Waking up with a cold was never fun, this time Seth had the amazing medicine he liked to call `breaking into a safe` to distract whatever illness he was suffering from.
The safe he caught yesterday was of rank 3 quality, in other words, this meant he had an actual chance of opening it up. Rank 3 objects were equal to level 30-39 artisans so suffice to say that Seth was a bit out of his league.
However, he had unlimited time to slowly whittle away at its defences. For now, the safe had a thin but tough layer of protection in the form of a shield that covered the safe like a glove to a hand. It sparkled as it took in magic from the surroundings.
That layer, Seth would break through with sheer force. Now he could chuck it off a cliff, but sadly this safe may have sensitive objects that could break, so sadly Seth resigned to just placing some heavy stones on it. See that would increase the consumption of the shield's magic unsustainably so eventually the shield would just cave in.
Yet again, Seth was playing the long game: it was also good for passive experience.
Finally, he was done, and his gains were being processed. That rank 5 safe was way out of his league so he would wait a considerable amount of time before dealing with that. For now, he was done.
But, at that moment he could swear he heard something. `Is that...
`House One calling?!`
He laughed at himself. He was probably going a bit mad: to be fair he had not interacted with many over this period, and this was a far cry from his usual carefree situation, now he was in a stress-ridden environment his brain decided shitty humour was the best bet. Or maybe he was just mad.
Messy hair, decent cloth clothes and a pair of solid shoes made the young adult walking down the street unremarkable. If any outsiders were to point out something weird about him, it would be his blue eyes hidden under his jet-black hair that seemed to shine like sapphires under the warm morning sun.
A smile was on his lips for his morning was to be an easy, simple robbery.
No fires, no climbing up trees. Nope, this time all he had to do was walk through the unlocked front door. Take what he wanted from the security-free house One, and walk out the door. That was it.
What could possibly go wrong?
Seth, thinking this, was casually whistling to himself as he entered house One. It was a homely house with a lit fireplace, a rocking chair, and cheap paintings aplenty, but Seth was not here for those.
He was here for that mini vault. So, he looked for it and found it under the stairs. It was only rank 1 so Seth had it opened in seconds as he pocketed a rank 4 Dagger and around 10 silver. After that, Seth started to make his way home. The wind was calm, Seth's humming was rhythmic, and the birds were chirping; that all ended with a whistle.
Sharp, exact, and perfectly on pitch, this sound was one of perfection. Seth turned towards the sound, he was not the source, and he could tell the source was close, too close.
He moved towards the sound. The birds grew silent, Seth’s hum had disappeared, and the wind stagnated; the sound of a whistle replaced it.
Closer, and closer, Seth moved. Should he run away? Was it a Detective?
Latent curiosity: a killer of many, yet, at the same time, one of humanity's greatest resources; was it to claim another victim or bless another pitiable subject?
Seth saw what the source was. The Gentleman was here!
He sat comfortably on the chair, his even physique fit his suit perfectly. His cane was now repeatedly hitting the floor, which itself looked ornate and the monocle on his eyes spoke of unholy wealth. His mouth formed a smile when he saw Seth again.
“Well didn’t someone become a bit of a criminal? Look at you robbing someone in blinding daylight, the gall is almost impressive, but the talent is what I’m more impressed with. You are what, level 15 already. You were level one when I met you before.
Tell me little one, how did you do this, and I may let you go.”
Seth was shocked someone knew of his level. He never told anyone, but of course, some people would have a skill to see levels. He tried to think of a reasonable answer and told that to the man,
“Well, Sir I worked 24/7 and tried my best that is my only secret,” Seth said leaving out the part where he was a Demon.
The man thought about his answer and laughed, “You think how much you try affects the experience gained. It does, but not to such a significant degree. Well, what should I do with you? I could kill you, remove the evidence and then be on with my day, or I could get myself some guild credits.”
