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CHAPTER 14 – STORY OF AN ASSASSIN
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Author's notes:
Wanted to try something different while progressing the story, hope you will like it
Scyth was a level 208 assassin in RR. He was a dark gamer, a special kind; Instead of selling game items or money, his income came from selling videos.
The day he took the class of an assassin, he created a website call 'Double Ass Sin' or DAS for short; a site where he uploaded videos of his killing runs, as well as the planing phase. For obvious reasons, he edited all videos to blur out his facial features and gears, leaving his trade-mark logo on both his left chest area as well as the back. The logo consist of two donkeys heads at the side facing the word 'Sin' in the middle.
The number of hits on his site earned him substantial income just from advertisers. DAS was deemed the best site for Assassin wannabes and trainees. As his popularity soared, media stations approached him with monetary lures for him to showcase his newest videos on TV before uploading onto his site. He didn't accept any contracts, but just sold each new episode as he created them. As an assassin, not every venture was successful, and not every outcome great.
To live up to his new fame, Scyth started doing his assassinations using fanciful methods. During his lower levels, he simply walked up to the target in a crowded plaza, hug his victim before viciously stabbing them, he would then run off with a glowing Pker's mark. In the same video, he would elaborate on how he planed the kill and his escape path, including the days to he spent understanding the patrol routes of the guards.
As his level grew, so did the strength of his targets. When dealing with player targets, he would stalk them when they were dungeon crawling, and strike when they showed openings. NPC targets were simpler, but requires more planing due to them always staying in towns or had guards.
Previously, Scyth was able to solve any problems he met, but now, he reached a bottleneck. Due to the knowledge that he always worked alone, his contractors started to pick on that. Most request he could get, required picking up items in addition to killing.
Killing the lecherous oaf.
Squire Lubrique is a well known womanize. A farmer, whose daughter had been stained by this man, offered you a reward to kill this man. Additional rewards will be given if you collected his signet ring. The Squire must die a horrible death, simply letting him die in his sleep cannot appease the contractor.
Reward: 1000 gold
Reward for the Signet Ring: 5,000 gold
Displacement of the Duke
Count Cretin wanted the position of his boss. He would commission you to take the head of Duke Porion. However, he needed the Duke's Seal to solidify his position. You need to kill the Duke in front of a crowd to prevent suspicion falling on the Count. Contact your contractor 2 days before any attempt.
Reward: 2000 gold
Reward while having the seal: 400,000 gold
Scyth didn't mind the need to collect extra items, however, those request seemed ridiculous. They wanted the killing to be fancy, yet he needed to stay at the crime scene to 'collect loot' while having the Pker mark. To him, these kind of quest should be given to a small army instead of a lone assassin.
Scyth also felt that those quest contractors were mocking him. The killing rewards were minimum compared to the full commission. It was as if they were using the high additional rewards as a bluff to pay low fees. This was especially true for the Duke assassination quest.
Feeling himself lacking, Scyth placed a sign: 'On Hiatus' at his website, and went on a journey of self-rediscovery. While traveling around, acting as a caravan guards, Scyth reached Serabroug. Finding himself in the familiar city, he went to meet his merchant friend located in the city.
“Afternoon Ruddy, how is business?” Scyth greeted his friend at his stall
“Long time no see, I saw your site on hiatus, something wrong?”
“Its nothing, I just need a breather, say, anything good to buy here for selling in Brent?”
“Oh my, an assassin becoming a trader huh?”
“Haha... I am just traveling around, might as well earn some”
“You can try silk, bolts of silk cloth cost 40 silvers here, they can be sold at 70 there”
“Wow, that's some profit....”
Scyth's reply was cut short by a squirrel climbing up the stall, looking at his friend. The squirrel was wearing an iron collar attached with a small cape.
“Sorry, give me a moment, I got a customer” Ruddy told Scyth, then turned towards the small animal “What can I do for you today?”
The squirrel dug into the pocket at its tummy and rummage around, finally pulling out 3 rat pelt. Each pelt was bigger then the small animal, but somehow fitted into its pocket. The squirrel then took out an acorn. Showing its fingers on its left paw, using it right, it bent one finger, leaving 3 sticking out, facing the merchant, it show the 3 fingers then pointed to the acorn.
