"I’m petty officer Tim Harland." The soldier said wincing as he watched my horse bite me. "Damn, that’s a feisty one you’ve got there."
"It’s not feisty,” I grumbled, “it’s an asshole."
I tried to stand on my leg but it hurt so much that I almost fell over. Clair stepped over to me and leant me her shoulder to lean on, I nodded in appreciation and Lesser Regeneration on myself. Slowly the pain began to fade and I could stand on my own. I'd only picked up the spell a few months ago but it had been a go to spell for taking the sting out of cuts, horse bites and minor wounds. It wouldn’t reattach an arm but it dealt with most of the minor injuries. I was looking forward to levelling it and hopefully evolving it so it could deal with some of the more serious injuries.
"Well follow me, can't keep the captain waiting." Tim said, he turned and walked into the camp.
We followed him and I looked around as we walked. The camp was a sea of white tents and wooden boards that were being used as walkways through the mud. The royal marines had been here for less than a day but either side of the walkways was deep deep mud, probably from the stampeding goblin horde. The mood of the soldiers was grim as we passed them, their injuries and loss of their comrades was still fresh, however there were still pockets of joy. I spotted a few soldiers drinking around a fire while playing cards. We weaved through the sea of tents crossing from one walkway to another, I realised that the confusing layout was more than likely on purpose. If I was infiltrating the camp there would be more chances to be spotted or get lost before I came across anyone or anything important. Eventually we came to a yellow tent that had 4 armed soldiers standing outside of it, Tim walked right past them and into the tent without waiting, we rushed to follow him and not get left behind.
As I entered the tent, I felt a tingle run over my body and recognised it as spatial magic, I looked around and saw that the tent opened into a large hall that could hold at least 50 people. Tables were arranged around the interior with maps and boards showing sections of Mountain Guard; some of the maps were covered in red while others had green or yellow sections. There were far fewer people in the interior than it was set up for. 5 important looking people stood around a table looking over a map, I felt a pang in my chest seeing the royal marines in such a bad way. We caught up with Tim and lined up in the order we usually did when negotiating a quest reward from a tricky client, aka Raven leading with Harold a few steps behind her.
“Captain, the adventures have arrived.” Tim said, snapping to attention and saluting.
The group looked up and I saw a middle aged elven man nod to Tim. He wore a white and red jacket over red trousers, at his hip was a sword that looked like it belonged to a regular soldier rather than a captain. He had a bandage that was wrapped around his left arm, it had a red spot on it where blood was leaking from a previous wound. The man frowned and sighed before speaking.
“Great.” He said unenthusiastically. “Well met, how can we help you?”
“Thank you for seeing us Captain, my name is Raven and I speak on behalf of The Wanderers.” Raven said nodding to him, she held out the scroll the King had given Harold. “We were asked to give you these on our way through the city.”
Tim took the scroll from Raven and rather than handing it directly to the captain, he placed it on the table in front of him. Runes lit up around the scroll and they pulsed white for a few seconds before a golden light flashed. The captain stepped forwards and opened the scroll. We all stood in silence for a few minutes while he read, I saw his seemingly perpetual frown deepen as he read further and further down. Eventually he finished reading and looked up at us.
“We are not escorting you through the city at night under any circumstances. I don’t care if the necromancer is camping just inside the city, you will not get help from us.” The captain said flatly.
“Agreed.” Raven said quickly, “We have no intention of passing through the city tonight, we have spent all day riding and already know that the undead as well as packs of goblins still roam the city.” I saw the captain’s jaw clench and Raven was too sharp not to notice either. “That’s not a judgement on your skills or capabilities captain, to the contrary, the fact that the king has entrusted you to escort us at a time like this shows his belief in you and your command.”
I did my best to hide my grimace, she was laying it on a little too thick and I thought that he was about to shout at her but instead the captain sighed heavily. He sat down and tossed the scroll onto the table.
“Please try not to get my men killed, we lost too many during the invasion. These are some of the last of the royal marines we have left.”
“Rest easy, we do not intend to rush. We want to spend the night talking with you before trying to make our way through the city tomorrow. Can you tell us about the monsters in the city and any other threats we are likely to face while passing through.” Raven asked.
And thus started a 4 hour planning session. Maps and reports were brought out of spatial storage devices and boxes that had been placed under tables. Everything was spread out over the many tables that the room had. Everything from monster sightings that had been reported to parts of the city that had been demolished during the invasion. It was super boring and I saw two of the captain's men leave to go get food. I felt a pang of jealousy, I wish I could leave but I had to stick around.
