“What’s all this then?” The voice was clear and strong coming from the mouth of the alley. It was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of chainmail as a trio of men dressed in the same livery as the gate guard strode confidently into the alley. All the observers gave them a wide berth and melted away as soon as their attention moved to Duke.
“Nothing to be concerned about. Just a minor disagreement.” Duke put his most innocent face on, pouring his Psyche into the innocuous look as he turned to the guards.
The guards saw the orc laid-out with the blade still mostly clutched in his hand and made a snap decision. “Was he trying to rob you, good sir?”
“He really just lost his cool. He didn’t hurt me, so I really don’t want any trouble.” Duke poured some additional Mana into his LASTING DISGUISE to make himself look smaller than normal. It was a subtle change but effective.
“Are you sure? Tukelstan is a known troublemaker. We could make him go away for you.” Duke did not need any Abilities to read the subtext of the requested bribe for additional “services.” Shit. Now I have to bite, or they’ll focus too much on me.
“You could?” Duke asked in his most obsequious and innocent manner. “Getting such a ruthless thug off the streets would be quite the service for the city. Can I perhaps buy you fine gentlemen a drink in thanks?”
“No, we’re on duty. We don’t have time to pause for a drink.” The lead guard responded.
“Then, perhaps,” Duke paused as if thinking, “I could give you the money now for a drink later when you are off-duty?” Duke fished around in his coin pouch and instead pulled three gold coins from his INVENTORY. “Would this be enough for you three to slake your thirst after such a long day of service?”
The lead guard smiled as he took the coins. “It is a blessed day when a citizen such as yourself sees the truth of things so clearly. What is your name?”
“I’m known as Dave, sir. I really do appreciate you three stepping in here and helping me with this ruffian.”
“Well, Dave, the Chopian Guard are always vigilant. We are happy to help our respectable citizenry. Now, please be on your way so we can take care of this criminal for you.” The dismissal was clear in their words and Duke happily took the cue to depart. He headed back out of the alley, repeating the cleaning trick on his way into the Inn. As he entered, he kept an ear on the guards with a bit of CLAIRVOYANCE to watch what they did.
Two of the guards picked up the unconscious orc and the leader led them back down the alleyway. Duke could only see them as his Ability followed as there was too much noise in the Inn to hear through.
The Innkeeper approached Duke and offered his hand. “Thank you for taking that outside like you did. Not many would have, nor been able to deal with Tukelstan all up in his anger like that. Here, let me get you a drink in thanks. Name’s Larkin.”
Duke took the man’s hand. “Name’s Dave and I’m happy to take such unpleasant business outside. That’s where it belongs anyway.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Now, what can I get you?” Larkin pressed.
“My apologies, but I’m quite tired and think I’ll just go up to my room. In fact, save the bath for tomorrow. Sleep is all that I have on my mind right now.” Duke was rushing as he was reaching the edge of his CLAIRVOYANCE range.
“I totally understand. We’ll save that drink for later then. Go get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Larkin waved him off with a smile and Duke headed up the stairs to his room.
When he got into his room, things appeared just as he left them which was encouraging. He locked the door behind himself and immediately TELEPORTED to a rooftop he could see at the limit of his CLAIRVOYANCE. Thankfully, he was able to spot the three guards as they continued their path through the back-alleys of the city. Duke pursued, employing all the Stealth he could supplemented with his TELEPORTATION from roof to roof and his CLAIRVOYANCE to enable him to watch without having to peer over the edges of the roofs.
Duke continued to pursue the trio and their burden until he saw the building they entered. It was a two-story square stone building. The windows were barred and the door was reinforced with iron bands. What was most interesting about the building was its location. It was across the street from possibly the largest structure in the city – the Grand Arena. Memories and emotions flooded Duke’s mind as he took the structure in. From the outside it was a very different structure. It was magnificent to behold with carvings of combat and warriors throughout its structure. But Duke knew the other side of things all too well. He renewed his vow to free those who had helped him.