Ruddy nodded, took out 3 acorns from his stall and traded for the rat pelts.
After the initial trade and keeping the 3 traded acorns, the squirrel rummage through its tummy pocket again. This time it brought out another rat pelt, much bigger and colored gray. Looking at the merchant, it displayed 3 fingers again.
Ruddy shook his head and said, “That is a dire rat pelt, but it ain't worth that much”
Ruddy then bought out 2 acorns and 3 sunflower seeds as counter offer. The squirrel thought for a moment, nodded, then proceed to take out 5 more gray pelts. Ruddy topped up his side and another trade was done. With traded items exchanged, the squirrel continued to loiter around looking greedily at the apples on display.
“You trade with squirrels?” Asked the amazed Scyth
“I trade with anything, as long as I don't make losses. An acorn in a barter trade gave me as much proficiency as trading 100 gold with others. I think it is due to trading in their currency of acorns and seeds instead of coppers.”
Scyth was only listening half-heartedly, he was fascinated by the squirrel, things that exit its pouch looked like deflated balloons, which inflated immediately when contact with air. He wanted to know if the squirrel could stuff bigger things into its pocket, he said while taking out his gold:
“Hey Ruddy, get me 20 bolts of those silk you mentioned, with an apple as discount”
The merchant immediately complied. With his new goods, Scyth asked the squirrel:
“Little one, I will give you an apple if you can put this bolt of silk into your pouch.”
The eyes of the squirrel immediately light up, then proceed to stuff bolts and bolts of silk into its pocket. When the silk touched the pocket, it deflating into thin paper which was then sucked in. In the blink of an eye, silk cloth that was 50 times the size of the squirrel disappeared, leaving both Ruddy and Scyth flabbergasted.
It took a whole minute before Scyth recovered his wits. He then got back the bolts of silk and gave the prearranged reward. Needless to say, squirrels would squirrel away goods, so Scyth counted the silk before giving out the reward. The squirrel happily pocketed the apple and ran off.
Having his interest piqued, Scyth decided to follow the small animal, his parting words to Ruddy: “Keep those for me, I will be back shortly...”
The squirrel arrived at a small ranched with crooked fences, and eased itself into one of the two trees and proceed to show off the apple to its kins. Splitting the fruit up, the 5 squirrels shared the spoils. The rough soil around the trees showed that they were recent replanted.
Scyth arrived nearby. Instead of entering the ranch, he decided to stalk the area.
*****
After waiting for 2 hours, the sky darkened into night. Scyth saw 3 people walking towards the ranch. From their attire, he deduced a female priestess, a male druid and a girl with rabbit ears draped in a cloak. From his position, he couldn't hear properly but the girl seemed to gave some commands and animals gathered in front of the trio. Scyth could make out two cats, five squirrels and lots of rabbits. Soon, all went into the house.
After waiting another 20mins with nothing happening, Scyth approached the house and slipped pass the fence.
You have entered another player's ranch
If caught, the owner has the right to kill you for trespassing.
If you take anything, you will be marked as a thief
“Hmm... player owned property... from the size, this cost lots of gold” Scyth said to himself.
In the past, he had wanted to own a property in Serabroug, but he would rather use the 10,000 gold on gears then waste it on buying a house. This house came with a large yard, which led Scyth to think the owner must be extremely rich.
He slowly made his way to the building, finding both humans and animals missing, he sneaked in and explored. Following the tracks the rabbits made, he reached the kitchen and entered the sewers.
*****
In the sewers, Scyth first saw some rats. Out of habit, he shot needles at them, not to kill, but to paralyze. He had a skill call 'Distraction' which enables him to paralyze small animals and use them as distractions. To fully utilize this skill, he had a custom-made belt that could hold 2 of these small animals. Filling up his belt, Scyth heard the sound of fighting.
