As we made our way through the sea of tents I was determined to keep track of our route this time. I focused on the turns we were making and began to create a line in my mind. It was a simple line that went forwards then would turn in the correct direction, as we ventured deeper into the sea I had to add significant markers to keep track of everything. We walked past an open area that had a few fires in and I added that to my mental map, the line began to get faint and I felt the start of a headache as some of the first turns were beginning to fade. Then we stopped and I realised that we’d reached the captain’s yellow tent. The second I saw the tent a notification appeared.
Through diligent training you have increased a characteristic. You have gained +1 intelligence.
The headache didn’t fade after the notification, much to my dismay, the characteristic increase was nice though. It reminded me that now the war was over, I needed to get back into training my characteristics again. It was incredibly hard to gain levels as a Soul Reaper so I had to train diligently else I would be left behind by my friends as they levelled up. I was not looking forward to constitution training, that usually entailed getting beaten up and letting myself heal without using any spells. I was looking forward to playing around with the few magic puzzles that I hadn’t solved yet, they were really good for intelligence and wisdom training and didn’t result in me getting beaten up.
I stopped thinking about my future training when we marched straight into the tent again without having to wait. I frowned, this can’t be good. I felt the tingle of foreign magic flow over my body as I entered the spatially expanded tent. The interior of the tent had been moved around since last night, the tables had been pushed to the side and there were 5 chairs arranged in a crescent moon in the centre of the room. I couldn’t see who sat in the chairs, they had arranged the lighting so that they were almost sitting in darkness. I had the feeling it was the same officials that Raven and Harold spoke to last night. I followed my friends as Tim lined us up in front of the chairs, the sinking feeling was quickly getting worse. This meeting was not going to be as friendly as the last one.
"Good morning, thank you for coming. I’m afraid that we need to have a talk before I organise transport through the ruins." The Captain said. I tried to remember his name but I couldn’t remember if they’d said it last night. Or at least if they had, it was while I wasn’t paying attention.
"Captain Reynolds," Harold said, unknowingly or maybe knowingly, providing me with his name. "You were given orders by the King last night, are you saying that you are refusing a royal order?"
"Things have changed and depending on the answers of your ‘friend’, those orders might not matter." Captain Reynolds said icily while looking at me, "Come, stand before us. You will answer my questions." He pointed at the floor in front of him which seemed to have a spotlight shining down on it.
I looked at Harold who just shrugged, I walked over and stood where the captain and indicated. This had all the feeling of an interrogation and the subtle threat of being able to ignore the king’s orders was not lost on me. I didn’t like where this was going and ironically I’d actually wanted to tell the captain about my activities last night to alleviate some of the pressure on him. Now though, fuck him. A lot of the information I would have told him, I suddenly didn’t feel like sharing.
"I will answer your questions but I would like to remind you of Article 5 section 9D of the Adventurers Society accords states that while I, as part of a registered adventuring party in good standing with the society, have the right to withhold information should it potentially reveal trade or party secrets, proprietary or hidden knowledge as well as class or profession secrets." I said calmly, I heard Raven snicker behind me.
I resisted smirking as well. What I’d just said was often referred to as ‘The Adventurer’s Middle Finger’. It was intended to stop authorities from forcing adventurers to reveal their quest sources, secret treasure stashed, class secrets and if the adventurer was high enough in the society, secrets about the Adventure Society they didn’t want made public. The section was ambiguous enough that it was most commonly used by adventurers to get out of interrogations and avoid saying where they got mysterious treasure from. Standing in the spotlight, the captain's face was almost impossible to see but I imagined that he was frowning, just like every other guard captain who’d been given the adventurer’s middle finger.
"Fine, it will be noted and taken into account." Captain Reynolds said curtly, I could hear the annoyance in his voice, “Last night you arrived with Harold and The Wanderers but when they left there were only 4 of them. How did you leave last night without anyone noticing you?”
