Lilly and Jason were at the entrance of the compound where Antonio and Emanuel worked and possibly lived at. The place was surrounded by tall walls made of cement, with a handful of guards patrolling around them.
“Wow, this place is huge.” Jace commented, looking at the rather large-looking building with multiple smaller buildings within its proximity.
“Yeah, it would be hell of doozy traversing this place without any sort of outside assistance,” added Lilly, “Thankfully, one of my contacts/associates provided me with a map to the place.” she said, while getting out a folded piece of paper from one of her pouches.
“Alright, if the map is correct, then the entrance to the secret passage should be in a maintenance shack at the back alley near the compound; like over there.” the ninja cat-girl stated.
“Okay, let’s go there now.” Jason said.
The Knight and Assassin head towards the alley and soon enough the maintenance shack. They enter the unit together and find nothing but a bunch of tools and a workstation; it’s somewhat messy and a little dusty, signifying years of disuse. Utilizing her near pinpoint senses, Lilly spotted a faint outline of a hatch located underneath the work bench, which was the entrance of the hidden passageway.
“Can you give me a hand? This table looks pretty heavy.” Lilly asked.
“Sure.” agreed Jace.
The duo pushed the crafting table to the other side; right then and there, a metal trapdoor can be spotted embedded within the floor. The Darwinian Assassin opened the thing; she then took out a flare, activated it, and threw it down the hole. The hole looked approximately 15 to 20 feet deep; there were metal bars to grab onto and climb with.
“Would you like to go first?” the cat-girl offered.
“I don’t know...” Jason responded with slight embarrassment.
“If it’s about THAT, don’t worry, I’m wearing a pair of running shorts underneath,” Lilly revealed, “But since we’ve just met, I don’t completely trust you yet; so I don’t want you to get any funny ideas, got it?” she cautioned.
“Alright, alright, you have my word.” the knight confirmed.
The two proceeded to head down the pit. Once there, Jason took out his lantern and turned it on; it was now possible to see what’s up ahead. Well, for the human that is; Darwinians can see in the dark just fine without any sort of external light source. Any who, while traveling through the tunnel, Jace wondered where did this girl come from. Did she stumble upon him and saw an opportunity for a partnership or could it be something that the young man doesn’t know about yet?
Whatever it may be, traveling in the passageway can have an opportunity for a conversation between him and the cat-girl.
“Hey, Lilly?” Jason called.
“Yeah?” Lilly responded.
“Why did you decide to tag along with me?”
“Well, I won’t bore you to death by telling you my entire backstory, but for a pretty long time, I grew up an orphan who didn’t have much in the way of friends or any sort of meaningful connections for that matter.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, all I did was train and study under my masters, I didn’t even know the value of friendship until I was part of a four-member team from half a decade ago,” Lilly said, “There, I understood the merit of working together. But you need to understand that this is not really about teamwork, but more like basic companionship.” she concluded.
“Basically, you have no problem being alone, but you appreciate the assistance of others?” Jason summarized.
“Pretty much.”
“Okay, now I get it.”
“Also, knowing that I’m infiltrating the place of considerable magnitude, it’s probably a good idea to have an extra pair of hands to help out with other stuff.”
So after that conversation, the Knight and Assassin have finally reached the end of the tunnel; they climb the ladder leading up to another trap door. Lilly was the first one to peek out the hatch to determine if it was safe or not to leave. Thankfully, there was no one around patrolling the area.
“Alright, the coast is clear for now,” Lilly declared, “Are you ready to go Jace?” she asked, but there was no response.
“Jace?” the Darwinian called again, but still no response.
Lilly looked away from the trapdoor and saw Jason interacting with his tablet, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
“What are you doing?” Lilly asked.
“Just grabbing some important skills I might need.” Jace responded.
And those skills were the following: Sneak and Perception.
Then the knight flipped a coin for each skill on his glass device. To explain this mechanic in a concise way, an individual picks their skill(s) of choice and they flip a coin; if you land on tails you get a +3, but if heads, it’s a +4 instead. Finally, a character can only have a maximum of 8. So with that out of the way, here were the final results:
Sneak - Level: 4/5
Perception - Level: 4/5
As you can see here, Jace was pretty lucky with his coin flipping. However, as soon as the skills were incorporated within him, the knight’s senses were so much sharper like never before in his existence as a human being thus far. He can literally smell the dirt particles around him, hear the vibration of pebbles moving, taste a sort of salty atmosphere within the tunnel, feel the material of his tablet rubbing against his fingers, and be able to see in the dark with crystal-clear vision. The heightening of his senses is sort of a new revelation to our hero, as if he evolved into a better and stronger person.