Alighting on the roof of the building, Duke switched into DUNGEON SENSE, reining it in as quickly as he could. The roughly five-hundred meter radius was still way too much for him to process within the city until he got more used to the input. He reigned it in to a thirty-meter radius that easily covered the building below him.
The building was clearly set up as a prison of sorts, but with only a single cell. This led Duke to guess that it was only a temporary holding place. There seemed to be some sort of underground tunnel network as well that Duke didn’t readily understand. He saw the orc, Tukelstan, deposited in the cell. The lead guard removed a bracelet from the orc and stepped outside the cell, closing the door behind him.
Moments later, Tukelstan woke up and scrambled to his feet. He took a look around the cell and began to shout about how they couldn’t do this to him. The guards laughed in response. “We have the king’s writ. We can do whatever we want to do, you dumb orc.”
The guards left Tukelstan ranting in his cell as they headed to a lower level in the building. There, they opened up a cabinet and pulled out a miniature glowing stone hammer.
“Gravlostros! We have a new recruit for you. He’s an orc berserker and would be perfect for the Stone Faction.”
A deep and rumbling voice responded. “Excellent. Keep him there for now. I’ll come retrieve him once the night watch has changed.”
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Duke’s mind raced with the realization of what was transpiring. That’s why this place is so close to the arena. And that explains the tunnels beneath everything. And it’s time to kick the plan into motion. Duke TELEPORTED into the cell with Tukelstan.
Duke held up a hand, hoping to stop the orc from shouting out. It worked for now. “You have a choice to make. You can either come with me or stay here and spend the rest of your days fighting in the arena.”
“You!” Tukelstan growled. “You put me here. I’m going to-“
Duke flared his Psyche. “Stop. Make a choice or I will make it for you. You can have your freedom back or you can stay here and probably die in the arena.” Duke felt a flaring of his PURPOSE at that moment.
Tukelstan paused, actually thinking it over. A sinister smile crept across his face before he answered, rubbing one of his tusks. “I’m going to be the greatest gladiator this city has ever seen! And I’m going to get one hell of a reward for turning you in. Guards! Guards!”
Duke stood stunned for a moment at the wildly unexpected turn of events before shaking his head. “Your choice. Your loss.” He TELEPORTED back into his room at the Inn. Well, that didn’t go at all like I had expected it to. I might have to ditch this disguise and this location. I’ll scope out a new spot in the morning. For now, it’s really late and sleep is calling me. Duke settled into the bed and fell asleep quickly.
The morning greeted him with notifications which was a bit of a surprise as his morning notifications had been sparse as of late.
*** So, you finally decided to crawl out of your hole and do something. Even if it was to get into a back-alley brawl and have your dance partner arrested. Strange way to give him his dream job. How do you think that’s going to work out for you? Whatever the case, all the practice you have been taking at directly imposing your will upon other people couldn’t possibly backfire, right?
Be that as it may, we are encouraged by your bold move to the big city. Your clever use of your Abilities has been noted.
CLAIRVOYANCE has increased to Initiate 5
DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Adept 7
INVENTORY has increased to Initiate 5
TELEPORTATION has increased to Adept 13
CLEANSE has increased to Initiate 16
RESTORE has increased to Master 19
Similarly, your Skills have seen some effective use.
Stealth has increased to Initiate 25
Martial Arts Combat has absorbed the Skill: Brawling and has increased to Adept 20
You are becoming potentially entertaining again. We are watching. ***
Duke rolled out of bed and activated CLEANSE and RESTORE as usual. He ambled over to his window and gazed out over the city. He couldn’t see much as his room faced the back alley, so he activated his DUNGEON SENSE to get an idea of what was happening around him. He had to rein it in again as five hundred meters was just too much information to take in just yet. He decided to use the sense more often so that he could acclimatize himself to the disorienting volume of data that it brought in. He pulled it back to one hundred meters to capture the immediate area around himself.