“Luca,” Clair said, pulling me over to a table that had some reports about monster sightings. “What do you make of some of these reports?”
“I dunno,” I replied honestly, I hadn’t paid much attention to them but I picked up a few and looked them over. “They seem like regular reports of monster sightings that you’d see in any Adventurer Society Hall. Look here this is one about a pack of 15 goblins that were surveying a squad earlier today.”
“I mean, doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of monsters in the city?” Clair asked, “There are a lot of reports, especially since the royal marines only been here for a day.”
I paused to think about it. Did it seem like a lot of monster reports? There had to be at least 25 different reports on the desk. I riffled through them quickly and looked at the names of the soldiers who’d made the reports, a few of them kept popping up.
“It looks like they had a few scouts survey parts of the city, look here,” I said handing two stacks of papers to Clair, “these 10 alone were made by 2 different scouts and here, you can see their trajectories on this map.” I pointed out the 2 lines they had made, they had travelled in almost exactly the same spots. “With their trajectories and the number of monsters as well as the types listed on the reports it looks like they both saw the same monsters.”
“I guess.” Clair said unconvinced. “It just seems like a lot.”
I shrugged but kept looking through the reports that the soldiers had made. Raven, Harold, Taylor and the captain talked about strategies to move through the city as well as the number of troops that might be able to help us. Most of the reports I read were trivial listings of the monsters that were spotted and their levels, the monsters reported included various oozes such as blood, faecal and poison oozes, all of them were around level 15. Packs of wandering ghouls and skeleton warriors that were around level 25, with the occasional archer mixed in with them. A few packs of goblins had been spotted in one of the buildings, but they had run away when the soldiers approached them. I discarded these reports stacking them up in a large pile that I’d dubbed ‘problems for soldiers’. I was looking for the reports that were more worrying, reports of very high levelled monsters or exotic monsters that weren’t usually seen in the kingdom. A bit like the report I had just picked up.
It was by Private Rickard Long, he’d only left the city a few hours ago. He’d been part of a scouting group that had tried to push deep into the city. The group had managed to evade a few groups of skeletons and reach Chapel Road before they’d come across a monster that attacked them from the shadows. No one had gotten a good look at it but Private Rickard had received some very nasty cuts across his ribs that were protected by a breastplate at the time. The group had decided to flee rather than face the unknown monster. Private Rickard had described the attack in the report, ‘I didn’t see the creature however I felt terror travel down my spine before sharp cold claws raked across my chest leaving 3 long cuts, each about 1 inch deep.’
“Captain!” I said jumping up in alarm. “Has Private Rickard Long received medical treatment?”
“Luca?” Taylor said looking at me in confusion, I saw concern on their face.
“I believe so, he was sent straight to medical when he came back.” The captain said, leafing through a few bits of paper. “Ahh here we go, Private Rickard Long. 3 cuts along his chest, no further damage and only a few lost HP. Treated by Healer Imogen. May I ask how this is relevant to our discussions?”
“It is imperative that he is kept under observation for the next 24 hours so that he doesn’t die unexpectedly.” I said ignoring the captain’s question.
“And why should I do that?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Because Private Long was attacked by a shade.” I said holding up the report.
“A shade?” Taylor said, taken back. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, read the report he made.” I said as I walked over and handed the report to them. Slowly they read through it before anyone spoke again.
“But in order for a shade to be created it needs…” Taylor began but they didn’t need to finish their sentence as the realisation dawned on them.
The creation of a shade was complicated and most attempts to create shades ended in failure. This was due to the exact knowledge of how to create a shade had been removed by a few of my fellow Soul Reapers, however I still knew how it was done. Most living things had a soul and when they died the soul passed on. A shade is born when the soul of a living creature is separated from the body and the body dies, the soul is unable to pass on and becomes corrupted. The soul becomes a shade as it’s driven to find and attach itself to a new body so that it can be laid to rest, however they also made lairs in the hopes to attract new bodies. Nowadays, most people believe that it takes a lot of death and ambient death mana to accumulate before a shade is born. They believed that the monsters were malicious spirits that consumed everything that they could get their claws on. I wasn’t about to correct their ignorance, it had been a very dark time when people had summoned and enslaved shades to be their assassins.