The Gentleman looked in his own world for a moment as Seth contemplated running out the front door. As he was about to begin his sprint, the man released his pressure.
Seth’s mind could hardly fathom what level that man had been to release such level, or what skill could allow the user to manipulate their aura to such a magnitude. These thoughts flew through his mind as Seth's body flew into the floor. The wood splintered as it gave way to such pressure and weight that Seth exerted on it, Seth fell into that gap and lay there, unconscious.
The man was a bit shocked but maintained his perfect mannerisms and got up. “Hm, I did not expect that to be so strong. Seems I have been lacking in my training nowadays. Right, but what about the child? It would be ungentlemanly of me to leave him in such a state and killing him when we are so unevenly powered would be an injustice.”
He smiled as he got up and used his aura again to pick the boy up and take him outside. He then manipulated the boy onto his shoulders, and they disappeared around the street. The sound of the cane only grew further in the distance until its rhythmic tapping could no longer be heard.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Seth woke up with shattered memories of what had happened before. He swore when he remembered that pressure, his father had never been close to such a level and now he was what kidnapped the man. He was in some real trouble now.
“Boy, such language is crude and only used by the lower class. You are now a member of The Deck Of Madness, deemed yesterday by yours truly, and whilst you could thank me, I shall take your silence as a substitute.”
The man was sitting, perfectly as always, on a bedside chair.
Seth tried to take in what he had just heard but his mind folded into itself. It was too quick, too sudden, he needed time to comprehend this madness. So he asked again, but slowly.
“Where am I?” Seth said as he looked around the dimly lit room. He seemed to be... underground.
“You are underground in the local guild hub, more specifically in its containment room.”
Containment was not a great sign, but Seth ignored that for now, he wanted to know more about the guild he had just joined.
“What is the Deck Of Madness and also how big is it, you said local guild hub like there was more?”
He seemed to like Seth’s question as he explained, “The Deck Of Madness is unlike any of the local guilds here, they are tiny in the grand scheme of things. We are not massive but instead potent, every member is deemed talented enough to reach the Grandmaster level. Our goal is to rid the world of the word `Evil classes` as the founder found great injustice with her being called that.”
The Gentleman seemed to resonate with those words and said them with an uncanny amount of passion. Seth wondered more and more about what class the Gentleman was.
“Now our size is rather small for our scale, but I can tell you that there are several Grandmasters and higher who lead the guild, though they are not going to be in this lower-level kingdom. Now I believe I should tell you how membership works.”
“Before that, get up. I will be explaining things as I also point things out, that will make it easier for you to understand.” The gentleman got up and led Seth to the door, as it opened the sight of a real underground hideout appeared.
A wide cavern filled with buildings made of stone. Dotted like mushrooms in a forest, were these majestic buildings, with signs over them displaying what they were used for. The cavern itself seemed to be split into 5 sections, but Seth was sure he would learn about them as he walked around.
They walked to a pointy wooden building first. “This is the alchemist's shop, buy potions here using guild credits or sell potion materials for guild credits. The Diamond shape that you see shows us that these are our sect working classes so Builder or Alchemist.”
“For that to really make sense you need to know that our guild is separated into 4 sections like a pack of cards. Diamond is for the Working classes, Heart is Medicine and Healthcare, Spade is for Melee Classes and Club is for ranged classes. Red is for Utility classes and black is for Attacking/Defending classes. Finally, every member had a particular card number which separates them from the rest. I...”
He pulled out a card that gleamed under the torchlight. It was a 7 Diamond with the symbol of a Spades on it as well. “has three words, Knighted Murderous Butler. So I am both a Working class and a Melee classer. The Knighted has to do with my status in this country and I’m sure you’ll learn about that in class. For now, If you check your pockets, I’m sure you will find your own card.”
Seth did, and he pulled out a 1 of spades. Seth thought for a moment before he came across a realisation.