Following the sound, Scyth managed to locate the group easily. To his amazement, he saw a clash of small animals vs rats. The humans were all wearing cloaks, as they just stood behind viewing the critters fight, occasionally, the unclassified girl gave commands. The battles didn't take long as the rabbits seemed extremely proficient in killing rats.
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Following stealthy behind the group, Scyth kept a safe distance of about 20m. Being downwind, he could somewhat make out the chants of the Priestess beyond the sound of fighting, as well as seeing their effects.
“The beauty of Freya... in their steps... By the power... Slow!”
“The abundance of... radiance to our... power of my faith... Mass Bless!”
“The fortune... vitality of our... growth in ... the power my... Mass Heal!”
'What? Mass Slow, Mass Bless and Mass Heal? Those are some seriously high class Priest skill' Scyth thought to himself. He had estimated the Priest to be at least lv200, if not more. Also, the rabbits were all wearing armor, Scyth did not know if it they were physical or created by magic.
The surprises he had was only a start, every time when he approached within 20m from the unclassified girl, she would turn and look at his direction as if she had spotted him.
'What kind of class can spot my Intermediate Stealth from that distance?' He thought to himself, but decided to play it safe, increasing the distance from the group.
The group proceed smoothly towards a staircase going downwards. At the stairway, the group stopped for a short break. While the animals were quietly feeding, Scyth eavesdropped on their conversation.
- Priestess: “This 'A' rank quest is going take a long time”
- Unclassified: “You should be expecting that, so we must work hard while still in Serabroug”
- Priestess ask the Druid: “Are you bored? Since you are the highest level here”
- Druid “....” (too soft to heard)
- Unclassified: “For a while now, I keep getting the feeling someone is following”
- Priestess: “Why not do a check, you said you got something about echo”
- Unclassified: “Oh, I forgot about that, let me try”
The only thing Scyth know about echo is the skill 'Echolocation'. It was used by a Giant Bat Boss creature he fought before. He never knew any class or race that could use it. Having preemptive advantage, Scyth immediately took out his cape and covered himself, while dropping a paralyzed rat.
- Unclassified: “Echolocation!”
Scyth felt the familiar feeling of sound waves hitting his cape, from experience, this would reflect an image of irregular stone, instead of his body. Internally he shivered.
'What the hell kind of class can do Echolocation, only bats do that... wait... its night-time... bats... sense people... controlling animals... pretty looking...That girl is a vampire!!!'
According to the forums, vampires would only grant their racial trait to beautiful being of opposite gender. They must also be over lv250, otherwise the vampires would just toy with them. Scyth's felt his hands turn cold. A level 200+ priestess, level 250+ vampire and...
- Vampire: “Hmm... I detect nothing suspicious, except a rat... Ouch! Hey! You are a priestess, you are suppose to heal, not damage me!”
- Priestess: “You deserve it, making me worry over nothing.”
Without looking, thus missing the priestess beating the 'vampire', the conversation made him concrete his conclusion. The trio suddenly felt very dangerous to him.
'She brought a druid to heal her, since the holy spells would hurt her' He concluded.
'Wait... they said earlier, the druid is the highest level among them? If she is at least 250, how high is he? Also, aren't they talking about taking some 'A' rank quest earlier? It all make sense now, at such high levels, they can easily afford to buy the house with access to the sewers. Nobody will know about their secrets.'
Even knowing that, when discovered, he would definitely die, his curiosity won. Scyth decided that 1 level and some proficiencies were worth IF he uncovered some secrets, so he continued following the group, being much more cautious.
Keeping a good distance of 25m, Scyth was now nervously tracking the trio with their group of animals. The group quickly cleared out the second floor of dire rats and went for the rabid and plague rats further inside. These poisonous rats were deadly but rendered harmless by the all powerful priestess. Scyth too, was infected with plague poison, but with his health level, the damage is negligible. He didn't even take any antidote, since he wanted as many items in his inventory as possible, reducing the chance of dropping valuable stuffs, in the event he got discovered and died.
After more dead rats, the group finally encounter the boss “Rat King”. Without fighting themselves, the 3 extremely high leveled people directed the animals to attack in formation. With two healer, the battle ended without much issues. When the Rat King died, two of the rabbits started glowing while the vampire cheered.