“That’s right Taylor.” I said nodding at them, “Shades are nasty creatures born of death and suffering. The ruins of Mountain Guard is going to be a breeding ground for them. They are a type of monster called a soul stealer and should not be taken lightly.” I said darkly and Taylor nodded in agreement.
“I will have Private Long put under constant observation,” The captain said, he wrote something on a piece of paper and walked over to the tent flap. He held his arm out for a second before bringing it back in without the paper. “We have a big problem then, how are my soldiers meant to deal with them? If they can’t see the creatures, how are they meant to fight them? At least with things like ghosts they have to become corporeal to attack.”
“Magic and magical attacks will work the best.” Taylor said, “I’ve studied creatures like shades when I was at The Haldron Academy for Mages, non-magical attacks will just pass through their bodies. If you can equip the soldiers with enchanted weapons that would work as well, as long as they have some sort of magical effect rather than just a durability enchantment.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“That’s just great, it’s not like we have enough problems finding complete sets of armour or weapons that haven’t been broken. Now I have to look at hiring enchanters.” The captain said massaging his temples. “Where am I going to find that kind of money?”
Taylor continued to give a few more suggestions and the captain made a note of them before they went back to talking about routes through the city and effective combat tactics in the streets. With the conversation shifting away from my area of expertise, I realised that there was another option Taylor hadn’t offered. I took a few steps back and saw Harold glance at me, I froze in place and waited for him to tell me not to do what I was planning. Instead Harold nodded slightly and I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding, I smiled at him before continuing to slowly walk backwards. My back hit the fabric of the tent and I crouched down low, I activated my stealth skill making it harder for anyone to spot me. I also activated Man on the Job but stopped the shroud from billowing out. I needed to stay hidden, not scare the life out of everyone in the camp. I activated Right Clothes for the Job next and I was slowly covered in pitch black robes that seemed to fade into existence, I felt the hood slide over my head and cover my face in shadow. I always thought it looked cool as fuck but everyone I showed it to said it looked like I was turning into a Dungeon boss.
Once I had all my stealth and perception altering skills activated, I walked over to the entrance of the tent. The tent flap was slightly open after the captain had put his arm through it and there was a gap at the bottom of the flap that looked large enough for me to squeeze through. It was going to be tight though. I listened intently for a few seconds to make sure that no one was about to enter, then I got down on my stomach and wiggled like a worm to pass through the gap. I must admit, it's not the stupidest thing I've done to move unnoticed but it was up there. It took me at least a minute to wiggle through the gap but once I was through I stood back up and checked to see if I’d been noticed. I froze when I saw the four guards standing 5 feet from me, luckily they weren’t looking directly at me but I had to sneak past them. I took a few deep breaths before slowly and calmly walking through the middle of them. I felt their gazes look towards me but whatever Detect Invisibility skill or spell they were using couldn’t beat Man on the Job. They never spotted me and I disappeared into the maze of tents that was the camp.
It may have taken longer than I wanted to get out of the tent maze but eventually I did, sadly I’d been turned around and was on the wrong side of the camp. Instead of going back through the maze I decided to walk to the road and follow that to Mountain Guard. As I walked towards the city, I could feel my trepidation rise the closer I got to the broken portcullis. When I’d seen it from a distance it looked like it had been bent out of shape, now that I was up close, it looked like it had been hit with a boulder. The metal was completely bent and in some places it had snapped apart. I passed through the destroyed gatehouse and came out into a large plaza. There were 2 large fire pits that had piles of dead bodies next to them. The thankless task of clearing the city had already been started by the royal marines. I turned away from the pits and headed into the city.
As I walked down the road I cast Detect Life and felt my awareness expand, my whole world lit up with light as the spell reported back every living thing. I slowly filtered out the irrelevant lights; things like bushes, grass, worms and flies. They were all alive but that was not what I was looking for. Slowly my world dimmed as the spell registered fewer life signs, once it was filtered to only pick up living creatures larger than 2 feet and had a mass of at least 10 lb, I felt my alteration filter out a lot of signals. I then cast Detect Evil. My focus flickered as my awareness expanded again and I felt as if the two spells were fighting with each other to see which one would remain active. It had taken me a long time to get two different extra sensory spells working together without fusing them permanently, but it had been a game changer when I first managed to get it to work. With both spells active, I would be made aware of any living thing that came within 50 feet of me as well as anything that was considered evil.
