Akil walked out of the hunter’s guild in a daze. The first thing he wanted to do was confirm something. He pulled up his cloak and said the command word to activate its invisibility ability. This invisibility was absolutely perfect, not leaving a single trace even to those that could see through the spell invisibility nor someone using the 6th level spell Truesight.
Now that he was invisible he immediately flew up at great speed heading towards the location where he had fought the blood bats and the megaursa. His martial class had a special ability that granted him both the ability of flight and the ability to teleport within a short range at will. Because he had no one to worry about, he used more of his means to reach his destination faster. He even switched to a stance that would put him under the effects of the 3rd level spell Haste. He flew at a dizzying speed, reaching the area that had taken hours previously in less than a minute.
He landed silently in the dark grove, even with the slight moonlight it was still almost pitch black. Luckily he could see perfectly in the dark up to a certain distance. He walked over to the center of the grove, there were a couple more monsters scattered about. He bent down and picked up an inconspicuous stone that if it weren’t for the strong magical energies radiating off it would have blended in perfectly.
It was an enchantment that would attract monsters, explaining the blood bats and megaursa as well as the new monsters that gathered here. The enchantment was quite strong, at least 6th level magic, only matched by the spell that was protecting the Graycott for the strongest magic he had seen since he came here.
[Greater Dispel Magic]
The magic dissipated and the monsters in the area became more docile and started to disperse, not willing to be this close to the city's barrier without some outside intervention. Akil doubted that this was an isolated incident, he opened his eyes wide and cast a spell to increase his search radius.
[Farsight]
His sight immediately expanded to encompass 50 miles around him. Another 25 plots of magic lit up around the city in the Shadowthicket. He spent the rest of the night clearing out each magical monster lure and killing any dangerous monsters that were too near the city.
While he worked he pondered his current predicament. Tristan's life was in immediate danger, if he didn’t act soon the decision on whether to reveal himself would be made for him. Helping him and exposing his abilities could reveal himself to any potential enemies. Selena’s sad face from when she heard of her brother's condition constantly haunted him. He took his feelings out on some of the monsters he was dealing with.
By the time he finished the sun was just peaking over the horizon. He had finally made a decision… He was a supremely powerful being, one of the strongest on the multiverse he came from. Although there was something here powerful enough to transfer him here he had no reason to be afraid. He had faced horrible monsters that threatened the fabric of space time, an evil god that wanted to devour all existence and even reality warping alien nightmares that heralded the arrival of unknowable outer gods. If something threatened him or his people, he would face them without fear. He had always believed that it was the strongs duty to protect the weak, it was time to put that into practice.
He used to help those in need and stamp out any injustices he could find. More recently he had lost sight of the little people as he fought more and more existential crises. He wouldn’t fully reveal himself to the whole world all at once, but if he saw someone in need he would act.
As he made his decision he flew back into the city, he dropped down into an alleyway and canceled his invisibility. He cast a simple spell to help him find Tristan.
[Locate Person]
He moved towards where he sensed him in the south outside of the city walls. As he got close he noticed a nice but small cottage sitting on top of a small hill that the spell was leading him to. He came up to the door and gave a heavy knock. He heard movement from inside, he braced himself. The door swung open and a heavy sense of disappointment hit him as he looked at the person who opened the door. It was the spindly priest that had come and told Selena of Tristan's condition.
“Hello, you’re the hunter who was with Selena yesterday when I told her the news of Tristan, how may I help you.” (Priest)
“Hello, I was looking for Selena, I am a friend of hers from the hunters guild.” (Akil)
“I’m sorry but you missed her. She told me that she was going to join Deacon’s party in the recently discovered dungeon near Cardended. I told her I would stay here and watch over Tristan while she was gone.” (Priest)
Akil thought back to the offer that Deacon had given her, she must have been so desperate to quickly raise money for Tristan that she took his offer. A feeling of unease washed over him, there was something sketchy with that offer. He could tell there were some lustful feelings from Deacon towards Selena.
“I’m sorry to hear that, I will leave you to it then. Let her know that I was looking for her when she returns.” (Akil)
The priest closed the door as Akil walked away. After getting a short distance away, Akil checked back to make sure the priest wasn’t watching and activated his invisibility. He used his senses to find out where Tristan was located in the building and teleported there.