I kept my mouth shut. The information wasn’t technically a class secret but it was how we, as a party, managed to clear so many monster nests and lairs compared to other parties. I felt a skill attempt to influence me, foreign mana pressed against me making me want to speak, to tell the captain how I’d used my abilities and skills…I forced myself to circulate my mana and the compulsion to speak vanished. I frowned hard at the captain’s shadow, those were my secrets and they would stay mine. I circulated more mana in my body making it go faster and faster till it felt like a vortex swirled inside of me. I felt a skill attempt to influence me again but this time it failed instantly and I heard someone take a sharp breath in surprise.
“I’d like to remind you captain, it’s against the accords to compel an adventurer to give up their secrets.” I scolded him
“Captain.” Harold snapped, “If you attempt that again I will escalate this to both the society and the King.”
“You have to forgive my subordinates, they get very defensive over their men and sometimes they get over eager.” The captain replied, “Mardule stop attempting to influence him and go check on the readiness of the marines.”
“Yes captain.” A female voice said and one of the people sitting down got up and left the tent.
“Let’s start over, I’m Captain Reynolds and I’m a First Class Royal Marine Captain. What is your name and class?"
"My name is Luca Piel, and the closest class archetype would be specialist scout." The captain hemmed at my response.
"Well met Luca. Did you go into Mountain Guard last night?"
"Yes." Everyone leaned forwards waiting for me to elaborate but I didn't, it was a bit of a dick move but fuck them.
"What did you do there?" Captain Reynolds said leadingly.
"I walked around the ruins for a while."
"Why did you do that?" I could hear the frustration in his tone.
"I received a quest." I shrugged.
“What was the quest?”
“To kill some monsters hiding in there.”
“What monsters?”
“Luca, tell him and stop fucking around.” Harold said, stopping me from telling the captain it was for dangerous monsters. I turned to look at Harold who stared back at me with a stern look in his face. It was his I-know-they’re-assholes-but-we-have-to-work-with-them look, I’d seen it a few times.
“Fine,” I sighed, “I received a quest to kill the shades that resided in the ruins, the quest rewards included a severe decrease in death mana in said ruins. If you don’t understand captain, that means all of your marines will have an easier time clearing the city. The whole area won’t feel as oppressive to them and slowly the undead will lose their strength and no more undead will rise.” I added trying to sound as condescending as possible.
“Luca.” Harold said disapprovingly, I could hear that he wanted to say more but I cut him off.
“No, he tried to force me to spill my secrets. People who play around with forces they don’t understand get treated like children who don't know the rules or consequences of breaking the rules.” I told Harold.
Captain Reynolds and his subordinates remained silent while I spoke with Harold. I couldn’t tell if I’d stunned them into silence or if they were hoping that I’d spill more secrets. Unfortunately for them, I hadn’t forgotten where I was and Harold wouldn’t give them anything either, I could tell he was also pissed that they’d tried to compel me to speak. However, I had a feeling that it was more of the former than the latter since not many people had the guts to be condescending towards a marine captain. In the silence I quickly made a few gestures behind my back and I heard 2 distinct clicks in return. I did my best to hide my smile. Captain Reynolds slowly regained his composure but it was one of his subordinates who spoke first. I didn’t hide my smile this time having just made 10 silver pieces from Clair and Raven.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"How did you find them and kill them?" They asked, the male voice has the rasp and hiss of either a dragonborn, drake or a lizardfolk. They were probably a drake since full blooded dragonborn were rare in the kingdom and the lizardfolk rarely joined the army.
"That is a party secret." I said flatly towards the voice.
"How many shades were there?" A woman’s voice asked.
"Ten but one of them was an Alpha."
"What level wasss it?" The male drake asked.
Instead of replying, I repeated my mana manipulation trick and showed the kill notification. I heard everyone gasp softly and someone swore but I couldn’t tell who it was. I resisted the smug smile that tried to invade my face, I was only partially successful as the corners of my mouth pulled up into a smirk.
"This changes things then." Captain Reynold said and I heard someone snap their fingers.
The spotlight disappeared and the rest of the lights in the tent came on. I could suddenly see the people sitting in the chairs, there was a male drake, captain Reynolds, a female elf and a male human. Each wore the royal marines standard uniform but on their shoulders were a bunch of stars and stripes that I didn’t understand.