This was my trick to hunting down creatures like shades. They wouldn’t register as being alive however they would register as being evil. It was not fool proof since skeletons would not register as being alive but would register as being evil, however it gave me a better chance of finding a shade than wandering the city aimlessly. I smiled to myself, as I walked the city heading towards any readings that registered as being evil.
From an outside perspective, it probably would have looked like I was wandering the city aimlessly. I would walk to a crossroad, search for any signs of evil, then wander to the next crossroad and look for any signs of evil again. It was a pretty relaxed task, I’d let the shroud from Man on the Job flare out which scared off any living creatures that got within 10 feet of me. Nothing alive ever wanted to hand around something that felt like death incarnate. It didn’t stop me from running into packs of skeletons though, they lacked the self preservation that all living things had. I found this out when I eagerly headed towards the first evil signature I came across. It was a group of 3 skeleton soldiers, who were standing in the middle of the street. The skeletons were of humanoid origin, two of them looked like they’d been human but the third was a bit taller and had a slimmer bone structure, I believed them to be elven. I was going to use Etheric Step to teleport into the middle of them and put them down, but I decided against it, without Touch of the Reaper it was an unnecessary risk.
The first actual shade I found wasn't too far from the broken gatehouse. The evil signature brought me to a large 4 storey building, the front of it was broken and the street was covered in bits of wood, stone and glass. Entering the building was a little difficult as the front entrance was blocked by the rubble. I looked around the sides of the building but I couldn’t see an alternative entrance so I decided to climb up the rubble and entered through the first accessible room. It was slow going as the rubble was constantly shifting from my weight, I managed to get to the second floor and enter through what looked like the gents' loos.
The building turned out to be a theatre and I found myself walking around a bar area. I peeked behind the bar but all the alcohol was gone. I made my way around the wreckage of the room, there were broken bits of furniture everywhere, weapons lay discarded among the bodies. It looked like the bar room was the scene of a last stand. The doors still had a few tables and chairs pressed up against it, however a large hole in the barricade defeated its purpose. There weren't just humanoid bodies either, there were lots of goblin bodies and even a few hobgoblin bodies as well as plenty of scattered bones.
I was suddenly filled with a deep sense of dread and checked my soul lantern, it had stopped pulsing green at some point but I didn’t remember when that was. I chewed my lip, that was extremely worrying as my soul lantern should have been absorbing the souls that were left in the city. The shade would have been attracted to them and would have gorged itself on the souls. A shade that had fed on souls would be stronger than normal, a lot stronger. I suddenly didn’t feel as confident about hunting down the shade.
I left the bar area and continued through the destruction the goblins had wrought. The hallways were a mess of goblin faeces, body parts and bones. I did my best to move through them as fast as possible as the smell burned my eyes. I found my way into the seating area above the main stage, I’d had to climb through a smashed barricade that was made out of chairs. The place was a mess but it was more intact than some of the other rooms. I know goblins could be destructive and create a mess, but it looked like a tornado of blades had been unleashed in the room. Humanoid limbs were scattered everywhere and I couldn’t tell if they belonged to the bodies next to them. The stage was empty except for the corpse of a small child and a shade hovering over it.
The shade was everything that your mind pictured when you were told to think of an evil shadow. It had a semi corporeal form, the shadows that it was composed of were thicker and darker than normal shadows. Its head looked to be bald and it had extra long arms, they were so long that the backs of its hands rested on the wooden floor. I couldn’t see them from where I was standing but I knew that each of its long fingers were as sharp as a daggers. The shade crouched over the child’s corpse and started to do something to it, while it was distracted I silently cast Identification on it.
Name: Shade
Level 15
Type: common
Description: A malicious monster born of death and despair, this creature has gained strength through devouring the wayward souls near its birth place. This highly aggressive monster will attack any living creature it senses.
Health: 1500/1500
Mana: 200/200
Effects: immune to non-magical attacks
*Note, as this creature is recognised by your Soul Reaper class as an adversary, all combat restrictions are removed from all class abilities (excluding disabled abilities or skills) and you will be able to gain xp from defeating this monster.
I took a deep breath and began to hype myself up for the fight. I could do this and I could use all my class abilities since my class considered it an adversary. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t use Touch of the Reaper, I had other ways of fighting it and my scythe counted as a magical weapon. I had also fought and killed shades before, maybe not as strong as this one but I had done it. The marines would be a lot safer if I killed the shade, they wouldn’t have to worry about unseen attacks. Nodding to myself and feeling confident in my abilities to keep myself hidden, I walked to the edge of the balcony and across to the staff stairs.