He was able to see the Inn and the activity going on in the common room. He could also see the activity going on in the other rooms around him and quickly turned his focus away from them after seeing more than he had bargained for. He directed his focus down to the common room and saw things as he expected with patrons eating their morning meals. Larkin was at the counter, keeping an eye on everything. Duke expanded his focus to take in the street out front.
Even this early in the morning, the streets were bustling with people moving about their morning business. Duke watched them come and go for a while but was unable to discern any real pattern from their movements. He did notice that even though the streets had been scraped of filth overnight, they were quickly filling back up as horses and other beasts of burden moved through the streets. The smell was building up and his acute senses were not happy with him.
Duke was sorely tempted to pulse a CLEANSE over the area but was sure that would blow his cover if the idiot last night hadn’t. Fuck! I can’t believe that idiot orc actually wanted to be an arena-slave. Now I have to switch to Plan B. What was Plan B again…
Duke’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. With his DUNGEON SENSE still running, Duke was able to see it was Larkin. He felt a flash of disappointment that it wasn’t the pretty elven server from yesterday but he answered the door anyway. Larkin glanced down the hallway in both directions before gesturing his way into the room. Which Duke allowed as he stepped back.
“Sir, there’s been a problem. The guards are on their way here, looking for you it seems. I don’t know what happened with the altercation yesterday but if the guards are coming for you, it must be serious. You are a VIP guest of mine so I will get you out of here through the tunnels so that they do not find you, but you must leave before they get here. You must leave now.”
Duke was surprised by this particular turn of events. Not that the guards were coming for him because he fully expected the orc to rat him out, but rather that the Innkeeper was going out of his way to help him out. “Well, that’s not ideal.” Duke replied. “We should get a move on it then.”
“Gather your things and we’ll go.” Larkin instructed. He became confused when Duke looked at him and replied that he had all his things packed and ready to go.
Larkin took a glance around the room, shrugged, and said, “It would seem that, yes, you have all your things with you already. Good. Follow me.”
Larkin led Duke down the back stairway that was behind a closed door made to look like a cleaning closet. The trip down took only a few seconds, but the change was significant. They emerged through another door but this one was heavily barred and looked rather sturdy. Larkin gave Duke a serious look.
“Sir, I don’t know what the guards are searching for with you, but I am sure you never returned after leaving last evening. The entire common room could attest to that and none of us would be lying. That’s exactly what I will be telling them. You strike me as a good man, especially in how you handled Tukelstan and took the fight outside. I truly appreciate that, so I’ll give you this advice. Get out of this city as soon as possible. It is getting worse by the day. People are disappearing every day, and the guard doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it. Everyone’s afraid to go out at night even in small groups. Makes me think the guard are either involved or told to look the other way. Nobody’s seen the King for a while and the Duke Regent is a cruel man. Get out while you can.”
Duke listened to him, nodding along as he got the perspective he had been looking for all along. “I appreciate the advice, but I can’t leave just yet. I have unfinished business here and I need to find some things and some people before I head out. But don’t worry about me. No guard is going to take me down.”
“Be that as it may, they have mages amongst their ranks. Dark mages. Be careful.” Larkin looked both ways down the tunnel before continuing. He pointed to his left. “Take that tunnel until it branches. Take the first three left branches and the first right after that. You will find yourself close to the wall and might be able to get out that way. Good luck.” Larkin stepped back through the door and Duke could hear the barring mechanism being engaged. With the closing of the door, the tunnel was plunged into darkness.
With a shrug, Duke set out down the tunnel, following Larkin’s directions as he had no better path to follow. Here, under the city, his DUNGEON SENSE was even more useful. Upon reaching the first intersection, he expanded his DUNGEON SENSE to see what else he could find in the tunnels. The network of tunnels turned out to be far more expansive than Duke had anticipated. There were at least ten different levels of tunnels and not all of them were empty. In fact, he quickly discovered that the bottom tunnels were teeming with motion. There could be an entire army down there from the number of bodies he could sense moving. Duke immediately set off to investigate.