He was greeted by a pale sickly figure with haggardly breathing laying in a bed. After a few moments Akil was able to give his prognosis. If his current situation didn’t change, Tristan would be dead within a week and even that would be a miracle. Considering the fact that Cardended was a 2.5 day journey from Graycott and a 2 week journey to Damerel there was no way Selena was going to make it.
Akil would have to take matters into his own hands.
[Silence]
First off, he closed the room off to any sounds. He then started casting his healing spells.
[Remove Disease], [Greater Restore]
A healing wave washed over Tristan, his countenance immediately improved drastically and his breathing returned to normal. He then finished up with a few spells to hide what he had done, just because he was willing to use his powers didn’t mean he wanted to reveal himself to the whole world immediately. He knew that most countries would see him as a threat if he just appeared out of nowhere. For the first time since he had got to this world, he imbued a spell with his heroic power.
[Heroic Enhancement: Deep Sleep], [Major Illusion]
The deep slumber would put him to sleep, technically for up to 200 years but Akil could dispel it. He would use the Major Illusion to make it look like Tristan was still sick to fool the priest. With his work here finished he cast one last spell at the front of the room.
[Alarm]
That should silently let him know when Selena returned. Now all there was left to do was wait for Selena to return. He decided to go back to Jamiea and make some consumable magic items.
[Planar Transport]
He transported himself directly to his crafting room and got right to work. He spent the next 48 Jamiea days (48 Rendilion hours) creating scrolls, wands, and potions. Scrolls were most useful to spellcasters, as long as you could already cast the spell then you could use a scroll with no effort. Non spellcasters could use them with great difficulty as long as they were familiar with activating magic items. Scrolls could be of any level spell but they were single use.
Wands were usable to anyone who knew the activation words. They were very handy to non spell casters but the only catch was they could normally only store spells up to 4th level. Akil was able to ignore this limitation and store spells all the way up to 8th level. Freshly crafted wands could be used 50 times before they became useless.
Potions were the most accessible, all it took to gain the effects of a potion is to consume the contents. They also had the most limitations, they could only be a spell that could affect a single person and only up to 3rd level spells. They also were only useful for a single use. Akil could raise the level limitation to 6th level.
With his bag full of a plethora of different magic items, he decided that it was time to go back to Rendilion.
[Planar Transport]
He appeared in an alleyway near the hunters guild. He decided that while he waited he would take care of a hunter mission to start increasing his renown. He walked into the guild and up to the mission board, glancing at each mission. He stopped when he saw something that caught his eye, it was a mission he had heard about before.
Slay the Bandits: Bronze Ranked Mission
Location: Shadowthicket
Reward: 20 gold
Requester: Lord Oberyn
Akil was amazed at the low rank of the mission, the location alone definitely warranted something higher. He pulled down the mission from the board and brought it over to the counter. Marisha was busy as always but once he got through the line and reached her he handed her the mission along with 2 gold pieces. Marisha gave him a surprised look.
“Are you stupid? I know you are as strong as a silver ranked adventurer but this mission is too dangerous. Just the other day Gralt’s party the Silver Claws took this mission. We just received word this morning that they were all taken prisoner. We kept telling Lord Oberyn’s men that this would need to be at least a gold level mission but they wouldn’t listen. I think they were just being cheap, the minimum for each tier increases by a power of 10 starting a 1 gold for a copper ranked mission. That means they would have to pay at least 1000 gold for a gold ranked mission.” (Marisha)
She had her usual scowl on but he could tell this came from a place of caring. She had probably seen so many people needlessly lose their lives that it would be hard not to become jaded. He gave her a small smile.
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“Thank you for the warning but I’m still going to take it. I’m pretty confident in my abilities.” (Akil)
A frustrated sigh escaped from her lips.
“Whatever, I don’t even know why I bother, try not to die in the Shadowthicket before you even get to the bandits. This should get you to their hideout.” (Marisha)
She handed Akil a crudely drawn map. He thanked her again and started heading off. He veered off into an alleyway and activated his invisibility. He flew his way out of the city and towards the bandit hideout.
As he got close he noticed a dilapidated stronghold. It looked like a fort that had long ago been swallowed by the Shadowthicket. As he closed in on it from above he noticed a singular lookout on the broken ramparts. Akil fired a simple spell at him breaking his invisibility.
[Magic Missile]
Five missiles shot from his outstretched and sped towards the unsuspecting lookout. They slammed into the center of his simultaneously, he was dead before he even knew what happened.