The small set of stairs went all the way up to the 3rd floor but more importantly, down to the ground floor. I put my stealth skill and Man on the Job to the test as I made my way down the stairs. I managed to find almost every loose stair and creaky board without trying, I was on the verge of giving up stealth and shouting to the shade that I was over here. Thankfully, my skill and ability managed to keep me hidden the whole time, I had to be on the verge of evolving my stealth skill. I made my way down the main aisle towards the stage, dodging the corpses and body parts that were clogging up the place. I held my staff at the ready in both hands and summoned the blade. It slowly began to form and I was worried that the shade would see the soft green light it was giving off but it was too focused on whatever it was doing.
It was only when I started to climb the stairs to the main stage did the shade sensed the danger I presented. It turned to look directly at me before letting out a rasping screech and lunging at me, fingers extended like claws. I let the monster fly towards me before using Etheric Step to move 5 feet to the left. I brought my scythe down and slashed across the shade as it flew past, it screeched in pain and I saw my soul lantern light up. The shade was leaking shadows from the cut and they were drawn into the soul lantern, the monster saw this as well and screeched even louder. It lunged again but this time it flew faster and I mistimed my dodge. I rolled under the corporeal form of the monster but it passed over my shadow and slipped into it. I rolled to my feet as it attacked, my whole body turned ethereal for a second as a claw slashed at me from my shadow. I began to cast my Light spell to force the shade out of my shadow but it clawed at me, 3 long cuts appeared on my arm and began to burn. I yelled in pain which caused me to falter while casting the spell. I winced as the spell backlash hit me, it wasn’t that bad since the spell was very basic but it still felt like my head had been hit by a brick. The shade clawed at my arm again and the cuts became a lot deeper. Gritting my teeth as I forced myself to concentrate and cast my Light spell.
The room was suddenly bathed in dark blue light as I summoned a ball of magic above my head. I had modified the spell so that it nullified shadow magic and the shade was forced out of my shadow. As it appeared my scythe was already cutting through it and the monster staggered backwards only to be caught by my follow up swing. Tendrils of shadow were sucked into my soul lantern as I went in for the third and final strike. The shade rolled backwards at an impossible angle to avoid the downward strike that should have killed it. It got back to its feet and was about to scream when my scythe came down on its head, the blade cleaved through the shadow before it hit the wooden stage with a thunk. The shade started to fall apart but I saw some of its shadowy figure try to pull the two halves back together. I thrust the soul lantern into the middle of the separated shade, the lantern began to glow softly as it sucked all of the shade into itself.
I looked at my soul lantern with worry for a minute, some notifications popped up but I ignored them. I could sense a struggle from within the lantern and I tried to figure out what was going on. It felt like the soul lantern was trying to cleanse the corruption from the shade as well as the souls it had consumed. For a while it felt like it was beyond what the lantern was capable of, however slowly but surely I felt a change and the corruption began to disappear. I sighed with relief and took a minute to look through my extended senses. It didn't seem like the fight had attracted any attention, or more likely, the shade’s screams had scared off anything that was nearby. I took a minute to look through my notifications.
You have slain a Shade, as this creature is recognised by your class as an adversary, you do not receive any penalties. You have earned 50xp.
You have received a new quest.
Quest: Things that go bump in the night.
Type: Class Quest (Mandatory).
Description: A Shade has been reported in the ruins of Mountain Guard and you have found this to be true. Shades are evil creatures that feed off of wayward souls, as a Soul Reaper responsible for protecting wayward souls, you are tasked with showing the Shades not all things bump equally in the night. Find and kill all the shades in the ruins of Mountain Guard.
Reward: class restrictions met 200xp, Unknown.
Penalties for failure: Restriction placed on all Soul Reaper class abilities. Potential loss of Soul Reaper Class.
Accept: yes/yes
There were some damage notifications that showed the shade had acidic cuts which was odd but other than that, it was just the annoying mandatory quest. Yet again, my class had given me a dangerous quest but it was something I’d decided on doing anyway and the experience for killing the shade was surprisingly good. It still irked me that I couldn’t refuse the quest though, I accepted it as I let the blade of my scythe fade away. I made my way out of the theatre and back into the city again. Apparently there was more than one shade in the city. It was to show the monsters that it wasn’t just them that could go bump in the night.