“Alright, let’s do this!” Jason announced, with confidence and determination.
Lilly responded with a smile, “Totally.”
The duo proceeded to head to the surface. They exited through the trapdoor and found themselves in another maintenance shack; this time, it looked very tidy and well-used. All tools and equipment were organized and maintained to a decent standard; the shed in general was relatively free of dust and dirt.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The ninja cat-girl peaked out the door. From what she can see, it’s basically the front of the compound with a gravely pathway that leads to a huge wooden door of a fortress. In general, the front of the compound was quite large, almost as if the purpose of this area was to gather large swaths of individuals, perform role-calls, and initiate missions for whatever specific purpose. As of right now, there were several armored guards equipped with flails and shields patrolling the part of the compound, making direct confrontation borderline suicide; taking a stealthy approach would be the most prudent strategy. Thankfully, numerous places were present to hide in and sneak against, like bushes, hedges, trees, dark corners, and many others.
The Knight and Assassin exited the shack and began their infiltration/burglary. They first hid behind a hedge and a passing guard walked by it. Lilly used this as an opportunity to sneakily steal a key from his belt; the guard just kept walking as if nothing happened at all, continuing on doing his job begrudgingly to actually notice. Boy, this man and his colleagues are going to have to find a way to explain to themselves when this is all over and done with.
Moving on, the duo managed to stealthily infiltrate the main fortress and began their exploration/looting of the place. They evaded numerous patrolmen and employees that were working in the kitchens, dining rooms, armories, archery ranges, training facilities, infirmaries, and many other places. Thanks to her special bag named the Bag of Bounties, Lilly has been grabbing tons of goodies from whatever room she entered with Jason, ranging from eating utensils, plates, candle holders, goblets, jewelry, and many other things. All of which are made from things like handmade lacquer, silver, platinum, gold; some of them are even encrusted with precious stones.
“You know something Lilly, if we manage to overthrow the person who owns this entire place, we can have a new base of operations to ourselves and then some.” Jason jokingly whispered.
“Actually, that idea isn’t too out there,” the kunoichi quietly responded, “If we have the manpower, resources, and connections, it would be more than possible. However, we don’t have those, well not yet of course, so we have to make due with what we have right now.” she stated.
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” the knight remarked.
“Pretty much.” his companion commented.
They continued on with their exploration and thievery. Soon, they came across the room of the boss; his door was slightly crack open. Using their advanced perception, the duo listened in.
“Alright you schmucks, since I’ve already deducted your pay from that last screw-up you’ve back at the Golden Leaf Tavern, I will give one last chance to redeem yourselves,” the crime lord said, “Fail this one: the both of you can find another gang to go to, got it?” he threatened.
Antonio and Emanuel reluctantly nodded.
“Good, now there’s someone at the town’s cathedral that needs a good ol’ roughhousing for not keeping up payments,” Fabio informed, “This fucker’s name is Father Henry Watterson.” he said.
And right then and there, the mere mention of this man’s name almost made the two thug’s hearts stop.
“Just remind him who he’s dealing with,” their boss suggested, “That’s about it; now get out of my sight.” he scornfully dismissed, before turning his revolving chair around to look out the window.
“Yes... sir.” Emmanuel uttered, trying his best to maintain his faltering composure.
The two men left their boss’s office immediately after. Jason and Lilly managed to leave the building and were heading back to the maintenance shack with a quick, yet stealthy profile.
“Lilly, we need to head to the cathedral and warn this person before anyone gets hurt!” Jason urgently said.
“Sure thing, I think I got enough goodies to net a large sum of money.” Lilly confirmed with satisfaction.
Soon enough, the Knight and Assassin left the criminal base with no incidents. However, a shadowy and mysterious figure was watching them from afar, observing their every movement. It walked off into an unknown direction before turning invisible.
Back to Antonio and Emanuel, as the partners in crime were leaving the compound, Manny was having second thoughts about the choices they made in life; more in particular about the actions and decisions that led up to this situation.
“Tony, have you been wondering that pursuing a life of crime was ever a good idea since we left the orphanage?” Emanuel asked.
“Bro, things were tough fifteen years ago; we pretty much had nothing when we made it out to the world,” Tony informed, “All we had was each other.” he said.
“Well, that’s true.”