Akil flew into the small courtyard below, He heard loud voices coming from a nearby room. He walked up to the recently fixed door and looked through the bars at the top. He could see 15 bandits all sitting at tables and at a makeshift bar. A bandit in the back who must have been the leader was loudly monologuing to the rest.
“....all thanks ta that fuckin’ bastard that we can enjoy the finer things in life. He brings us booze and fresh product, we even get ta have fun with some of the product to break ‘em in…Bwahaha.” (Bandit Leader)
He started rolling something under his feet that Akil couldn’t quite make out from the angle he was staring.
“And all we got ta do is occasionally deal with some chumps. This is the best gig we’ve ever had.” (Bandit Leader)
He kicked the object at his feet hard, it was then Akil realized what it was… it was the head of the Silver Claws leader, Gralt. Akil watched as it flew across the room and slammed against the wall, splattering and covering the walls with brain matter and fluids.
“Bring out the last one.” (Bandit Leader)
One of the bandits went into the back room and came back with a blindfolded and tied individual. Even with the blindfold Akil could see the fear in the man. He was barely more than a boy, he couldn’t have been older than 19 years old, they pushed him against the bloody wall in front of a bunch of chop marks.
“Remember ya right cunts, each limb is worth 5 points, the head is worth 15, and the dangly bit is worth 25. If you kill em any other way but the head, ya get -10 points. Best score gets first dibs on breakin’ in the next product.” (Bandit leader)
He pulled a throwing axe from his back and threw it hard into the ground in front of him. A bandit came over and picked up the axe, taking aim at the young hunter. He heaved the axe hard, it swung through the air towards the lower body of the hunter.
Moments before it hit the young hunter, it froze, floating in mid air. A cloaked figure appeared in the center of the room, his arm was outstretched towards the axe. The axe fell to the floor with a loud *clang.* The laughter died down immediately and weapons were pulled as they moved to surround the intruder.
“Who the fuck are you?” (Bandit Leader)
Akil locked eyes with the bandit leader.
“I have been known by many names, we could stand here all day listing them. But that's unimportant, I have already wasted too many words on the group of corpses surrounding me.” (Akil)
In an instant, the staff in his hand became a scimitar. Before anyone could react, he flipped the blade in his hands into a reverse grip and stabbed it down towards his shadow on the ground.
Cursed Eternal Ninth Tier: Shadow Carnival
Akil went down on one knee, the scimitar pierced deep into his shadow. The shadows behind each bandit formed a black blade that came up and pierced each of their chests. Blood poured out of the wounds like a fountain filling the floor with a layer of gore. Each bandit died with a look of surprise on their face. The bandit leader especially had a look of resentment on his face showing that he died full of regret.
Akil moved over to the hunter in the corner of the room. He was shaking, unsure of what was happening around him. Akil walked him over to a table, sat him down and removed his blindfold. A look of awe on his face when he saw the room full of dead bandits.
“Wait here a moment, I need to take care of some things.” (Akil)
The hunter nodded slowly, not wanting to anger the man who was capable of the carnage around him.
Akil went towards the door in the back of the room, taking care of the lock with a 2nd level spell.
[Unlock]
An unlocking sound could be heard from the door, Akil pulled it open and was greeted with a sight that made his stomach churned. It was as he had feared.
A young woman was laying in a dungeon, her dress badly torn and bruises covering most of her visible flesh. He had feared that the word “product” referred to slaves. “Breaking them in” could only mean one thing in reference to a female slave. Akil felt sick, if there was one thing he could never get over it was the brutality of mortals.
He walked over and slowly put his hand out towards her, she immediately flinched away.
“It’s alright, I won’t hurt you, I’m here to help.” (Akil)
She turned her head to look at him, her dead eyes looking directly into his. Akil’s stomach dropped, he recognized this woman. She was the woman that had been with Deacons group the day Akil learned about the hunters guild, El.
“Kill me. If you are here to help then please… kill me.” (El)
“I won’t kill you, I can heal the physical wounds on your body but I am unable to heal the mental ones. The best I can offer you is to make it so you forget this horror had ever happened.” (Akil)
“I don’t want to forget, and I don’t want to go back… If you can’t give me release then I at least want revenge.” (El)
“I can take you somewhere where there is someone who can help you, as for the revenge, who is it that you want revenge on. I have already killed the bandit leader.” (Akil)
“Deacon. I want to see him suffer.” (El)
It was as Akil had thought, this was Deacons doing… His worry for Selena resurfaced.