"Can you share how you tracked them down?” Captain Reynolds asked, I shook my head in return, “Okay then, how about other creatures in the city? Do you know the numbers of them? Where did you see them, come show me on the map."
Captain Reynolds stood up and beckoned me over to a board with a map pinned to it, next to the board was a table with a few more maps. The questions went on for another 20 minutes and during this time I told them about the various monsters I saw. I told them about where I’d found the shades and warned them about the gruesome scenes inside the lairs. It all felt like a big waste of time since they were asking about numbers of skeletons and goblins, locations of monsters and the state of certain areas. I told them what I could but I’d avoided them, most of the time I hadn't even cast Identification on them in case they’d sensed the spell.
After I was wrung dry for intelligence and had been squeezed a few more times after that, I collapsed into one of the vacated chairs. Captain Reynolds had all but dismissed me from his mind and was animatedly talking with his subordinates while pouring over maps. Harold came over to me and patted me on the shoulder before handing me the money I’d won from Clair and Raven. He moved past me to stand to the side of the map table before clearing his throat.
“Now that your interrogation has concluded, can we revisit our talks about transport through the city?" Harold asked pointedly, it was high time for us to move on.
"What? Oh yes." Captain Reynolds said, clicking his fingers, "Firstly I must thank Luca for clearing out the Shades, you SHOULD have warned us about it, but thank you regardless.” He eyed me sternly before turning back to Harold. “I was expecting to hear that the monsters had been riled up last night and if this had been the case, then the city would have been impossible to cross. However, in light of the news, transport through the city should be possible, though it'll still be dangerous."
"That’s fine, when do we leave?" Harold pressed.
"Wesley, take squads 2 and 8. Everyone gets a horse, sword and shield, how long will it take you to get organised?" Captain Reynolds asked.
"20 minutes sir." Captain Reynolds nodded and Wesley saluted before rushing out of the tent.
"30 minutes, is that okay?" He asked, Harold nodded. "Perfect. Petty officer Harland, please escort The Wanderers to their mounts."
With our business finally concluded he dismissed from his mind and turned back to his map with all the new markers on it. I left the tent following Tim who led us back out into the tent maze to find our horses. I didn’t bother trying to keep track of turns we made, this was going to be the last time I walked through a bloody army camp.
It only took a few minutes but we exited the maze and found ourselves at the stables. The stable hands didn’t seem to have changed over yet as the same one who’d taken my horse last night ran up to Tim. Tim issued a few orders and much to my dismay, my horse was escorted out of the stables. It stared daggers at me the second its gaze found me and I saw it stamp a hoof in what I guessed was anger. The rest of my friends mounted their horses as I approached mine, I gave its head a wide berth as I moved to its side, its eyes never left me the whole time. I reached up to grab the saddle horn and dodged backwards as the horse lunged at me, teeth bared in a snarl. Quick as a flash, my open palm lashed out in return and I slapped the horse across its fucking long face.
"Fuck you." I said and rushed the saddle.
I leapt onto the horse's back and slid my feet into both stirrups before the horse could recover from the shock. I adjusted myself as the horse turned its head to look at me, I held up my hand warningly at it. Fucking horses.
"Did you just slap your horse?" A stable hand asked in astonishment.
"That is the third time it has tried to bite me, I restrained myself that last 2 times and it got me but today I won’t put up with its shit." I grumbled, I heard Taylor and Raven snicker.
Begrudgingly the horse followed Clair who’d produced an apple and reached down to feed it to the cursed creature. The demon in horse skin plodded along behind the others as we made our way back to the entrance of the camp. As we arrived, we were met by 20 armed and mounted marines, the man captain Raynolds had called Wesley rode in front. He was mounted on a black warhorse and he wore brown and green armour that had a faint magical sense to them. He had what looked like a broadsword attached to his hip and a hide shield had a very strong magical enchantment of some sort. I'd never been good at enchanting or rune crafting so I couldn’t tell what the magical effect was. We joined the formation and lined up outside the front gate, Wesley turned his horse around so that he faced everyone.