Vampire: “Yippie! Lv3 rabbits evolved at Lv25... took us long enough. Those level 1 squirrels and cats only need Lv10 to evolve.”
Priestess: “You don't need to...”
Scyth had learned what he needed. Popping an antidote into his mouth, he silently left to safety.
*****
Outside the sewers, Scyth started sweating profusely. He wasn't hot, as all the sweat were cold. It had been a long time since he felt fear of this level, by getting out of the situation, he started appreciating the finer aspects of RR... like the cool night wind blowing at him. He felt he had profited greatly; Finding out a secret as well as getting out alive.
Feeling the after effects of an adrenaline rush, Scyth was calm enough to start thinking on a plan to use his newly acquired information. Without the mind-controlling powers of a vampire, he could not make animal parties. The next best thing Scyth thought of, would be to force the critters to kill. The killing blow implied 50% of the total exp gain.
With that in mind, Scyth went outside the gates into the newbie area, scouting at trees. Before anything, he needed to catch squirrels first.
*****
Deep in the forest, the wolves wailed, it was a pitiful cry as Scyth brutally tortured them. Using his paralyzing needles, he immobilized wolves, then using a live squirrel as a weapon, he stabbed each wolf repeatedly using the protruding front teeth of the squirrel. After every kill, he would bandage his living weapon, restoring its health, while switching to another squirrel on the next wolf. Neither the killer nor killed were enjoying this salvage treatment.
From his information, Scyth knew he needed Level 1 squirrels. Since he didn't know how to differentiate them, he picked the smallest; assuming smaller equals lower level. Luckily he wasn't wrong... or squirrel lovers would stop supporting Bunny.
After over 200 wolves and some unfortunate bears. He finally got his 2 squirrels to evolve. Packing the two mentally abused critters into his belt pouches, he made his way towards the city. Scyth decided to stock up lots of silk cloth and get out of Serabroug as soon as possible.
*****
Four game months later...
A man in black, holding an overly large sword, jumped off the citadel's roof with his legs tied. Scyth was doing a bungee jump. At the lowest point, stood Duke Porion, who was cleanly cut in two by the combine momentum of the fall as well as the power of the overly large sword, which dug itself deeply into the ground.
While bouncing upwards after releasing the sword, Scyth threw a hook and landed on one of the window of the citadel. Cutting off the bungee ropes from his legs with his spare knife, he unlimbered his bow and started shooting at the Duke's entourage, wounding many including Count Cretin.
In the chaos, nobody noticed 2 squirrels picking loot then hiding into a nearby tree.
After the assassin escaped, Count Cretin made a full body search on all the personals present, trying to locate the Duke Porion's Seal. Sadly, it was no longer around.
2 game days later, the populous were all talking about it. In the Tullen Kingdom, Duke Porion was mysteriously assassinated while his subordinate, Count Cretin, suddenly declared bankrupt.
*****
After airing of his newest exploits on KMC media, DAS site became popular again
However, there was a minor change, the owner removed key points on his retrieval of the seal. In fact, he only revealed his killing method with its preparation methods and quest completion while handing the Duke's Seal to his flabbergasted contractor. There was zero information on how he took the item during the chaos.
He left a simple message along with the change:
“I took a long break to do self-reflection. In that time, I understand that people who grew while spoon-fed, will never amount to much. From now on, I will leave out part of my plans so you viewers can think of more creative solutions.
During my travels, I met extremely strong player who are not even bothered with the Hall-of-Fame. They worked diligently in their own fields and attained more power then I have imagined possible. The greatest shock of my life have been watching a player Vampire exhibiting her skills.
With them as my aim, I will improve myself so I can at least stand on par with them.”
This message caused a storm to blow in the various forums, which rages for weeks. Scyth was tight-lipped with all information pertaining the quest as well as the vampire, causing even more turbulence.
His new style also garner more visitors to DAS, even veteran Assassins joined in the discussion. Since the quest were all completed, there were lots of discussion and speculations on his undisclosed methods.
As of what became of Scyth from here onward, that would be another story for another time.
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