“But hear me out: we don’t have to do this forever. If we can keep this up for a few more years, combined with the books we’ve read and part-time construction work, we can have our own construction company in the near future. Just keep going at it and we’ll get there.”
“I hope so my dude.”
And so, the two men set off to do their mission. All they can do is to wish, hope, and work for a better future.
-----------------------
Somewhere located in Southwest Otono, lied a fertile place named Enala Forest. A fierce battle was underway within a village; numerous homes, businesses, and schools were lit ablaze, the corpses of soldiers, hired mercenaries, criminals, looters, and even civilians were scattered in various areas. All-in-all, it was a bloodbath of horrific proportions.
While some foot soldiers and knights were fighting valiantly against horrible creatures, the rest were simply wiped out. It seemed all everything was lost until the arrival of the Covenant of the Dragon and a whole slew of other combat guilds.
David, Leslie, and Jeffrey quickly arrived at the scene.
“Alright, you two help wherever you can; I’ll round up with the guild leaders to gain intel on the situation at hand.” Hamilton ordered.
“Yes, sir!” confirmed Leslie and Jeffrey, then they went out to protect the innocent.
Meanwhile, an elderly woman and a group of children were attempting their absolute best to escape from the chaos. However, a gang of Bribons (which were short, yet slender humanoids with rat-like muzzles, tails, and pointed ears) appeared to stop them in the tracks. They possessed a greedy look in their eyes.
“Okay you old hag, we’ll give two options: you give us the kids so we can sell them into slavery and make a nice profit, or we kill you and take your kids anyway.” the leader of the gang presented.
The senior citizen shielded her orphans, “I will not do any of those!” she shouted with valiant defiance. Then, one of her hands became engulfed in fire.
“Fine, it’s your call. Boys, you know what to do.”
However, just before one of the Bribons can make another step, a bunch of daggers zipped through the air and impaled a few members of the gang; they immediately died afterwards. Leslie and Jeffrey arrived in a heroic fashion.
“Ma’am, get away from here while you still can!” Jeff demanded.
“Oh absolutely.” The old woman followed and left quickly with her children. They were whisked away by a few soldiers to safety soon after.
“Our money!” the leader of Bribons shouted.
He gritted his teeth in anger at the two warriors, “You fuckers... don’t think I’ll let you get away with this alive! Attack!” he ordered.
The rest of the gang charged at them; they were quickly disposed of by Leslie and Jeffrey’s overwhelming mobility. The gang laid dead, with numerous bloody wounds and gashes; some of them were outright dismembered. Suddenly, the duo can feel sudden rumblings and vibration throughout the area; a huge and obese two-headed ogre appeared with a giant blood-stained battle axe before them.
“Leslie, go to Mr. Hamilton. I’ll take care of this thing.” Jeff asked.
“Alright.” his friend agreed.
Now being tasked with fighting this monster, Jeffrey casted a Level 4 Mana Darts, firing a total of 8 mana-shaped darts at the ogre; he then casted 2 Level 3 Azure Fireballs, firing two large balls of blue fire in combination. The ensuing attack heavily damaged the nefarious creature, giving it severe injuries. However, it still stood in place; enraged, the ogre performed an overhead swing with its enormous axe in retaliation. Thankfully, Jeffrey managed to dodge the attack with little to no problem.
Jeff took out a small glass capsule filled with water and casted a Level 3 Tidal Wave; it caused a giant wave of water to appear and brutally collided with the monster. The end result was an ogre trying all efforts to maintain its footing, along with its entire body being dripping wet.
The wizard went in for the death blow; electricity crackled around in his right hand and became a full on surge, engulfing it. He then launched a Level 5 Lightning Bolt, emitting a powerful bolt of lightning towards the creature; it was a direct and clean hit. The ogre was electrocuted and since it was soaked in water, the damage was tripled; it roared in pain and agony before its knees fell to the ground and soon, its entire body. All that remained was a giant creature burnt to an absolute crisp, with its characteristics rendered practically unrecognizable; a testament to the devastating firepower of a Mage.
“Serves you goddamn right.” Jeffrey spat, before walking off to regroup with his allies.
The story continues...
-------------------
Jeffrey McGruder -
* Mana Darts - Level: 4
Ability Counters (remaining): 4/5
* Azure Fireball - Level: 3
Ability Counters (remaining): 5/7
* Tidal Wave - Level: 3
Ability Counters (remaining): 6/7
* Lightning Bolt - Level: 5
Ability Counters (remaining): 5/6