"Marines, we are on an escort quest." He paused to let everyone groan, I completely understood, no one liked escort quests. "We are escorting VIPs to the other side of the city.” I saw a few panicked looks flick to the ruins of Mountain Guard. “I know you heard the noises last night but I have good news for you that I have been cleared to share."
I was curious to hear how they were going to break the news to the marines, they hadn’t discussed it while we were in the tent so I was curious…
"That man right there," he pointed directly at me. "Is responsible for those noises, he went out last night and cleared the city of the shades. Today, we will escort Luca 'Shade Slayer' Piel and The Wanderers through the city. It will be an honour to escort such esteemed adventurers as they go to hunt down the Kingdom’s greatest threat."
Wesley stopped and let the silence hang in the air, I realised this was to let the soldiers process the information as suddenly there were a lot of glances directed at me. I did my best not to turn red and sat perfectly still facing Wesley. I didn't know what I was expecting them to tell the marines but I guess the truth worked. At least they had given me a kinda cool title, I wondered if it would actually…yup, there is.
You have been named Shade Slayer.
Title: Shade Salyer.
Effect 1: +50% damage against all Shades. Effect 2: +25% damage against all Shade variants. Effect 3: +5% critical chance against all shadow aligned creatures. Effect 4: +10% resistance to shadow magic.
I was a little surprised by the effects of the title and wished that I had it last night, but at least I’d have it for next time. I set the title as visible so that anyone who had an Identification spell or an Analyse skill would be able to see it. I let myself look at the faces of the soldiers and saw looks of hope, disbelief and awe cross their faces. I may have turned a little red at that point but luckily Wesley began speaking again.
"The Shade Slayer and his party have been tasked with hunting down the necromancer, who fled through the city." He pointed at Mountain Guard, "We are not going to thin out the monsters or hunt anything down. We are going to be taking a simple route. We will enter on Main Street, turn right onto Chapel Road and pass through the remnants of the blockade there. We will be taking a left and passing through Market Square to West Street. The Gatehouse on the other side is still mostly intact, the last reports indicated that the portcullis has been ripped out and embedded into the barracks. We are expecting to encounter skeletons and goblins at any point along this route but you are to push forwards. YOU DO NOT STOP TO FINISH A MONSTER, you keep riding, the marine behind you WILL kill it or your horse will crush it." He shouted, "Do I make myself clear?”
“YES SIR.” the marines shouted back at him.
“FORM UP, CLOUD ARROW’S FLIGHT."
I must admit, Wesley was good at getting people ready for a very dangerous mission. We had precise and clear instructions, a moral boost of having a hero with us. Sure, I was that hero but I was happy I was there. Fears from last night had been eased and a good reason for it had been provided. I wasn’t a marine but I was ready to charge through a ruined city that contained all manner of nasty creatures. I might have been biased since Wesley was the one who'd given me the cool title, but I thought he was good at his job.
"Well met Lieutenant," Harold called as Wesley approached us.
"Well met and please, call me Wesley." He said to Harold before turning to address me. "I would like to say thank you and apologise for springing the title on you as well as your treatment this morning. The captain gets very passionate and defensive over his marines.” He said as he rubbed that back of his head with his gauntlet, “I hope the Adventurer Society lets you register the title, the Captain said it would help boost moral plus, you did do us a service by eliminating the shades in Mountain Guard."
"The Adventurer Society will have to, I have been given the title officially." I said, I flexed my mana and showed him the notification, I didn’t bother hiding the effects as they only related to shades.
"Aeitha bless, that's a strong title." Wesley said before shaking his head. "We need to get back to business, the formation Cloudy Arrow’s Flight is drilled into the marines but you don't know it. The first 8 soldiers will line up in an arrow formation, the rest of the soldiers ride trailing each tip. You ride behind the arrow and between the trails, I will be there with you." He paused and looked at each of us, "You don't stop under any circumstances. If someone falls you keep moving, the marines will take care of it. All you need to do is ride. For the magic users among you, do not fire off any spells. If you have to cast something, shout out the spell you are casting. We don’t want to spook the horses or rile up the monsters in the city as we have to come back through it before sundown." We all nodded in agreement. "I will put you in the formation before we head out."
We said our quick goodbyes to Tim since he’