. “Um, yes. I suppose it would have.”
Duke smiled back at her invitingly. “Perhaps we should save additional spiciness for other pursuits. What do you think?”
She flushed hotly and quickly fumbled the dishes she was picking up, barely managing to corral them before they fell. With a brief, furtive glance back at Duke, she rushed back into the kitchen.
Duke was congratulating himself when the expected happened. The light around him was darkened by a figure standing over his shoulder. Duke looked up glacially slowly, trying to suppress the grin from forming on his face. “Can I help you?”
“You can stop flirting with my girl. Got it?” The speaker had a voice that hung between rumbling and gravely as if his mouth were full of rocks and his lungs were half-filled with fluid. He was as tall as Duke and built like a green-skinned powerlifter. His thick, wide head rested on his wider shoulders, showing nearly no neck. His face was defined by his pig-like nose and thick tusks protruding from his mouth.
Duke laughed. “Your girl? I doubt it. You might think she’s yours, but she sure as hell doesn’t feel the same way. Now go back to what you were doing and leave me be. Your attempt to intimidate me was total weaksauce.” Duke flared IDENTIFY before things could really get started.
***
You have encountered an Orc
Name: Tukelstan
Class: Berserker
Level: 32
Health: 6,501
Mana: 396
***
As expected, the reaction was the same in this world as Duke’s own. The orc’s hand reached for Duke’s shoulder. Duke’s reaction time was far, far faster than the orc’s. His hand shot up and grabbed the orc’s wrist in a vicelike grip. “Go back to what you were doing and leave me be. Capiche?”
The orc’s other hand came down at Duke’s head in a hammerfist. To Duke’s current level of ability and extreme reaction-speed, the blow was telegraphed by a week. Duke pulled the orc’s other hand hard enough to yank it in the way of the blow, causing the orc to smash his own arm with his descending fist. The arm didn’t budge from Duke’s grip causing it to absorb the fullness of the blow. By his bellow of pain, it seemed to hurt. A lot.
Duke released the possibly now broken arm and gave the orc a firm but not particularly violent shove away from him, causing the orc to stumble a few steps back. “I told you to leave me be. Go back to what you were doing and mind your own business.”
The orc bellowed in rage and came charging back at Duke who slid his chair out and stood to meet the enraged orc. The orc came at him with both arms outstretched to grapple him. Apparently, the arm wasn’t broken.
“Not inside!” Duke shouted at the orc with the full force of his Psyche aimed narrowly. Duke wasn’t sure how it really worked but it was something he had been experimenting with recently and had found that the force of his personality could be weaponized to an extent.
The orc stopped in his tracks and Duke continued. “You really want to fight, fine, we’ll fight. But not in here. I’m not going to disrupt these fine people’s meals or break any of our host’s furniture.”
The orc seemed to break out of the momentary pause Duke’s trick had initiated and continued to pursue Duke. Duke, for his part, was headed for the door, staying one step ahead of every one of the orc’s attempts to grab him. When they got outside, Duke walked over to the side alley and stepped in, away from the crowd. The orc pursued him, boiling hotter and hotter with every missed swing or grab. Several other patrons followed as well, eager for the entertainment.
A few meters into the alley, Duke turned back to the orc, slamming his palm into his chest. The orc stumbled backwards, barely able to keep his feet under him. “If you really want this, I’ll give it to you. But remember, I am giving you the chance to walk away and have this forgotten. Everyone here watching knows it too. If you do this, it is purely your own choice.”
“I’m going to grind your bones to paste and squeeze them out your ears!” The orc raged as he charged Duke once again.
Duke sidestepped the charge and planted a fist deep into the orc’s solar plexus. The air whooshed out of the orc’s lungs as he staggered to a stop, turning with bulging eyes to attack Duke once again. Duke obliged, stepping into the orc’s stance and using his hip and thigh to launch the orc from his feet. He landed hard on his back, struggling even worse for breath.
Undeterred, the orc rolled to his feet and charged once again, brandishing a long, thin-bladed knife with what appeared to be a serrated edge on the backside. Duke frowned.
Duke dodged three wild slashes with the knife before grabbing the orc’s wrist once again and holding it immobile.
“You really don’t know when to quit, do you?” Duke asked as he proceeded to block each and every follow-up punch and kick the orc threw at him. The orc heaved his trapped arm in an attempt to throw Duke. In response, Duke flared his FLIGHT ability to maintain his immovable position. “Do I have to actually hurt you to get you to stop?” Duke asked, his voice dripping with sympathy.
“Going. To. Kill. You.” The orc flipped the knife into his other hand. It was a smooth and deft move. Duke admired the skill it took but decided enough was enough. As the orc tried to slice Duke’s intestines open with the knife, Duke used the grip on the orc’s other arm to flip him over, putting the orc’s body between himself and the knife. The orc landed hard on the cobbles, smacking his hard head with a grunt.
As a final follow-up, Duke landed a single restrained punch to the orc’s forehead, causing it to slam back down to the cobblestones below. The orc finally collapsed unconscious. The crowd alternately cheered Duke and Jeered the orc. No one else seemed interested in getting involved beyond that. There, that should at least get me a conversation with the crowd I'm trying to meet.