If he was level 15 and had the number 1, that meant this Gentleman’s level, with a card numbering 7, was in the seventies. The implications of such shocking knowledge made Seth bow to the man.
“Sorry for the disrespect I have shown you!”
“No worry, respect should be earned and not given, that is my belief. Many bow to those who are powerful, but I like to think I would only bow to those who deserve my admiration, so get up. The next building is the homes.”
Both Seth and the Gentleman walked all over the cave and the 5 sections revealed themselves to be for the 4 cards separate shops/training facilities and the 5th and central section was the housing section and the mission hall.
Seth also met several others being shopkeepers and other members. He noticed that they bowed to the Gentleman and knowing his level Seth did not see this as weird, though he did guess that he was likely the highest level here and had a position of something like the branch manager.
“Seth, there is one more thing we must do to finalise your recruitment. Know that if you disagree you will be treated with a hefty cocktail of skills that will make you feel as though this was all a dream. You need to sign an Oathbound contract.”
With that bombshell came a piece of parchment Seth had only heard about from rumours and legend.
Oaths were promises that held real punishments for those who broke the terms. The punishment depended on what god you swore against, but it came with 3 punishments: the variable, the set, and the random.
The variable was a punishment where God limited the person's talent in their Domain, so say a Druid broke a vow on the God of Life they would see reduced ability in their skills and even their experience gain would take a hit. In essence, depending on the god you swore to you would lose talent in that area. This was deemed the lightest of the punishments as you could swear on a Domain that did not affect you.
The set punishment was simple, 5 levels were taken from the one who broke the contract. Simple, but enough to make any higher-level person quiver in fear. At the higher levels, every level counted far more than those in the twenties or thirties. This was deemed the most mediocre of the punishments.
And the Random punishment, from having the hair fall from their head to having their wife fall dead. The random punishment was as poetic as it was ruthless. It would always cause the breaker to torment, and it had the greatest power of all 3, being the unknown.
Now you could not just take an Oath on the streets you needed a special material produced by The Order and only then could you make such a grave promise. Its cost played a factor in its rarity, but it’s because it scared away employees. Think about it, one slip of the tongue and that would be all it took for potential decades of work to vanish.
That and trust were far better image-wise than signing an unbreakable vow. Take weddings, which here had a different ceremony, but the outcome was all the same, Imagine if a couple took a ten-gold contract that they would never cheat on each other and then forced the other to sign it. In reality, the Contract showed the proposer’s mistrust of the signer.
Now Seth needed to gauge the value of signing in opposition to not signing.
It wasn’t exactly a hard choice, he signed it once his thought had gathered, and the conclusion was reached. All these facilities and all he had to was keep silent and do his fair share of work and eventually achieve a goal he wanted to anyway, It was a steal so good Seth was already taking notes.
They parted ways after the Gentleman, whose actual name was Leonard, told Seth of the initiation classes, which would give him some basic knowledge lessons.*
Seth was rather overwhelmed with all this and so he made his way out the hideout back out to the street. The whole system came out of a restaurant bathroom stall which was odd but much better than Seth’s hideout. But he did swear that in the future his would be far more elaborate and deceptive.
He made his way to a local hill where he sat and stared: at the setting sun. He remembered he used to do this when he was overwhelmed. That had happened a lot when he was a child, so much new stuff made his mind tired, and the moon was where his mind found solace.
He had begun his journey: pickpocketed his first pocket, visited the city's underworld, escaped from life-threatening danger, stole his first safe and joined a new organisation. He had done a lot, even gotten to level 15.
But it wasn’t enough. He clenched his fingers until blood seeped from his palms. Seth needed to be stronger, to live a life free of death.
And so, as he descended the hill, his steps were filled with purpose. The path ahead may be treacherous, fraught with uncertainty, but Seth embraced it with open arms. For he had sworn to never die again, to become immortal: god or demon it did not matter, that was his resolution, and he would succeed. No matter the cost...