“Let me send you somewhere you can get help, please, take my hand.” (Akil)
Akil reached out his hand, it took her a moment before she reached out with great difficulty.
[Planar Transport], [Sending]
Akil excluded himself from this transport, he sent her to the dean of divine magic, Eran. He knew there was no one better to mend a broken body or a broken mind than him. He sent a message as well.
“Eran I am sending you a poor soul that needs your help, her body and mind are both broken, I need you to do your best to help her.” (Akil)
Akil stood back up and walked out into the main room. The young hunter still sat at the table, tears could be seen running down his face.
“They’re all dead, and I couldn’t do anything to save them, I heard their screams from the cell…” (young adventurer)
“Don’t worry, this nightmare will soon be over.”
First Akil gathered the loot from each of the dead bandits, they managed to make over 500 gold selling slaves. Akil then gathered the destroyed bodies of each of the members of the Silver Claws and lined them up. He took out 3 large diamonds and began casting a single spell 3 different times
[True Resurrection]
The bodies of each of the adventures restored to their natural states, they each woke up with a surprised look on their face.
“What happened, I thought we died?” (Gralt)
Before they could ask too many questions, Akil immediately cast another spell on them.
[Mass Memory Modification]
He removed the current memories they had of what happened and replaced them with a voice laced with magic.
“You all were kept in the cell until I got here, I managed to sneak into the cell and let you all free. Together we managed to defeat the bandits.”
“Great work everybody. I think it's time you guys went back and reported to the guild, here is your cut of the loot.” (Akil)
He handed them all of the 400 gold, enough for 100 gold for each of them, it should be enough to let them retire if they so choose.
They all had a confused look on their faces. Gralt was the quickest to recover as his new memories settled.
“That was some impressive fighting, you are always welcome to join our party should you want. Thank you for the save!” (Gralt)
After exchanging some pleasantries they finally left Akil alone with the dead bandits. It was time to get more information. He walked over to the bandit leader's corpse.
[Speak with Dead]
The corpse sputtered and coughed, a rough voice wheezing out from its mouth.
“What the fuck happened, why can’t I move.” (bandit leader)
“The light of your life has been extinguished.” (Akil)
“...?” (bandit leader)
“You're dead.” (Akil)
”Well fuck… that really fucking sucks.” (bandit leader)
“You’re going to answer some questions of mine now.” (Akil)
“What's in it fer me, I’m dead remember” (bandit leader)
A raspy sound came from the corpse's throat as it attempted to laugh.
Akil cast one of the more evil spells in his arsenal. It was a spell he had personally created to deal with more tenacious enemies.
[Rend Soul]
The corpse let out a horrible wail.
“Ahh, Alright Alright, I’ll answer, just please stop.” (bandit leader)
“Good, first thing, explain your little operation here, who all is in on it.” (Akil)
“Well there was us and Deacon, along with Lord Oberyn. We would split the gold 25/25/50 with the 50 going to lord Oberyn. Deacon would bring us the slaves and his lordship would keep any serious hunter’s away from us. We brought the slaves to the Holy Empire and sold em.”
If the lord was in on it a lot of things made sense. It was no wonder the Lord had ordered the guildmaster to avoid looking into the missing persons and also why the rank of the mission was kept so low.
“When is Deacon's next shipment coming?” (Akil)
“He just sent us a message yesterday, he's finally got the hunter girl he's been after for awhile, he should be here within the next few days with her. His only condition for this one is that he gets first dibs.” (bandit leader)
A deep rage filled Akil, he had heard enough.
[Rend Soul]
The screams rang out, filling the small room. The bandit leader begged and pleaded but Akil did not cancel the spell. Eventually the screams died down as Akil sensed his soul was finally destroyed.
Akil burned the bodies and cleaned up the room with 0 level Chore Magic.
[Permanent Illusion]
He created a similar scene to earlier, with illusions of each of the bandits he had killed.
[Alter Self]
He transformed himself into a spitting image of the bandit leader, he even altered his voice.
he went out to the lookouts body
[Living Dead]
He thought that Deacon might get cold feet if he didn’t see the lookout so he ordered the newly animated zombie to stand watch there just like the real lookout.
He went back into the bar area, there was only one thing left, to wait.